It was with great enthusiasm the East Asian Observatory (EAO) recently announced its first day of operations of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The JCMT is the largest astronomical telescope in the world designed to operate in the sub-millimetre
It was with great enthusiasm the East Asian Observatory (EAO) recently announced its first day of operations of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The JCMT is the largest astronomical telescope in the world designed to operate in the sub-millimetre wavelength region of the spectrum.
EAO is now in charge of JCMT operations in partnership with the United Kingdom and Canadian research communities.
“It is a great opportunity for the East Asian Observatory to take over the operation of JCMT, which is an excellent facility with extremely powerful instrumentation,” said Paul Ho, director general of the East Asian Observatory. “Many of our astronomers in East Asia have long been involved in pursuing the most important problems in astronomy by utilizing the amazing telescopes on top of Mauna Kea. It is a great privilege for us to be able to work at the best site for ground-based astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere. For all of us at the JCMT, we look forward to an exciting future in continuing to deliver frontier science to our communities.”
EAO would like to thank the people of Hawaii for allowing our astronomers to work on top of one of the most beautiful places on earth.
As a memento of this transfer, Will Montgomerie, an operator at the JCMT, released a night sky time-lapse montage featuring the telescope. The montage can be found at www.vimeo.com/williammontgomerie/jcmtstarlapse.
