The small Karoo town of Carnarvon is a haven for stargazers. Located in a sparsely populated corner of the Northern Cape with minimal light pollution, it is perfectly located for viewing pristine night skies.
Locals are hoping that astrotourism will create sustainable jobs in an area struggling with high unemployment. A unique selling point for Carnarvon’s stargazing experience is how guides combine modern astronomy with indigenous knowledge and storytelling from the San.
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MeerKAT: The radio telescope that’s transformed our understanding of the cosmos
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Information about the rings around Saturn and the size of Jupiter, for instance, is relayed along with mythology and the story of how the Milky Way was created by a young girl who threw ashes up into the night sky.
Amy-Lee Visagie, one of six residents trained as professional astro guides by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (Sarao), encourages her tour group to sit in silence for a minute and just gaze at the night sky to fully take in the awesomeness of the universe.
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The Milky Way is clearly visible with thousands of stars, and yet it is a mere fraction of the 100-billion odd stars in our galaxy.
Just over an hour’s drive from Carnarvon is the Meerkat National Park, which serves as the host area for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), one of the world’s largest radio telescope installations.
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A view of the town of Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. Image: GroundUp
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Image: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp
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When complete, the telescope will comprise 197 dishes, including the integration of the existing MeerKAT radio telescope built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory
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Local astro guide Amy-Lee Visagie peers through a telescope during the early evening. Image: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp
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Construction of an SKA-Mid dish, which will form part of the SKA Observatory project, as seen inside the Meerkat National Park in the Northern Cape. Image: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp
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The SKA low telescope artist impressions. Supplied by DISR.
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The KAT-7 radio telescope were some of the first dishes built on the site to test the viability for the larger SKA project. Image: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp
Construction is ongoing, with some of the telescopes coming online early this year.
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When completed, the telescope will comprise 197 dishes, including the integration of the existing MeerKAT radio telescope built and operated by Sarao.
Read:
How South Africa has opened up space science [June 2024]
Science and innovation vital for our economic recovery – Ramaphosa
SKA project will put SA on the map – Hanekom [March 2014]
SKA builders warn on fracking [Sept 2024]
SKA phase 1 could see R18bn inflow into SA [Oct 2013]
The project will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky thousands of times faster than any system currently in existence, unlocking more stories and mysteries of the universe.
© 2026 GroundUp. This article was first published here.
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