E. A. Harlan and Merle F. Walker, 1965, "A Star-Trail Telescope for Astronomical Site-Testing", PASP, 77, 246 [ Online | PDF ].
BBC reporting on the new Isaac Newton Telescope at Herstmonceux (1967):
- Herstmonceux - New Telescope (aka Britain's Biggest Telescope Sir Isaac Newton) [ B/W film ].
- Duke of Edinburgh visits Royal Observatory - Herstmonceux [ B/W film ].
- New telescope installed at observatory at Herstmonceux Castle [ Colour film ]
The Joint Organization for Solar Observations (JOSO), founded in 1968 [ Web ]
1970
Merle F. Walker, 1970, "The California Site Survey", PASP, 82, 672 [ Online | PDF ].
JOSO Annual Report 1971. Page 5: "Atlantic mountain sites within the Azores Anticyclonic System. From these sites only Barreta (southern Portugal) and lzana (Tenerife) have been selected for further investigations, in order further to examine whether these satisfy our requirements. In addition the
atlantic mountain sites Tamburiente, 2300 m (Island of La Palma) and Pico Ruivo, 1680 m (Island of
Madeira) will be tested meteorologically and optically during summer 1972. It is furthermore intended to
investigate systematically the air mass above the islands of Tenerife, La Palma and Madeira by means of an
aircraft." Page 18: "Both during the summer and the autumn campaigns (in Tenerife, 1971), the La Palma island was inspected. The area close to the mountain ridge Pico de Palmero, Pico de Muchachos, Pico de la Crus in the northern part of the island seem interesting." [ PDF ]
L. Staveland, H. Wöhl and T. Hansen, 1971, "Report concerning summer campaign Tenerife", JOSO MET 38 Report. Extract from page 15: "Thanks are also given [...] to G. Rodríguez and his fanily at La Palma for their hospitality and help during the inspection of La Palma." Guillermo Rodríguez and his family live in Las Tricias (Garafía, La Palma) [ PDF ]
K O Kiepenheuer and L Staveland, 1971, "The Autumn 1971 Site Testing Campaign at Canary Islands", JOSO MET 40 Report.
M F Walker, 1971, "Polar Star-trail observations of astronomical seeing in Arizona, Baja California, Chile
and Australia", PASP, 83, 401 [ Online | PDF]. Page 421 shows a table listing La Palma as a potential astronomical observing site for the first time ever [ PDF ]
JOSO Annual Report 1972 [ PDF ]
Polar Trail Telescope Instructions, provided by Paul Cass (1972) [ PDF ]
G Hosinsky, L Staveland and H Wöhl,
1972, "The Summer 1972 Site Testing Campaign at Roque de Los Muchachos,
La Palma", JOSO MET 53 Report.
K O Kiepenheuer and W Schellenberger,
1972, "JOSO Summer Site Testing Campaign 1972 at Canary Islands. I. Aircraft
Campaign over Tenerife and La Palma. II. Optical Campaign at Tenerife (Izaña)",
JOSO SIT 15 Report.
Thomas Gough, Crispin Heath and Paul Sutherland collections (1972) [ Photos | Paul Sutherland's Repository | Thomas Gough's Repository ]
8-mm film recorded by Crispin Heath (1972) [ Film ]
B McInnes, 1972, Short presentation at the Redman Conference, 18-20 July 1972, The Observatory, 92, 226-227 [ PDF ].
G. Burbidge, 1972, "British Optical Astronomy", Nature, 239, 117 [ Online | PDF ]
The Las Tricias guest house and the Briestas route (1972). Confirmed in a visita by Thomas Gough and Crispin Heath to the site in 2018 [ Photos taken 2018 ]
An extract from ROE Report, Report of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland for year ending 31 March 1973 [ PDF ]
1974
B. McInnes, 1974, "Site Testing Project Handbook". First page is an excellent description of the Site Testing Project [ PDF ]
B McInnes, M Hartley and T T Gough, 1974, "Astronomical Seeing and Meteorological Air Mass Analysis", The
Observatory, 94, 14. [ Online | PDF ]
B McInnes and M F Walker, 1974, "Astronomical Site Testing in the Canary Islands", PASP, 86, 529. [ Online | PDF ]
B McInnes, 1974, "Observations made at station 4 during 1972 August/September", Site Testing Project Report 14/15, ROE. [ PDF ]
Thomas Gough, Lluis Tomas, Paul Cass collections (1974-75) [ Photos ]
The hut site (1974-1975) [ Photos taken 2024 ]
Los Venteros local supplier in Puntagorda, a family business used by the site testers (1974-1975). Confirmed in a visit by Neil Anderson in 2015 [ Repository | Photos taken 2015 ]
The Olsen guest house in Los Llanos de Aridane, where the site testers used to stay (1974-1975). Confirmed in a visit by Neil Anderson in 2015 [ Repository | Photos taken 2015 ]
The Juanianes route (Camino de la Rosa) used by the site testers starting from rough road El Cabildo (LP-211) at Juanianes site (1974-1975) [ Photos taken 2023 ]
Fuente Nueva, possibly the local supply of water used by the site testers (1974-1975), confirmed in a visit by Paul Cass in 2022 [ Repository | Photos taken 2014, 2022 ].
David Williams-Jones collection (1975) [ Photos ]
Rein Bakker collection (1975) [ Photos ]
Audio recordings of interviews with Jim Olsen made in 1975-1976 [ MP3 ]
W A Goodsell, 1977, "Mirror Blank for 4.2m Telescope", Northern Hemisphere Observatory Steering Committee [ PDF ]
J D Pope, 1978, "The Use of a Thin Mirror in the NHO 4.2m Telescope" [ PDF ]
Acuerdo de Cooperación en Materia de Astrofísica [ Web | PDF ]
1980
B Mack, 1980, "Deflection and stress analysis of a 4.2-m diam primary mirror of an altazimuth-mounted telescope", Applied Optics, 19, 1000 [ Online ]
Construction of the Jacobus KapteynTelescope (1980-1985) [ Photos ].
Construction of the Isaac Newton Telescope (1981-1984) [ Photos ].
Construction of the William Herschel Telescope (1981-1987) [ Photos ].
M Hartley, B McInnes &
F G Smith, 1981, "Microthermal fluctuations and their relation to seeing conditions at Roque de Los Muchachos", QJRAS, 22, 272. [ Online | PDF ]
B McInnes, 1981, "Site Testing on Hawaii, Madeira and the Canary Islands", QJRAS, 22, 266. [ Online ]
F G Smith, 1981, "The New Observatory on La Palma", QJRAS, 22, 254 [ Online ] .
J W Gietzen, 1982, "Pollution of the night sky", LPO Office Notice 5/82 [ PDF ].
J D Pope, 1982, "4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope. The Rotating Top End Ring - Its design and Function" [ PDF ].
Construction of the ING telescopes, various collections (1983-1987) [ Photos ]
P Murdin, 1984, "Name of the telescopes on La Palma", LPO Office Circular 17/84 [ PDF ] .
D H Smith, 1984, "Approaching First Light on La Palma", Sky & Telescope, March 1984, 67, 214 [ PDF ].
B. McInnes, 1984, "Astronomy from Mountains", The Alpine Journal, 89, 173 [ PDF ]
1985
Banderas del Cosmos, music composed for the ORM inauguration event by Carmen Hernández, 1985 [ MP3 ].
Inauguration of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, 29 June 1985 [ Photos ]
Vistas in Astronomy, a special issue dedicated to the inauguration of the Canarian
Observatories edited by P. Murdin and P. Beer, 1985. It includes articles on UK astronomy on La Palma, and the ING telescopes among others [ Online | PDF ] .
A speech given by Professor S. Weinberg, Nobel Laurate, in the La Laguna
University Paraninfo, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Canary Islands' Astrophysical Observatories in 1985 [ PDF ] .
Paul Murdin and Alec Boksenberg, 1987, "The William Herschel Telescope", Astronomy Now, 1, July-September 1987 [ PDF ].
Paul Murdin, 1988, "A Night On The William Herschel Telescope", Astronomy Now, June 1988 [ PDF ].
Ian Ridpath, 1988, "The WHT begins operation", Popular Astronomy, October 1988, [ PDF ].
1990
Ian Ridpath, 1990, "The William Herschel Telescope", Sky and Telescope, 80, 136 (september 1990) [ PDF ].
Bernard Lovell, 1991, "The Genesis of the Northern Hemisphere Observatory", QJRAS, 32, 1 [ PDF ]
"Castle in the sky - the story of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux", 2001, Chas Parker [ Web ].
A summary of JOSO activities on La Palma: Peter N. Brandt and Wolfgang Mattig, 2002, "The History of the Joint Organization for Solar Observations (JOSO) 1969-2000" in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy III, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 135 [ PDF ].
Rutten, R., Méndez, J., 2004, "The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes from a Historic Perspective", Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, Volume 5. Edited by André Heck, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France. Astrophysics and Space Science Library Volume 310. ISBN 1-4020-2570-X (HB); ISBN 1-4020-2570-8 (e-book). Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2004., p.83 [ Online | PDF ].
Elvira Lozano Martín, 2009, "Historia del Departamento de Astrofísica de la Universidad de La Laguna", ISBN: 978-84-691-9142-2 [ PDF ].
"Historia del IAC", 2009 [ Web ].
George A. Wilkins, 2009, "A Personal History of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle 1948 – 1990", Sidford, Devon: 2009 [ PDF ].
2010
"The Isaac Newton Telescope at Herstmonceux and on La Palma", Anthony Wilson, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9512394-2-1 [ ING library ].
Lee T. Macdonald, 2010, "The origins and construction of the Isaac Newton Telescope, Herstmonceux, 1944-1967", J. Br. Astron. Assoc., 120, 2 [ PDF ].
Lee T. Macdonald, 2012, "'A Large Chunk of Glass': The 98-inch mirror of the Isaac Newton Telescope, 1945-1959", The Antiquarian Astronomer (Journal of the Society for the History of Astronomy), 6, 4 [ PDF ].
"Hosinski, cuando a El Roque se iba en burro", El Día newspaper, 2017 [ PDF ]
"Isaac Newton Telescope – 50 Years Since First Light", 2017 [Web ].
"William Herschel Telescope – 30 Years Since First Light", 2017 [Web ].
Navarro García, José Benjamín, 2018, "Francisco Sánchez Martínez. La Facultad de las Estrellas", ISBN: 978-84-7926-661-5.
Visit by site testers Thomas Gough and Crispin Heath, 2018 [ Photos ].
2020
K. Tritton, J. Méndez, 2021, "Las primeras mediciones de la calidad astronómica de la observación nocturna en el Roque de los Muchachos", Anuario Cosmológica, ISSN 2792-7423, 1, 97-118 [ Online | PDF ].
Visit by site tester Paul Cass, 2022 [ Repository | Talk 2021 | Photos ]
Dispatch of a ROE PTT to La Palma and stored in an archive at the INT (2022) [ Repository | Photos ]
A proposal for protecting some emblematic places of the ORM site testing (2022) [ Repository ]
Pedro Augusto, 2024, "Madeira: 300 years of an astronomical site", Journal for the History of Astronomy, 55, 47. It includes a comprehensive description of the NHO site testing [ PDF ]
The end of the ING visitor mode, the INT studentship programme, the WFC and IDS operation, and INT prime-focus observing, 2024 [ Web ].
