General design and plans for construction

In April of this year agreement was reached between the British and the Australian Governments to build a 150-inch telescope for observations of the southern sky. The agreement specified that: (i) the telescope would be built at the Australian National University’s present site at Siding Spring Observatory; (ii) the expected cost was $11 million and the telescope would be built and operated on a 50-50 basis as between the two Governments; (iii) the telescope would be virtually a copy of the existing Kitt Peak 150-inch design. This was intended to save the time usually needed for the design of a new telescope and, as we shall see, it might lead to considerable savings in cost.