The New Robotic Telescope will be 4-meter class telescope with a fast response time (less than 30 seconds) as its primary design target. To achieve this, enough structural stiffness and a quick settling time are key factors. Over the last year, important updates to the structure have been carried out. The biggest update consists of changing the

Volume Phase Holographic Gratings (VPHGs) are optical element widely used in astronomical spectrographs as main disperser or cross-disperser in high resolution echelle instruments. In spite of the fact that other technologies are available on the market, the VPH technology remain a key one. In the EU funded OPTICON project, different activities

With the increasing size of the ground based telescopes, the lines used to carry and distribute cryogenic gas or fluid to instruments need continuously to be longer. Cryogenic transfer lines of a few 10 meters will be common in future infrastructures. Transfer cryogenic fluid requires highly insulated lines in order to minimise the coolant

The magnetic field is the main driver of the activity in the solar upper atmosphere, but its measurement is notoriously difficult. In order to determine the magnetic field in the chromosphere, transition region, and corona, we need to measure and interpret the polarization signals that the scattering of anisotropic radiation and the Hanle and