The news media are beginning to take note of the fight by UC astronomers to preserve the Lick Observatory:
University of California astronomers are in a fight over the future of
historic Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton, where arrays of
telescopes spy on stars and galaxies and the Milky Way's far-off
exoplanets... The issue involves a recent university decision to end its
funding for the observatory within five years - a move UC Santa Cruz
astronomers say would force the observatory to close unless they're able
to find outside money to keep it open. Despite
a long record of advanced research at the 125-year-old observatory,
four UC faculty committees and a panel of outside experts ranked Lick
lower on their priority lists for long-term university funding than two
far more powerful observatories that are being managed jointly by UC
Santa Cruz and the California Institute of Technology. The
W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Big Island, whose twin telescopes are
the most advanced in the world, was listed above Lick for UC funding,
as was the Thirty-Meter Telescope now being designed by UC and Caltech
and slated to be the most powerful ground-based telescope ever built.
That project, also in Hawaii, is expected to cost $1.2 billion...
Full story at http://m.sfgate.com/science/article/UC-astronomers-fight-to-save-Lick-Observatory-5470123.php
Will the powers-that-be give Lick another Look?
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