During the week of 8 June 2020, at the remote biannual general meeting of the Large-Sized Telescope (LST) consortium, the CTA Observatory (CTAO) announced that the LST prototype, the LST-1, passed its Critical Design Review (CDR)., bring it one step closer to becoming CTA’s first telescope.
On 10 June 2020 at 20:00 CEST, the next release in our series of films about CTA — “The CTA-North Site: Our Northern Eye on the High-Energy Universe” — will premiere on a live streaming event hosted by Sky-Live.TV and the IAC.
In its first attempt to detect a gamma-ray source, the Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1) successfully detected its first gamma-ray signal on 23 November 2019 when it pointed to the Crab Nebula.
The latest news from the project office…
The latest news from the project office…
On 1 July 2019, Volker Heinz joined the CTAO as the CTA-South Site Manager. As a member of the CTA construction project, and later CTA operations, based in Chile, Volker has a key role in building up the CTA-South site team and leading and coordinating the on-site construction and operation of the observatory.
Building the world’s largest observatory is no small task. It requires meticulous consideration of every aspect of building and maintaining the technology – from funding and foundations to software and safety – and the experience and resources to determine those requirements and plot the path forward. In the past six months, we have been making major strides toward putting all the pieces in place. Here is a summary of some of the main achievements and developments within the Project Office.
On Wednesday, 10 October 2018, more than 200 guests from around the world will gather on the northern array site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to celebrate the inauguration of the first prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST). The telescope, named LST-1, is intended to become the first of four LSTs on the CTA-North site. This page will host all the materials and details from the event so please check back as we continue to build the page.
On 25 September 2018, the team constructing the LST prototype telescope, achieved the final major milestone of the construction project when they successfully installed the camera. The prototype, named LST-1, is intended to become the first of four LSTs on the north site of the CTA Observatory, which is located on the existing site of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias’ (IAC’s) Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) located in the municipality of Villa de Garafia on the island of La Palma.
During 21 and 22 June, the LST1 prototype, which is under construction at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, hit another structural milestone when its camera support structure (CSS) was installed. With the addition of the CSS – the parabolic arc holding the camera on the mirror dish – the LST is taking its final, spectacular form.