I took a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu Airport at 9:47am, arriving at Hilo (Hawaii) airport at 10:35am. I got a shuttle ride from the airport from 'Harper Auto And Truck Rental'. (The shuttle driver told me that it had rained the day before, so I hoped that I had lucked out and that it would be clear that night.) Harper is the only place that one can rent four-wheel drive vehicles to drive up the mountain. The other rental car agencies will not allow someone to drive a "regular" vehicles up Mauna Kea because of the rough terrain. (It wasn't that rough, but it could dent the undercarriage of an automobile.) I drove a full-size 2006 Ford F150 pickup, leaving their office at 11:05am. I asked the rental car company representatives how to get to Mauna Kea to see the telescopes and one of them gave me a map. Forty-five minutes and 35 miles later, I discovered that she gave me a map to go to Mauna Loa, not Mauna Kea. &@%*$^! (Well, at least I could say that I "passed by" the Volcano National Park.) So, I drove back down Highway 11 to the bay (actually, I took a short cut across Highway 2000), over to Highway 200, and up Mauna Kea. I called the visitors center to let them know what happened and they said that it would be no problem as long as I arrived by 2 o'clock. (I was supposed to arrive no later than 12:45, but arrived at 1:50.) It sprinkled occasionally during the drive. For your information, if you ever go there, it was a 45-minute drive from Hilo Bay to the turn off -- just past the 27-mile marker onto Mauna Kea Access Road. Then it's another 10 minutes to the visitors center. When I arrived at the visitors center, I was told that the people on the tour would be leaving in a few minutes. However, I had to stay there for at least 30 minutes so that my body could adjust to the elevation. I told them that it shouldn't be an issue for me because, every summer, I hike to a lake that was at 10,000 feet. They said that I was probably right, but for liability reasons, they couldn't take the chance. That was fine because I was able to buy some souvenirs for my family and friends while I acclimated. Thirty minutes later, I began driving up the mountain. (It was necessary to put the truck in four-wheel low gear because of the road's incline.) Talk about your switchbacks! Up and back and up and forth I went. Occasionally, I would stop, get out, and take pictures of the landscape. (Refer to the pictures of the clouds below me vantage point and also the radio telescope in the distance.) I believe that I was lucky that I hadn't been part of the caravan of vehicles because I don't think that they were taking the time to get out and take pictures along the drive. Also, sometimes, I could feel the effect of the increase in elevation. Cool! And then there was that undescribable feeling that one has when he/she drives around the corner of a hill or mountain and sees this monstrously-sized dome that contains a large telescope. Wow! I believe that the first dome that I saw contained the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (a 145-inch optical/infrared telescope -- CFHT). Naturally, I screeched the truck to a stop, got out, and took a photograph of the first (non-radio) telescope that I had ever seen on Mauna Kea! I continued driving and, if I remember right, I saw four more telescopes nearly simultaneously. I think that they were the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), the Subaru Telescope (very distinguishable -- NAOJ ), and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Honestly, I don't know which ones that I saw, but it was fun looking them up on the Web and seeing them -- again. Here's a good view from above of all of the telescopes. And what about the Keck I and Keck II telescopes? (Keck's) Spectacular! And that's where I joined the rest of the tour group. I parked the truck in front of the building (probably getting closer than I was supposed to), got out, looked up, and hurt my neck. LOL! It must be 20 stories high! So, I walked over to the group and joined in. The staff who worked at the visitors center and the observatories were undergraduates at nearby universities. Two of them provided information about the telescopes. One of them discussed Mauna Kea and the mountain's importance in Hawaiian culture. We were able to go into the Keck I's dome, but we were only able to see it from behind a glass barrier. However, we were fortunate that the telescope was being worked on while we were there and they were swinging it around. (Refer to the difficult-to-decipher photographs.) And yes, it was cold. The temperature in the dome was kept at approximately freezing temperature. I asked a couple of the tour guides what was the coldest weather that they had experienced there. One said that he'd seen it as cold as 20 degrees below zero and the other said that she was there once during blizzard conditions. (No one is supposed to be up there during those times. She guessed that the winds were blowing at 100 mph and it was snowing). What we astronomers will do for clear, dark, steady, transparent skies! We drove over to the UH 2.2 Meter Telescope and went inside. The staff explained that we would be walking up two flights of stairs. It would take us to a height equivalent to the highest point on the mountain -- 13,796 feet. As we climbed, we would get light-headed (again) because of the elevation. We were informed to walk slowly and to not feel ashamed if we needed to stop and get accustomed to it, especially since this was one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, of the observatories and the stairs were steep. Yep, I got light-headed, even more so than usual. I joked that we were lucky to feel this way because a lot of people pay a lot of money to feel this way. (The people who did feel that way didn't laugh.) We spent about 15 minutes up there, trying not to slip on the ice that was on the floor, a result of keeping the inside temperature near freezing. After this, the primary tour guide informed us that we had about one hour before sunset and that we were free to visit other observatories at our leisure. He also told us that we could hike over to the top of the mountain that was located about 500 yards away from the "UH2.2". He said that, if we chose to do it, that we should not walk too quickly because the 100-foot climb up the sides of the "bowl" would make us light-headed (yet again). So, I did it (hiked slowly to the summit; not got light-headed yet again). (Refer to the pictures of the heiau -- It looks like an American Indian burial setup.) Before I went there, the guide told us a story that the Hawaiians considered the site very sacred. Once, some tourists had gone there and torn apart the structure. So, some Hawaiian elders went to the site, rebuilt it, and prayed over it. Interesting. I drove back down the hill (in low, low gear). Unfortunately, there was no sunset because there were both cumulus clouds on the horizon and stratus clouds above the mountain. A professional telescope operator and observer (Gerald "something" who worked with the JCMT) presented a general lecture about astronomy, including the issue of whether or not Pluto was a planet. (He favored the idea because he had met the discoverer -- Clyde Tombaugh.) Gerald was also a professor at ('Imiloa University on Hawai'i). Afterwards, I walked back to the visitors center. As the night approached, the stratus clouds thinned out and we had "sucker holes" through which to view objects. Seven telescopes were set up for us including a brand new 11-inch Schmidt Cassegrain. We viewed M57, epsilon Lyrae, Albireo, and a few other objects. There were about 40 visitors. Some were from Japan and Russia. At about 9 o'clock, I called it a day (and night) and drove back down the mountain. I stayed at the Hilo Seaside Hotel. Although it was not luxurious, it was conveniently located near the bay where there were a lot of things to see and do. Prologue I was lucky that I had previous experience with altitude sickness (through a couple of my friends). I drank two 12-ounce bottles of water at the visitors center before I went up the mountain. I think that it helped me to avoid getting sick. The rental truck was relatively expensive, costing approximately $130 per day. It probably cost me more than going on a company-guided tour (around $180), but I was able to be free to go wherever I chose and to do some sightseeing the next day. Twelve countries had world-class telescopes on the mountain. My colleagues at work asked me several questions about the trip. One question was about being above the clouds. (Good question.) As I mentioned above, unfortunately, we had clouds that hindered viewing objects that night. On the other hand, it was interesting being above one type of clouds (cumulus) and below another type of clouds (stratus). So, if it wasn't for the stratus clouds, we would have had a good night for viewing -- except for the nearly full moon. By the way, if you didn't notice in the pictures, there was no snow (yet). I have many things that I want to accomplish during my life. One of them is to visit Mauna Kea. Now, I can check it off of my list. I learned that the Hawaiian people were not allowed to speak the Hawaiian language for many years, being required to speak only English. They are trying to revive their native language. (Oh, the things that one can learn when traveling!) I also learned the correct was to spell Hawai'i. One week after the trip, Hawai'i experienced an earthquake. The epicenter was near the island of Hawai'i, was 6.7 magnitude, knocked out the power on all of the Hawaiian islands, and closed all of the airports. In Waikiki Beach, the power was not restored until 14 hours later. On some parts of Oahu, the power was back up at 1:15 the next morning. Fortunately, I had returned to Honolulu the week before the earthquake. From the ninth-floor hotel room, it felt like a 3-second shake, a 5-second lull, and then a larger 10-second roll. I sent down to the lobby that faced the ocean, watched for a tsunami, and collected information from the Internet using a wireless connection on my laptop computer. I was providing the information to others gathered around me. After 1-1/2 hours (and the battery on my laptop was about to run out of energy), I returned to my room. As of four days afterward, aftershocks were still occurring, although they were too small to be felt from Waikiki Beach.
I drove a full-size 2006 Ford F150 pickup, leaving their office at 11:05am. I asked the rental car company representatives how to get to Mauna Kea to see the telescopes and one of them gave me a map. Forty-five minutes and 35 miles later, I discovered that she gave me a map to go to Mauna Loa, not Mauna Kea. &@%*$^! (Well, at least I could say that I "passed by" the Volcano National Park.) So, I drove back down Highway 11 to the bay (actually, I took a short cut across Highway 2000), over to Highway 200, and up Mauna Kea. I called the visitors center to let them know what happened and they said that it would be no problem as long as I arrived by 2 o'clock. (I was supposed to arrive no later than 12:45, but arrived at 1:50.) It sprinkled occasionally during the drive. For your information, if you ever go there, it was a 45-minute drive from Hilo Bay to the turn off -- just past the 27-mile marker onto Mauna Kea Access Road. Then it's another 10 minutes to the visitors center.
When I arrived at the visitors center, I was told that the people on the tour would be leaving in a few minutes. However, I had to stay there for at least 30 minutes so that my body could adjust to the elevation. I told them that it shouldn't be an issue for me because, every summer, I hike to a lake that was at 10,000 feet. They said that I was probably right, but for liability reasons, they couldn't take the chance. That was fine because I was able to buy some souvenirs for my family and friends while I acclimated.
Thirty minutes later, I began driving up the mountain. (It was necessary to put the truck in four-wheel low gear because of the road's incline.) Talk about your switchbacks! Up and back and up and forth I went. Occasionally, I would stop, get out, and take pictures of the landscape. (Refer to the pictures of the clouds below me vantage point and also the radio telescope in the distance.) I believe that I was lucky that I hadn't been part of the caravan of vehicles because I don't think that they were taking the time to get out and take pictures along the drive. Also, sometimes, I could feel the effect of the increase in elevation. Cool!
And then there was that undescribable feeling that one has when he/she drives around the corner of a hill or mountain and sees this monstrously-sized dome that contains a large telescope. Wow! I believe that the first dome that I saw contained the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (a 145-inch optical/infrared telescope -- CFHT). Naturally, I screeched the truck to a stop, got out, and took a photograph of the first (non-radio) telescope that I had ever seen on Mauna Kea! I continued driving and, if I remember right, I saw four more telescopes nearly simultaneously. I think that they were the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), the Subaru Telescope (very distinguishable -- NAOJ ), and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Honestly, I don't know which ones that I saw, but it was fun looking them up on the Web and seeing them -- again. Here's a good view from above of all of the telescopes. And what about the Keck I and Keck II telescopes? (Keck's) Spectacular! And that's where I joined the rest of the tour group. I parked the truck in front of the building (probably getting closer than I was supposed to), got out, looked up, and hurt my neck. LOL! It must be 20 stories high! So, I walked over to the group and joined in.
The staff who worked at the visitors center and the observatories were undergraduates at nearby universities. Two of them provided information about the telescopes. One of them discussed Mauna Kea and the mountain's importance in Hawaiian culture. We were able to go into the Keck I's dome, but we were only able to see it from behind a glass barrier. However, we were fortunate that the telescope was being worked on while we were there and they were swinging it around. (Refer to the difficult-to-decipher photographs.) And yes, it was cold. The temperature in the dome was kept at approximately freezing temperature. I asked a couple of the tour guides what was the coldest weather that they had experienced there. One said that he'd seen it as cold as 20 degrees below zero and the other said that she was there once during blizzard conditions. (No one is supposed to be up there during those times. She guessed that the winds were blowing at 100 mph and it was snowing). What we astronomers will do for clear, dark, steady, transparent skies!
We drove over to the UH 2.2 Meter Telescope and went inside. The staff explained that we would be walking up two flights of stairs. It would take us to a height equivalent to the highest point on the mountain -- 13,796 feet. As we climbed, we would get light-headed (again) because of the elevation. We were informed to walk slowly and to not feel ashamed if we needed to stop and get accustomed to it, especially since this was one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, of the observatories and the stairs were steep. Yep, I got light-headed, even more so than usual. I joked that we were lucky to feel this way because a lot of people pay a lot of money to feel this way. (The people who did feel that way didn't laugh.) We spent about 15 minutes up there, trying not to slip on the ice that was on the floor, a result of keeping the inside temperature near freezing.
After this, the primary tour guide informed us that we had about one hour before sunset and that we were free to visit other observatories at our leisure. He also told us that we could hike over to the top of the mountain that was located about 500 yards away from the "UH2.2". He said that, if we chose to do it, that we should not walk too quickly because the 100-foot climb up the sides of the "bowl" would make us light-headed (yet again). So, I did it (hiked slowly to the summit; not got light-headed yet again). (Refer to the pictures of the heiau -- It looks like an American Indian burial setup.) Before I went there, the guide told us a story that the Hawaiians considered the site very sacred. Once, some tourists had gone there and torn apart the structure. So, some Hawaiian elders went to the site, rebuilt it, and prayed over it. Interesting.
I drove back down the hill (in low, low gear). Unfortunately, there was no sunset because there were both cumulus clouds on the horizon and stratus clouds above the mountain. A professional telescope operator and observer (Gerald "something" who worked with the JCMT) presented a general lecture about astronomy, including the issue of whether or not Pluto was a planet. (He favored the idea because he had met the discoverer -- Clyde Tombaugh.) Gerald was also a professor at ('Imiloa University on Hawai'i). Afterwards, I walked back to the visitors center. As the night approached, the stratus clouds thinned out and we had "sucker holes" through which to view objects. Seven telescopes were set up for us including a brand new 11-inch Schmidt Cassegrain. We viewed M57, epsilon Lyrae, Albireo, and a few other objects. There were about 40 visitors. Some were from Japan and Russia. At about 9 o'clock, I called it a day (and night) and drove back down the mountain. I stayed at the Hilo Seaside Hotel. Although it was not luxurious, it was conveniently located near the bay where there were a lot of things to see and do.
Prologue
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