xi
Foreword
For the following hundred years, things were quiet in Tenerife as regards
astronomy, but in 1959 astronomers flocked to Tenerife to observe a total
eclipse of the sun. It was soon after then that Professor Francisco Sánchez
began the titanic and miraculous task of creating one of the world’s leading
international astronomical observatories and the Instituto de Astrofísica de
Canarias (IAC).
Francisco Sánchez, the great dreamer, was heart and soul devoted to promoting the excellent quality of the skies above the Canarian summits in order
to persuade European astronomers to send their most advanced telescopes to
the Canaries and to recruit young Spaniards for training as astrophysicists
with the help of their foreign colleagues. His skills had to extend not only to
scientific research and theory, but also to make of them formidable people
with the organizational skills needed to pilot the funding and development of
a major scientific installation with successive Spanish governments.
As a result of Francisco’s passion and tireless powers of persuasion, Teide’s
telescopes were operational in the 1960s and, in an inspiring international
spirit of collaboration, under his baton, Teide grew in the ensuing 50 years
into one of the best-known astrophysics research centres in the world, in
terms of science, technology, training of astrophysicists and technologists, and
outreach. Today, the Canarian Observatories occupy many hectares, and
house solar and nocturnal telescopes owned by more than 60 institutions
from more than 20 countries. Thanks to Paco’s vision and genius, Spanish and
international astrophysics now operates not only in Tenerife but also at Roque
de los Muchachos Observatory on the neighbouring island of La Palma,
which now boasts, among its many fine instruments, one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), inaugurated
in 2009.
This book tells the history of this extraordinary expansion of Spanish
astronomy, in detail, from a personal and human perspective, and I am deeply
honoured to have been asked to write this foreword.
As final personal note, Paco and I became great friends in my many successive trips to Tenerife, during which I came to appreciate him as an outstandingly human being, always dedicated to his work, yet never too busy to enjoy
wonderful food and drink in the perfumed air of Tenerife. And he did me the
honour of opening the doors of his University to me one more time in 2006
to help me complete the PhD studies that I had begun 30 years earlier. My
PhD thesis, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, was finally
published in 2007.
This book tells, in personal and human, as well as technical, detail, the
story of the extraordinary expansion of Spanish astronomy under Professor
Foreword
For the following hundred years, things were quiet in Tenerife as regards
astronomy, but in 1959 astronomers flocked to Tenerife to observe a total
eclipse of the sun. It was soon after then that Professor Francisco Sánchez
began the titanic and miraculous task of creating one of the world’s leading
international astronomical observatories and the Instituto de Astrofísica de
Canarias (IAC).
Francisco Sánchez, the great dreamer, was heart and soul devoted to promoting the excellent quality of the skies above the Canarian summits in order
to persuade European astronomers to send their most advanced telescopes to
the Canaries and to recruit young Spaniards for training as astrophysicists
with the help of their foreign colleagues. His skills had to extend not only to
scientific research and theory, but also to make of them formidable people
with the organizational skills needed to pilot the funding and development of
a major scientific installation with successive Spanish governments.
As a result of Francisco’s passion and tireless powers of persuasion, Teide’s
telescopes were operational in the 1960s and, in an inspiring international
spirit of collaboration, under his baton, Teide grew in the ensuing 50 years
into one of the best-known astrophysics research centres in the world, in
terms of science, technology, training of astrophysicists and technologists, and
outreach. Today, the Canarian Observatories occupy many hectares, and
house solar and nocturnal telescopes owned by more than 60 institutions
from more than 20 countries. Thanks to Paco’s vision and genius, Spanish and
international astrophysics now operates not only in Tenerife but also at Roque
de los Muchachos Observatory on the neighbouring island of La Palma,
which now boasts, among its many fine instruments, one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), inaugurated
in 2009.
This book tells the history of this extraordinary expansion of Spanish
astronomy, in detail, from a personal and human perspective, and I am deeply
honoured to have been asked to write this foreword.
As final personal note, Paco and I became great friends in my many successive trips to Tenerife, during which I came to appreciate him as an outstandingly human being, always dedicated to his work, yet never too busy to enjoy
wonderful food and drink in the perfumed air of Tenerife. And he did me the
honour of opening the doors of his University to me one more time in 2006
to help me complete the PhD studies that I had begun 30 years earlier. My
PhD thesis, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, was finally
published in 2007.
This book tells, in personal and human, as well as technical, detail, the
story of the extraordinary expansion of Spanish astronomy under Professor