• Location
• Communications
• Transport
• Accommodation and Catering
• Office Accommodation
• Library
• Technical Assistance
• Instrument Changes and Response to Reported Faults
• Time Service
• Observing Conditions
• Electrical Matters
• Sound Comfort
• Visitor Centre and Shop

The village of Sutherland is about 370 km by road north east of Cape Town and the Observatory is about 18 km to the east of the village at an elevation of 1798 m.

The precise geographical position of the 1.0-m telescope is 20° 48´ 38.5´´ E; 32° 22´ 46´´ S. From Cape Town the National Road N1 is followed for about 250 km to Matjiesfontein where one turns left on to the Sutherland road. The speed limit on the N1 is 120 km/h. From Sutherland vehicles should follow the road to Fraserburg for the remaining 14 km to the observatory gate, which with its somewhat incongruous avenue of pine trees in the desert is difficult to miss. If petrol is required en route, it can be obtained at Komkyk Motors (green sign) or the Petroport (red sign) where the N1 passes Touws River, at about the halfway point. Snacks are available at either establishment at any time, and fast food lunches at the Petroport. Many observers stop for lunch at the turn-of-the-century resort of Matjiesfontein (The Laird's Arms, meals available between 12:30 and 14:00). A coffee shop at Matjiesfontein is open after 14:00.

Sutherland has normal telephone service through a digital exchange. There is a fax machine in the main office in the Visitor Centre at SAAO Sutherland, fax no. 023-5711205.

Data links to the Internet and the World Wide Web are available from a PC in each dome and from one in the hostel library. Visitors are encouraged to connect to their home institutes via the Internet, but for an extended stay, a private account on the SAAO system can be arranged. If you need such an account, please contact the SAAO IT Department (helpdesk(at)saao.ac.za) in good time, giving reasons why a direct connection to your home institute will not suffice.

Telephone Sutherland: (National Code 023)
571-1205 Switchboard, fax or Hostel
571-1149 Resident Mechanical Technician's House
571-1135 Resident Electronic Technician's House
571-1181 1.9-m dome

During office hours ring 571-1205; if no answer, or after hours, ring 571-1009.

Visitors must note down any phone calls made and make payment at the Sutherland office. There is a dedicated tie-line in use between Sutherland and SAAO, Cape Town, and instructions on how to use it can be found on the telephone number lists posted near each phone. Telephone calls between SAAO Sutherland and SAAO Cape Town during office hours should be made using the tie-line. There is no charge for such calls.

Transport of observers and their equipment to Sutherland normally leaves Cape Town on Tuesdays at about 11h00 (arriving at the site at about 15h30). The returning transport normally leaves Sutherland at 14h00 on Wednesdays. Transport of visiting observers on these scheduled runs is free of charge. Should visitors request a special journey, the Observatory reserves the right to ask for reimbursement from the visitor or his parent establishment.

Accommodation is available for observers on the site about 1 km by road from the telescopes. Rooms with private and shared bathrooms are provided in two chalets, as well as in a hostel with 15 single rooms, a communal sitting room, reading room and dining room. Smokers will need to step outside into the brisk (especially in July) Karoo air.

Three meals per day are provided:

Breakfast: 07h30 - 09h00
Lunch:      13h00
Supper:    17h00 - 18h00 depending on time of year

"Night lunches'' prepared by the hostel staff must be collected from the kitchen. Observers with special dietary requirements (vegetarian, allergies, etc.) should notify the observatory in advance. There are no general laundry facilities, but the hostel staff are prepared to do laundry on a private basis at rates similar to those charged by laundries in Cape Town. To arrange this, observers should speak to the hostel manageress, Ms. Maggie Klaaste.

The charge for accommodation and food is R450 (includes meals) per person per night. Visitors are asked to settle their accommodation accounts on return to Cape Town. Please contact Surayda Moosa with any queries.

Dome keys and torches should be collected from the office in the Hostel on arrival in Sutherland and should be returned before departure to Cape Town.

There are now internet connections in most bedrooms. There are two PCs connected to the internet in the small hostel library, and at least one in each telescope dome. Please note that there are no photocopying facilities at SAAO, Sutherland other than the fax machine.

The library at Sutherland contains a small core collection of charts, atlases (including the ESO B survey) and runs of journals. SAAO subscribes to the following journals for the Sutherland library: A.J., Astr. and Astrophys., Ap.J., Mercury, M.N.A.S.S.A., M.N.R.A.S., Observatory, P.A.S.P., Ann. Rev. Astr. and Astrophys., and Sky and Telescope. The library is housed in the reading room of the hostel, but some publications are shelved in the Technical Building Library. A suitably undistinguished collection of light reading for cloudy nights resides in the hostel lounge.

Each observing run for visiting observers is supported by an SAAO staff astronomer, who is familiar with the instrumentation to be used, and is responsible for assisting visitors in making an efficient start. In the case of visiting observers who may be unfamiliar with a particular telescope/instrument, the staff support astronomer will typically be present at the telescope for as long as necessary on the first night of the run. Resident technical staff will give assistance and tend to problems and faults where necessary. Electronic and mechanical technicians are on call in case of breakdown of telescopes or equipment during the night.  Their contact numbers are displayed in each dome.

Instrument changes
Necessary instrument changes are generally carried out at Sutherland on Wednesday mornings. Normally, the largest telescope requiring a change is done first followed by the next largest and so on. Depending on availability of personnel, work may proceed on two telescopes at once. Usually, all changes are completed by lunch time. Occasionally a fault is discovered in the course of the change which is judged to require a lengthy effort to repair. The technicians may at that stage proceed to the next telescope, with a view to completing as many changes as possible before returning to repair the fault. As part of the instrument change, procedure technicians will carry out necessary tests to ensure things are working,  all cables are correctly connected and that computers are working, etc.

It is up to the observer to make sure in good time that the equipment is working satisfactorily after the instrument change. This means that tests should be carried out on Tuesday afternoon. There should be no surprises (like no filters in the wheel, an unexpected instrument, etc) when work starts on Tuesday night. At instrument change time, responsibilities are shared between observers and technical staff as follows:

Observer:

• Verify that basic functions of instrument work as expected
• Set up and align IR cryostats
• Establish that the required filters, gratings are in place (visitors should ask technical staff)

Electronics:

• Install and certify correct operation of all electronic equipment
• Check instrument control programs for correct operation

Mechanical:

• Install and certify correct operation of mechanical equipment
• Pump down IR and optical CCD cryostats
• Install/remove CCD filter boxes for observers

SAAO has agreements with some organisations that have installations at Sutherland to provide technical support. Occasionally there will be representatives of these organisations at Sutherland for a short period to carry out some specific installation, upgrade, etc. SAAO technical staff will usually be required to provide assistance to the visitors during this period. At such times there may be delays in obtaining technical assistance for the telescopes, though every effort will be made to ensure a telescope is fully operational at the beginning of the night. Observers will be kept informed of these activities, and are requested to curb their natural impatience in the face of such delays.

Fault response
For all faults they encounter, observers are requested to write a factual, unemotional account of the problem in the book provided in the dome for this purpose. Symptoms should be described fully - it is not sufficient merely to cite the reference number of a previous similar fault - and observers should refrain from diagnosing the fault or describing at some length the technical work that was done to correct it. All major faults should be reported promptly to the relevant duty technician (phone numbers are prominently displayed in the dome). At night, every effort will be made to rectify the fault immediately, but if after several hours of work without solution or if the problem is judged to be too severe for there to be any useful progress made, the technician may suspend work until the next morning. Minor problems encountered at night that have little impact on observing should be reported in the fault book and will be worked on the next day.

Once the fault is rectified the technician will add a note to the fault report indicating the action taken. Observers are encouraged to report back in writing to the technician, preferably in the "action taken" column of the corresponding fault report, on whether the repairs had been satisfactory.

On rare occasions a major fault may occur in one of the foreign installations that would jeopardise the entire operation if not attended to immediately (eg, threatened loss of coolant from the SAGOS superconducting gravity meter). Under these circumstances, the SAAO technician responsible, in most instances the electronics technician, may give first priority to rectifying the fault, in which case it is conceivable that astronomical observing time may be lost if a fault is encountered at the same time with a telescope or instrument, but every effort will be made to avoid this. Otherwise, SAAO telescope faults have priority over minor faults in foreign installations.

The central time service at Sutherland (installed October 1993) is a PC-based system with a mean time oscillator (ageing rate 1 X 10^-9 per day) locked to signals from a GPS receiver once each minute. The resulting drift is no more than 1-2 microseconds under normal conditions. Sidereal time is calculated from the mean time. Multiplexed time information is distributed to each dome via a fibre optic cable. In each dome the signal is demodulated and demultiplexed into separate RS422 signals (mean time, sidereal time, 1kHz pulse and 1 minute pulse). The RS422 signals are used by the instrument computer, encoder system and time display. If you believe the time displayed is not correct, please notify the electronics technician.

The weather patterns at Sutherland are not highly seasonal, and the clear weather appears to be fairly uniformly distributed throughout the year. Approximately 50% of the available hours are photometric, and about 75% are suitable for spectroscopy. Temperatures (especially at night) tend to be unpredictable. Snow has been known to fall at Christmas in the heart of summer, and cold weather may occur at any time of year! Observers are strongly advised to bring cold weather gear (a winter jacket, hat, gloves, etc.).

Most outlets normally supply 230V 50 Hz current. Regulators (constant voltage transformers) are provided in the domes for sensitive instrumentation and computers. Almost all of the plugs are of the 3-pin 15A type (round pins, not the rectangular type used in the UK). Observers bringing their own equipment (e.g. laptops) should also bring their own adaptors. In the event of a power failure, the observatory has a 300 kVA generator.

Each dome now houses a music system equipped for radio, tape, and CD.  The stereo in the 1.0-m dome also accepts a USB stick for playing mp3s. Observers must provide their own music tapes and discs.

There are many interesting exhibits and a shop selling souvenirs in the Visitor Centre on site at SAAO Sutherland.