From the Director

Dear Friends of the Institute for Astronomy,

The year 2009 has been an extraordinarily successful one for the IfA! Four hundred years after Galileo made the first scientific study of the sky with a telescope--a cultural and scientific milestone that changed the thinking of humans in a fundamental way--two new revolutionary telescope projects will move forward in Hawaii, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) on Haleakala and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea.

While the decision to select Haleakala as the site for the ATST was made some time ago, the exciting news about the TMT arrived in July (see article in this issue). The TMT will be the largest telescope ever in the long and exciting history of astronomy. It will allow for breathtaking new science, including the direct imaging of planets orbiting other stars and the spectral analysis of their chemical composition, and the investigation of the most distant building blocks of galaxies in the cosmos that will give us insights into how the Universe evolved from a time when it was still very young.

The TMT will be a milestone for astronomy in Hawaii, but it is also a major step forward for the University of Hawaii and the state. The TMT is a billion dollar project that will bring tremendous opportunities in education, training, workforce development, and of course, science. We worked hard to make this happen. Thus, it was not a surprise that the spontaneous party at the IfA was loud and wild after the decision to select Hawaii.  

Aloha!
Rolf-Peter Kudritzki