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The creation
of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, and more generally of the Roque
de los Muchachos Observatory, is intimately related with the relentless energy
of Paul Murdin. In October 2001, after many years, Paul stepped down from
the ING Board, and this was commemorated with a brief but interesting workshop
with the title “Science from La Palma – Past, Present and Future.”
Various talks were given, showing the highlights as well as the unavoidable
but entertaining anecdotes related to past discoveries, but, more importantly,
talks were also given looking at the new developments at the observatory
that point the way to the future.
Following an introduction on the planned developments at the ING, Carlos
Frenk (Durham) beautifully reminded the audience how key developments and
discoveries at the ING over the past decade have helped point the way towards
the new generation of large telescopes. Vilppu Piirola (Tuorla) showed how
the Nordic Optical Telescope exploits its excellent image quality, while
Mike Bode (Liverpool) explained that the robotic Liverpool Telescope will
open a new chapter in ground-based fast response astronomy. Michael Rowan
Robinson complemented Carlos Frenk’s talk with examples of ING’s contribution
to cosmology. The two final presentations by Eckart Lorenz (Munich) and José
Miguel Rodríguez Espinosa (Tenerife), summarised the status of the
two largest developments of facilities at the ORM, namely the MAGIC 17-m
Cherenkov telescope, and the 10-m GRANTECAN telescope. Both these facilities
will come into operation in the near future and lift the observatory as a
whole to world class standards.
Of course at the end there was a lighter note to thank Paul for all these
years of hard work that have helped shape the observatory in such a crucial
way. Below, the top picture shows Francisco Sánchez presenting a gift
to Paul. This celebration was a unique occasion to get four of the people
together who have been at the helm of the ING. The picture in the middle
shows, from left to right, Jasper Wall (Oxford), Paul Murdin (Cambridge),
Jan Lub (Leiden) and René Rutten (ING).
The highlight of a buffet dinner in the evening was the performance of the
Palmeran dancing group Echentive. The bottom picture shows Carlos Frenk having
a good time on local Palmero rhythm. This formed the close of what had been
an informative and entertaining event with many old friends of Paul and the
observatory.
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