GTCdigital

Welcome to GTCdigital, This, your first visit to our bulletin (or our first visit to your mailbox) will whet your appetite....for science. It marks the beginning of our mission to tell the world about a telescope which, when it enters service in 2005, will be one of the world's largest and most advanced: the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). Read this article

The 350 tonne giant needs to move with absolute accuracy, sliding with microscopic precision, almost completely free of friction, to point at and track objects billions of light years away. So what kind of movements does a telescope need to make? Read this article

This telescope will use 36 hexagonal mirrors that will fit together in a honeycomb pattern, making it a challenge of exact mathematical calculation and precision fitting. So what will these very special mirrors be made of? Read this article

THE NEXT MAJOR DISCOVERIES ABOUT THE UNIVERSE WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE MADE USING INFRARED. THE GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS (GTC) IS GETTING READY: EMIR, ONE OF ITS INSTRUMENTS, WILL BE UP TO THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE. Read this article

One of the mysterious aspects of detectors is the materials that are used to make them. Not all materials act in the same way when they come into contact with photons and so not all of them are suitable for use in EMIR. Read this article