Canary Island Telescope : First Light Pictures.
July 15th, 2007
I love first light celebrations; especially when the first light really means being able to see the results of the observations - not that the telescope has started to take data.
I am not suggesting that when the instrument starts taking the data and if it takes six months to analyze it, then the “First Light” should be the date when the first analysis is complete; I think it it should be the date of first data capture, but when these two dates are the same, it is a special joy!
Click on the above image to see the phenomenal resolution of these two galaxies. There is so much details that you can discern, and every little curve, every little variation in the brightness of the image has something to contribute as to the structure of the Universe and the laws that govern it.
These are pictures from the Canary Island telescope, Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC). It is a 10.4 meters primary mirror reflecting telescope that captures light in visible and infrared spectrum.
The Great Canary Telescope is among the world’s largest telescopes. Others are the Southern African Large Telescope, or Salt, which has an 11-meter mirror and has been described the southern hemisphere’s largest single optical telescope. Another one is the Hobby-Eberly in Texas with similar sized mirror.
Canary islands are offer a perfect place (on earth) to have a telescope because of the clear astronomical quality of their sky.
I am looking forward to seeing more of the images from this telescope!
Stephan at BackReaction has a nice post about it.
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