ABSTRACT:

The development of the astrophysics science requires new technical and more sophisticated tools to complete the observation tasks successfully. During the last years, some teams are developing bigger telescopes with the latest technologies, allowing to obtain better results in the astronomical observations. In this way, the Spanish Government and some partners developed and built a telescope with the biggest primary mirror of the world called "GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS" (GRANTECAN) in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, being considered the biggest telescope of the world. As the engineer of the Enclosure Group, responsible of the Civil Work and Auxiliary Installations of the GRANTECAN project, I will show in this paper a summary of the geotechnical studies, a brief description of some of the mandatory requirements for the telescope pier foundations, and the final design to accomplish the foundations and structure project requirements.

This content is only available via PDF.
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.