The first prototype dish of the SKA-Mid telescope constructed on site in South Africa has achieved first light.
The prototype, known as SKAMPI, is a fully functioning single-dish radio telescope in its own right and was funded by Germany’s Max Planck Society for technical commissioning and scientific use. It was designed by the SKAO’s international Dish consortium, involving institutions in 10 countries and led by CETC54 in China, where it was also manufactured.
SKAMPI is contributing to the SKA Observatory’s preparations for commissioning the much larger 197-dish SKA-Mid telescope, currently under construction in South Africa.
Read here the SKAO press release.
Image: © : SKAMPI Team; First light SKAMPI image of the Southern Sky at 2.5 GHz wavelength. The frame (in grey) shows the complete sky in galactic coordinates with the Galactic centre in the middle. The false colour image shows radio emission from the part of the sky which is accessible to the telescope in South Africa. Besides radio emission from the Galactic centre (Sgr A), the bright radio galaxy Cen A, both Magellanic clouds and star forming areas in Orion and Vela show up in the image.