The GTC: a convenient test bench for ELT demonstrations

Jose Miguel Rodriguez Espinosa; Peter L. Hammersley; Carlos Martinez-Roger

doi:10.1117/12.566236

7 July 2004 The GTC: a convenient test bench for ELT demonstrations

Jose Miguel Rodriguez Espinosa, Peter L. Hammersley, Carlos Martinez-Roger

Proceedings Volume 5382, Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.566236
Event: Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, 2003, Backaskog, Sweden

Abstract

The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) is, being assembled at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in the island of La Palma. First light is expected for early 2005 with the first science observations late in 2005. The GTC, being a segmented primary mirror telescope, could be employed for testing several technological aspects relevant to the future generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). In the short term, the mass production of aespheric mirror segments can be examined in detail and improvements made along the way, or planned for the future. Indeed the GTC segments are now entering into a chain production scheme. Later on, different strategies for the control aspects of the primary mirror can be explored to optimize the optical performance of segmented telescopes. Moreover, the entire GTC active optics can offer a learning tool for testing various strategies and their application to ELTs.

Citation Download Citation

Jose Miguel Rodriguez Espinosa, Peter L. Hammersley, and Carlos Martinez-Roger "The GTC: a convenient test bench for ELT demonstrations", Proc. SPIE 5382, Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, (7 July 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.566236

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