Irish Radio Telescope?

Hi,

At cosmos this year Ian Morrison mentioned that there were plans to build a radio telescope in BIrr. I mailed him after whirlpool, when Dave Gradwell was thinking about making Birr Irelands first Dark Sky town, with a view to using this as evidence of the astronomical importance of the town (like any was really needed!). Indeed if the telescope would be situated there then we might need to form the Irish ElectroMagnetic Pollution awarness campaign to reduce all astronomical inteference in the area!

Anyway, Mr. Morrison said that funding plans were going to the government about the proposal. Does anyone here know if there has been any progress on this or what the current status is?

Cheers,
~Al

Hi Al.

This is unofficial, but the radio telescope is on the back burner for the moment. The various astronomy/astrophysics groups - after a lot of internal wrangling - have decided to focus on trying to get us into ESO. Once we have successfully signed up, attention *may* switch back to getting a radio telescope, it's still uncertain. I have to say, I'm doubtful it'll be bulit, at least with Government money, especially as the number of Irish researchers who'd use such a facility is vanishingly small. ESO is a far, far better focus for our resources, it'll serve the entire community much better.

All the best.

Brian