We are pleased to announce that the SOAR project, which has as its goal the construction of a 4-m class telescope at CTIO, now has received letters of intent that have identified sufficient funding to proceed with design and construction. The following is abstracted from a statement that was released to the press in Tucson on Friday, 18 October 1996:
The Tucson-based National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) of Brazil, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Michigan State University announced today a joint decision to proceed with the construction and operation of "SOAR," the Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research.
SOAR's centerpiece will be a new-generation, light-weight, computer controlled, four-meter telescope with active optics and other advanced design features. This telescope will provide superb images at visible and infrared wavelengths. In the infrared region, with the addition of optics capable of rapid compensation for atmospheric turbulence, the quality of the images will rival those of the Hubble Space Telescope. Located near La Serena on the westward side of the Chilean Andes, the SOAR telescope will be the first 4-meter high-resolution telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. The astronomical consortium chose the Southern Hemisphere site for several reasons: The site has dark skies and clear, dry air. The location is near the large, existing Cerro Tololo observatory and the new Gemini 8-meter telescope, now under construction and managed by another international consortium based in Tucson. The Southern skies offer astronomers the additional viewing advantage of our nearest neighbor galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, and the brightest nearby stars. Many of these regions of the sky are not accessible to existing telescopes situated north of the equator.
Plans call for a high speed Internet link between SOAR and participating astronomers in Brazil and the US. Astronomers will also design the light-analyzing instruments to be operated remotely. Scientists and students in their labs at their home universities or at NOAO Headquarters will then be able to carry out their observations on the telescope in Chile. The plan calls for several instruments to be mounted on the telescope simultaneously. A quick change capability will allow a wide variety of programs to be carried out during any observing session.
Astronomers are planning for the SOAR telescope to be up and running within 5 years. NOAO will get about 1/3 of the time on the SOAR telescope. Astronomers throughout the US will compete for that time on the basis of project proposals. Astronomers from Chile will also get time on SOAR because the country provides access to the excellent site.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University are research-intensive institutions with membership in the American Association of Universities (AAU). More information concerning the universities' participation in SOAR may be found at http://jabiru.pa.msu.edu/pages/soar/soar.html and at http://www.physics.unc.edu/~cecil/SOAR.html.
The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) promotes scientific and technological research in support of Brazil's social, economic, and cultural progress. More information about CNPq may be obtained at http://www.cnpq.br/.
Gerald Cecil (UNC) has been named Acting Project Scientist and has been charged with developing the science requirements document and a plan for a study that will evaluate various options for the design of the telescope. He will be resident in Tucson while this study is in progress. The goal is to present a detailed project plan and costs for approval by the interim SOAR Board in about four months time. A detailed agreement among the partners will be developed on the basis of this project plan. This agreement is subject to approval by both AURA and the NSF.
The draft science requirements document will be reviewed at the upcoming meeting of the joint CTIO/KPNO Users Committee so that we have a clear sense of the priorities of the user community for this new facility. In general terms, however, we expect that a primary design goal for SOAR will be to achieve excellent image quality over a field of view of several arcminutes, thereby complementing the wide field of view of the Blanco telescope. The telescope will also be designed to perform well in the near-infrared region of the spectrum.
Sidney Wolff, Malcolm Smith