Research Telescopes at SAAO

SALT - Southern African Large Telescope

Telescopes for use by visiting observers

1.9-m (Radcliffe) Telescope

1.0-m (Elizabeth) Telescope

0.75-m Telescope

0.5-m Telescope

IRSF - Infrared Survey Facility, a joint Japanese/South African project

Robotic Telescopes

ACT - Alan Cousins Telescope, an automatic photometric telescope.

BiSON - Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network Sutherland station. A cooperative programme between SAAO and Birmingham University, UK. This is one of six networked solar telescopes spread around the world which studies the 5-minute oscillations of the Sun.

KELT-South is a small scientific telescope that is designed to detect transiting extrasolar planets.

MONET is a MOnitoring NEtwork of Telescopes; initiated and coordinated by the University of Gottingen (Germany). The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation has awarded scientists at the University of Gottingen's Observatory up to 1,3 million Euros for the construction of two internet-operated telescopes with 1.2-m mirror diameters (f/7). The two fully automatic robotic telescopes will be located at the observatory sites of partner institutions in Texas and South Africa.

YSTAR - Yonsei Survey Telescopes for Astronomical Research Sutherland Station. A cooperation between SAAO and Yonsei University, Korea, to host a station in an international Korean-led effort to monitor variable stars and other transient events.

SAAO Telescopes in the SALT era

Proceedings of the Workshop at SAAO on the 23^rd of April 2003 (PDF)
Recommendations by the Committee (PDF)