The design and development of nirspec, a nearinfrared echelle spectrograph for the keck ii 10meter telescope is described. Design and performance of the tiptilt subsystem for the. The installation of this new design with optical tape encoders on both telescopes began in 2014 and 2016. Very few telescope designs have significant astigmatism.
This book describes the optical performance of most of the types of telescope bought or built and used by amateurs, and explains why some are suitable for visual observations, and others for photography, some for lunar and planetary work, others for faint and extended objects like nebulae or star clusters. A 45 mbs optical fiber data link connects the telescopes to the waimea. This report describes the design they have created. Kecks twin 10metre 394inch telescopes, housed in separate domes, constitute the. A telescope tracks objects, sometimes for hours, across the sky as the earth turns. The keck ii telescope control system is a completely new design from the keck i system. Optical data can be imported from and exported to various file formats. The synopsys optical solutions group osg, formerly optical research associates ora, has been providing worldclass support to our code v customers for over 40years. The entire software project, design, implementation and commissioning, has taken 16 months from inception in january 1995 to completion of all major subsystems in april 1996. So i rewrote atmos in visual basic and added much more analysis routines and useful telescope design tools. Optical tape encoder on a barcode surface on the rightside elevation drive sector of each telescope. Gskyer telescope is the best telescope with 70mm aperture and focal length to provide the best sky exploring the experience with clarity. Wishnow a, and kodi rider a a space sciences laboratory, university of california, berkeley, united states b california institute of technology, pasadena, united states abstract the keck planet finder kpf is a berfed. Both telescopes have 10 m 33 ft aperture primary mirrors, and when completed in 1993 keck 1 and 1996 keck 2 were the largest astronomical telescopes in the world.
It allows you to easily and quickly change any of the design parameters of the telescope and to see the results. Post keck era telescope design strategies for earthlike exolife searches lightweight additivetechnology metamaterials, and optical systems that combine interferometry with fixedpupil segments, enable detection of possible extraterrestrial life from large groundbased telescopes. Modern optical design and analysis modas is a program for quickly evaluating performance of optical systems, such as telescopes built by amateur astronomers. Kecks active optics would not, of course, be possible without the computer technology of today. This is a photo of an assembled keck telescope space craft science kit. He has held many leadership roles throughout the history of the observatory, ranging from leading software development to overseeing the full range of technical activities. Wavefront control system for the keck telescope conference. Mosfire is a nir multiobject spectrograph in operation at the cassegrain focus of the keck i telescope since 2012. In addition, mosfire has been designed to be located at the cassegrain focus of the keck i telescope where it will provide faint object imaging and spectroscopic capabilities entirely complementary to the dualbeamed optical 0.
Each telescope weighs 300 tons and operates with nanometer precision. The most popular telescope with this aberration is the ritcheychretien rc. An f25 infrared focus provides a 9 arcminute field. Most of them were afraid that the optical correction of such lenses would not be satisfactory for nighttime observations. Telescope functions astronomical telescopes make objects from space appear as bright, contrasty or sharp and large as possible. And all changes were made without experiencing any downtime on either telescope. The telescope optical design is a folded ritcheychretien. Since the keck rc design suffers from astigmatism, we. Keck observatory are the largest optical and infrared telescopes in the world. Keck observatory the keck observatory telescopes on.
Instead of doing this, the tcsu design team decided to pursue a shorter encoder tape on a dedicated ring located near the center of the telescope axis. Outline adc conceptual design science requirements mechanical design electrical design control software optical design optical design enhancements. Both the primary and secondary mirrors are hyperboloidal, and together they form a wellcorrected focus. The kpf spectrometer will be located within the keck observatory basement, as close to the keck i telescope as possible. The design of the ten meter telescope has captured the imagination of many people over the past seven years. Telescope mountings and domes more hurdles cleared the telescope mounting also presented a major barrier to making telescopes larger than about 5 meters in aperture. The maximum stress at the edge for keck telescope is 5mpa, and it. Jul 08, 2012 computation of the cost of a night of keck telescope observing. At the heart of each keck telescope is a revolutionary primary mirror made up of 36 hexagonal segments that effectively work as a single piece of reflective glass. From hawaiis maunakea, astronomers around the world use w. Many have contributed their ideas, their critical judgment, their time, and their labor. The cassegrain adc will provide correction over the full cassegrain field of view fov for the. It will sit inside a vacuum chamber which is, in turn, inside a thermal enclosure figure1.
Together, the twin keck telescopes have the resolving power of a single telescope 90meter in diameter, able to discern sources just milliarcseconds apart. Introduction nirspec is a crossdispersed echelle spectrometer for the 15 m wavelength regime deployed on the nasmyth platform of the keck ii telescope at w. Recommended conceptual optical system design for chinas. At 4,150 meters,600 feet above the pacific ocean, atop the dormant volcano mauna kea on the big island of hawaii, the twin keck telescopes have the largest collecting areas of any optical or infrared telescope as of july 2015 when this page was last updated. Performance of the hgcdte detector for mosfire, an imager and multiobject spectrometer for keck observatory kristin r. Modas stands for modern optical design and analysis software it is a telescope design software of the most popular telescope systems used by the amateur astronomers and telescope makers, including spot diagrams, ray fans, wave aberrations, diffraction analysis, optical layout, optimization, tolerancing, mirror testing and many other atm tools. Atmos now is a very powerful program with a userfriendly interface that allows the user to analyze, design and optimize centereduncentered optical systems. First light took place in january 1996, and scientific quality images were taken in april 1996. The telescope is more a discovery of optical craftsmen than an invention of a scientist.
Since 1977 the university of california has been actively designing a ten meter telescope for visible and infrared groundbased astronomy. Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Keck observatory to observe the universe with unprecedented power and precision. With its powerful psd algorithm, synopsys can do in one second a job that takes other programs more than an hour. Keck observatory is a two telescope astronomical observatory at an elevation of 4,145 meters,600 ft near the summit of mauna kea in the u.
The keck interferometer was a groundbased component of nasa s exoplanet exploration program. Performance of the hgcdte detector for mosfire, an imager. An altitudeazimuth design gives each 10meter keck telescope the optimal. Premier program for identifying the faintest, rarest, reddest objects. The optical design of nirspec is based on an f10 crossdispersed echelle spectrograph with a 120 mm collimated beam used in the quasilittrow mode with a gammaangle of 5e. Optical design and instrumentation of the keck observatory. The design and performance characteristics of a tip tilt control system for the keck ii telescope are presented.
It ray traces the telescope checking for vignetting, optimizes diagonal size, calculates baffle size and position and more. The university of california and the california institute of technology have now joined in a collaboration to construct and operate this telescope and observatory. Keck observatory, astronomical observatory located near the 4,200metre,800foot summit of mauna kea, a dormant volcano on northcentral hawaii island, hawaii, u. Rcs trade coma for astigmatism for the purpose of positional measurements. The optical design and the optical tolerances will provide 0. Postkeckera telescope design strategies for earthlike. Now, after the completion of a significant nineyear motion control upgrade project, the keck observatory telescopes, each standing 30 meters almost 100 feet tall, are offering data and observations with new and impressive nanometer precision. The twin keck telescopes, on mauna kea in hawaii, are indeed huge.
Optical design reasoning over the past years several customers asked me why we force the making of lenses with rather fast focal ratios. To match the spectrograph to the f15 nasmyth focus there is a front end optical section which collimates the beam to produce a pupil image for filters and a lyot stop, and. The keck telescope, a 10metre multimirror telescope operated jointly by caltech and the university of california, was completed at mauna kea in 1992. Draft interface control document for the cassegrain adc sean. Iraf based software, supplied by the instrument team, to design custom slitmasks. When keck observatorys telescope control system upgrade tcsu project launched in 2009, it set out to not only update the systems but also improve the telescope pointing, tracking, and offsetting performance. It is a telescope design software of the most popular telescope systems used by the amateur astronomers and telescope makers, including spot diagrams, ray fans, wave aberrations, diffraction analysis, optical layout, optimization, tolerancing, mirror testing and many other atm tools. An overview of the nirspec upgrade for the keck ii telescope emily c. The efficient spaceframe design of the keck telescope minimizes weight and costs, yet offers. We describe design constraints, choice of detector, and expected performance of this tiptilt system as well as its sky coverage. The optical bench is a 2 meter diameter, 122 mm thick disk of zerodur. Modas stands for modern optical design and analysis software. The system is designed to provide near diffraction limited imaging performance with strehl gt 0. Keck telescopes get a motion control upgrade tech briefs.
Builders of the massive hale had reached the limits of their technology. Keck observatory, kamuela, hi, usa abstract the keck telescopes, located at one of the world s premier sites for astronomy, were the first of a new generation of very large groundbased opticalinfrared telescopes. The twin keck observatory telescopes are the worlds most scientifically productive optical and infrared telescopes. The laser guide star adaptive optics system currently being developed for the keck 2 telescope consists of several major subsystems. The keck telescope space craft science kit order code. Below is a list of the current openings with our company. Keck telescope and facility instrument guide wm keck observatory. The revolutionary in telescope optics was the brainchild of lawrence.
Postkeckera telescope design strategies for earthlike exolife searches. The lens and the properties of refracting and reflecting light had been known since antiquity, and theory on how they worked was developed by ancient greek philosophers, preserved and expanded on in the medieval islamic world, and had reached a significantly advanced state by the time of the telescope s. To focus on high magnification, it is high transmission coatings of fully coated optical glass so that you can have the highresolution images with brightness and clarity. Because of this fundamental difference in design, keck observatorys telescopes arguably remain the largest steerable, opticalinfrared telescopes on. The tertiary mirror is used to fold and steer the light path so that the science beam can be delivered to any of eight instruments that will be mounted on the two main nasmyth platfoms. Synopsys is one of the largest and most powerful lens design programs in the world, with features found nowhere else. The telescopes are located atop mauna kea, a dormant volcano in hawaii. Jun 18, 2019 the twin keck observatory telescopes are the most scientifically productive optical and infrared telescopes in the world. Keck observatory was the first facility on mauna kea to use remote observing. Keck interferometer ki science mission directorate. Alone, each is the worlds largest optical telescope. Keck observatory is a twotelescope astronomical observatory at an elevation of. Based on the dos version of the program, winspot is easier to use with more menu options, and takes advantage of standard windows printer support. Because of their 10m apertures, they offer the highest potential sensitivity and angular resolution currently available on the ground.
Each telescope weighs over 300 tons and hosts a primary mirror with a 10meter diameter 32. Mosfire was designed and built by a collaboration among ucla, cit, and ucsc under the direction of coprincipal investigators ian mclean and chuck steidel. Based on our simulation in zemax software, the optical performance of. Preliminary design overview ucolick observatory 15 october 2003. At the heart of each keck telescope is a revolutionary primary mirror made up of 36 hexagonal segments that effectively.
Our hierarchical optical solutions can be used to effectively replace a mirrors stiffness. The latest allocation of observing from keck was proposed to begin in semester 2012b, so the costs as presented in the most recent keck proposal reflect the keck 2012 budget and the costs of new capabilities for which funds have been committed through fy12. Draft interface control document for the cassegrain adc. A tiptilt control system has been built as part of the adaptive optics system for the keck ii telescope on mauna kea in hawaii. Keck observatorys vision is to advance the frontiers of astronomy and share our discoveries with the world. Keck revolution in telescope design pioneered at lawrence. The controller accommodates a range of integration times, and includes automatic light level control, and an adaptive control algorithm which optimizes control performance with changing tilt star image sizes. A heidenhain optical tape encoder for the elevation axis was also installed on a. The computer and its software are integral to the keck telescopes mirror. Telescope development costs are linearly amortized over 20 years. We discuss issues in optimizing the design of adaptive optics and laser guide star systems for the keck telescope. This instrument is a large, facilityclass vacuumcryogenic spectrometer with a resolving power of r 25,000 for a 0.
Another keck telescope went into operation read more. An optical telescope is an instrument that gathers and focuses light, mainly from the visibleir part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for. Keck telescopes telescopes, mauna kea, hawaii, united. Click on the job title to learn more about the opening. The hubble space telescope, the keck telescope, and many other large. This system is used to correct for wavefront tiptilt when the adaptive optics system is in the laser guide star mode, and it uses a natural star as the reference. Keck telescope specifications telescope optical design. Unlike its optical counterpart however, nirspec is a vacuumcryogenic instrument operating at about 60 k.
In buildings eight stories tall rest mirrors ten meters across that are slowly allowing humanity to map the universe. Design strategy many telescopes utilize optical encoder tapes by placing the azimuth encoder tape on a dedicated stationary ring which is at or near the diameter of the azimuth bearing. In normal use, nirspec will be mounted on the right f15 nasmyth platform of the keck ii 10meter telescope. The keck observatory ten meter telescope has a ritcheychretien optical design which maximizes the field of view for an f15 focus at about 20 arcminutes. Draft interface control document for the cassegrain adc sept.
Optical design softwares do this zemax, code v, oslo, etc optical design software is used to minimize aberrations if given a well defined set of parameters to optimize aberration measure courtesy. The unique mosaic design of the keck telescope primary mirror consists of 36 hexagonal. Software engineering for the keck ii telescope control system. Keck telescope control system upgrade project status.
The second keck telescope became operational in october of 1996 and is currently dedicated almost entirely to optical observations. They each have four times the lightcollecting area of the 200inch hale telescope on mount palomar, which, until keck, was the worlds premier astronomical telescope. By combining advanced optical and infrared detectors with sophisticated electronics that can combine collected light from both telescopes, the keck observatory remains amongst the. Keck telescopes achieve new accuracies to view our galaxy. An overview of the nirspec upgrade for the keck ii telescope. This report describes the design of the ten meter telescope and observatory. Lewis was recruited in 1986 to lead the design and development of the software that controls keck observatorys twin telescopes. The cost of one night of observing with one of the keck 10meter telescopes is derived from two numbers. This is the most challanging of the sci kits to assemble. Design and performance of the tiptilt subsystem for the keck. Since opening in 1992, the real power of keck i left. Choosing the right optical design software is about more than just the software. Adapting a technique first used by the german telescope designer bernhard.
Postkeckera telescope design strategies for earthlike exo. Kecks twin 10metre 394inch telescopes, housed in separate domes, constitute the largest optical telescope system of the. The design of the keck observatory and telescope ten meter telescope additional information. They are currently the 3rd and 4th largest telescopes. Telescope optics, a comprehensive manual for amateur. Throughout the design process of the hardware and software for the keck telescopes, the possibility of implementing remote observing, particularly from waimea, the location of the keck headquarters in hawaii, was.
An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light, mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct view, or to make a photograph, or to collect data through electronic image sensors there are three primary types of optical telescope. The most powerful telescope on the summit on mauna kea is the twin keck observatory, which has two 10 metre diameter mirrors. Wpheader for spie use the design and development of. Zerodur optical bench mechanical design christopher smith a, steven r. Assistants operate the telescopes at the summit while astronomers gather data via remote observing from observatory headquarters in waimea. Keck i and keck ii are the worlds largest optical and infrared telescopes. The paper describes the design and implementation of the wavefront. The second keck telescope keck ii saw first light in 1996, but its real day of glory came in 1999, when one of the first adaptive optics ao systems was installed on it the first. Highlights of the keck telescopes the largest telescope in the world it took almost 280 years from the time galileo first examined the heavens with his small telescope in 1609, until an astronomical observatory was built on a mountain top.
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