News
Cosmic Matters
Hilton A. Lewis Named Interim Keck Observatory Director
Kamuela, Hawaii – The Board of Directors of the W. M. Keck Observatory has named Hilton A. Lewis Interim Director of the observatory, which operates the two Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Lewis has been an integral part of the development team for the observatory since its inception in the 1980s, and has served […]
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Dr. Arthur M. Wolfe (1939-2014)
Arthur M. Wolfe, an American astrophysicist who for a decade directed the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego and achieved widespread recognition for his discoveries about star formation and the early universe, died on February 17 following a battle with cancer in La Jolla, Calif. He was 74. […]
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Serendipitous Supernova
By Steve Jefferson Two weeks ago a group of astronomy students from the University of London Observatory were getting an introductory demonstration on how to use a telescope-mounted camera. With clouds shrouding much of the sky, professor Steve Fossey decided to point the University’s 14-inch telescope at nearby galaxy Messier 82 (M82) and saw a […]
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Keck Observatory Redirects Photons to Save
By Andrew Cooper If you have been through Waimea lately, you’ve probably noticed a great deal of work taking place on the roofs of the W. M. Keck Observatory headquarters buildings, with installers scrambling across the blue rooftops, carrying long sections of rail and large panel. Installation of a 100kW solar power array – the […]
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All About ISON
By Andrew Cooper Professional and amateur astronomers alike are getting ready for comet C/2012 S1 ISON, possibly the highlight of a year that has already seen several good comets. Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok as part of the International Scientific Optical Network project, a group of telescopes […]
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Dr. George H. Herbig (1920-2013)
Dr. George H. Herbig, astronomer emeritus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, has died at the age of 93. “George was a giant of astronomy and a major Keck user,” said Taft Armandroff, Director of the W. M. Keck Observatory. “Over his professional career, […]
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Working Retreat Rewards All
What did a Waimea Middle School chicken say to the Black Hole? The black hole will never know – sound can’t travel in space. But last week, the two got as close to communicating as ever before when more than two-dozen W. M. Keck Observatory employees put the same care and attention to detail […]
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Keck Observatory’s Adaptive Optics featured on NPR
Jun. 24, 2013 by Joe Palca — For Sharpest Views, Scope The Sky With Quick-Change Mirrors “It used to be that if astronomers wanted to get rid of the blurring effects of the atmosphere, they had to put their telescopes in space. But a technology called adaptive optics has changed all that…” Read more and listen […]
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Behind the Lens: An Interview with Dr. Mike Liu
In anticipation of Keck Week’s Science Meeting, we spent some time with one of the presenters, Dr. Michael Liu to find out what it was like to be an astronomer.
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Polynesian Paradox
The W.M. Observatory and Friends of Keck will commemorate the Keck Observatory’s 20th anniversary with Keck Week 2013 – a series of events beginning with a distinctive confluence of the brightest minds in astronomy alongside our country’s most significant scientific philanthropists. To kick-off the festivities will be a two-day feast of astronomy discourse and finely honed presentations describing Keck Observatory’s impact on astronomy by the astronomers who are making it happen.
