Project
Office News
One of the five potential TMT sites currently under testing is on San Pedro Martir (elevation 2800 meters) in Baja California. Continuing its sequence of visits to its potential site hosts, in November Mike Bolte and Richard Ellis of TMT visited Professor Jose "Pepe" Franco, Director of the Institute of Astronomy at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the organization responsible for operating San Pedro Martir. Mike gave a talk describing the status of TMT to interested astronomers at UNAM, and Richard gave an invited talk at the Institute Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) on the occasion of the dedication of the spectacular 50-meter Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), a collaboration between Mexico and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The LMT offers a very credible model for collaboration between the US and Mexico on a frontier science facility. This formed the basis of a very positive discussion held with Juan Ramón de la Fuente, the Rector of UNAM and his Vice President for Research, Rene Drucker. The Baja Norte region containing San Pedro Martir, which borders with California, is an area targeted for possible technical development by the Mexican government. Mike and Richard enjoyed the hospitality shown to them by colleagues at UNAM and INAOE (pictured with Pepe Franco outside the institute). TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders visits Palomar The 5-meter Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain was once the world’s largest telescope, but it eventually will be utterly dwarfed by the Thirty Meter Telescope. In late October, TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders came to Palomar and gave a talk on the TMT for the members of the Friends of Palomar Observatory (see photo). Before a packed crowd, Gary richly outlined the tradition of building great telescopes and neatly described the scientific rationale and complexity of building such an immense instrument. — W.
Scott Kardel |
