In the Dome – A Tour of the Subaru Telescope

Earlier this month, I had the chance to observe from the summit of Mauna Kea at the Subaru Telescope using Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), the same camera we use in the new HSC survey search. I and my fellow observers got a great tour of the telescoped dome and also around the summit of Mauna Kea from our telescope operator Josh (thanks Josh!). Here’s the photos I took during the tour:

View of sub-mm vallery

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

the Kecks and IRTF

Gemini North

View of Subaru, the Kecks, and IRTF

View of Subaru, the Kecks, and IRTF

Gemini North, UH-88inch

hard hats in the hallway betwen the controll room and the Subaru telescope dome (plus some astronomers)

hard hats in the hallway betwen the controll room and the Subaru telescope dome (plus some astronomers!)

controll room building for Subaru

cover of area that opens for mirror to be brought down for recoating

encoder – barcode reader that tracks where the Subaru telescope has rotated to

Gemini North

Keck telscopes

Gemini North

rollers that the Subaru telescope dome moves with

Rollers the dome moves on at the base of the dome

rollers that the Subaru telescope dome moves with

More in the lower levels with the dome rollers

Part of the telescope and the dome side vents at Subaru

Side vents on the Subaru dome

Primary mirror and baffle

Subaru telescope

prime focus ring of the Subaru telescope above the primary mirror – is holding Hyper Suprime-Cam

Primary mirror and baffle

part of the crane mechanism that lifts out the 8.2-m mirror for recoating at the Subaru dome

Subaru telescope prime focus ring

Subaru telescope prime focus ring and shot of Hyper Suprime-Cam

Dome side vents

Subaru telescope

Inside the Subaru Control room – speakers that relay sounds from computer and HSC so you can hear the shutter opening and closing

Base of the telescope

Lower instrument bay on subaru telescope