Is Apparently a Developer’s Gain in Toronto

The historic David Dunlap Observatory in Toronto, Ontario (Canada), has been sold to Metrus Development, Inc., which has already started drilling holes in the dome to affix huge padlocks to the doors and windows. It’s not clear what Metrus plans to do with the facility, but it’s likely the telescope (which I’ve been told is still working), is headed for the dustheaps of history, prematurely. Or, perhaps it’ll end up in a museum somewhere. The land is probably headed for development.

How did this happen? It seems that the University of Toronto decided that the observatory, which has been quite productive, was to be sold and the proceeds used to buy new equipment for the university’s department of astronomy. The last employees were let go in July and astronomer Tom Bolton (the first astronomer to discover a black hole) told to get his research materials out. It’s a sad end for a famous site. I first heard of it when I wrote to an astronomer there (Helen Sawyer Hogg) for permission to use an image of a star cluster that she had taken using DDO. It had a fascinating history and a wonderful telescope.

From what I could tell in my reading about DDO, the observatory was being used to do long-term surveys and, due to Bolton’s efforts, light pollution from nearby subdivisions had been mitigated quite a bit. Yet, the university claimed that the observatory couldn’t do “world-class” research due to light pollution.  I find that assertion a little bit hard to believe, given the advances in technology that many observatories around the world use to increase their sensitivity. Perhaps some of the University’s decision-makers could have talked to observatories in California and elsewhere that are doing good work despite far worse light pollution than what was threatening DDO.

But, perhaps somebody in the department had their eye on something new and shiny, and selling off DDO was the only way to get it. These things do happen, particularly in the name of “progress.” Still, it seems to me that a heritage site such as the David Dunlap Observatory, which educated generations of astronomers and made huge contributions to astronomy, deserved better treatment than it got. (You can read more about the DDO’s plight at SavetheDDO.)