Looking up: expansion plans for the facilities at Mauna Kea have been welcomed by astronomers. Credit: GEMINI OBSERVATORY/RICHARD WAINSCOAT

A long-awaited master plan for the future development of astronomy projects on Mauna Kea in Hawaii was approved last week by the University of Hawaii. The agreement comes after two years of negotiations with native Hawaiian cultural groups and environmentalists and a last-minute decision to drop two of the planned facilities.

At the same time, the university has announced that its three-year search for a new director for its Institute of Astronomy is over. Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, currently director of the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Munich, will take up his new post in October.

Kudritzki says that Mauna Kea has “enormous scientific potential because it is host to so many international observatories”.

The master plan to set up an ‘astronomy precinct’ within the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, and the recruitment of Kudritzki, will allow Hawaii to move forward with a number of plans for expansion and improvements at Mauna Kea. The site is currently home to a number of major facilities, such as the Keck telescope.

Under the plan, three new facilities will be built, five of the existing 13 facilities will be redeveloped, and two of the existing facilities will be expanded.

Native Hawaiians have expressed concern that telescopes and other facilities built near Mauna Kea's 14,000-foot-tall peak would disturb land on which traditional gods are believed to live. Environmentalists have raised concerns about possible damage.

As part of the compromise agreement worked out, the university has cancelled plans for a 4- to 12-metre telescope and an optical/infrared interferometer facility.

In response to local concerns, the master plan calls for an advisory group of native Hawaiians to have a say in future expansion. But native Hawaiians themselves remain sharply divided on Mauna Kea astronomy development. Some leaders have endorsed the master plan, but others continue to threaten legal action to block it.

Kudritzki says the “master plan presents an appropriate balance between the concerns of ecology, religion and astronomy”.