05-02-2015, 01:39 PM
All this hoopla started when there was the general press release that the observatories meant almost $100 million to the Hawaii island economy. This place is full of land sharks and that number got them all in a frenzy for a piece of the action.
The only problem is that $100M is mostly for salaries, upkeep, and a good share of it comes from the tourist traffic. Keck has 120 employees and the median salary is $80K. That is almost $10M for just wages for one observatory. UHH is getting several million but it is in observation time. They get $1 per year from each observatory and about 17% viewing time. That is being covered by the tax dollars from multiple countries paying for the operating costs of viewing time. Actually, there have been multiple layoffs going on and a few of the telescopes are down hard without repair funding. Really good article about the current status. Also, TMT is the last and UHH plans are to decommission telescopes:
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/04/mauna-k...-easy-one/
http://khon2.com/2015/04/13/uh-says-tmt-...elescopes/
UH says TMT will be last site, plans to decommission telescopes
"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
The only problem is that $100M is mostly for salaries, upkeep, and a good share of it comes from the tourist traffic. Keck has 120 employees and the median salary is $80K. That is almost $10M for just wages for one observatory. UHH is getting several million but it is in observation time. They get $1 per year from each observatory and about 17% viewing time. That is being covered by the tax dollars from multiple countries paying for the operating costs of viewing time. Actually, there have been multiple layoffs going on and a few of the telescopes are down hard without repair funding. Really good article about the current status. Also, TMT is the last and UHH plans are to decommission telescopes:
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/04/mauna-k...-easy-one/
http://khon2.com/2015/04/13/uh-says-tmt-...elescopes/
UH says TMT will be last site, plans to decommission telescopes
"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*