In this view of Mauna Kea from the Pu’u O’o Trail, the trees of a kipuka, clouds rolling over the saddle, and the bulk of the mountain, create a layered effect.
Category Archives: Volcanoes
Very Long Baseline Array on Mauna Kea
Most of the telescopes on Mauna Kea are clustered together near the summit, but about halfway between the Mauna Kea Visitor Center and the summit is this lonely telescope. It’s one of the ten radio telescopes that make up the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which began operating in 1993. Eight of the other telescopes are scattered around the U.S. mainland with the tenth at St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.
The Mauna Kea telescope, like the others, consists of a dish antenna 82 feet in diameter, and an unmanned control building. These ten telescopes are remotely operated from the Domenici Science Operations Center in Socorro, New Mexico.
For more information about the Very Long Baseline Array, go to https://public.lbo.us/.
Hualalai from Mauna Kea
Hualalai volcano has an elevation of 8,271 feet (2,521 m). Only the top of the volcano was poking through the clouds on a recent visit to the top of Mauna Kea.
Abstracts: James Clerk Maxwell Telescope mirror framework
Last year, when I went on the Kama‘āina Observatory Experience, I visited a couple of telescopes. One of them was the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, a single-dish telescope dedicated to detecting submillimetre radiation.
One of the things I liked about that telescope was the structure of the supporting framework. It reminded me of something found at Ikea, but on a giant scale. If I’d been involved in putting it together, at the end of the day, when congratulations were being bandied about, I’d have been the one saying, “Er, I’ve got a rod and three little hexagonal nuts left over. Where do they go?”
Kona lava tube
Probably the most visited lava tube on the Big Island is Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. However, the most easily accessible might be one just a couple of miles north of the airport at Kailua Kona.
Just off the main highway, it’s not unusual to see a line of vehicles pulled over and people scrambling over the lava. There’s a well worn path leading down to the entrance of the tube and enough headroom to make access easy. However, it’s worth noting that there are piles of rock strewn around from ceiling collapses and the whole area looks crumbly. I certainly wouldn’t want to be down there during an earthquake. Enter at your own risk!
Mauna Kea shadow
Seen from the top of Mauna Kea, what is this shape we’re looking at, stretched out over the clouds, with that crisp corner at the top? It is, of course, the shadow of the volcano itself.
I like this image a lot, I think because it’s something I never thought about until I saw it. Then, I was immediately struck by how it illustrates the size of Mauna Kea and what a classic volcano it is.
Mauna Kea telescopes
Waiting for sunset at the top of Mauna Kea, there are many distractions – shiny telescopes, other sunset watchers, pillowed clouds, and plummeting temperatures. By the time I returned to the car I was ready to turn up the heat, a rare opportunity in Hawaii.
The telescopes are from left: Suburu Telescope, The two telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory, and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility.
Goat on a lava field
A goat scrambles over the lava alongside the Pu’u O’o trail. Here, it’s probably transiting between kipukas, where there’s a good deal of forage growing, but goats seem to do fine in even the most inhospitable places on the island.
