New home sought for observatory

KENNEWICK – The observatory that was used to search the night sky above Rattlesnake Mountain for more than 35 years has been dismantled and hauled down the mountain.

Its components, from the telescope to the rotating dome, are in storage at Columbia Basin College in Pasco.

“This is really an opportunity for us,” said Ken Swanson, executive director of the Alliance for Advancement of Science Through Astronomy, or AASTA.

Although the nonprofit group had no choice but to remove the telescope – the largest in the state – it has been able to save the facility with the help of $250,000 from Battelle, which operates the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Now AASTA is making plans to refurbish and reinstall the Rattlesnake Mountain Observatory at a more convenient site. It won’t be able to find one that has the same combination of panoramic view, elevation and darkness of Rattlesnake Mountain, but it should be able to find a site that allows the telescope to be used more frequently than when it was on a portion of the Hanford Reach National Monument that’s closed to the public.

Because of access restrictions, no public use of the observatory has been scheduled for several years.

The group will spend the summer looking at and considering new locations for the observatory with a goal of finding the best site available, ideally within about 30 minutes of the Tri-Cities. A new site should be picked by fall.

In March 2008 the Department of Energy notified AASTA that it would need to remove the observatory from Rattlesnake Mountain, which is part of the security perimeter around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Battelle Memorial Institute built the observatory, which has a 0.8-meter Cassegrain telescope, for research in 1971. It donated the observatory to AASTA in 2005.

Once a site is picked and utilities are in place, AASTA will make sure the equipment is in top shape before it is installed. It likely will clean and recoat the mirror and repair and improve the motors that drive the telescope.

It could be installed in 12 to 18 months, said Mike Durst, acting AASTA president.