Dodging a Flaming Bullet
Julianne at 2:18 am, July 13th, 2007It seems that Kitt Peak, home of most of the US’s National Optical Astronomical Observatory’s north american telescopes, has been spared. Over the last several days it was threatened by the Alambre wildfire in Arizona, to the point where the observatory was evacuated, with the exception of a few key personnel. Smokey webcam pictures are here.
The fear of disaster was quite real, as an important observatory in Australia was indeed overrun by fire in 2003. Mount Stromlo observatory lost several telescopes, along with an instrument lab which at the time contained a million dollar instrument which was being built for another facility. (Pictures of the disaster are here, and background is here).
Astronomers like to put telescopes on top of high mountains with dry conditions, both of which improve the quality of the images that can be obtained, and the likelihood that weather will be agreeable. These sites are typically remote (to avoid light pollution) and are frequently environmentally sensitive (do a Google search on “Mount Graham” and “red squirrel”). As a result, observatories typically have dry conditions, and nearby vegetation that cannot be disturbed. Frequent droughts aren’t helping either.
So, for now the telescopes seem to have been spared, but this probably won’t be the last time you’ll read about an endangered observatory.
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Hi Julianne - I guess building a Moat or surrounding the observatories with a series of olympic sized swimming pools, are out of the question. Maybe I’m asking for too much, or simply biased in my solutions.
So, the astronomers are not to blame for choosing locations in places that are frequently hit by fires, unlike NASA for choosing the location of Kennedy Space Center in an area that has a lot of thunderstorms
Count Iblis, I thought the desirability of launching eastward, over the ocean, from relatively close to the equator pretty much dictated that there was going to be a tradeoff for weather.
Gosh. If only we had a telescope in space far away from atmospheric disturbances. If only … .
Goddamn squirrels. Too bad the fires on Mount Graham a few years ago didn’t take all of them out, eh?
Frumious, I’m pretty sure that we need more than one telescope. Satellites are never going to put ground-based astronomy out of business.
Count Iblis: I’m sure that the southern US location was an important part of the NASA decision to have a quasi-equatorial launching facility, and if a rocket goes haywire, then there is a large expanse of water where it can go and not hurt anyone. Unfortunately, that large expanse of water at the edge of the continent is also one of the reasons behind the hurricanes and storms, so their safe launching facility has its downsides.
Mt. Stromlo doesn’t really fit the pattern of building telescopes on high mountains in dry conditions away from population centers. Mt. Stromlo is a hill in the suburbs of the Captital, Canberra, in one of Australia’s wetter regions. The Australians considered developing a new observatory in the South-central Flinders Mountain range, which is very much dryer than Mt. Stromlo. But, they gave up after running some seeing tests.
I can’t resist posting this story:
While observing on Kitt Peak last March an illegal immigrant stole my coat and camera bag out of my car. Illegal immigrants on Kitt Peak have become an increasing problem, as it is relatively close to the border and the white domes are easy to see from afar (many illegals are instructed to “walk to the domes” to be picked up there). At any rate, he was caught while still on the summit and I was able to recover my coat and camera, but one of my lenses was missing. It wasn’t clear if another person had made off with the lens, or if it was hidden somewhere. I wasn’t able to find it then, nor when I returned a few weeks ago. But while clearing brush in anticiaption of the approaching fire my lens was found hidden in a crack in a rock. Without the fire it may have never been found. Life is strange.
These days ground-based telescopes are built well above the tree line in places such as Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Atacama in Chile.
Travis, that’s interesting to hear. There’s not been much talk on my side of Cherry Ave. about the illegal immigrant problem up there. Even though, one time I was driving up the road, when I saw someone walking down it. From afar, it looked like another astronomer and my thought was that perhaps his car had broken down. I slowed down, and as I did so, realized that it was not that person. I rolled my window down just a crack and the guy said in broken English, “Go up?” At the same time, he tried the door handle. Thankfully, I almost always travel with my doors locked. I said no and drove off, but was rather scared about the whole incident. Those I related the story to said that there wasn’t any reason to worry, but I guess there is.
Karen, unfortunately the days of Mayberry are over on Kitt Peak. Aside from my experience, there have been several break-ins to the dorms and residences of there. Its the last place I thought I’d ever have to lock my door. So far there’s been no violent crime, but your experience is certainly a concern. There’s been a good amount of talk about it at NOAO. Perhaps you should bring it up on your side of the street.