The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is an astrophysical research institute located in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. It was founded in 1975 at the University of La Laguna.
It operates two astronomical observatories in the Canary Islands:
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The Instituto de Astrofísica, the administrative and research center of IAC, is located in the town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the island of Tenerife.
The Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos is located in the Garafía municipality on the island of La Palma, at the edge of the Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente. The Observatory is at an altitude of 2,400 m. It was inaugurated in 1985, and is the largest concentration of telescopes in the northern hemisphere.
The Observatorio del Teide is located in the Izaña region, on the island of Tenerife at an altitude of 2,400 m. It was founded in 1959 by the University of La Laguna. It became one of the first major international observatories, attracting telescopes from different countries around the world because of the good astronomical seeing conditions. It is considered one of the world's major observatories.
The two observatories, together with the Instituto de Astrofísica, constitute the European Northern Observatory.
The Observatorio del Teide was founded in 1959, and brought the first telescope to the area in 1964, thanks to an agreement with the University of Bordeaux. In 1975 the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias was founded by the Instituto de Astrofísica, as part of the University of La Laguna. In 1979, Spain signed the 'Agreement and Protocol of Cooperation in Astrophysics' with Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, which brought modern telescopes to the observatories.
In 1982, the IAC became a public partnership, operated by the government, the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, the University of La Laguna and the Superior Center of Scientific Research. The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos was equipped with the first installations and telescopes, and little by little the number increased when those coming from Germany, Finland, France and Norway were included in the agreements. Later, more countries were included. In 1985 the official inauguration of the facilities of the IAC took place.
In the early 1990s, the first telescope developed and built entirely in Spain, the IAC-80, arrived. In 1994 an agreement was reached with the European Space Agency for the installation in the Observatorio del Teide of a telescope. In 2000, extra land was acquired in Breña Baja (La Palma) for the future Centro Común de Astrofísica en la Palma (CALP), which will allow the island to be equipped with a better infrastructure to support the observatory.
In 1994, the company Grantecan, S.A. was established for the construction of the Gran Telescopio Canarias, supported by the governments of the Canary Islands and Spain. This allowed the construction of the telescope to begin in 1998, with a future site on La Palma. This telescope, once finished, will be one of the largest and most advanced in the world.
The Canary Islands are a preferred place for astronomical observation due to their climate and the transparency of the sky. Because of their high altitude (2400 m above sea level), the observatories are above the cloud bank and enjoy a clear atmosphere with little turbulence, both conditions favorable for sky observation. The favorable climate conditions allow astronomical research to be done throughout most of the year.
To maintain the preferred conditions for observation, the Law on the Protection of the Atmospheric Quality of the IAC Observatories was enacted in 1988. This law, which affects the islands of Tenerife and La Palma, identifies and attempts to prevent four distinct types of sky contamination: light pollution, radioelectric pollution, atmospheric contamination, and air traffic pollution near the observatories. To reduce these types of sky contamination, the act requires that:
The IAC established the Sky Quality Protection Technical Office to enforce these regulations.