
Mauna Kea Rules… Take 2
After last year’s debacle that occurred when trying to introduce administrative rules for public and commercial access to Mauna Kea, the University of Hawaii is back with a heavily revised version.
How bad were the original version of the rules? In many areas they seemed to be badly thought out, with language far too expansive. Even a cursory reading reveals that the rules were not reviewed by someone familiar with some of the technical language used. Many of the proposed rules would have created safety issues, or even devoid of common sense.
It does appear that they actually listened to the criticism that was received in written form and at the public hearings. Many of the complete gaffes have been removed or reasonably revised.
Continue reading “Mauna Kea Rules… Take 2”Full Moon
Full Moon will occur today at 05:53HST.
This full Moon will be a perigee full Moon, with the Moon appearing a bit larger and brighter. Today lunar perigee occurs within 7 hours of full, producing a full moon that is about 12% larger and 30% brighter than if full occurs while the Moon is at apogee.
Continue reading “Full Moon”Puʻu Kole
Mother and Cub
Snow on the Mauna
Shooting Time Lapse
The Last Load
For weeks now I have been digging. Pickaxe, shovel, wheelbarrow, hard manual labor, and it just gets harder.
I am digging away at the slope behind the garage, solving longstanding drainage issues, creating a nice level walkway, building a small retaining wall.
The first stage was digging out all along my garage, reworking the slope, pulling the soil away from the foundation, giving the water somewhere to go other than right along the wall. This involved a couple dozen wheelbarrow loads of soil and rock removed and about thirty feet of two foot retaining wall… Done!
Continue reading “The Last Load”The Moon and Mars

This evening will feature a 6 day old crescent Moon 7° from Mars. Look for a bright orange object a few degrees north (to the right) and a bit below the Moon to spot the planet. Mars should be bright and obvious at about +1 magnitude next to the Moon.
Winter on The Mauna
The warnings sound pretty bad, high winds, high surf, snow for the summit. The county has closed all beach parks, the state has closed most of the parks in anticipation of the bad weather.

The summit of Mauna Kea is currently seeing sustained winds of over 80mph, with gusts well over 100mph. Yes, the summit is closed to the public and observing has been cancelled at Keck.
Meanwhile it is eerily still at the house, almost no breeze and quite pleasant. Waiting for the storm to arrive.
I will not be going up anytime soon. Taking a little time off to spend with some family that will be on island, hopefully landing right about now.
I was up a couple days ago… It was impressive then, 40mph winds and everything covered with inches of ice. I braved the biting wind to wander about and take a few photos. Very cold, and very beautiful.
Keck 1 dome with a liberal coating of ice from freezing fog The cable safety guardrails covered in ice from freezing fog atop Mauna Kea The safety guardrail cables covered in icicles on Mauna Kea Windblown freezing fog creates fingers of ice from the cinders on the ground Keck 2 dome with a liberal coating of ice from freezing fog