3.1 SALT/SAAO Sutherland hostel facilities The SAAO hostel facilities mainly accommodated visiting astronomers and technical staff. Staff based in Cape Town rotated and travelled on a weekly basis to provide IT and technical support to the operations in Sutherland. Visiting astronomers could also make use of the facilities but had to book time on a specific telescope months in advance and could stay for a period of two weeks depending on the allocation of the instruments and telescopes.