South African astronomy

Image via WikipediaThis is seriously off topic, but anyway... The Astronomy.com Blog has an interesting interview with Benne Holwerda, a University of Cape Town astronomy postdoc, about South Africa's bid for the giant Square Kilometer Array radio telescope. Especially good news is that South Africa is already building MeerKAT, a technology development and pathfinder array, which will do some seriously cool science whether or not South Africa gets the SKA. Hearteningly, there are various scholarships attached to both these projects, so they look set to contribute to the creation of a flourishing astronomy community in the country.