[3][4] It enables spectroscopic and polarimetric analysis and imaging of the radiation from astronomical objects that are out of reach of northern hemisphere telescopes.

It is closely based on the Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory, with some changes in its design, especially to the spherical aberration corrector.

SALT will probe quasars and enable scientists to view stars and galaxies a billion times too faint to be seen by the naked eye.

Therefore, the telescope employs a center-of-curvature alignment sensor (CCAS) situated at the top of a tall tower adjacent to the dome.

The telescope is also unusual in that during an observation, the mirror remains at a fixed altitude and azimuth, and the image of an astronomical target produced by the telescope is tracked by the "payload", which resides at the position of prime focus and includes the SAC and prime-focus instrumentation.

Although this results in only a limited observing window per target, it greatly simplifies the primary mirror mount, when compared to a fully steerable telescope, transferring the complexity to the smaller and lighter payload tracking system, providing for an overall reduction in total telescope construction cost.

Membership of the SALT science working group: David Buckley, Gerald Cecil, Brian Chaboyer, Richard Griffiths, Janusz Kałużny, Michael Albrow, Karen Pollard, Kenneth Nordsieck, Darragh O'Donoghue, Larry Ramsey, Anne Sansom, Pat Cote.

By using the Southern African Large Telescope, SAAO has the ability to take "snapshots" of stars in very quick succession.

Studies using SALT concluded that these polar binary star systems take only an hour and a half to complete an orbit.

This also marked the debut of the fully operating SALTICAM, which is a $600,000 digital camera designed and built for SALT.