09-03-2016, 06:30 PM
"Is it so that the observatories would have to (hopefully only temporarily) stop work if/when MK started rumbling?"
Minor earthquakes aren't generally a problem, but our own rule of thumb is that if there's a mag 4 or greater earthquake the telescope needs checking. A large enough earthquake can move things enough that we wouldn't know where we are pointing anymore (same for the other telescopes). How that gets fixed is different for all the observatories.
You might find this interesting - a visiting observer describing a time when an earthquake shifted UKIRT:
https://youtu.be/yn5pHqENfJA
Minor earthquakes aren't generally a problem, but our own rule of thumb is that if there's a mag 4 or greater earthquake the telescope needs checking. A large enough earthquake can move things enough that we wouldn't know where we are pointing anymore (same for the other telescopes). How that gets fixed is different for all the observatories.
You might find this interesting - a visiting observer describing a time when an earthquake shifted UKIRT:
https://youtu.be/yn5pHqENfJA