The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) is based at the Royal Observatory in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, and is part of the

Science and Technology Facilities Council The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astro ...

. The UK ATC designs, builds, develops, tests and manages major instrumentation projects in support of UK and international

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

. It has design offices, workshops and test facilities for both ground- and space-based instruments, including a suite of test labs capable of handling the largest current and projected instruments.UK Astronomy Technology Centre
. UK ATC information sheet. Retrieved 5 January 2011. The UK ATC was formed in 1998 in Edinburgh from the technology departments of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (ROE), and the

Royal Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...

, Cambridge (RGO). Its initial "customers" were the then new

Gemini Observatory The Gemini Observatory is an astronomical observatory consisting of two 8.1-metre (26.6 ft) telescopes, Gemini North and Gemini South, which are located at two separate sites in Hawaii and Chile, respectively. The twin Gemini telescopes prov ...

, the former ROE observatories in Hawaii (the

James Clerk Maxwell Telescope The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a submillimetre-wavelength radio telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, US. The telescope is near the summit of Mauna Kea at . Its primary mirror is 15 metres (16.4 yards) across: it is the lar ...

(JCMT) and the

United Kingdom Infrared Telescope The United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) is a 3.8 metre (150 inch) infrared reflecting telescope, the second largest dedicated infrared (1 to 30 micrometres) telescope in the world. It is located on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i as part of Mau ...

(UKIRT)), and a former RGO observatory, the Isaac Newton Group on

La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...

.UK ATC history
UK ATC. Retrieved 1 April 2012. More recently, collaboration with the

European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based ast ...

(ESO) and for the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Sp ...

(JWST) have gained importance. Major projects and collaborations include: * Several first-generation instruments for the Gemini Observatory. * A mid-infrared spectrometer for the UKIRT and the Gemini Observatory. * Data acquisition and reduction software for the UKIRT and the JCMT. * The Wide Field Infrared Camera for the UKIRT. * The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver of the

Herschel Space Observatory The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telesc ...

. * The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for UK universities and ESO. * A high-sensitivity, wide-field, sub-millimetre camera for the JCMT (SCUBA2). * The MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) for the JWST. * Observing tool software for the

Atacama Large Millimeter Array The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The ...

. * Design studies for ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope. * An infrared K-band multi-object spectrometer for ESO's

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...

. * The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

funded Optical Infrared Coordination Network for Astronomy (OPTICON). Following increased government emphasis on

knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer is the sharing or disseminating of knowledge and the providing of inputs to problem solving. In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to ...

and declining funds for the

the UK ATC is increasingly working on projects with astronomical institutions beyond the UK and the EU, with institutions dedicated to science and technology other than astronomy, and with technology-related businesses.

Gallery

Agreement signed to build HARMONI spectrograph for the E-ELT.jpg, UK Astronomy Technology Centre is member of consortia that build instruments for E-ELT. UK ATC lab 1.jpg, "Flexure rig" to simulate operational movement on a telescope. UK ATC lab 2.jpg, Lab with clean room.

References

External links

UK ATC

ATC Innovations

OPTICON
{{authority control Astronomy institutes and departments Astronomy in the United Kingdom 1998 establishments in Scotland Research institutes in Edinburgh Research institutes established in 1998 Science and Technology Facilities Council 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom

Gallery

See also

References

External links