Gornergrat Infrared Telescope
Encyclopedia
Gornergrat
The Gornergrat is a ridge of the Pennine Alps, Switzerland, overlooking the Gorner Glacier to the south. It can be reached by the Gornergratbahn rack railway from Zermatt...
(3135 metres (10,285.4 ft) altitude) near Zermatt
Zermatt
Zermatt is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of about 5,800 inhabitants....
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. It was a 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) Cassegrain
Cassegrain reflector
The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas....
telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
with a tip-tilt correcting secondary and optimized for infrared observations, but was decommissioned in March 2005. The telescope and related instrumentation were run by the Istituto di Radioastronomia (IRA - C.N.R.), sezione di Firenze (former CAISMI) , with the assistance of the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri and the Dipartimento di Astronomia e Scienza dello Spazio of the University of Florence
University of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
.