If and when it is built, the instrument will be the world's largest ground-based solar optical observatory, using the latest advances in adaptive optics and other technologies to study the various solar phenomena that affect life on Earth, from wireless phone communication to global climate change.

"I honestly believe that it will pay for itself in months to a year once it's turned on," said Jeff Kuhn, a UH solar astronomer who helped develop the technology and prototype on which the project is based.

In addition to the Mees Solar Observatory, the Haleakala summit is home to the Air Force's Advanced Electro-Optical System telescope; Japan's 80-inch MAGNUM Telescope; the 80-inch Faulkes Telescope, devoted to education of students and teachers in Hawai'i and the United Kingdom; and the SOLAR-C, a 20-inch telescope developed to observe the sun's activities.

UH is expected to begin environmental studies that will, among other things, examine where to build the observatory at the summit. Officials said the telescope could be built near the Mees Observatory or could replace it altogether.

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
Posted on: January 7, 2005