HAENERTSBURG – Turn sharp right at the large red, white and black road-narrowing sign leading onto a dirt road. Bear right and the sign is immediately on the right. Follow the short, newly-cleared, footpath to the ruins of what once was astronomer Cyril Jackson’s observatory.
Cyril had built this small stone observatory, during the years before his retirement, in the early 1950s. The inscription on the bend-your-head doorway reads: ‘Erno Star House 1955’.
The observatory once had a wooden roof that slid on train tracks across pillars. When he retired to the village in 1966, he lived on this farm, called Hilltop, and used the observatory. He was known as a loner who always walked to the village and dedicated his time to astronomy. He later moved to Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, where he died in February 1988. The present owner of the property, Linda Changuion, dreams of finding old photographs of the original observatory so she can restore it. She values the old and this is evidenced by her museum at the Pennefather complex on Rissik Street.
Cyril was born on 5 December 1903 in Osset, on the outskirts of Leeds in Yorkshire in the UK. His family came to South Africa in 1911 and he attended Forest High School in Turffontein, Johannesburg, becoming their first dux learner. He obtained his B.Sc in 1922 at the University of the Witwatersrand .
Cyril worked at Union and later as the director of Yale Columbia Southern Station, Johannesburg, when the 26-inch Y-C telescope had to be moved away from the light pollution of Johannesburg. The first choice was Polokwane, but that municipality refused to service the site so Cyril moved it to Mount Stromlo in Canberra, Australia. He went on to establish a South Station at El Leoncita in Argentina.
He was involved in World War II and helped in the settlement of Jewish refugees.
Cyril made several discoveries during his lifetime and was appointed president of the South African Astronomy Association from 1935 to 1936. He discovered his first minor asteroid, Catriona, in 1929. He went on to discover 72 new minor asteroids and most were given South African names such as Letaba, Limpopo, Messina and Saldanha. He named one after his wife, Aletta.
He discovered three comets, two of which can still be seen today. His first discovery was in 1935 and his second, the following year. A Russian astronomer, Grigory Neujmin, independently found the comet. Today it is known as 58P Jackson-Neujmin. Cyril’s third comet was found by accident in 1948 and astronomer Joseph Ashbrook had found the comet 12 hours earlier. Today it’s known as 47P Ashbrook-Jackson.
Cyril sold the observatory ground in the 1970s and the site passed into distant memory until it was rediscovered. Magda Streicher from the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa identified the site and had it registered as a Provincial Heritage Site with the National Heritage Foundation. She also contributed to the display at the Pennefather museum.
