Category Archives: Scenes

James Clerk Maxwell Telescope

The JCMT from the outside with its huge Gore-Tex tarp curving up and in. The tarp protects the dish from wind and blown sand. It also reflects visible and near-infrared radiation which allows for daytime observations.
The JCMT from the outside with its huge Gore-Tex tarp curving up and in. The tarp protects the dish from wind and blown sand. It also reflects visible and near-infrared radiation which allows for daytime observations.
The dish of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea.
The dish of the telescope. The shinier areas are where telescope staff experimented with cleaning the dish using Swiffer Sweepers. A little dirt on the dish doesn’t affect readings at the wavelengths where the JCMT operates.
The framework supporting the dish of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea.
The framework which supports the telescope’s dish.

I posted here about a visit to the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope on Mauna Kea as part of the Kama‘āina Observatory Experience being offered by the island’s observatories. The other observatory visited during that tour was the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT).

The JCMT began operation in 1987 and was funded by the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands. However, the United Kingdom decided to improve how it handled its scientific funding and, as a result, early in 2015, the JCMT’s funding efficiently disappeared into deep space and was never seen again. Subesequently, as one of the guides on the tour said, they basically put the telescope on Craigslist and the East Asian Observatory (EAO) picked up the operation.

The telescope is the largest single-dish telescope in the world dedicated to detecting submillimetre radiation. Other telescopes on Mauna Kea operate at different wavelengths so they are complimentary each other rather than in direct competition. And where other telescopes on Mauna Kea are there because of the 300+ nights of clear skies, the JCMT is there for the lack of moisture in the air, which is critical to its operations.

Inside the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea.
The exterior of the structure rotates on wheels enclosed in yellow housings. Inside, the dish rotates independently.

As well as information about the telescope’s operations, the tour included a story about how the steel for telescope’s enclosure had to be sent from England on a small ship after the original freighter broke down. The steel was piled high on deck and was supposed to be headed direct to Hawaii. But the ship’s captain stopped first in Holland to take on a cargo of high explosives! Besides the delay this involved, it also presented problems when the ship arrived at the Panama Canal, for obvious reasons. More delays ensued before the ship disappeared to some port on the Pacific coast to offload the explosives. By the time it arrived in Hawaii, it was so far behind schedule that the penalties accrued for late delivery practically equaled the fee for delivery. However, the ship’s captain, in an apparently canny tactic, waited outside territorial waters and demanded full payment, threatening to dump the steel into the sea if he didn’t get it. This proved to be a bad move! The telescope’s operators took him to court and nailed him for piracy on the high seas. The U.S. Coastguard moved in, took over the ship, and guided it into port of Hilo.

Another story from the telescope’s beginnings concerned the opening ceremony. Several VIPs from the nations operating the telescope turned up, including Prince Philip. When the lever was pulled to start the telescope’s operation, nothing happened. Turned out one of the VIP’s was leaning against an emergency stop button.

For more information on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, go to eaobservatory.org/jcmt/about-jcmt/
For more information on the Kama’āina Observatory Experience, go to kamaainaobservatoryexperience.org/

Star formation images from the constellation of Orion from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea.
Star formation images from the constellation of Orion.
The small mirror in the Cassegrain cabin of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea.
The small mirror in the Cassegrain cabin, which directs incoming information to the appropriate instruments.

Signs: High surf

A high surf sign at Hapuna beach

This is what people think of when they think of Hawaii: golden sand, blue water, and rolling surf at Hapuna beach, often touted as one of the best beaches in the world. Trouble is sometimes the surf gets too big, which is when the lifeguards have to get busy. Not sure the surf in this photo warrants the sign, but even small surf can cause trouble for people unfamiliar with it.

A pigeon, but rock or racing?

A racing pigeon wondering which way is home
I thought this was one of the local rock pigeons hanging out near the cliff edge, but when I got home and looked at the photo, I noticed the bands on its legs. A bit of research on birdwatchingdaily.com revealed that banded pigeons are the same rock pigeon species, but are usually lost racing pigeons.

Turns out there are three racing pigeon clubs on the island as well as several more on the other islands. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a photo with enough information on the band to tell where it might have come from. I saw the same bird a couple more times without getting a better view, and then it was gone.

I don’t know if it suddenly remembered its way home or simply ingratiated its way into the local rock pigeon flock.

Kohala Girls’ School

The sign at the entrance to the old Kohala Girls SchoolOne of the old Kohala Girls School buildings.
The Kohala Girls’ School was founded in 1874 by Ellen and Elias Bond, missionaries who came to the Big Island from Maine in 1840. It remained in operation until 1955. Since then the buildings saw only occasional use, but they are currently being renovated as part of the Grace Learning Center, an educational program of the Kohala Institute.

The land managed by the Kohala Institute is called ’Iole and is one of Big Island’s the last intact ahupua’a. An ahupua’a was a land division that stretched from the sea to the mountains, giving those who lived there access to everything they needed for self sufficiency.

For more information about Iole and the Kohala Institute, go to kohalainstitute.org.
For more information about Kohala Girls’ School, go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_District

Hawaiian monk seals

Two Hawaiian monk seals relax in a tide pool on the Big Island.Identifying tags on the tail flippers of a Hawaiian monk seal,
This photo is somewhat unusual, particularly for the Big Island. Outside of mothers with pups, it’s uncommon to see two monk seals together, much less relaxing in the same tide pool. One reason is the scarcity of seals. There are 1,000 or so in the remote northwest islands, but only about 200 around the main Hawaiian islands. Of those 200, there may be as few as 5 living around the Big Island.

One of those is IO5, a 7-year-old male, who I’ve posted about before (here, here, and here). He’s the seal I see most. In this photo, IO5 is in the foreground in what I can only describe as a characteristic pose. He’s resting, which is what monk seals do when they haul out on land.

The other seal was new to me so I was keen to identify it. There are two main means of identification. Many seals have a code bleached onto their sides. Such a mark is good for about a year until the seal molts when it sheds it’s skin. This new seal was not bleached.

The other prime method is red tags attached to the seal’s tail flippers. I moved around, trying to get a good view of the tail, but couldn’t see any tags. (I should mention here that the goal is never to disturb seals when they’re resting, so while they reclined in the tide pool, I was sneaking around on the cliff 30 feet away and another 10 to 20 feet up.) I watched for a while but this seal showed even less inclination to move than IO5. It was so still, I wondered if it was dead, but I did see a couple of twitches.

Over the next few days I saw the new seal three more times. The first time it was in a position where I couldn’t see the tail. The second time, I caught a tantalizing glimpse of red, but that told me nothing more than that the seal had been tagged. (IO5 has also been tagged, but has lost them over the years and now bears only a nubbin of one tag.) The third time I saw the new seal it was out in an open spot where I could get a great view without disturbing it. Again I could see part of the tag, but not enough to identify it. So I hung around for the best part of an hour. I got good photos both sides, of the head and tail, but still only a glimpse of a tag. During that time the seal’s only movement was a twitch of the tail, which covered the bit of tag I could see. The only good news about all this was that the seal looked in excellent shape. I didn’t see any wounds or other marks that might indicate a problem.

Finally, a full week after the first sighting, I went down to the same area again. At first, I didn’t see any seals, but I thought I’d check a low spot on the cliff for another view. About 15 feet away, stretched out on the rock, was the new seal. It was facing me but, eyes closed, remained unaware of my presence. I took a couple of photos, then climbed back up the cliff and around to where I could see the tail flippers. Eureka! The flippers were splayed in such a way that I could clearly see two tags, one in each flipper.

I sent the photos in to the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Response Coordinator and a couple of days later I learned that the new seal is B00 (not sure why the other tag says B01). The seal is a 9-year-old female that was born on Kauai. In recent years she has also been seen on Molokai and Maui. I think is the first sighting for her on the Big Island. She had her first pup this year on Maui, but unfortunately it was stillborn. Perhaps her sojourn on the Big Island with IO5 will presage another pup sometime next year.

For more information about Hawaiian monk seals, go to www.pifsc.noaa.gov/hawaiian_monk_seal/ or www.marinemammalcenter.org/hawaii.