Optics, Astrophysics and Space Technology
Currently, the telescopes and other instruments present on the Canary Islands pertain to nearly 60 institutions from 19 countries, which means it has the largest concentration of infrastructures and highly qualified personnel available for astronomy research anywhere in the European Union. The long research tradition and significant development of these infrastructures allow for research and collaboration in different industrial sectors such as optics, electronics, computer science, sensors, new materials and mechanics.
TheCanary Islands Astrophysics Institute (IAC) is an internationalized Spanish research centre. It has two headquarters and two observatories in an environment of excellent astronomic quality and all together they constitute the European Northern Observatory (ENO). Here, astrophysics research projects and technological developments are carried out, there is a graduate school and it is involved in scientific dissemination.
The excellent astronomic observation quality of the Canary Islands skies, perfectly characterized and protected by the Law, means the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute Observatories (IAC) are “astronomy reserves”, which have bee open to the international scientific community since 1979.
Once noteworthy example is the Great CANARY ISLANDS Telescope (GTC) which is a primary segmented mirror telescope measuring 10.4 meters in diameter with state-of-the-art features. It is the largest mirror built to date for a telescope of this kind and was inaugurated in 2009 and installed on one of the best places in the Northern hemisphere:the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands). This telescope saw the light for the first time on 13 July 2007
