Looking Up, Looking Back — A Lifetime of Astronomy
Explore with me, Thomas Budge, my lifelong love affair with the stars — from childhood hikes under the African sky to planetarium lectures and national television.
This page is a quiet archive — a collection of notes, scripts, memories, and musings from my decades in astronomy, including work at the Johannesburg Planetarium and the six-part TV series, Out of this World
.
What followed was a journey through observation, science, and story. I had the honour of chairing the Johannesburg Chapter of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa three times. For over two decades, I lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand Planetarium — guiding thousands through constellations, myths, and marvels. I also wrote and presented Out of this World, a six-part series for SABC 3, bringing the cosmos to TV screens across South Africa.
None of this is professional astronomy. This isn't a research log or academic catalogue. It's simply a place to remember — to look up, to look back, and to share a love for the stars that never really left.
If you're curious or nostalgic, feel free to explore the articles, scripts, and fragments below. They're not curated with polish — just offered with affection.
Table of Contents
Here is a list of the material I was able to find and showcase.
Out of this World!
—Produced for SABC 3
August 1995 | Protea Ranch | Celestial Movement | Concepts of Time | the Royal Observatory, Johannesburg | the Innes Dome housing the 26" Grubb Refracting Telescope, built in England and brought to Johannesburg in the early 1920's | the History of Telescopes | Galileo's First Telescope | Amateur-built Telescopes | Newtonian Telescopes | Reflecting versus Refracting Telescopes | Optical Aberration | Grinding one's own Mirror | Interview with Des Fourie, Amateur Astronomer on Building a Telescope | History carried by Light in Time | Twelve Constellations of the Zodiac | Planetary Movement across the Zodiac along the Ecliptic | the Moon | Mars, Saturn and Jupiter | the Triple Crossing of the Orbital Plane of Saturn | Constellation of Scorpius and it's Mythology.
View this episode…The Moon | Timekeeper for Early Civilisations | Lunatics | Tidal Forces | Moon's Relative Size | Copernicus' Heliocentric Solar System | Myths about Life on the Moon | Galileo's Telescopic Images of the Moon | NASA's Moon Landing | The Lunar calendar | Ways to View the Moon | From High Mountains to Deep Craters | A Waterless Body | Moon versus Earth Scale and Distance | Phases of the Moon | Moon's Orbit around Earth | How Sunlight causes Moon Phases | Why we see only one side of the Moon | Moon's Rotation on its Axis | Lunar and Solar Eclipses | Moon's Gravity and Tides | Danie Overbeek | Lunar Occultations | Celestial Co-ordinates | Azimuth | Altitude | Observation Time | Zenith | Using Hand Measurements | Southern Cross | Jupiter | Scorpio | Comet Hale-Bopp
View this episode…The Sun | Tribal Sun Mythology | Zulu Beliefs | Khoisa Beliefs | Aboriginal Myths | Egyptian Sun God | Greek, Aztec and Inca Beliefs | Sutherland Observatory, South Africa | Dr Robert Stobie | Dr David Laney | The Sun, our closest Star | Star Formation | Proto-stars | Star Lifecycles | Sunspots | Solar Flares | Solar Rotation | Magnetic Flux Tubes | Solar Corona | Solar Eclipse | Solar Wind | Aurora Borealis | Solar Observing using Binoculars | Birmingham University's Solar Observatory | Automated Solar and Lunar Observing | Ancient Solar Observatories | Orion Constellation | Star Hopping Techniques | Ancient Greek Mythology about Orion | Betelgeuse | Rigel | Great Orion Nebula | Sirius | The Summer Triangle | Taurus Constellation | Aldebaran | Pleiades | The Planisphere.
View this episode…Boyden Observatory | Bloemfontein | University of the Orange Free State | Rockefeller Telescope | Uriah Boyden | Dr John Stefanos Paraskevopoulos | Professor Tony Farrell | University of Cape Town | Cape Town Planetarium | Large-scale Structures in the Universe | The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies | The Centauri Great Wall | First Xhosa Planetarium Show | The Lamont-Hussey Observatory | Conference of the Astronomical Society | Dr Robert Stobie | Solar System Formation | The Oort Cloud | Kepler's Laws | Newton's Laws | Planetary Motion | Possibility of Planets orbiting other Stars | How to find the Planets in the Night Sky | Planetary Motion around the Sun | The Ecliptic | Retrograde Motion | Observing Venus, Mars and Jupiter | Planetary Conjunction of Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
View this episode…Primitive Sailing | Coastal Landmarks | Odysseus the First Astro-navigator | The Magnetic Compass | Celestial Navigation | The Quadrant | Navigating South of the Equator | Solar and Lunar Sightings | The Nautical Almanac | The Astrolabe | The Backstaff and the Crossstaff | The Sextant | The Complex Problem of Longitude | The Navigational Chronometer | Noonday Canon in Cape Town | Longitude's Relationship with Time | The South African Astronomical Observatory | Reverend Fellows | Astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear | The British Admiralty Board of Longitude | Essential Navigational Time Signals | Fellows fires the Pistol | Henderson drops the Ball | Cape Town Harbour Clock Tower | Signal Hill Noonday Canon | The Solar Transit Telescope | The Maclean Telescope | David Gill | Modern Nautical Navigation | Captain Shaun Hyland, Master SA Waterberg | The Cape Town Planetarium | Professor Tony Ferrell | Esme Machekizo | Planetarium Shows in Xhosa | The Meteorites at the South African Museum in Cape Town | Orion | Andromeda Galaxy | What was the Star of Bethlehem?
View this episode…The Universe our Eyes cannot See | Refraction of Light | Colours of the Rainbow | Visible Light | The Electromagnetic Spectrum | X-rays | Radio Transmission | Infrared | Ultraviolet | Anthony Voorveld | Refraction, the Bending of Light | All Bands of Energy in the Electromagnetic Spectrum can Refract | Microwave Refraction | Polarisation of Light | Polarisation of Radio Waves | Focussing Light | Focussing Radio Waves | Hartebeeshoek Radio Astronomical Observatory (HartRAO) | Cassegrain Reflector | The Principle Workings of a Light Telescope | Dr George Nicholson | The Principle Workings of a Radio Telescope | The Universe in Different Wavelengths | Very-long-baseline Interferometry (VLBI) | Justin Jonas | Rhodes University | Radio Map of the Southern Skies | Comet in Visible Light | Radio Image of Comet | Centaurus A in Visible Light | Radio Image of Centaurus A | Radio Map of the Milky Way Galaxy | Observing Mercury | Venus | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Transit through Saturn's Ring Plane | Comet Hale-Bopp | Swiss Astronomers, Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor | Discovery of Planet around 51 Pegasi | Book Recommendations.
View this episode…