Announcements

Effect of the Windscreen Incident at the Subaru Telescope (Report 1)

April 18, 2017

At around 12:40 am, April 10, 2017 (Hawaii Time), windscreen of the Subaru Telescope became inoperable. This mechanism is to prevent strong wind from directly hitting the telescope. It was discovered that the chain to drive the screen panels up and down and some of the panels of the windscreen fell.

Observation of the night was suspended right away. Restoration work was done by removing or stabilizing the fallen panels and chain. Observation program resumed the night of April 17. The windscreen is not operable due to this incident. Therefore the telescope is operated without the windscreen for the time being. Its effect on the observation will be carefully evaluated.

The public tour program is temporarily suspended and we notified the affected guests. We regret the situation. The program should resume as soon as the satisfactory safety checks are done.

We are committed to find the source of the incident so as not to repeat it.

Dr. Michitoshi Yoshida

Director, Subaru Telescope

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