Optical-Infrared (OIR) astronomy enjoys a diversity of institutions and funding sources but also of institutional interests and priorities. Support for astronomy grants and facility operations by the National Science Foundation has stagnated even as the agency's budget doubled in recent years. This trend, and the many opportunities for advancing OIR astronomy, suggest that a unified community could be more effective.
Following a joint recommendation by Directors of observatories that operate or are building large optical and IR telescopes in the US, including the Directors of "independent" observatories, NOAO, Gemini, and the Board of Directors agreed to establish a special "coordinating" council to coordinate and advocate their shared interests.
One function of the new council will be to advise the Board on overall opportunities in OIR astronomy: to enable it and the independent institutions to provide consensus recommendations to funding agencies. Other functions will be to study opportunities for cooperation such as exchange of telescope time and/or instrumentation for community access, or technical developments of benefit to the OIR community as a whole.
Looking to the future, the new council could foster ideas or plans for major projects, especially those that are unlikely to be accomplished by a single existing organization. Through such efforts, the council can help foster communication and cooperation among the ground based OIR observatories and facilitate the overall US OIR astronomy program.
The membership of the new council includes the Directors, or their designees, of the Astrophysical Research Consortium, the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Lick Observatory, McDonald Observatory, Steward Observatory, Palomar Observatory, University of Hawaii, Gemini Project, NOAO, and the AURA President, ex officio. The council will elect its chair from among the members. Reports or recommendations of the council will be public if unanimously agreed by the council members.
I believe that the new council represents an alliance that can be highly effective, perhaps crucial, as the Federal science budget continues to decline. It can help unify some of the more diverse parts of our community and rally them to advocate more support for astronomy. It can also help make more effective use of the support that is attainable.
Goetz Oertel