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An Open Letter from the Optical/Infrared Panel...(1Mar94)
of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics
(from the Director's Office, NOAO Newsletter No. 37, 1 March 1994)

The Optical/Infrared Review Panel of the Committee on Astronomy and
Astrophysics of the National Academy of Sciences has requested that the
National Optical Astronomy Observatories circulate the following letter
to our user community. The review underway by the OIR Panel may well
have profound effect on the way astronomy is done well into the next
century, and we urge all users of national astronomy facilities to
respond to the Panel's request for input.

Caty Pilachowski

Most of you have probably heard that the Committee on Astronomy and
Astrophysics (CAA) has formed a panel (the "OIR Panel") to recommend a
strategy for optical and infrared astronomy in the US.  The charge to
the panel, in response to a request by Hugh Van Horn and subject to
approval by the National Research Council, is as follows:

1)   Assess the context in which optical and infrared astronomy will be
     pursued in the coming decade, including existing and planned
     instruments worldwide, NASA missions, and likely technological
     developments.  This examination must consider the appropriate mission
     for the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO); the most
     effective use of NSF funds for support of facilities, instrument
     development, and research; and how best to structure our efforts to
     meet the challenges of the next decade.

2)   Within this context, evaluate the mission of the NOAO and define its
     optimal role (including both nighttime and solar activities) relative
     to that of other government facilities and optical/infrared university
     observatories and research departments.  This evaluation will take
     into account both the research and educational roles of the
     organizations.

3)   Suggest and evaluate alternative strategies designed to optimize
     progress in the field, taking into account the funding available from
     various federal and nonfederal sources and projections for the future.
     Give advice for strategies and priorities within optical/infrared
     astronomy in the light of the expectation that the NSF resources
     available for these programs will be severely constrained in the
     coming decade.

The OIR panel members are: Richard McCray (Chairman), Bruce Carney, Jay
Gallagher, John Huchra, Ken Kellermann, Tony Tyson, Judith Pipher, and
Robert Rosner.  In addition, Marc Davis and Jeremiah Ostriker are
liaison members from the CAA, and Jill Knapp is a liaison member from
the NRC Board on Physics and Astronomy.  We are expected to deliver a
final report to the NSF Astronomy Division by the end of 1994; that
will require us to finish a draft report by September.  Our report will
actually be a report of the CAA, which will have the final say on its
content.

Of course, a report such as this gives astronomers an opportunity to
reaffirm and, we hope, strengthen the case for increased support of
optical/infrared astronomy.  We certainly intend to do that.  However,
we would not be responsive to our charge if our recommended strategy
simply required such an increase.  In carrying out our work, the OIR
Panel will be guided by two principles.  First, our recommended
strategy must conform to the primary recommendation of the Bahcall
Report (p. 12): "The highest priority for ground-based astronomy is the
strengthening of the infrastructure for research, that is, increased
support for individual research grants and for the maintenance and
refurbishment of existing frontier equipment at national
observatories." Second, our recommended strategy must be resilient: it
must work in a pessimistic scenario for future NSF funding of
optical/infrared astronomy as well as an optimistic scenario.

The reference in item (2) of our charge to solar activities at NOAO has
led to some uncertainty which we hope to clear up here.  If our panel
should recommend changes in the way that NOAO serves the astronomical
community, those recommendations might have implications for the future
operations of the National Solar Observatories.  Therefore, we must be
cognizant of the potential impact of our recommendations on solar
astronomy.  We do not, however, intend to address scientific priorities
for solar astronomy.  If our recommendations raise questions regarding
scientific strategy for solar astronomy, those questions will have to
be addressed elsewhere.

The OIR Panel will hold its first meeting in Tucson on 24-26 February.
At that meeting we will plan our work in more detail and we will open a
dialogue with astronomers from NOAO and other observatories located in
Arizona.  We have also scheduled a meeting in Washington, DC, on 26-27
April, at which we will discuss the issues with the NSF astronomy
division, and a meeting in Minneapolis, concurrent with the summer AAS
meeting, at which we hope to hold a discussion with the community at
large.  We will hold one or two more meetings, at times and locations
to be determined.  We plan to consult with directors of both public and
private observatories to understand better the factors driving the
operating costs and the possible opportunities for achieving higher
productivity through sharing facilities.

We believe that we can do our work most effectively through an open
process that involves maximum participation by the community.
Accordingly, a substantial part of every meeting of the panel will be
conducted in open session, and we will invite members of the community
to present a variety of perspectives to the panel.

We will also use the Internet as a tool to include all interested
members of the astronomy community in the dialogue.  Accordingly, we
have established the following account:

                     oirpanel@jila.colorado.edu.

Please, if at all possible, use e-mail to the above address rather than
hardcopy for all communication with the panel.  Be sure to indicate
whether your correspondence is intended as: (1) open to all interested
astronomers; (2) confidential to the panel members; (3) confidential to
the panel chairman.  We hope that you will use option (1) unless there
is a compelling reason not to.  All interested astronomers will be able
to read the open correspondence and dispatches from the panel through
anonymous ftp: ftp jila.colorado.edu.  Username: anonymous.  The
password "oirpanel" will automatically transfer you to the right
directory.  Further instructions can be found there in the file
read.me.

With the proliferation of large telescopes and major advances in
instrumentation, optical/infrared astronomy is entering a golden age.
The trick is to develop an evolutionary strategy in which all US
observatories, both public and private, can be used to their maximum
advantage.  Perhaps new advances in technology, such as the information
highway, will enable astronomers to use a greater variety of telescopes
and instruments at lower cost than today.

Although the charge to the panel mentions the need for a strategy to
deal with the possibility of a severely constrained NSF budget, we
would be missing a big opportunity if we focused exclusively on the
near-term issues.  The most creative thinking will probably result from
asking the question: what kind of infrastructure might be possible and
optimal for optical/infrared astronomy on timescales of 10, 20, 30
years from now? We hope that our colleagues won't hesitate to offer
their suggestions, even if such suggestions may invite criticism.  A
certain level of such "creative discomfort" may yield a better result
in the task before us.

Richard McCray

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