A Hawaiian interlude: part 1

Hawaii ??!

So I am away, observing at Keck. Flying east from Japan is weird in that you cross the international date line and as a consequence go back in time. I left Kansai International at 9PM Sunday and arrived 12 hours earlier, at 9AM on the same day, in Honolulu. But the weirdest thing is the reverse culture shock. Everything is so big here (cars, roads, you name it), and there are gaijin everywhere! This effect has worn off now after a few days, but the first hours were quite remarkable.

This trip has been turning out to be a sequence of reunions for me. In Honolulu I had a lovely lunch with my friend Evgenya formerly of Victoria. And in Waimea there are all the Keck people that I know from past visits, but in addition to that, I have run into a number of other aquaintances who happend to be observing before me, after me, or in parallel on Keck II. And on top of all that, there is a strong feeling of homecoming - this is my N-teenth trip to the Big Island and things are pleasently familiar and homey.

But to start at the beginning. I am in Hawaii to use Keck I, one of the telescopes located on top of Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is a 4200 metre tall volcano, one of two major and several minor volcanos that make up the Big Island of Hawaii. Mauna Kea is dormant right now, which is why it's reasonably safe to put multi-million-dollar telescopes there. Mauna Kea is also one of the best astronomical sites on the planet, which is why it's worth going to the expense of putting all those multi-million-dollar telescopes on its top. There are about a dozen major telescopes located on the summit of Mauna Kea, of which the twin Keck telescopes are the largest optical ones. I am observing on Keck I, working on a project to find very, very distant galaxies. Light takes 10 billion years or more to travel from them to us, so when we observe them today, we see them the way they were when they were young and when the Universe was only a small fraction of its present age. Which is really cool. [For the astronomers out there: we are searching for very faint Lyman alpha emitters at z~6.]

Mauna Kea from space (thanks to googlesat). Mauna Kea summit, with all the telescopes on top, in in the lower part of the image. Waimea town, where the remote observing facility is located, is under the thick cloud in the upper left corner. Click here to get an interactive googlesat window that will let you zoom and pan around the Big Island and other Hawaiian islands

Because of the way that tickets worked out, I arrived a day earlier than usual and took advantage of the extra time to go up to the Mauna Kea summit and have a look at the Kecks. In the olden days, all observing was done from the summit, but today the astronomer observes remotely from a much lower elevation where there is more oxygen. Which means that normally one does not get to actually see the telescope one's using. So this was an opportunity not to be missed.

I hitched a ride with one of the Keck day crew people going up the mountain and after a short acclimatization at mid-altitude, we were at 4200m. It was my first time up there in about 3 years. The summit is veritably crowded with the world's top observatories with hardly any room left for more.

The summit ridge as seen from Keck Observatory. Left to right, the domes are: IRTF, CFHT, Gemini, UKIRT, and the UH 88-inch. Canada is a partner in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and in Gemini. On the right of the mosaic can be seen the summit of Mauna Loa which is the other major mountain on the Big Island. Make sure to click on the image to get a bigger view

Looking south into Submillimetre Valley - so known because all the telescopes there view the Universe at wavelengths just shortward of 1mm. Left to right: CSO, JCMT, and SSA. Canada is a partner in the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Another view of Mauna Loa in the background

Japan's Subaru telescope - Ohta-san's and Iwata-san's play-thing

And, of course,
Keck I and...
... Keck II

Now, onto Keck. Keck Observatory operates two nearly identical telescopes (Keck I and, heh heh... its Side-Keck). Each one of these has an effective ligh-collecting area equivalent to a disc with a 10-metre diameter. This is the largest illuminated collecting area of any optical/infrared telescope on the planet. I say 'equivalent to' because the mirror of a Keck telescope is not a round chunk of glass as in most telescopes, but is composed of an array of 36 smaller, hexagonal mirrors, all 36 aligned with extreme precision to work as a single large surface.

The 10-metre Keck mirror consists of 36 individual hexagonal elements. This photo does not convey the incredible size of the thing...

The back side of the mirror - the support structure and the many computer-controlled mechanical actuators that keep the individual segments aligned


More views of the hexagonal segmented 10-metre mirror

Isn't this taking the hexagon theme a bit to the extreme?

All in all, I had a fantastic tour of the observatory (big thanks to Dave and other members of the day crew!). I got to check out the telescopes, the instrument that I was to be using during my observing, and have a quick look around outside. And soon enough it was time to head back down below the clouds... Tons of final preparations still needed to be done in advance of the first night of observing just over 24 hours away.

Going back down below the clouds: the mid-level facility at Hale Pohaku and the road back to town

A Hawaiian interlude: part 1

Hawaii ??!

So I am away, observing at Keck. Flying east from Japan is weird in that you cross the international date line and as a consequence go back in time. I left Kansai International at 9PM Sunday and arrived 12 hours earlier, at 9AM on the same day, in Honolulu. But the weirdest thing is the reverse culture shock. Everything is so big here (cars, roads, you name it), and there are gaijin everywhere! This effect has worn off now after a few days, but the first hours were quite remarkable.

This trip has been turning out to be a sequence of reunions for me. In Honolulu I had a lovely lunch with my friend Evgenya formerly of Victoria. And in Waimea there are all the Keck people that I know from past visits, but in addition to that, I have run into a number of other aquaintances who happend to be observing before me, after me, or in parallel on Keck II. And on top of all that, there is a strong feeling of homecoming - this is my N-teenth trip to the Big Island and things are pleasently familiar and homey.

But to start at the beginning. I am in Hawaii to use Keck I, one of the telescopes located on top of Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is a 4200 metre tall volcano, one of two major and several minor volcanos that make up the Big Island of Hawaii. Mauna Kea is dormant right now, which is why it's reasonably safe to put multi-million-dollar telescopes there. Mauna Kea is also one of the best astronomical sites on the planet, which is why it's worth going to the expense of putting all those multi-million-dollar telescopes on its top. There are about a dozen major telescopes located on the summit of Mauna Kea, of which the twin Keck telescopes are the largest optical ones. I am observing on Keck I, working on a project to find very, very distant galaxies. Light takes 10 billion years or more to travel from them to us, so when we observe them today, we see them the way they were when they were young and when the Universe was only a small fraction of its present age. Which is really cool. [For the astronomers out there: we are searching for very faint Lyman alpha emitters at z~6.]

Mauna Kea from space (thanks to googlesat). Mauna Kea summit, with all the telescopes on top, in in the lower part of the image. Waimea town, where the remote observing facility is located, is under the thick cloud in the upper left corner. Click here to get an interactive googlesat window that will let you zoom and pan around the Big Island and other Hawaiian islands

Because of the way that tickets worked out, I arrived a day earlier than usual and took advantage of the extra time to go up to the Mauna Kea summit and have a look at the Kecks. In the olden days, all observing was done from the summit, but today the astronomer observes remotely from a much lower elevation where there is more oxygen. Which means that normally one does not get to actually see the telescope one's using. So this was an opportunity not to be missed.

I hitched a ride with one of the Keck day crew people going up the mountain and after a short acclimatization at mid-altitude, we were at 4200m. It was my first time up there in about 3 years. The summit is veritably crowded with the world's top observatories with hardly any room left for more.

The summit ridge as seen from Keck Observatory. Left to right, the domes are: IRTF, CFHT, Gemini, UKIRT, and the UH 88-inch. Canada is a partner in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and in Gemini. On the right of the mosaic can be seen the summit of Mauna Loa which is the other major mountain on the Big Island. Make sure to click on the image to get a bigger view

Looking south into Submillimetre Valley - so known because all the telescopes there view the Universe at wavelengths just shortward of 1mm. Left to right: CSO, JCMT, and SSA. Canada is a partner in the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Another view of Mauna Loa in the background

Japan's Subaru telescope - Ohta-san's and Iwata-san's play-thing

And, of course,
Keck I and...
... Keck II

Now, onto Keck. Keck Observatory operates two nearly identical telescopes (Keck I and, heh heh... its Side-Keck). Each one of these has an effective ligh-collecting area equivalent to a disc with a 10-metre diameter. This is the largest illuminated collecting area of any optical/infrared telescope on the planet. I say 'equivalent to' because the mirror of a Keck telescope is not a round chunk of glass as in most telescopes, but is composed of an array of 36 smaller, hexagonal mirrors, all 36 aligned with extreme precision to work as a single large surface.

The 10-metre Keck mirror consists of 36 individual hexagonal elements. This photo does not convey the incredible size of the thing...

The back side of the mirror - the support structure and the many computer-controlled mechanical actuators that keep the individual segments aligned


More views of the hexagonal segmented 10-metre mirror

Isn't this taking the hexagon theme a bit to the extreme?

All in all, I had a fantastic tour of the observatory (big thanks to Dave and other members of the day crew!). I got to check out the telescopes, the instrument that I was to be using during my observing, and have a quick look around outside. And soon enough it was time to head back down below the clouds... Tons of final preparations still needed to be done in advance of the first night of observing just over 24 hours away.

Going back down below the clouds: the mid-level facility at Hale Pohaku and the road back to town