Postcard from the Summit – Mamane in the Fog
Tag: Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea Summit Panorama
It may look small, but this image is anything but small, click on it to find out. The panorama is assembled from seven frames, with final dimensions of over 12,000 x 2,000 pixels. The version posted here is a bit smaller, only 4,000 pixels wide. While it is a big image it does not really come close to the effect of actually standing there beside the camera. Also missing from the photo? The biting cold wind.
The image includes ten telescopes, two planets, two galaxies, two meteors, four volcanoes, and innumerable stars.
Postcard from the Summit – Fog on the Mountain
Postcard from the Summit – Framework
On the Summit Before the Storm
Now at the summit doing a last walk through the facility to insure everything is ready for the storm. A lot of the gear has been turned off to preserve the battery and generator capacity, keeping the network and the key servers operational so we can monitor remotely once everyone leaves.
The winds are picking up, some 60mph gusts along the summit ridge, a little less where Keck sits on the western side. Looking to the east we can see some cloud features that might be the front wall of the oncoming storm.
We plan to depart the summit in another hour and head for home. I expect the drive down to be as clear as the drive up, mostly clear with wild cloud formations over the summits.
So far today we have a hurricane, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake, and the ongoing plague of rodents. Just living in paradise… Anyone for a tsunami?
Postcard from the Summit – Mamane and Fogbow
As you descend from Hale Pohaku in the afternoon you often drive into the top of the clouds at about 6,000-8,000ft elevation. The transition from clear blue skies to fog is often stunningly breautiful, a zone where light does interesting things. This zone is haunted by ghostly phenomena… As long as the Sun angle is low you will see fogbows here…
Postcard from the Summit – JCMT
Postcard from the Summit – Mamane in the Fog
This is one of my favorite trees. Found along the summit access road it has enormous character, I have stopped to photograph this tree several times. Silhouette or simply in the sunlight, from just about any angle, it is simply a great tree. Even better when I catch it in the top of the cloud layer…
Postcard from the Summit – Submillimeter Array
Postcard from Hawaiʻi – Valve
