[AstroNet] NEWS FROM SKA SOUTH AFRICA

Tue May 24 00:36:19 SAST 2011

 

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May/June 2011  
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/01.php> SA's science minister
welcomes new commitment towards building the SKA
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic01.jpg> 
	South Africa is one of nine countries that have signed a letter of
intent to see the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) built - a move that has been
welcomed by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor. The letter was
signed on 
2 April 2011 at a meeting of SKA stakeholders in Rome, Italy. The
signatories agreed to work together to secure funding for the next phase of
the project. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/01.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/02.php> African astronomy
strides ahead at MEARIM II gathering
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic02.jpg> 
	"Africa's SKA bid has support throughout the continent," said South
Africa's deputy minister for science and technology, Mr Derek Hanekom in his
opening address at the second meeting of MEARIM (Middle East and African
Regional Meeting of the International Astronomical Union - IAU). He
congratulated the IAU for providing this platform that has created a vibrant
and growing community of astronomers. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/02.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/03.php> African Telescope Array
on the cards
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic03.jpg> 
	South African astronomers and their colleagues in other African
countries are investigating the conversion of decommissioned
telecommunications antennae across the African continent into a radio
astronomy VLBI network. An African radio telescope network would fill in a
major gap in the global VLBI network. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/03.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/04.php> New radio telescope
planned for Mozambique
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic04.jpg> 
	South Africa will assist Mozambique with the construction of a new
radio telescope adjacent to the country's Maluana Science and Technology
Park over the next year. The radio telescope will boost postgraduate
research and teaching programmes in radio astronomy at Eduardo Mondlane
University and Mozambique's other universities. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/04.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/05.php> MeerKAT science takes
off
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic05.jpg> 
	The principal investigators of the MeerKAT Large Survey projects
assembled in Cape Town on 17 & 18 April 2011 for their first meeting with
the project staff. The meeting was preceded by telephonic preparatory
meetings with the project system engineers. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/05.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/06.php> Successful ThunderKAT
kick-off
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic06.jpg> 
	The first meeting of the ThunderKAT project was held in South Africa
from 
19-21 April 2011. ThunderKAT is the MeerKAT Large Survey Project on
transient radio (synchrotron) emission associated with accretion and
explosive events. The workshop centred around discussions for developing
software towards real-time transient detections in the image plane with
MeerKAT and KAT-7, and the involvement of ThunderKAT in early commissioning
science with KAT-7. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/06.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/07.php> IAU Global Office of
Astronomy for Development launched in SA
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic07.jpg> 
	A new Global Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), that will
function under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU),
was launched in Cape Town on 16 April 2011. This office will be the nerve
centre of a partnership between the IAU and South Africa's National Research
Foundation to coordinate a wide range of worldwide activities designed to
use astronomy as a tool for education and development. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/07.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/08.php> New Research Chairs give
extra momentum to skills development for SKA South Africa
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic08.jpg> 
	Four of the five SKA SA Research Chairs allocated to South African
Universities have now been filled by leading international researchers. "We
are very excited that South Africa's MeerKAT telescope is generating
significant interest in the international community, and is attracting high
calibre researchers to the country," says Kim de Boer, manager of the SKA
South Africa Human Capacity Building Programme. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/08.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/09.php> More international
science experiments blossoming in the Karoo
 

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	The Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Re-ionisation (PAPER)
project at South Africa's Karoo astronomy site will soon consist of 64
antennae. A further 26 antennae - being shipped from West Virginia - will
arrive at Cape Town harbour during the first week of June 2011 and will then
be deployed on site. Commissioning of the 64-antenna array is tentatively
scheduled for the end of June. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/09.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/10.php> Cutting-edge MeerKAT
control room now operational
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic10.jpg> 
	The new control room at the Cape Town MeerKAT project office is
fitted with a live web cam link to the KAT-7 telescope site in the Karoo, as
well as a real-time virtual sky display, based on the popular open source
Stellarium software. This provides telescope operators with a synthesised
view of the Karoo sky that includes radio and optical sources, satellites
and the antenna pointing positions. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/10.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/11.php> Reader's Cambridge
sabbatical links to SKA phase 1
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic11.jpg> 
	Prof Howard Reader, head of the EMC and Metrology research team,
Stellenbosch University, spent the last six months of 2010 as a visiting
researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Here, he collaborated
with Prof Paul Alexander, head of the astrophysics group, Dr Andrew
Faulkner, the SKA phase 1 systems engineer and post-doctoral fellows Dr Eloy
de Lera Acedo and Dr Nima Razavi-Ghods. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/11.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/13.php> Focus on women in
physics
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic13.jpg> 
	The 4th IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics (ICWIP),
held in Stellenbosch from 5-8 April 2011, was attended by more than 230
delegates from about 50 countries. In addition to a full scientific
programme, the conference devoted time to debating ways of attracting girls
into physics as well as recruiting and retaining women physicists. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/13.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/14.php> Blog along with the
barefoot astronomer
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/images/pic14.jpg> 
	The barefoot astronomer blog is "a story of science, engineering and
a continent called Africa," says Simon Ratcliffe. He is one of a team of
engineers who are developing the software that will process and store the
vast amounts of data from the MeerKAT telescope. Simon finds radio astronomy
appealing because of the way it marries pure science with engineering
challenges. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/13/14.php> 
Printed copies of the newsletter are available. To order, please send your
request to Marina Joubert <mailto:marina at southernscience.co.za> .

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