Like most things creepy and crawly, we are comfortable in having a large size advantage over these strange lifeforms that share our world. Encounter a snail that is a thousand times the size of the average backyard snail, and we take notice.
Triton and helmet snails are this big. This one was at least 14 inches from tip to tip, probably tipping the scale at ten pounds. With the large foot completely extended the apparent size doubles. An impressive snail indeed, pretty too, once you get over the surprise…
Triton trumpet (Charonia tritonis) hunting the reef at night
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 14:35HST.
The planet Uranus as it appears in a mid-sized telescopeToday the planet Uranus will pass through opposition, directly opposite the Sun in our sky. The planet will be well placed for observation all night long, rising at sunset, transiting at midnight, and setting at sunrise. If you are looking to observe Uranus, it is currently shining at magnitude 5.7 in the center of the constellation Pisces.
We have had a couple electrical engineers leave Keck this summer. As a result the few of us left are stretched a little thin. To help cover this, one of the engineers in our group has transferred to the TSD department to continue the telescope drive upgrade project. Unfortunately this moves some of his responsibilities to me.
The segment jack lifting a Keck primary mirror segment during segment exchangeTelescope drives, dome and shutter drives, primary mirror active support system, and more. I have simplified the description of my new responsibilities to one line… If it moves I get to fix it.
This also means I am spending a lot more time at the summit. Over the last weeks I have almost forgotten what my desk at HQ looks like, two weeks and only two days spent in Waimea. This is not going to change any time soon.
I have a few projects left to finish up. This month will see the shipment and installation of the TRICK camera and support gear. We started this process last week with the pedestal and focus stage. The dewar and detector will be here next week. A few more days of hands-on work remain to install everything.
There is also the installation of another TBAD system on Keck 1. I will have to get one of the techs to do that for me. All of the engineering is done, what remains is the fun part, installing the gear. I expect that will be the pattern, I get to do the paperwork while the techs have the fun.
New guardrails added to the summit road on Mauna KeaI suppose the addition is not such a bad idea, the road is a little safer.
Mauna Kea Support Services is overseeing the addition of guardrails on quite a few of the more dangerous places on the summit road. This includes the lower side of each of the hairpin turns for the switchbacks. Notable curves are getting the same treatment.
MKSS had made a number of safety improvements to the mountain facilities over the last few months, part of a concerted effort. New speed bumps at the visitor center, guardrails, and plans for new signage along the road.
Visitor and observatory traffic on the mountain is increasing, so is the attention from state officials. With the new comprehensive management plan in place, and groundbreaking for TMT not far off, now is a good time for it.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of my fellow voyagers our annual boat trip was an avid photographer. The wilds of Alaska are simply candy for a camera, spectacular photos can be seen in every direction waiting to be captured. As usual I was ready for photographic effort, with no less than four cameras along, not counting the cameras in my phone and iPad. The Canon 60D, EOS-M, a Canon G12 and a GoPro 2 HD comprised a nice array of capability. I was looking forward to the conversations and maybe a chance to learn a little from another photographer.
There was a surprise when I saw the photo gear Randy was unpacking, it looked a little odd.
Randy was shooting… Umm… How do I put this delicately… Randy was shooting film.
Yes, remember that stuff that came in rolls. For those who might not remember, this is how we took photos before digital sensors, megapixels and SD cards became the language of photography.
Randy timing an exposure with a medium format Pentax 6×7 camera.Randy does it in style, a beautiful old Pentax 6×7 medium format SLR camera.
The setup is not compact, a bulky camera requiring a full backpack to carry with the camera, lenses and light meter. It is around fifteen pounds of gear, quite a contrast to the two or three pounds the EOS-M I used for most of my shooting.
The medium format camera presents difficulties on the boat. Taking long exposures is impossible from a moving and rolling platform. Still, he managed some nice shots when the water was calm, as it was when we visited walls of ice in Glacier Bay. Finding solid ground for the tripod required breaking out the launch and going ashore. We created a couple of great opportunities, landing on algae covered rock, we slip and slide to a place where the beauty of Marble Grotto is fully exposed. Another slippery landing, this time caused by glacial mud, allows us to explore the face of Reid Glacier with cameras and tripods at hand.
A small netbook computer busy running an astrophoto setup
Unlike the rest of the human species we enjoy seeing the night sky and have learned not to fear the darkness, rather to embrace it. This phlisophy is carried over to our devices as well. We set our computer screens for minimum brightness with red on black color schemes. We understand dark adaptation and what it means for our vision.
You may note that Darker View uses a dark color scheme. This is not by chance, there was a great deal of thought put into the light on dark color scheme here on DV, with full understanding of the advantages of dark on light schemes.
Many people do not like light on dark schemes, avoiding websites that use such colors. Other folks far prefer such color schemes, particularly people who spend long hours at the computer, programmers and CAD technicians in particular. Programming environments and CAD software make switching color schemes easy, understanding the personal color preferences are critical to good software useability.
