Telescopes on Mauna Kea

This is Hawaii?

The telescopes on Mauna Kea are world renown research facilities with a no equal on the planet. On Saturdays and Sundays they offer free guided tours by university staff - all you have to do is get there! Driving from Kona, we headed up and inland, out of the palm trees and tropical weather that characterize Hawaii and into lush farm fields and cattle herds. We turned onto Saddle road (no, the rental vehicle wasn't allowed on the road) and headed inland.

We arrived at the base station before 1pm, had lunch and toured the store. At 1pm, we were introduced to the guide and watched an hour long video about the mountain and the history of the telescopes - all the while our bodies were getting used to the high elevation. At 2pm we got back in our truck and started the long haul up the mountain.

The landscape changes perceptibly as we rose higher - plant life got sparser and the geology started to resemble the moon. Just when the landscape can't get any weirder, domes start popping up like mushrooms. We drove up to the highest part of the road and parked. Our tour guide gave us some background information on the area and Hawaii 48 inch telescope we were about to tour.

From the Summit, there were a interesting views. Beyond the sea of clouds we were standing on top of, we could see a radio telescope off one direction, and a series of cinder cones further down the mountain.

At the top of the mountain is an Alter (called lele ho'okau). The alter and everything on it is brought up from further down the valley.

Pictures taken, we walked back to the telescopes.

We still had some time before sunset so we went for a walk around the Keck Telescopes. At first I thought of photographing from around the Keck Telescopes looking back toward the Hawaii - France - Canada telescope. As the sun set, I noticed all the tour vans parking at on the ridge behind us so we decided to move to the same location.

This part made me happy. We waited for about an hour until the sun started to set and then I started taking pictures. It was getting cold and windy, but sunset was spectacular and I was glad I was up there. There are tour companies in Hilo that offer a van tour to see this for about $80 US a person or $145 for a trip with a warm jacket and hot chocolate.

They asked that we leave the summit at most 15 minuets after sunset (something about car lights shining in telescopes). We drove down to the visitor center and they had several large amateur telescopes out and fairly sizable (30 people) crowd patiently queuing to see through the eye piece. There was an amazing view of the moon, a telescope on Saturn and another on Jupiter. An hour later, heads full of stars, we drove home.

I found an nice collection of Aerial Photos of the Mauna Kea Observatories.