“Rising Star” takes you on an astronomical journey from our beginnings through the development of astronomy research in South Africa and looks at what the future of astronomy holds for the country.

In addition to introducing multi-wavelength and multi-messenger astronomy, it highlights the many remarkable facilities hosted in South Africa along with some of their latest results. This includes unrestricted views of the 10-metre class Southern African Large Telescope and the most powerful radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, MeerKAT.

The film is accessible to all ages and aims to excite audiences from around the world about South African astronomy while inspiring the next generation of astronomers. As the first of its kind to be produced in Africa, Rising Star hopes to stimulate the production of many more locally-produced planetarium films from multidisciplinary fields, with the goal of popularising Africa’s numerous scientific achievements.