The Galileo National Telescope (TNG) is a 3.6 meter Alt-Az telescope installed at the Astronomical Observatory of the Rogue de Los Muchachos in La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain). The Galileo drive and control systems were designed and developed by the Technology Working Group (TWG) of the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, Naples (Italy). This paper reports a description of the dynamic model identification approach, and its use in the controller design.