Result of our imaging and self calibration loop for a typical MeerKAT 5-h observation. From left to right, top to bottom: the continuum image before self calibration; the continuum image after the last round of self calibration, showing the improved dynamic range; the last residual image, showing a population of faint sources not included in our sky model; and the residual image with white and red contours representing positive and negative clean components, respectively, demonstrating that our strategy minimises the inclusion of calibration artefacts around bright sources into the sky model. All images show a 2× zoom-in of the full imaged field and are on the same linear colour scale from −20 to +300 μJy beam⁻¹ (for comparison, the typical noise level is ∼7–10 μJy beam⁻¹.