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SALT launching on 11 November

Posted by Hemos on from the watching-for-THEM dept.

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.

3 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Not the biggest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    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.

  2. Re:Artifacts on First Light images by Mr_Dyqik · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  3. Not the largest telescope by a long shot. by CanSpice · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pedantically speaking, SALT isn't the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. There are plenty larger -- for example, the Parkes Observatory 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.