C-BASS dish being lifted into position
	Completed C-BASS antenna with control and instrumentation container in front

C-BASS dish installed at MeerKAT support base

The South African SKA Project, together with the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory and Rhodes University is collaborating with Caltech, Oxford University and Manchester University on the C-BASS (C-Band All Sky Survey) project. Two antennas will be used in this experiment: one at the Owens Valley Observatory in California, and one 7.6 m antenna at the Klerefontein support base of the South African MeerKAT telescope.

Two antennas were purchased by the South African SKA Project from the local telecommunications service provider, Telkom, at an extremely low price for use in this experiment. The South African antenna has now been erected at Klerefontein - see photos. Charles Copley, a former MSc student from Rhodes University, has written the control and monitoring system for the telescope and has project managed the testing, moving and installation of the antenna from Pretoria to Klerefontein. Another former Rhodes student, Oliver King, is building the receivers as part of his PhD at Oxford University.

The C-BASS project is intended to undertake an all-sky, total power and linear polarisation measurement to obtain a precise map, in the C-Band, of the Stokes parameters of the Galaxy. Whilst this map will be important for astronomy in general, its main function is to enable extrapolation of measurements of the total power and linearly polarized emission of the Galaxy to the bands that will be used by the Planck satellite. One of the major objectives of Planck is to detect the B-mode in CMB polarisation, which requires very precise subtraction of the Galaxy foreground.