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Date: 18 Oct 2006 03:20:28
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Quakes Rattle Hawaii Telescopes
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Klaatu wrote:
> "The observatories atop Mauna Kea didn't escape entirely unscathed."
> http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=4591
Keck Sees Past the Quake
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/1017/1
By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
17 ober 2006
Technicians at the W. M. Keck Observatory on the island of Hawaii are
in the process of restoring operations to the station's twin giant
telescopes, which were disrupted by the magnitude-6.7 earthquake and
aftershocks that hit the west coast of the island Sunday morning. The
earthquake was the largest in Hawaii in 20 years and caused power and
communication failures across the state but caused no deaths or serious
injuries.
Laura Kinoshita, the media representative for the facility, says the
twin 10-meter telescopes, located at the summit of Mauna Kea, were not
damaged by the temblor. Likewise, the observatory's computers, adaptive
optics, and overall structure were not harmed. But both instruments,
which weigh 272 metric tons each, did rock back and forth on their
mountings during the event, causing their restraining bolts to be
stressed and bent. The precision reference mounts on Keck I, which can
pinpoint where the telescope is being aimed, were damaged. Kinoshita
says the technicians are hoping to have the instrument back "on sky" by
later this week. The situation is slightly worse with Keck II, she
says, because it suffered some damage to the system that moves the
telescope on its tracks. All data being stored at the facility have
been backed up and are considered safe.
Kinoshita says the timing of the quake was fortunate in one respect.
The facility has been experiencing bad weather, so observing activities
would have been curtailed this week anyway.
As soon as the repairs are completed and both telescopes have resumed
operations, the observatory team will attempt to assess how to avoid
similar problems the next time around. "No one liked the idea of the
telescopes rocking on their mounts," says Kinoshita.
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