GTCdigital

In engineering, just as the functions of sensing or detecting are carried out by ‘sensors,’ so actions are performed by ‘actuators’. This is the name given to the components that will be used to move the 36 segments of the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS’ primary mirror. They will ensure that the segments always make up a perfect concave hyperboloid surface. This technique for moving the mirrors is called active optics. Read this article

An astronomer retakes his doctoral thesis after a career in a world-famous rock band. It could be a far-fetched Hollywood movie but, once again, truth proves to be stranger than fiction. Science and art come together, Brian May comes back to the telescope. Read this article

GUACAMOLE is the name of the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS' (GTC's) Acquisition, Guiding and Calibration Module, which will be used to track stars during observation. Read this article

Following stars across the sky... making friends with them, finding out what their lives have been like and letting them tell us what our own past and future hold... We will only be able to do all this if we can look at stars that are "fixed". This is where the Acquisition and Guiding devices (A&G) will come in. Read this article

Building telescope domes is a costly business and at the moment there is a tendency to limit their size, but the GTC, which is at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma, rears proudly up to a height of 26 metres and stands taller than any other telescope. Read this article