Adventures in Hawai'i
Working with Amy Barger, I've had the opportunity to make two trips to the Island of Hawai'i to observe on Mauna Kea. The instrument of choice was the University of Hawaii 88" (2.2m). Below are some pictures, mostly from my first trip, and at the end I have some excerpts from emails I wrote at the time describing the experience. You can click on the thumbnails to get a larger version of any image. Enjoy! And, if you're a perspective, and have any questions about these trips, observing, or the astronomy program in general, feel free to email me (wehner DOT astro.wisc DOT edu) - I'm happy to answer any questions!
The Trip Down
The journey really begins with the long flight to Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. It depends who you fly with, but I've always been on the big, double-decker planes. Before the flight to Honolulu, there's always a sense of excitement in the air. While some are going on business, so many people are going on vacation, many to Hawaii for the first time. It's neat to see older couples, who you can tell have been saving for this and are so happy just to be going.
These images were taken from the air on the next leg of the journey. After arriving in Honolulu, I've always had time to kill before the next flight. In the middle of the Honolulu airport, there's a gorgeous courtyard with palm trees and beautiful flowers. I really enjoy this place and it's usually here that it hits me that I'm really in Hawaii.
Observing
Once at the airport, I find my way to the University of Hawaii vehicle, usually an SUV of some sort, and drive up the mountain. One can also take a cab, but I've found this very expensive. While a cab may be advantageous if you're arriving for the first time and driving up at night, the road up the mountain isn't hard to find, and as long as you drive defensively on Saddle Road, you won't have problems.
I was using the University of Hawaii 88" telescope, with the Quirc infrared CCD. The telescope does have an operator, although the observer does most of the observing on his own. The operator will open and close, check the dewars, and is in general responsible for the safety of the telescope and observer, but the observer gets to move the telescope, adjust the focus, and of course, run all the observing scripts. It's a really neat experience to be up there, and to have so much control over the telescope.
The above images are of the U of Hawaii 88" telescope. In the pictures of the dome you can see the catwalk - this is operational, and it's lots of fun to watch the sunset and sunrise from the balcony. There are also pictures of the control room (one with me included) and in the last two, you can see the 88" and the instrumentation on the back.
Astronomy on Mauna Kea
Below are pictures of different telescopes on the mountain - from the submillimeter valley, to the twin Keck 'scopes, the views of each are stunning. I'm particularly proud of the picture of Gemini at sunset.
Hale Pohaku
Hale Pohaku means "stone house" and is the complex of dorms for the astronomers. It's named after a small stone house, which I believe was used as a cottage for hunters many years ago. The first picture is the view from Hale Pohaku, and the second is of the dorms nestled into the hills.
In general, Hale Pohaku is a very nice place to stay (and I'm a very picky person). It reminds me a bit of a hotel like a Fairfield Inn (at least the ones I've stayed in) - clean, and simple yet functional. The common areas are great - they have a TV room, two pool tables, a dartboard, a small library of books (small), and the cafeteria actually serves good food. I suppose this might depend on the rotation of who's on duty cooking, but I've had some really good meals there. You can even take your tray and eat out on the patio with a fantastic view. Also, the night sky is just stunning from HP. Okay, I guess you can tell that I've had a good chunk of cloudy nights - lotsa time in the rec area. But, if you've got to stay up all night, hoping for clear skies, at least they have a nice place for you to do it. And you can get very good at pool.
Mauna Kea: the Scenery
Mauna Kea is just gorgeous. And it looks like Mars - or at least what I image Mars looks like. I tried in my photography to capture the redness of the soil and rocks and the cratering in the ground. I also have quite a fondness for sunsets and sunrises, so I've put in a few of my favorites here. Notice that in one of them, you can see the shadow of Mauna Kea cast on the clouds in the distance.
The Big Island of Hawai'i
After the observing trip, I rented a car in Hilo, and drove around the Big Island. I found some beautiful waterfalls near Hilo, and was so impressed by the huge Banyon trees (the second picture). I also drove up to the Volcano Park and I took some pictures of the caldera from a distance, and of the ground steaming sulfer. The area surrounding the volcano has some tropical forest areas, which were amazing to explore. There are also some cave areas where hot lava has rushed through in the past and carved out a path through the mountain.
The Experience
Below are some excerpts from emails I wrote during the trip...
Well, I'm sitting here, in a computer room munching on a stale eggo, and drinking some hot chocolate. Trying to stay awake. I should warn you ahead of time that since I'm very, very tired and completely sleep deprived, this may be an entertaining email. Or bizarre at the least. I calculated it out... Its now Thursday morning, Madison time. And I've officially gotten 9 hours of sleep since Monday morning. Wheee!! I was hoping to stay up until about 3, meaning I could head back to my room around 2.30... about an hour to go!
It was so neat to see the land passing underneath. I saw the rocky mountains, and California. I only knew it was california because as I was watching, we left the continent and headed out over the ocean. I guess it could have been oregon, I dunno. Anyway, it was neat. And, I just have to say, the pacific ocean is huge. I never really appreciated it before. It really made me realize how isolated Hawaii is... all that water, and that's it for a long, long time.
So, then I got to honolulu. It was pretty neat. They had an outdoor courtyard, and so I got to sit in a pretty garden in the warmth for a few minutes, anyway. Then, I caught a flight to Hilo. It was raining and foggy by Hilo, but still pretty warm. The taxi guy was waiting for me, and had been for two hours. I'd tried to call the cell phone to tell him, but he didn't have it on. Turns out the guy meeting me was a replacement, because the original guy got rear ended. He was okay, but he was home, and thus probably did not turn his phone on. So this taxi guy was fairly nice, and he took me up to the mountain. As we drove, darkness fell. Its a very windy, curvy, dangerous road up to the mountain. I was glad I didn't have to drive it alone.
Last night did go pretty well, overall. I think I'm starting to adjust to the thin air, but it really is strange up here! I think between 2 and 5 am are the hardest hours. But, I managed to sleep until 4pm today, so hopefully they'll be better tonight. I also managed to bring some coffee up from HP. I tell ya, the guys working in the kitchen really take care of the women here :) I started out in search of a plastic bag to put some instant coffee in, to take with me, and I ended up with a jar of Tasters choice, AND a huge thermos with some coffee in it!
HP food is actually really good! They had fish tonight, and I normally don't like fish, but was seeking protein, and it was fantastic! It sure beats my own grad-student-life cooking :)
I am having some reaction to the altitude, but overall everything's under control. As far as affecting my work, though, I was really getting spacey in the middle of the night last night. At one point, I blithely typed in 3050 instead of 3950 for the focus, and it took 2 attempts at checking the focus before I even realized why... "Hmm.. where did my stars go?" It was finally the TO who noticed things were so out of focus that we were barely even getting doughnuts! The thing was, I had written it down correctly, so it just didn't occur to me that I'd entered it wrong. As you may have noticed, I also ftp'd the files not only to the wrong folder, but I also sent down the wrong files! Len said he'd take care of moving the data down for me, which is really nice of him, because its the last thing I do in the morning, and cognitive function is relatively low by then.
So, this is definitely an adventure and it's pretty exciting. Even feeling the effects of high altitude is neat in a way. Its kind of a biology experiment as well as one in astronomy.
Its definitely dry up here, but its not bothering me too much. As Jay pointed out before I left, coming from winter means my body is already used to lack of moisture. He said its a lot more difficult in the summer, when we're used to being properly hydrated. the TO in training was complaining about dry skin, but coming from winter, I'm just in the habit of slathering on the lotion. Came in handy, I guess :)
And you're definitely right about the spectacular views! I think I've gone through three rolls of film so far. A little trigger happy, but oh well. I love looking down at the clouds below me, moving through the valley below. And I love how it looks like mars up here on the summit. I think I could probably stay here my whole life and not get enough of it. I'm also looking forward to exploring on the last day.
The summit of the mountain looks just like Mars. There's this red soil, and clumps of rocks everywhere. There are patches of snow, but not much at all. The UH 88inch and Gemini which is d-y-s-functional at the moment are the two highest scopes on the mountain. (I'm at the 88inch). Every night I've been up here, I've seen tourists. Despite the massively rocky road up here, they chug up here in their little hondas. Its insane. I'm told its not too uncommon to see them broken down on the side of the road. Some of them come up in tour guides, and I think they pay about $100 for the privilege, so I'm told.
The first night of observing went pretty well. I learned a ton from Peter, who is a really good teacher (ie. he let me work everything, and just explained it, unlike a lot of people who want to work things and just have you watch... and then you don't really learn anything). I made it until about 5.30am until I started feeling horrible. So, there happened to be two telescope operators (one in training) so one of them took me down, and the other waited with Peter while he finished up the night. I headed to bed as the sun came up, and I was able to sleep until 1.30pm this time.
Last night was my first night on my own. I made several mistakes and had to redo somethings. I didn't get everything I was supposed to done, but it was okay. I learned a lot by making the mistakes myself. It really, really is bizarre operating at such high altitudes. At the top, we're at 14,000'. Atmospheric pressure is only 60% that of sea level and there's far less oxygen up here. Its really hard to concentrate at times. The notes I took from working with peter were pretty garbled when I read them later. And last night, I accidentally gave the telescope an incorrect value for focus, and ground it way past its threshold... oops!
Today, I was able to sleep until 4, so I'm definitely getting adapted to the schedule now. Its now 3.30am, and I'm feeling much more awake than I did last night, which is good. Tonight hasn't been so smooth. We had to "close" due to high winds (~50mph) and then when we did open, we had all sorts of equipment problems, which I had to trouble shoot. It was a good learning experience, but we got started observing really late.
I managed to arrange a tour of Keck for tonight. I came up early with one of their TO's and he showed me around. It's *awesome*! I even got to go into the clean-room interferometry chamber. That was really neat... the guy showing us around kept telling us where not to stand, because there were light beams flying all over the room, which we couldn't see.
Well, that pretty much brings you up to date! That's what I'm up to out here. I have to add that the view from the summit, and even from Hale Pohaku is amazing. Not only does the top look like mars, but you can see Mauna Loa, and Maui from the catwalk. At sunset, the mountain casts a shadow on the clouds in the valley... it's spectacular! The first time I saw it, I asked what mountain it was, and I almost couldn't believe it was just a shadow. I am taking lots of picture that will hopefully come out. Looking down at the clouds is pretty neat too.
One more night after tonight, and then I leave for one night in Hilo. I'll definitely miss the astro-fun and the beauty up here, but it will be nice to have enough air again.