Science Community
Observer’s Portal
Information for Keck Observatory’s Science Community:
- Observer’s Login | Telescope Schedule | Instruments
- Apply for Time
- Before Your Observing Run | During Your Observing Run | After Your Observing Run
- For First-Time Observers | Checklist of Forms | Logistics | Policies
Observing Time
Observing time on the W. M. Keck Observatory 10-meter telescopes is available to members of several communities: the University of California, Caltech, NASA, the University of Hawaiʻi, Notre Dame University, and NOIRLab. Swinburne University of Technology, Yale University, and Northwestern University access telescope time through Caltech. The Subaru Telescope community accesses Keck Observatory through an observatory exchange.
Each community has its own Time Allocation Committee (TAC) that reviews proposals semi-annually and assigns time based on the scientific merit of each proposal. Those time assignments are then used to generate the night-by-night schedule for each of the telescopes.
Annual Keck Science Meeting
Every year, astronomers from all over the world come together for the Keck Science Meeting to learn and share the exciting science researchers are conducting using Keck Observatory’s twin telescopes. The event, which happens during late summer, also features discussions on plans for advancing the instrumentation the telescopes use.
Keck Observatory Archive
The Keck Observatory Archive (KOA) is a NASA-funded collaboration between W. M. Keck Observatory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute to make data captured by our twin 10-meter telescopes publicly available for analysis and discovery. With tens of terabytes of valuable data collected over the last two decades, KOA has made a significant number of new scientific studies possible and provides a revolutionary model being adopted by new ground-based telescopes around the world.
Maunakea Observatories Virtual Science Talks
Stay connected with the very latest astronomical research that our Maunakea Observatories community is conducting here in Hawaiʻi! We’ve launched a series of Maunakea Observatories Science Talks, which you may watch by visiting: