7-11 July 2014
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=16&confId=34"><font color=#0000ff>SAIP2014 Proceedings published on 17 April 2015</font></a>

Radio Astronomy in Africa: The Case Of Ghana

8 Jul 2014, 10:20
20m
D Les 203

D Les 203

Oral Presentation Track D1 - Astrophysics Astro

Speaker

Mr Bernard Duah Asabere (University of Johannesburg)

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

PhD

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Prof. Hartmt Winkler, hwinkler@uj.ac.za, University of Johannesburg

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

On the African continent, South Africa has been the pacesetter for Radio Astronomy, with the long established Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO). The current seven-dish MeerKAT precursor array (KAT-7) leading to the up and coming 64-dish MeerKAT and the giant Square Kilometer Array (SKA), will be used for transformational and unprecedented radio astronomy researches that will lead to new discoveries. Ghana which had not been known in the area of radio astronomy, has been mentored by South Africa over the past six years and will soon stand tall in the field of radio astronomy on the continent. The country will soon have a science-quality 32m dish converted from a redundant satellite communication antenna. It will initially be fitted with 5 GHz and 6.7 GHz receivers to be followed later by a 1.4 - 1.7 GHz receivers. It will be designed for use as a single dish Observatory and for participation in the developing African Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network and the European VLBI network. As an African partner to the SKA, Ghana is planned to host a remote station during SKA Phase 2. Ghana's location of 5 degree north of the Equator gives it the advantage of viewing the entire Milky Way and almost the entire sky. In this piece, we present Ghana's story in the radio astronomy scene and the science/technology that will soon be done from there.

Primary author

Mr Bernard Duah Asabere (University of Johannesburg)

Co-authors

Prof. Cathy Horellou (Onsala Space Observatory/ Chalmers University of Technology) Prof. Hartmut Winkler (University of Johannesburg) Dr Michael Gaylard (Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO)) Prof. Thomas Jarrett (University of Cape Town)

Presentation Materials

Peer reviewing

Paper