The SALT Board Meets the mayor of Armagh

After the science workshop, the participants were invited to the Palace Demesne for a reception with the mayor of Armagh. We were all personally greeted by the mayor as we entered the Palace for the reception.

Mark Bailey, our host at Armagh Observatory, gave a very stirring welcome about SALT and the impact that astronomy has on the development of modern society, not only in South Africa but for all the SALT partners.

After the science workshop which presented a number of early results based on the commissioning of the telescope, board members, SALT team, and other SALT consortium members were all smiles at the reception:

Eric Wilcotts (U. of Wisconsin), Darragh O'Donoghue (SALT), David Buckley (SALT), Larry Ramsey (Penn State/HET), Ted Williams (Rutgers), Chris Cotzee (SALT), and David Bramall (Durham)

Romuald Tylenda (CAMK), Marek Sarna (CAMK), and Wolfram Kollatschny (Gottingen)

Simon Jeffries (Armagh), Phil Charles (SAAO), Mike Shara (AMNH), and Nazli Mohammed (SALT)

Ellen Nordsieck, a frequent blog-follower, is happy to be re-united with Ken Nordsieck, after his long commissioning run of RSS in Sutherland.

Christian Hettlage (middle) meets with Aswin Sekhar and Shengu Yu, two graduate students working at Armagh Observatory.

The full SALT board along with the mayor of Armagh and the Minister of Arts, Culture, and Leisure.