The MAGIC Telescope System
The two 17-m MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes are sited at an altitude of some 2200 metres, and form part of the European Northern Observatory on the Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. MAGIC is an international collaborative project that involves some 160 researchers based at institutions in Germany, Spain, Italy, der Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, India and Japan.
Eines der beiden MAGIC-Teleskope auf La Palma, Spanien (Foto: Alice Donini / MAGIC)
The fact that the telescope could be rapidly pointed at the source of the gamma-ray burst is a testimony to the quality of their powerful drive technology. The system’s components were manufactured by companies located in Lower Franconia and assembled by scientists and technicians in the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at JMU and at the Max Planck Society’s Werner Heisenberg Institute for Physics. The extraordinary precision and rapid response of the MAGIC telescope system was a decisive factor in the discovery of the GRB and an essential prerequisite for the acquisition of a unique set of measurements of the early high-energy phase of a hypernova explosion.
Die MAGIC-Teleskope sind auf die Beobachtung heftiger, kurzlebiger Himmelsereignisse wie z.B. Gammablitze spezialisiert. (Foto: Robert Wagner / MAGIC)
Welcome to Photonworld – a platform for knowledge, interesting facts and science on the topic of light. Photonworld aims to provide a basic understanding of the physics of light and its countless phenomena. From medicine, to art and physics: all topics are covered.
Photonworld originated as an initiative of the excellence cluster the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP) and the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ).
The initiator of the project is Prof. Dr. Ferenc Krausz, Chair of Experimental Physics at the LMU and Director of the MPQ.
Photonworld’s Student Zone reports directly out of the PhotonLab, which is supported by the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST) and the DFG Research Unit FOR 2783. At the PhotonLab, schoolteachers and students can find up-to-date information about experiments and goings-on at the lab, and plan their own visit to the laboratory.
