Long-term, hi-res tracking of eruptions on Jupiter’s moon Io

UC Berkeley press release…

NIRC2 image of Io
A NIRC2 image of Jupiter’s Moon Io
Jupiter’s moon Io continues to be the most volcanically active body in the solar system, as documented by the longest series of frequent, high-resolution observations of the moon’s thermal emission ever obtained.

Using near-infrared adaptive optics on two of the world’s largest telescopes — the 10-meter Keck II and the 8-meter Gemini North, both located near the summit of the dormant volcano Maunakea in Hawaii — UC Berkeley astronomers tracked 48 volcanic hot spots on the surface over a period of 29 months from August 2013 through the end of 2015.

“On a given night, we may see half a dozen or more different hot spots,” said Katherine de Kleer, a UC Berkeley graduate student who led the observations. “Of Io’s hundreds of active volcanoes, we have been able to track the 50 that were the most powerful over the past few years.”

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Caught on Video at the Lava

The same morning Deb and I rode one of the lava tour boats to the ocean entry, photographer Mick Kalber chartered a Paradise Helicopter photo tour of the volcano. It was a great morning, with excellent photographic conditions where the lava meets the sea.

Mick has posted some video of that flight, fun to see the same conditions from a very different point of view. And while we photographed the helicopter maneuvering overhead, he photographed the boats below. Deb and I can be seen in the red and white boat at 2:05 in the video.

Broken, Now Fixed

It is always a good day when I drive up the mountain to a broken telescope, then drive down leaving a working telescope. Easy to say, not always easy to accomplish, the simple statement obscuring a day of struggle to solve the problem and fix it.

Smoked Relay
A relay with a blown out coil from the Keck 2 telescope drive
Such a day was Monday.

The Keck 2 telescope drive is a complex beast of dozens of relays, miles of cabling, servo amplifiers and power supplies, plus several circuit boards designed and built in the 1980’s holding a bewildering array of arcane logic.

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A Dusting of Snow

While most states have yet to see any snow this winter, Hawaiʻi is not one of them. A light dusting of snow graced the summit of Mauna Kea this morning.

Interestingly recent forecasts have revisited the possibility of a La Niña event forming in the central Pacific this fall. If this does come to pass Hawaiʻi may be looking at a wetter than usual winter with the potential of significant snowfall on Mauna Kea. While this can wreak havoc with observatory operations, it can also be quite pretty.

Mauna Kea Summit Snow
A light dusting of snow on the summit of Mauna Kea on the morning of October 18, 2016
Subaru in the Snow
A light dusting of snow on the summit of Mauna Kea on the morning of October 18, 2016

Restoring an Obsession

Obsession Telescopes are something of a standard in the astronomy community. David Kriege was one of the first to start building truss tube dobsonian telescopes commercially, bringing portable large aperture telescopes to the astronomy community. These telescopes were a bit of a revolution in the pursuit, with sizes unreachable only a decade before, when a 10″ or 12″ telescope was considered big. When I built my 18″ it is David Kriege’s book I used for much of the design, following in the footsteps of so many amateur astronomers.

20" f/4 Obsession Telescope
The restored 20″ Obsession telescope set up at hale Pohaku on the side of Mauna Kea

A 20″ f/4 Obsession donated to the observatory has presented a challenge and an opportunity. The telescope was the prized possession of Bob Michael having been ordered new directly from Obsession. The telescope is serial number 004 with a manufacturing date of June 1st, 1990. As David started Obsession Telescope in 1989, this is a very early example of his work. For many years Bob and his wife used this telescope to observe, completing the Herschel 400 and other observing projects. Unfortunately he was forced to give up astronomy due to age and glaucoma, donating his equipment to the observatory.

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To the Flow by Sea

There are four ways to get to the lava… You can hike it, you can bike it, fly to it, or go by sea. I had done all of the other ways, it was time to take a boat.

Lavafalls
Lava from the Kilauea volcano enters the ocean at Kamokuna

The 61G lava flow has been flowing into the sea at Kamokuna for several months now allowing the lava tour boat business to resume after a three year pause. I have biked to this flow, but a view from the water was an attractive option for photography. After multiple discussions with a few photographers I know I had decided to go out with Kalapana Cultural Tours, a local business with years of experience on these waters, a choice which proved to be a good one!

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