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Mauna Kea
may get extremely
large scope

The master plan includes such
a telescope, but Chile is also in the
running for the CELT

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By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Mauna Kea may be considered for a telescope with 10 times the light-collecting area of the world's largest optical telescopes, already atop the Big Island mountain.

University of California and California Institute of Technology researchers who developed the 10-meter Keck telescopes have proposed building a 30-meter California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT).

Almost routine discoveries have been coming out of the twin Kecks. CELT's mirror would allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe with more detail.

"It means you can study fainter, more distant objects in the same vein of many observations at Keck, but you can do them better," said Jerry Nelson, University of California-Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysics who heads the telescope design working group.

Mauna Kea and several sites in Chile have been mentioned for the CELT, which project leaders hope to build in 10 to 15 years.

Joseph Miller, director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory, estimated the cost at about $500 million. "We're working on the conceptual design but we don't have money in the bank so anything could happen two years from now," Nelson said in a telephone interview.

"People could say, 'Whatever happened to CELT?' It's not a sure thing but we have strong support at the highest level of academic institutions."

The master plan for Mauna Kea anticipated such a telescope, according to Robert McLaren, interim director of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.

In the plan, it's called "Next Generation Large Telescope," describing the class of telescopes CELT falls into -- bigger than a 25-meter aperture, McLaren said.

But while the plan foresees a telescope like CELT, such a project "would have to be fully reviewed, assessed and approved," he said.

As a one-time Hawaii resident, Nelson said he'd like to see the new telescope go to Mauna Kea. "But for a project like this, you have to look for the best site for scientific and technical reasons, as well as fold in political things."

A couple of sites in Mauna Kea's summit area might be suitable for a telescope as massive as the CELT, he said.

"Nonetheless, one must be sensitive to the political issues in Hawaii about developing the summit of Mauna Kea," he said.

If that site is chosen, Nelson said, project leaders would work with the community to address concerns and "not steamroll" over them.

Since the Keck telescopes are owned and operated by UC and Caltech, which CELT would be as well, Nelson thinks "there would be a very strong connection. I could envision the same headquarters in Waimea."

Because of the high maintenance costs of such facilities, however, the universities might end up selling or trading off part of Keck to support CELT, Nelson said.

"It's all highly speculative as to what would happen in 10 years," he said.

McLaren said there is a trend to give the national astronomy community more access to large telescopes, mostly in private hands, in return for more federal support.

"In the case of Keck, it's unlikely that would happen real soon," he said, noting NASA is a partner in the telescope operation.

Nelson said CELT leaders probably will start thinking seriously about sites in a year and aim for a decision in about four years.

With CELT and adaptive optics, astronomers should be able to study galaxies and other distant things with better angular resolution than the Hubble Telescope, he said.

"You really win bigger by a bigger telescope, with more light sensitivity and better resolution, sharper. We will learn more about what's happening at the distant edge of the universe."

CELT also will be powerful in exploring star-forming regions and planet formation, Nelson said. "It has a lot of potential. Our (astronomy) communities are really excited about this.

"Experience has shown when you're building new facilities like this, the most exciting stuff that comes out of it you haven't anticipated at all -- things you just didn't even know."