1. GTC Commissioning (as of September 2008) Peter Hammersley (GTC)

2. Summary Introduction to the observatory June 07 – July 07 First light July 07 – March 08 March 08 - July 08 More observations July 08- October 08 October 08 – March 09 Preparing for Day 1

3. The GTC complex Main Building Annex Building Auxiliary building

4. Fish eye view

5. Lateral View of Segment Each segment size 1.8m weight 500 kg M1

6. M2

7. Acquisition and Guide system I

8. A&G system II Arm 1 –ASGC - camera FoV 60” –SFS - high resolution wavefront sensor Arm 2 –FGC/STS –Field of view 12” –Up to 150 frames per second

9. First light Strict deadline (13th July 2007) 12 Segments No tracking ASGC

10. First light II

11. First light III

12. July 07 – March 08 Making the tracking operational and safe 24 Segments Improve reliability

13. March 08 – July 08. Optics - Stacking - M1 M2 alignment - OLAcO tested -Best FWHM Segment 0.4” Stacked 0.6”

14. Images courtesy of the FASTCAM team Objects separated by 0”.196 & 0”.906 sources separated by 1.1” - Individual segments - All segments combined March – July 08. Fastcam

15. March – July 08. Pointing tracking Pointing with 0.9” accuracy Tracking error: 0.25” in 10 min Meets Day 1 spec !!

16. March 08 – July 08. High speed tracking

17. March – July 08. A&G test - Photometric characterization (zero-points,…) - Ghosts and stray light analyses -Fast modes and windowing capabilities - etc…

18. March – July 08. Pretty Pictures IC4381 Einstein cross

19. March – July 08. Pretty Pictures II NGC6027 UGC 10043

20. March – July 08. Pretty Pictures III He2_428 K4_3

21. March – July 08. Pretty Pictures IV

22. July 08 –October 08 No Observations 36 Segments Instrument rotators operational Secondary recoated

23. October 08 – March 09 Work with the instrument rotator Work with A&G arms off axis Start guiding Wavefront sensing Commissioning first science instrument

24. March 09 About 50 % science 50% commissioning Only offering OSIRIS Broad Band Imaging TF Imaging Long slit spectroscopy Minimum proposal time 10 hours.

25. Conclusions Image quality –currently limited to 0.6” –Will improve when WFS operational Pointing and tracking meet specifications Next tasks – Field de-rotation – Guiding – First science instrument