The Keck Telescopes
The most powerful telescope on the summit on Mauna Kea is the twin Keck observatory, which has two 10 metre diameter mirrors. 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. By combining advanced optical and infrared detectors with sophisticated electronics that can combine collected light from both telescopes, the Keck observatory remains amongst the leading astronomical facilities in the world.
 Keck Telescopes Credit: Richard Wainscoat |
Some facts about the telescope:
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During February 2005, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, was observed with the
Keck 2 telescope. The resulting image shows how modern instrumentation can produce
clear, sharp pictures of very distant objects.
Titan's surface appears red in this near-infrared colour composite image, while haze layers much higher in the atmosphere appear green and blue. Image credit: Antonin Bouchez (W.M. Keck Observatory), Elliot Young (Southwest Research Institute), and Carrie Anderson (New Mexico State University). |
 Titan |
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 Uranus Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison / W. M. Keck Observatory |
These two images (left) were taken in late 2004, and show composite
infrared images of both sides of the
gas-giant planet Uranus, the seventh
furthest planet from the Sun.
The thin planetary rings and numerous surface features appear to show that Uranus's rotation axis is tilted right over to one side - certainly when compared to other planets in the solar system. Although we do not know yet for sure, this was probably the result of an ancient cosmic collision. |
