BERKELEY CELT MEETING

Date: Tue 13 Aug 2002
Time: 9 AM - 12:00 AM
Place: 544 Campbell Hall

Reference: CELT Green Book at http://celt.ucolick.org/

AGENDA

Welcome - Don Backer
Keck Science and the Motivation for a 30-m OIR Telescope - James Graham
Keck History - James Graham
Technical and Political Status of CELT - Don Backer
Opportunity for Participation - Group discussion
Assignment of actions items

KECK SCIENCE & the MOTIVATION for a 30m TELESCOPE

KI &KII are the world's largest OIR ground based telescopes

KI has been in operation for a decade.

Science Highlights

Cosmology

Deuterium abundance
Accelerating universe
Gunn-Peterson effect

Galaxy evolution

Ly-break galaxies
Most distant galaxies and quasars
DEEP

High angular resolution

Galactic center black hole
Infrared interferometry of evolved stars

Planets and solar systems

Precision radial velocity

KECK COMMUNITY IS UNIQUELY POISED TO BUILD CELT

Astronomy progress strongly tracks the deployment of new telescopes with increasing aperture

Power of an astronomical telescope is a strong function of the diameter of the primary mirror

~ D² - D⁴ depending on application

Keck alone has perfected the scalable segmented-mirror technology

CELT increases

Angular resolution by x3
Speed by 10-100, depending on application

CELT key science goal

Direct imaging of planets and searches for terrestrial planets
Chemical evolution and star formation histories in nearby galaxies
Probing galactic nuclei
The history of galaxies from z=1-5
Tomography of the Ly-alpha forest

KECK HISTORY

Initial UC-TMT (ten meter telescope) technical study led by Nelson et al. at LBL

Funding by Keck Foundation led to formation of CARA

Initially UC/Caltech, later joined by NASA (1/6th partner) for KII

Keck Blue Book published in 1984

Instrument development

LLNL

AO, F/25 secondary, mirror coatings

Lick

HIRES, ESI, DEIMOS

Palomar

LRIS, NIRC, NIRC2

UCLA IR Lab

NIRSPEC, SHARC, OSIRIS

UCSD

LWS, HIRES image rotator

SSL

LWIRC

STATUS of CELT at UC

High level CELT technical review of Phase I study

Details in CELT Green Book: http://celt.ucolick.org/

Atkinson/Baltimore meeting to discuss 70M$ design study phase
Joe Miller (UCO Director) and the UC Chancellors

Astronomy letter to Berdahl & response

OPPORTUNITIES for PARTICIPATION

Berkeley's role in CELT should be defined by our scientific and technical strengths.
Need to personal and institutional commitment to:

Provide strong leadership in the definition of the scientific goals of CELT

Academic departments (Astronomy & Physics )
SSL
LBNL

Use expertise in mechanical structures and control systems to design the mirror segment supports and the telescope superstructure

RAL
EE
MechE
LBNL

Optics

SSL

Develop novel detectors for astronomical instruments and adaptive optics

Academic departments (Astronomy & Physics Depts)
SSL
LBNL

Data management & archiving

SSL & LBNL