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New Director for HartRAO 2006/07/01
New Director for HartRAO 2006/07/01
After a short spell as Science Director at HartRAO, on 2006 July 1 Roy
Booth took over as Director from Justin Jonas, whose contract has expired.
Jonas will continue as science leader for the South African SKA project, and
maintains his close association with HartRAO.
The new Director takes over at an exciting time for HartRAO:
- Preparations
are being made to install a fibre optical link that will provide the capability
for e-VLBI with telescopes on other continents.
- The groundworks are underway for
building the eXperimental Development Model (XDM) of the Karoo Array
Telescope (KAT) antennas. This will be the testbed for shaking down
the KAT design ahead of construction in the Karoo.
- Plans are also in place
for obtaining two defunct satellite phone antennae at a nearby site and
converting them for use in the C-BASS cosmic microwave background
experiment.
- The 26-m radio telescope is undergoing a new lease of life
following the replacement of its main reflecting surface. This has greatly
improved its performance at higher frequencies, and a 22-GHz receiver is
under test.
Click on image for LARGE version
Roy Booth in front of the 26-m telescope at Hartebeesthoek
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