When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Working atop The Mountain
Supposedly twins, each of our two telescopes has its own peculiar personality. Anyone who works on the crew can tell the telescopes apart at a glance. I do not need the caption to know this is Keck 1. Each telescope has a unique configuration, a unique set of instruments, plus many little differences that take time to appreciate and come to love…
Keck tracks every night with a custom, in-house database. These form a complete log of what occurred every night… The routine, the problems, the small disasters of operating a complex facility on top of a mountain. Reading these logs every morning is a ritual for many of the staff. A synopsis arrives in our e-mail each day, to be read on an iPad over breakfast, or as soon as you sit down at your desk.
Below is a typical night log from a quiet night. Reading through the logs each morning reveals much about the inner workings of the observatory. Who was working the night, the visiting astronomers and their subject of study. The logs also contain a number of statistics that are used to monitor the performance of the observatory.
An evening stop in the local market to pick up a few groceries. There is always a stack of local newspapers on the checkout counter. But this edition looked a little familiar… That is my photo! I knew Steve, our PIO at Keck, had forwarded the image to the newspaper. I did not expect it to be at the top of the front page!
The image has gotten some traffic. Posted to Facebook the news of snow on Mauna Kea resulted in the highest traffic day I have had in years for this blog. It is not even a great image, just a snapshot taken as we headed for the vehicles to get off the mountain. The light is horrible, the scene seems flat, but it is snow, and that is always big news around here.
Actually, this is my second front page image. A panorama shot from the Keck roof was featured on the front page of the Star-Advertiser earlier this year. It is always a nice surprise to see an image of mine get some press!
Winter might just be starting in Hawai’i. A fall storm dropped the season’s first snow on the summit of Mauna Kea this afternoon. Not much, just enough to turn the summit white. I had to scrape the frozen snow from the windshield to free the wipers before I could drive down.
We got 1.2″ of rain at the house, quite a bit when you consider we get 10″ a year in the shadow of the mountain. I am headed back to the summit tomorrow morning, wondering what we will find, this storm is just starting.
Warping is not much fun. Warping is now on my list of responsibilities. At least I know I am accomplishing something critical to the operation of the telescope.
Exchanging segments does require some interesting procedures to realign each new segment, each must be warped and the edge sensors tuned. The first few hours of the night after a SegEx is used to evaluate the performance of the newly replaced segments. Using a special alignment camera system the optical figure of each segment can be evaluated and a set of corrections generated to be applied the next day… Warping.
To apply the correct pressure there are small knobs and screws at specific points in the whiffle tree. Each adjustment point also contains a strain gauge, allowing the applied pressure to be measured precisely. A computer and analog interface allows all of the points to be read out and checked against the calculated values.
After setup, it takes about an hour to do each segment, an hour of painstaking frustration. the mirror cell is just the right height, too high to sit down and reach the knobs, too low to stand up fully. Working in a jungle gym of frigid steel just makes it worse. A day in the mirror cell is a nice recipe for a tired and sore body.
How careful was I? Did I get all of the points set correctly? The computer is displaying all of the correct numbers. I will not know until the next day, when the night’s performance data is reduced, when we can see the figure of the primary mirror and check the errors.
My first warp is a success, most of the segments show less than 20nm rms error. Next SegEx there are only two segments being exchanged, but Sergey is threatening to have two others re-warped to address some lingering issues. Four? Better than six. Only 360 adjustments to make, more or less.
We have had a couple electrical engineers leave Keck this summer. As a result the few of us left are stretched a little thin. To help cover this, one of the engineers in our group has transferred to the TSD department to continue the telescope drive upgrade project. Unfortunately this moves some of his responsibilities to me.
This also means I am spending a lot more time at the summit. Over the last weeks I have almost forgotten what my desk at HQ looks like, two weeks and only two days spent in Waimea. This is not going to change any time soon.
I have a few projects left to finish up. This month will see the shipment and installation of the TRICK camera and support gear. We started this process last week with the pedestal and focus stage. The dewar and detector will be here next week. A few more days of hands-on work remain to install everything.
There is also the installation of another TBAD system on Keck 1. I will have to get one of the techs to do that for me. All of the engineering is done, what remains is the fun part, installing the gear. I expect that will be the pattern, I get to do the paperwork while the techs have the fun.
Meanwhile… If you are an electrical engineer or technician you might apply at Keck. We could really use a couple more good people.
Guardrails? What is the problem? It is only a few hundred feet to the switchback below. As if taking all of the fun out of Saddle Road is not enough.
Mauna Kea Support Services is overseeing the addition of guardrails on quite a few of the more dangerous places on the summit road. This includes the lower side of each of the hairpin turns for the switchbacks. Notable curves are getting the same treatment.
The new rail locations include the spot where a red jeep went off the road a few years ago, killing the driver and a passenger.
MKSS had made a number of safety improvements to the mountain facilities over the last few months, part of a concerted effort. New speed bumps at the visitor center, guardrails, and plans for new signage along the road.
Visitor and observatory traffic on the mountain is increasing, so is the attention from state officials. With the new comprehensive management plan in place, and groundbreaking for TMT not far off, now is a good time for it.
The latest segment of the new Saddle Road opened this last weekend. From mile post 42 all the way to Mamalahoa Highway we have an all new highway to drive. The road follows a new route, straight for the coast instead of climbing up and over the ridge at Waiki’i. As a result Saddle Road comes out at a new intersection three miles south of the Waikoloa intersection. The old road remains, now demoted to a ranch access road, no longer labeled Highway 200 at the intersection.
Boring!!
There are no blind curves. There are no one-way yields over narrow bridges! No more roller coaster, no slamming the curves at Kilohana. There is even a passing lane all the way up the steep grades. No more thrills and scares while passing the water trucks in no-passing zones. It is just boring!
And much safer I suppose.
What was the Saddle Road of infamy is now the best highway on the island. You can still travel the old segment if you do want a taste of the old Saddle, but most traffic is using the new road. Word from our management is that Keck vehicles are to drive the new road. It is a few miles longer when traveling from Waimea, taking about the same time considering the higher speed limits. For those traveling from Kona or Waikoloa it is substantially shorter.
Boring and safer? I will just have to deal with safer.