CBC interview with Dr. Tom Bolton on future of Dunlap Observatory
On November 14, Dr. Tom Bolton was on CBC Radio’s Sounds Like Canada program to talk about the kind of work astronomer are doing at David Dunlap Observatory. You can listen to the entire interview.
The wide-ranging interview provides an overview of the history of the observatory, the work that lead to Dr. Bolton’s discovery (using the Dunlap Observatory) of the first Black Hole in 1972 and a discussion of how the telescope is being used today by Canadian and international astronomers. As a well-known expert on Dark Skies and light pollution, Dr. Bolton insists that sky glow is not a valid reason for closing the David Dunlap Observatory:
“Well, in my mind, that is a phony issue. First of all, we have light pollution controls in Richmond Hill. Second of all, light pollution has not reduced the effectiveness of the observatory any since 1971. In fact, once we put electronic detectors on the telescope in 1989, which allow us to subtract the sky background, at least to some degree, we’ve actually been able to observe 100 times fainter than we could before then, and, with an investment of $10,000 in new equipment, we could probably push that another factor of 10. So, for the kind of astronomy that this observatory has always been best for, there has been no change.”
Dr. Bolton told the CBC that while there has been a trend in North America to close smaller observatories in order to build larger telescopes, smaller instruments continue to prove their worth in Europe and around the world. If the DDO remains open, Dr. Bolton has plans for a fall 2008 project to track a star orbiting a gamma ray source for a period of 28 days using the DDO along with specialized instruments located in Europe and New Mexico. He notes that this kind of research, known as “time-series” astronomy, is simply not possible using large telescopes which allocate just a few days a year to visiting astronomers.
Within the astronomical community, there is ongoing debate over the need for both large and small telescopes. In 2004, NOAO director Sidney Wolff acknowledged that large telescopes are essential, but added that “small telescopes are making exciting contributions to frontline research, including (1) measuring changes to the expansion rate of the universe, (2) finding optical counterparts to gamma-ray bursts, (3) making precise observations of Sun-like stars in order to understand solar influences on climate change, (4) making direct detection of extrasolar planets, (5) conducting the first deep all-sky survey in the near infra-red, and (6) discovering near-Earth asteroids.”
In 2006, David Dunlap Observatory astronomers contributed to 19 scientific publications.