The Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) is the national facility of the Italian astronomical community, and is located at Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the Island of San Miguel de La Palma.
TNG is a 3.58m Alt-Az telescope equipped with an active optics system. Its two Nasmyth foci host three instruments which are permanently mounted and operating. HARPS-N (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern hemisphere) is an echelle spectrograph. NICS (Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer) is the TNG infrared (0.9-2.5 µm) multimode instrument. DOLORES (Device Optimized for the LOw RESolution) is a focal reducer instrument.
The TNG was initially operated by the Centro Galileo Galilei (CGG) which was created in 1997 by the Consorzio Nazionale per l'Astronomia e l'Astrofisica (CNAA). In 2002 it became a part of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) which ensures its financial support. TNG is hosted by the "Fundación Galileo Galilei - INAF, Fundación Canaria" (FGG), a Spanish non-profit institution constituted by INAF.
Observations at the TNG can be proposed through the Italian Time Allocation Commitee (TAC) which assigns, based solely on the scientific merit of the proposals, 75% of the available time. There is no restriction on the nationality of the proposers.