Manuel Collados, EST coordinator, summarises the main achievements of the European Solar Telescope project in the last six months.
This last semester has led to an important step forward for the EST project: the EST Canarian Foundation (EST-CF) was created on July 25 by nine research institutions from seven European countries. One of them (the University of Sheffield) signed as representative of the six universities forming the UK Universities Consortium. Other institutions are expected to join in the near future, increasing the strength of the project in more and more countries.
After the signature took place, a set of administrative steps were started. The inclusion of the EST-CF in the Registry of Foundations was the first mandatory step, the members of the different executive bodies were ratified or appointed, the bank account administrators were nominated… Not all steps are finalised yet, but the Foundation will be ready to go ahead in all legal aspects by early 2024. A phase with new possibilities will then begin. Some information regarding the first steps of the Foundation were already advanced in our social media and are now summarised in this newsletter.
We complement this issue with technical progress that continuously takes place within the project. Information is presented about an important subsystem of the EST optical system (the so-called Pier Optical Path, or POP), about some of the instruments, about seeing calculations in the EST surroundings, and about an alternative adaptive secondary mirror. These advances have been possible thanks to the dedication of the project office staff (whose creation is also described in a dedicated article of this issue) and the collaboration of the EST partners and subcontracted companies.
As usual, this issue includes a report of communication and outreach activities and a presentation of the new EST team members. In particular, the importance of the Sun in our society was highlighted in a SOLARNET international conference attended by almost 100 participants that took place in Mestre/Venice (Italy).
The whole EST project hopes you enjoy this newsletter and wishes you all the best for the coming year 2024.