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List-ID: history of scientific instruments <rete.maillist.ox.ac.uk>
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From: Francis.J.Manasek@Dartmouth.EDU (Francis J. Manasek)
To: rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk
I append the entire text of a message I just received.
Frank
+++++
University considers selling Yerkes Observatory
(Published Saturday, September 18, 2004 12:34:28 AM CDT)
By Chris Schultz/Gazette Staff
WILLIAMS BAY-A landmark is for sale.
Earlier this summer, the University of Chicago received an offer to buy its
famed Yerkes Observatory and the surrounding land, totaling about 80
acres. The
university apparently found the offer tempting.
Yerkes was one of the world's leading observatories when it was built in 1897.
But time and technology has caught up with the astronomical research center
through the decades.
The building's function as a place of learning will not change, even
though time
has eroded its ability to do cutting-edge research, Cudworth said. The land
deeded to the university in the 1890s specified that the property must be used
for an observatory, he said.
"The University of Chicago is going to make sure the observatory and a core
piece of (the property) will remain as a functioning observatory," Cudworth
said.
An unnamed East Coast developer reportedly made the offer to buy the
observatory, he said.
"They definitely got an offer on the table that the university was serious
about
accepting," Cudworth said.
However, a group of Geneva Lake-area residents, with ties to nearby Aurora
University in Williams Bay, is also reportedly working up an offer, Cudworth
said.
Although he is not aware of a specific deadline, Cudworth said he expects that
some decisions about the sale of Yerkes will be made this fall.
Cudworth said he did not know of the East Coast offer until July. He said
he is
not free to release names associated with either group. He also would not talk
about costs or estimates of the value of the Yerkes grounds and building.
Located 76 miles northwest of Chicago, Yerkes once served as headquarters for
the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Most astronomers today make their observations via space telescopes or
mountaintop observatories located far from the interference of city lights.
Yerkes is now used mostly for educational and public outreach.
The university has been talking for years about closing the observatory, but
without discussions about what would happen to the grounds and building
afterward, Cudworth said.
The sale of about 70 of Yerkes' 80 acres would provide enough revenue to
maintain the observatory and remaining 10 acres as an astronomy museum and
educational outreach center, according to a recent release from the
university.
Although the press release does not say that the observatory would be sold,
Cudworth said that the intention is to have Yerkes become part of a consortium
or network that would retain the scientific and historical integrity of the
observatory.
"If anything, the plan calls for the observatory to be more open to the
public,"
Cudworth said.
Now, the observatory has public tours only on Saturdays or during special
events.
Housed in the building's 90-foot diameter, domed observatory is the 40-inch
refracting telescope, which was displayed at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in
Chicago. The telescope remains the world's largest refracting telescope.
None of the original telescopes and very little of the astronomical equipment
would be removed from Yerkes, Cudworth said.
The only exception would be research equipment owned by the University of
Chicago researchers and astronomers who still use Yerkes' facilities.
The university also has indicated that it wants any development on the Yerkes
grounds to be compatible with surrounding land uses.
Yerkes borders a Williams Bay residential area and the Williams Bay campus of
Aurora University. A fairway of Aurora's golf course is on Yerkes property,
Cudworth said, the result of an agreement reached many years ago.
The observatory grounds, now within the village limits, are zoned for
institutional use, Cudworth said.
Any developer wanting to build on the grounds would have to get permission
from
the village for a change in zoning, he said.
Cudworth said he believes that many of the staff members who work at
Yerkes and
live in the Williams Bay area would rather remain with the observatory,
even if
it cuts ties with the University of Chicago.
Cudworth has been director at Yerkes for three years, but he also worked as an
astronomer there for 30 years.
He lives on the observatory grounds, along with seven other staff members.
About 20 people work either full time or most of the time at the observatory,
Cudworth said.