The Pinelands Muse leaps into its third year of publication

Since October 2010, a glossy community magazine has popped into our postbox towards the end of each month (I wrote about their first anniversary here). Known as the Pinelands Muse, or just affectionately as ‘The Muse’, it focuses on the comings and goings in the neighbourhoods of Pinelands and Thornton, and it is a wonderful treasure chest of information about the fascinating people who live here and their unusual or exciting occupations, hobbies and travels to near and far.

Timelapse video of the KAT-7 array in the Karoo

With the exciting decision, as to whether the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the biggest Earth-based radio telescope in the world, will be hosted in Southern Africa or in Australia plus New Zealand, looming on the horizon, Rupert at the SKA South Africa office in Cape Town has put together this playful and funky timelapse video,…

Introducing the Karoo Array Telescope

If you have ever scrolled down the right-hand margin of my blog, you might have spotted a section called “Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7)” beneath the following photograph of seven structures that look like high-tech satellite dishes pointing straight up at the sky. In case this has mystified you, I wanted to take a moment to…

Horses visit the Karoo Array Telescope

Last week, hubby and a few colleagues from work spent some time in the Karoo at the site, where the dishes of the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) – a telescope that will be used for radio astronomy – are being constructed and set up (see the story of our group visit to the site in…

The KAT containers head north!

On Monday morning, bright and early, we “rushed” down the N2 (or rather, as slowly as the early-morning commuter traffic allowed) to make it to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory, Cape Town, around 8h00. The sun was hiding behind a solid grey blanket of cloud, which fortunately did not release any rain.…

Preparing for the departure of the KAT containers

Background On 6 May 2009, four containers arrived at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory, Cape Town. These weren’t just normal containers, though. These were very special containers: high-tech, RFI-shielded containers, especially designed and outfitted to accommodate all the complicated equipment that will be needed to control, operate and process the data from…

An exciting visit to the KAT-7 site: Day 3 Returning home

We were up fairly early again on Sunday morning, had a quick breakfast, packed our bags, and then said goodbye to our toasty warm (thanks to a working heater/aircon!) home-from-home. I discovered that the building we’d stayed in had been constructed in 1869, which means that it’s now 140 years old! We trudged down the…

An exciting visit to the KAT-7 site: Day 2.3 Site to Klerefontein

In the mid-afternoon, there was suddenly a mad rush to drive back to Losberg in order to see the rugby match between the touring British/Irish Lions and South Africa, being played in Durban. The guys who are currently living at Losberg had been trying to set up a DSTV antenna earlier today, but I don’t…

An exciting visit to the KAT-7 site: Day 2.2 Losberg to Site

After lunch, we climbed back into our respective vehicles and drove along the recently constructed road to the site, where the first seven antenna dishes are being put up. Gerrit stopped briefly at a deliberately widened section of the road, which he called “ons telefoonhokkie” – it’s the only place in the area where you…

An exciting visit to the KAT-7 site: Day 2.1 Carnarvon to Losberg

We were up fairly early on Saturday morning, and walked up to the camping site shortly before 08h00 to meet up with the others. It had rained very heavily during the night, with a blustering wind howling through the trees. The campers had all been woken up by the sudden storm during the night. And…

An exciting visit to the KAT-7 site: Day 1

On Friday morning, the 19th of June, we headed out to the Northern Cape to visit the site, where the KAT-7 (and thereafter the MeerKAT) radio telescope is being constructed. We arrived in Carnarvon on Friday night, and then spent Saturday driving out to Losberg (where the dishes and pedestals are being constructed and assembled),…

RFI-shielded containers for the MeerKAT project

After I’d written that blog post about the arrival of the RFI-shielded containers at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory on 06 May, I was asked by the SKA’s media department whether I would be willing to attend the informal function at the SAAO on Friday 29 May to celebrate the arrival of…

Carnarvon, here we come!

Early tomorrow morning we head off to Carnarvon in the Northern Cape, the small town closest to the site of the soon-to-be-built MeerKAT radio telescope. ‘We’ means a group from the KAT office, together with spouses. The idea is to see the site – for some of us for the first time – where our…

The KAT containers and an inquisitive cat

This morning, the high-tech containers for the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) project arrived at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory. Shipped over from The Netherlands, these four RFI-shielded containers were especially designed and outfitted to accommodate all the complicated equipment that the KAT team needs to control and operate the brand new radio…

Inspired and inspirational scientists

I was thinking a bit today about the inspirational talks I’ve been lucky to listen to over the last year. In February last year, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens offered a series of star walks, in which visitors were allowed into the Gardens in the evening and taught a little bit about astronomy. We were fortunate to…

Grains of Sand

“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."

Karoo Array Telescope and MeerKAT