MeerKAT is an array of sixty-four 13m antennas in the Karoo region of South Africa. The array is in the process of being extended with the addition of fourteen 15m antennas which will also provide longer baselines for the array.  The MeerKAT Extension is a project involving the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the Max Planck Society (MPG) in Germany and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Italy.

The image above shows two visiting Australian astronomers, Lister Staveley-Smith and Natasha Hurley-Walker, standing by the first MeerKAT Extension antenna, which is located 10.4 km from the core of MeerKAT.  The dish surface is incomplete as final pointing tests are underway and the central panel has been removed to install an optical telescope.  Science Commissioning of the first dish will start imminently, with the antenna to be outfitted with an SKA-Mid Band 2 (950–1760 MHz) and S-band (1750 to 3500 MHz) receivers. Ultimately, the original 64 MeerKAT dishes and the 14 MeerKAT Extension dishes will become part of the SKA-Mid telescope.