U.S. scientist defends planned observatory

Press, 21 May 1982, Page 18

U.S. scientist defends planned observatory

PA Wellington The American “father” of transit-circle observatories, Dr James Hughes, has said that if the proposed observatory on Black Birch Ridge, near Blenheim, was closed because its findings could have military applications, the University of Canterbury also had to close. Dr Hughes, who started the transit-circle programme in 1975, was speaking at a small luncheon in Wellington. He intends to fly to Blenheim today to visit the site of the proposed observatory, which is opposed by peace activists, including Mr Owen Wilkes. The proposed observatory would be run by the United States Naval Observatory and would have New Zealand staff. Dr Hughes said that the work of the United States Naval Observatory had become more international in its scope and covered three main things; star positions, keeping the time, and predicting when planets would be where.

The observatory’s first star catalogue had been published in 1843, and the cata-

logue which would be produced from the proposed observattions at Black Birch Ridge over a 10-year period would have to be combined with hundreds of catalogues going back over 80 years. Of an assertion by Mr Wilkes that information gained at Black Birch Ridge would be used for inertialguidance systems on missiles, Dr Hughes said that any stellar data needed for these systems was already known. He said: “It is absolute scientific nonsense to say that the accuracy of these systems would be increased if you had thousands more star positions.” Mr Wilkes talked as if the sole source of any error in these missile systems was the star positions, and that was absurd. Position was only one of the parameters used for the systems: such things as star brightness were also used. Some of these things were measured by the University of Canterbury.

Dr Hughes said, “Therefore if you want to close down transit-circle observatories, you must also close

down the University of Canterbury.” What Mr Wilkes’ arguments seemed to mean, in essence, was that if any kind of science had any conceivable kind of military application, then that science should be forgotten. New Zealand had been chosen for the proposed observatory because its weather was better than that of any other place at about 40 degrees latitude. Black Birch Ridge had been chosen because the Carter Observatory was already there, so the position was cost-efficient, and because the proposed transitcircle observatory needed a clear 800 feet in both north and south directions. He hoped that the buildings for the proposed observatory could be completed a year from now and that astronomical work could start by summer, 1984. The proposed observatory would be of immense scientific value because its findings would provide an independent check on observations from the Eurospace Agency’s asometric satellite, which was due to be launched in 1986.