William Herschel Telescope – 30 Years Since First Light

Chronology of the WHT

This chronology of the William Herschel Telescope shows some highlights, including research, and operation and development.

The early times

View of the WHT control room in the early years.

This compilation of articles on the WHT provide a glimpse into the first years of operation. Below it's how Michael Morris described the early commissioning of the WHT (extracted from "SERC/RGO Telescopes, Instruments, Research and Services", October 1 1985 - September 30 1987, page 4):

«The first stellar images were obtained at the Cassegrain focus during June 1987. Initially, there were problems with the support mechanism of the primary mirror; there were gas leaks and the electronic control system had faults. Another difficulty occurred with the mounting of the Cassegrain secondary mirror. However, by the end of July, after solutions to these problems had been found, good images had been obtained with integrating TV systems at both the Cassegrain and prime foci. At this stage, the pointing of the telescope was reliable to an accuracy of 5 arcsec (rms) over the whole sky and the tracking was good. Dome following was in operation with no noticeable vibration of the telescope. It had been agreed that some astronomical observations would be undertaken as soon as the performance of the WHT fulfilled certain criteria. In this way, the later stages of commissioning would benefit through the feedback from astronomers using the telescope. Consequently, the new TAURUS II interferometer and IPCS II detector were mounted on the WHT on 12 August. On the morning of 15 August, the first complete TAURUS observation was made. The first observing run relating to a PATT application took place from 22 August to 7 September. This was for a programme called 'TAURUS observations of rotation curves, intergalactic gas and star forming regions'. Although the original allocation of three weeks was curtailed to two because of troubles with the dome shutter drive, much good astronomical data was obtained. The Principal Investigator, Dr E. A. Valentijn from the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen, wrote a report entitled "The William Herschel Telescope is excellent" which described the pioneering TAURUS run.»

The observers on 1 June 1987 made an entry on the WHT log book which is shown below. Apparently this was the first time the telescope was tested on sky.

Observers' entry made on the WHT log book on 1 June 1987 [ PDF].

A photo of the Dumbbell Nebula or Messier 27 (below) is probably one of the first images obtained using the WHT.

Original photographic plate number WH3, exposed on 7 August 1987 using the JKT photographic camera attached to the Cassegrain focus of the WHT (see this plate record for more information). Credit: ING astronomy archive [ PNG ].

Scan of the photographic plate described above [ PNG].

22nd June 2017 - Happy Birthday!

The William Herschel Telescope saw first light on the 1st of June, 1987. Coinciding with this ephemeris, ING staff organised a birthday party at the Observatory. We took some group commemorative photos at the WHT and had a lunch altogether with a special cake. See the photos below.

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[ PNG ]