Subaru is Public, Too

The News Notes item reporting that construction of Gemini South telescope had been completed ( Physics Today, January 2002, page 26 ) states that Gemini North and South are “the only telescopes in the 8-meter class that are public, meaning that any astronomer in the seven partner countries … can apply to use them.” Actually, a set percentage of Gemini’s observing time is granted to each partner country in proportion to its financial contribution to the project. Within each country’s portion, proposals from that nation compete with each other. For most US astronomers, the share of Gemini observing time will be the most accessible source of observing time in the 8-meter class.

All of the 8-meter class telescopes are “public” in one way or another. The four telescopes that make up the Very Large Telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory will be the only telescopes in the 8-meter class that are public in the sense that any astronomer in the member nations of ESO can apply to use them. Proposals from all member nations compete for observing time based on scientific merit.

Subaru Telescope, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, is the only telescope in the 8-meter class that is public in the sense that any astronomer in the world can apply to use it. Currently, two-thirds of all Subaru Telescope time is dedicated to open use. The other third of the time is for engineering, the director’s discretionary time, and for University of Hawaii observers. Of Subaru’s open-use time, 90% presently goes to Japanese astronomers and 10% to non-Japanese astronomers. This ratio reflects a current preference for Japanese proposals, but not a policy, and is subject to change in the future.