Gran Telescopio Canarias

Image:La Palma - Gran Telescopio Canarias.jpg The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) ("Great Telescope Canary Islands"), sometimes called GranTeCan, is a 10.4m reflecting telescope being built at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma.

It is predicted that the GTC will start observing sometime during 2006. Its primary mirror is formed by 36 hexagonal segments fully controlled by an active optics control system. The GTC Project is a partnership formed by several institutions from Spain (90%), Mexico (5%) and the University of Florida (USA) (5%) and an initiative from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Its Day One instruments are OSIRIS, CanariCam and ELMER.