Outlook Poor : UCI’s Robotic Telescope Ready, but Budget Cuts Keep It on Hold

Although construction was completed a month ago, a telescope that could change the way UC Irvine teaches astronomy is gathering dust at a storage site in Arizona.

About $50,000--the cost of maintenance--prevents UCI from making the 24-inch reflecting telescope available to students for use in astronomy and physics courses, according to Rognvald Garden, a UCI physics professor.

“Budget cuts--that’s been the problem,” Garden said. “We’ve had to cut a few things, and the project has been stalled. I’m not too happy about it.”’

The UCI Astronomical Robotic Telescopic Project, begun a year ago, eventually will enable students to receive images from the telescope in computers on campus, even if the telescope is thousands of miles away.

Although robotic telescopes are used by researchers, the project would mark the first time such a high-quality instrument was made available for classroom instruction.

“This would be a new direction in astronomy,” Garden said.

A robotic telescope that can be used remotely is ideal for urban environments such as Orange County, where light pollution makes it difficult to see stars or planets, Garden said.

Although the telescope is smaller than ones used in research, it is better than most amateur or college instruments, said James Kelley, advanced laboratory manager for UCI’s physics department.

UCI professors plan to use the telescope during night laboratory sections of undergraduate courses in astronomy and space sciences. Students will use computer monitors on campus to study the size and shapes of stars, galaxies and planets.

The approximately 400 students who take such courses at UCI each year now must rely on photographs, books or slides for instruction.

“The unique thing is that it gives (students) the sort of hands-on experience that they’re not going to encounter at very many universities,” Kelley said.

The project, however, is on hold because of state and university budget cuts, according to Kathy Basich, management services officer of the physics department.

The robotic telescope cost $150,000 and was funded by the university. That money came from the equipment budget allocated when the university built its new physical sciences building, Basich said.

Project leaders have been working with the university for the past year to solicit financial support from individuals and companies. But Garden said they have raised nothing so far.

The university still has to decide where to place the telescope and has been considering the Mt. Wilson area north of Pasadena, Palomar Mountain in San Diego County or on the UCI campus. About $50,000 is needed to pay for any roads or power lines to the site and to assemble the domed observatory to house the telescope.