The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 223. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Black (and/or) Black-and-White.’ See more responses here.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Frosty.’ See more responses here.
I don’t see a lot of frost here in Hawaii, but the top of Mauna Kea is almost always cold. When I was up there last year, there was some snow on the ground and the freezing wind was whipping.
It’s much more comfortable to view the chilly scene from the warmth and comfort of the lowlands. Zooming in on my camera is close enough to the real thing!
The exterior of the Caltech Submilimeter Observatory atop Mauna Kea is chock full of triangles, squares, hexagons, curves, lines, etc. You could check it out, except that it’s invisible! Well, it is now, because it was decommissioned in 2015, and last year was dismantled and removed.
Posted for Becky’s Squares: Geometric. See more responses here.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 170. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A few weeks ago, I was up at the summit of Mauna Kea with my visiting brother. I took a lot of photos up there including this one of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. I’ve always liked this observatory as it’s cute and shiny and has all kinds of different shapes going on.
One other thing it has, is disappeared. A couple of weeks after my visit, the dome was removed, part of a decommissioning process that’s been going on for a while now. Once the pad and underground utilities have been taken out, the site will be restored to its natural state.
According to their website (here), the Smithsonian Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Mauna Kea “is a type of multiple-antenna observatory known as an interferometer, in this case consisting of eight radio dishes, each 6 meters in diameter. The eight antennas observe the same astronomical object simultaneously. Combining the light measured by all the dishes produces an interference pattern, which results in a sharper image than could be made by any of the individual antennas. For that reason, the eight-antenna interferometer behaves like a single telescope as much as 500 meters (one-third of a mile) across.”
These dishes sit on little concrete pads, which can also be seen in these photos. If a change in the dish configuration is needed, they can be moved from one pad to another. What I’ve always liked about this is that some of these pads are only a few feet apart. I like to imagine conversations along the lines of:
“We need more data from the Invisible Particle Cluster. Let’s move Dish Three over there.”
“You mean, to that pad six feet away. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Of course, there are probably good scientific reasons for moving the dishes around like chess pieces. However, in chess one only has to lean forward, lift an itty-bitty piece of wood, and plunk it on a new square, while giving your opponent a knowing smirk. These dishes are big and heavy. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his heyday, would have trouble moving one without the assistance of special effects.
That’s why they have the vehicle below. I suspect this is not something purchased at the local used car dealership. I suspect it costs a good deal more than the combined value of all the vehicles at the local used car dealership.
It’s something of an out-of-this-world design, which is entirely appropriate. There are two things I really like about this vehicle. One is that the scientific minds have thought it prudent to label the front and back, left and right of it. This way, everyone knows whether the vehicle is moving forwards, backwards, or sideways. The other is that they have also recognized that for safe, efficient operation, it’s important to have, in the cab, a pair of fuzzy dice.
Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.
The sun rises behind Mauna Kea, coloring the sky, and backlighting the telescopes at the summit.
Graham's Island 