Spain judge nixes backup site for disputed Hawaii telescope

By ARITZ PARRA
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — A judicial decision from Spain has put a halt on an alternative plan to build a giant telescope in the Canary Islands instead of a preferred site in Hawaii where it faces opposition from Native Hawaiians. Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, has been stalled by those who say it will desecrate land that’s sacred to some Native Hawaiians. If it can’t be built in Hawaii, telescope officials have selected the alternate location on the highest mountain of La Palma, a Spanish island off Africa’s western coast. But a judge there has ruled a public concession for the site was invalid.