Keck Observatory

Keck Observatory
Location(s)	Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii, US
Coordinates	Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 614: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Altitude	P2044
Wavelength	P3738-P3737
Diameter	P2386
Secondary diameter	P2386
Tertiary diameter	P2386
Illuminated diameter	P2386
Length	P2043
Width	P2049
Mass	P2067
Collecting area	P2046
Illuminated area	P2046
Focal length	P2151
Website	{{URL\|example.com\|optional display text}}
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The W. M. Keck Observatory is a pair of two large, ground-based telescopes located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Sitting four km (more than two miles) above sea level, the paired telescopes are used to examine light from distant stars in great detail. The primary mirrors of each of the two telescopes are 10 meters (33 feet) across, making them slightly smaller than the Gran Telescopio Canarias primary mirrors.

However, all of the light collected by the Keck Observatory primary mirrors (75.76m2) is sent to the secondary mirror and the instruments, compared to GTC's primary mirror, which has an effective light-collection area of 73.4m2, or 25.4 square feet less than each of the Keck Observatory primary mirrors. Because of this fundamental difference in design, Keck Observatory's telescopes arguably remain the largest steerable, optical/infrared telescopes on Earth.

Keck Observatory Media

The Keck II telescope showing the segmented primary mirror
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Spectroscopic capabilities of Keck Observatory instruments as of late 2019. Instrument modes appear as color-coded boxes with spectral resolution (resolving power) and wavelength coverage. Non-spectroscopic (i.e. imaging-only) instruments are not shown.
Size comparison of primary mirrors

Related pages

Other websites

W.M. Keck Observatory (official site)
The Mauna Kea Observatory (official site)

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