Astronomy – Page 48 – A Darker View

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…

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

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

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

Loose Bolts — Bins of bolts in the Keck supply room

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video Amplifier — A distribution video amplifier built around a THS7324

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

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

Transform — The transformers for the Keck 2 telescope servo drives

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

Scattered Tools — A scatter of tools at CSO

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spooled — Spools of wire await use in the electronics shop

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

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

Motor Current — Analog ammeters indicate the motor current

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

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

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

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

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

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

Venus Appears in the Dawn

The bright planet Venus will appear in the dawn sky over the next couple weeks, climbing higher to become the morning star for the remainder of 2017. It is currently 15° from the Sun and shining at magnitude -4.3, bright enough to be seen against the dawn sky. It will reach maximum elongation on June 3rd, 46° ahead of the rising Sun.

Venus Events for 2017
	Date UT	Separation	Mag
Maximum Elongation	Jan 12	47.1°E	-4.4
Inferior Conjunction	Mar 25
Maximum Elongation	Jun 3	45.9°W	-4.3

Source: NASA Sky Calendar

Mercury at Maximum Elongation

Today Mercury will be at maximum eastern elongation, as high in the evening sky as it will appear for this current apparition. After today the planet will slide back into the sunset, passing through inferior conjunction on April 19th to reappear in the morning sky around the end of the month.

Mercury Transit 9May2016 — Mercury transiting the Sun on May 9, 2016. Celestron C8 and Canon 6D at f/10.

Mercury typically completes three morning and three evening apparitions in each year. While the innermost planet never gets very far from the Sun, maximum elongation represents the best time to observe Mercury as high in the sky as possible.

There are no transits of Mercury in 2017, the next will be Nov 11, 2019.

Continue reading “Mercury at Maximum Elongation”

New Moon

Young Moon — A very young moon over Waikoloa

New Moon will occur today at 16:57HST.

Continue reading “New Moon”

Switch

Venus at Inferior Conjunction

Today Venus is at inferior conjunction, passing between the Earth and Sun. It will reappear in the dawn sky early next month to become the morning star for the remainder of 2017. The planet will reach maximum elongation on June 3rd at 46° from the Sun.

Crescent Venus — Venus approaching inferior conjunction, 24Dec2013

As Venus emerges from the Sun’s glare it will be a fine crescent, growing thicker each day as we see more of the sunlit side of the planet. While it is still low in the dawn it can be a fine telescopic target. It is these phases of Venus that Galileo noted 400 years ago, one more bit of evidence to the true, Sun centered, nature of our solar system.

Continue reading “Venus at Inferior Conjunction”

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.

Continue reading “Blueprints”

Manual Control

Vernal Equinox

The vernal or spring equinox occurs today at 00:29HST. Today there will be little difference between the length of the night when counted against the number of daylight hours. This is the first day of spring as marked by many cultures in the northern hemisphere.

2017 Solstices and Equinoxes
	UT		HST
Perihelion	Jan 4	14:18UT	Jan 4	04:18HST
Vernal Equinox	Mar 20	10:29UT	Mar 20	00:29HST
Summer Solstice	Jun 21	04:24UT	Jun 20	18:24HST
Apehelion	Jul 3	20:11UT	Jul 3	10:11HST
Autumnal Equinox	Sep 22	20:02UT	Sep 22	10:02HST
Winter Solstice	Dec 21	16:28UT	Dec 21	06:28HST
Source: USNO data Services

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.

Continue reading “It is not supposed to do that…”

Venus Events for 2017