Video: Behind the Scenes at Giant Keck Telescopes

A behind-the-scenes look at how one telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory, produces its superb space images.
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Amazing space photos don't just happen. A lot of work goes into making them. This new video offers a behind-the-scenes look at how one facility, the W. M. Keck Observatory, produces its superb images.

The Keck observatory is comprised of two telescopes, each with a 33-foot mirror. The telescopes, which sit at the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, move together and their combined images exceed the individual resolution of each.

Engineer and amateur astronomer Andrew Cooper created the video using two different techniques. Some scenes, such as those showing the telescope moving, were shot with standard video and then sped up in editing. Others, like those featuring clouds and the night sky, are made from thousands of separate photographs stitched together to create time-lapsed video.

The video begins with the brains behind any telescope operation: computer software and its engineers. Liz Chock (who apparently needed to remember to buy milk that day) sets the telescope in motion.

The telescope begins operations, repositioning to get a view of whatever celestial object it's targeting that night. The video then shows the small details that make modern astronomy possible: Filters move into place, beam shutters drop down, and hardware components travel to their necessary positions. We also get to see the ghostly smoke of liquid nitrogen, which is used to cool the telescope's instruments because excessive heat can create false readings on their cameras.

Prior to a nightly observation, astronomers move an instrument into place. In this case it’s a spectrograph, which splits light into its component frequencies and allows scientists to determine what elements are in a star or galaxy.

The most important part of a telescope is its mirror, which needs dutiful maintenance to produce high-quality images. One quick scene shows scientists stripping a mirror segment of its old aluminum coating to prepare it for re-coating. Another shows the full mirror getting sprayed by carbon dioxide snow to remove any dust. Here you can really get a sense of the mirror's size in comparison to a person.

The sun sets at the summit of Mauna Kea. This 14,000-foot-tall dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii is exceptionally high and dry, looking more like the surface of Mars than someplace on Earth. It offers exceptionally clear views of the night sky, which is why astronomers have constructed 12 telescopes at or around the mountain's top. (The Japanese Subaru telescope can be seen to one side of the dual Keck telescopes in one scene.)

The video also shows laser beams shooting up at the night sky from the telescopes. These aren't targeting any invading aliens, but rather helping astronomers improve their views. Known as adaptive optics, the technique measures air turbulence just above the telescope. By making minute adjustments to the telescope mirror, astronomers can cancel distortion caused by air movements, producing superior images.

The video ends with some incredible time-lapse shots of stars moving through the night sky above Earth, as well as moonset and sunrise from Mauna Kea's summit.

Video: Keck in Motion from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo.