From: Bill Taylor (bt4_1284@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 03 2004 - 13:13:35 PDT
Message-ID: <20040803201336.40606.qmail@web50202.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 13:13:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Bill Taylor <bt4_1284@yahoo.com> Subject: Keck-1
Day before yesterday we went up atop 14,000-ft Mauna Kea and saw the
Keck-1 telescope and the sunset. We got on a tour, and they took us
inside the dome of Keck-1. Each Keck is 36 hexagonal mirrors arranged in
an array which together form a "mirror" of 10m diameter. The Kecks use
adaptive optics and, together with Keck-2 next door, interferometry (sp?).
Apparently both of these technologies are being improved even as we speak,
and they said they are hoping to image an Earth-like planet "soon" - to be
measured in years, not decades.
The Keck-1 mirrors cost about $100M - about the same as what it cost to
make Terminator-2. Keck-2 was sslightly cheaper since it is the same
design as Keck-1.
The sunset was awesome!
We then went down to the Visitors Center at 9,500-ft level and did some
observing. We saw Jupiter and four of its 123 (?) moons. We saw the
International Space Station zoom across the sky and into Earth's shadow.
We also saw some clouds way up high, not moving, and I couldn't figure out
why they were so bright and how the sun could light them up.
The next day we resumed our Earth-based activities. We cast our eyes
downward (through sea-water) and saw lots of BLUE CORAL!
- Bill
=====
I am in Hawaii until Aug 18.
Bill Taylor
Drew School
San Francisco
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