The Frontier of Black Hole Measurements

Nicholas McConnell
UCB

Dominant galaxies in large clusters should host the most massive black
holes in the local universe, but their distance poses a formidable
challenge to measuring the masses.  The integral field spectrograph OSIRIS
on Keck II with adaptive optics is the best tool for obtaining kinematic
data from the galaxies' central regions.  I will discuss the procedure for
measuring extra-Galactic black hole masses, the advantages and challenges
of using a ground-based telescope with AO instead of the Hubble Space
Telescope, and preliminary analysis of OSIRIS data obtained this year.