Innovations and advances in instrumentation at the W. M. Keck Observatory

Creators: Kassis, Marc; Chan, Dwight; Kwok, Shui; Krasuski, Tomas; Lyke, James E.; Ragland, Sam; Lilley, Scott; Cetre, Sylvain; Wizinowich, Peter; Lewis, Hilton A.; Gomez, Percy; Rizzi, Luca; Larkin, James E.; Do, Tuan; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Skemer, Andy; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Westfall, Kyle; Mazin, Ben; Mawet, Dimitri; Matthews, Keith; Martin, Christopher; Howard, Andrew W.; Lu, Jessica R.; Chun, Mark R.

Others:: Evans, Christopher J.; Simard, Luc; Takami, Hideki

Abstract

Since the start of operations in 1993, the twin 10 meter W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes have continued to maximize their scientific impact and to produce transformative discoveries that keep the observing community on the frontiers of astronomical research. Upgraded capabilities and new instrumentation are provided though collaborative partnerships with Caltech and UC instrument development teams. The observatory adapts and responds to the observers' evolving needs as defined in the observatory's strategic plan, periodically refreshed in collaboration with the science community. This paper summarizes the performance of recently commissioned infrastructure projects, technology upgrades, and new additions to the suite of instrumentation at the observatory. We will also provide a status of projects currently in the design or development phase, and since we need to keep our eye on the future, we mention projects in exploratory phases that originate from our strategic plan. Recently commissioned projects include telescope control system upgrades, OSIRIS spectrometer and imager upgrades, and deployments of the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), the Near-Infrared Echellette Spectrometer (NIRES), and the Keck I Deployable Tertiary Mirror (KIDM3). Under development are upgrades to the NIRSPEC instrument and adaptive optics (AO) system. Major instrumentation in design phases include the Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper and the Keck Planet Finder. Future instrumentation studies and proposals underway include a Ground Layer Adaptive Optics system, NIRC2 upgrades, the energy sensitive instrument KRAKENS, an integral field spectrograph LIGER, and a laser tomography AO upgrade. Last, we briefly discuss recovering MOSFIRE and its return to science operations.

Additional Information

© 2018 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. For the projects described in this paper, there are several sources of funding we wish to acknowledge. The development of the blue channel of KCWI is supported in part by a grant from National Science Foundation under Scientific Program Order No. 5 as issued for support of the Telescope Systems Instrumentation Program (TSIP), in accordance with Proposal No. AST-0335461 submitted by AURA. Support for KCWI has also come from the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Mount Cuba Foundation. KCRM is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1429890. The OSIRIS spectrograph upgrade including DRP development is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1311102 while the imager upgrade project is supported by funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. K1DM3 is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1337609. The NIRSPEC upgrade is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1532315 and by the Heising-Simons Foundation. The wave front controller supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant AST-1727071. Development of KPF is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

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