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Astrophysicists from Imperial College, London, after measuring the good
behaviour of the atmosphere for observing in the near-infrared, requested
permission to install their 1.52-metre telescope (optimized for this wavelength
range) at Teide Observatory. The corresponding agreement, following the
template of the Bordeaux agreement, was signed, and a young Spanish astrophysicist, Carlos Sánchez, was appointed to work with our British colleagues.
That is how infrared astronomy, which was later to chalk up success after success, began in Spain (Chaps. 17 and 18).
Another agreement was negotiated in the early seventies with Belgium’s
University of Mons to install a 60-cm photometric telescope. Since there was
no money available, the building to house the telescope was raised by our own
astrophysicists. There is now a spectrograph mounted on the telescope, and
university students use it for their practicals.
At around the same time, an agreement was signed with the Kiepenheuer
Institute at Freiburg set up a 70-cm vacuum solar telescope in a solar tower
built at the expense of the cash-strapped University Institute of Astrophysics.
We sent another of our young researchers, Manuel Vázquez, to Germany for
training in solar physics.
In the mid-seventies an agreement was reached with the University of
Birmingham to permit the setting up at Teide Observatory of their pioneering
solar instruments based on the principle of resonant scattering. We began by
assigning to them the now customary young researcher. His name was Teodoro
Roca. That is how the IAC’s helioseismology team was born. Today, Teide
Observatory is a node of many worldwide networks of this branch of solar
physics.
I must now mention a failure. At the beginning of the seventies, French
astronomers were building their giant 3.6-m telescope, and they knew that
their country did not provide the requisite conditions for its emplacement.
They knew of recent site-testing campaigns, including those of the European
Southern Observatory, but the very good results we had been getting at Teide
Observatory, particularly from our observations of the zodiacal light, seems to
have encouraged them to think of Tenerife. They set up an equatorial telescope to measure the optical quality of the atmosphere, and a team of engineers assessed the costs of building their telescope here. Until, that is, the
arrival of Professors Cayrel and Jefferies.
From the letters we exchanged, I could see that they were very decided to
come to Tenerife. Only two things worried them: the double dependence of
the Teide Observatory on the Universities of La Laguna and Madrid, and having to negotiate with the Franco government. I do not know exactly what
happened, but they finally opted to take their telescope to Hawaii. General
10 A Multinational Astrophysics Treaty (1960–2014)
Astrophysicists from Imperial College, London, after measuring the good
behaviour of the atmosphere for observing in the near-infrared, requested
permission to install their 1.52-metre telescope (optimized for this wavelength
range) at Teide Observatory. The corresponding agreement, following the
template of the Bordeaux agreement, was signed, and a young Spanish astrophysicist, Carlos Sánchez, was appointed to work with our British colleagues.
That is how infrared astronomy, which was later to chalk up success after success, began in Spain (Chaps. 17 and 18).
Another agreement was negotiated in the early seventies with Belgium’s
University of Mons to install a 60-cm photometric telescope. Since there was
no money available, the building to house the telescope was raised by our own
astrophysicists. There is now a spectrograph mounted on the telescope, and
university students use it for their practicals.
At around the same time, an agreement was signed with the Kiepenheuer
Institute at Freiburg set up a 70-cm vacuum solar telescope in a solar tower
built at the expense of the cash-strapped University Institute of Astrophysics.
We sent another of our young researchers, Manuel Vázquez, to Germany for
training in solar physics.
In the mid-seventies an agreement was reached with the University of
Birmingham to permit the setting up at Teide Observatory of their pioneering
solar instruments based on the principle of resonant scattering. We began by
assigning to them the now customary young researcher. His name was Teodoro
Roca. That is how the IAC’s helioseismology team was born. Today, Teide
Observatory is a node of many worldwide networks of this branch of solar
physics.
I must now mention a failure. At the beginning of the seventies, French
astronomers were building their giant 3.6-m telescope, and they knew that
their country did not provide the requisite conditions for its emplacement.
They knew of recent site-testing campaigns, including those of the European
Southern Observatory, but the very good results we had been getting at Teide
Observatory, particularly from our observations of the zodiacal light, seems to
have encouraged them to think of Tenerife. They set up an equatorial telescope to measure the optical quality of the atmosphere, and a team of engineers assessed the costs of building their telescope here. Until, that is, the
arrival of Professors Cayrel and Jefferies.
From the letters we exchanged, I could see that they were very decided to
come to Tenerife. Only two things worried them: the double dependence of
the Teide Observatory on the Universities of La Laguna and Madrid, and having to negotiate with the Franco government. I do not know exactly what
happened, but they finally opted to take their telescope to Hawaii. General
10 A Multinational Astrophysics Treaty (1960–2014)