The director of the Auckland Observatory and Planetarium, Dr Ian Griffin, is leaving to work at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
His new job will be similar to his role at the One Tree Hill observatory - explaining astronomical phenomena to the public.
The big difference is that inAuckland Dr Griffin studies the heavens through a telescope on the ground.
In Baltimore, his work will be based on discoveries from the Hubble telescope in orbit above the Earth's distorting atmosphere.
Dr Griffin said yesterday that the job offer came out of the blue.
After much agonising, he decided it was too good to turn down.
"I am very, very sad to be leaving Auckland because I love this place ... But you don't get many chances to work at a place like [the Hubble institute] and I think it would be very difficult for me to turn down the opportunity."
English-born Dr Griffin, the Herald's astronomy columnist, has been the chief executive and director of the observatory for 18 months.
He expected to stay three years.
At the institute he will head the Office of Public Outreach, working with scientists and staff to explain Hubble's discoveries.
"The idea is that the American public who fund the space telescope get to see exactly what their tax dollars are paying for. From my point of view, it is a great job because it is a chance to really influence a lot of people and to get the astronomy message out as far and as wide as possible.
"Hubble is regarded as one of the biggest successes Nasa has, purely because of all the amazing pictures [it sends back], and the work of the outreach office is central to that.
"Obviously I will not be doing the science, but I will be involved in working with the scientists to get the information out and that is really exciting because we will see the pictures first."
But Dr Griffin will be back. The new job will give him time to continue his research into near-Earth asteroids.
Those studies mean he will return to New Zealand from time to time.
