Andy has an interesting take on the Gemini crisis. It’s essentially a salient reminder that it’s the government and not the STFC that’s responsible for the loss of funding. That’s true, but the thing that scares me about the Gemini decision is that the apparent lack of consultation. Instead of asking the astronomical community to save £4 million, they’re just planning to shut of access to one of our major facilities. That isn’t how these decisions are supposed to be made.
There’s a response from Gemini themselves, which is best summarized as ‘putting a brave face on it’. It’s so depressing to be writing about such things instead of results like these.