Work to decommission a pair of Maunakea telescopes will resume this month.
The University of Hawaii’s Hoku Kea Observatory and Caltech’s Submillimeter Observatory have been slated for decommissioning and removal from the mountain for years, although the process for both observatories has been slow.
Work began on disassembling the Caltech facility last year. The observatory’s 34-foot-diameter telescope and primary mirror were removed before winter weather required work to cease.
However, CSO Director Sunil Golwala stated that the decommissioning will resume in mid-April, and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
The remaining parts of CSO, which ceased operations in 2015, to be removed include the observatory dome, its foundation, cesspool and all underground facilities. Following their removal, the land will be restored, and the site will be monitored for three years.
CSO’s decommissioning is expected to cost more than $4 million.
Meanwhile, UH will begin dismantling its own observatory on April 15. It was intended to be used as a teaching aid for UH students, but the building has been telescope-less since 2018 after its faulty 36-inch telescope was removed.
The Hoku Kea decommissioning process also will include the complete removal of the facility and its support infrastructure, and a restoration of the site. That process is expected to be completed by August.
“We are one step closer to fulfilling UH’s promise to remove observatories from the summit of Maunakea,” said Greg Chun, UH-Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship executive director, in a statement referencing a UH commitment to remove five Maunakea observatories from the mountain’s astronomy precinct.
Members of the public are advised to check the CMS website before traveling up the mountain, because the decommission processes may require temporary closures of the Maunakea Access Road.
