161
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_17
17
Astronomical Instrumentation, Technology
Transfer, and Its Impact on Industry
(1974–Present)
From the start, both necessity and my personal conviction ensured that the
building of instrumentation would be a normal activity for the IAC. I have
already told (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6) how, faced with the lack of suitable sitetesting instruments, we got down to work in a practical manner, unembarrassed and without complaint, using the tools we had at hand. I was a post-War
child, the product of an era in which one made the best of what was available,
and in which skill and ingenuity made up for shortages. Furthermore, I had
come with my experience at the Daza de Valdés Optics Institute, where we
put together our own instruments because of shortages (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6).
When I began to study astronomy and discovered astrophysics, I realized
that all the great paradigm-shifting discoveries involved technological leaps
forward in scientific instrumentation. It would be necessary to build new
instrumentation in Spain too. We had to shake off, once and for all, Unamuno’s
dictum, ‘Let others invent’.
I have begun this chapter by repeating what has always been the philosophy
that led the IAC to become a research centre with its own programme of
instrumentation development and technology generation. Already in the seventies, motivated by our desire to develop local technology through astrophysical instrumentation, we daringly designed and built what we called the
‘automated telescope’, conceived for measuring the various components of
nocturnal sky brightness. It was a highly automated instrument comprising
an array of seven small telescopes, controlled by a NOVA 1200 computer (the
first operating computer in the Canaries in fact). The NOVA 1200 marked
the birth of the Computer Centre of the IAC, and also that of the University
of La Laguna.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_17
17
Astronomical Instrumentation, Technology
Transfer, and Its Impact on Industry
(1974–Present)
From the start, both necessity and my personal conviction ensured that the
building of instrumentation would be a normal activity for the IAC. I have
already told (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6) how, faced with the lack of suitable sitetesting instruments, we got down to work in a practical manner, unembarrassed and without complaint, using the tools we had at hand. I was a post-War
child, the product of an era in which one made the best of what was available,
and in which skill and ingenuity made up for shortages. Furthermore, I had
come with my experience at the Daza de Valdés Optics Institute, where we
put together our own instruments because of shortages (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6).
When I began to study astronomy and discovered astrophysics, I realized
that all the great paradigm-shifting discoveries involved technological leaps
forward in scientific instrumentation. It would be necessary to build new
instrumentation in Spain too. We had to shake off, once and for all, Unamuno’s
dictum, ‘Let others invent’.
I have begun this chapter by repeating what has always been the philosophy
that led the IAC to become a research centre with its own programme of
instrumentation development and technology generation. Already in the seventies, motivated by our desire to develop local technology through astrophysical instrumentation, we daringly designed and built what we called the
‘automated telescope’, conceived for measuring the various components of
nocturnal sky brightness. It was a highly automated instrument comprising
an array of seven small telescopes, controlled by a NOVA 1200 computer (the
first operating computer in the Canaries in fact). The NOVA 1200 marked
the birth of the Computer Centre of the IAC, and also that of the University
of La Laguna.