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Discovery Telescope Funding Complete |
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Written by Staff Writer
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Mar 22, 2007 at 03:50 PM |
The final piece of the financial puzzle is now in place for a $37 million telescope being built by Lowell Observatory. The founder of the Discovery Channel has stepped up his commitment to the Discovery Channel Telescope by infusing the project with millions more of his own money.
Lowell Observatory announced Monday that John Hendricks, the founder and chairman of Discovery Communications, along his wife Maureen, donated an additional $5 million to help build the telescope.
The couple had previously donated $1 million for construction of the telescope, which being built in Happy Jack, roughly 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff.
The $37 million telescope features a 14-foot primary mirror. When it's completed, the telescope is expected to be one of the most effective asteroid trackers in the world.
"We are grateful that we are in a position to assist Lowell Observatory in advancing basic research in the enormously important field of astronomy," Hendricks said in a prepared statement. Hendricks has been a member of the Lowell Observatory's advisory board for more than a decade.
Funding for the telescope has come from: Discovery Channel, $10 million; Hendricks family, $6 million; and private donors, $3 million. Lowell Observatory is responsible for the estimated $18 million in construction costs.
Lowell Observatory officials have stated in the past they hoped to find a large university willing to invest in the telescope. Lowell Trustee William Lowell Putnam said that is no longer necessary.
Putnam said the Lowell is still open to the possibility of an additional partner in the project, but it is no longer essential for completion of the telescope by late 2010.
Bob Millis, the director of Lowell Observatory, said the non-profit's current endowment is worth $38.5 million.
Millis said after the first phase of the project is completed in 2010, Lowell will begin to install additional instruments over time.
The first phase of the project will use specific arrangement of the telescope's primary mirror and secondary mirrors, called a Ritchey-Chretien configuration.
The second phase is planned after the telescope is fully operational and would add a state-of-the-art prime focus camera to the telescope. With the addition of a $10 million camera, the telescope is expected to be one of the most effective asteroid trackers in the world.
When fully operational in 2010, the new telescope will be the fifth largest in the continental U.S.
Facilities and infrastructure for the telescope are nearing completion at the telescope's site near Happy Jack, on the Coconino National Forest. The telescope's 14-foot diameter primary mirror was fabricated by Corning Inc.
in Canton, N.Y., and is being figured and polished to its precise final shape by the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.
A study by the Center for Business Outreach at Northern Arizona University suggests the Discovery Channel Telescope will infuse $576 million in the state economy during its 50-year expected useful lifetime.
Putnam said in recognition of Hendrick's donation, the existing Planetary Research Center at Lowell Observatory will be renamed the Hendricks Center for Planetary Studies.
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