Bill To Help Clear Skies For Stargazers

An interesting bill, the Draft Astronomy Geographic Advantage Bill, has been released for public comment. The science and technology department has indicated that the bill will be introduced to Parliament this year.

The bill aims to provide for the preservation and protection of a re a s in SA uniquely suited for optical and radio astronomy and to provide for intergovernmental co-operation and public consultation on matters concerning nationally significant astronomy advantage areas.

SA has in the past capitalised on its ideal conditions for viewing the skies of the southern hemisphere, and more recently the old observatories have been replaced by modern telescopes.

The largest is the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere.

SALT boasts a hexagonal mirror array 11m in diameter. Though sim - ilar to the Hobby-Eberly telescope in Texas, SALT has a unique optical system using more of the mirror array. It is able to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon.

The construction of SALT was completed and funded by a consortium of international partners from SA, the US, Germany...