Physics Today: Build astronomical observatories on the Moon?

I say yes. The we can exile Sibling of Yeti there to keep them running.... :)

Build astronomical observatories on the Moon?

Technological challenges, expense, and the problem of dust are among the issues to confront in any discussion of astronomy performed away from Earth. Two scientists debate the relative merits of Moon-based telescopes compared with ones in free space.

Paul D. Lowman Jr: YES

Astronomy is today in a golden age, one that began approximately in the early 1990s with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. The HST and its counterparts, such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, have produced stunning images. Earth-based astronomy at optical, IR, and submillimeter wavelengths has achieved comparable progress. The most striking advance has occurred in interferometry—especially optical interferometry, which produces spatial resolutions previously unimaginable in single-aperture telescopes. The twin Keck telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, for example, are now referred to as the Keck Interferometer. Other Earth-based instruments and techniques have likewise made enormous progress with, for example, the discovery of dozens of extrasolar planets.

Daniel F. Lester: NOT SO FAST

I offer what I would call the value proposition for astronomical measurements from the lunar surface. NASA's new directions prompt such a discussion as a part of space-science strategic planning. The surface of the Moon was recognized long ago as offering conditions—vacuum, in particular—that allow astronomical telescopes to perform vastly better than they could on Earth. The absence of an obscuring atmosphere offers a truly panchromatic perspective on the universe, compared with telescopes on even the highest terrestrial mountaintops. Enthusiasm for telescopes on the Moon peaked in the wake of the Apollo program, which convinced scientists that, if cost was no object, it was possible to put people and big things there. With the new Vision for Space Exploration—the national call to return humans to the Moon by the end of the next decade—many look ahead to such emplacements as being routine.