UK plans to decommission three island telescopes

STFC : The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council announced yesterday that it will be shutting down its two Hawaiian telescopes, the UK Infrared Telescope and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, by 2013 and 2014, respectively. The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) in the Canary Islands is scheduled to follow in 2015. If alternate operators cannot be found, the telescopes will be decommissioned once the existing science missions are completed. The UK hopes to negotiate with other European countries to keep the ING open; otherwise the UK will have no observatories in the Northern Hemisphere.