HILO — Following a year of a setbacks, from protests to lawsuits, the astronomy community in Hawaii might have something to look forward to in 2016 as the oldest observatory on Mauna Kea gets a major makeover.
Guenther Hasinger, director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, said UH plans to begin a $6 million renovation of its 2.2-meter telescope that will allow the nearly 46-year-old facility to operate largely on its own.
He said the result will be a “modern robotic telescope” that will be able to open and close its dome automatically, depending on weather conditions, and make pre-programmed scans of the night sky, hopefully by the end of 2016.
With the help of adaptive optics, which adjusts for the distortion in the atmosphere, Hasinger said it could rival the Hubble Space Telescope, which has a slightly larger 2.4-meter aperture.
“It’s a huge improvement,” he said.
The funding includes $2.5 million from the state Legislature and $500,000 in private contributions, Hasinger said.
The money from the Legislature also included $450,000 for UH-Hilo to replace its broken Hoku Kea teaching telescope.
That telescope was one of three identified for early decommissioning as a result of Gov. David Ige’s request for a quarter of the telescopes at the summit to be removed by the time the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope is built.
The new Hoku Kea teaching telescope and dome will be placed initially at the UH-Hilo campus, possibly also in 2016. While it now can’t be placed on Mauna Kea, Hasinger said a more permanent location with clearer skies than Hilo is still being pursued.
In addition to Hoku Kea, the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, which stopped operations last year, and the UKIRT telescope also are planned to be removed.
Ige has said reducing the existing footprint on the mountain is part of his pledge to improve management of the summit, considered sacred ground by some Native Hawaiians.
“They (the university) promised to take out obsolete telescopes, so they should do it, and we’re going to make sure that they do,” the Honolulu Star-Advertiser quoted the governor as saying earlier this month.
Hasinger, while thanking Ige for his supportive comments regarding TMT, said he disagrees with his characterization of the telescopes as being obsolete. The only one that might fit that description is CSO, which already was planned to be removed, he said.
Hasinger referred to the UKIRT, formerly known as the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, as the second most scientifically productive telescope in the world, behind the Keck telescopes.
“That one is hurting us the most,” Hasinger said, regarding its removal.
UH officials said they selected UKIRT for early decommissioning because it owns the telescope and the site was not expected to be reused after the university’s master lease expires in 2033.
Hasinger estimates UKIRT could operate for another seven to eight years prior to TMT’s completion, assuming the $1.4 billion observatory is able to regain its land use permit, which the state Supreme Court overturned nearly a month ago, and survive any other legal challenges.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.