TELESCOPES
COURTESY CANADA FRANCE HAWAII TELESCOPE
The conference room at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope headquarters in Waimea suffered severe damaged caused by the quakes. The scope's dome at Mauna Kea is now operational, according to the CFHT Web site. Some checks were made on the scope's overall structure with no significant damage found so far. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Built-in guards protect instruments on Mauna Kea from serious damage
Some of the world's largest telescopes have closed on Mauna Kea to fix problems created by Sunday's quakes.
"Any time you lose observing nights, it's significant, but at the moment there are no really major problems we know," said Robert McLaren, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy associate director.
All the telescopes were designed to survive earthquakes as big and even bigger than Sunday's magnitude 6.7 quake off the Big Island, McLaren said.
"It would appear that the earthquake protection equipment has worked fairly well, even though it was a pretty vigorous shaking," he said.
Violent shaking opened the dome of the 2.2-meter UH telescope and broke part of the shutter, IFA astronomer Richard Wainscoat said. The staff managed to shut the dome Monday because of foul weather, he said.
A water tank for the hot water system was broken, spewing water everywhere, and some cracks occurred in the building, he said.
The telescope won't be usable for three or four days at least, Wainscoat said. He said repairs aren't being rushed because the weather is so bad on the Big Island.
Since the first earthquake was just after sunrise, most of the telescopes weren't operational, so "they were stowed," McLaren said.
He said all the observatories are assessing their telescopes, domes, instruments and buildings for damage.
Most problems uncovered so far have to do with the telescopes being shaken and shifting on their mount, he said.
Keck Observatory canceled observing through tomorrow night and the staff was working to restore instruments for full use, the observatory said in a news release. The mirrors don't appear damaged, but some guiding and pointing systems must be corrected, the observatory said.
The Keck telescopes rock in their mounts, Laura Kinoshita, Keck spokeswoman, explained by telephone.
"They sit on oil bearings and each weighs 300 tons and is 80 feet tall, so as the earth shifts underneath them, they kind of rock," she said. "They have seismic pads and breaks to limit motion for the telescopes, but some of the systems we use to point and guide the telescope have been damaged."
She said it will take three or four days to bring Keck I up to par and Keck II will take longer.
The Keck and Canada France Hawaii Telescope headquarters in Waimea also suffered damage, with broken glass, falling ceiling tiles, drawers and shelves tipped over, and books and research papers scattered.
"But all the computers are OK and all the data is back up," Kinoshita said. "There were no injuries."