241
particularly in the Canaries and Chile, with the aim of finding the best site for
this telescope. Throughout this time-consuming process Spanish experts had
to waste a great deal of time countering, with hard data, disparaging rumours
being peddled by experts in site-testing from ESO concerning the sky above
the Canarian summits. Casiana Muñoz Tuñón, one of the most knowledgeable persons at the time on matters relating to astronomical site characterization, was well informed of the tricks being used repeatedly. She had to devote
much time and effort to dismantling the false rumours with measurements
taken on site with modern instruments, as well as writing serious scientific
articles published in international journals dedicated to the subject. Her work
is there for all who care to look.
Professor Jean Vernin, chairman of the E-ELT Site Characterization
Working Group, criticized what he saw as the scandalous choice of Armazones
in an email sent to, among others, Tim de Zeeuw, the then Director General
of ESO. He stated that Cerro Armazones was the one site not measured by
this international team, created precisely to certify which site was the best for
the emplacement of Europe’s super telescope, and that it had in fact been
previously discarded by the Americans for the TMT. He emphasized in his
email that Armazones was ‘the only site we have not probed, and the which
has been abandoned by the TMT group who preferred Mauna Kea’. He ended
by complaining that ESO was also making confused references in the press to
results from a certain site-testing team that was certainly not the one led by him.
Should there be any remaining doubt that ESO did not reject Roque de los
Muchachos Observatory on scientific or economic grounds, there is the telling evidence that the United States, in the light of problems in Hawaii, has
now selected Roque de los Muchachos Observatory as an alternative site for
its Thirty Meter Telescope. Their decision was made public on 31 October
2016 and is still in force, even though the Supreme Court of Hawaii has
granted permission for the telescope’s construction at Mauna Kea. The TMT
leaders have said on numerous occasions that the ORM was chosen for sound
scientific reasons, based on comparative measurements of sky quality. They
also cite economic, operational, and security reasons. It is difficult to overlook
that Chile is an extremely seismic zone.
It is public knowledge that, given various problems with ecologists and
native Hawaiian sensibilities, it was decided to seek an alternative site for the
TMT. After a couple of years of intense comparative studies of San Pedro
Mártir (Mexico), Ali (China), Hanle (India), Cerro Vicuña, Cerro Honar,
and Cerro Armazones (Chile), and Roque de los Muchachos (Spain), the
Americans opted for the ORM. The NOAO Newsletter for March 2017
favourably reviewed the ORM’s excellent conditions for astronomical
22 The European Extremely Large Telescope…
particularly in the Canaries and Chile, with the aim of finding the best site for
this telescope. Throughout this time-consuming process Spanish experts had
to waste a great deal of time countering, with hard data, disparaging rumours
being peddled by experts in site-testing from ESO concerning the sky above
the Canarian summits. Casiana Muñoz Tuñón, one of the most knowledgeable persons at the time on matters relating to astronomical site characterization, was well informed of the tricks being used repeatedly. She had to devote
much time and effort to dismantling the false rumours with measurements
taken on site with modern instruments, as well as writing serious scientific
articles published in international journals dedicated to the subject. Her work
is there for all who care to look.
Professor Jean Vernin, chairman of the E-ELT Site Characterization
Working Group, criticized what he saw as the scandalous choice of Armazones
in an email sent to, among others, Tim de Zeeuw, the then Director General
of ESO. He stated that Cerro Armazones was the one site not measured by
this international team, created precisely to certify which site was the best for
the emplacement of Europe’s super telescope, and that it had in fact been
previously discarded by the Americans for the TMT. He emphasized in his
email that Armazones was ‘the only site we have not probed, and the which
has been abandoned by the TMT group who preferred Mauna Kea’. He ended
by complaining that ESO was also making confused references in the press to
results from a certain site-testing team that was certainly not the one led by him.
Should there be any remaining doubt that ESO did not reject Roque de los
Muchachos Observatory on scientific or economic grounds, there is the telling evidence that the United States, in the light of problems in Hawaii, has
now selected Roque de los Muchachos Observatory as an alternative site for
its Thirty Meter Telescope. Their decision was made public on 31 October
2016 and is still in force, even though the Supreme Court of Hawaii has
granted permission for the telescope’s construction at Mauna Kea. The TMT
leaders have said on numerous occasions that the ORM was chosen for sound
scientific reasons, based on comparative measurements of sky quality. They
also cite economic, operational, and security reasons. It is difficult to overlook
that Chile is an extremely seismic zone.
It is public knowledge that, given various problems with ecologists and
native Hawaiian sensibilities, it was decided to seek an alternative site for the
TMT. After a couple of years of intense comparative studies of San Pedro
Mártir (Mexico), Ali (China), Hanle (India), Cerro Vicuña, Cerro Honar,
and Cerro Armazones (Chile), and Roque de los Muchachos (Spain), the
Americans opted for the ORM. The NOAO Newsletter for March 2017
favourably reviewed the ORM’s excellent conditions for astronomical
22 The European Extremely Large Telescope…