Work to decommission the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Maunakea will be paused through winter and resume when weather permits.
Caltech has already removed the Leighton Telescope out of its observatory and off the mountain. It will be shipped to Chile for reuse.
In the spring, Caltech hopes to deconstruct the dome and restore the site. The site will be monitored for three years to document the regrowth of flora and fauna.
“The CSO decommissioning is a complex and multi-phase project,” Caltech physics professor and CSO Director Sunil Golwala said in a statement.
“We made a lot of progress this summer and fall. In the spring, when weather permits, we will resume decommissioning with the removal of the building that housed the telescope and restoration of the site,” they continued.
The cost of deconstruction and site restoration will cost more than $4 million and is being funded primarily by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, while the removal of the telescope for reuse is being funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
The CSO first started operation in 1987.
