I went up today to do some final checkouts of the laser for the laser run that starts tomorrow... After I was done I was feeling woozy from the altitude so I went to the lunchroom to catch my breath and drink some water....

We had a group of visitors on the summit today, a group of scientists and engineers working on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. They are looking at other observatories to come up with ideas of what to incorporate in the TMT design... When I got to the lunch room they were gathered there discussing what they had seen and what they thought should be done in the TMT... I sat down and listened, how often do you get to hear the process behind the designing of what will be a wonder of the world?

It was interesting and I learned some interesting things... When a lull in the conversation developed I asked them what they thought the chances were of the TMT being built on Mauna Kea... the consensus seemed to be that there was essentially ZERO chance... They explained that just building a small tower on Mauna Kea to measure the conditions for the TMT took a year and a half to get permission... They said that some sites of interest exist in California, but seemed pessimistic that such a project could be built anywhere in the US...

The reason for this pessimism is easy to understand, activist groups in the US view observatories as easy targets to exploit for their agendas and for publicity... Sierra club being just one culprit among many. Instead of dealing with REAL threats these groups go after the easy targets of observatories...

As a result, the truly great observatories of the next generation will NOT be on American soil... Kinda sad, really...