Bigger telescope among
Mauna Kea development
proposals

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Allowing the development on Mauna Kea of a telescope twice as large as any that exist there now is among the recommendations being made by an advisory committee.

The University of Hawaii is continuing to seek public comment on that and other recommendations made by the Mauna Kea Advisory Committee on a new 20-year plan for the mountain.

The UH-appointed panel met for more than a year to give the university input and advice on the future of the international ground-based observatory site.

A public information briefing on the draft master plan was held yesterday in Waimea on the Big Island.

The university and project consultant Group 70 International have scheduled further briefings for 6:30 p.m. today at the Kealakehe Elementary School cafeteria in Kona, and at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at UH-Hilo's Wentworth Hall I.

The advisory committee has recommended potential astronomy development be restricted to 600 acres of the reserve, which already includes 13 observatories. There are 11,288 acres in reserve leased to the UH from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

"One of the primary thrusts of development is to look at redeveloping or almost recycling existing sites instead of going out and building new sites," said consultant Jeffrey H. Overton.

Within the 600-acre site, the committee has recommended five existing telescopes for upgrades and has placed five new sites for development. Among the new projects is a 25-meter "next generation large telescope" that would be twice as large as anything on the mountain.

Overton said the proposed master plan has design restrictions on location, size and color of new observatories so they blend in with the mountaintop. He said it is unlikely all of the proposed developments will occur within the next two years.

The proposed changes recommended for the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, based on the draft master plan, are:

Existing observatories proposed for redevelopment: The University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter and 0.06-meter telescopes; the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope; the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope; and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility.

Observatories that remain as is: the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory; the James Clark Maxwell Telescope; the Very Large Baseline Array, as well as the Gemini and Subaru telescopes, which both open this year.

The proposed observatories for an instructional 1-meter telescope at UH-Hilo; two conventional telescopes between 4 and 12 meters; the next generation large telescope; and a new optical infrared telescope.