The tour guides give the basic story behind the creation of Mauna Kea. The story given is simple… A hot spot in the mantle is the source for a plume of magma that punches through the oceanic crust and forms the Hawaiian volcanoes. As the pacific plate moves the islands are formed one by one, the latest being the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
A panarama from atop Puʻu Kole showing Mauna Kea and a distant snow covered Mauna LoaThis is basically correct, but is also a vast simplification of the process. If you want to learn more about the formation of these impressive volcanoes you need to look further.
A very young moon over Waikoloa, this is only 26 hours after new, visible to the unaided eye as a sliver in the fading glow of sunsetNew Moon will occur today at 14:12HST.
In light of recent events I have been re-reading the history of the early 1930’s Weimar Republic again. The parallels we can see in the current presidential election are simply frightening. A populist leader arising to manifest the resentments and fears of a large segment of our population that feels dis-empowered and threatened. The issues have inspired me to consider again the history of our own country, what it really means to be American.
First page of the US constitutionIt is not so much Donald Trump I am worried about. He is merely a con man who’s game has grown out of all control. No, it is what Trump enables and represents that I am truly worried about. A basic disrespect for the institutions of government put in place by the founding fathers two centuries ago. Trump and his followers do not want to work to improve our government, they want to take a hammer to it and destroy two centuries of success.
Trump has repeatedly indicated his contempt for many of the functions of the federal government. Worrisome proposals by Trump include significantly reducing the freedom of the press, allowing more participation of religious organizations in politics, slashing environmental protections, and repudiating many longstanding international treaties. While the candidate is extreme, a good portion of his political supporters go far further in expressing their desire for slashing at core functions of the federal government.
Occasionally we get phone calls. People have an astronomy question and decide to call an observatory to get an answer. I would caution that this is generally not the best way to get an answer, Googling the question or looking it up on Wikipedia is much more likely to result in a usable answer. Usually our front desk will politely defer the caller to some other source, Shelly is very good at doing this.
The International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour
Shelly is also a very nice lady who occasionally takes pity on some caller. Or the caller is very polite and asks very nicely. Often she forwards the call to me, knowing that I can usually answer these sort of questions.
What sort of telescope can be used to view the ISS?
At least the question did not involve aliens or NASA cover-ups, those question would have gotten the polite brush off from Shelly.
For someone who is inexperienced in using telescopes this not the easy place to start. Most of us who have been using telescopes for decades usually do not even try to do this. The space station is quite small and would require higher magnification to see well. It is also moving quite quickly across the sky. The combination of these two factors makes viewing the ISS a real challenge, to put it politely!
Fall equinox occurs today at 04:21HST. Today there will be little difference between the length of the night compared to number of daylight hours. This is the first day of fall as marked by many cultures in the northern hemisphere.
This year many calendars will mark September 23rd as the beginning of fall, and so it is for much of the world. Here in Hawaiʻi the equinox actually occurs on the 22nd when considering the time zone differences.
This weeks news that human remains had been placed within the TMT construction site was a surprise to many. Apparently a well known protester, Palikapu Dedman, had placed an iwi, human remains, into an ahu constructed last year on the site. He did this twice! Apparently the first set of remains had vanished, so he replaced them with a second set.
An ancient ahu (shrine) atop Mauna Kea with the summit in the backgroundOutrage was quickly expressed at this revelation in various online forums, the conversation on Facebook was particularly scathing. Condemnation being particularly intense from other Hawaiian commentators that can not fathom how traditional values could be violated like this. The use of ancestral bones as political playing pieces is something many found utterly disgraceful, a sentiment I share.
While much of the local community was quick to express disapproval of this action, notable TMT opponents do not appear to have condemned this outrageous action. Indeed I have yet to see any condemnation for the act on any of the opposition sites or Facebook pages. Yes, I have looked. They link the article, but there are no comments. Even more telling, it appears that many in the local Hawaiian community were aware of this for some time now, but have been silent on the issue.
In addition to the recent revelations in the papers concerning the iwi in the TMT site ahu. There is a claim of another burial in a contested case filing. Dated Sept 2nd, we have document 252 “Fergerstrom Notice of Family Burial Claim Under the Proposed TMT Site” filed by Harry Fergerstrom claiming that a family burial is located “on the access road to the TMT”. The filing is accompanied by a DLNR Burial registration form application.
It seems to be a common belief that the summit is a burial ground. it is certainly an idea that those protesting the TMT are trying to push, they have made this claim in the past. The most recent push may be an attempt to capitalize on the Standing Rock DAPL pipeline controversy that has so much media attention.
It’s important to remember that Mauna Kea is a burial ground – Kealoha Pisciotta quoted in Civil Beat
Mauna Kea is site of mass burial of iwi for centuries. – Pohaku Keaau comment on the Hilo Tribune website
The problem with this argument is that the summit does not appear to have ever been a significant burial ground. There are only a handful of confirmed burials on the mountain and a couple dozen suspected burials, mostly at lower elevations (below 10,000 feet) and none within a mile of the TMT site.
An ahu built in the downhill lane of the Mauna Kea summit access roadThere are a couple old references that mention burials at the summit, but there is scant on the ground evidence to support this, it is very possible that they are referring to the lower elevation areas that are known. Hawaiian burials are very common along coastlines that were heavily populated in pre-contact times, there is little mystery in how the ancient Hawaiians buried their dead.
The TMT site itself is mostly solid rock outcropping, there is scant place to hide a burial. The TMT site has been repeatedly examined for burials by various parties, none has been found, at least nothing historical, discounting these recent planted burials. And while the proposed access road to the TMT does cross the lower edge of a cinder cone, this particular path has been previously disturbed by an older road and is unlikely to hide anything.
What a lot of people do not realize is how much the cinder moves about, slowly slumping down the sides of the pu’u under the power of frost heaving and solifluction. If there were “mass burials” of iwi secreted on the summit over the centuries they would not be a secret any longer. We would have beautifully preserved bones appearing out of the cinders on a routine basis. In my decade on the summit I have never seen or heard of such an event.
No doubt the burial ground argument will have traction with those inclined to believe despite the lack of any evidence to the contrary. We will be hearing more on this issue, a new and utterly disgraceful maneuver by TMT opponents.
One of the advantages of a mirrorless camera, like the EOS-M, is the very shallow backfocus requirement. The distance from the lens mount to the sensor is quite small, allowing use of just about any series of lenses on the market. All that is needed is the correct adapter, a need that several specialty manufacturers have addressed with products. The result is that the camera is useful in a wide range of photographic experiments and projects.
A gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) on a plumeria blossomThis includes older lenses from years past such as the Canon manual focus FD lenses or the Leica M lenses from decades ago. I have a number of these excellent lenses, mostly Nikon and Canon, the fast primes once treasured by photographers for their optical quality. Because these old lenses are not suited for use with modern DSLR’s they are often relegated to eBay and discount shelves in used camera stores. This does not mean they are obsolete, there are creative uses still available for these classic lenses.
I have had fun simply shooting with these old primes and the EOS-M camera. Sometimes I will grab a single lens and just go someplace to play with the camera for half an hour, sort of a self imposed creative exercise. Using one of these manual focus lenses brings back memories of my first years of film photography, before the days of auto-focus.
Combine these old lenses with an extension tube, and the rig becomes a macro-photography setup capable of fairly high magnification.
