The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope or JKT is a 1-metre optical telescope named for the Dutch astronomer

Jacobus Kapteyn Prof Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn FRS FRSE LLD (19 January 1851 – 18 June 1922) was a Dutch astronomer. He carried out extensive studies of the Milky Way and was the discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation. Kapteyn was also among the fi ...

(1851-1922) of the

Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes or ING consists of three optical telescopes: the William Herschel Telescope, the Isaac Newton Telescope, and the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, operated by a collaboration between the UK Science and Technology ...

at the

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory Roque de los Muchachos Observatory ( es, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, ORM) is an astronomical observatory located in the municipality of Garafía on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The observatory site is operate ...

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 ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mor ...

, Spain. Funded jointly by the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and No ...

with planning throughout the 1970s, construction of the JKT was completed in 1983 with the first photographic plate taken in March 1984. It can be used with two different focal points and different instruments, although by 1998 this was refined to one CCD imaging instrument. The telescope weighs nearly 40 metric tons in total. Being superseded by more recent and larger telescopes, it was taken out of service as a common-user facility in August 2003. Since 2014, the telescope is owned by the

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is an astrophysical research institute located in the Canary Islands, Spain. It was founded in 1975 at the University of La Laguna. It operates two astronomical observatories in the Canary Island ...

(IAC) and operated by the ''Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy'' (SARA) which has retrofitted JKT as a remotely operated observatory (under the internal designation SARA-RM), with the first new observations in this regime in April 2016.

Timeline

Summary: *1984-2003 ING * 2003-2014 occasional project use * January 2014, IAC ownership * 2015, resumed operations as robotic telescope for SARA

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References

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External links

The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) JKT Page

The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA)

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
Optical telescopes Astronomical observatories in La Palma

Timeline

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See also

References

External links