The Great Canary Telescope, one of the world's largest and most powerful, opened its shutters, turned its vast 10.4 meter (34-feet) wide mirror toward the skies and captured its first light at a mountaintop on one of Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday. The ¤130 million (US$179 million) telescope, designed to take advantage of pristine, clear skies at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory atop the Atlantic island of La Palma, should be fully operational by May 2008. At 01.00 hours (2300 GMT) on a crystal-clear night, Spain's Crown Prince Felipe keyed in the computer codes which brought the observatory's complex machinery to life. «The observatory is located above the clouds at 2,400 meters (7,870 feet) above sea-level where, thanks to prevailing winds, the atmosphere is very stable and transparent,» the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute said in a statement. Slowly, 12 of the telescope's eventual 36 mirrors aimed at a binary _ or twin _ star close to the Earth's northern axis, near the North Star. Twelve images merged into one as the telescope focused, the Associated Press reported.
