For the first time, a telescope on the Hawaiian volcano Maunakea has been completely dismantled – it was dismantled, removed and its place was restored to its previous conditions. The effort comes under an agreement between the University of Hawaii and Maunakea Administration and Oversight Authoritydesigned to ease tensions over the construction of a new telescope on the mountain: the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Since the 1960s, 13 telescopes have been built at Maunakea, a site that is sacred to the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands because it is where the earth meets the sky. As such, any new Maunakea observatory has been met with concern by protesters who believe that building new telescopes on this volcanic mountain is sacrilegious. However, the astronomical community, has fought to find a balance between their scientific research plans and the needs of the indigenous Hawaiian culture. That’s because Maunakea offers uniquely pristine sky viewing conditions. Things came to a head with protests against the planned Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which, if built, would be the second largest telescope in the world – and the largest on Maunakea.
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However, questions still remain over the future of TMT. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has said it can only provide funding for one of the TMT, or Giant Magellan Telescope, which is planned to be built in Chile. A panel was assembled to determine which project NSF should help fund. The losing observatory may still be able to move forward if it gains enough private funding, but the fate of the Thirty Meter Telescope in Maunakea remains far from certain.
However, experts are preparing for the event that TMT really goes ahead.
Until recently, the telescopes at Maunakea were managed by the University of Hawaii, but in an effort to work more closely with native Hawaiians, management of the observatories has been handed over to the newly created Maunakea Authority. The authority contains representatives from the local government, the university, as well as the observatories themselves. It also aims to feature people with experience and understanding of Hawaiian culture in order to help guide the most appropriate use of the mountain.
As part of the surrender — and as part of an agreement to hopefully get a permit to build the Thirty Meter Telescope — the University of Hawaii has agreed to decommission three observatories on the mountain. Now, the first of these — the University of Hawaii Hilo’s 36-inch Hōkū Keʻa telescope, which was used for teaching — has been taken down.
The telescope could not be haphazardly destroyed; rather, its closure was to follow a four-point “Decommissioning Plan” as part of the University of Hawaii’s Maunakea Comprehensive Management Plan. The four points begin with the announcement of the intention to close a telescope; this is followed by conducting environmental due diligence and site assessments. Then, careful deconstruction and removal of the telescope, its observatory dome, buildings and associated infrastructure can take place. Finally, the site must be restored to its original state, which also includes monitoring the area for three years to see what impact the restoration had on encouraging local wildlife.
“Maunakea warrants the highest levels of stewardship and we remain steadfast in our collaborative efforts to honor and protect the cultural and environmental significance of this aina [the Hawaiian word for ‘land’]University of Hawaii Hilo Chancellor Bonnie Irwin said in a statement. “The removal of Hōkū Keʻa reflects the university’s ongoing commitment to reduce the presence of telescopes on Maunakea.”
The dismantling of Hōkū Keʻa began in April and cost $1 million. More expensive is the removal of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), which is much larger with a radio dish that is 10.4 meters (34 feet) in diameter. Seeing the first light in 1986, the CSO was closed in 2015, being replaced by new instruments such as Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.
The dish belonging to this submillimeter telescope, which was named the Leighton Telescope after astronomer Robert Leighton, who first proposed the CSO in 1973, was dismantled just before Christmas 2023. The removal of the dome and the rest of the observatory’s infrastructure is now being developed, for the amount of 4 million dollars.
The third telescope to be removed will be UKIRT, the UK Infrared Telescope, a 3.8-metre (150-inch) telescope originally owned and managed by the UK but handed over to the University of Hawaii in 2014. Since then, it has continued to function in an automatic, unassisted manner. Under the agreement with the Maunakea Authority, two more telescopes must also be removed from the mountain by 2033 if TMT can find a way forward.
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