Madagascar installs first of its kind TART telescope

Students proudly showing off the completed TART telescope. Image: Max Scheel © 2026 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The worldwide map of Transient Array Radio Telescopes has expanded with Madagascar being the latest African recipient of the groundbreaking and innovative instrument.

The installation took place during a five-day conference and workshop taking place between 8 and 12 June 2026, held by the Universite d’Antananarivo, that resulted in the installation of a Transient Array Radio Telescope (TART), the first instrument of its kind in Madagascar.

The TART is an open source radio telescope originally developed by Dr Tim Molteno from the University of Otago and the Electronics Research Foundation (ERF) in New Zealand, and students at the University of Otago’s Department of Physics. The TART is a radio-telescope with the capability to observe the entire sky continuously and optimized to detect satellites, near-earth objects and transient events including high-energy cosmic rays. The telescope is also designed to serve as a platform for the development of new imaging algorithms.

As part of an effort to install TART telescope in all the African SKA Partner countries, this workshop followed installations in Namibia (2025), Zambia (2025), Botswana (2025), Hammanskraal, South Africa (2025), Ghana (2025), Mauritius and Kenya (2024).

The workshop was presented by Molteno, Prof. Oleg Smirnov from Rhodes University and SARAO, Dr Landman Bester from SARAO, Dr Max Scheel from the Electronics Research Foundation in New Zealand; and Ben Hugo from SARAO, with the support of the local installation team led by Prof. Solohery Randriamapandry at the Universite d’Antananarivo.

Dr Nadeem Oozeer from SARAO, Dr Karen Perez from the SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen, and Dr Ezar Esau Nharreluga from the Pedagogical University of Maputo were also part of the team.

The initiative to place TART telescopes in SKA African Partner countries was started in 2023 and is a joint effort of the University of Otago, Rhodes University, SARAO, the DARA programme and the Electronics Research Foundation.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the amazing staff and students from Universite d’Antananarivo who organized the workshop, and to EMSS for donating the antenna array support hardware.

The TART team would also like to thank the University of Otago for support with staff time and hardware, Rhodes University for supporting travel and staff time. We’re also extremely grateful to the DARA project for supporting the travel and accommodation for the New Zealand based TART team (Tim and Max), and to SARAO for supporting staff time and travel.

INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION

DARA: https://www.dara-project.org
SARAO: https://www.sarao.ac.za
Rhodes Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques & Technologies: https://ratt.center
TART Project: https://tart.elec.ac.nz
Electronics Research Foundation: https://www.elec.ac.nz
EMSS Antennas: https://www.emssantennas.com/

Students with components of the TART telescope that they had built. Image: Max Scheel © 2026 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

First light image from the Madagascar TART, showing bright well-calibrated point sources in the radio sky. This image is created using the `spotless’ point-source deconvolution algorithm. Image: Tim Molteno © 2026 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The TART world map now has a new entry: Madagascar! Image from the Map of Worldwide TART installations