| THE ING NEWSLETTER |
No.
2, March 2000 |
The Isaac Newton
Group of Telescopes
The Isaac Newton Group of
Telescopes (ING) consists of the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT),
the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) and the 1.0m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
(JKT), and is located 2,350m above sea level at the Roque de Los Muchachos
Observatory (ORM) on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The
WHT is the largest telescope of its kind in Western Europe.
The construction, operation, and
development of the ING telescopes is the result of a collaboration between
the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The site is provided by Spain,
and in return Spanish astronomers receive 20 per cent of the observing
time on the telescopes. The operation of the site is overseen by an International
Scientific Committee, or Comité Científico Internacional
(CCI).
A further 75 per cent of the observing
time is shared by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. On the JKT the
international collaboration embraces astronomers from Ireland and the University
of Porto (Portugal). The remaining 5 per cent is reserved for large scientific
projects to promote international collaboration between institutions of
the CCI member countries.
The ING operates the telescopes
on behalf of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
of the United Kingdom and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk
Onderzoek (NWO) of the Netherlands. The Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory,
which is the principal European northern hemisphere observatory, is operated
on behalf of Spain by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).
© Isaac Newton Group
of Telescopes
