After breakfast and saying bye to anyone who was still awake after the night's observing, we loaded the car and set off for Cape Town. We stopped off at Matjesfontein again for a break, after a spectacular drive off the plateau... Lunch was at the Spice Route, a collection of restaurants and artisan outlets in the wine growing area not far from Cape Town... That evening we met up with Ray Brederode, another UCLAN distance learning student who is a project manager with the SKA (SQuare Kilometer Array) radio telescope project in Cape Town. After a tour of the MeerKAT control room (a smaller radio telescope to demonstrate the technologies to be used for SKA) we headed off to the waterfront for a very nice seafood meal. We've met great people during this trip - which makes it all worthwhile!!
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After a restful morning we drove down to Sutherland for a quick look round and a coffee. It didn't take long but it's worth a stroll round... On our way back we called in at the visitors' centre at the SAAO facility... After tea we arranged to see a new wide-field telescope looking at the Galactic bulge, owned and operated by KASI (Korea)... Then, after another visit to Stephen at the 1.9m telescope, we called in to see Rajin at the 1m telescope and to see how his photometric observations of galaxies were going... After that, we got to chat to Alexei and Fred in the SALT control room, to see how they orgainsed their work and completed their observations... And then to bed! We saw far more than we thought we would during this visit, and we were delighted with the way people took time to show us round and explain what they were doing. Fantastic!!!
After sleeping off the late night, the day was spent unwinding and catching up on study etc. During the afternoon I wandered up to the telescope area on foot and got a tour of the 1.9m telescope with Stephen Potter, an astronomer with SAAO... This telescope is the second biggest at the site. It may look an older style machine, but it performs very well.
Later that evening, we joined Stephen for his early observations and we got an excellent tutorial on polarimetry and how he was applying it to his work (thanks Stephen!). Then, since the skies were so clear, Richard set up is DSLR camera and started photographing the Southern skies. Some of the results are excellent - here are two examples... OK, this is a bit behind schedule - but the time has flown by and we seem to have packed a huge amount in over the last few days. Read on for more info! Also ignore the dates on the previous posts - I was tired! Tuesday started with Richard, David Buckley and me loading up the Jeep to head for Sutherland. It was an amazing drive which took us through the wine growing regions and over spectacular mountain passes. The only real "dangers" were baboons on the roadside - a sign warned us to "Beware Robbers Selling Stolen Grapes" and sure enough there were people trying to flag us down to sell boxes of grapes with an "informal settlement" in the background. One of the harsh realities of this beautiful country. After that stretch we stopped at Matjesfontein, a little slice of olde-world British colonialism...this is the inside of the local bar..check out Friday's entries for more pictures. After some lunch we set off on the amazimg drive through the semi-desert towards Sutherland (about 90km). This is what was at the accommodation to greet us... After unpacking, David took us up to the SALT telescope (the largest in the Southern hemisphere) and we got acccess to parts not accessible to tourists...this is the main mirror close up... We also got a tour of the rest of the site - there are a lot of other telescopes up here as well (more on those later!). Later during the afternoon we arranged to meet with Waldek (from Krakow) who was using the 1m telescope for observations, so at around 19:00 we headed up to the telescope area and saw the preparation work and data rolling in. We also met Rajin, who was taking over from Waldek on Wednesday. it seems that as long as you ask, people up here don't mind if you wander in to the telescope and "warm room" for a chat. We made good use of that principle during the whole visit! Afterwards we went to the SALT telescope for a fascinating chat with Luke, the duty astronomer, and then finally got to bed when the weather deteriorated and everyone had to close down for the night. All of this was a bonus and more than we had hoped for - more tomorrow hopefully!
Richard's comments... Monday we spent in the SAAO offices in Cape Town we were kindle met by the director David Buckley (left) who introduced us to key members of staff. We visited the SoftwareTeam, the Hardware Workshop for the SAAO small telescopes, the Electronics and CCD Lab, and the optical clean room where the spectrograph for the 74 inch was being upgraded. Staff were extremely helpful and knowledgeable in their subjects. We learned about the HI RES Spectograph that is able to detect stellar movements down to metres per second! David's comments... Today we visited SAAO's premises at Observatory, Cape Town and met a lot of the staff there. One thing I didn't realise was the imressive engineering and manufacturing setup they have there - they can deal with everythong from structural steelwork and movable supports through to precision optics and electronics. For example, we met Lisa who was refurbishing an older spectrograph off the 74" telescope at Sutherland to improve its performance. It was also really useful to chat to people and find out how a science facilkity like SAAO is funded and run. At teabreak we headed for the auditorium where a company was presenting a new lone working emergency alert system for staff at the SALT telescope. Great to see safety being taken seriously! On the way round we visited the original library from the late 1800s (a fine building)... Afterwards, Christian and Hannah gave us a tour of the grounds (loads of history!), the museum and the historic reflector telescope. That evening Richard and I ate in the River Club and had an excellent meal.
All going well so far - it's the long drive to Sutherland tomorrow!! Richard's Comments I know I know….. I told everyone to look out on this blog and nothing has appeared we have been tooooooo busy! After landing in Cape town we hit the ground running. After checking in at SAAO accommodation we headed to Cape Town’s “must see” V and A waterfront that’s Victoria and Alfred`s in case you were wondering after HRH prince Alfred , Vicoria`s second son. In June 1858 serious winter storms wrecked over 30 vessels. As a consequence, Lloyd's of London refused to cover ships wintering in Table Bay. On a sunny September 17, 1860 Midshipman HRH Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria’s second son, tipped the first load of stone to start construction of the breakwater for Cape Town’s first harbour. We then hopped on to the blue Open top bus to circle around Table Mountain and take in the local area. We noticed a contrast of living accommodation... We then headed back to SAAO and realised there was a lecture that evening by David Trilling giving a most excellent talk on the danger posed by near Earth objects. As this was an open (public) night we managed to interact with the local astronomical society and some of the enthusiastic students who were new to astrophysics. On Sunday we headed up the cable car to Table mountain to take in the breathtaking views of Cape town. I am looking forward to exploring S.A.L.T the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere through the week and particularly how it manages to view the sky. This telescope is only capable of rotating so it will be interesting to discover how it manages to see the objects in the sky. David's Comments... Our 747 landed a few minutes early in Cape town at around 7am, and thanks to the fact that we only had hand luggage we were out of the airport and picking up our hire car long before everyone else. We were given a choice of vehicles, and purely because of the practicality (honest!) we chose a black Jeep Compass...nothing too macho... After a short drive we got to SAAO and Jacaranda House, our accommodation for the first few days. The house must date from the 1890s and has plenty of character. We met Christian on the way in - he works at SAAO and does a lot of outreach work - more on that later! After catching up on some sleep we jumped in the hire car and headed for the V&A waterfront which is a collection of shopping malls and outdoor markets. We had a wander round and lunch there, and then jumped on an open-topped tour bus to see the surrounding area of Cape Town. Ouite an eye-opener, as amongst the stunning scenery we passed an "informal settlement" made of tin shacks and 40ft containers (all with satellite dishes) next to concrete walled mansions. Neither of us can understand why there is still such a difference in wealth in the city - something to ponder as we go through the trip. All the while, Table Mountain was ever-present - that's for tomorrow, we decided. Once back at Jacaranda House, we walked around the corner to the Wild Fig restaurant for our evening meal. Springbok and ostrich steak were on the menu, so we tried both - well worth it. On the way out, Christian let us know that there was an "Open Night" at the observatory. So, we asked the restaurant to bring our food as quickly as possible and they were very helpful. That didn't stop us interacting with two large naked Mexicans... It's a type of beer in case you haven't come across it before. The open night featured a talk by David Trilling (Northern Arizona University) entitled "When Asteriods Hit the Earth". The auditorium was full, and there were lots of questions from adults and children alike which David handled very well. This was followed by a stargazing session, during which the astrophysics undergraduates present grilled the pair of us on all sorts of astronomical issues - do we look like astronomers?? Anyway it was a lively discussion and everyone enjoyed themselves. On Sunday, we set off early for Table Mountain. It was overcast when we set off, but it was a lot better on top. We took the cable car up, and walked out to Maclear's Beacon (the highest point). it is truly stunning up there - clouds were blowing up the sides of the mountain, but we were in brilliant sunshine. The flora and fauna were new to us, and the views were outstanding. On the way back from the beacon we took a different path, which followed the edge of a huge drop. This is a view looking back along where we walked... There are loads of other trails up there which all look amazing, so a return visit sometime would be well worthwhile. Once back down we headed into the Observatory suburb to get food and beer from the local supermarket, and put our feet up before the busy week ahead.
If you can read this, then you will be able to keep track of Richard and me as we head out to South Africa to visit SAAO and SALT (courtesy of UCLAN)! We set off on the 13th to fly out to Cape Town - we've got some sightseeing planned, but the main aim is to get to know SAAO and their facilities. Looking forward to it - Keep checking back to see how we are getting on! I'll post any interesting photos, starting with one that I took quickly last night since it was clear...(OK it's noisy but I was mucking around to see what I could grab in a short time, so no dark frame...)
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