Southern African Large Telescope - General Information

General Information

SALT(South African Large Telescope) is located on a hilltop in a nature reserve 370 km (230 mi) north-east of Cape Town, near the small town of Sutherland. In March 2004, installation of the massive mirror began. The last of the 91 smaller mirrored hexagon segments was put in place in May 2005.

Korea and Japan have telescopes at the site and South Africa has at least five optical telescopes there. The University of Birmingham has a solar telescope to help monitor the Sun around the clock.

SALT will probe quasars and enable scientists to view stars and galaxies a billion times too faint to be seen by the naked eye.

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