This week, CTAO Managing Director, Stuart McMuldroch, and Construction Programme Manager, Volker Heinz, traveled to the Canary Islands for a productive visit with the hosting partners at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and colleagues from the CTAO Large-Sized Telescope (LST) Collaboration. The team was warmly welcomed at the IAC Headquarters in Tenerife by IAC Director, Valentín Martínez, marking the first official meeting between the two directors since Valentín recently assumed this role.

Hosted by Ramón García López, Principal Investigator of the CTAO group at the IAC, the visit was thoughtfully coordinated with a full schedule of meetings and tours to maximise its outcome. Alongside Juan Cortina (Chair of the Institutional Board of the LST Collaboration) and Javier Herrera (Department Head at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, ORM), the group met to discuss key issues for the site’s development and toured the IACTEC building, a state-of-the-art facility where the CTAO telescopes’ cameras are tested before installation.

The visit continued beyond Tenerife, with the team traveling to the CTAO-North site at the ORM on La Palma. There, they joined Patricia Márquez (LST Telescope Manager) to see the current status of the telescopes and align on a unified approach to advance the shared goals. 

It is an exciting time for all involved, as the array on La Palma progresses and the global partnership behind the CTAO continues to strengthen.