It goes beyond being a state of the art tool. It is a part of our culture having this observatory.
As a child, I loved going there and its the earliest part of my childhood that I remember something motivating me to pursue science/math. Even in my later part of my life I was able to do some research with the observatory which kick started my current career.
The island already suffers from a lack of funding in education, thus I fear the youth might miss out on this sense of awe and curiosity I was lucky enough to have as a child.
Another issue is that we have our brightest minds leaving the island because there's no fulfilling or well paying work to be done. The lack of this observatory is another reason more people will leave.
As a child, I loved going there and its the earliest part of my childhood that I remember something motivating me to pursue science/math. Even in my later part of my life I was able to do some research with the observatory which kick started my current career.
The island already suffers from a lack of funding in education, thus I fear the youth might miss out on this sense of awe and curiosity I was lucky enough to have as a child.
Another issue is that we have our brightest minds leaving the island because there's no fulfilling or well paying work to be done. The lack of this observatory is another reason more people will leave.
Here's a white paper the people in the observatory wrote about a new dish. It contains reasoning, beyond my socio-cultural observations, for having a new one. http://www.naic.edu/NGAT/NGAT_WhitePaper_v2_01022021.pdf