This article was originally published by the American Physical Society in the December 2025 issue of the African Physics Newsletter and is shared with the permission of APS.
The AstroLab (Starlight in the University Lab) project is an annual training workshop tailored toward undergraduate students in introductory astronomy courses. It is an inquiry-based astronomy lab which allows students to obtain hands-on experience with real astronomical observations in a classroom setting. The training is also useful for trainers who wish to introduce this project in their teaching of introductory astronomy at their universities or institutes. The project aims at fully developing and implementing a research tutorial, Astrolab, in universities in need of astronomy infrastructure and curriculum, allowing undergraduate students in sciences to perform real-time observations on a remote telescope, and transforming those observations into a scientific result. It is a Sky Global partner project with Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) [1]. The training approach adopted for Astrolab is learning by doing and observing with the 40cm LCO network of remote telescopes. These workshops have been running since 2014 and have been hosted by the following institutions: University of Rwanda College of Education (2014), the Copperbelt University (2016), National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe (2017), University of Zululand (2018), University of Venda (2019) [2] and Sol Plaatje University (2025).
The 2025 Astrolab workshop held at Sol Plaatje University (SPU) from 25-29 August 2025, was the first in-person training workshop held after COVID-19 pandemic. At SPU the workshop was fully engaging, and trainers invoked critical thinking in the learners who at the end of the workshop came up with observing projects which were successfully implemented and presented on the last day of the training. The workshop inspired both learners and SPU academic members of staff to fully participate in Astronomy program. The Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Prof. Odireleng Martin Ntwaeaborwa appreciated the organizers for choosing Sol Plaatje University to host the 2025 Astrolab. He indicated that SPU was committed to actively participate in astronomy projects, including the SKA, and that his faculty will soon introduce an astronomy program in the university offerings.
The workshop attracted 27 students from four universities in South Africa, the majority of whom were from the host university. The represented universities were Sol Plaatje University (host), University of Venda, Water Sisulu University and Rhodes University. Trainers were drawn from Copperbelt University, University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria and University of Zululand.
The organizers are grateful for the funding of the workshop by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSTI), the African Astronomical Society (AfAS), Sol Plaatje University, the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and the Copperbelt University (CBU).
REFERENCES
[1] Las Cumbres Observatory, Global Sky Partners, https://lco.global/education/partners/
[2] IAU Office of Astronomy for Development, Astrolab, https://astro4dev.org/astrolab-2022/
Authors:
Saul Paul Phiri, Copperbelt University, Zambia
Obed Shrinda, Sol Plaatje University, South Africa
Prospery Christopher Simpemba, Copperbelt University
