Category: Working at Keck

Working atop The Mountain

Dispatch from the Summit – Chaining Up

By all accounts it was bad.

I was scheduled to go up, but ended up not joining the summit crews today. Just as well, they did not make the summit. The crew made it partway up, to about 12,000ft., into snow and freezing rain. Not a lot of snow, but a lot of slick ice, altogether much worse.

I talked to a few guys and the descriptions ranged from nasty to miserable. Pete remarked that his hair and pants were slowly icing up in the freezing rain. Kirk recalls parking the pickup to put on the chains, when getting out Michaela noted the vehicle was still moving, sliding sideways on the ice.

The road is closed to all vehicles! This is quite unusual, normally it is closed to the public when bad weather dictates, but remains open to observatory vehicles. Our trucks are some of the few vehicles on the island equipped with bad weather kits that include chains and other useful gear for dealing with ice and snow. Watching island boys with no winter weather experience trying to drive on ice can be rather entertaining.

I am scheduled for tomorrow as well. I will read the early morning reports from the rangers and decide if it worth my time. No point in going up just to spend the day sitting at Hale Pohaku. I may as well get something productive done at headquarters. Thus I pass along a photo from fellow Keck engineer Ean James…

Chaining Up
The Keck crew chaining up on the summit road, image credit: Ean James

Keck in Motion Hits the Web

I expected the video to be popular, maybe not this popular. So far several major websites have picked up the video. First is was ScienceBlogs.de and Universe Today, then Phil at Bad Astronomy was nice enough to post the vid. Now it is Wired Magazine that has posted the video along with an article. I expect the video will pass 10k views sometime in the next hour.

For those readers that might be stopping by Darker View for the first time… Welcome!

A video like this takes a surprising amount of work to assemble. It is rewarding to see that the results of that effort are not in vain. Sharing my experience on the mountain, celebrating the efforts of the great guys of our summit daycrew, it is very satisfying to see that so many folks are interested in what we do.

If you like what you see, why not stick around, we have more to share!

Keck in Motion Scene Guide

I have been getting a few questions about the video. To answer a few of them I have compiled a guide to the scenes. Some quick explanations to what you are seeing, information on the camera used as well as the exposure information.

The video is a combination of two techniques. Many scenes were filmed as standard video then accelerated during editing to allow the motion to become clear. Examples of this are scenes of telescopes slewing and the interferometer delay lines moving.

Slower subjects, such as clouds or the stars moving across the sky, were photographed as time lapse. Here a large number of still images were taken. These are then processed and converted to video using Photoshop CS5 before loading into the video editing software, Adobe Premiere Elements. To construct the time lapse sequences sometimes required thousands of separate images, quickly filling memory cards and exhausting batteries. After dark it is long exposure time lapse that is used, with individual exposures often 15 seconds to one minute long.

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A Premiere

Tomorrow night will see the premiere of my latest work. Over the last few months I have been assembling a video on Keck titled Keck in Motion. The nice part is that the first public screening will see the video on a big screen indeed… The showing will be at the Kahilu Theater. It will be run as a introduction piece before the Keck lecture

The video has seen the usual creative cycles during production… Enthusiasm followed by disillusionment, in alternating phases. Despite some doubts along the way, I have to admit the final version is not all that bad. Everyone who has seen it uniformly gives great reviews, but as the author, I see all the flaws and things I could improve. Whatever reservations I might have, the time has come to simply say… It is done. I have turned over copies to Larry and Mariko, ready for projection on a big screen tomorrow night.

The video has been seen a couple private showings to a selected audience. In particular it has been seen by the guys on the summit crew, many of whom appear in the video. Some bits of the video have been seen here before, particularly the three lasers sequence. Some of the material was stuff I had accumulated across the years, many pieces were custom shot to complete the project. Somehow it works into a very nice narrative and a complete story in three minutes, thirty-six seconds.

Look to see the video posted here after the premiere. Peeking at my Vimeo account will not help, I have not uploaded it yet. I suspect it will get spread around a little, used for Keck PR. It does show what a special place Keck is. Better yet, it highlights the hard work it takes to keep Keck on-sky every night. Because of that, this video is dedicated to the guys of the summit crew.

Lasers 3 over Mauna Kea from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo.

The Flight of OSIRIS

An incredible amount of planning and work went into the job, with everything culminating in a few days of frenetic activity. Often referred to as “twins”, the Keck telescopes seem anything but. Over the years these once identical twins have taken on their own characteristics. One of the things that differentiates the two, each has its own set of unique instruments. Cameras and spectrographs, these multimillion dollar devices allow the recording and studying of the light collected by the massive 10-meter mirrors. This week we moved one of these instruments from Keck 2 to Keck 1… OSIRIS.

OSIRIS is an infrared integral field spectrograph. Designed to take full advantage of the Keck Adaptive Optics systems, the instrument has a relatively small field of view. Within that small field it does amazing things, providing a simultaneous spectrum and image of an object. Essentially it takes a stack of images at the same time, each at a different wavelength. This gives astronomers a very powerful tool. One image will show the distribution of particular elements throughout an object. Using doppler shift, an astronomer can also observe how everything is moving within the object as well.

Lowering OSIRIS into Keck 1 AO
The Keck crew lowering OSIRIS into Keck 1 AO

Moving an instrument is not a trivial job. It is not simply a matter of unplugging the instrument and moving it to the other telescope. Each instrument has a tremendous amount of infrastructure required to support it. Electrical wiring, optical fibers, plumbing for the cooling systems, support computers, and more… All of it has to be moved.

OSIRIS has been a removable instrument, mounted to a handling cart for easy removal and installation into the telescope. The new installation will be a permanent mount within the AO enclosure. A new mount must be designed and fabricated. New support beams welded and bolted into place. There are openings to be cut into the floor for the mounts and support connections. Then all of the electrical, optical cabling and plumbing run through the structure of the telescope. This all has to be designed, reviewed and then the modifications performed without interfering with nightly observing. The amount of work is truly daunting, and thanks to the efforts of a great crew, now complete.

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Laser Return Photometery

A different use for amateur astrophotography gear.

An amateur CCD camera can do more than take pretty pictures. There is no reason why any decent telescope, however small, and a CCD camera can not be used to do real science, or real engineering in this case.

The goal of the night was to perform proper photometry on the laser returns with independent equipment. We want to quantify the performance of the Keck adaptive optics laser systems. We launch two powerful lasers into the sky, one from each telescope, to allow analysis of the atmospheric distortions through which the telescope is observing. Using the data the system can correct for this atmospheric distortion and create much sharper images of distant stars and galaxies.

The lasers pass through a layer of sodium atoms about 90km (55miles) above the ground. There the 589nm yellow light excites these sodium atoms creating a glowing beacon, what we call the laser return. This return is what we look at to analyze atmospheric distortion. A brighter return allows better data and better performance of the system.

Both Keck lasers in operation
Both the Keck 1 and Keck 2 lasers in operation under the light of a nearly full Moon

Amateur astrophotography gear is perfectly capable of doing this task. A portable telescope, a proper CCD camera, combined with care to acquire calibrated images. All that I needed to add to the setup was a photometric V filter.

It was a perfect night for it, clear, dry and cold. Best of all, there was no wind to bounce the telescope around and chill anyone working outside. The winds are nearly constant atop at 14,000ft peak, calm nights are unusual, I was lucky indeed.

I setup the telescope atop a crust of ice and snow. The snow was convenient as it allowed me to set down gear on a cleaner surface than the gritty volcanic cinder underneath, keeping everything quite a bit cleaner. The altitude and cold made setup and breakdown a slow, laborious process, and added unique difficulties. I had to be very careful moving the heavy gear, so as not to slip on the icy snow. When I went to move the telescope tripod I found it frozen into the snow and cinder! I had to heave hard to break it free.

Continue reading “Laser Return Photometery”

Employment at Keck – Electronics Engineer

W. M. Keck Observatory position announcement…

The W.M. Keck Observatory seeks an Electronics Engineer to join a multi-disciplinary engineering team that operates, maintains, and improves high-technology systems at the observatory including telescope controls, primary mirror controls, adaptive optics and more. This is a challenging fast-paced technical environment where teamwork, and interpersonal communication are essential skills.

The observatory operates two of the largest and most scientifically productive optical/infrared telescopes in the world. The twin 10-meter telescopes are located amidst several other world class observatories on the summit of Mauna Kea, at 13,796 feet above sea level on the Big Island of Hawaii, one of the premier sites for astronomy. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to join a skilled and deeply committed team of technical professionals who enable exciting and important astronomical discoveries.

Qualifications for this position include a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering with emphasis in electronics and control systems and five years of work experience designing, building, analyzing, testing and troubleshooting of electronics and electromechanical systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of analog and digital electronics, real-time PID motion control systems, computer interfaces, noise, shielding and grounding principles, and be well organized and have good documentation skills. Desirable skills include project planning and management, configuration management, and knowledge of electronics and electrical engineering standards. Because of the observatory’s location, a significant amount of time will be spent working at high altitude.

This position requires you to submit your resume on-line at: http://keckobservatory.iapplicants.com/ViewJob-262125.html 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 website at www.keckobservatory.org EEO/M/F/D/V

Yeah, It Was One of Those Days

Can anything go smoothly? Please?

A simple job. Get an 80 pound optical interferometer back under the bench. Nothing like two guys setting the thing on my chest so I can worm my way underneath and heave this beast back onto it’s shelf. Then we have to bolt the fold mirror back in place, another thirty pound piece of awkwardness, just hold it in place to get the bolts in. I hold while Olivier tries to thread the bolts. We also have to replace the pellicle, a bit of ultra-thin optical film that will break if you touch it. Then there is an hour spent aligning the thing. chasing my tail trying to get a properly centered image of the deformable mirror. Sometimes optical alignments just go that way. I finally got a decent image, just to learn there was some vibration in the system. I adjusted some shims to reduce the issue, but there is more to be done.

Much of the remaining day is spent troubleshooting a simple optical shutter in the K1 laser. It fails to completely open. When it fails the safety system detects the failure and shuts down the entire laser. A couple hours of checks later has me convinced that the hardware is working, more or less. The design could have been better. The critical issue is the tight timing requirements. The circuit expects the mechanical shutter to actuate in 50ms, it used to, but as it has been used for a few years, it doesn’t any more. Why they did not simply allow a few hundred milliseconds I have no idea, dumb design, there is no issue with a longer timing window.

One of those days
One of those days on the summit in the K1 laser enclosure
Of course I can not simply change the timing. It is hard coded into a Xilinx CPLD. Give me a few days to setup the Xilinx software, another day or two to understand the code, then maybe I could fix it. I have one day, then the laser is scheduled to be on-sky. Great, time to use my hacking skills to dream up a solution in one day… Tomorrow.

There is a camera in the laser enclosure. We use it for tele-presence. As I worked, Pete, our laser engineer, was on the phone assisting from headquarters. He could run the software remotely and watch as I probed the system to measure the timing. Unbeknownst to me, Pete saved a couple images from the camera and sent them to me. The photo does reveal the day I was having. Thanks Pete… I think.

Employment Opportunity at Keck – Adaptive Optics Opto-Mechanical Engineer

Adaptive Optics Opto-Mechanical Engineer

W.M. Keck Observatory seeks a qualified Opto-Mechanical Engineer at its facilities in Hawaii to join a team that develops optimizes and maintains the Observatory’s Adaptive Optics (AO) systems.

Keck Observatory operates two of the largest and most scientifically productive optical/infrared telescopes in the world. Both telescopes are equipped with operational Laser Guide Star (LGS) AO systems whose capabilities continue to be developed to maintain their scientific competitiveness. The twin 10-meter telescopes are located on the summit of Mauna Kea, at almost 14,000 feet above sea level on the Big Island of Hawaii, one of the premier sites for astronomy.

Responsibilities

  • Opto-mechanical design including analysis, tolerancing and error budgets.
  • Implementation and optimization of opto-mechanical systems including installation and alignment.
  • Maintenance of the AO system opto-mechanics including preventative maintenance,
  • Performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • Prepare and review written documentation and drawings for new systems and modifications to existing systems.

Qualifications

  • B. S. in Opto-Mechanical, Optics or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
  • Experience with Adaptive Optics or instrument development.
  • Track record of precision designs of opto-mechanical components/systems.
  • Competence with Zemax, SolidWorks or equivalent.
  • Engineering process and documentation experience.

Applications/Resumes are received online only via the website:
www.keckobservatory.iapplicants.com