A state judge in Hawaii handed a further legal setback last week to the University of Hawaii and its efforts to manage science on top of Mauna Kea, the premier site in the United States for astronomical observatories. The judge, Glenn S. Hara, denied the university’s request to reconsider his January order, in which he reversed a state board’s decision to allow the construction of six additional telescopes on top of the mountain. Mauna Kea already has 13 working telescopes, including some of the largest optical instruments in the world, and astronomers say they need the new observatories to retain American pre-eminence in the field.

The university is charged with managing scientific operations atop the mountain, which Native Hawaiians regard as sacred land and environmentalists see as an ecologically threatened zone. Those two groups have banded together to oppose the six planned telescopes. The instruments were supposed to be part of a NASA project that the space agency decided to cancel last year for budgetary reasons. But last week’s ruling could hamper efforts to build future telescopes on top of the mountain. —Richard Monastersky