Southern African Large Telescope

The Southern African Large Telescope ( SALT ) is a large optical telescope in South Africa. The observatory is located in the Karoo plateau at 1,760 m altitude, in the northeast of the city Roggeveldbergen Sutherland.

SALT is built for a cost- construction principle in which the individual segments consisting of 91 primary mirror diameter of about 11 m during the observation is stopped. Instead, followed by a smaller, Tracker ' the motion of the heavens. The light gathering power equivalent to that of a conventional telescope of about 9 meters main mirror diameter. It has, similar to the Hobby - Eberly Telescope, a fixed elevation angle and can only be moved in azimuth so. The costs have amounted to around 20 million U.S. dollars.

Involved in SALT are research institutes in South Africa, Poland, USA, Germany, Great Britain and New Zealand. In May 2005, the last mirror segment was used and published the first images of the sky in September. The official opening was on 10 November 2005., The image quality was initially fell short of expectations and was only in 2010 after satisfactory repairs.