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The Ceremony

The Primary Mirror

The Exhibition in La Palma

The great day came and everything went off beautifully.

On June 29, under a hot sun mitigated by a cool breeze, the imposing aluminium-covered structure of the TNG building shined at its best after all the delays suffered in the past months of horrible weather, while the telescope inside it gave the impression of a giant imprisoned by its walls.

In fact the telescope and building are locked together and rotate jointly. One of the lateral walls of the Nasmyth rooms was not mounted to make space for the visitors.

The primary mirror cell stood on the floor behind the telescope, not yet equipped with the actuators for fear of possible damage to their delicate wiring in the hectic acitvities preceding the dedication day. The mirror itself was also safely stored away in the aluminizing tank of the U.K. William Herschel Telescope.

The ceremony started on the bridge where representatives of the international scientific community headed by the Italian and French ministers of Education and Science awaited the Royal retinue.

At 13.00 the King and Queen of Spain followed by the President of the Canary Islands Regional Governement and by other political and military authorities, entered the telescope building while its slit shutters opened silently flooding the interior with light and the windscreen was raised. The new instrument was then inaugurated with the unveiling of a plaque by King Juan Carlos I.

Following the visit to the TNG facilities illustrated by TNG director Cesare Barbieri, their Majesties signed the book of honour in the telescope control room and subsequently exited the building to meet the other authorities on a platform opposite the waiting public.

After a much appreciated speech by our minister Luigi Berlinguer, delivered in Spanish, and the words by the President of the Canary Islands Regional Governement, Manuel Hermoso, and by the French and Spanish ministers, Francois Bayrou and Esperanza Aguirre, the King himself expressed his satisfaction for this new addition to the Canarian Observatory of the Roque de los Muchachos, which indeed makes it the European Northern Observatory.

In the afternoon all the visitors were brought down to Santa Cruz de La Palma where their Majesties opened the exhibition "From Galileo to the GALILEO", admiring the precious collection of antique original astronomical instruments coming from several Italian Institutions, as well as the modern part of the exhibition where advanced applications in optics and informatics were described.

Although it is clear that the TNG is not yet ready for scientific work, the inauguration was not only a formal act, but also served two purposes. On the one hand, the deadline of June 29 meant a powerful driver for everyone concerned to speed things up and concentrate efforts. On the other hand, it marked the beginning of a phase of more specifically astronomic work, such as mounting of the mirrors, making alignments, testing the optical system, control of movement and tracking, and in general of all the hardware and software that will make the TNG the sophisticated new eye opening to the skies it has been designed to be.