Highlights from the GTC Users Committee Meeting

[Julia de León]

Dear community of GTC users,

The first 2026 meeting of the GTC Users Committee (GUC) was held virtually on April 20-21, 2026. The committee was informed on the current status of the instruments, telescope operations, time allocation process, and other recent developments.  

Highlights:

• New instrument (I): Budget was approved by Ministers’ Council on April 22nd, 2026 to develop a new optical and near-infrared imager and spectrograph, particularly focused on transient phenomena. 

• New instrument (II): Tests will be done in the second half 2026 to prove a new detector developed by the University of Tsinghua (China).

• Data Reduction Pipelines: Major advances in the data reduction pipelines, with the incorporation of new GTC staff dedicated to this task. 

• New AI group: A group of more than 5 engineers (including an AI specialist) has been created to improve efficiency in several topics, like the automatization of the night scheduler.

 

• GTC AO System: Recent advancements include the arrival of GRANCAIN to the telescope (October 2025) as first-science instrument for the AO. 

For more details, please have a look at the GUC Meeting report:

https://www.gtc.iac.es/gtc/media/ReportGUC_260420.pdf

Regards,

The GTC Users Committee.

---

AVISO LEGAL: Este mensaje puede contener información confidencial y/o privilegiada. Si usted no es el destinatario final del mismo o lo ha recibido por error, por favor notifíquelo al remitente inmediatamente. Cualquier uso no autorizadas del contenido de este mensaje está estrictamente prohibida. Más información en: https://www.iac.es/es/responsabilidad-legal

DISCLAIMER: This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the final recipient or have rec eived it in error, please notify the sender immediately. Any unauthorized use of the content of this message is strictly prohibited. More information: https://www.iac.es/en/disclaimer