Dispatch from the Summit – A Cloudy Mountian

Comet ISON is sinking rapidly into the dawn. I have been waiting for a chance to photograph it for a couple weeks now. The gear is ready to go. Any morning that I have had available has been awash with clouds. Not strictly my problem, Keck has lost quite a few nights to weather over the same time period.

Tonight looks to be no exception. We have a number of engineering tests planned for Keck 1, including the first night on sky for a system many of us have put a lot of work into, the TRICK infrared tip-tilt detector for Keck 1 AO. It does not look good.

Update: The night was a complete loss, the telescope never opened.

A Cloudy Mountain
Clouds obscure Mauna Kea on a late fall morning

Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

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