Title:

Progress and Prospects at the W.M. Keck Observatory



Taft Armandroff
Keck Observatory



Abstract:

Taft Armandroff started as Director of the
W.M. Keck Observatory on July 1, 2006.  His talk will include recent
progress at Keck Observatory on new instruments, telescope and
instrument upgrades, and plans for the future.  A number of instrumental
enhancements are underway, including a detector upgrade for the red arm
of LRIS, the new multi-object infrared spectrograph MOSFIRE, and the
cross-dispersed infrared spectrograph NIRES.  Adaptive optics
enhancements that will be discussed include enabling laser-guide-star
adaptive optics on the Keck I telescope, in addition to the existing
system on Keck II, and the design of a next-generation adaptive optics
system and related instrumentation.  Statistics on the scientific output
of Keck Observatory will also be featured