Tech Shout!

Great Canary Telescope, which is one of the world’s largest and most powerful telescopes, has finally opened its 34-foot-wide mirror in the direction of the skies and captured its first light at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory atop the Atlantic island of La Palma.

La Palma is a part of Spains Canaray Islands. The Crown Prince of Spain, Felipe entered computer codes that brought the observatory’s complex machinery to life. The Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute stated, “The observatory is located above the clouds at 2,400 meters (7,870 feet) above-sea-level where, thanks to prevailing ‘Alisios winds,’ the atmosphere is very stable and transparent. The G.T.C. will be able to reach the weakest and most distant celestial objects of the universe.”

The institute boasts of high profile alumni like the lead guitarist of Queen, Brian May. He had done part of his doctoral studies in astrophysics at the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute. He was also present at the opening. The Great Canary Telescope, or GranTeCan as it is sometimes called, can be compared to the newly opened Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) that has a 36-foot mirror or the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas which also has a 36-foot mirror.

Great Canary Telescope is expected to be fully operational by May 2008. It took seven years to construct and more than 1,000 people from nearly 100 companies were involved in this enormous project.