Place Mammoth Telescope on Our Island, Not in Chilean Desert, Says Spain
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced last week that its site selection committee had recommended building its next giant facility, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), in Chile, not far from its current headliner, the Very Large Telescope (VLT). So far, so predictable. But astronomers and politicians in Spain are still hoping to persuade ESO to break with tradition and build the E-ELT in the north, on the Spanish island of La Palma off the coast of west Africa. La Palma is already home to more than a dozen major telescopes, and its proponents say it has many advantages over a site in Chile.
With a mirror 42 meters across, the E-ELT will be the largest optical telescope in the world when it is completed in 2018. The site selection committee has spent the past 4 years investigating the seeing conditions and infrastructure at numerous sites, including ones in Chile, Argentina, Morocco, and Spain's Canary Islands. But in the final shortlist of five sites, four were in Chile. This is hardly surprising, as all of ESO's previous telescopes have been built there. But, argues astrophysicist Jesus Burgos, a manager at the Astrophysics Institute of the Canaries (IAC), ESO previously did not have the option of sites in the Canaries because Spain was not a member—it joined ESO in 2006. IAC manages several observatories on the islands, and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma--the fifth site on ESO's shortlist for E-ELT--is currently home to the 10.4-meter Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world's largest single-mirror telescope, which began operations last year.
The ESO site selection report declared that all of the five short-listed sites had very good seeing conditions and each had particular strengths. But the panel chose to tap Cerro Armazones in Chile because it had good all-around sky quality and could be managed in an integrated fashion with the nearby VLT on Cerro Paranal. The ESO Council will consider the report at its next meeting in June, taking into account its recommendations and "all other relevant factors," ESO says. Supporters of La Palma like to point out a number of relevant factors, including the seismic risk of sites in Chile. Although all of ESO's facilities in Chile came through the recent earthquake unharmed—they are all far from the epicenter—the extra cost of making them earthquake-proof is a substantial proportion of their cost, Burgos says, adding that the seismic risk on La Palma is much lower.
Operating costs would also be lower on La Palma, Burgos says. Cerro Armazones is a remote desert location in northern Chile, so ESO must provide workshops, offices, and accommodations on site. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is 1 hour's drive from the capital of La Palma, so facilities can be provided more cheaply in the town, and staff and their families will have a better quality of life. ESO would also save a lot in travel costs because of La Palma's proximity to mainland Europe. In exchange for hosting ESO's observatories, Chilean astronomers are guaranteed 10% of observing time on its telescopes. Burgos says Spanish astronomers will compete for time with everyone else if Spain hosts the E-ELT. Perhaps most important, Spain is offering to make €300 million worth of contributions in-kind toward the building of the E-ELT, about a third of its total cost. "All of this put together in the same envelope makes tremendous advantages," says Burgos.
The siting of the E-ELT has also become a political issue, with the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, declaring his support for La Palma last month. "I honestly believe that the final decision will take into account different elements, scientific but also economic, construction, operation, as well as general conditions (seismic area, time zone, facilities for scientists, etc.), and therefore I hope that the final decision will be positive for the installation of the E-ELT on the Island of La Palma," says Gabriel Mato, a member of the European Parliament representing the Canaries. Over the next few months, Spanish delegates on the ESO Council will try to persuade other members of the benefits of La Palma ahead of their next meeting in June.
This item has been modifed to note La Palma was one of the shortlisted E-ELT sites
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