The Continuing Story of Keck

Abstract

In the early 1980s a committee was set up to select a site for the 10-meter telescope. Chaired by Robert Kraft of Lick Observatory, it consisted of people from the University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Diego. They were to look for a site that had a minimum of cloud cover throughout the year, low background light, excellent seeing, low water vapor, and reasonable access. Funds were limited so they weren’t able to test each of the sites in detail, but they gathered as much information about them as possible. Thirteen sites were considered. Several were rejected quickly, others less quickly, until finally the list was wittled down to five: La Palma in the Canary islands, a mountain near Madeira, Spain, Junipero Serra Peak in California, Mount Bancroft, also in California, and finally, Mauna Kea in Hawaii. White Mountain in California was also tested in some detail.