The Design of the Keck Observatory and Telescope

This report describes the design of the Ten Meter Telescope and Observatory. \nSince 1977 the University of California has been actively designing a ten meter telescope \nfor visible and infrared ground-based astronomy. The University of California \nand the California Institute of Technology have now joined in a collaboration to construct \nand operate this telescope and observatory. A generous gift of seventy million \ndollars to Caltech from the W. M. Keck Foundation, announced in January 1985, will \nprovide funds for the construction of the facility. In recognition the facility will be \nnamed the W. M. Keck Telescope and Observatory. The University of California will \nprovide funds for its operation. We expect construction to be completed by 1990. \nThe design of the telescope and observatory continues to be improved as the \ndetailed design progresses. The description given here is current as of January 1985. \nAlthough many design details will change before construction, this description is accurate \nin the general concept and in many particulars. The details of the design are \ndescribed in an ongoing series of Reports and Technical Notes. An index to this series \nis given in the Reference Section of this report.