Keck Telescopes Get a Motion Control Upgrade

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii Island is surrounded by thousands of miles of thermally stable seas. The 13,796-foot Maunakea mountain summit has no nearby ranges to roil the upper atmosphere, and for most of the year, this atmosphere is clear, calm, and dry, enabling the W. M. Keck Observatory, with its twin 10-meter-mirror telescopes, to observe our galaxy and beyond at levels special to it since opening in the early 1990s. Now, after the completion of a significant nine-year 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. And all changes were made without experiencing any downtime on either telescope.