The United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre

Combining Innovation and Experience for World Leading Products

The UK ATC has a world leading track record in the delivery of facility class instrumentation systems. Observational Astronomy is very demanding on all the Engineering disciplines and any proposed new facility is almost certainly a one-off device and will either have never been done before or will need to be hundreds if not thousands of times better than any predecessor if it is to be funded. The improvements can come from one or more particular disciplines and clearly make for some fascinating challenges. Having innovative, creative staff who are up to date on all developments in their field is thus essential although equally, experience is also a necessary element in implementing the new approach into a reliable cost effective solution.