The GTC Acquisition Cameras and Wavefront Sensors are based on a modular design with remote, low-profile and lightweight CCD heads and a compact CCD controller. The cameras employ E2V Technologies Peltier cooled CCD47-20 and CCD39-01 detectors, which achieve 1Hz and 200Hz full frame readouts, respectively. The CCD controller is a modified version

It is foreseen that the Gran Telescopio Canarias will include an Adaptive Optics (AO) system to provide diffraction-limited images in the near-IR. The preliminary scientific requirements are presented here and are used to determine the basic system specifications. The sky coverage is determined for the cases of natural and laser guide stars. The

Aims: NGC 2992 is an intermediate Seyfert 1 galaxy showing outflows on kilo parsec scales which might be due either to AGN or starburst activity. We therefore aim at investigating its central region for a putative starburst in the past and its connection to the AGN and the outflows. Methods: Observations were performed with the adaptive optics near

The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, located on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, is home of many astronomical facilities. In the context of the Extremely Large Telescope Design Study, an intensive lidar campaign was performed in the ORM near the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (17°52'41.2" W, 28°45'40.1" N, 2395 m asl) between 26th May

Evolved stars observed within the Penn State - Torun Center for Astronomy Planet Search (PTPS) conducted with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope are supposed to present various effects of activity. In addition to chromospheric activity and/or pulsations one may expect spots temporarily appearing on their surfaces and rotating with stars that mimic

We present a design for the computer systems which control, configure, and monitor the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) correlator and process its output. Two distinct computer systems implement this functionality: a rack- mounted PC controls and monitors the correlator, and a cluster of 17 PCs process the correlator output into raw spectral