Download - Eagles Fare Restaurant

THE RESTAURANT IN THE GARDENS
OPEN 9am – 5pm
(closed ONLY on Christmas Day)
Tel: 082 671 8382 / 7 or 083 414 9843
E-mail: [email protected]
Facilities include
 Daily A la Carte menu
 Sunday buffet lunch (breakfast on request)
 Picnic baskets
 Conferences, team building, workshops
 Weddings, birthdays, parties
 Book launches, corporate events
 Kiddies parties
 Kids playground opposite
 Kiosk open weekends & public holidays
(Please e-mail if having problems getting through)
WEB: www.eaglesfare.co.za
Prof. Derck Smits
Head of the astronomy
section of the Dept. of
Mathematical Sciences
at UNISA
SPECIAL DAY
24 September – Heritage Day:
Come celebrate the cultural heritage of our many cultures that make up our S.A. population!
LOCATION, VERSATILITY and our HOME-MADE CUISINE!
YEAR-END FUNCTIONS
Please remember to start finalizing your year-end functions – dates are filling up fast and furious!
BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!
SPECIAL EVENTS – ASTRONOMY TALK & DINE
Cost: R135 p.a; R75 p.c 6-12yr
Includes talk & laser pointing by Prof. Derck Smits (Unisa), 2-course dinner, garden
entry fee
Excludes beverages (fully licenced with comprehensive beverage & wine list
available)
You are most welcome to bring along your telescopes & binoculars to explore the
constellations and planets.
Friday 11th October @ 6.30 for 7 p.m.: "A Quick Tour of the Universe"
This presentation takes you on a whirlwind tour from the Earth into the depths of
space exploring all the exotic objects in our solar system in our home galaxy, the
Milky Way.
Our Solar System consists of the Sun, planets, moons, comets and asteroids, many of which have been
explored by satellites and robotic vehicles. From these visits we have gleaned an enormous amount of
information about the environments and evolutionary history of these objects. Our Sun is a typical star in
the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Stars are continually being born, evolve through various stages and then
die, some quietly without a whimper, while others can end their lives in catastrophic explosions. All these
stages of stages in the life of stars can be seen in our Galaxy using telescopes operating not only in the
optical, but from radio up to x-ray wavelengths. Our Milky Way is just one of countless millions of galaxies
that have been observed in the heavens. Large scale structures consisting of clusters of galaxies have been
identified and help us understand how the Universe began and where it is headed.
Friday 1st November @ 6.30 for 7 p.m.: “The Antikythera Mechanism”
In 1900 some sponge divers discovered a shipwreck off the island of
Antikythera in the Aegean Sea which yielded a strange instrument that
appeared to have some astronomical significance. After years of
investigation, the most recent studies of which used the latest 3D x-ray
imagining techniques, the secrets of this amazing instrument are being
unravelled. No other examples of this instrument have been found, nor
are there any written records of it in the literature, but it displays the
workmanship of a craftsman who was way ahead of his time. The mechanical device incorporated all the
theory of the motion of the Sun and Moon known at the time (c. 80 BCE) and could predict phases of the
Moon and when eclipses would occur.
Professor Smits is currently head of the astronomy section of the Dept. of Mathematical Sciences at UNISA.
He’s been at UNISA for 15 years. His research interests and studies include modelling of astronomical atomic
processes occurring in gaseous nebulae, masers in star-forming regions and binary stars that are in contact
with each other.