DAY 29 - HIGHLAND KAROO, 
OBSERVATORY IN SUTHERLAND
24 July  2004

 

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SOUTHERN AFRICA 2004 


This day we went on
Karoo highland road 'N1', and passed two towns (Beaufort West and Laingsburg). Then we turned to north and were driving on dirt road up to Sutherland. Sutherland is a small village on the highland, is is famous of  SAAO (South African Astronomical Observatory) an observing station near Sutherland (in province Northern Cape), a 4 hour drive from Cape Town. Visiting SAAO was certainly the highlight of the day.

 

  

It is a real experience to drive on Karoo: endless road of very good quality, not too much traffic, nice lanscape

Desert and rocky mountains

A town, called
Beaufort West

The main street of 
Beaufort West

The hotel of 
Beaufort West

Wildflower and rainbow in the background

Ostrich farm

The sky was covered by gray clouds

A village

Town Laingsburg

The church of  Laingsburg

While we were driving here (for 1-2 hours), only met two cars.

We enjoyed the feeling of the great plain 

A yellow wildflower

In Sutherland the sky was very dark. (not a sky watching day!)

This is SAAO station (South African Astronomical Observatory)

In the Telescope we could not get in at first, as we should have get the tickets in the village. (We had made reservation in e-mail.)

We went back to get the tickets, but the tourist office was closed.

A Dutch style house in Sutherland.

In this building the largest telescope of the world is under construction.
The 'Giant Eye of Africa' will have 11-m primary mirror array.

The diameter of the dome is 26 m, and there is a 34 m high mirror segment alignment tower.

Another interesting building

Visitors are permitted only in the smaller telescopes (these two)

We visited a moon watching session.