Sunday 21 March 2010

The summit

Although I always go on about working at the summit of Mauna Kea, the true summit has no telescopes on it at all. You can visit it as long as you walk the trail and can handle the lack of oxygen. It's a longer hike than you might imagine!

Then again, you can just admire the view or if you're desperate, just click on the pictures.

5 comments:

Zuzana said...

You know, those hills looks as if made of iron ore.;)) am always also amazed by the light in your pictures. It is like nowhere else.;)
xo
Zuzana

Keera Ann Fox said...

The shadow and the cause of the shadow are very clear in the bottom photo. And as Protege noted, the peak is very red. Is it or is it colored only by the sun?

Tom said...

Zuzana and Keera - the summit is very red - it's caused by rust essentially. After an eruption there's water in the rocks which gets heated and escapes as steam. The steam rusts the iron in the rocks.

The setting sun just emphasizes the colour - red light + red rock!

It only happens for a few minutes each evening but I've learned when to catch that intense red colour!

Tom

JestrBob said...

Tom the second picture looks fairly wide, Can you tell me how wide?

It is an amazing image. The foreground is very sharp and clear and even the distant pasts are nice and crisp.

Tom said...

Bob - I could work it out but don't have the energy right now. I would guess a little more than 90 degrees.

I've been trying to get a good panorama of the true summit and shadow of the mountain for some time. This one is close. It's hard to do because you need to be quick otherwise the shadows and light change too much.

Tom