by Andrew Pierce
Before going into the usual list of what I saw etc let me describe our trip up to Mauna Kea.
Through work I had become acquainted with one of the astronomers at UKIRT (United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope) and he had offered to give me a tour. We ageed to meet at the Visitor Information Station (VIS) which is at 9,200 feet. I rented a Jeep Wrangler, which is a very popular rental vehicle on the Big Island, and had no problems with the drive from Kona. Even the worst parts of the Saddle Road weren't bad and the paved side road up to the VIS, although not marked, was easy to spot and easier to drive. After acclimating for an hour we went up to the UKIRT scope on the summit. The Wrangler, which was obviously tuned for sea level driving, was not exactly speedy going up, but we reached the summit from the VIS in less than half an hour. I think a normal car in low gear could cope with the dirt part of the summit road (the last four or five miles are paved, to protect the scopes from dust) in dry weather, but you won't catch me trying it.
UKIRT is an infrared scope, and one of the older ones on the summit. It has a satisfying industrial era low tech feel, as it is set on a yoke style mount (my guide called it an "English mount") and is controlled on site at the summit from a small control room. They guide it with CCD cameras using guide stars just like many people on this list. There is a passive AO system, which apparently is done by applying a mathematical algorithm to the mirror pushers based on the observed seeing conditions, but not based on real time adjustments.
We went out and watched the sunset, which was very bright, and then went in and chatted with that night's observer, Dr. Tom Geballe. He is one of the world's leading infrared astonomers and was head of operations at UKIRT for many years. That night he was taking IR spectra from star forming regions in order to detect H3+, which is an ion associated with the early chemical evolution of molecular clouds (I think). The relative abundance of H3+ is important data for testing different theories of how the chemistry of star forming regions gets going. These clouds are very cold, so the highly reactive H3+ ions apparently give them a jump start. I asked Dr. Geballe if he was using IR in order to see through the dust in these regions or because that's where the H3+ spectrum was and he said "both."
I had been a little worried about going to the summit because you are not supposed to bring kids uner 16 and I had a cold and sinus problems which is also a no-no. I was a little light-headed at sea level before we began and was more so at the summit, but I was fine overall. Rebecca, as expected, had no problem at all. Of course we only stayed at the summit for an hour or so and we did acclimate at the VIS.
We left the astronomers to their work and drove down to the VIS before it got fully dark. Dark is a whole 'nother thing up there. I know others have said this before, but the VIS has the best sky you are ever likely to see for observing. My wife, not normally keen on hanging out on chilly mountains at night, told me we should stay as long as I wanted because this was a rare experience for all of us. Just as an example, M42 in a pair of 15x70 binos was an awe-inspiring sight even for non-astronomers.
The first thing we noticed from the VIS was an enormous and very bright display of the zodiacal light, which lasted for at least two hours. The ranger told me that the zodiacal light had been especially bright for the past two weeks. Perhaps we are passing through the part of earth's orbit where the dust in our inner solar system is concentrated in the area illuminated by the evening zodiacal light. Next we got a nice view of a planet, which we deduced to be Mercury, through the VIS's Astro-Physics refractor. I never set up my travelling 6 inch Mak that night because three of VIS's four scopes were set up. The lines for the scopes were only intermittent and I did get to make requests and navigate one of the scopes. Besides the A-P there was a Meade 16 inch SCT, with the worst image shift I have ever seen (it's focused by dozens of people every day) and what I think was a C14. The scopes are all on A-P mounts with Go To, I think.
I saw one new-to-me object right away from the VIS, the California Nebula in Perseus, NGC 1499. It was a piece of cake in the 15x70 binos, an obvious bright streak with a kink in the middle. The only other time I'd seen it was in someone else's Pronto (which doesn't count) at Pinnacles a few years back. This view was far brighter and more defined.
You can read about the rest of what I saw at the VIS and my Keauhou Bay observing site Part 2 of this report.