The aperture sizes of a lot of existing and planned large telescopes are shown in the following diagram. The mirror for this one is at the top right in blue.
Posted on 06/21/2019 7:41:17 AM PDT by Jagermonster
The state of Hawaii on Thursday issued a notice to proceed for construction to start on the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope project on the Big Island after four “unauthorized structures” were removed from the areas near the telescope’s site on the summit of Mauna Kea.
Construction on the long-delayed project could start as early as next month, which would be exactly 10 years after the telescope's international board selected the Hawaii site.
The state’s agencies involved will work with TMT officials to determine the start date. The notice gives gives the contractors and workers involved in the construction authorization to begin work, Attorney General Clare Connors said, adding that the state will work to ensure workers’ safety “as well as the right of individuals to engage in speech about the project.”
“We will proceed in a way that respects the people, place and culture that make Hawaii unique,” Gov. David Ige said in a statement. “I will continue to work with the University of Hawaii and all our partners to make meaningful changes that further contribute to the co-existence of culture and science on Mauna Kea.”
Henry Yang, chair of the TMT International Observatory board of governors, noted in a statement that it had been “a long process to get to this point.”
“We remain committed to being good stewards of Mauna Kea, and to honoring and respecting the culture and traditions of Hawaii,” Yang said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to our many friends and community supporters for their advice and for their encouragement and support of the TMT project over the years.”
Ige said the state Department of Land and Natural Resources issued the notice to the University of Hawaii at Hilo, which manages the lands at the summit, after confirming that the project completed pre-construction conditions and mitigation measures required for the conservation district use permit.
“My staff and I have carefully reviewed the TMT project plans to ensure they are aligned with the permit approved by the board and upheld by the Hawaii Supreme Court,” Suzanne Case, chair of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, said in a statement. “As this project moves forward, I ask everyone who goes to Mauna Kea to respect this unique place and its fragile natural and cultural resources.”
The BLNR had issued the permit in September 2017 at the recommendation of retired judge Riki May Amano after a contested case hearing. That decision was appealed by opponents to the project, but the Hawaii Supreme Court in October upheld the issuance of the permit.
University of Hawaii President David Lassner noted that the TMT process has taken a decade.
“We firmly believe in the benefits of the most advanced telescope in the world on the most magnificent and awe-inspiring mountain in the world,” Lassner said. We also accept the increased responsibilities for the stewardship of Mauna Kea, including the requirement that as this very last site is developed for astronomy on the mauna, five current telescopes will be decommissioned and their sites restored.”
The project's team is an international partnership that includes the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology of Indi and the National Research Council of Canada. The TMT International Observatory LLC will run the telescope operations once it is completed.
The aperture sizes of a lot of existing and planned large telescopes are shown in the following diagram. The mirror for this one is at the top right in blue.
Good news. I thought this telescope was moving to Sri Lanka to avoid the loony leftists.
Science should NEVER have to yield to religion, retards, political correctness, or nutters in general.
Mauna Kea is an eerie place, go if you can.
How much does the federal, state and local permits and licenses, and the bribes to the officials, to get all those permissions, approvals, inspections, authorizations, court hearings, legal fees, cost, before the first survey stake is driven?
wuz up there about 10 years ago. kind of strange to go from jungles to snowfields over a two hour drive.
the hike to the top left me winded. views were breathtaking too.
we didn’t get to look through the telescopes.
Continents drift faster than governments can make decisions.
We were there in April. We had to stop at the visitors center @ 9200 feet because they road to the top was covered with ice.
My friends made it to the top two days later. It was very windy.
It was my first trip to the Big Island. It really has much more dramatic climate changes than Oahu and Maui. It is incredible how much it rains on that northeast shore as opposed to the west Kona coast.
Its peak is 13,803 ft above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii. Most of the volcano is underwater, and when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, measuring over 33,000 ft in height.I had no idea that there were GLACIERS on Hawaii as recently as 13,000 years ago! How do the Global Warming Kooks explain their disappearance?Mauna Kea is about a million years old, and has thus passed the most active shield stage of life hundreds of thousands of years ago. In its current post-shield state, its lava is more viscous, resulting in a steeper profile. Late volcanism has also given it a much rougher appearance than its neighboring volcanoes due to construction of cinder cones, decentralization of its rift zones, glaciation on its peak, and weathering by the prevailing trade winds.
Mauna Kea last erupted 6,000 to 4,000 years ago and is now considered dormant. The peak is about 125 ft higher than Mauna Loa, its more massive neighbor.
With its high elevation, dry environment, and stable airflow, Mauna Kea's summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation. Since the creation of an access road in 1964, thirteen telescopes funded by eleven countries have been constructed at the summit.
There are three episodes of glaciation that have been recorded from the last 180,000 years: the Pōhakuloa (180–130 ka), Wāihu (80–60 ka) and Mākanaka (40–13 ka) series. These have extensively sculpted the summit, depositing moraines and a circular ring of till and gravel along the volcano's upper flanks. Subglacial eruptions built cinder cones during the Mākanaka glaciation, most of which were heavily gouged by glacial action. The most recent cones were built between 9,000 and 4,500 years ago, atop the glacial deposits, although one study indicates that the last eruption may have been around 3,600 years ago.
At their maximum extent, the glaciers extended from the summit down to between 10,500 and 12,500 ft of elevation. A small body of permafrost, less than 25 m (80 ft) across, was found at the summit of Mauna Kea before 1974, and may still be present.
I hope it's truly dormant. The loss of all those observatories at the summit would be immense.
5 billion will be the cost by the time all the graft gets factored in.
That’s great! This is a very dark spot and wd be perfect.
This weekend, I’m going to a state park in Georgia that is a “certified Dark Skies” site. It’s near the Okefenokee, so there’s no light nearby, although there’s a glow on the southern horizon that is probably Jacksonville (FL). There’s a ranger talk on new moon nights when you can see every star in the sky!
Geez for a moment there I thought it read notice to proceed with accepting thousands of invaders shipped from USA homeland!! DANG IT!!! Liberal SOB state needs to share in the hurt!!
“Science should NEVER have to yield to religion, retards, political correctness, or nutters in general.”
So we should listen to Bill Nye the Science Guy on global warming?
The twin Keck are really big.
This puts it in scale.
WOW.
There are crazy people on both sides of the fence.
Sometimes...science is just science.
Once Global Warming, Acid Rain, killer bees and Spotted Owl became rallying cries for free $$$, it all started to go bad.
Its going to take time for things to return to normal.
Not quite a correct comparison because religion, retards, PC and nutters are on Nye’s side.
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