[AstroNet] NEWS FROM SKA SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 2011

[Marina Joubert]

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/images/banner_email.jpg> 
 


  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/images/name_sa.gif> 
September / October 2011  
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/01.php> SKA South Africa shines
at the SKA Forum 2011 in Banff, Canada
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic01.jpg> 
	"It was truly a great event and, in some sense, represents the
culmination of our efforts over the last seven years," Jasper Horrell from
the SKA South Africa office in Cape Town summarised the team's attendance at
the SKA Forum 2011 in Banff, Canada, held during the first week of July
2011. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/01.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/02.php> The road to the final
SKA site decision
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic02.jpg> 
	At the SKA Forum 2011 in Banff, the Founding Board of the SKA
unveiled the process and timeline for selecting the site that will host the
largest radio telescope array in the world. By the end of this year the SKA
Site Advisory Committee will present their final reports to the SKA Board of
Directors, which is due to make its final site decision in February 2012.
Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/02.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/03.php> MeerKAT passes
Preliminary Design Review with flying colours
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic03.jpg> 
	"The panel unanimously concludes that the PDR has been successfully
passed and congratulates the project teams." These were the findings of the
panel of international experts who conducted the Preliminary Design Review
(PDR) for the 64-dish MeerKAT array during July 2011. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/03.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/04.php> More industry contracts
for SKA South Africa
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic04.jpg> 
	The SKA South Africa project has awarded four significant contracts,
to Electromagnetic Software and Systems, MMS, the CSIR and BAE Systems
Dynamics (SA), for its KAT-7 and MeerKAT projects. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/04.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/05.php> PAPER array extended to
64 dishes
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic05.jpg> 
	After a very successful deployment, the Precision Array for Probing
the Epoch of Reionisation or PAPER experiment is now a proud 64-antenna
array. Collaborators from the US (National Radio Astronomy Observatory and
Universities of Virginia, Berkeley and Pennsylvania) gathered in the Karoo
to accomplish this feat within a mere three week timeframe. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/05.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/06.php> Agreements with Intel,
Seacom and Nokia Siemens Networks boost SA's SKA bid
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic06.jpg> 
	Intel Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with South
Africa's Department of Science and Technology and the MeerKAT engineering
team. Intel has undertaken to supply to SKA SA, for a joint evaluation,
cutting edge, high-performance computing technologies that will be required
to capture, process and analyse the vast amounts of data that will be
generated by the SKA and MeerKAT telescopes. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/06.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/07.php> Crucial cold receivers
successfully installed on KAT-7
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic07.jpg> 
	On 8 August 2011, all seven dishes of the KAT-7 telescope had been
successfully fitted with "cold" radio receivers. These receivers are
cryogenically cooled to temperatures of about 70 Kelvin, or -203 Celsius.
This significantly lowers the noise floor of the telescope system, which
enables scientists to make observations with significantly better
sensitivity, thereby "seeing" much fainter objects than would otherwise be
possible. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/07.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/08.php> Progress with KAT-7
commissioning
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic08.jpg> 
	Commissioning of the KAT-7 telescope is going full steam ahead with
seven cold receivers installed and working, the KAT-7 correlator operating
in continuum, dual polarization mode and fringe stopping now implemented.
Baseline solutions, pointing models and Tsys/gain performance for the new
receivers are being determined and detailed beam maps are being obtained.
Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/08.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/09.php> On-site UPS for KAT-7
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic09.jpg> 
	A significant operational improvement for the KAT-7 telescope has
been the switch-over to grid power supplied by ESKOM, the South African
electrical utility company. A 100kVA UPS (uninterruptable power supply),
linked to all seven dishes, was recently installed on site. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/09.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/10.php> Control and monitoring
upgrades for KAT-7
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic10.jpg> 
	A new set of server computers for KAT-7 were recently installed in
the computing container at Losberg, while the project engineers also
finished refactoring the "fringe finder" CAM (Control & Monitoring) software
to be ready for KAT-7 and to support both the FF correlator and the KAT-7
correlator. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/10.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/11.php> KAT-7 digital back-end
(DBE) acceptance test procedure (ATP)
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic11.jpg> 
	The correlator is a fundamental element of the MeerKAT telescope.
During a recent acceptance test procedure (ATP) process, MeerKAT engineers
and scientists made sure that all specifications set for the correlator have
been met to ensure high signal fidelity, before using the correlator for
science observations. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/11.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/12.php> Super-realistic MeerKAT
movie
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic12.jpg> 
	The SKA South Africa project office contracted Luma, a
Johannesburg-based animation studio, to produce a realistic 3D animation of
the MeerKAT telescope as it will appear on-site in the Karoo when it is
completed in 2016. "Realism was key throughout the project and we were
rendering close to 160 billion polygons per frame in order to preserve the
accuracy and achieve the final look," says Paul Meyer, MD for Luma. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/12.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/13.php> SKA SA bursar wins top
UCT research award
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic13.jpg> 
	SKA South Africa MSc bursary holder James Newling has been awarded a
University of Cape Town Research Associateship for 2011 for his thesis,
entitled "Novel Methods of Supernova Classification and Type Probability
Estimation". His work builds on the previous research of his thesis
supervisor and collaborators, towards a better understanding of dark energy
through observing supernovae. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/13.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/14.php> SA promotes the African
SKA bid abroad
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic14.jpg> 
	"Africa is both the cradle of humankind and the continent of the
future, and we are confident that we present an outstanding site and the
best home for the SKA," stated South African Minister of Science and
Technology, Naledi Pandor. She was speaking at a press conference at the
World Congress of Science Journalists in Doha, Qatar at the start of July
2011, giving them an insider's view of Africa's bid to host the Square
Kilometre Array on the continent. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/14.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/15.php> SKA SA presentations in
London - Youth Day 2011
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic15.jpg> 
	"Revolutionary science in the continent of opportunity" was the
title of a presentation by Dr Bernie Fanaroff at the South African High
Commission in London on 16 June 2011 (as part of the celebration of Youth
Day). A packed audience of scientists, journalists, policy-makers and
diplomatic representatives heard about recent achievements in astronomy in
South Africa. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/15.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/16.php> Outreach programme
hosted at SAAO wins prestigious international award
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic16.jpg> 
	The Universe Awareness programme, with which the SA Astronomical
Observatory is intimately involved, has been honoured with the Science Prize
for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) award. Science Magazine introduced
the SPORE award as a means to showcase the best educational resources that
are available on the Internet and to bring them to a wider audience. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/16.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/17.php> Mission MeerKAT - the
adventure continues
 

  <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/images/pic17.jpg> 
	In the third edition in SKA South Africa's popular comic series
Hannah, the intrepid school reporter from Carnarvon in the Karoo, explores
the involvement of our African partners in the SKA project. A real meerkat
also features prominently, along with an adorable bat-eared fox - both
animals found in the Karoo. All three editions are available for download.
Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/15/17.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/index.php> Website |
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/archive.php> Archive copies |
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/print.php> Print version |
<mailto:marina at southernscience.co.za?subject=Please%20unsubscribe%20me%20fro
m%20the%20SKA%20newsletter> Unsubscribe |
<mailto:marina at southernscience.co.za> Comment










 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.saasta.ac.za/pipermail/astronet/attachments/20111017/a7da0942/attachment-0001.html>