Gran Telescopio Canarias

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The telescope under construction in 2002.

The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) ("Great Telescope Canary Islands"), sometimes called GranTeCan, is a 10.4m reflecting telescope about to undertake commissioning observations at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma.

It is predicted that the GTC will start science observing sometime during 2006. Its primary mirror is formed by 36 hexagonal segments fully controlled by an active optics control system. The GTC Project is a partnership formed by several institutions from Spain (90%), Mexico (5%) and the University of Florida (USA) (5%) and an initiative from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Its Day One instruments are OSIRIS, CanariCam and [ELMER].

See also

• List of largest optical reflecting telescopes

External links

• [Gran Telescopio Canarias webpage] (English)
• [GranTeCan on Google maps]

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