Last modified on 30 March 2001.


Encyclopædia Galactica

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Nordic Optical Telescope; Work and Observations

Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) is perhaps the most important astronomical tool Finnish astronomers have used in the 1990's. It was built on the island of La Palma by four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) in 1980's. These Nordic countries maintain, develop, and operate the telescope through Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association (NOTSA) and a crew of engineers and support astronomers. The last of the Nordic countries, Iceland, joined the co-operation in 1997.

Observing time is divided between the Nordic countries, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, that maintains the observatory site of Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) on La Palma), and Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (that has provided the Alfosc CCD camera to the NOT). Some of the time is also awarded to projects from the international astronomical community.

As a student of astronomy in the Tuorla Observatory I have had a chance to first observe and then work at the NOT. On these pages I shall tell you about the NOT and what I have done there. I have placed miniatures of some photos I have taken there among the text. Clicking on these miniatures will show you a bigger version of the photo. All the miniatures are also collected to separate 'photo album' pages. I don't mind if you download some (or even all) of the photos and view or show them from your own hard disk. However, I would prefer if you told of their origin to whomever you are showing them. Furthermore, all usage of them for commercial purposes is absolutely forbidden without a prior permission from me.

Text pages (under construction):

Introduction (N images, total M kB)
First observing trip to the NOT (N images, total M kB)
Second observing trip to the NOT (N images, total M kB)
Observing trip to the 60 cm telescope (N images, total M kB)
Working at the NOT (N images, total M kB)


Photo pages:

Maps of La Palma and Canary Islands (3 images, total 93 kB)

Santa Cruz de La Palma (19 images, total 293 kB)
La Palma Tour - East (13 images, total 210 kB)
La Palma Tour - South (7 images, total 101 kB)
La Palma Tour - West and Central Plateau (15 images, total 247 kB)
La Palma Tour - North (13 images, total 210 kB)
Festivals and Holidays (22 images, total 357 kB)
Caldera de la Taburiente (13 images, total 177 kB)
Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (13 images, total 184 kB)
Nordic Optical Telescope (22 images, total 319 kB)
KVA 60 cm Telescope (7 images, total 84 kB)
William Herschel Telescope (7 images, total 99 kB)
Atmospheric Phenomena (16 images, total 144 kB)


Links (under construction: lots more to come):

Nordic Optical Telescope
Nordic Optical Telescope (Mirror pages at Tuorla Observatory web server)




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Created by Rami T. F. Rekola