South Africa's Largest Telescope | SALT

My family and I took a trip to Sutherland to learn about the astronomy and telescopes there. I'm a third-year Computer Engineering student at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) but also do a whoooooooole lot of other stuff. Check out the rest below...

So technically we just stopped in Sutherland on one leg of a long January roadtrip but it was so interesting and the nerd in me had a blast so it was worth making an entire video about it. Also, we somehow managed to not pay for our tour of the SALT facility and so this is also my guilty way of saying thanks ;)

This video is my second-last holiday video after which normal university videos shall commence. I'm in third year of Computer Engineering now so have no idea how frequently I am gonna be able to post but I will do my best - I see this channel and the memories recorded here as really valuable and a couple of younger varsity students have told me they appreciate seeing how Engineering actually is before committing to it so I will do my best to carry on showing the real deal here at Tuks.

I just finished a week and a half of Material Science summer school and now have two weeks of a Cisco Practical Networking holiday module which (hopefully) shouldn't be too stressful. So expect some cool videos to start off the year.

The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere and among the largest in the world. It has a hexagonal primary mirror array 11 metres across, comprising 91 individual 1m hexagonal mirrors.

SALT is situated at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) field station near the small town of Sutherland, in the Northern Cape province, about 400 km from Cape Town. SALT is funded by a consortium of international partners from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, India, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The telescope has been in full science operation since 2011 and is realising its huge potential as Africa’s Giant Eye on the Universe.

Learn more about SALT here: https://www.salt.ac.za/

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My name is Mitch Williams and I'm a twenty year-old living in South Africa. I am really passionate about learning, technology, photography, cinematography, reading, hiking, always improving and am studying Computer Engineering at The University of Pretoria (Tuks). I am also constantly trying to make the most of my brief time on this floating rock we call Earth.

Music: Escape - Niwel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEY33M7-3-s
https://soundcloud.com/niwel-516897768

Видео South Africa's Largest Telescope | SALT канала Mitch Williams