After 7 years construction and $180 millions spent, the world biggest telescope in the Canary Islands is up and running!
The huge telescope, consists of a mirror measuring 10.4 meters (34.1ft) in diameter and is built on a top of the mountain on a 2,400 meters high (7,900ft) peak on the island of La Palma (part of the Canary Islands).
“The GCT will observe things that are so small, or so very far off, that only a small amount of light reaches us,” – said Pedro Alvarez, the project manager. “It would be wonderful if this telescope allowed us to detect a planet like ours,” – he added.
At the moment the canary telescope is doing test observations and the team doing this project expects the telescope to be fully operational after 12 months!
On the very beginning the whole project was looking like an impossible mission. The complicated installation, poor weather, inaccessible location, logistical difficulties, took full seven years; the Great Canary Telescope team can proudly say that they build the biggest eye on the Earth looking in the space!
For WC News from Canary Islands,
Pablo Fernández