Working on the Mountain

We were doing more engineering tests with the K1 laser Sunday night. And as usual, Dan Birchall, working the night over at Subaru, took advantage of the opportunity to do some time lapse photography. Enjoy...

Any day that starts with two flat tires is bound to be an interesting day.

Yes, not one, but two flat tires in a matter on moments. I felt the first tire blow out and as we inspected the damage a hissing could be heard from the opposite side. The summit road is known to be a problem, and flat tires are not an uncommon event. We do get practice changing tires on this road. Fortunately other Keck vehicles were coming up behind us, and we could ask for another spare to be brought down from the summit. In the meantime we spent a pleasant half hour waiting for the second spare. The weather was beautiful, and so was the view from high on the side of Mauna Kea.

I had planned on working on one of the cameras in Interferometry. The camera has been having trouble automatically filling with liquid nitrogen. In addition I had a list of smaller issues that needed to be dealt with. Unfortunately one of those minor issues turned out to be not so minor.

Thus I spent much of the day troubleshooting Fast Delay Line #5. Used to compensate the optical path between the two telescopes, the delay line is a cart that runs on rails, carrying a set of mirrors. The cart should track very smoothly, changing the path length on the order of micrometers (a few ten thousandths of an inch), instead it visibly jittered and jumped along the rail, something wrong in the motor control software or circuitry. It took much of the day, but in the end it was tracking smoothly.

The entire day was busy from beginning to end. I attempted to finish the last few tasks on my list as the last few minutes of the day sped away. The rest of the guys were ready to leave about a quarter to five, while I was still connecting a few last metrology cables. "Yes, I am coming!" I answered on the radio for the second time. I grabbed my tool bag and headed to the door as the clock hit 17:00.

One of those days I return home exhausted. I will have to head up again, quite soon, to deal with other problems still unfinished. Hopefully a somewhat less complicated day.

W. M. Keck Observatory Position Announcement...

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two of the world’s largest optical/infrared telescopes located on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Each telescope is equipped with full a suite of instruments designed to perform exciting, cutting edge astronomical research. The Observatory seeks an Instrument Technician to work in close collaboration with instrument engineers and support astronomers and be responsible for technical support of these facility astronomical instruments. In addition this position may include working in other areas in which Keck is a world leader such as adaptive optics, lasers for artificial guide star adaptive optics, and other telescope systems as needed.

The successful candidate is committed to WMKO’s core values, adheres to company policy, works well with others and is a motivated, self-starter who can handle multiple tasks and priorities within a fast paced environment.

Minimum qualifications include:

• An AS degree in Electronics or Engineering degree or equivalent
  
• Three years experience in a highly technical or science operations environment
  
• Experience and ability working with and around complex and sensitive optics and instrumentation
  
• Experience in at least one of the following three areas:
  
  • Operation and maintenance of vacuum dewars
    
  • Cryogen systems (liquid and/or closed cycle)
    
  • Handling , alignment, and maintenance of optics

Desirable qualifications include:

• Experience working at an astronomical observatory
  
• Instrumentation experience at an astronomical observatory
  
• Electronics design experience
  
• Experience using Unix
  
• Experience working with lasers

This position requires you to submit your resume on-line with your cover letter that states why you are uniquely qualified for the position.

This is a regular position with a competitive, comprehensive benefits package. The position is opened until filled. Employment is conditional on successful completion of drug tests. This position requires you to submit your resume on-line with your cover letter that states why you are uniquely qualified for the position. Additional information about WMKO and this position may be found on our web site at www.keckobservatory.org. EEO/M/F/D/V

W.M. Keck press release...

Young people these days. They go through high school and college, trying to find their way in the world with gloom, doom and debt all around them. The path to becoming a highly skilled and employable worker is not easy, despite the unending media reports that America needs such people more than ever. Is it any wonder, then, that today’s youth are often characterized as an aimless, unmotivated generation?

Well yes, actually, it is a wonder. Just a few minutes of conversation with some of the young people who have been summer interns at Keck Observatory makes it crystal clear that the listless youth stereotype is totally false. What’s more, it becomes obvious that Hawaii is no backwater when it comes to science and technical careers.

“Hawaii is great because students like me have access to places like Keck and the HPA Energy Lab,” said Mariko Thorbecke, currently a digital communications intern at Keck Observatory as well as an intern at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Lab. At Keck she is tasked with researching and assembling a video recording and webcasting system so that future Keck Astronomy Lecture Series will be broadcast around the world on the Internet.

Although Thorbecke started her Keck internship with a primary interest in computer science and a love of physics instilled by her HPA physics teacher, Jerry Bleckel, she has since discovered a range of new interests and other career paths open to her. Communicating science is one of them.
“I would have never thought of a career in astronomy,” said Thorbecke. “I thought it was just stars and planets.” Now she sees it as a fantastic field where physics and technology are redefining the nature of the universe.

Christina Balkaran, another one of Keck’s summer interns, was already in love with astrophysics when she started her position with support astronomer Greg Wirth. She came to the Big Island from her home state of Connecticut, where she is studying astrophysics at Connecticut College. Balkaran’s project has been to process loads of raw data about a dwarf galaxy that is orbiting the Andromeda galaxy. The data were collected with the Keck II telescope’s DEIMOS instrument several years ago, just waiting for someone like Balkaran to analyze it for new information about the cosmos.

“I’m very, very lucky,” said Balkaran, who is part of the first generation in her family to attend college. She was not only able to work on a real astronomy project with astronomers at a world-class observatory, but she also discovered there are skills involved in being an astronomer that go beyond understanding physics and outer space. There is also a huge amount of engineering and computer programming done at Keck, which was both a surprise and an opportunity for Balkaran to pick up some of those skills at Keck. “It really makes you appreciate what everyone does here.”

Engineering intern Sean Jones is taking home similar lessons. He earned his internship through the Akamai Workforce Initiative, which has been sending college students to Keck, CFHT and other observatories on the Big Island for years. Jones is an engineering student at UH Manoa and an Oahu native. His project helped to design a new platform that will be placed high up on the walls of one of the Keck telescope domes to hold equipment for the next generation in adaptive optics systems (a technology which cancels out the starlight-distorting effects of the Earth’s atmosphere).

“This was a whole project design, from scratch,” Jones said. “I did make a lot of progress and I think learning this design process will serve me very well.”

But perhaps an even bigger revelation for Jones was discovering that there are actually real engineering careers in Hawaii.

“It gave me some insight into good jobs that are not the Mainland,” said Jones. “After this, I see there are definitely opportunities for mechanical engineers in Hawaii.”

Nor are the interns the only ones gaining from their time at Keck.

“We do get real benefits,” said Keck Operations Engineering Manager Craig Nance. Over the years, Nance has mentored five Akamai interns who how have done important and sometimes very high-profile projects. For example, if you have ever looked online at the Keck Observatory webcams on Mauna Kea, you are seeing the product of an Akamai intern. Another intern installed anemometers to measure wind speeds in the air ventilation tunnels of the big telescope domes. These have allowed engineers to learn how much air was moving and whether energy could be saved—and the observatory made a bit greener—by turning down the giant fans that keep the telescopes at a steady temperature (the answer was yes, energy could be saved).

There is also a less obvious, incidental benefit to Keck, which comes from having young people working among Keck’s professional staff, some with decades of experience and at the peaks of their careers.

“The interns’ energy and enthusiasm helps to freshen my view of what I do,” said Keck librarian/archivist Peggi Kamisato, who has mentored interns in the past.

And of course, there is always a benefit of all these young people taking the momentum they build at Keck out into the world to build their careers and contribute to other workplaces, explained Hilton Lewis, Keck’s deputy director. That sometimes even leads interns, years later, right back to Keck and other observatories as full-time staff.

“We are, after all, helping to generate future engineers and scientists to lead the future of astronomy,” said Lewis.

Young people these days. They face big challenges, and they’re more than up to them.

Seasons come around
The Earth orbits once more
Orion in the dawn

Yes, I suck at writing haiku. Somewhat better at photography...

Safety, Health and Environmental Affairs (SHEA) Officer

The W. M. Keck Observatory seeks a Safety, Health and Environmental Affairs (SHEA) Officer to implement safety, health, and environmental program requirements, identify hazards, assess risks; mitigate hazards and recommend hazard abatement controls. The SHEA Officer provides expert advice and training on accident prevention, occupational health, and environmental issues to the WMKO Safety Committee and employees.

One of the tasks I have helped with on the K1 AO Laser is aligning the Launch Telescope Assembly (LTA). This is not so much an electrical engineer's task, but a mechanical one. So how did I end up with the task? Simple, I was present the first time it was done. Since the mechanical engineer who was first responsible has now left the observatory, I get the job by default. Just the way things work around here.

The launch telescope is a small telescope, about 0.5 meter in aperture, that projects the laser into the sky. Mounted behind the secondary mirror of the Keck 1 telescope, it must be precisely aimed to exactly the same spot in the sky the main telescope is aimed.

The procedure is not all that difficult. Mount two dial indicators in place, restrain the motion by using wooden wedges or a really big c-clamp, loosen the bolts, make the adjustment, tighten the bolts. No problem, right? The challenge is to move the large assembly just a few thousandths of an inch and have it stay exactly where you want it while re-tightening the bolts.

In practice this adjustment is about one to two hours crouched in the secondary assembly of the Keck 1 telescope. Each time the bolts are tightened the assembly moves about 10-15 thousandths of an inch. Thus I have to guess how much to offset the measurement so it ends up correct when the bolts are tight. It takes anywhere from three to five repetitions to get right sometimes.

This is where I curse the mechanical engineer who dreamed up the mounting for the launch telescope. I look at the dial indicators, shift my stance against the cold steel to stop the cramping, loosen the bolts and try again.

The last adjustment was a mere 0.004" (four one-thousandths of an inch) to move the pointing about 30 arc-seconds on the sky. I am now only about 10 arc-seconds from the optical axis. Keep in mind that a single arc-second is 1/60th of an arc-minute, which is in turn 1/60th of a degree. Ten arc-seconds is pretty good, but we want closer. Here I go one more time...

The laser worked.

The K1 laser project continues. It has been a bit of a trial... The laser itself was a technological challenge that took longer than anticipated to complete. Once delivered to Keck that laser had to be installed on the telescope, a major effort. Then we found that the optical fiber that was to carry the light from the laser to the launch telescope at the front of Keck 1 produced a beam that was badly shifted in wavelength. The fiber was scrapped and a free space transport system designed. We have been able to put light through this system a few times over the last few months, but only with difficulty.

Slowly the technological challenges have been beaten. A few of my coworkers have put enormous effort into making the free space transport system work. Many long days on the summit installing the system and making it work... Tubes, mirrors, motors, cameras, beam position sensors... What was needed to bounce the beam from the laser to the launch telescope at the front of the telescope. Better yet, the various mirrors now track properly, steering the beam through the system as the telescope moves and the entire structure flexes. I am gratified to see that their efforts have produced a system that works.

On Friday night the system was tested, and while there were a few issues, the laser worked. The AO system was locked onto a target star and the loops closed on the artificial laser reference star. The loops stayed closed as long as we tracked the target. Today we will pause a bit to celebrate, there are a few folks who deserve some sincere congratulations. Time for a toast, and then on to completing the system and getting it ready for science.

How powerful is the K1 AO laser?

For someone who has lately been used to working around relatively harmless power levels, beams of a few milliwatts, this is a reminder that lasers are potentially very dangerous. With a milliwatt power beam there is no danger in getting a hand in the beam, be mindful of your eyes, but otherwise not a lot of concern. This is vastly different, beam power here is measured in tens of watts... The bright yellow beam looks so innocent, appears so harmless. Give that beam a chance, a momentary slip, and it will burn you... badly.

Anything in the beam is at risk, even components we thought were robust enough to withstand the power levels. In this case a reflective ND filter that was to reflect most of the beam into a beam dump, allowing a small amount to continue up the beam train for use in alignments. So much for the ratings on the manufacturer's data sheet, the beam punched through the coating and even started to melt the glass...

W.M. Keck Press Release
Larry O'Hanlon

What’s old is new again. First the old: The iconic sci-fi image of port and starboard phasers firing on a hostile foe, as seen from the bridge of the starship Enterprise. And here’s what makes it new again: a strikingly similar image (minus the enemy spacecraft) caught by photographer and Keck electronics engineer Andrew Cooper several weeks ago on Mauna Kea.

Cooper was not on the bridge of any starship, but outside the Keck domes, battling a frigid gale to catch the very first images of both Keck Observatory telescopes launching lasers at the same time. It was a test of the Keck I laser, which is a more powerful version of what has been on the Keck II telescope for years. The new laser brings the total to four laser systems in operation on Mauna Kea: one on each Keck telescope, one on the Subaru Telescope and one on the Gemini North telescope.

The purpose of all these lasers is to help astronomers study distant objects in space, of course. An unexpected benefit is a stream of stunning new images of what is taking place at the observatories themselves. On May 26 lasers on both Keck telescopes and the Subaru were on at the same time, leading to more amazing photographs by both Cooper and Subaru Telescope’s Dan Birchall. Both of these dogged astro-photographers also created dramatic movies of the events which can be found via the Keck Observatory website: keckobservatory.org.

A (Guide) Star is Born
There’s far more to the story than just the fantastic images, however. There is the new Keck I laser itself. It’s a different animal than the laser on its twin, the Keck II telescope, and is the “next generation” of the most dynamic area of modern astronomy.

The Keck II laser has been in operation since its “first light” December, 2001. It has been in science operation since July 2004. It was the pioneer that set the standard for all large telescope lasers currently in operation. The Keck II laser is what’s called a sodium dye laser, the beam from which is launched through a long trumpet-like tube bolted to the side of the Keck II telescope structure. Like all of the telescope lasers, its purpose is to charge up a layer of sodium atoms left by vaporized meteors (a.k.a. shooting stars) in a layer of Earth’s atmosphere 60 miles above the ground. When the laser hits these sodium atoms they light up and create what serves as an artificial star, or Laser Guide Star, as it’s called in the business.

Why make a fake star? The Earth’s atmosphere makes stars twinkle and distorts their images, limiting some astronomers’ observations. With information from the Laser Guide Star astronomers can automatically correct for these distortions – literally taking the twinkle out of the stars – using a deformable mirror that changes it shape at a rate of up to 2,000 times per second – a system called Adaptive Optics. The results are crisp images of celestial objects that are better than most images obtained from space telescopes.

Free Space Transport
Now it’s Keck I’s turn. Despite being the older of the twin telescopes, Keck I is now equipped with the newer, more powerful solid state laser that is launched into the night sky through the center of the telescope via a complex series of mirrors. These mirrors make up what the engineers call the “Free Space Transport” system for the laser beam (which – in case you’re wondering – has absolutely nothing in common with the space transporters on Star Trek). The result is more power to those high-altitude sodium atoms and a brighter Laser Guide Star.

“We now have twice the output power,” said Jason Chin, the Keck Observatory engineer overseeing the installation of the new laser system. Launching the laser from the center of the telescope instead of the side is also better because it creates a tighter Laser Guide Star, Chin explained.

Chin and his team are now working on the last few adjustments to the new laser system to make it ready for use by astronomers. The biggest of those is fully factoring in the flexing of the giant 300-ton telescope itself.

“Nothing that big is totally stiff,” Chin explained. And something that big being moved up and down and around in circles to aim at different parts of the sky is bound to flex in ways that can change the laser beam’s path through all those mirrors. It’s an interesting problem that Chin is totally confident they will lick.

Seven More Laser Beacons
The new Keck I laser is not the end of the story, however. Like all single laser guide star systems, it suffers from one major limitation: it only allows astronomers to correct distortions in a very small patch of the sky. The Next Generation Adaptive Optics now being developed for Keck Observatory will employ no less than seven laser beacons. The idea is to correct for the atmospheric distortions in the full cylinder of atmosphere above the telescope mirror over a larger patch of sky, which will allow for even sharper images.

If this has whetted your appetite about lasers or other happenings at Keck Observatory, you are in luck: On Thursday, June 23 at 7 pm, Keck Observatory Director Taft Armandroff will be giving a free public lecture at Keck headquarters in Waimea as part of the monthly Astronomy Lecture Series. To sign up for regular notices of lectures and other Keck events, join the Keck Nation mailing list or come by the Keck headquarters Visitor Center and sign up in person.

A somewhat different picture of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Appropriately enough this image of an IR telescope was taken with an IR camera by Mark Devenot, a fellow engineer and photographer in the Keck Operations Department.

Since this is a thermal infrared image, the colors map directly to temperature. In this image the warm asphalt of the road glows bright yellow and the cold patches of snow a cool aqua. Note how well the telescope building and dome are designed, emitting very little infrared, a good feature for an infrared telescope.

The IR camera in question is fairly low resolution, a mere 256x256 pixels, fairly typical in handheld IR cameras. Mark found a way to make an impressive image even with the low pixel count by using some of the artistic filters in Photoshop to process the image. I saw the image and had to share it with my DarkerView readers...

I am making a point to get better photos of some of the other observatories. I have more than a few frames of Keck, but have neglected great telescopes nearby.

One such pioneering instrument is CSO, the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, the first radio telescope atop the summit of Mauna Kea. With a dish just as large as a Keck mirror it has probed dark places in the universe since 1988. Photo opportunities are to be used, as this telescope is slated for demolition in a couple years. It is being replaced by far more capable instruments like ALMA.

It was a very pretty sunset with clearing clouds. We now have wonderfully clear skies overhead, both 'scopes are open and the AO systems are locked on the first target of the night. In this case it is the same target for each telescope as we will are doing interferometry tonight.

I am hoping for a very boring night. Boring is good, it means nothing is going wrong. Let the night be quiet and boring.

STUDENT ASSISTANT- COMMUNICATIONS
W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

The Observatory seeks a Student Assistant to participate in developing digital video recording and webcasting capabilities for the expanding Keck Astronomy Lecture Series.

Essential Functions:

Assisting in shooting, recording and editing of digital videos

Assisting in design, set up and use of webcasting equipment, software and services.

Work effectively with coworkers and others by sharing ideas in a constructive,
positive manner; listening to and objectively considering ideas and suggestions from others; keeping commitments; keeping others informed of work progress and issues; addressing problems and issues constructively to find mutually acceptable and practical solutions; and respecting the diversity of the CARA workforce in actions, words, and deeds.

Maintain commitment to a high standard of safety, comply with all safety laws and CARA safety policies/rules, and report actual and potential safety violations to appropriate supervisory or management personnel to further CARA’s core value of safety.

Minimum Qualifications:

1. High school student in good standing
2. Computer skills
3. Good work attitude and dependable
4. Detail oriented
5. Highly motivated
6. Ability to work full-time hours during the summer.

To learn more about this position, and to apply, please stop by Keck headquarters
65-1120 Mamalahoa Hwy, Waimea

EEO/M/F/D/V

Some familiar looking photography made the Big Pic feature on the Discovery News website...