Move over, SDO: the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy is going to kick the telescope envy game up a notch. The National Science Foundation gave the go ahead earlier this year to break ground on the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), a 4-meter Sun dedicated platform to be built atop Haleakala Mountain on the big island of Hawaii. When completed in 2017, ATST will be the largest solar telescope in existence. From this pristine site, the ATST will deliver resolution in the order of 0.1” arc seconds and have imaging capabilities spanning the ultraviolet to infrared spectrum. Originally in jeopardy of ever reaching construction, a deposit of $146 million courtesy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act breathed new life into ATST. 8-year costs are expected to extend to about $298 million dollars total. ATST will join a growing battery of telescopes atop windswept Haleakala, including the Mees Solar observatory, the USAF Advanced-Electro-Optical System, and the Faulkes Telescope North. Environmentalists oppose the construction of the telescope, as they have for most of the instruments constructed on the big island of Hawaii. It is interesting to note, however, that where observatories are built land is usually preserved, as these instruments tend to need remote undeveloped wilderness to operate. In fact, the foot print of telescopes on the environment is pretty small compared with the average strip mall… perhaps a dual use/protection agreement would be equitable to all parties concerned? Whatever is the case, the future looks bright (pun intended) as both NASA and the NSF received boosts to pursue solar physics over the next decade.
30.04.11: Pulling the Plug on Hat Creek; SETI on-hold?
Time expousre of one of the ATA instruments.
(Credit: SETI Institute/Seth Shostak. Used with Permission).
Amidst news of royal weddings, birth certificate releases, and the usual celebrity goings on, troubling news recently came out of the University of California at Berkley. In a scene right out of certain Hollywood movie, the National Science Foundation’s funding for its Hat Creek Radio Observatory will be reduced to a tenth, effectively shutting down the Allen Telescope Array. [Read more...]