New Technology Telescope
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The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3.6m telescope located at La Silla Observatory, Chile.
It saw first light in 1989 and is owned by ESO. It is fitted with active optics (not to be confused with adaptive optics) allowing it to obtain an excellent image quality while only having a thin, lightweight mirror, kept in shape with a number of actuators beneath. The NTT was later cloned, resulting in the TNG.
Although other pre-existing telescopes such as the Nordic Optical Telescope had lightweight mirrors supported by actuators, the NTT is claimed to be the first telescope using full Active Optics, and its design as well as the design of its enclosure (the building protecting it) included many revolutionary features, which justified its name. In particular, great care was taken to ensure a good ventilation of the telescope, and to avoid heat sources in around the telescope. Since its construction, the NTT has undergone several upgrades which continued to improve its quality. It was also used as a real-life test bench for the software used to control the VLT.
Currently, the NTT is equipped with 3 instruments:
- SuSI-2 (Superb Seeing Imager, version 2), a CCD camera aimed at high resolution optical imaging.
- SofI ("Son of ISAAC", a VLT instrument), a near IR spectro-imager.
- EMMI (ESO Multi-Mode Instrument), a visible spectro-imager.
