8 November 2025: Red Eye to the stars (Eng)

Experience an enlightening presentation in English about the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). On a clear evening, a jumbo jet takes off into the sunset on California?s Pacific coast. Once the Boeing 747SP has reached its cruising altitude in the stratosphere, a hatch in the back of the plane opens to reveal the depths of space. SOFIA gathers thermal radiation from distant celestial objects unobstructed by the water vapor in the Earth?s atmosphere. This enables observation of the nurseries of young stars in distant gas nebulae that remain hidden in the spectrum of visible light. Join a film crew on a red-eye flight aboard the flying observatory SOFIA to unravel the mysteries of star birth from 50,000 feet above the sea. The event takes place at the Naval Hill Planetarium in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa.