John Davies Picture Gallery: Telescopes - 3, Mauna Kea. 

Here are a few pictures of telescopes on Mauna Kea. Please do not reproduce them commecially without my permission. If you want more telescope pictures , click at the bottom.

If you time your trip right (and of course we astronomers have to since we need to work at night) you can arrive at the summit in time to watch the Sun set. On a good day you may see the famous green flash just as the Sun slips below the horizon. On a bad day it may be cold, foggy and maybe even snowing!

Sunsets can be very spectacular, but often the best sunsets are on cloudy evenings which do not bode well for the night's observing.

The setting Sun and the one of the Keck Telescope domes seen through fog Photo: John Davies.

Don't be too entranced by the sunset to look the other way for a minute. If you do you can see the shadow of the mountain being cast on the clouds below you. This is the actual summit of Mauna Kea, a small wooden structure marks the spot.

Comet Hale-Bopp over the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea. The island of Maui is visible in the background. Photo: John Davies.

To please the environmentalists, we are now burying our telescopes to make them blend into the background better. (Just kidding!) Photo: John Davies.

more Pictures of Mauna Kea?

John Keith Davies
Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ
j.davies@roe.ac.uk
tel: (44) 0131 668 8348 / fax: (44) 0131 662 1668/