Southern African Large Telescope

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Southern African Large Telescope
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Introduction

• Presenters
• Dr Matutu (Chief Director, Human Capital and
  Science Platforms), Department of Science and
  Technology
• Dr Gatsha Mazithulela (Vice-President, National
  Research Facilities, National Research
  Foundation)
• Professor Phil Charles (Director of the South
  African Astronomy Observatory) a national
  facility of the National Research Foundation

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Introduction

• The National Research and Development Strategy
  (NRDS) identified astronomy as an area where
  South Africa has an obvious geographical
  advantage
• South Africa provides a geographical and climate
  advantage for global astronomy because of its
  clear, dark skies in areas of limited light and
  radio-frequency pollution

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Introduction

• Astronomy facilities are best located in very low
  population density areas to minimise their impact
  on the community, and to reduce interference with
  telescope operations by human activities
• A parallel investment in infrastructure for
  capacity development and increasing
  technological competitiveness was motivated by
  the growth of these facilities

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Introduction

• The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) near
  Sutherland in South Africa is the largest single
  optical-infrared telescope in the southern
  hemisphere
• The primary mirror measures 11 metres across
  (diameter) and is constructed from 91 hexagonal
  segments, each 1 metre in diameter
• The SALT can access approximately 70 of the sky
  observable from Sutherland

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Introduction

• Part of the infrastructure investment is the
  Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)
• Hosted by the South African Astronomical
  Observatory (SAAO) in Sutherland, in the Northern
  Cape Province
• There was no need to establish a new institution
  to accommodate the SALT as SAAO was already
  established under the NRF

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Introduction

• The SALT is an outcome of multilateral
  partnership between
• South Africa,
• Germany,
• New Zealand,
• Poland,
• the United Kingdom and
• the United States.
• India and the
• American Museum of Natural History joined after
  SALT construction was completed in 2005.

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Infrastructure

• The bandwidth requirement was determined jointly
  by the researchers and the SANReN design team
• The connection will be provided by Telkom SA Ltd
  on a long-term lease for five years, after which
  the requirements will be reassessed. The link
  will be on existing Telkom optic fibre
  infrastructure
• The cost is within the budgeted amount of R10
  million for the SALT connection

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Infrastructure

• South Africa contributed a third of the total of
  36 million to finance SALT for its first 10
  years (20 million for the telescope, 6 million
  for instruments, 10 million for operations)
• The South African National Research Network
  (SANReN) has commissioned Telkom to provide a 155
  Mbps (Megabits per second) datalink from SALT to
  SAAO in Cape Town
• The datalink to SALT is within the current SANReN
  budget

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Human Capital Development at SALT

• SALT is accessible to local and international
  scientists for research
• The DST funded Postgraduate students access SALT
  through the National Astrophysics and Space
  Programme (NASSP) and the Multi-wavelength (MWL)
  Astronomy programme
• SALT is a sophisticated computer-controlled
  precision instrument and truly a telescope of the
  internet era

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Human Capital Development at SALT

• Astronomers submit their observing requests over
  the Internet and eventually receive their data by
  the same route without travelling to Sutherland
• The establishment of SALT and the High Energy
  Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia, together
  with the construction of the Karoo Array
  Telescope near Caernarvon, have made South Africa
  a strong contender to host the Square Kilometre
  Array Telescope
• This will benefit South Africa tremendously as
  international scientific and engineering minds
  are attracted to this world-class,
  multi-wavelength capability

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SALT Social Impact

• SALT benefits South Africa and Africa in the
  provision and development of highly technical
  expertise in the study of the origins and history
  of the universe
• Astronomy will also provide us with a platform
  that generates scientific human capacity to drive
  new discoveries in physics, chemistry biology,
  as has happened in developed countries.
• In addition SALT provides South Africa with a
  competitive advantage in Astronomy
• The SALT optical system development was a major
  South African achievement that was far superior
  to the American prototype, and a demonstration of
  South African ability to innovate in advanced
  optical technologies

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Social Impact on the Sutherland Community

• Through the NRF, installation of Digital
  Doorways and a wireless mesh network will enable
  the Sutherland school and local community to
  access the SALT internet connection
• This will also provide a gateway to the wider
  internet network hence allow the community
  business access to the internet, other
  web-based services
• This will also enable entrepreneurs to establish
  internet-based businesses

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SALT Current status

• 3 yrs commissioning, testing and analysing
  detailed performance (2006 -2008) revealed 2
  serious problems
• Image quality poor, suffered from a focus
  gradient
• Was due to misaligned optics in SAC (corrector)?
• Badly designed mounting of SAC on Tracker
• Main spectrograph had very poor sensitivity in
  blue/UV
• Manufacturing flaw found in lens coupling fluid
  used

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SALT Current Status

• SALT/SAAO team has developed solutions to both
• SAC removed from SALT mid-April, alignment and
  testing rig constructed at Sutherland, work
  underway, going well
• Spectrograph optics returned to California, now
  repaired, reassembled and blue performance vastly
  improved
• Repairs expected to complete before end 2009

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SALT Current status
From SAAO Director's report to SALT Board in New
York, May 28 This is without doubt the most
radical surgery and intervention that SALT has
undergone since its completion. That it is taking
place entirely in our own facilities in SL is a
dramatic event worthy of note in its own right,
as it takes SALT technical operations to a
potentially new level. This brings the entire
SALT opto-mechanics now within the capability of
the Operations Team to be able to adjust,
maintain and repair. This is a far better
situation than that envisaged at the beginning of
SALT operations, and bodes well for future
developments and new instrumentation projects.
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• Thank You