It has also successfully negotiated an agreement for funding of this new building with local Tekapo tourist company Earth and Sky Ltd (formerly Tekapo Tours). Shelagh Murray, Development Manager at the University of Canterbury said the agreement was an exciting development for the University, Mt John and the Lake Tekapo community.

"The new observatory will be funded by a joint venture with Earth and Sky Ltd, a local company which takes tourists from all over the world to view the stars from this incomparable star-gazing region. In exchange, the University of Canterbury will provide exclusive tourist access on Mt John to Earth and Sky Ltd and allow its customers to view the observatory where possible."

Earth and Sky Ltd is headed by co-directors Hide Ozawa and Graeme Murray of Lake Tekapo.

The new 1.8m telescope is part of the MOA project (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics). MOA is an international collaboration between astronomers at the universities of Canterbury, Auckland and Victoria in New Zealand, and Nagoya University in Japan. The project aims to detect black holes and planets that can not be seen with existing telescopes because brighter stars outshine these dimmer objects in space.

The Japanese Government has granted 433 million yen (about NZ$7 million) over five years for the project. The 1.8m telescope nearly three times larger than the existing microlensing telescope at Mt John is currently under construction in Japan. Aspects of its unique optical system were designed in New Zealand, and New Zealand has been given the contract for fabricating some of the telescopes optical components. The new telescope is expected to be delivered in August and installed at Mt John in September 2004. An official opening will be held at Mt John on 1 December 2004.

Professor John Hearnshaw (Physics and Astronomy) said the MOA telescope would help raise the profile of astronomy at New Zealand universities and in the education system generally. Astronomy is a popular science, and for many students it is astronomy that attracts them to studying science in the first place, he said.

The New Zealand partners are responsible for providing a building to house the new telescope, as well as undertaking routine maintenance. A rotatable dome, about 9.3m in diameter, will cover the observation area. The development includes a single storey technical support block housing a computer room, control room, workshop and other facilities.

The new microlensing telescope will assist MOA to achieve its goals of finding dark matter in the Milky Way Galaxy and of detecting planets similar to Earth orbiting around other stars, Professor Hearnshaw said. Microlensing, a phenomenon first predicted by Einstein, has only been made possible in the last decade, due to advances in the fields of optics, electronics and computing.

The University of Canterbury has dedicated one of its smaller telescopes at Mt John to the MOA project since its inauguration in 1995. After the conclusion of the MOA project in about 2010, the telescope will remain in New Zealand and be used for on-going research collaborations, Professor Hearnshaw said.

"It has long been a dream of mankind to find other planets like Earth where life could in principle survive and flourish. We would like to confirm the existence of such a planet in our Galaxy but lying beyond the solar system," he said.