Life Cycle of a Large Telescope: the David Dunlap Observatory

Details Life Cycle of a Large Telescope: the David Dunlap Observatory Life Cycle of a Large Telescope: the David Dunlap Observatory

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21320010j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #200.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.187

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

When it went into operation in 1935, the 74-inch reflector at the David Dunlap Observatory was the world's second largest and most sophisticated telescope. Designed specifically for stellar spectroscopy, almost all work performed with it until the early 1950s was limited to that specialty. Most University of Toronto staff were expected to contribute to the observatory's programme. However, as the staff expanded and newer research specialties were introduced, the telescope had to be refitted with new auxiliary equipment, or not be used at all. By the late 1960s, the observatory's night sky began to deteriorate due to light pollution from uncontrolled urban growth. While limited work could be performed into the 1990s, the telescope was no longer considered "large” far more powerful, versatile instruments at much superior sites were by then available. That Toronto astronomers had moved on can be demonstrated from their publication records. The end came in 2008 when the University of Toronto decided that the land's value could be used to support astronomical research in a broader sense. In response, the community, which had ignored the observatory for most of its history, and a few dissident astronomers, strongly defended its survival on a number of grounds.
The narrative suggests a number of life-cycle stages: 1) maximum use of the instrument due to superior environmental and technical conditions, plus staff homogeneity; 2) application of new technologies to extend the instrument's capability in the face of diversifying research interests and decaying environmental factors; 3) fading value due to obsolescence and poor environmental factors; 4) death or metamorphosis (such as becoming an educational or historical institution). It appears that these phases apply to a number of historical cases. It is not clear, for the Dunlap Observatory, how the fourth phase will play out.

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