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It’s called Carmenes, which stands for Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earhts with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs. Wow. Spelling mistakes from the original Spanish article in “La Voz de Almería” by the way.
Calar Alto observatory, in the mountains above Almeria, is Europe’s largest observatory. But that hasn’t saved it from funding cuts which lead to its Director quitting recently in protest. It’s administered jointly by Spain’s CSIC and the Max Planck Institute of Germany. CSIC has almost abandoned the observatory, and Max Planck has also severely cut back. This has lead to a wave of job losses, as the remaining staff are forced to take pay cuts Continue reading Calar Alto observatory fights for survival: 20% of staff laid off
“Friends of the Calar Alto Observatory” are organising a bring your own telescope night in Almeria city. The plan is for amateur astronomers to congregate next to the Cable Ingles and learn how to align their telescopes to observe Jupiter and the Moon. You don’t have to “bring your own telescope” if you don’t have one, you can just turn up. The night is being organised along with the observatory and the townhall of Almeria, Continue reading First “bring your own telescope” astronomy night in Almeria
La Voz de Almería reports that Calar Alto, the observatory high on the hills above the desert of Tabernas, is on the brink of closure after seeing its budget slashed by 70%. “The only rational choice at this budget level” reports the director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Matilde Fernández, in an interview, “is to lay off staff and put our multi-million euro telescopes into storage”. The budget has been cut to just Continue reading Calar Alto observatory may be forced to close after budget cuts of 75%