Mauna Kea, February 2007:
I needed to take a trip to the summit to look at one of the cameras the 88inch telescope uses.
I've built a polarimeter that will attach to this camera, and needed to know what it looked like, etc.
While I was there, I hiked to the summit of the mountain, and took a few pretty pictures on what
turned out to be a beautiful day.



The absolute summit of Mauna Kea...note the trail going up to it.
Quite a hike at 14000 feet.


Ok, well 13796 feet...


A rock shrine that the Native Hawaiians use for worship.
I'm not sure if the wooden stand was supposed to be down, or was blown over in the strong winds that day.


One of the cinder cones that dot Mauna Kea


The furthest-west component of the largest telescope (well, interferometer) on Earth:
the VLBA, which spans nearly 8,050 miles


The Sub-Millimeter Array, a much smaller interferometer


The twin Kecks, the IRTF, and Maui in the distance


A large plateau near the summit


A array of shades of red in the sands of the summit


A 360-degree panorama of Mauna Kea from the summit



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