Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005

138 V. People and Events
Fig. V.13.5: During the year 1972 Dietrich Lemke worked as
a Research Associate at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Using the heliumcooled
bolometer invented there by Frank J. Low at the 28
inch telescope on the Catalina Mountains, he could perform
important measurements of HII regions at wavelenghts around
20 micron, which is very difficult to do from the ground. At
that time, infrared astronomy was just in its infancy, and the
technical equipment of the observatory, very simple by today‘s
standards, was the most efficient world-wide. During each observing
night he had to work 12 hours in the open air.
Was the transition painless?
Leinert: No. I still remember Beckwith saying in his
inaugural address that Calar Alto was no longer competitive
considering the large telescopes at eso and elsewhere.
Of course, that was a heavy blow to all of us.
Lemke: But it was not altogether wrong. After the
commendable establishment of Calar Alto, Elsässer
mainly concentrated on his observatory. But there were
no plans for extension and internationalization. In the
1980s, he was not an advocate of a German large telescope,
although the Ministry apparently was willing to
support this project.
Leinert: Yes, at that time the further development of
Calar Alto also stagnated. On the other hand, we started
building major instruments for eso, such as conica, back
in Elsässer's day. That must have been around 1989 or so.
And then I heard about an infrared-interferometer to be
built for the VLT. I was very interested in that, because I
believed in the future of this technique and hoped to be
able to contribute to it based on my experience gained
with the speckle-method. Elsässer was quite open to this
opportunity. Steve Beckwith then strongly supported and
promoted this midi project.
Which direction do you think the Institute should be
headed?
Lemke: At present, the Institute is on an excellent
road; we are growing into a very large international institute.
I am a staunch supporter of participation in esa and
eso projects. These two organizations are a real blessing
for science and really powerful instruments in Europe.
Projects are carried out there with high reliability and
transparency. The services for professionally operationing
large telescopes on the ground and in space are free
for astronomers of the member countries. And Germany
is an important contributor to both organizations. We
are building instruments for these observatories and
receiving guaranteed time in return. Now and then our
Institute, with its excellent technical departments, can
and should take over the leadership of such an instrument
consortium. It is a different case with corresponding facilities
in the USA, where large projects that have been
supported for years are suddenly at disposal because
political interests have shifted. One example that concerned
us was the infrared telescope Girl; another current
example is the airplane-based infrared telescope sofia.
After investing far more than one hundred million dollars
in this project, it now may be stopped because all of a
sudden there is allegedly no money left for the running
operation. But it was clear from the beginning that there
would be high operating costs.
Leinert: Given the current general situation, I see
things similarly. But during the 1970s and 1980s, it was
a great advantage for us to have privileged access to
the large telescopes on Calar Alto. There we could test
and improve our ideas and instruments, and many PhD
students came to our Institute because of these opportunities.
Even a successful astronomer like Reinhard Genzel
told me then that he envied us for these opportunities.
Today the situation is quite different. Now it is more important
to participate in the development of instruments
for the major observatories, ground-based as well as
space-based.
What do you think of the chances with the LBT, the
James Webb Space Telescope, a possible observatory in
the Antarctic, and an Extremely Large Telescope?
Lemke: With the LBT, we may encounter problems
like those we had with Calar Alto: the high annual running
costs could be a problem one day since they have to
be met jointly by various institutes at home and abroad.
This is why I am, like I said before, a staunch supporter