Since the start of science operations in 1993, the twin 10-meter W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO) telescopes have continued to maximize their scientific impact to produce transformative discoveries that keep the U.S. observing community on the frontiers of astronomical research. Upgraded capabilities and new instrumentation are provided though collaborative partnerships primarily with the Caltech and University of California instrument development teams and through additional collaborations with the University of Notre Dame, the University of Hawaii, Swinburne University of Technology, industry, and other organizations. This paper summarizes the status and performance of observatory infrastructure projects, technology upgrades, and new additions to the suite of observatory instrumentation. We also provide a status of instrumentation projects in early and advanced stages of development that will achieve the goals and objectives summarized in the 2023 Keck Observatory strategic plan. Developed in collaboration with the WMKO science community, the Keck strategic plan sets our sites on 2035 and meets goals identified in the Astro2020 Decadal Survey.
The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) has been taking excellent integral field spectroscopy of blue wavelengths 350 - 560 nm for the last 7 years. Thanks to the Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper (KCRM) project, KCWI will now be able to take simultaneous red wavelength data 560 - 1080 nm with configurable spectral resolutions from 500 − −13, 000 in a field of view up to 20”x33”. We will summarize the red side’s installation, commissioning, new capabilities with the 7 red volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings, and science readiness. The KCRM project team was led by Caltech in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz and the W. M. Keck Observatory.
Since the start of science operations in 1993, the twin 10-meter W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO) telescopes have continued to maximize their scientific impact and to produce transformative discoveries that keep the observing community on the frontiers of astronomical research. Upgraded capabilities and new instrumentation are provided though collaborative partnerships with Caltech, the University of California, and the University of Hawaii instrument development teams, as well as industry and other organizations. This paper summarizes the performance of recently commissioned infrastructure projects, technology upgrades, and new additions to the suite of observatory instrumentation. We also provide a status of projects currently in design or development phases and, since we keep our eye on the future, summarize projects in exploratory phases that originate from our 2022 strategic plan developed in collaboration with our science community to adapt and respond to evolving science needs.
Here we discuss advances in UV technology over the last decade, with an emphasis on photon counting, low noise, high efficiency detectors in sub-orbital programs. We focus on the use of innovative UV detectors in a NASA astrophysics balloon telescope, FIREBall-2, which successfully flew in the Fall of 2018. The FIREBall-2 telescope is designed to make observations of distant galaxies to understand more about how they evolve by looking for diffuse hydrogen in the galactic halo. The payload utilizes a 1.0-meter class telescope with an ultraviolet multi-object spectrograph and is a joint collaboration between Caltech, JPL, LAM, CNES, Columbia, the University of Arizona, and NASA. The improved detector technology that was tested on FIREBall-2 can be applied to any UV mission. We discuss the results of the flight and detector performance. We will also discuss the utility of sub-orbital platforms (both balloon payloads and rockets) for testing new technologies and proof-of-concept scientific ideas.
The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) is a new facility instrument being developed for the W. M. Keck Observatory
and funded for construction by the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP) of the National Science
Foundation (NSF). KCWI is a bench-mounted spectrograph for the Keck II right Nasmyth focal station, providing
integral field spectroscopy over a seeing-limited field up to 20"x33" in extent. Selectable Volume Phase Holographic
(VPH) gratings provide high efficiency and spectral resolution in the range of 1000 to 20000. The dual-beam design of
KCWI passed a Preliminary Design Review in summer 2011. The detailed design of the KCWI blue channel (350 to
700 nm) is now nearly complete, with the red channel (530 to 1050 nm) planned for a phased implementation contingent
upon additional funding. KCWI builds on the experience of the Caltech team in implementing the Cosmic Web Imager
(CWI), in operation since 2009 at Palomar Observatory. KCWI adds considerable flexibility to the CWI design, and will
take full advantage of the excellent seeing and dark sky above Mauna Kea with a selectable nod-and-shuffle observing
mode. In this paper, models of the expected KCWI sensitivity and background subtraction capability are presented,
along with a detailed description of the instrument design. The KCWI team is lead by Caltech (project management,
design and implementation) in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz (camera optical and
mechanical design) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (program oversight and observatory interfaces).
FIREBall (the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a balloon-borne 1m telescope coupled to an
ultraviolet fiber-fed spectrograph. FIREBall is designed to study the faint and diffuse emission of the warm hot
intergalactic medium, until now detected primarily in absorption. FIREBall is a pathfinding mission to test new
technology and make new constraints on the temperature and density of this gas. FIREBall has flown twice,
the most recent flight (June 2009) a fully functioning science flight. Here we describe the spectrograph design,
current setup, and calibration measurements from the campaign.
The Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBALL) had its first scientific flight in June 2009.
The instrument combines microchannel plate detector technology with fiber-fed integral field spectroscopy on an
unstable stratospheric balloon gondola platform. This unique combination poses a series of calibration and data
reduction challenges that must be addressed and resolved to allow for accurate data analysis. We discuss our
approach and some of the methods we are employing to accomplish this task.
The Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBALL) had its first scientific flight in June 2009.
The instrument is a 1 meter class balloon-borne telescope equipped with a vacuum-ultraviolet integral field
spectrograph intended to detect emission from the inter-galactic medium at redshifts 0.3 < z < 1.0. The
scientific goals and the challenging environment place strict constraints on the pointing and tracking systems of
the gondola. In this manuscript we briefly review our pointing requirements, discuss the methods and solutions
used to meet those requirements, and present the aspect reconstruction results from the first successful scientific
flight.
FIREBALL (the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a balloon-borne 1m telescope coupled to an
ultraviolet fiber-fed spectrograph. FIREBALL is designed to study the faint and diffuse emission of the intergalactic
medium, until now detected primarily in absorption. FIREBALL is a path finding mission to test new technology
and make new constraints on the temperature and density of this gas. We report on the first successful science flight
of FIREBALL, in June 2009, which proved every aspect of the complex instrument performance, and provided the
strongest measurements and constraints on IGM emission available from any instrument.
We are designing the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as a new facility instrument for the Keck II telescope at the
W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO). KCWI is based on the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), an instrument that has recently
had first light at the Hale Telescope. KCWI is a wide-field integral-field spectrograph (IFS) optimized for precision sky
limited spectroscopy of low surface brightness phenomena. KCWI will feature high throughput, and flexibility in field of
view (FOV), spatial sampling, bandpass, and spectral resolution. KCWI will provide full wavelength coverage (0.35 to
1.05 μm) using optimized blue and red channels. KCWI will provide a unique and complementary capability at WMKO
(optical band integral field spectroscopy) that is directly connected to one of the Observatory's strategic goals (faint
object, high precision spectroscopy), at a modest cost and on a competitive time scale, made possible by its simple
concept and the prior demonstration of CWI.
We describe the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), a UV-VIS integral eld spectrograph designed for the Hale 200"
telescope at the Palomar Observatory. CWI has been built specically for the observation of diuse radiation.
The instrument eld of view is 60"40" with spectral resolving power of R5000 and seeing limited spatial
resolution. It utilizes volume phase holographic gratings and is intended to cover the spectral range 3800A to
9500A with an instantaneous bandwidth of 450A. CWI saw rst light in July 2009, and conducted its rst
successful scientic observations in May 2010.
FIREBall (Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) had a successful first engineering flight in July of 2007 from
Palestine, Texas. Here we detail the design and construction of the spectrograph. FIREBall consists of a 1m telescope
coupled to a fiber-fed ultraviolet spectrograph flown on a short duration balloon. The spectrograph is designed to map
hydrogen and metal line emission from the intergalactic medium at several redshifts below z=1, exploiting a small
window in atmospheric oxygen absorption at balloon altitudes. The instrument is a wide-field IFU fed by almost 400
fibers. The Offner mount spectrograph is designed to be sensitive in the 195-215nm window accessible at our altitudes
of 35-40km. We are able to observe Lyα, as well as OVI and CIV doublets, from 0.3 < z < 0.9. Observations of UV
bright B stars and background measurements allow characterization of throughput for the entire system and will inform
future flights.
We are developing the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI) to detect and map emission from the intergalactic medium (IGM).
CWI will observe the strong, redshift UV resonance lines of Lyα 1216, CIV 1550, and OVI 1033 over 3600-9000 Å to
trace IGM at 1 < z < 7. CWI is an integral-field spectrograph designed for the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory.
CWI combines in a novel way three mature and extensively used instrumental techniques. The Integral Field Unit (IFU)
provides a wide 2D field of view of 60 × 40 arcsec2 for observing extended emission over a large region. The
spectrograph using Volume-Phase Holographic gratings have high peak diffraction efficiency and are tunable for
covering a large bandpass with a single grating. A low read noise CCD combined with source/background shiftand-nod
allowing control of systematics and Poisson-imited sky subtraction to observe the low surface brightness universe. With
a resolution of R=10,000 CWI is sensitive to limiting surface brightness ranging from 25 - 27.5 mag/arcsec2 (10 min - 8
hours integration). Recent high resolution simulations predict Lyα Fluorescence from IGM at 100 - 1000 LU1. CWI with
sensitivity of ~200 LU improves the current observational effort by an order of magnitude and enables us to explore
wide range of overdensity (δ ~ 30 - 104) testing the standard model of structure formation in the universe. CWI also
serves as the counter part to the balloon borne integral-field spectrograph Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted
Emission Balloon (FIREBALL) currently being built and planned to be launched in Summer 2007. FIREBALL will
observe Lyα Fluorescence from IGM at z = 0.7. CWI combined with FIREBALL will enable us to observe the evolution
of IGM and the low surface brightness universe.
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