Trying REALLY Hard!
I think this might be my favorite photo I've taken in the last year.
Subaru and Gemini cancel their laser usage if there are any clouds at all. On the other hand, Keck occasionally will try to propagate their laser with clouds. I've seen it once before during an observing run (but didn't photograph it because I was tied up with my main job), but this past weekend they tried repeatedly throughout the night to lase through the clouds. The laser is for adaptive optics, which is a technique to acquire sharper images by canceling the turbulence of the atmosphere. Keck was trying to observe the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and weren't going to give up easily.
The cloudy science probably wasn't very high quality, but it made for some crazy photos. The laser needs to be focused at an altitude of about 60 miles. The clouds scatter most of the laser light and prevent it from reaching that altitude, so as a result the AO corrections can't be performed as well. In my timelapse from the night, the lasers blink off each time a thick cloud passes through, and then return once the cloud has passed. They clearly were trying to keep the laser running through the thinner clouds, though.
Rokinon 24mm 1.4 at f/2.
Trying REALLY Hard!
I think this might be my favorite photo I've taken in the last year.
Subaru and Gemini cancel their laser usage if there are any clouds at all. On the other hand, Keck occasionally will try to propagate their laser with clouds. I've seen it once before during an observing run (but didn't photograph it because I was tied up with my main job), but this past weekend they tried repeatedly throughout the night to lase through the clouds. The laser is for adaptive optics, which is a technique to acquire sharper images by canceling the turbulence of the atmosphere. Keck was trying to observe the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and weren't going to give up easily.
The cloudy science probably wasn't very high quality, but it made for some crazy photos. The laser needs to be focused at an altitude of about 60 miles. The clouds scatter most of the laser light and prevent it from reaching that altitude, so as a result the AO corrections can't be performed as well. In my timelapse from the night, the lasers blink off each time a thick cloud passes through, and then return once the cloud has passed. They clearly were trying to keep the laser running through the thinner clouds, though.
Rokinon 24mm 1.4 at f/2.