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Click on any picture to see |
DAY
29 - HIGHLAND KAROO,
OBSERVATORY IN SUTHERLAND
24 July 2004
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Click on any picture to see |
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.
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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 |
The main street of |
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The hotel of |
Wildflower and rainbow in the background |
Ostrich farm |
The sky was covered by gray clouds |
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A village |
Town Laingsburg |
The church of Laingsburg |
While we were driving here (for 1-2 hours), only met two cars. |
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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) |
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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. |
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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. |
