Friends with the Universe

In 1997 the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology announced that 1998 would be the Year of Science and Technology (YEAST) in South Africa. As a part of YEAST each of the eight science councils were awarded a sum of money for their ``thrust" within YEAST. The Foundation for Research Development chose as its thrust ``Astronomy and Space Science," targeting three of the nine provinces in South Africa, namely the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng. The SAAO submitted a business plan to the Department on behalf of the Foundation (Rijsdijk 1998) entitled ``Friends with the Universe." This project had six broad aims:

• Extend the present workshops held at the SAAO and also hold one major national workshop as part of the IAU Symposium 192,
• Invite prominent local and overseas, speakers to address the South African public,
• Subsidized transport for people from the disadvantaged community enabling them to these talks,
• Produce a series of nine posters to be distributed nationally,
• Upgrade facilities at local planetaria and observatories to improve their capability of raising public awareness,
• Create a mobile facility to take science to the rural communities in the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng.

The last of these developed into the ``Starbus" project (see below). The ``Friends with the Universe" was most successful, the highlights being:

• The visits by Dr David Malin, Professors John Barrow, Julietta Fierro and Gibor Basri.
• The nine posters produced. These proved to be extremely popular, especially the first one on African Starlore. They were designed with a dual purpose; to be both decorative and educational and were distributed nationally.
• The ``Astronomy in Education" workshop held in Cape Town after the IAU 192 Symposium (IAU 1999).

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997