SALT launching on 11 November

The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) will officially be launched on Thursday 10th November. SALT is the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere and equal in size the the largest telescope in the northern hemisphere.

They're bidding on SKA already?

[dascandy]

I think I'd better keep working on it then, so it's complete by that time...

Re:They're bidding on SKA already?

[Mr_Dyqik]

It'll only be complete by then if the American's find some cash.

Re:They're bidding on SKA already?

[dascandy]

Could you figure out that SKA is INTERNATIONAL?

For those not understanding the word: International means that more than one nation is working on it. This means for instance that ESA (European Space Agency), those guys from the other side of the planet that fly with Ariadne rockets instead of Space Shuttles (talk about lack of imagination), can help fund it.

Example: I'm not in America, nor in the USA (explicified for people with dissociative disabilities, such as not recognising the USA as part of America bu

SALT?

[I_M_Noman]

Damn, we really are running out of acronyms. (To those of us over a certain age, SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.)

Re:SALT?

[rossdee]

Or even Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (the agreement reached during those talks).

Re:SALT?

[I_M_Noman]

Or even Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (the agreement reached during those talks).

Or even that, yep.

Re:SALT?

[suitepotato]

I'm waiting for SALT II...

Artifacts on First Light images

[marat]

First Light Images [salt.ac.za] - they are superb, but are there always so many artifacts in the beginning? Is there some calibration procedure still waiting to be performed? Stars shaped like, well, stars are understandable, but how came I can see some jamb-looking object with a size of our galaxy (I may be mistaken by several billion times) in the corner of Lagoon Nebula 2 [salt.ac.za]?

Re:Artifacts on First Light images

[Mr_Dyqik]

It's still to be fully calibrated. That's what first light literally means, the first astronomical light to pass through the instrument, so that you can start the shakedown tests and calibrations.

SALT....Y?

[ShadowXOmega]

yay! I wish that this article dont make me to retain more water... :P

Flashback...

[HaloZero]

...saw the article title, and I suddenly had a flashback to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. For a second I forgot that it was 2005.

Re:Flashback...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Carter and Brezhnev. Rumble in the Jungle. Salt II, Electric Bugaloo.

Not the biggest

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the biggest OPTICAL telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

Almost all radio and mm-wave telescopes are bigger than it, and have been for decades.

How poetic

[w.timmeh]

Apparently this new telescope has proven quite a literary inspiration:
http://www.salt.ac.za/science/first-light/poetry/ [salt.ac.za]

I'm holding out for the haiku though.

Size Isn't Everything

[deathCon4]

Equal in size to the One in the Northern Hemisphere eh? Sounds like some one has Telescope Envy!

Launches & SALT

[Red Flayer]

" The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) will officially be launched on Thursday 10th November"

I thought that the whole purpose of the SALT treaties were to prevent launches.

Well, this will show my age...

[StressGuy]

I clicked on this thread because my first thought was "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks" followed by "crap, not again".

I was expecting to see someting about negotiations with Korea or something.

Deceptive Title

[Goronguer]

Nothing is being actually "launched" here, right? Nothing is being sent into orbit. They're just going to start using the thing.

Not the largest telescope by a long shot.

[CanSpice]

Pedantically speaking, SALT isn't the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. There are plenty larger -- for example, the Parkes Observatory [csiro.au] in Australia is 64 meters across. It doesn't match the size of the largest telescope in the northern hemisphere, either. To do so it would have to be as large as Arecibo, 305 meters across.