Flat Rock Crab
Author: Andrew
An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.
Postcard from the Reef – Idol
The moorish idol (Zanclus cornutus) is one of the most memorable fish on a Hawaiian reef. They are commonly seen grazing along the open reef in shallow water. I often find these fish in caves as well, which seems quite odd as few daytime fish venture into the dark. The sponge and algae covered walls apparently provide good grazing.
Mercury Exits the Evening Sky
Mercury will exit the evening sky this week. Currently about 10° above the setting Sun, it will quickly orbit back into the Sun’s glare. It will pass through inferior conjunction on March 4th to reappear in the dawn around March 10th.
Full Moon
Postcard from the Reef – Marbled Shrimp
Counting Whales
At some points there were half a dozen different groups of whales in sight at the same time. The spotters called whale activity in a confusing chorus of activity and locations. The annual Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Ocean Count picked a pretty good day. Given the recent winter storm I had half expected to be rained out, some of the east Hawai’i sites were, but we had perfect conditions.
Not that we always needed to look that far, often enough the whales were at the base of the bluff, just a few hundred yards below us. In one half hour data interval we counted 24 breaches. Just a few whales around.
No argument, it was a good morning to be counting whales. From the looks of the preliminary results, our site counted far more whales than any other site across the islands. No surprise, this stretch of coast is always thick with whales. The only sites that challenge MM7 are the sites just north and south, Lapakahi and Pu’ukohola Heiau, from the data those folks had a good day as well.
The Forecast was Correct
It does appear that we got a substantial amount of snow last night. Webcam images show quite a bit of snow. No tracks either, no one has attempted the summit yet, the snowplows have not made it up.
I am not scheduled to go up today, or even again this week. Fresh snow can be pretty, shoveling snow? Not so much. Actually, I expect that the summit crew will be sitting at Hale Pohaku much of the morning, waiting for the plows to complete their job, not the most productive way to spend the day.
The snow is expected to last through today and into tomorrow. The White Mountain should be white for a while.
A Little Snow in the Forecast
It was a gorgeous day when we arrived on the summit. A deep blue sky above brilliant white snow covering the slopes. It was difficult to put much faith in a forecast calling for truly dire weather. I could see nothing to the southwest, the direction this weather was approaching from, just the blue Pacific stretching to the horizon.
Not a bad day, I accomplished everything on my to-do list for the day. Some work in AO to check for any stray light, removing some old servers to make way for a new system, locating and labeling some optical fibers that are already in place for this same system. Everything went well, except the lunch time cribbage game, I lost badly.
The weather was degrading all day, first the clouds loomed overhead, then they descended as a heavy fog while the temperature dropped. It did indeed begin to look like the forecasts might have a bit of truth. The prediction is for heavy snow, as much as 6-10 inches. Not sure if that will materialize, it would be nice, we have not had any real snowfall this winter. I will just have to check the webcams tomorrow morning.
It was beginning to snow when we pulled out.
Carolina Anole
Postcard from the Summit – Keck 2 Construction
