Construction of the telescope took seven years and cost €130 million.[2][3] Its installation was hampered by weather conditions and the logistical difficulties of transporting equipment to such a remote location.[4] First light was achieved in 2007 and scientific observations began in 2009.[citation needed]
The GTC Project is a partnership formed by several institutions fromSpain andMexico, theUniversity of Florida, theNational Autonomous University of Mexico,[5] and theInstituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). Planning for the construction of the telescope, which started in 1987, involved more than 1,000 people from 100 companies.[3] The division of telescope time reflects the structure of its financing: 90% Spain, 5% Mexico and 5% the University of Florida.
The Gran Telescopio Canarias formally opened its shutters on July 24, 2009, inaugurated by KingJuan Carlos I of Spain.[8] More than 500 astronomers, government officials and journalists from Europe and the Americas attended the ceremony.
GTC hosts a suite of advanced instruments, including:
Comparison of nominal sizes of apertures of the Gran Telescopio Canarias and some notable optical telescopes
OSIRIS: Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy The IAC's OSIRIS (Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy), is an imager andspectrograph covering wavelengths from 0.365 to 1.05 μm. It has a field of view (FOV) of 7 × 7 arcmin for direct imaging, and 8 arcmin × 5.2 arcmin for low resolution spectroscopy. For spectroscopy, it offers tunable filters.[9]
MEGARA: Multi-Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía is an opticalintegral-field and multi-objectspectrograph covering the visible light and near infrared wavelength range between 0.365 and 1 μm with aspectral resolution in the range R=6000–20000. The MEGARA IFU (also called the Large Compact Bundle, or LCB) offers a contiguousfield of view of 12.5 arcsec x 11.3 arcsec, while themulti-object spectroscopy mode allows 92 objects to be observed simultaneously in afield of view of 3.5 arcmin x 3.5 arcmin by means of an equal number of robotic positioners. Both the LCB and MOS modes make use of 100 μm-core optical fibers (1267 in total) that are attached to a set of microlens arrays (with 623 spaxels in the case of the LCB and 92 x 7 in the case of the MOS) with each microlens covering an hexagonal region of 0.62 arcsec in diameter.[10]
HiPERCAM: High-speed optical camera
CanariCam: is designed as adiffraction-limitedimager. It is optimized as an imager, and although it offered a range of other observing modes, these did not compromise the imaging capability. CanariCam worked in the thermalinfrared between approximately 7.5 and 25 μm. At the short-wavelength end, the cut-off was determined by the atmosphere—specificallyatmospheric seeing. At the long wavelength end, the cut-off was determined by the detector; this loses sensitivity beyond around 24 μm, although the cut-off for individual detectors varied significantly. CanariCam was a very compact design. It was designed for a total weight of thecryostat and its on-telescope electronics to be under 400 kg.[citation needed] Most previous mid-infrared instruments have usedliquid helium as a cryogen; one of the requirements of CanariCam was that it should require no expensive and difficult to handle cryogens.[citation needed]. CanariCam used a two-stage closed cyclecryocooler system to cool the cold optics and cryostat interior to approximately 28 K (−245 °C; −409 °F), and the detector itself to around 8 K (−265 °C; −445 °F), the temperature at which the detector worked most efficiently. CanariCam was decommissioned as of February 2021[update].[11]
^Sánchez y Sánchez, Beatriz (2009-10-10)."México en el Gran Telescopio Canarias" [Mexico in the Gran Telescopio Canarias].Revista Digital Universitaria, UNAM (in Spanish).
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