Tag: Keck

Snow Gallery

This winter has already seen quite a bit of snow atop our tropical summit. It seems appropriate to put together a few recent snow photos…

Christmas Morning on the Summit

Calls from the summit facility are not exactly what I want to see on my phone display on Christmas Eve. Heather was very apologetic about calling, but she had no choice, the Keck 2 dome would not rotate.

Christmas Sunrise over the Shoulder
Christmas Sunrise over the shoulder of Mauna Kea
Less than a minute into this conversation I realize the inevitable… This was not going to get fixed over the phone, I would be spending Christmas on the summit. I call John who is already scheduled to go up for the day… Pick me up on your way out of the village. 7am? I will be out front.

It was just before sunrise that we drove up the mountain from Waikoloa, the sun rising over the shoulder of Mauna Kea, casting long crepuscular rays into the sky. It is a beautiful Christmas morning, a clear sky, the snow capped summits of two volcanoes looming overhead. Heading to work on this morning is a bit surreal, while at the same time seeming a bit more festive for the snow.

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Keck Timelapse Moonrise

Catching the moonrise in just the right spot and with just the right foreground takes planning and perseverance by the photographer. Sometimes things go right and you catch the shot, but you really do not know what you will catch in the final version until you see the final video…

Moon Muncher from Aaron Kupferman on Vimeo.

Mauna Kea Snows

We did make it up.

Eric gives scale to a rather large snowdrift in front of Keck Observatory
Eric gives scale to a rather large snowdrift in front of Keck Observatory
Late in the afternoon, after waiting at Hale Pohaku all day, we received word that the crews were beginning to clear the access road to Keck Observatory. While most of our crew had been released earlier in the day, a small group of us waited for our chance to make the summit facility. When we got word we piled into the vehicles for the attempt.

It was simply gorgeous at the summit, sunny and clear with no sign of the winds that had raged across the summit all week. The evidence of those winds was all to apparent, they had left a landscape of sculpted drifts. While the actual snowfall had not been that much, maybe a foot, the drifts were impressive.

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Snow on the Mountain

I am currently sitting at Hale Pōhaku on the side of the mauna waiting for the snowplows to get us access. We are all looking at the webcams and the drifts of snow in front of our facility wondering if we will make it up today.

It does not look like it was a huge amount of snow, rather the high winds re-sculpted the snow into drifts against the buildings and the road cuts. The result is some impressive snow drifts. The snowplow crews are reportedly making slow progress.

In the meantime all we have are the webcam images…