Behind Cape Town is Cape of Good Hope, the cape where ships sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the south and finally see the Indian Ocean with good hope. Cape Town is located at the root of Cape Peninsula sticking out to the south in the Atlantic Ocean. An old port opened in the colonial era is located in the north of the city, and Table Mountain rises in the south. Its mountaintop is flat as if cut with a knife. Cape Town is "Mother City" of South Africa blessed with beautiful landscape and rich nature.

European people first reached there in the end of the 15th century in the Great Voyage Era, and developed by Dutch West India Company in the later half of the 17th century for a relay station of voyage to Asia. In 1814 the Netherlands handed over the territory to the United Kingdom, where John Herschel then came for observation of southern stars. Cape Town is in an important position as an industrial centre and the seat of the lagislative organ of the Republic of South Africa, even though its role as a harbour city was relatively decreased since opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

The 20-foot telescope in Feldhausen
Feldhausen is a historic estate with an origin back in the 17th century. John Herschel arrived Cape Town in 1834 and borrowed from a Dutch and bought it later. John's residence often received noble guests, for he was famed as a great scientist.

In 1992 a symposium to commemorate the bicentenary of John Herschel's birth was held in Cape Town. A few members of the Herschel Society of Japan took part in the event as well.