10-11-2016, 05:26 PM
I think some clarification is needed here.
None of the three telescopes chosen to be decommissioned were chosen by Ige. I agree he has been particularly useless, but his plan was to reduce the number of observatories by 25% by the time TMT becomes operational. The actual observatories to face decommissioning were chosen by the IfA at UH Manoa after Ige announced his "plan".
The first two were obvious choices, the Hokukea and the CSO. The former has not worked since UH replaced the old 24-inch telescope with a larger one several years ago. The CSO was being decommissioned anyway, nothing to do with the TMT or Ige, and has been non-operational for some months. It will be removed from the summit area in the next couple of years. The link leilanidude posted mentions observations from the Submillimeter Array, which is not the CSO.
UKIRT was chosen for non-science reasons. It remains in the top three scientifically productive telescopes on the planet, but since the UK withdrew funding for UKIRT, it was taken over by UH and therefore became an easy target. The obvious candidate to be decommissioned was the UH-2.2 meter telescope, which is spectacularly unproductive, but UH wants to keep that site for future development, which it can't do if the observatory is removed.
None of the three telescopes chosen to be decommissioned were chosen by Ige. I agree he has been particularly useless, but his plan was to reduce the number of observatories by 25% by the time TMT becomes operational. The actual observatories to face decommissioning were chosen by the IfA at UH Manoa after Ige announced his "plan".
The first two were obvious choices, the Hokukea and the CSO. The former has not worked since UH replaced the old 24-inch telescope with a larger one several years ago. The CSO was being decommissioned anyway, nothing to do with the TMT or Ige, and has been non-operational for some months. It will be removed from the summit area in the next couple of years. The link leilanidude posted mentions observations from the Submillimeter Array, which is not the CSO.
UKIRT was chosen for non-science reasons. It remains in the top three scientifically productive telescopes on the planet, but since the UK withdrew funding for UKIRT, it was taken over by UH and therefore became an easy target. The obvious candidate to be decommissioned was the UH-2.2 meter telescope, which is spectacularly unproductive, but UH wants to keep that site for future development, which it can't do if the observatory is removed.