HAWAII TO WELCOME A SUPERMASSIVE TELESCOPE...AND SAY ALOHA TO A SECOND MONOLITH

Let me start with the Thirty Meter Telescope, finally cleared for construction on Mauna Kea...maybe.  But first, you can't compare telescopes without an astronomical scorecard.  There are so many kinds of telescopes that biggest, best, whatever depends on location, type, viewing spectrum and a dozen other parameters.

Will the TMT be the "biggest?"  Nope.  The European-Extremely Large Telescope, already under construction in Chile (southern hemisphere), the green one (the TMT is the large blue to the right) will have an aperture of 39.3 meters, versus 30 meters for the Hawaii 30 Meter Telescope.  So now you know what those numbers represent.

The aperture is the capture area of a telescope.  Remember the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico used in the movie Contact?  Completed in 1963, this radio telescope has an aperture of 1,000 feet, or 305 meters.

However, in 1974, Russia commissioned a 600-meter radio telescope (below) in Zelenchukskaya.  In 2016 the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) was completed in southwestern China.

Then, of course, there is that venerable Hubble Telescope (2.4 meters, but in space), to possibly end operations in 2021, after serving for more than 30 years circling the globe.  Cost?  At the value of the dollar today, around $5 billion, including all those years of operation.  Was it worth it?  Well, Hubble most accurately indicated that our Universe is between 13.7 and 13.8 billion years old, that there are supermassive black holes at the center of nearly all galaxies, the expansion of our Universe is speeding up and certainly took pretty photos:

Located 7000 light years from Earth, "Pillars of  Creation" looks like mere clouds, but the photo is an inconceivably colossal 4 to 5 light years across, about as far away as Alpha Centauri is from Earth.

Next, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with a 6.5-meter aperture, named after a former head of NASA, noted for shepherding the Apollo program.  After considerable delays, launch could now occur in 2021.  Originally estimated to cost $5 billion, looks now like north of $10 billion.  JWST is a better Hubble.  Nothing particularly new in scope.

Here is a useful comparison of those TMT type telescopes:

Name                         First Light  Location  Aperture   Altitude    Cost

                                                                    in meters   meters   Billion $

Extremely                      2024       Chile           39.3        3060     $1.245

Large

Thirty                            2027       Hawaii         30           4050     $1.4

Meter

Giant                             2024        Chile           24.5        2516     $1.0

Magellan

Large Binocular            2008        Arizona       11.8        3221     $0.153

So if the TMT ever actually sees first light, would this be a waste of money to come in second place too late?  Nah, look at the plus side.  This would be the dominant telescope in the Northern Hemisphere in the best place on Earth to see into space.  Access will be easier than those instruments in Chile.  Read this Wikipedia site for details.  

Way back in 2003, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded $17.5 million set aside funds to support TMT.  In 2010 I met with Guy Toyama, and, to quote:

Guy's legacy might well be Blue Revolution Hawaii and the Pacific International Ocean Station.  A couple of years ago, we were having lunch in Kona when he mentioned how billionaire Gordon Moore had provided funds to initiate the Thirty Meter Telescope Project.  As Guy had an office at Keahole Point at the entrance of the NELHA, why not the Blue Revolution with support from a billionaire?  Thus was born Blue Revolution Hawaii, which proposed the Pacific International Ocean Station.

That other retiring technological monolith I keep making fun of at least yearly is a $2 billion floating golf ball posing as the Sea-Based X-Band radar.  The retirement part will not be until 2025 or so, when land-based sensors will be installed to track ballistic missiles.  Hawaii is the most threatened U.S. state, for we have no real detection capability, even though we're closest to North Korea.  I still don't personally think that spending all those funds for this purpose is justified, even though we certainly got a scare last year.

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