https://www.nature.com/news/ghana-telescope-heralds-first-pan-african-array-1.21958
engineers have converted an old telecommunications dish in Ghana into the continent’s first functioning radio telescope outside South Africa.
made its first observations this year and will be formally opened later in 2017.
The Ghana telescope has begun observing methanol masers — radio emissions that can arise from a number of celestial phenomena — and pulsars. The AVN will fill in geographic gaps in the global VLBI, improving imaging by increasing the range of distances and possible angles
The AVN was the brain child of Michael Gaylard, a former director of South Africa’s Hartebeeshoek Radio Astronomy Observatory. During two years of repairs to the observatory’s telescope, Gaylard used Google Maps to scour the continent for old telecommunications dishes. When he saw the Kuntunse dish, he realized that it — and others like it — could be converted for astronomy.
The switch has been difficult, says Chibueze. New telescopes are designed and built to set specifications, but during work on the Kuntunse dish, engineers and scientists have had to adapt their plans. And there have been issues with the stability of electrical power and Internet supply.
The arrival of undersea cables around Africa’s coast in the past decade has rendered these dishes obsolete for their original purpose.