Astronomical Instrumentation, Technology Transfer, and Its Impact on Industry (1974–Present)

From the start, both necessity and my personal conviction ensured that the building of instrumentation would be a normal activity for the IAC. I have already told (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6) how, faced with the lack of suitable site-testing instruments, we got down to work in a practical manner, unembarrassed and without complaint, using the tools we had at hand. I was a post-War child, the product of an era in which one made the best of what was available, and in which skill and ingenuity made up for shortages. Furthermore, I had come with my experience at the Daza de Valdes Optics Institute, where we put together our own instruments because of shortages (Chaps. 2, 3, and 6).