The United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre

UK ATC History

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 UK’s 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.