1. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS1

2. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
The Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) will be the world largest telescope of its class when it begins operation.
It is a reflecting telescope designed to incorporate the most up-to-date technology and, when it enters service, it will be one of the most advanced telescopes in the world.

3. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
Location: It is located in one of the top astronomical sites in the Northern Hemisphere, the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma, Canary Islands).
Cost: The cost of construction and administration formalities is of around €130 million.
Dates: The works begun on The First Light event took place on July 13st, It’s first science is expected for 2009.

4. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
The GTC Project is a Spanish initiative led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).
The project is actively supported by the Spanish Government and the Local Government from the Canary Islands through the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER) provided by the European Union.
The project also includes the participation of institutions from Mexico and the U.S.A.

5. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
From the U.S.A., the University of Florida Research Foundation signed an agreement under which it will contribute 5% of the project’s cost in return for 5% of the observing time.

6. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
From the U.S.A., the University of Florida Research Foundation signed an agreement under which it will contribute 5% of the project’s cost in return for 5% of the observing time. 6

7. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
Mexico's National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), and the Institute of Astronomy of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IA-UNAM), contribute too with 5% of the project’s construction, running and start-up costs.

8. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS8

9. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
The agreement also sees the GTC exchanging observing time with the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT), a 50 m telescope built by the INAOE and the University of Massachusetts.

10. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS10

11. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
The Mexican institutions and the University of Florida are also developing some of the telescope’s instruments.
Thanks to the GTC, Spain is at the head of one of the world’s biggest science and technology initiatives in the field of astronomy.

12. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS12

13. The last piece of the primary mirror
GTC: How does it work?
THE MIRRORS
The GTC is the latest in a generation of large telescopes that are currently being built, so it has been possible to learn from the designs of its predecessors and attempt to improve on them.
The GTC's primary mirror has been designed as a segmented mirror – handling and moving a single mirror this big would be impossible.
The last piece of the primary mirror
(link to video)

14. GTC: How does it work?
GTC mirror from july 2008

15. GTC: How does it work?
It is made up of 36 hexagonal segments, which, when put together, will be equivalent in size to a single, circular mirror with a diameter of 10.4 m. The GTC has a larger light-collecting surface (75.7 m2) than any other optical or infrared telescope.
The GTC has also monolithic secondary and tertiary mirrors, the latter deflecting the light to the foci where scientific instruments can be mounted.
The path of the light
(link to video)

16. GTC: How does it work?
Image quality is crucial and, in addition to this large light-collecting surface, the GTC will use two systems to optimize it:
ACTIVE OPTICS
and
ADAPTIVE OPTICS

17. The primary mirror moving
GTC: How does it work?
Active optics will be used to align, bend and move the mirrors (the segments of the primary mirror and the secondary mirror) to keep them in exactly the same shape and position regardless of external conditions such as temperature, gravitational flexures and manufacturing imperfections that would otherwise affect image quality.
The primary mirror moving
The secondary mirror active optics
(links to videos)

18. The Adaptive optic system
GTC: How does it work?
Adaptive optics is a new technology being developed for the world’s leading telescopes. When in place it will allow the Universe to be observed almost as clearly as if there were no atmosphere. Adaptive optics involves the use of flexible mirrors to compensate for the aberrations caused to light as it passes through the earth’s atmosphere (the so-called “seeing”).
The Adaptive optic system
(link to video)

19. The construction of the dome Natural ventilation of the dome
GTC: How does it work?
The telescope has a dome to protect it – it will prevent exterior and interior air turbulence, which can degrade the image – and its mechanical structure is meant to protect the telescope from wind bouncing, which will also affects the image quality. 
The construction of the dome
Natural ventilation of the dome
(links to videos)

20. GTC: How does it work?
The GTC will use observing time efficiently by employing a “queue scheduling” system of observation, a process that automatically decides which instruments and what types of observations are best suited to the atmospheric conditions at any given time.

21. GTC: How does it work? 21

22. GTC: How does it work?
GTC will also have an advanced control system and will be highly reliable thanks to a programme of preventive maintenance designed to deal with problems before they arise. This will ensure that downtime caused by system failure is kept to a minimum.

23. GTC: How does it work? 23

24. GTC: How does it work?
A telescope needs instrumentation, otherwise it would be like a camera with no film. The GTC will have state of the art instruments optimized for visible and infrared light.
These instruments are OSIRIS, CanariCam, ELMER, EMIR and FRIDA, and they will capture light and produce direct images (viewable by the human eye) and spectra (spectrographs split the light into its different wavelengths).

25. GTC: How does it work? 25

26. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
CanariCam (a thermal infrared spectrograph with imaging capability) will be able to ‘sense’ the heat from a star. It will have imaging capacity and will be able to perform spectroscopy, polarimetry and coronography in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum.
CanariCam has been built by the Astronomy Department of the University of Florida.

27. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
Charles Telesco, the Principal Investigator of the CanaryCam Instrument Team 27

28. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
OSIRIS (Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy) is designed to obtain direct images of the sky and to carry out spectroscopy of a number of different objects simultaneously. It will work in the visible range, that is, with the light from the sky that can be seen by the naked eye.
OSIRIS was designed and built by the IAC, with the collaboration of IA-UNAM.

29. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
OSIRIS on its test bench.
GTC: Scientific Instrumentation 29

30. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
ELMER is capable of conventional imaging using both broad and narrow band filters so that it can be used to check the calibration of the telescope and perform long-slit spectroscopy, fast photometry, fast-slit spectroscopy and slitless multi-object spectroscopy.
It was designed and built by the GTC’s Project Office.

31. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
Elmer on the Test Bench at the IAC Workshop in La Laguna. 31

32. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
Finally, FRIDA (InFRared Imager and Dissector for the Adaptive Optics System of the GTC) is an Infrared Camera with Integral Field Unit and it will be the first instrument to work with light corrected by the GTC's Adaptive Optics.
This instrument is being developed by an international team led by the IA-UNAM.

33. GTC: Scientific Instrumentation
The Galactic Centre observed with and without adaptive optics. 33

34. GTC: What is Consolider-GTC
For the “Consolider-Ingenio 2010 GTC project” it is fundamental that the GTC, a complex & expensive installation, produces science from the very beginning: it’s just a must.
There are 12 scientific groups involved. For the Consolider-GTC Project, the main thrust bonding so many different scientific groups together is their interest for getting the best Science out of the GTC. 34

35. GTC: What is Consolider-GTC
The project
Over 150 participants
19 research teams in 12 different centers (including centers in Mexico and Florida)
Object Oriented approach
Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation with over 5 M€ for 5 years 35

36. GTC: What is Consolider-GTC
Main Objectives
Accelerate the GTC commissioning so it starts producing Science as soon as possible.
To carry out a number of scientific projects that results in qualitative advancements in astronomy.
To benefit from the know-how acquired during the GTC construction to get involved in the new generation of ELTs. 36

37. GTC: What is Consolider-GTC
…Main Objectives
4) To foster the participation of the Spanish community in the design and construction of state of the art instruments for the GTC and other large telescopes.
5) Implementation of an Advanced School for Scientific Instrumentation: IScAI.
6) To develop an attractive, well designed public outreach programme to share with the public the scientific and technical achievements of the GTC. 37

38. GTC: What we will see…
The GTC will ‘see’ the farthest, faintest objects in our Universe. This is like travelling through time - the light that reaches us from the remotest objects in the Universe started its journey some 13,000 million years ago. This light will help to provide answers to many questions about how the known Universe was formed and how it evolved.

39. GTC

40. GTC: What we will see…
With the GTC we will also pick out the planetary systems of the stars relatively close to us…

41. Artists concept of a protoplanetary disk. Credit: Pat Rawlings / NASA
GTC: What we will see…
Artists concept of a protoplanetary disk. Credit: Pat Rawlings / NASA 41

42. GTC: What we will see…
…we will explore dark matter…

43. GTC: What we will see…
An image of the Bullet Cluster indicating what is believed to be dark matter (represented in blue). Credit: NASA/ CXC/ CIA/ STSci/ Magellan/ University of Arizona/ ESO. 43

44. GTC: What we will see…
…unveil stars ‘being born’ behind shrouds of dense molecular clouds…

45. GTC: What we will see…
A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of NGC Credit: HST/NASA/ESA 45

46. GTC: What we will see…
…‘see’ the remotest galaxies... 46

47. Hubble Ultradeep Field. Credit: NASA/STScI
GTC: What we will see…
Hubble Ultradeep Field. Credit: NASA/STScI 47

48. GTC: What we will see…
…and quasars...

49. An artist's impression of a growing quasar. Credit: NASA.
GTC: What we will see…
An artist's impression of a growing quasar. Credit: NASA. 49

50. GTC: What we will see…
…look more closely than ever before at certain black holes aiming to understand how they evolved… 50

51. GTC: What we will see…
Centaurus A, a nearby galaxy with a massive black hole in its nucleus. Credit: NASA 51

52. GTC: What we will see…
…and find out what chemical compounds were created in the aftermath of Big Bang.

53. GTC: What we will see…
Credit: ESA 53

54. GTC: What we will see…
Discovering and characterizing planets similar to Earth in other exoplanetary systems is one of the GTC's great objectives.

55. GTC: What we will see… 55

56. GTC: GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS
The GTC,
a partnership for discovery
(link to video)