Isaac Newton Telescope
The Isaac Newton Telescope or INT is a 2.54 m (100 in) optical telescope run by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands since 1984.
The INT dome by moonlight | |
| Alternative names | Isaac Newton Telescope 2.5m |
|---|---|
| Part of | Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes Roque de los Muchachos Observatory Royal Observatory |
| Location(s) | La Palma, Atlantic Ocean, international waters |
| Coordinates | 28°45′44″N 17°52′39″W |
| Organization | Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes |
| Built | 1967–1984 |
| Telescope style | Cassegrain reflector Newtonian telescope optical telescope |
| Diameter | 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in) |
| Collecting area | 5 m2 (54 sq ft) |
| Focal length | 8.36 m (27 ft 5 in) |
| Mounting | equatorial mount |
| Enclosure | spherical dome |
| Website | www |
Location of Isaac Newton Telescope | |
| Related media on Commons | |
Originally the INT was situated at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex, England, which was the site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory after it moved away from Greenwich due to light pollution. It was inaugurated in 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Herstmonceux suffered from poor weather, and the advent of mass air travel made it plausible for UK astronomers to run an overseas observatory. In 1979, the INT was shipped to La Palma, where it has remained ever since. It saw its second first light in 1984, with a video camera. A major change was the mirror was now made of the new type Zerodur glass, as compared to the old mirror's Pyrex glass.
Today, it is used mostly with the Wide Field Camera (WFC), a four CCD instrument with a field of view of 0.56×0.56 square degrees which was commissioned in 1997. The other main instrument available at the INT is the intermediate dispersion spectrograph (IDS), recently re-introduced, having been unavailable for a period of several years.
The old site of the INT is now the Observatory Science Center at Herstmonceux, and it is known for its distinctive greened copper dome and various science and astronomy activities.