THE ING NEWSLETTER No. 3, September 2000
    GENERAL
    		 SCIENCE
    TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION
    OTHER NEWS FROM ING
    TELESCOPE TIME
    Previous: News from the Computing Facilities Group Up: Table of Contents Next: [INGNEWS] Mailing List

    News from the Roque

    René Rutten (Director, ING)

    Regular visitors to the Observatory will have noticed that the skyline there is changing. Close to the building of the Isaac Newton Telescope a new dome has appeared for the Belgian Mercator telescope, operated by the University of Leuven. This is a 1.2-m telescope with a science focus on asteroseismology and photometric monitoring of various objects such as active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursters, X-ray transients and supernovae. As the building is nearly finished, and the telescope will be shipped to La Palma this summer, first light for this telescope is only months away.

    Another near neighbour of the INT will be the 2-m Liverpool robotic telescope. Ground breaking for this telescope is expected to start shortly. A composite picture of what the site around the ING telescopes will look like from above is shown in the accompanying picture.
     

    Location of Mercator and Liverpool telescopes.

    The most impressive development is that of the construction of the 10-m GranTeCan by Spain, which is taking place on the western part of the observatory grounds. The activity around this large new facility is intense. Ground preparation is well under way and in the very near future we should see the telescope enclosure grow rapidly. Building progress can be followed live with the GTC web-cam at http://www.gtc.iac.es/webcam_s.asp

    Another large facility that is expected to change the looks of the observatory in a very dramatic way is that of the German-led MAGIC telescope. This huge 17-m diameter Cherenkov telescope with a segmented primary mirror will not have an enclosure. The telescope will be constructed in the same area as where currently the HEGRA experiment is located, close to the entrance to the observatory site. Also for that reason the MAGIC telescope will have a dramatic visual impact once erected.
     
     

    Previous: News from the Computing Facilities Group Up: Table of Contents Next: [INGNEWS] Mailing List
    GENERAL SCIENCE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION OTHER NEWS FROM ING TELESCOPE TIME
    © Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes