Configurable Slit Unit for Canary telescope

On the Canary Island of La Palma, the world’s largest reflecting telescope is being built, the ‘Grand Telescopio de Canarias’ (GTC) with a diameter of 10.4 metres. Janssen Precision Engineering is involved in the development of instrumentation for the GTC. For the past four years, work has been done on the development of a specific and extremely compact drive and measuring system for cryogenic and vacuum applications. This has finally led to the realisation of a demonstration model of the Configurable Slit Unit for the GTC infrared instrument.