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.…
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…
On Friday and Saturday last week, while Richard and the guys were feverishly working away, trying to complete all the preparations for the imminent departure of two of the KAT containers from the SAAO, I pottered around with my camera, taking piccies of the pretty flowers. This is a view of the M5 highway, visible…
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…
Grains of Sand 