The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is the national centre for astronomical technology. We design and build instruments for many of the worlds major telescopes. They also project-manage UK and international collaborations. Their scientists carry out observational and theoretical research into fundamental questions such as the origins of planets and of galaxies. In 1998 there was a major reorganisation of British astronomy which had a profound effect on the two government funded Royal Observatories. One result of this reorganisation was that some of the functions of the old Royal Observatories were transferred to a new organisation – the UK ATC.

An independent panel recommended to the PPARC Council that the UK ATC should be located at the ROE and the UK ATC was formally established here in April 1998. It was clear from the outset that the UK ATC was expected to work in a new, more commercial style, so was set up to form a customer-contractor relationship with the UKs overseas telescopes and other agencies. Within the first five years of its inception the UK ATC delivered novel and state-of-the-art instruments for the Gemini Observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (all in Hawaii), and the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma.

For more information, please visit http://www.roe.ac.uk