Closed telescope will gaze spaceward again

A Kitt Peak telescope that closed its dome five years ago will reopen next year, thanks to the efforts of a Tucson-based research group and its four U.S. partners.

Tucson's Planetary Science Institute and Western Kentucky University head a team spending $1 million to refurbish the 35-year-old 1.3-Meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, southwest of Tucson.

The renovation began two months ago and is expected to take nine more. When it's completed, the telescope will search for planets around stars other than our sun.

"It's a very interesting set of projects that they're going to be doing, for both educational and research uses," said Richard Green, director of Kitt Peak National Observatory. "So it strengthens the mountain in many respects."

Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1957 by a group of U.S. universities and is funded entirely by the National Science Foundation. Each year more than 500 U.S. astronomers use its telescopes.

The national observatory once operated eight telescopes on Kitt Peak, Green said, but tight budgets forced closures. The national observatory currently operates five Kitt Peak telescopes, and that number will drop to three at the end of January.

The closure of small Kitt Peak telescopes hurts some U.S. astronomers but creates opportunities for organizations like the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit research and education group established in Tucson in 1972.

After the 1.3-meter closed in the spring of 1995, the national observatory offered it to the U.S. astronomical community. The telescope would remain government property, but outside groups could operate it.

A proposal from the Planetary Science Institute and its partners beat out several other plans.

The institute teamed up with Western Kentucky University, South Carolina State University and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory on the Kitt Peak project. Boston University is also a likely partner, said Steve B. Howell of the Planetary Science Institute.

The consortium received a grant from The Planetary Society to cover maintenance and operation costs for the first three years of viewing.

With the refurbished 1.3-meter telescope, astronomers will observe distant galaxies, as well as small bodies in our solar system.

*Contact Jim Erickson at 573-4197 or at erickson@azstarnet.com.