by Dennis Steele
I was fortunate enough to meet a fellow who works at the 88" telescope on Mauna Kea (I was introduced to him by a fellow amateur astronomer acquaintenance). He was kind enough to meet me with his Celestron NexStar 11 at the Visitors Information Station (VIS) at 5 p.m. VIS is at 9200 feet of elevation. It's a nice facility, with two Celestron C11's on Losmandy G11's and a TeleVue 102 on an AP mount. The station is open every night from 6 to 10 p.m. for observing. There are two permanent piers outside for anyone who want to bring along an SCT. The parkign lot and restrooms are open 24 hours a day for anyone who wants to use the facility for observing. The area around VIS was very foggy and cloudy, no blue sky at all. It had rained a bit on the way up the mountain. While it had snowed the evening before, the forecast was good, and it was expected to clear at sunset. We stayed there to acclimate and at about 5:45 we ventured up to the summit.
On the drive up, at the 10,000 foot level, the landscape became sureal. There is no vegetation at that elevation at all. Additionally, Mauna Kea is the remnant of a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago (there is still some active lava flow on the "Kona" side). The environment looks like the surface of Mars. Beautiful and forbidding at the same time.
As we made our way up to the summit, 13790 feet, the many domes of the various telescopes came closely into view. We drove around to all the domes for some photo opportunities. Then, my "guide" took me into the 88" for a close-hand look at the working of an active telescope on the mountain. We were a bit late to gain entrance into Keck and Subaru, as these scopes were getting ready for the nights work.
We took our time in the 88" dome, looking at the control rooms, aluminizing chamber, Coude focus (no longer used) and the CCD imaging systems now it place. I'm sure many of you know that that the scope is completely robotic and can be used from any internet terminal anywhere. On this evening, a new CCD camera was going through it's first-light, so a number of observers were arriving in the control room for tests and shake-down of the system.
We went out onto the catwalk around the dome for sunset. It was really beautiful. The fog and clouds were lifting at the summit, with a heavy layer for clouds below us!!! It started getting quite cold as well.
My friend and I went down to the 12,000 level and set up his NexStar 11. We were there until around 10:30 or so. It's funny what the thin atmosphere will do to you. The sky appeared to get brighter and dimmer, not too dark at all. It was explained to me that the lower oxygen in our system was playing tricks on our vision. We packed up at 11 and went down to the 9200 foot level, the VIS.
First, I had a real treat and went to the astronomers "residence" for some coffee and snack. It's really nice -- computers, television, drinks, snacks and coffee. Very warm and comfortable. There are also sleeping rooms for the visiting and working staff on the mountain to sleep during the day, if needed.
Finally we set up at the 9200 foot level. The southern cross was prominent on the southern horizon. The seeing was absolutely perfect. Fairly warm (around 35f), no wind and perfectly clear. We saw it all!! Messiers, the comet NEAT, some southern objects (I just can't remember the proper names, but I'm getting an email outing our observing choices). We finally wrapped up at 3 a.m. and it was back to the hotel and a quick airplane ride today back to Honolulu.
What a perfect evening. I coulda stayed there forever... But, my local observing haunts await me on Monday when we return home.
Posted on sf-bay-tac May 21, 2004 22:24:05 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 11, 2004 22:31:10 PT