User:Modest Genius/SAAO

The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. Funded as a national facility by South Africa's National Research Foundation, the observatory was formed via a merger of three previous observatories in 1972; however parts of the SAAO date from 1820. The observatory is the largest and oldest in sub-Saharan Africa and currently operates the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere.

The SAAO consists of two sites: its headquarters, workshops and offices in Observatory, Cape Town, and an observing station in Sutherland, Northern Cape. The current Director is Professor Phil Charles.

History

The SAAO was formed in 1972 via the merger of the Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg. In 1974 most of the facilities of the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria were purchased and also merged into SAAO.

Republic Observatory

Main article: Republic Observatory

Radcliffe Observatory

Main article: Radcliffe Observatory

Cape Town headquarters

SAAO, Cape Town

Organization	South African Astronomical Observatory
Observatory code	051
Location	Observatory, Cape Town
Coordinates	33°56′7.13″S 18°28′38.47″E
Established	1828 (1828)
Website	http://www.saao.ac.za
Telescopes
McClean 24/18 inch dual refractor Dall-Kirkham 18 inch reflector Parks 16 inch reflector   6 inch refractor

Telescopes in Cape Town

Name	Aperture (metres)	First light	Notes
McClean	0.61	1897	24/18 inch dual refractor
Dall-Kirkham	0.45	1955	18 inch reflector
Parks	0.41	1995	16 inch reflector
	0.15	1882	6 inch refractor

Sutherland observing station

SAAO, Sutherland

Organization	South African Astronomical Observatory
Observatory code	B31
Location	near Sutherland, Northern Cape
Coordinates	32°22′46″S 20°48′38.5″E
Altitude	1759 m
Established	1973 (1973)
Website	http://www.saao.ac.za
Telescopes
SALT 10 m segmented mirror array Radcliffe 1.9 m reflector IRSF 1.4 m infrared survey reflector MONET South 1.2 m robotic reflector Elizabeth 1.0 m reflector 30 inch 0.75 m reflector 20 inch 0.5 m reflector ACT robotic reflector SuperWASP South 8 × 0.1 m robotic planet finder YSTAR robotic survey telescope BISON Sutherland robotic solar vacuum telescope KELT South 0.045 robotic planet finder

Telescopes in Sutherland

Name	Aperture (metres)	Owned by	First light	Notes
Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)	10	Consortium including institutions in South Africa, Poland, the US, Germany, the UK, New Zealand and India	01 Sep 2005	Segmented mirror array, undergoing commissioning, largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere
Radcliffe	1.9	SAAO	00 Jan 1974	Previously at the Radcliffe Observatory, largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere at the time of construction, second largest optical telescope in sub-Saharan Africa, aka 74 inch
Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF)	1.4	Nagoya University, Kyoto University, NAOJ and SAAO	27 Sep 2000	Near-infrared survey telescope
Monitoring Network of Telescopes (MONET) South	1.2	University of Göttingen and SAAO		Robotic telescope. Construction complete, undergoing commissioning, first light expected late 2008
Elizabeth	1.0	SAAO	00 Jan 1973	aka 40 inch
30 inch	0.75	SAAO	00 Jan 1973
20 inch	0.5	SAAO	00 Jan 1973
Alan Cousins Telescope (ACT)		SAAO	00 Jan 2000	Robotic photometry telescope, named after Alan Cousins
Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) South	0.28 (8 × 0.1)	Consortium including institutions in the UK and Spain	09 Mar 2006	Robotic survey telescope designed to detect exoplanets
Yonsei Survey Telescope for Astronomical Research (YSTAR)		Yonsei University and SAAO		Robotic telescope
Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) Sutherland		University of Birmingham, Sheffield Hallam University and SAAO		Robotic solar telescope designed for helioseismology
Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) South	0.045	Ohio State University	30 Sep 2008	Robotic survey telescope designed to detect exoplanets

See also

• Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory

Sources to be incorporated

Ian Glass' recollections of the formation of SAAO: http://www.saao.ac.za/assa/html/mnassa_2001_feb_13-19.html

Old article

The SAAO started when the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was founded in 1820, the first scientific institution in Sub-Saharan Africa. During the 1970’s, the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg and the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria merged with the much older Royal Observatory to form the South African Astronomical Observatory.

SAAO was established in January 1972 as a result of a joint agreement by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa and Scientific and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of United Kingdom. The headquarters are located on the grounds of the old Royal Observatory where the main building, offices, national library for astronomy and computer facilities are housed. Historic telescopes are also found at the headquarters in a number of domes and a small museum that displays scientific instruments. The South African Astronomical Observatory is administered as a National Facility under management of the National Research Foundation (NRF), now formerly Foundation for Research Development (FRD). In 1974, when the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria closed, the Royal Observatory and the Republic Observatory combined facilities. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) purchased the 1.9 Radcliffe telescope and transported it to Sutherland.

SALT

The South African Astronomical observatory (SAAO) is home to the world-wide known telescope SALT. SALT is an acronym for Southern African Large Telescope. SALT was inaugurated in November 2005. It is the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, with a hexagonal mirror array 11 meters across. SALT shares similarities with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas; however, SALT used more mirror array. The Southern African Large Telescope gathers twenty-five times as much light as any existing African Telescope. With this larger mirror array, SALT can record distant stars, galaxies and quasars.

The Southern African Large Telescope is partnered with many countries globally involved with astronomical research. Partners include: National Research Foundation (RSA), Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center from Poland, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics from India, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from Germany, University of Canterbury from New Zealand, the internationally-known Hobby-Eberly Telescope Board, Consortium of UK Universities and Institutions, and a number of United States institutions such as Rutgers University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Carnegie Mellon University, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Dartmouth College, and the American Museum of Natural History.

SALT is a computer-run precise device that connects researchers around the globe through the Internet. Astronomers can access SALT through their computers, by submitting observing requests. Once the observations have been conducted, the data is sent via Internet. It has been said that the Southern African Large Telescope is more space-based similar to CHANDRA and the Hubble Space Telescope. SALT is a ~10 meters (~33 feet) diameter optical telescope, located in the semi-desert region of the Karoo, South Africa.

Research

Many years of research using SALT at the South African Astronomical Observatory has led the facility to important discoveries. By using the Southern African Large Telescope, SAAO has the ability to take “snapshots” of starts in very quick succession. It is optimized for wavelengths and observing modes not available on other very large telescopes. As a result, astronomers can study rapidly changing properties of compact stars, primarily as they pull in gas from their companion stars or surroundings. The significance of this discovery allows us to detect black holes.The gravitational field of a compact star commonly pulls in gas from a companion star, thus radiation (especially X-ray) is emitted. Scientists used this as an indirect way to locate black holes. Another phenomenon that SALT has helped astronomers investigate is the way that masses build up on some compact stars until supernova explosions blow them apart, which gives scientists a "Type 1a" supernovae used to show that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

Other note-worthy research the South African Astronomical Observatory has achieved using SALT include the discovery of a class of stars known as "polar", or a pair of stars. The "polar" binary star system, where a compactor star called a "white dwarf" whose volume has shrunk about one millionth of a star like our sun. Studies using SALT concluded that these polar binary start systems take only an hour and a half to complete an orbit. Also, the SALT telescope allows scientists to study the rapid brightness changes in exotic stars.

More research using SALT has aided astronomers investigate the structure and evolution of our galaxy, such as quasars, Magellanic clouds, the galactic structure and stellar astrophysics. SALT released its first color images, which marked the achievement of the "first light". This also marked the debut of the fully operating SALTICAM, which is a $600,000 digital camera designed and built for SALT. First light with the full mirror was declared on 1 September 2005 with 1 arc second resolution images of globular cluster 47 Tucanae, open cluster NGC 6152, spiral galaxy NGC 6744, and the Lagoon Nebula being obtained.

Facilities

Telescopes

• SALT
• 1.9 m (Radcliffe) Telescope and Instrumentation
• 1.0 m (Elizabeth) Telescope
• .75-m Telescope
• .5 m Telescope
• ACT: Alan Cousins Telescope
• BiSON
• IRSF
• MONET
• YSTAR
• SuperWASP-South

Geophysical

• SAGOS
• SUR

References

• http://www.saao.ac.za/
• http://www.nrf.ac.za/facilities/saao/
• http://www.salt.ac.za/public-info/milestones/first-light/
• http://www.salt.ac.za/public-info/milestones/inauguration/press-release/
• http://flickr.com/photos/pix_elate/2609507073/