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Aloha everyone,

apparently, this is the section of Dakka where I can freely post this, so I do it

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be the biggest telescope ever built by humankind: with 30 m in diameter, made of a mosaic of mirrors, it will basically collect more light than all the other telescopes on the planet combined!
The TMT will join a few other telescopes in Hawaii on top of Maunakea, the highest mountain in the world, measured from its base which is located at the bottom of the Pacific ocean.
Maunakea is considered a sacred place by some of the native Hawaiian, and a movement of protest has started to stop the construction of the TMT.

Many false claims have been made by the protesters:

- TMT desacralize Maunakea: not true for many reasons including the fact that the site was selected with great care and respect. There are no archaeological shrines or burial sites within TMT's project site. Also, Hawaiian of ancient times were expert navigators, using stars to guide themselves safely back home. Quoting Chad Kalepa Baybayan (see the full article here)

"At night, as you approach the Big Island, Mauna Kea rises out of the sea, its summit framed and warmed by a blanket of stars. At sea, on a cloudless night, when peering at the awesome sight of Mauna Kea, the stars reach down out of the sky and touch the skin of the mountain and you recognize they are all the same, Mauna Kea and the sky. Mauna Kea is the celestial portal into the universe."

- TMT will perturb the aquifer: not true as a comprehensive research by expert hydrologists confirm there is no threat to the aquifer. There is basically no precipitations at the summit level .

- protesters claim they are protectors: not true again, as if they were, they would fight against the military for instance, who have a base near Maunakea, and who have been using depleted uranium (see more details here). The military training area is located at much lower altitude, where precipitation occur more frequently.
What about fighting against Walmart or other big companies that pay their employees very low salary?
The thing is, astronomical telescopes are a symbol because they sit at the summit of Maunakea, but they are not an enemy of the Hawaiian culture, quite the contrary.

- astronomers/telescopes make a lot of money on the back of the Hawaiian: this could not be more wrong. Astronomy is not Wall-street!
Astronomy in Hawaii is a big contributor to the entire economy however! And with TMT, this will increase by a lot: TMT will pay to Hawaii $1 million a year!
TMT already provides money to STEM initiatives all over the state.
But no, astronomers are not making money, they are doing science, research, for the progress of humankind.


As far as I am concerned, this is a very bad fight, in the sense that it should have never occurred.
- astronomy is definitely not a bad thing. I mean, who would believe that astronomers are bad people??? we have to make very long studies because we love science, pretty pictures, we want to know more about the Universe, and share this knowledge with people
- protesters have an issue with the statehood of Hawaii, that some of them contest, but then again, why pick a fight with astronomers??? If Hawaii should not be a state, that's not the astronomers fault, but politicians.
- this fight sounds too much like an obscurantism vs science fight, similar to so many others that occur in the US or on the planet: fight against women's right, fight against voting rights, fight against liberties ...

More info there: http://www.maunakeaandtmt.org and http://www.tmt.org/

Please show your support to TMT on social media!
https://twitter.com/tmthawaii
https://www.facebook.com/TMTHawaii

Feel free to ask question and debate too!
Nicolas, astronomer in Hawaii

I was stationed at Camp Smith when they were trying to get approval for H3. Hawaiians will protest/litigate anything and everything, not for heritage or for welfare of their fellow Hawaiians, but just to be a bunch of little beeches.

Good luck getting that telescope.