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Nordic Optical Telescope
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Tuorla observatory hosts the headquarters of the Nordic Optical
Telescope, a new technology telescope sited at La Palma, Canary
Islands. The Director of the telescope and his office is at
Tuorla while the rest of the staff, about 10 astronomers and
technicians, resides at La Palma. The NOT is managed by the
Council of the telescope on behalf of the five Nordic
countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The
chairman of the Council is currently from Tuorla observatory.
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Geodetic length measuring system
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The underground laboratory of the observatory houses the site
for the international standard quartz meter system. The
standard meter rods which are kept and studied at Tuorla form
the basis of the Geodetic length measuring system which is used
in many countries. The Finnish Geodetic Institute carries out
most of the scientific research and field measurements of this
system. The observatory also has a satellite antenna belonging
to the international GPS network.
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The optical workshop
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The optical workshop for mirror grinding and developing optical
technology is also located in the underground laboratory. In
this field the observatory collaborates with a high technology
company Opteon Oy. The latter manufactures optical elements for
various satellite instruments as well as for ground based
telescopes. Customers include the European
Space Agency, ESA. The technologies developed by the
observatory have been used by the
company and vice versa.
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Optical telescopes
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The largest optical telescopes in Finland are located at
Tuorla. The site in Piikkiö county, 12 km from Turku, is dark
enough for observational work, and the staff uses the
telescopes at least 100 nights per year. At the same time, the
staff has been active in organizing simultaneous or
complementary observations in different parts of the world. The
campaigns have included more than 40 observers from many
different countries.
In order to improve the geographical coverage of the campaigns,
Tuorla observatory has recently started the operation of two
field stations: one at La Palma using the telescope of the
Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the second one in Trinidad
in collaboration with the University of the West Indies. These
stations allow the observers to study objects much further
south in the sky than what is possible from Finland. These
field stations are open for use by
all Finnish astronomers.
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Metsähovi Radio Research Station
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Tuorla observatory has major research activity at the Metsähovi
Radio Research Station of Technical University of Helsinki. The
observatory has invested especially in the hydrogen maser clock
of the research station which is required for accurate time
signals when participating in international VLBI (Very Long
Baseline Interferometry) campaigns. Additionally, this clock is
the most accurate in Finland and is used in keeping the
official time of the country.
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Satellite observatory data
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In recent years, the observatory has increased its efforts in
obtaining and utilizing the data from satellite observatories.
The observatory has two positions especially dedicated toward
Space Astronomy, the first institute in Finland to do so. In
addition to having used data from almost all the space
observatories of the past decade, the staff of the observatory
is taking part in the scientific planning of several future missions.
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Astronomy teaching
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The Astronomy teaching staff of the University of Turku works
mostly at Tuorla. The teaching staff of four belongs to the
Department of Physics even though their offices are located at
Tuorla. The research staff of the observatory also takes part
in the teaching programme on regular basis. The first year
Astronomy classes have typically about 100 students, the second
and third year classes vary between 5 and 50 in size. About two
students per year continue up to the PhD level.
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Funding
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The work at Tuorla observatory is funded by the Nordic Optical
Telescope Scientific Association (about 6 MFIM per year), by
Academy of Finland (about 2 MFIM per year), by special projects
from the Ministry of Education (between 0.2 and 1.0 Mmk per
year), by basic funding from the University of Turku (about 3.5
Mmk per year) and by Department of Physics of University of
Turku (about 1.0 Mmk per year). The contributions from Finnish
Geodetic Institute, Metsähovi Radio Research Station and from
Opteon Oy are difficult to estimate in monetary terms.
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