The Square Kilometre Array

[The Magic Pudding]

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a radio telescope in development which will have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre.[1] It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. It will require very high performance central computing engines and long-haul links with a capacity greater than the current global Internet traffic.[2] It will be able to survey the sky more than ten thousand times faster than ever before.

With receiving stations extending out to distance of at least 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from a concentrated central core, it will continue radio astronomy's tradition of providing the highest resolution images in all astronomy. The SKA will be built in the southern hemisphere, in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, where the view of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is best and radio interference least.[3]

With a budget of €1.5 billion, construction of the SKA is scheduled to begin in 2016 for initial observations by 2019 and full operation by 2024.[4][5] The project has its headquarters in Manchester, UK.

The decision to build parts of the SKA in Aus/NZ and South Afrika was announced this week.  

In other sky news there will be a transit of Venus next week.  This has historical significance for Aus/NZ as the 1769 transit was a major reason for Cook's voyage and the "discovery" of Aus and NZ.

Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years.

[Recusant]

. . . the SKA. . . .

Something to look forward to, and I hope I'm still around to see it!

In other sky news there will be a transit of Venus next week.

Something tells me it'll be cloudy where I live when this happens.    As the Wikipedia article correctly states, the next one will be  in 2117.

[McQ]

. . . the SKA. . . .

Something to look forward to, and I hope I'm still around to see it!

In other sky news there will be a transit of Venus next week.

Something tells me it'll be cloudy where I live when this happens.    As the Wikipedia article correctly states, the next one will be  in 2117.

Why do I also have the feeling that it'll be cloudy in my area as well?