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Time domain science and LSST follow‐up in South Africa (+ SKA). Stephen Potter South African Astronomical Observatory. I. I. I. I. 1.9m SAAO PMTs <20% QE. 10m VLT CCD >90% QE. The POLAR IGRJ14536-5522. Sutherland Observing Station. Optical (near-uv to near-ir) Astronomy:
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Time domain science and LSST follow‐up in South Africa (+ SKA) Stephen Potter South African Astronomical Observatory
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I I 1.9m SAAO PMTs <20% QE 10m VLT CCD >90% QE
Sutherland Observing Station Optical (near-uv to near-ir) Astronomy: Various small SA telescopes: 1.9m, 1.0m, 0.75m, 0.5m… Other small telescopes jointly operated: e.g. with Japan 1.4m IRSF Small (automated) telescopes: UK, Germany, USA, Poland SALT owned by international consortium
KAT-7 (MeerKAT prototype) 7 antennas, L-band (1200-1950 MHz) Jan 2008: Project start May 2009: First antenna installed on site Dec 2009: Fringes April 2010: First Image Oct 2010: ESKOM power on site Oct 2010: Cold receiver installation Nov 2010: 10 Mbps link to CT Dec 2011: Engineering completion
MeerKAT SA is committed to completing MeerKAT construction by 2016 Award of 64-dish MeerKAT antenna contract MeerKAT roads & infrastructure under construction Subsystem development on track Work on integration of MeerKAT with SKA is proceeding (64 + 190 dishes)
MeerKAT Large Survey Projects Radio Pulsar Timing (Bailes) LADUMA - ultra deep HI survey (Blyth, Holwerda, Baker) MESMER - high redshift CO (Heywood) MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (Gupta, Srianand) MHONGOOSE - nearby HI (de Blok) TRAPUM - fast transients and pulsars (Stappers, Kramer) HI Survey of Fornax Cluster (Serra) MeerGAL - high frequency galactic plan survey (Thompson, Goedhart) MIGHTEE - deep continuum (van der Heyden, Jarvis) ThunderKAT - explosive / "slow" transients (Woudt, Fender)
SKA Site Decision MeerKAT and ASKAP pathfinders to be incorporated into SKA Phase 1 Details still to be negotiated. SKA1_Mid: 64 MeerKAT dishes + ~190 SKA dishes SKA1_Survey: 36 ASKAP dishes + ~60 SKA dishes Most of the telescope will be built in Africa