A Cooke at the Republic Observatory

 

Occultation of Iapetus Observed from the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg.

On October 17^th 1963 using the 6 inch Cooke telescope at x300 magnification at the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa astronomers saw the Saturnian moon Iapteus occulted by Saturn. Iapetus was discovered by Cassini in 1671,

The first dimming occurred at 18h 58 m UT the light was finally extinguished at 19h 07m. These observations were confirmed by the Astronomical Observatory at Madrid.

The Union Observatory was originally the Meteorological Observatory built in 1905, it became the Union Observatory in 1912, until 1961 and finally the republic Observatory until it closed in 1971.