Teide Observatory

Teide Observatory
Organization	Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Location	Tenerife
Altitude	2,390 m. (7,841 ft.)
Established	1964

The Observatorio del Teide (Teide Observatory) is an astronomical observatory on Tenerife operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Opened in 1964, it became one of the first major international observatories, attracting telescopes from different countries around the world because of the good astronomical seeing conditions. Later the emphasis for optical telescopes shifted more towards Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma. It is considered one of the world's major observatories.

Contents 1 Telescopes 1.1 Solar telescopes 1.2 Nocturnal telescopes 1.3 Radio telescopes for cosmic microwave background astronomy 2 Other buildings on the site 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

Telescopes

Solar telescopes

• Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT): 70 cm diameter. Operated by the Kiepenheuer Institute of Solar Physics, Freiburg (Germany). Installed in 1989.
• THÉMIS Solar Telescope: 90 cm diameter, built 1996, operated by Italy and France.[1]
• Gregor Solar Telescope: 1.5 m, operated by a German consortium. Not operational.
• A node of the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON), operated by the University of Birmingham, UK.

Nocturnal telescopes

• Carlos Sánchez Infrared Telescope (TCS): 152 cm diameter installed by the UK in 1971
• Mons reflecting telescope: 50 cm diameter, operated by the University of Mons (Belgium), built in 1972.
• IAC-80 Telescope: 80 cm IAC telescope, installed in 1991.
• OGS Telescope: 1 m European Space Agency optical ground station for satellite communications, built in 1998.
• STARE Telescope: 10 cm Stellar Astrophysics & Research on Exoplanets.
• Bradford Robotic Telescope: 35cm Telescope for educational use.
• (STELLA I and STELLA II) robotic telescopes: 120 cm STELLA is an abbreviation of STELLar Activity, operated by Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP) with the collaboration of the IAC, put in operation 2006.
• SLOOH: US robotic telescopes, built in 2004.

Radio telescopes for cosmic microwave background astronomy

• The 33 GHz interferometer
• The COSMOSOMAS Experiment (10 and 15 GHz)
• The Very Small Array (VSA: 14-element interferometer at 30 GHz)

Other buildings on the site

The observatory has a visitors' centre and a residencia (hostel) for astronomers.

See also

• Teide National Park
• Mount Teide
• Pico Viejo
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
• Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
• Astronomical seeing

External links

• Observatorio del Teide website

References

• Rayrole, J. (1985). The European observatory at the Canary Islands. 233. pp. 32–50. doi:10.1007/BFb0022394.