Mt. Meru Astronomical Observatory
Science Motivation for the Next Generation | Motivation ya Sayansi kwa Kizazi kijacho
Last night MMAO Astronomy Ambassadors Zacharia Mjungu and Pendael Nassary were successful in conducting a third drift test, this time noting all parameters to make certain we can effectively interpret the results and align the telescope more accurately. In short summary, they selected a star almost directly overhead, which at MMAO is close to the …
A small group of Americans visited the Ailanga school and were pleasantly surprised to discover a fully operational, astronomical observatory on campus! They didn’t have much time, but Eliona, Zacharia, and Pandaeli gave the a quick tour. We look forward to the day when we open to schools, safari tourists, and the general public on …
Continue reading “Visitors to the Observatory – 19 September 2019”
On Wednesday, September 4, Zacharia and Pendaeli opened the observatory for a survey of four stars. The goal was to establish how far off the RA axis of rotation is due to the remaining, incomplete alignment of the telescope. If we had just one night with more than an hour of clear skies after sunset, …
Last night Zacharia and Pendaeli attended the observatory in order to establish four stars in the “home” position of the 12″ telescope for both RA setting circle and drift alignment tests.The following is Zacharia’s summary of the observation session: “Tonight Pendaeli and I found stars to locate at our home position in order to test …
About OSEO The Organization for Science, Education, and Observatory (OSEO) in Meru District, Tanzania is the governing body and operator of the Mt. Meru Astronomical Observatory (MMAO). From 2014 through 2019 OSEO worked with Telescopes to Tanzania, a project of Astronomers Without Borders, to develop, construct, and manage the physical observatory. As of 2020 the …
This Sunday we held our weekly Skype meeting, a routine maintained since October 2019. In this call we reviewed the status of each MMAO Ambassador’s effort to reach their students. In all, they have engaged more than 400 students across four schools. Those students from private schools are more likely to have access to cell …
MMAO Astronomy Ambassador Zacharia shares the following … Eliona Miley and myself, we opened the observatory and we were able to conduct general cleanness with the help of students by removing cobwebs, dusts, lizards feces and all kind of debris. During and after cleaning we held a discussion with students on different matters in life, …
On Wednesday December 11, 2019, ambassadors, Zacharia, Eliona, Elineema and Pendaeli were successful in fixing the roof leakages which allowed dust and tree leaves debris to enter the observatory, using pieces of mattress stuffing. We are now looking forward to find permanent solution for water leakage which is currently fixed only temporarily by pushing iron …
Last week Astronomy Ambassador and middle school instructor Eliona Miley visited the Star high school, roughly 23 km south of Usa River. He met with Form Five and Form Six students to introduce them to the the use of a telescope, MMAO, our the observatory at Ailanga. He has invited them to visit (as soon …
Continue reading “Ambassador Eliona visits Star High School”
Yesterday afternoon I reinstalled Windows on the observatory laptop, as we had issues with a virus. It is working much better now. I also re-installed the Orion CCD camera software, then attached the camera to the Celestron spotting telescope for a test run. It is the first time we have been successful in getting quality …