Gran Telescopio Canarias
The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) ("Great Telescope Canary Islands"), sometimes called GranTeCan, is a 10.4m reflecting telescope and is undertaking commissioning observations at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma, Spain. The telescope is sited on a volcanic peak 2,400 metres above sea level and took 7 years to construct.
The GTC started preliminary observing on 13 July 2007 following an opening ceremony using 12 segments of its primary mirror later to be increased to a total of 36 hexagonal segments fully controlled by an active optics control system. The GTC Project is a partnership formed by several institutions from Spain (90%), Mexico (5%) and the University of Florida (USA) (5%) and an initiative from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The construction of the telescope is estimated to have cost €130 million.[1]
Its Day One instruments are OSIRIS, CanariCam and ELMER.[2]
See also
References
External links
- Gran Telescopio Canarias webpage (English)
- GTC News webpage
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) webpage
- University of Florida CanariCam Homepage
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de México (Spanish)
- Instituto de Astronomía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(Spanish)
- GranTeCan on Wikimapia
- First light (BBC News)
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