Tag: Keck

Employment at Keck – Engineering Project Manager

W. M. Keck Observatory position announcement…

Project Manager/Engineer

The W.M. Keck Observatory seeks a Project Manager/Engineer to work under the general supervision of the Deputy Director and in close collaboration with the Principal Engineer to manage activities for a major optics renewal program. Be part of a challenging, fast-paced, technical environment where ability, leadership, teamwork, communication and interpersonal skills are highly prized. This is a regular position with future assignments to other exciting optics development programs.

Segment
A Keck mirror segment after stripping and cleaning, ready to place in the chamber to receive a new reflective coating
The Observatory operates two of the largest, most scientifically productive optical/infrared telescopes in the world. The twin 10-meter telescopes are located at one of the premier sites for astronomy, set amidst several other world class observatories at the 14,000 foot summit of Mauna Kea, on the spectacular Big Island of Hawaii. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to join a highly skilled, innovative and deeply committed team of professionals who excel at enabling the most exciting and important astronomical discoveries in the world.

The successful candidate will need to exhibit leadership ability, very strong communication and inter-personal skills and a strong personal commitment to the success of the program.

The principal activities of this position will be:

  1. Project planning, tracking, reporting and proactive management of schedule, budget, risk and contingency
  2. Responsibility for requests for proposal, vendor selection, contract negotiation and contract management
  3. Obtaining staff resources for project
  4. Managing the overall logistics to ensure smooth and effective workflow
  5. Development of quality assurance plans
  6. During the production phase: management and technical responsibility for the renewal program

Subsequent assignments may involve significant technical leadership along with project management activities.

Minimum qualifications for this position include:

  1. Bachelor’s degree in Optics Engineering, or other engineering or physical sciences degree with experience of optics, materials science, physics, or mechanical engineering, and at least 5 years of optical systems design and implementation experience
  2. At least 5 years of significant project management experience in managing projects of $5M or greater. Experience must include devising budgets, schedules and contingency, critical path analysis, risk identification and mitigation, and project tracking and reporting
  3. 5 years of experience in managing contracts, including generating and managing requests for proposal and statements of work, vendor selection, contract negotiation and contract management
  4. Staff supervisory experience

Highly desirable qualifications include

  1. An advanced degree: a master’s or doctorate in a relevant discipline
  2. Experience dealing with optical component vendors
  3. Experience in devising and running quality assurance programs
  4. Familiarity with general mechanical engineering analysis techniques, ideally including experience in finite element analysis and fracture mechanics
  5. Experience with Zemax
  6. Experience in handling large optics (~2m diameter)
  7. Experience in specifying, measuring and aligning optics
  8. Experience in devising efficient information management systems for bulk technical data

This position requires you to submit your resume on-line at: http://keckobservatory.iapplicants.com 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 Employer

Life of a Photo

It took ninety minutes of sitting in the cold to get the shot. Every minute the camera took another exposure. Sitting on the summit ridge overlooking Keck, it was a very dark night with three lasers working the sky, Keck 1, Keck 2 and Subaru. The tripod was set up as close to the vehicle as I could get it to shelter the camera from the wind. Ninety minutes of shivering in the front seat of the truck, playing cribbage on my phone, and fervently hoping that the gusting wind was not shaking the camera enough to destroy the images.

The result was ninety frames on the memory card. When downloading the material I knew that my time spent in the cold at fourteen thousand feet had been worth it.

Material like this can be used a couple different ways. You can stack the images together to create a single shot equivalent to one exposure 90 minutes long. Taking single long exposures is problematic on a digital camera, a leakage signal called dark current will swamp the image. Better to take many short exposures and add them together in processing.

You can also play the images sequentially, creating a few seconds of video. In this case I assembled all ninety images as nine seconds of video when played at ten frames per second.

I found that the best single frame was assembled from only 23 of the original images. Keck 2 changed targets during the session, creating a confusion of beams over the telescopes when I added all ninety images. The 23 frame version is the definitive version that has been widely distributed. During this slice of time the Keck 2 laser was aimed at the galactic center in Sagittarius, the beam aimed right over me and the camera.

I released the photo as a PR photo for Keck, only fair as I had been on the mountain to work that night, taking the photo before driving down from the summit in a Keck vehicle. The PR folks have used the photo for a number of press releases and observatory literature including the 2011 annual report. You can even download it from the Keck website photo collection.

This particular photo can now be found on websites across the net, has been featured in the Honolulu Daily Star, West Hawai’i Today and other local papers. It has also been used for numerous professional presentations by Keck affiliated astronomers and staff.

I understand that this month it is in Hana Hou! the inflight magazine for Hawaiian Airlines. (Somebody get me a copy. Please! I am not flying anywhere in the next month.) Not the first magazine appearance, you can also find the shot in an issue of Astronomy magazine.

It can be a lot of fun seeing an image I created become something of an iconic image of the observatory.

Three Lasers
Three lasers in operation, Subaru, Keck 1 and Keck 2, 23 x 4min with a Canon 60D

Meeting Sean Faircloth and Richard Dawkins

There is one thing about working at Keck, everyone seems to come here.

I have met a few interesting folks working on the mountain… Famous astronomers like Alex Filippenko and Andrea Ghez, one of my favorite SciFi authors David Brin. Politicians of all levels, county through federal, routinely visit the facility. Just wait a bit, they will come.

Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins nice enough to pose with me for a quick photo despite the effects of jetlag and altitude.
This proved true again this week with visits from a pair of famous, infamous to some, visitors. Richard Dawkins is a British author and campaigner for science and reason in the public sphere. Sean Faircloth is an ex-politician, lawyer and eloquent speaker who has likewise taken up that torch. Knowing who was coming I had overstayed my usual shift on the summit to be around for an evening tour.

Unfortunately Richard was not in best form, his legendary wit and charm in short supply. I suspect a little too much travel combined with 13,600ft altitude was taking its toll, he was tired, but seemed to make the best of the tour. Sean on the other hand, was in fine form. The party was rounded out by Christopher Amos, Robin Cornwell, executive director for RDF and IfA astronomer Roy Gal. Our guests were full of questions about the facility and the work we were doing.

We toured the telescopes while the operators and astronomers were preparing for the night. It should have been no surprise that there were quite a few fans in this science centered place, even the visiting astronomers were fans, happy to pause and answer a few questions.

Dawkins Tour
Posing in front of Keck 2 are (right to left) Christopher Amos, Robin Cornwell, Roy Gal, Richard Dawkins and Sean Faircloth
Observing this night included the use of the Keck 1 AO laser and everyone was able to see the beam against a beautiful starry sky. I introduced Sniffen, one of our night attendants and laser spotters. Not that they could see his face, Sniffen was bundled to the eyes, comfortable in the spotter’s chair outside in the cold. The fact that we are mandated to use people to watch the sky for aircraft around the laser was an interesting subject of conversation.

It is always a bit odd meeting someone in person that you have known for years through electronic media. Having read their writings, seen the videos, you form a mental image of a person that may, or may not match who you meet. Personal interaction offers a chance to reconcile that mental image.

It was a pleasure to host a tour of Keck for guests such as these. People who tirelessly push back against the efforts of religious demagogues and extremists to control the path of our society.

Walk through the Solar System

A scale model of the solar system, laid out along Mamalahoa Highway through the center of Waimea. That is what we create every year for the Waimea Solar System Walk.

Starting on the lawn of Keck Observatory headquarters you can walk from the Sun to the outer solar system at the Canada France Hawai’i Telescope headquarters. Four and a half billion kilometers reduced to one kilometer (2.8 billion miles to about 1/2 mile). At this scale the Earth becomes a the size of a small bead and Jupiter a marble. Walking a model like this give a whole new appreciation for the scale of our solar system, driving home the idea that space is really, really big.

Dozens of kids and parents took advantage of the event to learn a bit about space and astronomy. Starting at the Sun they could wander from the inner solar system to the outer solar system. Passports handed out at Keck HQ were stamped at each planet along the way as the tour and each planet was manned by volunteers to answer questions.

Against the odds, it was a pretty nice day in Waimea. The characteristic strong winds and blowing drizzle was absent. We had sunny skies and when the wind died away in the afternoon, it became somewhat hot. This allowed for great views through the solar telescopes and nice conditions to stroll the length of the main street.

The experience was aided by volunteers who came in from organizations across the island, each bringing some educational fun to the planet walk. Nancy Tashima from the Onizuka Center covered Mercury, using some great material from the MESSENGER mission including 3D photos and glasses.

Gary Fujihara brought a splendid collection of meteorites. Using the asteroid belt as his home base to educate folks about the many minor bodies in the solar system and the material that falls to Earth.

Keck and CFHT staff put everything together and manned most of the booths. Members of the West Hawai’i Astronomy club helped out at registration and brought solar telescopes to view our Sun. Given clear skies in Waimea the view was fantastic. There were several good sunspots and wonderful prominences to be seen. It was great to see all those who volunteered their Saturday to help out.

A lot of smiling faces to be seen as kids and parents explored our solar system and learned. Always nice when you can slip a little knowledge in with the fun.

Postcard from the Summit – Azimuth Wrap

The massive set of cables going into the telescope must twist as the telescope rotates. Besides cables there are also hoses to carry high pressure oil, glycol coolant and compressed air. To accommodate the rotation, these cables and hoses go through a large assembly called the Azimuth Wrap. Looking a bit like an oversize bicycle chain with cable laced through the links, the wrap insures the cable does not kink, tangle or stretch as the telescope sweeps back and forth.

Lacing new cable through the wrap is an intricate task of threading through the metal comb that supports the cables in each link. See the little pink one in the middle, just did that…

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