June 06, 2007
Throughout history, private philanthropy has been instrumental in driving advances in the study of astronomy. Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei and the world’s first telescope received critical funding and endorsement from Christina and Ferdinand Medici, a wealthy family in Florence , Italy U.S. ground-based astronomy, Mount Palomar ’s Hale telescope, was financed through the generosity of The Rockefeller Foundation. And the revolutionary twin Keck telescopes were funded almost entirely by the W.M. Keck Foundation.
May 25, 2006
An important public private partnership has secured $10 million for the design and construction of a major new capability for the Keck I telescope. The National Science Foundation and philanthropists Gordon and Betty Moore have both committed $5 million to complete full funding for an infrared, multi-object spectrograph which will measure phenomena at the farthest reaches of the universe. The spectrograph will be operational by late 2009.
January 10, 2006
Keck Observatory has been a recipient of grant funding from the M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation since 2001, when members of the Hudson Foundation first discovered the twin telescopes on the island of Hawai'i.