Contents:
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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