Nordic Optical Telescope

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Nordic Optical Telescope
Looking down on the dome of the Nordic Optical Telescope, with the Atlantic Ocean behind.
Organization NOT Council
Location La Palma, Canary Islands
Wavelength Optical
Built 1988
Telescope style Ritchey-Chretien reflector
Diameter 2.66m
Focal length f/11
Mounting alt/az
Dome half sphere
Website http://www.not.iac.es/

The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) is an astronomical telescope located at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma in the Canary Islands. First light came in 1988, with regular observing beginning in 1989. It is funded by Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Access is provided to astronomers of all nationalities through international time allocation committees.

The NOT was the first major telescope facility designed to use active optics to correct the shape of a thin, lightweight primary mirror supported on actuators.

The NOT is a 2.56m telescope with the following instrumentation:

  • ALFOSC -- CCD (visible light) faint object spectrograph and 4 Megapixel camera
  • NOTCam -- 1 Megapixel HgCdTe Hawaii infrared camera and spectrograph
  • MOSCA -- 16 Megapixel CCD camera
  • SOFIN -- High resolution CCD spectrograph (up to R=170000)
  • StanCam -- Stand-by 1 Megapixel CCD camera
  • LuckyCam -- High frame rate, low noise L3Vision CCD camera for lucky imaging
  • TURPOL -- UBVRI Photopolarimeter
  • FIES -- cross-dispersed high-resolution (up to R=60000) echelle spectrograph, isolated from thermal and mechanical instability.
The service building and dome of Nordic Optical Telescope situated above the clouds at the top of Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma.
The service building and dome of Nordic Optical Telescope situated above the clouds at the top of Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma.
The interior of the telescope, showing an instrument on the Cassegrain focus
The interior of the telescope, showing an instrument on the Cassegrain focus

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Coordinates: 28°45′26″N, 17°53′06″W