Two Decades of Discoveries

Although Keith Matthews was about to make history, he went about his tasks like any others. It was the night of March 16, 1993, nearly 14,000 feet above sea level on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and he had just installed the first instrument on the brand-new 10-meter telescope at W. M. Keck Observatory. Matthews, who built the instrument-a near-infrared camera, abbreviated NIRC-was set to make the first scientific observations using the newly crowned Biggest Telescope in the World. This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of those inaugural observations. Speaking at a symposium on March 7 commemorating the anniversary, Tom Soifer, chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, called those initial observations "one of the greatest events in astronomy. It's been a remarkable 20 years of exploration and discovery," he said.