The National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which operates an array of telescopes in Arizona, Hawaii and Chile from offices in Tucson, is laying off 35 scientists and support staff because of federal budget cuts.
Twenty of those jobs will be lost at its headquarters on North Cherry Avenue in Tucson and on nearby Kitt Peak. The other 15 jobs will be lost at facilities it operates at Cerro Tololo International Observatory in Chile.
No facilities will close as a result of this round of cuts, said NOAO Director David Silva, but further cuts could occur when a National Science Foundation committee completes a review of all of its funded astronomical facilities this summer.
NOAO is run by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, with its budget coming mostly from the National Science Foundation. It employed about 220 in Tucson and 130 in Chile before the recent reduction.
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Its mission is to provide open-access time on optical and infrared telescopes to the worthiest proposals for astronomical science.
NSF support for NOAO has shrunk in the current fiscal year, which ends in September, by nearly 10 percent, even as NOAO takes on larger telescope programs such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
NOAO had a “target budget” of $29.2 million for fiscal 2012. That has been cut to $26.5. Its target budget for 2013 includes a cut of another $1 million — down to $25.5 million.
Read the rest of this story in Saturday's Star.
