[dstyrb]

It would fundamentally change the science case, not just slightly. You have E-ELT and GMT in the southern hemisphere. A major part of the TMT science case is its survey footprint in the north to augment these other 30-meter class projects.

Money is committed on the basis of time -- with the expectation that the telescope will be able to deliver the type of science that your institute wants to do -- so an institute doing astroseismology is probably not going to put in money to a spectroscopy project like 4most or weave.

Money is absolutely committed on the basis of expected performance. And part of TMT performance is its location.

I agree physically the telescope is not that specialized. But TMT the project _is_ that specialized.

[SIMBAD2000]

It's not fundamental to the science case. Nine of the major topics in the science case, if you read it, are hemisphere specific. It is not emphasised that a northern telescope is a big deal, few astronomers will have access to both.

This a national level project, institutions aren't making funding decisions. They do not consult the funding countries every time WFOS is redesigned with different performance. They did not consult them when the AO IFS MOS was replaced with MOSfire. With a big project like this the performance isn't well known at the point when you commit funding.

[SIMBAD2000]

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