The National Science Foundation, for example, altered its tactics after it had to move VERITAS to a second-choice location. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2003, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0049-9_6. Sage, L.J. 2000, Letter from Forest Supervisor, Coronado National Forest, to Sage. The first two telescopes (which were relatively small in size and already fully funded at the time of the protests) sped through construction. Telephone from Safford Vicinity: (928) 428-2739 Telephone from Tucson: (520) 621-8650 Fax: (928) 428-2854 5 hours ago — Michael J. Battaglia | Opinion, 9 hours ago — Michael Eisenstein and Nature magazine, Scientific American Space & Physics is a roundup of the most important stories about the universe and beyond. Environmental activists on Mount Graham, for example, included Earth First!—a group known to directly sabotage construction projects and lead violent rallies—whereas the Mauna Kea protest is taking place “in the spirit of ‘aloha,’” or peace, according to its leaders, meaning the activists do not stand against anyone, they simply stand for their mountain. The spruce-fir summit of Mount Graham is at least 900 acres in extent. Mount Graham International Observatory 1480 W. Swift Trail Safford, AZ 85546. Only about 200 survive. Graham is where the Jesuits admit they are monitoring something approaching the earth. Although work on the telescope’s components has continued at sites outside Hawaii, whether and how the project will proceed is unclear. And for both the TMT and the LBT debates, colonialism hangs heavily over the controversy. [ 3] I Download preview PDF. The University of Arizona (UA) selected Mount Graham as their choice location for a seven-telescope observatory project in the 1980s. In some cases, astronomers have learned from past examples to navigate construction projects more sensitively. During its history, there has been some turmoil and several moves to escape the light and other hindrances that large cities, such as Rome, pose to doing astronomy. Federal Register, 1982, US Government Printing Office. Father George Coyne, a Jesuit priest, astronomer, author and former director of the Vatican Observatory who was instrumental in bringing one of the world’s most sophisticated — and controversial — telescope arrays to the top of Mount Graham in Southern Arizona, died earlier this week. With twin 8.4-meter mirrors, the LBT is … He managed to annoy many astronomers in the USA, most of whom were not aware of the background actions of the biologists. A spruce-fir forest at the summit is the home of the Mount Graham red squirrel. Shannon Hall is an award-winning freelance science journalist based in the Rocky Mountains. The history of the Vatican Observatory goes back two and a half centuries. Tippeconic, R. 1989, Record of Decision and Forest Plan Amendments, Coronado National Forest, p. 54. Graham. These gestures, however, have failed to sway protesters. Because I spend a part of my life involved with environmental protection issues and with Native American concerns, it is natural that I would be asked about my feelings on the development of Mt. During its current project to build the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on the summit of Haleakala, the shield volcano that forms most of Maui, observatory leaders have held more than 30 meetings with activists and committed to payments of $2 million a year to University of Hawaii Maui College. By Eric Burk. 5.250.245.2. This decision sparked a controversy of science, religion, and environment. This is a preview of subscription content. LBTO via Wikipedia. McGee, J. The highest mountain in Southern Arizona is Mount Graham (elevation: ∼10,800 feet, or ∼3,300m), which lies approximately 70 miles (110 km) Northeast of Tucson. “I think it's a model for federal agencies conducting business in areas where there are potential cultural concerns,” says Caroline Blanco, the assistant general council for the environment at the NSF. Graham and the University of Arizona Astronomers. The same year, Steward Observatory’s Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) also opened on Mount Graham. Last week Hawaii’s Supreme Court rescinded the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), an estimated $1.4-billion observatory planned for Mauna Kea, the dormant volcano whose red dusted slopes rise 4,205 meters above the Pacific Ocean on the island of Hawaii. It is what scientists call a "biologically unique area," for on its peaks live eighteen species and subspecies of plants and animals that exist nowhere else on earth. But not everyone is lauding the LBT and other telescope projects on Mount Graham. Dartmouth University, University of Wisconsin, University of Florida and Carnegie-Mellon University spurned Mount Graham and recently joined the huge 10.4-meter Canary Island telescope and the 9.1-meter Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). The project has seen some opposition but has been allowed to move forward. mountains of controversy. In 2005 the tribe successfully put a stop to the project, spurring the NSF to decide to build it elsewhere. The continued opposition suggests that the project is now in uncharted territory. However it unfolds, the fate of the TMT will likely have repercussions on future standoffs around the world. The controversy is nothing new: Mauna Kea is the latest in a long line of mountaintops that have become combat zones between scientists and activists. In 1981 Steward Observatory was looking for a location on which to build new telescopes, in order to enhance its research programs. Mt. I situate each history of conflict within Ultimately an act of the U.S. Congress allowed it to move forward several years late. In the late 1980s, for example, Mount Graham, in Arizona, saw a bitter fight between astronomers, who wanted to build three telescopes—the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope, the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)—and the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who perform religious ceremonies on the mountain. Planners conducted a thorough environmental impact investigation, they held over 300 sessions with the community and they committed to payments of $3 million a year to lease the site and fund science, technology, engineering and math programs for students. These previous skirmishes share some illuminating similarities with the latest situation, revealing just how fraught astronomy can be when it clashes with local communities. Gary Bowman Although the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) at the Mt. When researching Mount Graham, the site of the Mount Graham International Observatory, one figure seems to come up again and again. Graham, and the only American partner in the first telescopes is the University of Arizona. “So environmentalists on the Mauna Kea side have fallen in with the principles of aloha more squarely then I would say the environmentalists in the Mount Graham case have adopted Apache principles in passive resistance.”, Lessons learned Peter Strittmatter, the president of the contentious Large Binocular Telescope, thinks the TMT will either be built as is or not at all. Environmental activists were also worried about the fate of the American red squirrel, which was on the verge of extinction. The first source of similarity dates back to before these projects were even conceived. AICA 1988, Public Law 100-696, signed by President Reagan (18 November 1988). Hoffmeister, D.F. The current standoff between Native Hawaiian protesters and proponents of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) can take some lessons from similar disputes in the past. Subscribers get more award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) reports that the Jesuit Father Charles W. Polzer calls opposition to the construction of the telescope complex on top of Mount Graham “part of a Jewish conspiracy” and comes from the Jewish lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union who are out to undermine and destroy the Catholic Church. Mount Graham International Observatory 1480 W. Swift Trail Safford, AZ 85546. New telescope options continuously become available. Astronomers first leased properties on Kitt Peak and Mauna Kea in 1958 and 1968, respectively, during a time when native groups and environmentalists had less power to oppose them. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy Nevertheless, we as a community must be prepared to explain in terms that non-astronomers can understand why more mountain tops should be devoted to astronomy. Arizona Press, Tucson. The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), located at the Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona is named Lucifer. For the astronomers who see themselves as law-abiding citizens following terms of a lease that were laid down half a century ago, the “neocolonialist” characterization is alienating. He was 87. In the 2000s the Kitt Peak National Observatory, built on the tribal reservation of the Tohono O’odham Nation, became the site of another clash when the National Science Foundation (NSF) wanted to build a new $13-million telescope complex called VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System). Opponents of the telescope state that in a study of potential telescope locations, Mount Graham was ranked 37th in the nation – not that impressive. Abstract. 1986, Mammals of Arizona, Univ. Hawaii, too, has a long history of Westerners wresting control of land from native Hawaiians and pursuing development projects to the detriment of the environment. Kaplan, M. 2000, Letter from Coronado National Forest FOIA officer, to Sage. ... Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, thus resulting in the failure to immediately and permanently halt the telescope project. The Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG) operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona where sky conditions are among the best in the world and certainly the Continental United … The Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG) operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona where sky conditions are among the best in the world and certainly the Continental United States. “I think it's just a good way to keep that dialogue going.”. Part of Springer Nature. The use of sacred American Indian land for the LBT seemed like one more encroachment on native land rights after centuries of infringements by European settlers going back to the 16th century. The LBT, on the other hand, which required a larger plot of land and obscured the sacred peaks, faced 40 lawsuits, eight of which ended up before a federal appeals court. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. In the summer of 2004 the Nuttall-Gibson complex burned over 30,000 acres (120 km²) in the Pinaleños. “TMT, to their credit, has done more than any other observatory I've researched in making all kinds of gestures to the local community and to, in particular, the native Hawaiian community,” Swanner says. (Mount Graham Coalition.) In order to counter this strategy, Peter Strittmatter (director of Steward Observatory) mounted a campaign to have Mount Graham considered as a potential site for the National New Technology Telescope (which turned into the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea). The court’s decision is the most recent battle wound in a years-long contest between astronomers and native Hawaiians as well as environmentalists who oppose the construction because of the sanctity of the mountain. For more than 30 years, controversy has raged over Mount Graham, the highest spiritual place for all Apaches. It was an obvious candidate, and in fact had been considered in the mid 1950’s as a possible location for the national observatory (which went to Kitt Peak). Against this backdrop, the TMT in the view of indigenous people is the latest episode of Western oppression on the islands. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves. Not affiliated Unable to display preview. The very qualities that make many sites valuable to science—remote locations far from city lights, summits soaring above a good chunk of the atmosphere and clear views that sweep from horizon to horizon—often also draw native worshippers who value mountains as spiritual homes of the gods as well as environmentalists aiming to protect the vulnerable ecosystems of pristine regions. For nearly two decades, the telescopes have been the subject of controversy due to their location atop Mount Graham, a site which the local San Carlos and White Mountain … Not logged in The highest mountain in Southern Arizona is Mount Graham (elevation: ∼10,800 feet, or ∼3,300m), which lies approximately 70 miles (110 km) Northeast of Tucson. This dissertation examines the histories of conflict between Native, environmentalist, and astronomy communities over telescope construction at Kitt Peak, Maun a Kea, and Mt. Therefore, more than a half-century ago the Vatican Observatory established a research group at the Steward Observatory … They found themselves having to defend the value of astronomical observatories—projects they saw as self-evidently noble—to skeptical local communities. In 1981 Steward Observatory was looking for a location on which to build new telescopes, in order to enhance its research programs. Many people are surprised to learn that the Vatican even has an observatory. Astronomers were therefore blindsided when, a few decades later, cultural tides had shifted and they met harsh opposition to the new projects. When the University of Minnesota (UM) Board of Regents pledged $10 million to support UM's astronomers buying into the controversial Mount Graham telescope project in 2002, Minnesota was dragged into an international conflict. MOUNT GRAHAM – What can resemble a weapon right out of Star Wars is actually a tool to help scientists learn more about our universe, rather than destroy planets.. Mt. They pursued a strategy of finding an endangered species — the Mount Graham red squirrel — apparently with the purpose of blocking the telescopes. Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona is the sole home of the severely endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel. Large Binocular Telescope atop Mount Graham in Arizona. The LUCIFER telescope conspiracy was originated by two conniving and enterprising cretins, Tom Horn and Cris Putnam, who could not make it in the already overcrowded Bible-thumping marketplace and instead branched out into the world of make believe and fantasy. Graham from the mid-1970s to the present. TMT leaders also tried to follow that model. 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