Opened in 1987, the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) is one of the most productive telescopes of this type in the world and as part of the Isaac Newton Telescope Group is jointly operated by the Council for Science and Infrastructure of the United Kingdom (STFC), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.
The WHT is a general purpose telescope equipped with instruments that allow it to develop a wide range of astronomical observations, from optical wavelengths to near infrared.
Since its location on the island, it has played an important role in the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe and has made important contributions in the fields of observational cosmology, gamma ray bursts, galaxy dynamics and the evolution of stars and bodies of the solar system. Its particularname is due to William Herschel, a German astronomer author of the discovery of Uranus.
