at 13,803 feet Mauna Kea (white mountain) is literally the highest above sea level we have ever been and, if you are into that sort of thing, is also the largest mountain on earth as measured from its base - taller than Everest.
It is also home to some of the coolest telescopes in the world, including the Keck twins.
Built in the late 80s and early 90s, they are pretty much the latest generation of telescopes actually in use, and have paved the way to move from single mirrors like the Hale at Palomar to segmented mirrors where the components are moved by actuators to compensate for gravity and sagging. The next generation like the Giant Magellan telescope mirrors we saw being cast and ground at the University of Arizona Mirror Lab in 2014 will combine large mirror segments with corrective movement in a similar way, but that is still years from being built
There are no official tours but there is a viewing gallery and we were lucky enough to see them slewing and tracking the scope for some reason - it's amazing how quickly, smoothly and quietly such a massive machine can move
And then while we were waiting for sunset they slewed one of the domes and opened the doors ready for observation. Very lucky
We had to spend $150 to rent a 4x4 pickup from a specialist to get us up there as normal hire cars are not allowed on the 23% grade dirt road to the summit, and you have to go up and especially down in low ratio so that engine braking can save your brakes from cooking, and there is 40% less oxygen up there so anything was a struggle - some of the telescope support technicians wear oxygen tubes so they can actually function - but seeing the sunset from above the cloud layer was very cool.
In fact at -3c (27f) and a wind at about 55mph, it was positively freezing....
its all down hill from here
It is also home to some of the coolest telescopes in the world, including the Keck twins.
Built in the late 80s and early 90s, they are pretty much the latest generation of telescopes actually in use, and have paved the way to move from single mirrors like the Hale at Palomar to segmented mirrors where the components are moved by actuators to compensate for gravity and sagging. The next generation like the Giant Magellan telescope mirrors we saw being cast and ground at the University of Arizona Mirror Lab in 2014 will combine large mirror segments with corrective movement in a similar way, but that is still years from being built
There are no official tours but there is a viewing gallery and we were lucky enough to see them slewing and tracking the scope for some reason - it's amazing how quickly, smoothly and quietly such a massive machine can move
And then while we were waiting for sunset they slewed one of the domes and opened the doors ready for observation. Very lucky
We had to spend $150 to rent a 4x4 pickup from a specialist to get us up there as normal hire cars are not allowed on the 23% grade dirt road to the summit, and you have to go up and especially down in low ratio so that engine braking can save your brakes from cooking, and there is 40% less oxygen up there so anything was a struggle - some of the telescope support technicians wear oxygen tubes so they can actually function - but seeing the sunset from above the cloud layer was very cool.
In fact at -3c (27f) and a wind at about 55mph, it was positively freezing....
its all down hill from here
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