Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)

The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, with a hexagonal mirror array 11 metres across. Although very similar to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas, SALT has a redesigned optical system using more of the mirror array. It will be able to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon.

SALT was completed in 2005, funded by a consortium of international partners from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.