05/31/2012

Idom designs the super telescope

Multiple devices are needed to observe the stars with the precision of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), an initiative led by the Canary Islands Astrophysical Institute (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, IAC). Some are as large and visible as the segmented primary mirror, 10.4 m in diameter, which makes this Spanish infrastructure the largest optical infrared telescope in the world today. Others cannot be seen but are vital to its functioning and have made its builders – national engineering companies - references on an international scale. One of these, Idom, recently delivered two rotators to the GTC for the telescope‘s two new foci. With these, the new observation instruments being built for the telescope will overcome one of the obstacles to astronomical observation, field rotation.