Nordic Optical Telescope

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Nordic Optical Telescope

Image:Nordic Optical Telescope La Palma.jpg

OrganizationNOT Council
LocationLa Palma, Canary Islands
Wavelength regimeoptical
Completion date1988
Webpagehttp://www.not.iac.es/
Physical characteristics
Telescope styleRitchey-Chretien reflector
Diameter2.66m
Collecting area(m2, ft2)
Focal lengthf/11
Mountingalt/az
Domehalf sphere

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

Image:Not telescope sunset 2001.jpg

Image:Not inst 2003.jpg

External links

de:Nordic Optical Telescope es:Telescopio Óptico Nórdico nn:Nordisk optisk teleskop