SALT, Gem of Northern Cape ...

Hello again faithful readers.,

Can you imagine my surprise when I noticed that our blog was read in Russia. They must be emerging from hibernation over there ;-). Let it be stated upfront, it is not my intention to re-start the Cold War - let's leave that to the Ukraine.

Russian readers, please note : The Americans and South Africans are so far ahead in the readership stakes that any attempt to catch up and pass them is likely to be futile! This is NOT A CHALLENGE to either Russian or Chinese nor Indian readers (so far there's been none of the latter two)!!!

Today I am going to take you on one of my visits to the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) situated just outside a small Northern Cape town, called Sutherland. Sutherland is one of the coldest place in our country and the mercury dips below -8 degrees Celsius in winter. I know, the Northern hemisphere, especially Moscovites, laugh at that sort of temperature but, for us, it is bitterly cold.

I'll probably bore astrophysics professionals but they can entertain themselves on http://salt4scientist.salt.ac.za/, the website specifically set up for astronomers by, I presume, astronomers!

The rest of us 'normal' stargazers can traipse through the standard SALT website ( https://www.salt.ac.za/).

Now the interesting part of my journey and stay at SALT has to do with lamb shanks and not with stars - unless eating until you see stars qualifies.

The visit was part of a general trip to introduce space facilities in our country to new members of the South African Council on Space Affairs (SACSA), a space advisory and regulatory body in the South African landscape. SACSA is often confused with SANSA (the South African National Space Agency) that determines the country's space requirements and sets about getting those requirements met. The differences in purpose and operation between the two bodies are not always apparent to people outside of the space industry.

Getting back to the visit to SALT ...

At that time, in 2010, I was a newly appointed member of SACSA and thus part of the visiting group.

I had been to SALT before but seeing the structure on top of a little outcrop still had a magical feel to it. Here, see if it grabs you too.The night-time views are more spectacular though, as you'll see from the website!

Semi-spherical Dome of  SALT against Northern Cape Skyline

Our group arrived late afternoon in Sutherland and, after a quick visit to the SALT structure, turned in for the night at the Sutherland Hotel. The next morning at breakfast, we were asked to choose preferences for dinner that evening. Apparently at breakfast time in Sutherland, some of the meat is still grazing the Karoo, blissfully unaware of the plans of man. CAN TURN ONE INTO A VEGAN, CAN IT NOT?!!

Anyway, I've heard a lot of good about lamb dishes in the Karroo. In fact, the best lamb meat in South Africa is sold as "Karoo lamb".  So I ordered two lamb shanks! What?, a single one looked rather small in the advertising pic! And I thought that a whole day of walking around SALT will induce a terrible hunger. One of my colleagues chose a dinner item not indigenous to the area and I thought him rather brave!  When in Rome, jump into the Tiber river and all that ...

Let me say upfront that I am not an astronomer, so if my explanations sound like a layman's, it's because they are only that.

SALT is situated in one of the three Karoo Astronomy Advantage Areas, so proclaimed in terms of Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act (AGA, 2007). This act restricts certain activities essentially to provide a radio quiet area in the zone where radio waves are used to delve into secrets of our starry hosts. It makes sense because it limits distortion and contamination of incoming radio signals from our far-off universe. This helps with a much more accurate identification process. The relative lack of contamination ensures that the processing algorithms can do their work without needing further algorithmic cleansing.  

For non-technical persons it can be likened to cleaning yourself with an uncontaminated soap. One can trust an uncontaminated soap to cleanse far better than its alternative. Imagine needing specialised cleansers AFTER you washed yourself ... the time and money one wastes on these additions. The thing to do would be to limit the after-cleaning to time-manageable and cost-effective bits.

Algorithms are similarly affected (they become seriously time-consuming and costly) if the input is contaminated beyond certain limits.

Obviously there will be professionals on hand to guide you should you wish to visit SALT but, just in case you suffer from curiosity of prior knowledge i.e. becoming a know-it-all, you can visit the Department of Science and Technology website to see what are prohibited or restricted activities as described in the AGA,2007. (http://www.dst.gov.za/index.php/legal-statutory/acts/628-astronomy-geographic-advantage-aga-act-gazettes).

To walk into SALT, based on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas, USA, is to enter upon a technological marvel. SALT however, "...has a redesigned optical system resulting in a larger field of view and effective collecting area.SALT can detect the light from faint or distant objects in the Universe, a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame would appear at the distance of the moon." Imagine the processing power that has to number crunch these inputs and relate to existing star and galaxy data and bring forth new knowledge.

You will note in some of my pics that we were taking to all levels inside the SALT structure.

From Inside Salt Dome Looking Up

Inside Processing Centre

Instrument collecting the Light Wave Info from Mirrors

Looking down on Mirror Matrix from high inside SALT dome 

My special favorite pic of the visit is what I call smelling Salt. You'll see why!

Smelling Salt

The pics indicate some of the tour we were led through at SALT.

Also, there is the visitor centre where many smaller and nonetheless interesting items are for viewing. The small scale model of SALT is one of those. You'll also see various interesting rocks and local art.

Scale Model of SALT

The tour and expert explanations were fantastic, so eventually we made our way back to the hotel, for me to face my twin shank dinner.

Before the food came.everyone was on my case for ordering what they thought was definitely far too much food. I refrained from commenting until my plate arrived and just by lookinng at it, I could see I bit off more than I could chew (no pun intended!). While others were teasing me I kept quiet, waiting for my one colleague's plate to arrive. See, I had a suspicion he was not going to like what he ordered in the morning. When his plate arrived, his face confirmed my suspicions. I immediately offered him one of my lamb shanks

which he gratefully accepted. I was therefore relieved of my burden and I relieved my colleague of his burden all at the same time. Both of us were happy but my other colleagues' fun of seeing me struggle through the two large pieces of meat was spoilt and they did not share our happiness. Cries of "cheater" and "no fair" rang out around the table but with my blushes miraculously spared, I had nothing to feel sorry for and carried on enjoying my food and watching my colleague enjoying his! I even enjoyed my other colleagues discomfort at having their proposed fun disappearing like mist before the African sun.

Travel is to me a combination of all experiences and definitely includes the culinary. Just a word of warning: Should you ever end up at the Sutherland Hotel, please do yourself a big favour and order only one lamb shank for your dinner. In case you wonder what the Sutherland Hotel looks like, here is the 2010 upgraded version in ether:

  

If you were one of the 14 million tourists that visited our country in 2012, I hope you did not miss SALT. If you did, be like one of our fellow readers who will add a visit (not necessarily to SALT) to their bucket list.

Once your bucket list is complete send it to me and I will be sure to get you a unique experience. 

Cheers "vir eers" ("for now").