IMAGE CREDIT: ANDREW RICHARD HARA

Keck Observers' Newsletter

Spring 2019, Issue 25

Message from the Director

Aloha, and welcome to our Spring 2019 Observers’ Newsletter.

After conducting an extensive search last year, I am pleased to announce that we are ringing in the New Year with a new Chief Scientist; please join me in extending a warm aloha to Dr. John O’Meara. Please stop by and introduce yourself to John when you next visit the Observatory. Though his role is new, John is a long-time colleague – he has long been part of our scientific community, observing at Keck for two decades.

Congratulations too to the entire NIRSPEC upgrade team, made up of staff from UCLA and the Observatory. The team completed a major upgrade to make the instrument more powerful than ever. Upgraded NIRSPEC successfully achieved first light in December, just in time to observe the historic flyby of the “Christmas Comet,” 46P/Wirtanen. NIRSPEC has been producing extraordinary science since 1999, and we enthusiastically look forward to important new discoveries made with the improved instrument.

In the last newsletter, we announced several upgrades planned for our adaptive optics system. In this edition, you’ll find details of the progress of these projects, especially the recently initiated KAPA project - the Keck All-Sky Precision Adaptive Optics system.

In keeping with our commitment to address our scientific community's needs in the area of time domain astronomy (both cadence observing and target of opportunity), we have strengthened our capabilities in this area by creating a specialized team of software engineers and astronomers. Our Scientific Software Group is charged with developing the tools needed to transform our database infrastructure and to provide new graphical user interfaces in a way that best supports your TDA and ToO observers. I think you will be pleased to learn about the changes the team has already implemented that will make it easier to conduct these kinds of observations.

Lastly, I am happy to report that our Keck Visiting Scholars Program (KVSP) is going strong; we are now entering the third year of this important workforce development initiative and we continue to be impressed and inspired by the rising stars with whom we’ve had the pleasure of working with. Applications are now open for the next cohort; if you know of an exceptional graduate student and/or postdoc interested in gaining hands-on experience at Keck Observatory, please encourage them to apply. It is important that we help early-career scientists succeed; KVSP is among the ways in which the Observatory seeks to develop them into becoming the next generation of leaders in our field.

A hui hou kakou,
Hilton Lewis, Director
W. M. Keck Observatory

New Chief Scientist

Hilton Lewis,
Director.

We are very pleased to welcome John O'Meara as the Chief Scientist of Keck Observatory. He comes to us from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where he was most recently a Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics. He brings more than two decades of ground and space-based observational experience as a research astrophysicist.

In his new role as WMKO's Chief Scientist, which started last December, John is responsible for the stewardship of our scientific programs and for ensuring the well-being and vibrancy of the science conducted at our observatory.

John is a very experienced observer at Keck; he has observed here on more than 50 occasions, and recently celebrated his 20^th anniversary of observing with us.

He is well-known in the broader astronomy community through his role as the Cosmic Origins science team lead for NASA's Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission concept, and as Chair of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), which reports to Congress on astronomy and astrophysics issues that are of mutual interest to the NSF, NASA, and the Department of Energy Office of Science.

John is a visionary with a broad external perspective. He brings a clear scientific vision, proven collaborative ability, an ability to articulate the issues, and a strong intellect to the observatory. Please join me in welcoming John.

Dr. John O'Meara

On the Horizon

John O'Meara,
Chief Scientist.

An exciting future lies ahead for Keck Observatory instrumentation. In addition to the NIRSPEC and NIRC2 upgrades (see the articles from Greg and Carlos in this newsletter), a new instrument, the Santa Cruz Array for Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES) has recently been submitted to the NSF for funding.

Additionally, the Keck I Deployable Tertiary Mirror (K1DM3) has passed its performance review, and is now fully operational. Congratulations to the K1DM3 teams.

A number of other instruments are in design and development, which in combination with our current suite will help ensure a powerful and flexible observatory well into the next decade.

Speaking of decades, the Astro2020 Decadal Survey process is in full swing. The Co-Chairs of the Survey (Drs. Fiona Harrison and Rob Kennicutt) have been identified, and the call for nominations for panelists has concluded.

In the immediate future, the science White paper deadline is March 11, with additional white papers on Activities, Projects, and the State of the Profession due July 1. A notice of intent for for these papers is due March 20. If you are considering submitting a Keck-facing white paper to any of these calls, or already have one in work, please let me know, as I’m happy to help.

Finally, our Keck Science Meeting time and location has been set: September 19 and 20, at UCLA. I hope to see you there.

Upgraded NIRSPEC Now Delivering Science

Greg Doppmann, Instrument Master
Support Astronomer.

After being off-line for four months to carry out a long-awaited service, NIRSPEC returned to science operations for the last seven weeks of semester 18B, with improved science capabilities. The upgrade included a new detector and readout electronics for the spectrograph (SPEC), a H2RG Teledyne chip sensitive out to 5 microns, providing very low dark current and read noise to give about a magnitude increase in sensitivity on the sky. The new larger format detector (2048 x 2048) with smaller pixels (18 micron) delivers about 30 percent more wavelength coverage, seeing more orders and larger pieces of each order than before.

We replaced the slit viewing camera (SCAM) detector with an H2RG chip to provide imaging and guiding at every science wavelength. To support narrowband imaging at the desired plate scale (i.e. 0.158”/pixel), we also installed custom optics and filters for SCAM.

Another major part of the upgrade has been to replace the NIRSPEC’s obsolete transputer electronics to guarantee reliable and stable control of detector, mechanism, and environmental systems. The increased stability of the new control system has mitigated the server crashes that plagued the old system causing lost time on sky.

The upgraded NIRSPEC was commissioned over three nights in December, seeing first light on December 8, 2018. The spectrograph was brought back into science operations just in time to observe the close flyby of comet 46P/Wirtanen in mid-December. For the remainder of semester 18B, the five remaining scheduled science programs obtained good data and used the instrument in its different observing modes, i.e., behind the AO system, low & high resolution spectroscopy, taking observations in Y, H, K, L, and M bands.

Ginga display showing a real-time view of SPEC exposures. This example shows arc lamp lines illuminating 19 orders across the Y band. Tools for making cuts and other fits are available via the pull down menus, with those results displayed to the right of the image itself. A twin Ginga interface exists for display and analysis of SCAM exposures.

Looking ahead, another service mission is happening in February and March to replace NIRSPEC’s internal rotator motor, which failed during commissioning and restricted observations to stationary rotator mode. We will also commission on-slit guiding with the new SCAM system and optimize the SPEC internal focus.

For observers, the Echelle Format Simulator is still used set up the instrument, and take data and calibrations with the new SPEC detector. NIRSPEC does have some new control interface GUIs: 1) For real time data viewing of SPEC and SCAM exposures, the old IDL quicklook interfaces are now replaced with a Python-based GUI called Ginga, and 2) The old XNIRSPEC display has been replaced with a more compact GUI, to provide status and direct control of instrument mechanisms and calibration lamps. Further software improvements to user interfaces are currently on-going as we streamline instrument control of the new NIRSPEC.

A new GUI for viewing and controlling the instrument mechanisms. This compact view of the instrument mechanisms (left side) and calibration lamps (right) replaces the old XNIRSPEC display. licking on the current value of each component brings up a menu listing the possible configuration options. Note that SCAM now has its own filter wheel (lower right) to select narrowband filters that allow long wavelength imaging and guiding, while taking spectra.

NIRC2 Upgrade

Carlos Alvarez,
Support Astronomer.

Thanks to a generous donation by Jeff and Rebecca Steele, we are upgrading NIRC2 with new unique high-contrast imaging capabilities. The upgrade will take place between mid-February and mid-March 2019. This upgrade is part of a multi-institutional White Paper proposal led by Dimitri Mawet at Caltech. Due to the upgrade work, NIRC2 will be unavailable for science operations between February 18 and March 19.

The following new components will be installed:

L and M-band optimized Vector Vortex Coronagraphic (VVC) mask.
K-band optimized VVC mask, which has been kindly donated by Uppsala University (Sweden) and the University of Liège (Belgium).
Optimized Lyot stop to improve the sensitivity by more than a factor of 2 with respect to the current NIRC2 Lyot stops.
A Wollaston prism and a polarimetric focal plane mask. These two components comprise the first of a two-phase polarimetric upgrade for NIRC2. The second phase, once funded, will include a rotating half-wave plate modulator, which is not part of this upgrade.

All the new components have already been manufactured and shipped to CIT. At the time of writing (January 20), the components are about to be shipped to Keck.

K-band VVC designed at the University of Liège (Belgium) and fabricated in Sweden.

The new optical elements will either replace existing elements on NIRC2 or fill vacant positions on some of the mechanisms. The new VVC masks will replace the two existing VVC masks. The new Lyot stop will replace the unused specslot position in the pupil wheel. The Wollaston prism will be installed in the blank position on the outer filter wheel. Finally, the polarimetric field mask will be mounted on an empty position in the slides. The upgrade also includes two new mask holders to position both VVC masks close to the center of the NIRC2 field of view.

This is the timeline of the upgrade:

Instrument warm up period of one week.
Five days of work (including contingency) with the instrument open to install the new components.
Instrument pumping and cool down period of over a week.
Four days of daytime testing with the instrument cold.
A half night of commissioning on sky with an additional half night of contingency.

If time allows us, we will take the opportunity provided by this upgrade to perform some routine preventative maintenance tasks, such as replacing the cold heads of the closed-cycle refrigeration (CCR) system.

This upgrade will greatly enhance the high-contrast capabilities of NIRC2, bringing the instrument to the forefront of research topics such as the characterization of exoplanets and the study of protoplanetary disks.

Keck All-Sky Precision Adaptive Optics (KAPA)

Peter Wizinowich, Principal Investigator
Chief of Technical Development.

Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation Mid-Scale Innovation Program, we have embarked on a major new Keck Adaptive Optics initiative as of September 2018.

KAPA consists of four key science programs, an upgrade to the Keck I AO facility and an education program.
The key science programs are focused on the following challenges:

Constraining dark matter, the Hubble constant, and dark energy via strong gravitational lensing
Testing General Relativity and studying supermassive black hole interactions at the Galactic Center
Characterizing galaxy kinematics and metallicity using rare highly magnified galaxies
Directly studying gas-giant protoplanets around the youngest stars

These programs are led by Tommaso Treu, Andrea Ghez and Mark Morris, Shelley Wright and Claire Max, and Michael Liu and Dimitri Mawet, respectively. In addition, Jessica Lu is the KAPA project scientist.

Beginning in semester 2024B, after the commissioning of the upgraded system, each science program will perform 20 to 42 nights of science observations spread over three to five years.

A number of legacy science products will be released and point spread function (PSF) estimates will be provided for each science exposure in KOA.

The goal of the KAPA upgrade is to improve the image quality delivered to OSIRIS over more of the sky, and to improve the quantitative science results by providing PSF estimates with each science exposure. The elements of this upgrade are illustrated in Figure 1.

The upgrade will be led by the Keck AO team including Jason Chin (project manager), Kelleen Casey, Sylvain Cetre, Scott Lilley, Sam Ragland and Ed Wetherell.

Figure 1: Technical elements of the KAPA upgrade to the Keck I AO facility.

A TOPTICA/MPBC laser, identical to the laser now implemented on Keck II, has been ordered to replace the Keck I LMCT laser. This is being done to increase the sodium return (by a factor of 10 to allow multiple laser guide stars) and to improve the laser reliability. The new laser should be in science operation by early 2020.

We are building on the separately NSF MRI funded Keck II real-time controller (RTC) upgrade (which completed its PDR in December 2018) to provide a fast and flexible RTC to support laser tomography for Keck I. The Keck II upgrade also includes a new larger format, lower noise wavefront sensor camera that will also be implemented on Keck I for KAPA.

Multiple laser guide stars (LGS) will be used to reduce the “cone” effect, the wavefront measurement error introduced by sampling a cone of atmosphere with a LGS versus the cylinder that the starlight passes through. The tomography upgrade includes three steps: a modification to the laser beam transport system to produce three LGS, a modification to the wavefront sensor camera to sense all three LGS on the same detector, and modifications to the RTC to support three LGS and a laser tomography algorithm.

Multiple natural guide stars (NGS) are also needed to determine the tip-tilt in the direction of the science object. This will be implemented with the existing Keck I near-infrared tip-tilt sensor.

Finally, we will be extending our NIRC2 PSF reconstruction work to multiple LGS and OSIRIS.

The KAPA education program has elements ranging from undergraduate to post-graduate level with an overall goal of broadening participation in instrumentation for women and underrepresented minorities. This includes participation in the Akamai and Keck Visiting Scholars programs, a new Heising-Simons funded summer school called AstroTech led by Lisa Hunter and Jessica Lu, three KAPA science postdocs (a number that will grow with additional anticipated science funding) and a KAPA technology postdoc.

ToO Tool & New Telescope Schedule

Josh Riley, Software Engineer
Josh Walawender, Support Astronomer.

The slow drumbeat of changes to Remote Observing (formerly known as Mainland Observing) continues. We will soon be using Zoom for video conferencing during remote observing sessions. Remote sites will be able to connect with Keck night staff using either Polycom hardware or Zoom hardware. Depending on whether the remote site has opted to change their hardware, observers may not see an immediate difference, other than the address their Polycom dials to connect to Keck.

This transition should be fairly smooth because we can support connections from existing hardware (Polycom) and new hardware (Zoom). The exact date for this transition has not been set, but we are coordinating with remote sites.

Maintaining a high quality experience for our observers is of paramount importance during this transition. As a result, while it is possible to connect to a Zoom meeting from inexpensive hardware (e.g. a cheap webcam and a laptop), we are currently only supporting connections from remote stations using approved hardware (high quality cameras and microphones). This ensures that observers and Keck night staff (OAs and SAs) are able to communicate efficiently during the night.

In addition to the coming Zoom transition, we have recently made some changes to the Remote Observing request form that should make submissions quicker, easier and less error-prone. The form now prompts you to choose your request start date from a calendar select, after which you can then select your observing program from a dropdown list. This will auto-fill many of the fields for you such as Telescope, Instrument, Allocating Institution, Requestor info, and PI info.

For an even faster start, click the ‘Submit Request’ link next to a program in your table summary of approved programs on your Observer homepage. More improvements are planned in the near future, including further streamlining of the approval process, better management of program Co-observers, as well as improvements to the remote VNC launch scripts. This work is being done by our Scientific Software Group in concert with upgrades to our telescope schedule database described in another article in this newsletter.

Meet the Scientific Software Group

Matthew Brown,
Software Engineer.

New ways of observing and managing the data flow are gradually making their way into our observatory, driven by changes in the community, such as the increased demand for Time Domain observations. To address these challenges, WMKO has created a specialized group of Software Engineers and Scientists, the Scientific Software group.

The Scientific Software group consists of Software Engineers Jeff Mader, Matthew Brown, and Josh Riley, and Support Astronomer Luca Rizzi. Together, we work on new projects that promote and support new types of observations and improve our existing infrastructure. This includes many internal interfaces like the Summit Instrument Activity Schedule that tells the summit crew which instruments need to be configured for the night and how they should be configured. If you’ve ever prepared a slitmask for LRIS or DEIMOS, SIAS is what tells the summit crew which masks to install for your observing run.

Recently, there has been a large focus on Time Domain Astronomy (TDA) and Target of Opportunity (ToO) readiness. Our effort has largely focused on creating the new Target of Opportunity Request Tool (TORT) and Configuration Manager tool along with the infrastructure necessary to facilitate the occurrence and execution of ToO interruptions. The TORT was initially created as a proof of concept by Matthew Brown but later given to Josh Riley who developed and improved it into the current released form. Josh used the new database infrastructure developed by Jeff Mader as part of the TDA readiness initiative to access the information necessary for observers to plan their ToO interrupt.

The new Target of Opportunity Request Tool (TORT).

As part of the database infrastructure redesign, observers may use the instrument status page to check which instruments are available for ToO interrupts.

The TORT also interfaces with the Configuration Manager in order to prepare for a ToO interrupt. The Configuration Manager is a web application developed by Luca Rizzi for KCWI operations that has been adapted to Keck I instruments (and eventually Keck II) by then-highschool intern Oliver Grayson. Oliver was overseen by Matthew, who eventually took over the development when Oliver graduated and started attending the California Institute of Technology. The Configuration Manager tool is another infrastructure addition to help improve the future of observing. It allows observation configurations to be created and stored ahead of the scheduled observation in order to increase observing efficiency. In the future, an execution client will be created to more seamlessly integrate the configurations into routine observation.

The Configuration Manager tool.

Another future improvement we are working on is a Data Reduction Pipeline (DRP) System, which is being led by Luca with Josh Walawender as additional support. The goal of the system is to provide a framework for DRP developers to create modules that can be inserted into the system and used with other modules. It follows a “primitive-recipe” structure, where the developer can define what the primitives are and what the reduction recipe is. When a user inserts a FITS file into the DRP System, it determines which type of exposure it is and what the necessary components for reduction are. It should then suggest premade recipes for the user to execute to reduce the given file.

The driving idea behind the DRP System for nightly use is that files will be processed on a file-by-file basis as the system encounters them. In order to facilitate this functionality, a shift in data processing from day-after to real-time ingestion into the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA) is necessary. As the instruments create files, the files will be processed for ingestion into KOA. After the initial ingestion pre-processing steps, the files will contain enough metadata to be reduced and ingested. The end goal is to have all the files processed, reduced, and ingested on the fly so that off-site collaborators or ToO observers can have immediate access to them. While there is still a lot of work to be done towards this end, we believe that it will increase the observing experience many times over.

There are many changes made behind the scenes in order to improve the efficiency and ease of operability of the telescope and instruments by multiple groups within the observatory. These changes do not appear out of thin air, but instead have many dedicated engineers working tirelessly to make sure the observatory is always fulfilling their mission of being on-sky every night. It is our pride and joy to be able to provide these services to our observing community.

From the Scientific Software group,
Thank you and happy observing!

Apply for the 2019 Keck Visiting Scholars Program

Alessandro Rettura,
Support Astronomer.

The W. M. Keck Observatory is now accepting applications for the 2019 Keck Visiting Scholars Program.

The program is aimed at graduate students and postdocs who are seeking to enhance their careers through hands-on observatory experience, working directly with Keck Observatory scientists.

The purpose is to create a direct connection for early-career scientists with the observatory's technology, operation, and research.

Although this is an unpaid internship, funding will be provided to successful candidates to cover travel and accommodation expenses in Hawaii for 4-12 weeks.

Visit https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/KeckScholar/keck-staff.html for more information, including links to a complete program description and the application form. Deadline: Friday, April 5, 2019.

Members of the Keck Visiting Scholars Program, Cohort II (left to right): Geoff Chen, a UC Davis astronomy graduate student, Farzaneh Zohrabi, Mississippi State University physics graduate student, and Ariel Graykowski, UCLA geophysics and space physics postdoc.

News Corner

Mari-Ela Chock,
Communications Officer.

The national media spotlight was on several of our Keck observers whose research was featured recently at the 223rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

The Winter meeting, dubbed the "Superbowl of Astronomy," was held January 6-10 in Seattle.

Here is a media round-up of news involving Keck Observatory that was presented at the AAS press conferences:

Congratulations to lead authors Raffaella Margutti of Northwestern University, Xiaohui Fan of University of Arizona, Aparna Bhattacharya of the University of Maryland/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Adina Feinstein of University of Chicago on your findings!

LEFT: Aparna Bhattacharya, postdoctoral researcher from the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), uses a flashlight and tennis ball to show reporters at AAS how microlensing works. TOP RIGHT: The "Mysteries of Planet Formation" AAS press conference panel that featured Bhattacharya and David Bennett, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and GSFC. BOTTOM RIGHT: Raffaella Margutti, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University presenting her results on "The Cow" to media.

New Support Astronomer

Randy Campbell,
Observing Support Manager.

W. M. Keck Observatory’s newest support astronomer is Dr. Elena Manjavacas.

Elena comes to Keck Observatory from the Steward Observatory/University of Arizona in Tucson where she was a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Daniel Apai.

She also has held a postdoctoral position at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Tenerife, Spain) where she worked with an instrument similar to MOSFIRE called EMIR, now installed at the 10.4 m GTC telescope in La Palma (Spain). Elena got her PhD in 2015 at the Max Plank Institute for Astrophysics in Heidelberg (Germany).

Elena has a strong interest in infrared instrumentation and observations. Her research focuses in the field of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and exoplanets. Questions regarding the formation, evolution, and observational properties of these low mass objects are the focus of her studies.

Elena grew up in a small town in La Mancha (Spain) and was always very interested astronomy. She did her bachelor degree in Physics and her master in Astrophysics at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid (Spain).

Elena will be starting out learning the MOSFIRE instrument before getting involved with AO support later on. Please join us in welcoming Elena to our team.