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The largest telescope in the world - GTC The Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), is a 10.4m telescope with a segmented primary mirror and a high performance. It is located in one of the top astronomical sites in the Northern Hemisphere: the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma, Canary Islands). With a size of over 10 metres in diameter, is the largest segmented mirror built so far for a telescope of its kind. Building a mirror that big, meant dividing it up into 36 hexagonal segments. At last the Universe has a mirror big enough to look at itself in.
The telescope’s computerized onboard system is extremely sophisticated. The GTC is controlled by a high-capacity, high-performance IT architecture called the GTC Control System (GCS). A set of subsystems, physically distributed throughout the GTC, control functions and compensate for the adverse effects of variables such as wind, temperature, hygrometry, distortion of parts, and vibration. A network of interconnected equipment, such as computers and sensors, supervises these subsystems and provides a homogenous user interface.
The GCS operates in real time, with a hierarchy of control layers and inter-processor communications. As is often the case in research fields, real-time guarantees are required in the communication networks, operating systems, and underlying middleware components, in order to satisfy quality of service requirements.
The telescope is sited on a volcanic peak 2,400 metres above sea level and took 7 years to construct. The GTC Project is a partnership formed by several institutions from Spain, Mexico, and the University of Florida (USA) and an initiative from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The construction of the telescope is estimated to have cost €130 million.
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isn't the largest scope Haray?