Large Binocular Telescope a Long-Term Investment for RCSA
Large Binocular Telescope Observatory photo
Research Corporation for Science Advancement's long history includes critical initial investments in major telescope projects that have helped advance modern astronomy. One big bet was RCSA’s three-decade commitment to the construction of the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, the first of a new generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes.
“The LBT would not have happened without Research Corporation,” said astronomer Patrick S. Osmer, former chair of astronomy at The Ohio State University who served as chair of the RCSA Board of Directors from 2013-2014. “It was RCSA’s timely intervention at an early stage of the project that enabled the LBT to be built.”
RCSA’s support of the LBT also provided an important contract for the University of Arizona’s nascent Steward Observatory Mirror Lab -- now called the Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory -- which has earned international recognition for developing the technology and expertise to cast mirrors for other groundbreaking optical and infrared telescopes such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Giant Magellan Telescope.
The LBT’s history began in the 1980s as University of Arizona astronomy professor Roger Angel began to develop the large, lightweight honeycomb mirrors that would be necessary to construct the massive instrument. (Angel, who received his first funding from Research Corporation at age 28, is a Kavli Prize laureate and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” recipient.)
Initially called the Columbus Telescope, the LBT was envisioned as an 11.3-meter telescope to be constructed by 1992, the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. Early collaborators in the project were the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, and Arcetri Observatory representing the Italian Telescope Group.
When Ohio State University had to withdraw from the project for financial reasons in 1991, the project's future was in doubt. Research Corporation was asked to step in.
“We didn't know whether we could continue or would have to abandon the project,” said Peter Strittmatter, who was director of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory from 1975 to 2012.
John Schaefer, who had been president of the University of Arizona before becoming RCSA president in 1982, believed the foundation’s mission to advance science included taking “bold and worthwhile” risks.
“It was important science, probably the way the Van de Graaff generator appealed to Research Corporation in the 1920s,” he said. “It was going to be the largest telescope in the world at the time, with interesting technology -- adaptive optics and interferometry -- which are now the cornerstone of every single telescope that's being built in the world."
In 1992 RCSA organized and became a partner in the Columbus Project, an international consortium that would build the LBT. RCSA provided a loan guarantee of up to $7.5 million (one-eighth of the then-estimated project cost) for 5% to 20% of the telescope’s future observing time. RCSA intended to make awards of its time to early career astronomers at primarily undergraduate institutions.
The consortium was renamed the Large Binocular Telescope Corporation (LBTC) in 1993 and added more members. By 1998 the German Beteiligungsgesellschaft (LBTB) consortium had joined and Ohio State University had rejoined, thus completing commitments for 100% of the $60 million estimated project cost. RCSA converted its loan into a 12.5% interest in the LBTC.
In response to project delays and increasing costs, RCSA began to explore selling or making awards of its observing time to institutions in return for their assuming ongoing operations costs. By 2002, RCSA sold or awarded all its observing time to Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, and the University of Arizona.
Through funding from the LBTC, construction on the LBT began in 1996, and in 1997 the Mirror Lab began casting the first of two 8.4-meter mirrors for LBT. First light on the first mirror was officially announced in October 2005 and the first binocular light in March 2008.
“RCSA’s ingenious, catalytic approach enabled the project to succeed,” Osmer said.
In 2019, nearly three decades after the original loan guarantee, RCSA transferred its interest in the LBTC to Ohio State University and was able to withdraw from participation in the LBT. In total, RCSA had spent about $8.5 million on the LBT.
Costs to RCSA had been more than financial. Involvement in the project put RCSA in the middle of years of public environmental and cultural debates about telescope construction on Mount Graham, and RCSA’s management spent 30 years negotiating between multiple university partners in the financing and management of the facility.
Today, the LBT Observatory operates as an international collaboration with partners in Germany, Italy, and the United States. The success of its 8.4-meter mirrors and revolutionary adaptive optics technology has proved critical for other extremely large ground-based telescope projects, such as the Vera Rubin Observatory and the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program, which includes the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope. These projects were the highest ranked national projects in the Astro2010 and Astro2020 decadal surveys.
RCSA’s investment has proved catalytic. The LBT facility was valued at about $186 million at the end of 2023. Total member contributions through the end of 2023 were $393 million. Seven U.S. universities, five German institutes, and 20 members of the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica have access to LBT observing time.
LBT Observatory Director Joseph Shields notes that RCSA’s support enabled the development of distinctive capabilities that ensure the telescope remains at the forefront of innovation and discovery.
“We are in the process of implementing three new instruments that leverage the LBT’s adaptive optics to correct for distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere,” Shields said. “These additions will provide a powerful means to advance our understanding of planetary systems around other stars.”
In addition, the creation of the LBT provided an incalculable boost to the growth of Southern Arizona as a high-tech astronomy and optics hub.
Roger Angel told the Arizona Daily Star in 2010 that Schaefer’s leadership and Research Corporation played a "pivotal role" in making the LBT a reality.
Without help in that critical phase, Angel said, “we might not have the LBT at all."
