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The whale season has begun. So has the season for winter schools at the Hermanus magnetic observatory, a key feature of the village since the physicists fled “noisy” Cape Town for some peace and quiet on the coast in 1941. This year, the staff at the observatory are going to be busier than usual.

On Monday, 3 July they will host an intensive one-day introduction to the wonders of space physics. This comes as a precursor to the massive 51st annual conference of the SA Institute of Physics, which takes place at the University of the Western Cape from 4-7 July.

The “winter schoolers” come from the three Western Cape universities, as well as the University of the Free State, North-West University (Potchefstroom campus), Rhodes University, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Zambia.

After the conference the staff will be at it again, with a longer winter school, running from 10-14 July for 15 science students from South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

“Seventeen science students from across Southern Africa will descend on the village for the first winter school,” said Ben Opperman, a physicist whose research focuses on the ionosphere. Opperman, who has lived in Hermanus for four years, said the winter school targets final-year physics students to encourage them to specialise in space physics, a growing field in South Africa offering tempting employment possibilities.

If you see the scientists on the beach, they may be whale-watching. On the other hand, they may be looking for magnetic materials to illustrate the principles of geomagnetism. Our planet, after all, is one big round magnet.

“We want to whet their appetites,” says Lee-Anne McKinnell, an HMO physicist based at Rhodes University. McKinnell and the students at the winter school will use amateur radio technology to contact the scientists at the SA base in far-off and isolated Antarctica. Even though the winter school is targeting university students who already have a science background, there is still much for them to discover. “You don't have to be an astronomer or a mathematics genius to enjoy space physics,” says McKinnell.

If your science isn't quite up to scratch, the observatory also has a science centre which attracts over 1 000 students from the Overberg region each year and hosts an open day once a month.

Enquiries should be directed to Elisa Fraser, by e-mail at efraser@hmo.ac.za or by landline on (028) 312-1196. The website is www.hmo.ac.za.

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