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Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association

The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) Scientific Association (NOTSA) was founded in 1984 to construct and operate a Nordic telescope for observations at optical and infrared wavelengths.

The current Associates of NOTSA are :

The executive bodies of NOTSA are the NOT Council and the Directorate.

Advice and assistance to the Council is provided by the Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) and the Scientific-Technical Committee (STC).

Advice to the Director and STC on specific issues related to instrumentation is provided by the following four Instrument User Groups:

  • Optical Imaging: Chair: H. Dahle, Oslo (Chair), J. Hjorth (Copenhagen), G. Ostlin (Stockholm), and T. Pursimo (NOT);
  • Near-IR Imaging: J. Kotilainen, Turku (Chair), A. Djupvik (NOT), B. Thomsen (Aarhus), and M. Wold (ESO);
  • Optical and Near-IR Low-Resolution Spectroscopy: J. Fynbo, Copenhagen (Chair), T. Augusteijn (NOT), N. Ryde (Uppsala), and J.-E. Solheim (Oslo);
  • High-Resolution Optical Spectroscopy: T. Hackman, Helsinki (Chair), S. Frandsen (Aarhus), N. Piskunov (Uppsala), and J. Telting (NOT).

History of NOT

The first proposal for a Nordic Telescope came from Prof. Bengt Strömgren, and it was discussed in Sweden and during 1980. Together with Anders Reiz, Strömgren obtained funding from the Carlsberg foundation for a feasibility study. This study was made for a 2.5m telescope by Torben Andersen and presented in July 1981.

In the November 1981 Nordic Astronomy Meeting in Lund the idea of a NOT was presented to a wide audience of Nordic astronomers. In a subsequent Nordic Astronomy Meeting in Helsinki, in February 1982, the NOT idea obtained general support from Nordic astronomers. A Nordic Optical Telescope Committee was formed in September 1982. At the end of 1982, Torben Andersen presented a revised project study.

An application for funding a NOT was made in the beginning of 1983. In May 1983 the Swedish Natural Science Research Council allocated 600 kSEK for initial project activities. Shortly thereafter, the Danish Natural Science Research Council allocated 100 kDKK. This started a wide range of activities among which site testing and discussions of design details played an important role.

In December 1983 the Nordic Council of Ministers allocated 8 MSEK to the NOT project. Immediately following this, the four Nordic countries involved (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) secured the remaining 21 MSEK for the project.

In January 1984, the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association was formed and NOTSA Council members as well as a NOTSA Director (Arne Ardeberg) were appointed. In July 1984, the first solid project work started. This included both detailed comparative site testing and technical work. The Risø technical group was formed.

In early 1985 Nordic astronomers agreed on the main design features of the NOT. At the same time, the site for the telescope was chosen to be the Canarian Island of La Palma.

First light at the NOT came late 1988, and regular observing started during 1989.

In July 1997, Iceland became the fifth member of NOTSA.

The current director of NOTSA is Johannes Andersen.

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