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Paper: Remote Observing on the Keck Telescopes
Volume: 295, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XII
Page: 170
Authors: Shopbell, P. L.; Kibrick, R. I.; Allen, S. L.; Hayes, B.
Abstract: Remote observing has long been a part of the Keck Observatory operating plan. Remote observing from the Keck Headquarters, in Waimea, HI, has been operational since 1996, before the second Keck Telescope came on-line. Remote observing from the Keck HQ now encompasses over 95% of observing runs at the Keck Observatory. Recently, additional efforts have been made to enable remote observing on the Keck Telescopes from the U.S. mainland. Driven primarily by financial motivations, and enabled by recent increases in the available bandwidth between the mainland and Hawaii, remote runs from the mainland are now provided to observers at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and Caltech. Additional locations are in preparation. In this paper, we present a brief summary of the Keck remote observing efforts from the U.S. mainland, with an emphasis on the system at Caltech, which is the most recent to come on-line. We describe the history and motivation for remote observing with the Keck Telescopes, outline the remote observing system and hardware, and describe plans for the future implementation of remote observing on a broader scale.
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