1. Brittany Griner Fiona Ward Antoine Henderson KECK

2. WHAT IS KECK? The W.M. Keck Observatory is made up of two 10-meter telescopes Located on Mauna Kea Volcano in Hawaii No nearby mountain ranges, few city lights, dry atmosphere= little air/light pollution Managed by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology

4. THE TELESCOPES Keck I (1993) and Keck II (1996) are the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes Both are 8 stories tall, weigh 300 tons, and operate with nanometer precision 10 meters in diameter Composed of 36 hexagonal segments that work together as a single piece of reflective glass

5. THE TELESCOPES To reduce deformation of the telescopes’ steel and mirrors, the domes are kept at or below freezing The volume of each dome is more than 700,000 cubic feet Giant air conditioners run constantly during the day

6. ALTITUDE-AZIMUTH DESIGN Altitude-azimuth design: Measures the horizontal distance in sky

7. THE MIRRORS 36 Hexagonal Segments Computer-controlled system of sensors and actuators adjusts the position of each segment to an accuracy of four nanometers, about the size of a few molecules, or about 1/25,000 the diameter of a human hair. This twice-per-second adjustment effectively counters the tug of gravity.

9. ADAPTIVE OPTICS Advances in optical and computing technology have made it possible to greatly reduce blurring through the use of “adaptive optics” (AO) A 6-inch-wide deformable mirror changes its shape up to 2,000 times per second to cancel out atmospheric distortion Resulting images are 10 times sharper than previous images AO systems allow for far greater detail than ever before

10. Secondary Mirror Motion