Abstract
By the mid-1990s the combination of the UK’s decision to join the Gemini partnership plus a continuing financial squeeze meant that PPARC was looking for savings in its astronomy programme. Following on from the strategic review chaired by Professor Jim Hough in 1994, the Williams panel had noted that wide-field programmes at UKIRT were likely to become increasingly important, partly in direct support of Gemini, but also because this would be an extremely competitive use for an IR-optimised 4 m telescope in the era of 8 m and larger telescopes. The UKIRT staff were already aware of the threat from Gemini, and considerable thinking about the future had been going on for some time.
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Notes
- 1.
Although usually known as the f/35 focus, the original secondary mirror had been replaced during the upgrades programme and UKIRT actually operated with an f/36.32 focal ratio.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Davies, J.K. (2016). The New Era of Wide-Field Astronomy at UKIRT. In: The Life Story of an Infrared Telescope. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23579-0_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23579-0_18
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