Trip to Mauna Kea

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:02 pm

This month I traveled to Hawaii with my wife. In the trip, we had the opportunity to go to Mauna Kea to see the world largest telescopes and get the chance to see the nightsky for about half hour; which is my dream!

I took a tour up to the mountain as it would require a 4WD vehicle to do so and I did not want to rent one.

Attached are some photos.

1. A cactus plant at the top of the mountain. Some ice on it. The mountain is rather dry at high elevations and not many plants..the plants get dwarfed as the altitude increases.

2. On the slopes of Mauna Kea. Those hills are actually cinder cones. Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano.

3. A line up of observatories. The one with silver roof on the left side is the Gemini Observatory. If I am not wrong the mirror is 8m diameter.

4. Keck1, Keck2 and Subaru telescopes. The world largest telescopes Kecks! 10m diameter hexagonal mirror and the Subaru with a 8m diameter mirror.

5. A 'shadow' picture taken with Nasa words on IR telescope

6. Fantastic sunset at the mountain. Sihoutte of Subaru and Keck telescopes.

7. After sunset, with nice colours. The observatory doors begin to open as the astronomers prepare to observe the stars.

8. A 60s exposure using my Panasonic LX3 point and shoot camera. Wide angle view of Sagittarius and Scorpius. The night sky at the mountain (visitor centre), elevation 3000m is fantastic. Very clear! The Milky Way structure was easily discernible and bright. However, since it was a tour... I only had half hour to view the sky...

So I took some amateurish wide angle pics during that time while the tour guide was explaining the sky with his green laser pointer.

With shorter exposure time (I think 15s):

9. The summer triangle region. The star trails are visible and a meteor is caught in the picture.

10. Northern Milky Way portion

11. The Big dipper and little dipper. Polaris (North Star) is visible at 20 degree altitude but unfortunately in the picture it was blocked by the trees! Wanted to show it on picture but well.... at least I saw it with my eyes.

The interesting thing was that Mauna Kea is so high above the clouds..actually it was pouring big 'downstairs'. Also, it was very cold! Once the sunset, it became freezing temperature at 4000m. However at the visitor's centre, it was much warmer..which was good.

If I were to compare the night sky condition with Mersing.... I can say that it is quite a lot better at Mauna Kea in terms of transparency and atmospheric stability. The stars above 20 degree latitude are like pint point 'stable' dots... can't really see the scintillation which is good since the seeing conditions in Mauna Kea is 0.5 arc sec and better.

Post by **acc** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:09 pm

Wow lucky chap you got to go there! How was the temp there at night? Anyway, congrats on your marriage!

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:12 pm

Since it is summer, temperature and ground level is about 26 degree C. Humidity is about 70RH which is good..not too dry and not to wet..and dun sweat.

Temperature in the mountains is much colder. I would think about 5 degree C at 3000m. During winter, Mauna Kea will be covered in snow...so who says Hawaii is only sun and beach? Hehe.

Thanks!

Post by **Airconvent** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:19 pm

So its a honeymoon? congrats! You killed 2 birds with one stone...an astronomical honeymoon.
BTW, I adjusted your post so the images will show. I future you can use the [img]...[/img] switch to show the image. Insert your image address between them.

BTW, I think the greenish thingy is M51?? Holy cow...you can see the 2 galaxies. even a PnS can catch it over there. The skies must be super clear! [smilie=admire.gif]

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:22 pm

Haa the greenish thing is probably due to the green laser pointer from the tour guide! I think it is because some clouds pass by and the beam got scattered.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:45 pm

Yes it was a 'moon' holiday..

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:53 am

Congratulations on your marriage!

And your pictures convinced me that I should go there next year!

zaman · Post by **zaman** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:06 am

Wow...that was a great tour. Thanks for sharing with us.

wucheeyiun · Post by **wucheeyiun** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:51 am

Really yummy...congratulations on your marriage

Post by **weixing** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:56 am

Hi,
Congratulations... [smilie=cute.gif]

Have a nice day.