The pre-optics for HARMONI, the optical and infrared spectrograph to be installed on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) at Cerro Armazones (Chile), has passed successfully the test of the optomechanical design produced by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The instrument will now proceed to the Final Design Phase, prior to the start of the building of the instrument for this telescope of 39 metres in diameter, the largest project in optical and infrared astronomy of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

This astronomical event will be broadcast live in the early hours of January 3rd from the Canary Observatories, via the sky-live.tv channel, with the collaboration of the European Project Interreg EELabs and the Innovation Service of the Cabildo of the Island of La Palma. After the impressive data of the activity of the 2020 Geminids (the last major meteor shower of the year) the expectations for the Quadrantids are very high, even though this time the Moon will make it hard to see the fainter meteors. Usually the Geminids and the Quadrantids show activity approaching 100 meteors per hour

DRAGO, the infrared camera developed by the team at IACTEC-Space of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, has seen its “first light”. The instrument, placed in orbit in January from Cape Canaveral is in its commissioning phase. The images taken show the mouth of the rio Meghna in the Ganges delta, the largest delta in the world. Even though it is a preliminary test, the quality of the results is well above expectation and show what DRAGO will be able to do once it is fully operational. On January 24th 2021 the infrared camera DRAGO (Demonstrator for Remote Analysis of Ground Observations