Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
	Overview of some of the telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.
Alternative names	ORM
Organization	Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ;
Observatory code	950
Location	Garafía, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Coordinates	28°45′49″N 17°53′41″W / 28.7636°N 17.8947°W
Altitude	2,396 m (7,861 ft)
Established	29 June 1985
Website	www.iac.es/en/observatorios-de-canarias/roque-de-los-muchachos-observatory,%20https://www.iac.es/es/observatorios-de-canarias/observatorio-del-roque-de-los-muchachos
Telescopes	DIMM-TNG; FACT; LST-1; Carlsberg Meridian Telescope; Dutch Open Telescope; European Solar Telescope; Galileo National Telescope; Gran Telescopio Canarias; HEGRA; Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes; Isaac Newton Telescope; Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope; Liverpool Telescope; MAGIC; MASCARA; Mercator Telescope; Nordic Optical Telescope; Swedish Solar Telescope; Wide Angle Search for Planets; William Herschel Telescope ;
	Location of Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
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	[edit on Wikidata]

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Spanish: 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 operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, based on nearby Tenerife. ORM is part of the European Northern Observatory.

The seeing statistics at ORM make it the second-best location for optical and infrared astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. The site also has some of the most extensive astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere; its fleet of telescopes includes the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope as of July 2009,^[1] the William Herschel Telescope (second largest in Europe), and the adaptive optics corrected Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope.

The observatory was established in 1985, after 15 years of international work and cooperation by several countries, with the Spanish island hosting many telescopes from Britain, The Netherlands, Spain, and other countries. The island provided better seeing conditions for the telescopes that had been moved to Herstmonceux by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, including the 98 inch aperture Isaac Newton Telescope (the largest reflector in Europe at that time). When it was moved to the island it was upgraded to a 100-inch (2.54 meter), and many even larger telescopes from various nations would be hosted there.

^ Klotz, Irene (24 July 2009). "New telescope is world's largest ... for now". Discovery. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2019 – via NBC News.

[1] Klotz, Irene (24 July 2009). "New telescope is world's largest ... for now". Discovery. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2019 – via NBC News.

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