Space to grow: Carnarvon sets sights on jobs through astrotourism

The small Karoo town of Carnarvon is a haven for stargazers. Located in a sparsely populated corner of the Northern Cape with minimal light pollution, it is the perfect place for viewing pristine night skies.

Locals are hoping that astrotourism will create sustainable jobs in an area struggling with high unemployment.

A unique selling point for Carnarvon’s stargazing experience is how guides combine modern astronomy with indigenous knowledge and storytelling from the San.

Information about the rings around Saturn and the size of Jupiter, for instance, is relayed along with mythology and the story of how the Milky Way was created by a young girl who threw ashes up into the night sky.

Amy-Lee Visagie, one of six residents trained as professional astro guides by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (Sarao), encourages her tour group to sit in silence for a minute and just gaze at the night sky to fully take in the awesomeness of the universe.

The Milky Way is clearly visible with thousands of stars, and yet it is a mere fraction of the 100 billion-odd stars in our galaxy.

Just more than an hour’s drive from Carnarvon is the Meerkat National Park, which serves as the host area for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), one of the world’s largest radio telescope installations.

Construction is continuing, with some of the telescopes coming online early this year. When completed, the telescope will comprise 197 dishes, including the integration of the existing MeerKAT radio telescope built and operated by Sarao.

The project will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky thousands of times faster than any system now in existence, unlocking more stories and mysteries of the universe. DM

First published by GroundUp.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.