The Pathfinder Barcelona Raman LIDAR (pBRL), developed as a prototype system for atmospheric monitoring at the CTAO, has completed its performance evaluation phase. Its design and capabilities have now been thoroughly assessed and published in two comprehensive papers in the Remote Sensing journal. The evaluation confirmed strong overall performance, with just a few aspects to … Continued
The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), hosting partner of the CTAO, celebrated its 40th anniversary on 24 July 2025. The occasion marks four decades since the official inauguration of its headquarters and its two observatories: the Teide Observatory in Tenerife and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Canary Islands— the latter … Continued
La Palma, Spain — The international CTAO LST Collaboration released remarkable findings from observations of GRB 221009A—the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded. The results were published on 23 July by the renowned journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJ Letters). The publication presents in-depth observations conducted in 2022 with the Large-Sized Telescope (LST) prototype, the … Continued
On 3 July, the CTAO LST Collaboration successfully installed the camera support structure (CSS) on the LST-2, one of the three Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) currently under development on the CTAO-North site in La Palma, Spain. The CSS is a composite structure comprising a carbon-fibre arch made of six tubes and a camera frame that secures … Continued
(English/Spanish) This week, CTAO Managing Director, Stuart McMuldroch, and Construction Programme Manager, Volker Heinz, traveled to the Canary Islands for a productive visit with the hosting partners at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and colleagues from the CTAO Large-Sized Telescope (LST) Collaboration. The team was warmly welcomed at the IAC Headquarters in Tenerife … Continued
On September 23, the CTAO ACADA Collaboration achieved yet another milestone when the CTAO Central Organisation officially approved and closed out the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the Array Control and Data Acquisition (ACADA) system. The approval of the CDR, an in-depth evaluation to ensure the system design meets all the requirements of the Observatory, marks a new phase in the project, moving from testing to integrating the advanced software packages that will operate the arrays.
Bologna, Italy – On Thursday, 18 April, during the closing session of the CTAO Science Symposium at Teatro Duse in Bologna, the Managing Director of the CTAO, Dr. Stuart McMuldroch, officially announced the Observatory’s new phase of growth. Supported by the 30M Euro endorsement by the CTAO’s governing bodies in September 2023, this new period … Continued
On 15 December, the Large-Sized Telescope (LST) Collaboration announced through an Astronomer’s Telegram (ATel) the detection of the source OP 313 at very high energies with the LST-1.
In September and October, two teams of scientists and engineers traveled to the CTAO-North site in La Palma, Spain, to conduct pivotal tests of ACADA system on the LST-1.
On 6 September 2023, the CTAO’s two governing bodies, the Board of Governmental Representatives (BGR) and the CTAO gGmbH Council, gathered to agree on the significant forthcoming measures to advance the Observatory to its construction phase. During the meeting, both bodies unanimously certified their commitment to the progress of the CTAO, including a foreseen endorsement of up to approximately 30 million euro for 2024. This represents a significant increase in annual funding, which will enable the Observatory to not only move forward with substantial infrastructure development but also to double its workforce.