Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope

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Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope against clouds.jpg
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope in 2011 against a background of clouds as the sun rises
Alternative namesJKT OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Named after Jacobus Kapteyn   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Part ofSARA  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Location(s) Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, Garafía, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Coordinates 28°45′40″N17°52′41″W / 28.76117°N 17.87808°W / 28.76117; -17.87808 OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
OrganizationSARA
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Altitude2,369 m (7,772 ft) OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
First light 23 March 1984  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Telescope style astronomical observatory
reflecting telescope   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Diameter1.0 m (3 ft 3 in) OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Mass40 t (40,000 kg) OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Mounting equatorial mount   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.ing.iac.es/PR/jkt_info/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Canarias-loc.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
  Commons-logo.svg Related media on Commons

The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope or JKT is a 1-metre optical telescope named for the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn (1851-1922) of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain.

Contents

Funded jointly by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with planning throughout the 1970s, construction of the JKT was completed in 1983 with the first photographic plate taken in March 1984. It can be used with two different focal points and different instruments, although by 1998 this was refined to one CCD imaging instrument. The telescope weighs nearly 40 metric tons in total. [1]

During construction in 1983, a Spanish container ship carrying parts of the telescope to La Palma was involved in an aircraft incident. In what is known as the Alraigo incident, a British Royal Navy Sea Harrier fighter jet made an emergency landing on the base plate for the telescope. [2]

Being superseded by more recent and larger telescopes, it was taken out of service as a common-user facility in August 2003.

Since 2014, the telescope is owned by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and operated by the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA) [1] which has retrofitted JKT as a remotely operated observatory (under the internal designation SARA-RM), with the first new observations in this regime in April 2016.

Timeline

Summary: [3]

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Observation through the telescope, 1985. 1985jacobuskapteyntelescope.png
Observation through the telescope, 1985.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "The 1.0-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT)". Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes. 8 August 2014.
  2. "Chronology of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes". Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes.
  3. "Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope". www.ing.iac.es. Retrieved 2019-10-17.