Keck – Page 5 – A Darker View

PPT in the News… Again

It was a last minute request. OK, not actually the last minute, but two days is not much lead time to plan a public outreach event.

Fortunately there was not much to arrange, a single solar telescope and the standard table setup we keep packed and ready to go, all we had to do was show up. Drive up to the Pōhakuloa Training Area to join in their Earth Day events. There would be several hundred students from local schools, tables and displays from other organizations, a good outreach opportunity.

Pōhakuloa Solar Telescope — A solar telescope set up at Pōhakuloa Training Area for Earth Day.

In ten years of driving past the front gates of PTA, I had never been inside. Why not, just an easy drive from Waikoloa, and I have a telescope that will do the job perfectly.

It seems odd that a military base would celebrate Earth Day. What do attack helicopters, live munitions, and troops have to do with the environment? The answer should not be that surprising… Military bases are often large effective nature reserves.

Large areas of land, much of which sits unused and undisturbed, are closed to public access. An active range needs huge safety and buffer zones around the firing ranges. Of the 133,000 acres that makes up PTA, only a small percentage is directly impacted by the training activities. The rest is home to a endemic and endangered species, closed to any activity that can disturb the land.

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Primordial Galaxy Discovered, First of Its Kind

MACS1423-z7p64 galaxy — Graphic illustration of how MACS1423-z7p64 was detected via gravitational lensing with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and confirmed by W. M. Keck Observatory’s MOSFIRE. Credit: NASA/W. M. Keck Observatory/A. Hoag/M. Bradac

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

Seven years of meticulous observing have resulted in a cosmic discovery that comes from an era dating back 13.1 billion years, giving scientists a detailed glimpse of what may have happened just after the Big Bang.

Using the world-class W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii, an international team of astronomers from the United States, Australia, and Europe has confirmed the existence of one of the most distant galaxies in the universe.

To characterize the faint galaxy, the discovery team, led by Austin Hoag, a University of California, Davis physics graduate student, used MOSFIRE, the most in-demand instrument on the 10-meter Keck I telescope.

What makes this galaxy extraordinary is that it is ordinary. It is thought to be a common galaxy at that distance and age of the universe. However, such galaxies would normally be too faint to detect. The astronomers used a method called gravitational lensing to magnify the galaxy so they could study it.

“Most objects that we’ve seen at that distance are extremely bright, and probably rare compared to other galaxies,” said Hoag. “We think this galaxy is much more representative of other galaxies of its time.”

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W. M. Keck Observatory Achieves First Light with New Instrument

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

W. M. Keck Observatory overnight captured the very first successful science data from its newest, cutting-edge instrument, the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI).

KCWI First Light Image — KCWI’s first look at the cosmos involved a spectral image of an exquisitely dense core of an ancient astronomical relic, showcasing the highest spectral resolving power and spatial resolution of the instrument. Credit W. M. Keck Observatory

KCWI captures three-dimensional data, as opposed to the traditional two-dimensional image or spectrum of conventional instruments. In a single observation, it records an image of the object at multiple wavelengths allowing scientists to explore both the spatial dimension (as in an image) and the spectral dimension (or color) of an object.

“I’m thrilled to see this new instrument,” said Keck Observatory Director Hilton Lewis. “It takes years to design and build these very sophisticated instruments. KCWI is a superb example of the application of the most advanced technology to enable the hardest science. I believe it has the potential to transform the science that we do, and continue to keep Keck Observatory right at the forefront of astronomical research.”

KCWI is extremely sensitive, specifically designed to capture high-resolution spectra of ultra-faint celestial bodies with unprecedented detail. It is able to differentiate even the slightest changes in spectral color with a great degree of accuracy.

This powerful capability is key for astronomers because a highly-detailed spectral image allows them to identify a cosmic object’s characteristics, including its temperature, motion, density, mass, distance, chemical composition, and more.

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Ancient Dead Galaxy Sets New Record

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

Galaxy ZF-COSMOS-20115 — Artist’s impression of galaxy ZF-COSMOS-20115. The galaxy has likely blown off all the gas that caused its rapid star formation and mass growth, and rapidly turned into a compact red galaxy. Credit: CREDIT: Leonard Doublet/Swinburne University of Technology.

An international team of astronomers has, for the first time, spotted a massive, inactive galaxy from a time when the Universe was only 1.65 billion years old. This rare discovery, made using the world-class W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii, could change the way scientists think about the evolution of galaxies.

This research publishes today in the journal Nature, with Professor Karl Glazebrook, director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing , as the lead author. To characterize the faint galaxy, the discovery team used MOSFIRE, the most in-demand instrument on the 10-meter Keck I telescope.

“This observation was only possible due to the extreme sensitivity of the new MOSFIRE spectrograph,” said Glazebrook. “It is the absolute best in the world for faint near-IR spectra by a wide margin. Our team is indebted to the accomplishment of Chuck Steidel, Ian McClean, and all the Keck Observatory staff for building and delivering this remarkable instrument.”

Astronomers expect most galaxies from this epoch to be low-mass minnows, busily forming stars. However, this galaxy is ‘a monster’ and inactive.

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Observatory Still Life Gallery

Often you just need to take note of the small scenes that make up daily life. Over the years I have made an effort to photograph these scenes, there is so much richness in our everyday existence that too many do not notice…

Cooling Lines — The facility cooling lines that supply cold water to the K2AO electronics vault.

Relays — A bank of relays form the safety interlock system for the telescope.

Elevation Wrap — An assortment of cable pass through the Keck 2 telescope elevation cable wrap

Wiring — A dense bit of temporary wiring in the Keck 2 SAA cabinet

Part of the Keck 2 logic board, this PCB assembly controls the various control and safety logic for the Keck 2 telescope.

Breaker — A row of circuit breakers in the Keck 2 computer room

Azimuth Wrap — The many cables needed to operate the Keck 2 telescope thread through the azimuth wrap.

SAA Cabinet — A sample of the control wiring and circuitry in the Servo Amplifier Assembly

Drills — A pile of power drills await use on a shelf in the supply room

Loose Bolts — Bins of bolts in the Keck supply room

AO Cabling — Multiple cables enter the Keck 2 Adaptive Optics bench.

Test Leads — Electronics test leads and patch cables hanging from the rack in the Keck summit electronics lab

Do Not Operate — An electrician’s tool bag, complete with lockout tag

Segment — Looking at the back of a segment with the radial support removed

Local Control — I/O cards and field wiring in the Keck 2 local controls PLC

Hose — A pile of 3/8″ air hose in the supply room

Interferometer Cabling — A tiny portion of the extensive cabling that connects the various elements of the Keck Interferometer

Fabrication — Tools and drawing lay on the table in the welding shop

The Usual Mess — The usual mess littering a workbench in the Keck summit electronics lab in the midst of a project

New Control — Patching in an experimental control system to move the Keck 1 telescope, one step closer to a major upgrade.

Wire — Racks of wire available for use in the Keck summit electronics lab

Spooled — Spools of wire await use in the electronics shop

TCSU Servers — The new telescope control system servers take up much of a rack

Loose Screws — Bins full of stainless steel machine screws in the supply room

Whiffle Tree — A section of the whiffle tree that supports each Keck primary segment

Video Amplifier — A distribution video amplifier built around a THS7324

Transform — The transformers for the Keck 2 telescope servo drives

Radio — A handheld radio used at Keck for daily communication.

Hard Headed — Hard hats ready for use just outside the Keck 1 dome

Motor Current — Analog ammeters indicate the motor current

Jacked — A Keck primary mirror segment jacked up out of the array

Scattered Tools — A scatter of tools at CSO

Telescope Controls — Fuses, relays, and contactors in the Keck 2 telescope control system

Hydraulic Controls — The control panel for the telescope hydraulic bearing system pumps

Tools — A set of tools ready for use on the Keck 1 nasmyth deck

Please Remember to Return Tools — The Nasmyth Deck tool set in the Keck 2 dome

Switch

Blueprints

Across the room from my desk is a large cabinet full of blueprints and sepia prints. Stacks of large prints that represent the original drawings from which the W. M. Keck Observatory was constructed. Floor plans, foundation plans, the structural steel of the telescope itself.

The prints are in many ways works of art. Often drawn by hand these old prints represent a lost skill, the art of the draughtsman from before computers irreversibly changed the profession. Impeccably neat lettering, an arcane menagerie of symbols, coded shading to represent different materials, it takes time just to learn to read these drawings properly.

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Manual Control

It is not supposed to do that…

When 700 tons of steel and aluminum just keeps going when it is commanded to stop people tend to notice. When you let up on the switch it is supposed to stop, when that something is the Keck 1 telescope dome it gets interesting.

Snow Day — Looking across at the Keck 1 dome from the top of Keck 2 with Mauna Loa in the background

The first I knew about it was from John, our summit supervisor on the phone. Actually he had several folks on his end using the speakerphone, never a good sign when a phone call from the summit starts this way.

Three people describing a problem on the phone is a bit confusing, it takes a few minutes, and a few questions before I have a clear idea of what happened. Basically the dome did not stop when commanded to while they were operating with the radio controller, a bit of kit we call Capt. Marvel.

Of course a few minutes later our safety officer walks into my office… I wonder what she wants to talk about?

Yeah, I probably need to figure this out.

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Power is On

Power supply indicator lights for the primary mirror active control systems in Keck 1