sydney

Australia may, after all, be involved in the Gemini project to build twin telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, even though its chance of being a replacement for Chile ended when the Chilean government finally agreed to pay its fee just before the 1 September deadline set by the other Gemini countries.

At a meeting of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) board in Durham, England, last week, Australian representatives gained backing for their efforts from British members. Ian Corbett, director of science for the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, and a member of both the AAO and Gemini boards, says he is “very hopeful that a solution can be found”.

“We all recognize the benefits to Gemini if Australia were to join and contribute its expertise and additional funds,” says Corbett. “We are therefore now working together to see if we can establish a basis on which Australia could be invited to join the collaboration.”

Roger Bell, the AAO secretary, said after his return to Sydney this week that negotiations had begun on how Australia might join as an additional partner. “Australia has come up with the money,” he says, adding that while AAO itself cannot be a negotiating or funding party, a meeting between Gemini and Australian representatives could be arranged “soon”.

Australia had an earlier opportunity for sharing in a large international telescope when invited by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 1994 to become its first non-European member in the Very Large Telescope (VLT), a set of four linked 8-metre instruments under construction in Chile.

The bid was foiled last year, however, when, shortly after the federal election, the new science minister, Peter McGauran, refused to commit the necessary funds of A$25 million (US$18.5 million) over six years while the conservative Coalition government was focusing on cutting expenditure (see Nature 381, 100; 100; 1996).

Last May a new opportunity emerged when the Gemini consortium building the two 8-metre telescopes for US$184 million approached Australia as a potential replacement for Chile. The Chilean government had blocked its cash share of Gemini along with separate contributions due for ESO and the US telescopes in the Andes.

The Gemini consortium — which includes the United States (50 per cent), the United Kingdom (25 per cent), Canada (15 per cent) and Brazil and Argentina (2.5 per cent each) — set a deadline of 1 September for Chile to pay its 5 per cent. The fee for Australia to join Gemini in place of Chile — A$12 million over four years, with A$4.7 million paid up-front — was less than its ESO membership fee.

While McGauran appeared to be supportive this time, despite a climate of continuing cuts in public expenditure, funds in his portfolio were consumed by research agencies and centres. Astronomers shifted their lobbying to the education minister, Amanda Vanstone, then found a champion in Max Brennan, a plasma physicist who then chaired the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Australia negotiated through a national consortium led by Jeremy Mould, director of the Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories of the Australian National University; the university runs three telescopes in New South Wales on the same site as the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope operated by AAO.

While government officials expressed confidence, just before the Chilean deadline, that there would be an imminent “positive announcement” on funding, a letter of commitment had apparently already been sent from the ARC to the Gemini board in early August. Vicki Sara, newly appointed successor to Brennan (see panel), confirms the ARC's continuing support.