[getsmart-l] David Dunlap Observatory - can it be saved?

[Gloria Boxen]

http://www.yorkregion.com/article/48334

                  Sep 12, 2007 11:01 PM                 By:  Serena Willoughby
                                                                                            
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The University of Toronto confirmed this week it is moving to have the observatory and the 200 acres surrounding it declared surplus and sold off....

“It hasn’t been making discoveries for a long time. The cost of operating it can’t be justified by the amount of science being done there,” U of T’s dean of arts and science Pekka Sinervo said.

The university spends up to $800,000 annually to maintain the facility.

Funds from the sale will be used to create a new Dunlap Institute for astronomy and astrophysics at U of T’s St. George campus.

Richmond Hill residents are endeared to the site not just for its scientific contributions, but for its combination of woodlands, open space and unique buildings.

It has become a prime destination for naturalists because of wildlife such as deer and red-tailed hawks.

The property also houses a heritage house that once belonged to the Marsh family, who participated in the 1837 Upper Canada rebellion....


http://www.yorkregion.com/article/50058

Observatory still useful: scientists             
                          
           Steve Somerville                        The Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill is prized for its scientific usefulness as well as the natural beauty of the 180 acres of surrounding land, say those who are disappointed by word the facility will be closed and sold off by the University of Toronto.        
                                         
                        
  
                       
                                      
         
                                                             Richmond Hill                                  Sep 22, 2007 06:48 AM      
                                                                                            Heritage group also seeking ways to preserve land as U of T neats vote on mothballing facility            
By:  Serena Willoughby            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Some in the academic community reject the notion the David Dunlap Observatory is no longer a viable scientific tool and are calling for the facility to be preserved.

The Richmond Hill observatory is on the verge of being declared academically useless by the University of Toronto. The institution plans to sell off the facility and the surrounding 180 acres of land valued at as much as $113 million.

Astronomer Ian Shelton discovered the first supernova visible to the naked eye in almost 200 years. He attributes this, in large part, to work he did at the Dunlap facility. He says the observatory still serves its original purpose.*

“The light pollution does limit what we can do, but there is still lots to be done in the field of stellar astronomy,” he said.

Stellar astronomy is the study of individual stars and the Dunlap telescope is very useful for studying stars within our galaxy, Mr. Shelton said. 

Tom Karmo agrees. He studied astronomy at U of T and has used the Dunlap telescope. He posted an online essay outlining why the observatory is still viable, citing the telescopes usefulness in the field of stellar astronomy.

It’s hoped the observatory will be preserved so it can continue producing important discoveries well into the 21st century, Mr. Shelton said. 

“There has been speculation for many years that the observatory was going to be sold because encroaching city lights have rendered it useless for conducting valuable scientific research,” Mr. Shelton wrote in an e-mail to The Liberal following last week’s story on the closing. 

“In reality, decades of effort by staff astronomer, Dr. Tom Bolton,  and a Richmond Hill bylaw passed June 2, 1995, have kept the effects of light pollution at a level no worse than it was back in the 1970s.

“The change to streetlights and outdoor building lights that don’t emit all the colours of the rainbow has kept the sky dark in those parts of the spectrum that are most important for our research. And advances in the light detectors we use allow the telescope to observe objects 100 times fainter than it could back when the skies were truly dark.

“The observatory in recent years has been as productive as it has  ever been. Last year saw 17 publications in important journals and conference proceedings based on data gathered at the observatory  and this year should be about the same 

“The observatory is being closed not because light pollution has rendered it useless, but rather, because the research interests in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics have changed as faculty age, retire, and are replaced by younger faculty whose  research interests generally require the largest telescopes at the highest quality sites.”

Meanwhile, new legislation for heritage buildings and landscapes may be a lucky star for others trying to preserve the Dunlap Observatory.

The town is investigating how to designate an historic building on the site as a heritage building and have the land around it designated a “cultural landscape”.

“This land is important for people who love heritage, but important for residents as well,” said Diane Giangrande of Heritage Richmond Hill, the advisory group that urged council to seek the designation.

The property houses a heritage building that once belonged to the Marsh family, who took part in the 1837 Upper Canada rebellion.

The Ontario Heritage Act was enacted in 1975 and updated in 2005.

Under the old act, if a municipality wanted to preserve a building designated under the Heritage Act and slated for demolition, the only recourse was to delay the demo for 180 days.

After that, the owner could go ahead with whatever they had planned.

Under the new legislation, an owner wishing to demolish a heritage building must take their application to the Ontario Municipal Board.

“The new act gives more tools to municipalities to protect buildings,” Culture Ministry spokesperson Guy Lepage said.

Heritage Richmond Hill is also hoping to use another tool, the cultural landscape designation, for the Dunlap land.

The land around the observatory has become a prime destination for naturalists because of wildlife such as red-tailed hawks and deer, as well as a woodlot and grasslands.

The cultural landscape definition, introduced into the act in 2002, applies to features of the landscape that are important to the heritage attributes of a building, Mr. Lepage said.

For example, a fence or a row of oak trees that is on the land and are a part of the landscape around the buildings, would apply.

Just as a heritage item inside the building such as a stained glass window could not be changed once the building is designated, a row of oak trees adjacent to the house could not be cut down either, Mr. Lepage explained.
                                                                                   
             


*P.S.  The first evidence that  that black holes existed was found by Professor Bolton at the Dunlap Observatory.       Gloria Boxen
 http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bios/askus24.htm  

Other articles can be found at http://www.yorkregion.com/search?&q=Dunlap%20Observatory&r=

 
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