Thirty Years of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo
Celebrating Past, Present and Future of the Largest Italian Optical Telescope
2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the inauguration of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and provides an opportunity to meet for a Great Celebration and to reflect on the impact of our telescope on the astronomical community under several aspects:
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the technical and scientific achievements during these 3 decades;
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the institutional and international collaborations born to exploit its capabilities;
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the availability to students and researchers of state of the art instrumentation;
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the legacy of inspiration and values that brought together the Italian community to obtain, maintain and support a national project.
The meeting will allow the key contributors of this 30 years long adventure to get together and highlight the role of the TNG on research and innovation. It will also be the ideal framework where to discuss the options for future direction to follow in order to maintain top level science in the years to come when ELT, Plato, HWO, Einstein Telescope and several other facilities will be available.
The meeting will take three days, beginning with a Celebration with Political and Academic Authorities at Palacio Salazar in S.Cruz de La Palma. Then the Scientific meeting will begin and develop in the afternoon of the first day and in the whole following day, with invited speakers and oral or poster contributions. Finally a round table with INAF governing bodies and scientific experts will discuss on the future of the TNG. On the third day a Visit to the Observatory of Roque de Los Muchachos and a ceremony at the TNG will conclude the meeting.
Contributions
We will be pleased to accept oral or poster contributions on 3 main subjects:
- Origins and Early days
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- Memories and lessons learned from who has been there since the beginning
- Role and contribution of the TNG during these 30 years
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- Scientific and technical achievements as a front line Italian observing facility
- The TNG as a catalyst for national and international collaborations
- Training facility and test-bench for a new generation of astronomers
- Proposals for the future
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- New Instrumentation and technical improvements to make the TNG future proof
- Science fields where the TNG will be able to compete for scientific excellence
Registrations will open soon.
No registration fee will be asked, but due to the available space we could be forced to limit the number of participants.
The Meeting will be held in hybrid format, and Zoom/Meet link will be sent to registered participants attending online.