Chaos at Kitt Park

8/18/2019 Chaos at Kitt Park

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18 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE OCTOBER 2015

Telescopes Under Siege: Kitt Peak

Although the future of the 2.1-metre telescope atopKitt Peak in Arizona seemed quite dismal at the time,on May 22, 2014, I joined two ‘retired’ professionals-

turned-amateurs, Mark rueblood and Larry Lebofsky, for anight of observations there. Teir goal was to capture new images of some potentially hazardous asteroids — havingorbits that might slam them into Earth — so that dynamicistscould better calculate those orbits.

At rst their effort was stymied by clouds — what Lebofsky called “big, puffy, white things.” So we hung out, waiting, andchatted about the state of observational astronomy and theimpending loss of the 2.1-metre. A workhorse for decades, itwas scheduled for shutdown in two months because of funding shortages. Te instrument was one of only a handfulof professional telescopes in the USA available to the generalastronomy community and to highly skilled amateurs likerueblood and Lebofsky. It was for this reason that both werewilling to wait as long as necessary for the clouds to clear. Asrueblood noted that night, “I really want to get some datathis last time.”

Te threatened shuttering of the 2.1-metre, however, waspart of a much larger nancial crisis for four scopes on KittPeak. With the US National Science Foundation (NSF) facedwith a at budget, as well as increased costs to build andoperate several new state-of-the-art telescopes, something hadto give. And as explained by David Silva, director of theNational Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), when the

NSF asked the astronomical community to list its scienticpriorities using existing facilities, “unfortunately Kitt Peak came up on the short end.”

Nor was the NSF alone in putting its NOAO and NationalSolar Observatory (NSO) Kitt Peak scopes at the bottom of

Chaos at Kitt As science agenciestighten their belts,

some publicly fundedtelescopes are seeking

inventive paths forward.

TELESCOPE MOUNTAIN Two dozen telescopes sit on or near Kitt

Peak’s summit The unusual triangle of the McMath-Pierce Solar

Telescope (foreground) was designed to mimic the shape of a

sundial’s gnomon The diagonal tube extends deeper underground

than it does into the sky NOAO AURA NSF


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www.skyandtelescope.com.

ak ROBERTZIMMERMAN


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and sizes, capable o observing inoptical, inrared and radio wavelengths.Some, like the 4-metre Nicholas U.Mayall elescope and the McMath-

Pierce Solar elescope, were nationalobservatories planned and constructedor the mountain itsel. Whencompleted, the Mayall was the second-largest telescope in the world, while theMcMath-Pierce still remains tied orworld’s largest solar telescope.

Other telescopes originally housed atdifferent locations moved to Kitt Peak to take advantage o its dark skies andclear air. Case Western ReserveUniversity’s 0.6-metre telescope, orexample, was built in 1939 in Clevelandbut was relocated to Kitt Peak in 1979.

Te ownership and operation o these

telescopes also varied. Although NSFleases Kitt Peak rom the ohonoO’odham nation, it does not actually own or operate most o the two dozentelescopes there. Instead, NOAO, underits agreement with NSF, acts as thelandlord — maintaining the roads andproviding the utilities — whilenumerous other universities,partnerships, and organisations (such asNSO) do the owning and operating.

The majority ofastronomers whodon’t reside orwork at institutionsthat own their owntelescopes are justgoing to be out ofluck

the list. During this same time periodYale University also decided towithdraw rom the mountain.

As a result, in 2014 Kitt Peak was

threatened with some major changesand cutbacks, with several o its twodozen telescopes on the nancialchopping block.

“Te astronomical community isacing a situation where the majority o astronomers who don’t reside or work atinstitutions that own their owntelescopes are just going to be out o luck,” says John Salzer (IndianaUniversity), president o the 3.5-metreWIYN telescope’s board o directors.“Tey are not going to have access toground-based telescopes.”

Building a city oftelescopesKitt Peak’s astronomical history beganin the 1950s. At that time a panel o astronomers recommended that theNSF establish a national observatory orastronomical and solar research as wellas or education. Such a acility wouldprovide American astronomers accessto proessional-grade telescopes, even i their respective universities had no

money to build or maintain suchinstruments themselves.

Based on this recommendation andafer several years o site research, KittPeak was chosen as the best location

or the national observatory. Te NSFsigned a lease in 1958 with the ohonoO’odham nation or the use o about110 hectares on top o the mountainand then created cooperativeagreements with what would laterbecome NOAO and NSO or operating various telescope acilities on thesummit.

During the next hal century, KittPeak attracted telescopes o all shapes

THE MAYALL T-metre Mayalthe largest optinfrared telescon Kitt Peak Bin the s itsturdy enoughhandle the plaDark EnergySpectroscopicInstrument whastronomers wto conduct a survey documethe universe’sexpansion ovetime PETE MARENNOAO AURA NSF


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For example, the WIYN 3.5-metrewas built in the 1990s and operated by apartnership o three universities — theUniversity o Wisconsin, IndianaUniversity and Yale — plus NOAO, withthe our holding a 26%, 17%, 17%, and40% share o the partnership,respectively.

Similarly, NSO controlled andoperated the two solar scopes on themountain, the McMath-Pierce Solarelescope and (until 2014) the SynopticOptical Long-term Investigations o theSun (SOLIS) acility, with NOAO againacting as landlord. NSF unds bothNOAO and NSO, making therelationship even more convoluted.

Tus, despite being proprietor overthis telescopic metropolis, NOAO ully owns only two telescopes there, the4-metre Mayall and the 2.1-metre. Fordecades, both o these, as well as

NOAO’s 40% o WIYN time, were madeavailable or serious research to anyonein the general astronomy community,

THE WIYN The -metre WIYN

telescope named for its original

partners (University of Wisconsin

Indiana University Yale and NOAO)

sits at the southern end of Kitt Peak

NOAO’s portion of observing time will

now be dedicated to exoplanet studies

MARK HANNA NOAO AURA NSF

including observers such as ruebloodand Lebosky.

Budget squeezeIn 2014, however, this decades-longarrangement aced some major changes,including the threatened (temporary)slowdown o the Mayall and theshutdown o three telescopes: the2.1-metre, the McMath-Pierce Solarelescope and WIYN.

Te changes rst began with NSO,which in 2003 decided that it needed towithdraw rom Kitt Peak. Tis decisionwas part o NSO’s long-term plan,which recognised that or it to operatethe new 4-metre Daniel K. Inouye Solarelescope (DKIS) in Hawai‘i (slatedor rst light in 2019), the agency needed to nd additional operatingunds. Tose unds were to come romthe money used to operate acilities at

Kitt Peak.NSO thereore decided to remove

SOLIS to an as-yet-undetermined new

location, while handing off theoperation o the McMath-Pierce Soelescope to someone else or closindown entirely. Originally the plan cor a slow ramp-down o operationunding, to be completed in 2019, sthat there would be time to nd anoentity to take over McMath-Pierce.

In 2012, however, a NSF review bcommittee o astronomers mandatthat this ramp-down be acceleratedthat NSO be off the mountain no lathan the end o 2015. As a result “thwill be a little bit o a gap,” explainsDeputy Director Mark Giampapa. are working hard to nd potentialpartners who could operate thetelescope acilities during and aferramp-down period.”

As part o this effort NSO hassolicited the solar science communTey have so ar assembled a tentat

consortium o about eight scientistrom both NASA and variousuniversities who “are in the process


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seeking unds” or the telescope’scontinued operation, he says. So ar,however, this effort will only keep thetelescope operating through 2015.

Beyond that date the uture remainsunknown. NSO is even looking intowhat it would cost to decommissionMcMath-Pierce. Tis decommissioningcould range rom “mothballing to totalsite deconstruction and reclamation,”Giampapa says.

Crises and comebacksTat same 2012 NSF review alsoaccelerated NOAO’s exit rom Kitt Peak and the divestment o its telescopesthere. Te NSF reduced unds or theKitt Peak optical telescopes to pay oroperations elsewhere, chiey theAtacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array in Chile and NSO’sDKIS, explains Robert Blum, NOAO’s

deputy director. Eventually thesesavings will also help pay or the LargeSynoptic Survey elescope when itbegins operations in the next decade.

Te review also decided, however,that NOAO would remain as Kitt Peak’slandlord, maintaining the utilities androads as it has or decades.

Te 4-metre Mayall ortunately had anew collaboration under way. Based onthe 2014 recommendations o a panel o physicists, the US Department o Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory will use it to undertake a

5-year survey to study dark energy. Teproject will use the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, to beinstalled sometime in the 2018–19timerame. NOAO will continue tooperate the telescope, but theDepartment o Energy will und it.

As with NSO, NOAO’s plan had beento ramp down its budget slowly untilthen, to maximise use o the telescopeduring this transition. Te NSF review mandated, however, that NOAO alsodivest itsel rom Kitt Peak by the end o 2015. As a result, the use and availability o the 4-metre during the transition

period will be greatly curtailed. “We willhave to do some things like take someinstruments out o rotation, provideewer instruments on the telescope, andmost likely go to longer, survey-typeprograms,” explains Lori Allen, directoro Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Troughout 2014 and into thebeginning o 2015 the 2.1-metretelescope remained completely orphaned, however. Kitt Peak issued a

call or proposals rom the community,

or anyone who wanted to operate the2.1-metre. By mid-2014 it had receivedour proposals with serious inquiriesrom a total o six parties, but nonecould be nalised beore 2015.

Tus, on July 31, 2014, the 2.1-metrewas officially shut down.

In March 2015, however, a university partnership won the right to take overthe telescope. Te agreement was notyet public when this article went topress, but i all goes well, Allen hopesthe telescope will reopen or researchsometime this year.

Ten there are the budget problemsat the 3.5-metre WIYN telescope. In2013 Yale decided that its research andacademic priorities no longer includedWIYN, and it ormally pulled out o thepartnership in 2014. Tis pullout,combined with NOAO’s decision tocease its participation, lef WIYN with aloss o 57% o its nancial support.

Since then the remaining partnershave been scrambling to nd others topick up the shortall, with mixedsuccess. In late 2014 they obtained onenew partner, the University o Missouri,but as Salzer noted then, “We are not at

the point o having lled our dancecard. We are substantially short o that.”

Early in 2015, however, NASAstepped orward and proposed that, inpartnership with the NSF, it assume theNOAO portion o WIYN’s partnership.Te deal will have NASA build andinstall on WIYN an extremely preciseradial-velocity spectrometer, designedto observe candidate exoplanets andconrm their existence while also

Robert Zimmerman posts regularly onwebsite, behindtheblack.com, on scientechnology, politics and culture.

obtaining their masses. NOAO will

manage this program or the agencand so will remain a WIYN partnershare o telescope time will still be oto the community, but with prioritygiven to proposals devoted to this w

In early 2015 NASA put out a caproposals to build this instrument. the meantime WIYN remains ullyopen and unded, available orexoplanet as well as general researc

The futureO the our Kitt Peak observatoriesaced with a budget crunch, only on

the McMath-Pierce Solar elescopecurrently aces shutdown. Tere is strong effort to prevent that shutdoor make it very temporary.

Despite Kitt Peak’s improvedsituation, my evening with ruebloand Lebosky at the 2.1-metre remabittersweet. While the telescope mibe saved, it wasn’t going to be savedthem. Under the telescope’s new partnership, serious, independentresearchers will only have access tonights per year; the other nights nobelong to those paying or its opera

And although the larger national

observatory instruments in the worwill also be open to all, competitionbe stiffer on these big-aperture scopand there will be ewer nights availTe question o where independenastronomers will go in the uture otelescope time remains unanswered

CLOUDY SKIES

SOLAR TELESC

The McMath-Pi

Solar Telescop

ties with Big B

Observatory fo

world’s largesttelescope with

an aperture of

metres This in

shot looks up t

instrument’s tu

(the telescope

has a focal len

of metres)

The telescope’

financial future

remains unclea

PETE MARENFELD

AURA NSF

Chaos at Kitt Park

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