A Darker View

The eruption at Halema'uma'u is still going, not waning or getting any stronger. It is still venting ash and throwing around the occasional spatter, showing that the magma is not far below the surface. Check out the photos of the glowing vent at night, it really is a pretty strong incandescence.

As long as the lava continues to pour out down the rift at the Pu`u `O`o area and the July 21 vent I suspect the main caldera will remain reasonably quiet. No pressure to force the lava to the surface, it escapes further down slope. It would be nice to see some lava escape the Halema'uma'u Vent to cover the crater floor, but I would not expect more than that.

Just have to wait and see...

Hawai'i roads can be dangerous. We have a few fatalities every year, sometimes among those you know. The recipe for these dangers consists of the usual ingredients; fairly long distances commuted by many drivers and tired or drunk drivers trying to make it home. The roads are often narrow with no shoulders and very unforgiving steep rocky terrain if you do go off them. Interestingly the worst of the roads is not the infamous Saddle Road, but the far more heavily traveled Mamaloahoa Highway, the same road I commute every day.

With so many galaxies in the spring sky it can be tough to choose what to look at. The region that spans Virgo and Canes Venetici is particularly confusing to the novice observer. Which targets offer rewards to the patient observer? Many nights can be spent in tracking down and observing galaxy after galaxy, finding the true gems in the pile. Eventually an experienced observer will develop a list of favorites worth revisiting and observing again. One of the objects that deserves consideration for any list is NGC4762, a very nice edge on galaxy in Virgo.

This galaxy is almost precisely aligned edge-on and offers a faint dust lane to an observer with larger aperture at their disposal. Resonably bright at magnitude 10.2 this galaxy is in reach of 8" and better instruments, but a 12" or better will help in appreciation of this target.

My own notes taken with an 11" telescope under good conditions indicate my own pleasure when first observing this galaxy...

21 Mar 2004 Farnsworth Ranch, Pima Co., AZ
28cm f/10 SCT Nexstar 11" @ 80x

Very nice edge-on spiral galaxy, almost exactly edge-on, dust lane visible with averted vision, a small version of NGC4565, an excellent object!!

I need to revisit this target with the 18" one of these times to see what the larger aperture can reveal. The small galaxy NGC4754 is visible in the same eyepiece field about 10' northwest. Both galaxies lie on the eastern edge of the Virgo Cluster 2° west of the bright star Vindematrix and are well placed for observing in the late evening for the next few months.

NGC4762 is found on the H400 observing list as well as the SAC 100 Best NGC objects. When you stop by and observe it you will understand why I have also added it to my personal best of list, I will be stopping by to observe NGC4762 again.

Found another good local blog today over at Planet Kaua'i, readable and insightful articles into local and state issues. Seeing as Charley has graciously tagged me it would only be polite to respond in kind.

I don't know about those folks over on Kaua'i, they seem rather militant in their opposition to any change. Another Blog I have been reading lately, Kaua'i Eclectic typifies this sentiment. Never having been to Kaua'i I have not seen for myself what the situation is, but I understand they have been overrun with tourists, development, and all the problems this brings far more dramatically than has been experienced here on the Big Island. Maybe the attitude has a good reason...

For the first time since 1982 lava has erupted in the main caldera of Kilauea. Not much, just spatter and blobs blown away from the vent in the wall of Halema'uma'u, but lava it is. Geologists checking the scene found pele's hair, pele's tears and spatter at the eruption site. This is accompanied by a plume of steam and ash close to a mile high. All the details can be found on the USGS HVO Website. Checking this great website for the daily eruption update has become a morning ritual for me, what is Pele doing today? On this island the remnants of volcanism are all around us, from the rocks the house is built on the pu'us (cinder cones) I drive past on the way to work. Volcanoes have always been something I have been very aware of, growing up in the shadows of the Cascade peaks, but now I can never escape their presence living in the shadow of an even larger volcanic edifice.

It seems odd that I hiked the caldera only a couple months ago, the trail and parking lot where a friend and I met our wives is now under a layer of debris. The fence we leaned on to look down into Halema'uma'u has been rent and torn by flying rock. Seeing the ash plume photos brings back the childhood memories of Mount St. Helens and watching ash plumes rise high in the atmosphere from our Portland home, or sweeping up volcanic ash from our driveway.

Living around Pele is definitively getting interesting, what will happen next? Volumes of lava erupting at the summit as was the normal pattern decades ago?

Just another afternoon at the beach. The entire concept still seems odd, even after a year on the island. Having the ocean that close by, just a 15min drive to our favorite beach at Waialea Bay for a swim. The main reason to is to put in a good workout, but snorkeling out to the reef is a very enjoyable way to do it. The weather was fine, mostly cloudy with the occasional sunshine, the water a bit choppy, but no real swell or surf. Visibility was decent at about 60-70ft.

I saw a couple species of fish I had never seen, or at least never noticed, before. A treat was an Ambon Puffer (Canthigaster amboinensis), that practically sat two feet in front of my face offering a perfect view of this pretty little fish. The highlight of the day was clearly the four foot Whitetip Reef Shark that cruised by underneath us. It came in close, we were only in 10-15 feet of water over some small coral canyons. Very pretty animal, sharks are graceful in so many ways, so perfectly evolved for their environment. I suspect this was the first shark my wife had been in the water with, certainly she had never been this close. What does she do? Panic? No, she goes charging off after it to get a better look!

It struck me that both of us were perfectly at home in the water, several hundred yards from shore in water conditions that my wife would have found unnerving before. I noted my improved control under water as I skimmed inches above and beside the coral to get a look at the little stuff overlooked by most snorkelers. In among the coral heads I found hermit crabs, worms and spent time examining the coral itself.

We had been on the reef an hour and a half when I asked my wife if she wanted to go in yet, I got a blank stare and the response "We just got out here!"

Here is a somewhat surprising headline. It didn't come from some outlet like the Weekly World News, but MSNBC! What is a mainstream US news outlet doing publishing headlines like this?

The article under the headline is actually quite well written, but looks to have been penned by a science reporter over at Space.com, not somebody at MSNBC. On the Space.com website the same article carries the more reasonable headline Newly Found Martian Salt Deposits Suggest Ancient Life. The headline at MSNBC looks to have been tacked on by an editor at MSNBC, who either did not read the article, or simply did not understand it. Which is surprising as the article is easy to read and quite straightforward from a science sense. This editor should probably go back to editing sports news.

Another of the many examples showing that those of us involved in the sciences are simply not doing an adequate job of educating our fellow citizens.

Hat tip to Bad Astronomy

I love spiral galaxies. With the aperture and dark skies to properly appreciate these distant islands of stars in our vast universe you can gain a glimmer of understanding for the true scales of the universe. Look at the Milky Way and see the scale of our own galaxy, then look at these distant spirals and the true immensity of space becomes an awesome concept, one that most of our fellow humans do not have any appreciation for. When you really see these galaxies, when you can internalize and understand the scales, it truly changes your entire understanding of space, time and the history of the universe.

Spring is the time to view and appreciate these galaxies, with Virgo, Canes Venatici, and Ursa Major high overhead the swarms of galaxies are available to anyone with a modest aperture and a good dark sky.

04 Jun 2005 Vekol Ranch, Maricopa Co., AZ
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet @ 175x

Large, dim, odd elongated shape with an extension at one end, extended northeast-southwest with a 'hook' at the southwest end, no distinct core

Another very interesting galaxy is the Fishhook Galaxy, NGC4656. The galaxy is a disturbed spiral galaxy with a tidal tail easily visible in medium telescopes (10" and greater). In this case the interaction was with its large neighbor NGC4631 visible 32' to the northwest. Another result of this disruption is that star formation is going on at a furious pace in this galaxy and photographs show numerous HII regions, some of which are visible to larger aperture visual observers.

Spring is upon us, get out an observe the galaxies of the season.

Now I just need to heed my own advice.

Pele is really busy lately! The ongoing lava flows flowing through the old Royal Gardens subdivision have destroyed some of the few houses remaining. In addition there was an explosion today at Halema'uma'u scattering debris over a wide area, some of it as large as a meter across. This includes the Halema'uma'u overlook, trail and parking area with impact craters reported on the trail from debris raining down. Debris is even found across the crater rim drive. The last time this happened was back in 1924 when a series of explosions rocked the area for a couple weeks.

From the USGS Hawai'i Volcano Observatory...

At 2:58 a.m. H.S.T on Wednesday, March 19, 2008, a small explosion occurred at Halema`uma`u Crater at the summit of Kilauea Volcano in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. This event was erroneously reported as an earthquake earlier this morning. The explosion scattered debris over an area of about 75 acres (30 hectares), covering a portion of Crater Rim Drive and damaging the Halema`uma`u overlook. No lava was erupted as part of the explosion, suggesting that the activity was driven by hydrothermal or gas sources.

In addition to damaging the overlook, explosive debris covers the trail to the overlook, the Halema`uma`u parking area, and the portion of Crater Rim Drive adjacent to the parking area. On Crater Rim Drive the debris was up to 2 centimeters in size, with the size and thickness of debris increasing toward the overlook. The largest observed block ejected during the explosion was about 1 cubic meter (35 cubic feet) and must have been propelled from the vent located more than 70 m (230 feet) below the crater rim. Small impact craters from 30 cm (1 foot) blocks are abundant in the Halema`uma`u overlook area. Rock debris also extends halfway across the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater. The debris is composed of rock fragments that were derived from the walls of Halema`uma`u Crater. No fresh lava was observed on the floor of Halema`uma`u or in the ejected debris.

I suspect that a large part of the caldera is going to be closed to public access for quite some time with expectations for further explosive activity. May as well go see the lava down in Puna instead!

Always a time for reflection when someone who had an influence on you has died. As a young teenager I read every one of Clarke's science fiction books that had been published at the time. I still have a dozen of those old paperbacks on my shelf today, treasured favorites that have been hauled around the globe and re-read many times. The ideas and science that filled the pages also filled my imagination and helped shape my ideas of the universe and the possibilities of the exploration of space. He was one of the reasons I followed a path into engineering and why I am where I am today.

I had recently re-read two of Clarke's older novels, The Fountains of Paradise and The Sands of Mars. It is surprising just how much of the science has stood up to the test of time. Some elements, such as his life on Mars may be well ruled out by our current knowledge, but much of the basic concepts and possibilities still stand. He was a stickler for accuracy in the mathematics and the technological possibilities. His heroes were engineers, astronauts and dreamers who followed those dreams to the stars. Since he first wrote about them in the 1940's and 1950's many of the ideas he put forth have since been put into place. Communications satellites, space probes, computers and many other ideas he popularized, many of which seemed far fetched at the time, now exist as an integral part of our everyday lives.

He inspired countless young people to become engineers and scientists, people who would design and build many of the things they first encountered in the pages of Clarke's novels. It is rare for an author to have such an impact on the course of human society, Arthur C. Clarke was one of those. He will be missed.

While watching the lava this last weekend I did attempt several animations with the camera and telescope. Not a complete success, I learned several things about gathering the material needed to assemble such an animation. Hopefully there will be many future opportunities to try again.

This does give a little idea towards what it was like to be there and see this spectacle for yourself. Enjoy...

Planning to visit the lava is an exercise in calculated risk, not from the many obvious dangers lava presents. But instead the risk I refer to is in what you will be able to see and where you can go. It is a two hour drive around the island with no guarantee you will see anything. Activity can change from hour to hour, public access can be closed off by the police anytime. Available information can be spotty and out of date, particularly the official information from state and county officials which can be quite haphazard in updates and accuracy. The best source for activity information is the USGS Volcano Observatory which publishes a daily activity report with maps and photos.

At least there is the opportunity to see something for the first time in many months. For much of the past year the lava has been flowing into a remote forest preserve and the state had prohibited any public access. As the lava started to come through the Royal Gardens and Kalapana area again public access becomes easy from the end of the old highway. The result is that thousands of people are visiting the site daily and the county has setup a major viewing operation with guides and marked trails to see the lava.

So you take your chance, hope that the lava is still flowing and that the county has not closed access again, pack the cameras and munchies to drive across the island! Police were opening the viewing site at 2pm, so we arrived in Hilo at noon to have a good lunch at Ken's. Well fed we arrived at the viewing site about 20 minutes before opening to get into the line of vehicles waiting for the gate to open. We were early enough that we were let in with the first group and were able to park close enough that the walking was kept to a minimum. The plan was to stay the five hours to dark.

The ocean entry was a couple hundred yards wide and mostly visible from the viewing site with dozens of rivulets of lava flowing into the sea. As the waves crashed against the flow clouds of steam would block the view. Watching was an a process of waiting for the clear times between big waves, but when it was clear the lava could be seen quite well. The main flow was several hundred yards from the viewing area that had been outlined in police tape and traffic barricades. A small finger of flow entered the ocean quite a bit closer but was partially hidden by the terrain.