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First International TART Workshop Oct 2023

· 2 min read
Tim Molteno
Tim Molteno
TART project lead

The first international TART workshop was held at Rhodes University from 9-13 October 2023. This workshop was sponsored by SARAO, and the local organizing committee was led by Dr Stanley Kuja. The press release from SARAO is here.

Members of the TART team were there were myself, Rikus and Ben.

TART Volunteers
TART volunteers Ben Hugo and Rukus Human along with Takalani, Tim and Oleg during assembly of the TART array at the workshop.

TART installations in SKA African Partner nations​

During the workshop it was learned that the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), who host the SKA project in South Africa, will be funding the installation of a TART telescope in many of the SKA African partner nations. These are:

  • Botswana
  • Ghana
  • Kenya
  • Madagascar
  • Mauritius
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Zambia

Delegates from each of these partner nations were present at the workshop, along with astronomers from Italy, Portugal, South Africa and further afield.

Photos​

TART Array Assembly

We need a logo, and are lucky enough to have a volunteer with a graphics design background to join up! After the logo comes the TART T-shirt. I'd like to make the T-Shirt an annual event.

Team Expansion​

We've had a good deal of expansion. The TART project has three teams

  • Rhodes: Ben, Kenda, Rickus*, Stanley, Oleg
  • SARAO: Ben, Oleg, Ruby, Nadeem
  • Stellenbosch: Rikus, Danie
  • New Zealand: Tim, Phill, Max, Pat

Rickus (*) gets honorary membership of the Rhodes team for driving from Stellenbosch to Rhodes to help with the installation.