Keck twins peer into space from Hawaiian summit

17 Jun 2002

Science observations began 1 October with Keck II, giving astronomers the world's two largest telescopes - the twin 10-meter Kecks - for exploring the deepest reaches of the Universe. Located at almost 14,000-feet altitude on the summit of the dormant Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the Keck Telescopes are notable for their primary-mirror design and construction, which utilize 36 hexagonal mirror segments to form a single reflective surface. Controlled to an accuracy of 30 nanometers, each segmented primary mirror forms a mammoth light-gathering area that is four times larger than the legendary Hale Telescope at Mt. Palomar, Calif.

With twin giant telescopes, an active adaptive-optics program to remove atmospheric distortions of starlight and planned linkage of the telescopes through optical interferometry, the W.M. Keck Observatory is uniquely positioned to aid NASA scientists in their quest to find new planets.

Adaptive optics are scheduled to be installed on Keck II within two years, to be followed by installation on Keck I and the interferometric mechanical and optical installation. With this 21st-century system in place, the observatory should be able to achieve close to the theoretically possible resolution of 0.005 arc-seconds at 2 micron wavelengths.