Stairway To The Stars

361 Pages·1994·43.624 MB·English

by  Barry Parker

STAIRWAY TO
THE STARS
The Story of the World's
Largest Observatory
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STAIRWAY TO
THE STARS
The Story of the World's
Largest Observatory
Barry Parker
Drawings by
Lori Scoffield
PERSEUS PUBLISHING
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data
Parker, Barry R.
Stairway to the stars • the story of the world's largsst
obsarvatory / Barry Parker ; drawings by Lori Scoffield.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographica1 references and index.
ISBN 0-306-44763-0
1. Astronomical observatories—Hawall—Mauna Kea—History.
2. Parker, Barry R, 3, Astronomers—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
QB82.U62M387 1994
522' . 19969' 1—dc2Q 94-21016
CIP
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ISBN 0-7382-0578-8
© 1994 Barry Parker
Published by Perseus Publishing
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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Printed in the United States of America
Preface
It is early morning. As I look out the window I see a fresh blanket
of snow. The hedge, shrubs, trees, and lawn are all covered. The
temperature is 12 degrees below zero. In the east the sun is rising
over the distant hills, its rays reflecting from the windows of the
houses across the street. It is quiet, with few cars passing this early
in the morning. Overhead the sky is blue, fading to white near the
horizon, with a light mist obscuring some of the distant objects. As
I sip my coffee I think back to the beginning of this book. It is
almost exactly a year ago that my wife and I set out for the Big
Island of Hawaii. I was on a five-month sabbatical; during this
time I would visit the observatories of Mauna Kea and spend a
considerable amount of time at the headquarters buildings in Hilo
and Waimea. I was also planning to fly to Honolulu to the Institute
for Astronomy. The first of the giant Keck telescopes (Keck I)
would come on line while I was there, and Keck II was being
constructed. I was looking forward eagerly to the trip.
This book is a result of that sabbatical. In the first few chapters
I cover the history of the observatory—the problems that were
encountered and how they were overcome. One of my objects in
writing the book is to give the reader a feeling for what astro-
nomers do at observatories, so I have included chapters describing
my visits to them both during the day and at night. And finally I
have selected a number of astronomers and discussed their re-
search in considerable detail. These discussions span black holes,
V
vi PREFACE
cosmology, stars, the search for extraterrestrial planets, and the
origin of our solar system.
It is difficult in a book such as this to avoid technical terms,
but I have tried to limit them. For anyone unfamiliar with the few
that I have used, I have provided a glossary at the back of the book,
I am particularly grateful to the scientists who assisted me. I
talked to a large number of astronomers while visiting the ob-
servatories and headquarters buildings. In some cases they pro-
vided me with reprints and photographs. I would like to express
my gratitude to all of them. They are Mitsuo Akiyama, Colin
Aspin, C. Berthoud, Ann Boesgaard, Hans Boesgaard, David Boh-
lender, Len Cowie, Sandra Faber, Tom Geballe, Peter Gillingham,
John Glaspey, Bill Heacox, George Herbig, Esther Hu, Bill Irace,
Dave Jewitt, John Kormendy, Alan Kusunoki, Ron Laub, Olivier
Le Fevre, Bob McLaren, Terry Mast, Karen Meech, Guy Monnet,
Kyoji Nariai, Jerry Nelson, Francois Rigaut, Ian Robson, Michael
Rowan-Robinson, Dave Sanders, Barbara Schaefer, Gerald Smith,
Malcolm Smith, Walter Steiger, Brent Tully, Richard Wainscoat,
and Peter Wizinowich.
I would particularly like to thank Kevin Krisciunas for sup-
plying me with a considerable amount of historical material, sev-
eral photographs, for critically reading several of the early chap-
ters, and for acting as a guide to several of the observatories. I
would also like to thank Andy Perala for a guided tour of the Keck
Observatories and several photographs.
Special thanks go to Don and Edith Worsencroft, Jack and
Ann Roney, and Virginia Spencer for their hospitality while we
were in Hawaii.
The line drawings were done by Lori Scoffield. I would like
to thank her for an excellent job. I would also like to thank my
editor Linda Greenspan Regan and the staff of Plenum for their
assistance in bringing this book to its final form. And finally I
would like to thank my wife for her support while the book was
being written.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise specified.
Contents
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1
CHAPTER 2 The Early Years 17
A Promising Beginning 17
Problems 29
The Building of the 88-Inch Telescope 36
CHAPTER 3 Expansion and New Telescopes 39
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope 39
The NASA Infrared Telescope 46
The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope 51
Problems Along the Way 56
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope 58
The Caltech Submillimeter Telescope 62
CHAPTER 4 The Largest Optical Telescope in
the World—Keck 67
Early History 68
Stress-Mirror Polishing 74
Passive and Active Systems 77
The Building of a Prototype 81
vii
viii CONTENTS
Looking for Funding S3
Design of the Telescope 85
CHAPTER 5 The Continuing Story of Keck 89
Building the Dome and Telescope 90
First Light 95
Dedication 99
The Instruments of Keck 105
Keck II and Interferometry 106
Adaptive Optics 220
Projects 222
CHAPTER 6 Visiting the Top of the World 215
First Trip 115
Hale Pohaku 119
Approaching the Summit 124
On the Summit 128
Approaching from Waimea 129
Survey of the Observatories 132
CHAPTER 7 Night at the Observatory 145
CCDs 245
Inside the UKIRT Dome 151
Down in Submillimeter Valley 158
Inside the Canada-France-Hawaii Dome 160
Remote Observing 165
CHAPTER 8 Running the Observatory: The Directors 167
The Institute for Astronomy 168
The Joint Astronomy Centre 172
The Canada-France-Hawaii Corporation 151
Keck 255
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER 9 Monster at the Core 195
John Kormendy 200
Quasars and Black Holes 208
Black Hole in Our Galaxy? 222
CHAPTER 10 Surveying the Universe 221
Brent Tully 224
Continuing Controversy 231
Peculiar Velocities and the Great Attractor 233
Sandra Faber 239
CHAPTER 11 Searching for the Ends of the Universe 245
Specifying Deep Space 247
Surveying Deep Space 248
Markers and Lighthouses 255
Other Surveys 260
CHAPTER 12 Stars and Stellar Debris 263
Early Stellar Astronomy 263
The Life Cycle of a Star 269
Herbig Stars 274
Looking for Lithium 278
CHAPTER 13 Searching for Other Planetary Systems 283
Early Searches 283
Basic Techniques 287
The CFH-DAO Program 289
Dust and Debris 293
TOPS 295