ING Annual Report 1995/96
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B - Telescope Instrumentation
Appendix A
The Isaac Newton Group
of Telescopes
The Isaac Newton Group of telescopes
(ING) consists of the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), the Isaac Newton
Telescope (INT) and the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT). The three telescopes
have complementary roles. The WHT, with its 4.2m diameter primary mirror,
is the largest in Western Europe. It was first operational in August 1987.
It is a general purpose telescope equipped with instruments for a wide
range of astronomical observations. The INT was originally used at Herstmonceux
in the UK, but was moved to La Palma in 1979 and rebuilt with a new mirror
and new instrumentation. It has a 2.5m diameter primary mirror and is mostly
used for wide-field imaging and spectroscopy. The JKT has a primary mirror
of 1m diameter. It is mainly used for observing relatively bright objects.
Both INT and JKT were first operational in May 1984.
The ING is located at the Observatorio
del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM), on the island of La Palma. The observatory
also includes the Carlsberg Meridian Circle, the 3.6m Italian Galileo National
Telescope, the 2.5m Nordic Optical Telescope, the 60cm telescope of the
Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the 50cm Swedish Solar Telescope, the
45cm Dutch Open Solar Telescope, and the German High Energy Gamma-Ray Array
(HEGRA).
The Isaac Newton Group is operated
on behalf of the British Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
(PPARC) and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
(NWO).
The observatory occupies an area
of 1.89 square kilometres approximately 2350m above sea level on the highest
peak of the Caldera de Taburiente National Park, in the Palmeran district
of Garafía. La Palma is one of the westerly islands of the Canary
Archipelago and the Canary Islands are an autonomous region of
Spain.
The site was chosen after an extensive
search for a location with clear, dark skies all the year around. All tests
proved that the Roque de Los Muchachos is one of the best astronomical
sites in the world. The remoteness of the island and its lack of urban
development ensure that the night sky at the observatory is free from artificial
light pollution. The continued quality of the night sky is protected by
law. The mountain-top site has a remarkably stable atmosphere, owing to
the local topography. The mountain has a smooth convex contour facing the
prevailing northerly wind and the air-flow is comparatively undisturbed,
allowing sharp and stable images of the night sky. The site is clear of
cloud for 90 per cent of the time in the summer months.
The following table shows each
telescope's location:
|
Latitude |
Longitude |
Ground Floor Height (m) |
| WHT |
28° 45' 38.3" N |
17° 52' 53.9"
W |
2332 |
| INT |
28° 45' 43.4" N |
17° 52' 39.5"
W |
2336 |
| JKT |
28° 45' 40.1" N |
17° 52' 41.2"
W |
2364 |
The Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory,
which is the principal European northern hemisphere observatory, belongs
to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), as does the Teide
Observatory on Tenerife. The operation of the site is overseen by an International
Scientific Committee (CCI). Financial and operational matters of common
interest are dealt with by appropriate subcommittees.
The construction, operation, and
development of the ING telescopes is the result of a collaboration between
the UK, Netherlands and Eire. The site is provided by Spain, and in return
Spanish astronomers receive 20 per cent of the observing time on the telescopes.
A further 75 per cent is shared by the UK, Netherlands and Eire. The allocation
of telescope time is determined by scientific merit. The remaining 5 per
cent is reserved for large scientific projects to promote international
collaborations between institutions of the CCI member countries.
Many of the state-of-art telescope
and instrument components are custom-built. New instruments are designed
and built by technology groups in the UK and the Netherlands, with which
the ING maintains close links. Of particular importance is the historical
link with the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), originally responsible
for the creation of the ING.
THE INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
The international agreements by
which the Roque de Los Muchachos and Teide Observatories were brought into
existence were signed on La Palma on 26 May 1979 (BOE, 161, 6 July
1979). The participant nations at that time were Spain, The United Kingdom,
Sweden and Denmark. Other European countries later also signed the agreements.
Infrastructural services including roads, communications, power supplies
and meals and accommodation facilities have been provided by the Spanish
side. In return for the use of the observatory and its facilities all foreign
user institutions make 20 per cent of time on their telescopes available
to Spanish observers. Representatives of the participant institutions meet
together as the International Scientific Committee, or Comité Científico
Internacional (CCI).
The inauguration of the Canary
Islands observatories took place on 29 June 1985 in the presence of the
monarchs and members of the Royal Families of five European countries,
and the Presidents of another two.
THE PPARC-NWO JOINT STEERING
COMMITTEE
The PPARC and the NWO have entered
into collaborative agreements for the operation of and the sharing of observing
time on the ING telescopes. The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) has been
set up to oversee the operation of this agreement, to foster and develop
collaboration between astronomers of the UK and the Netherlands and to
ensure that the telescope installations are maintained in the forefront
of world astronomy. In particular, the JSC oversees the construction programme
of the telescopes and instrumentation, determines the programme of operation,
maintenance and development of the installations, approves annual budgets
and forward estimates and determines the arrangements for the allocation
of observing time.
TELESCOPE TIME AND DATA OWNERSHIP
Spain has at its disposal 20 per
cent of the observing time on each of the three telescopes. It is the responsibility
of the IAC to make this time available to Spanish institutions and others,
via the Comité para la Asignación de Tiempos (CAT).
A further 5 per cent of the observing
time is for international collaborative programmes between institutions
of the CCI member countries. It is intended that this time be used for
the study of one, or a few, broad topics each year by several telescopes.
This time is allocated by the CCI.
The remaining 75 per cent of the
time is distributed as follows. The PPARC and NWO share the time on all
three telescopes in the proportions 80 per cent PPARC : 20 per cent NWO.
The PPARC-NWO Joint Steering Committee has delegated the task of time allocation
to astronomers to the PPARC Panel for the Allocation of Telescope Time
(PATT), which has set up procedures for achieving the 80 : 20 ratio whilst
respecting the separate priorities of the UK and Dutch communities. The
PPARC has made 27 nights per year of its share on the JKT available to
the National Board of Science and Technology of Ireland (NBST) and the
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). The Irish Advisory Committee
for La Palma set up by the two Irish Institutions has decided that JKT
proposals by Irish Astronomers should also be submitted to PATT. Irish
astronomers are not however discouraged from applying for use of the other
telescopes of the ING. PATT includes representatives from the Netherlands
and the Republic of Ireland.
All the above agreements envisage
that observing time shall be distributed equitably over the different seasons
of the year and phases of the Moon.
Notwithstanding the above, any
astronomer, irrespective of nationality or affiliation, may apply for observing
time on the ING. Astronomers who are working at an institute in one of
the partner countries should apply through the route appropriate to their
nationality or the nationality of their institute.
PATT allocates time on all PPARC
supported telescopes in two semesters, from 1 February to 31 July (semester
A) and from 1 August to 31 January (semester B). The corresponding closing
dates are the end of September and March respectively. Decisions on time
allocations are made on the basis of scientific merit and technical feasibility
of the proposed observations.
The PPARC-NWO JSC and the CCI have
decided that ING policy is that data belongs exclusively to those who collected
it for a period of one year, after which it is available in a common archive
for all astronomers. It may be used at any time for engineering or instrumental
investigations in approved programmes carried out to improve facilities
provided at the observatory.
Service observations which are
made by support astronomers at the request of others are similarly treated.
However, calibration data may well be used for more than one observation
and may therefore be available in common several groups. It may happen
that identical or similar service observations are requested by two or
more groups. Requests which are approved before the data are taken may
be satisfied by requiring the data to be held in common by the several
groups. It is up to them how they organise themselves to process it, analyse
it, relate it to other work, and eventually publish it.
Requests for observations from
programmes already executed on the telescopes should be referred to the
original owners of the data, and/or to the data archive. This is the policy
whether or not the data were obtained by PATT or CAT scheduled astronomers,
or by service requests.
NEWSLETTERS
Announcements of the status and
availability of the ING telescopes and instruments are made in the PATT
Newsletter. Spectrum, the newsletter of the Royal Observatories and ING,
contains up-to-date information about the telescopes and instruments, as
well as highlights of recent results and other topical items. Spectrum
is published quarterly and is available free of charge from the RGO at
Cambridge. Up-to-date information is also available electronically. The
most recent information is kept on the web pages at http://www.ing.iac.es/
or in the UK mirror at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/ING/
Previous:
Chapter 5 - Organisation and Staff | Up:
Table of Contents | Next: Appendix
B - Telescope Instrumentation
© Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
