The clouds were spectacular this evening, both to the east of us (above) and to the south (below). Fortunately by the time it got dark there were none overhead. We also tried to spot Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) but had little luck as it was lost in the twilight sky. Andrew Cooper may have had more luck tonight.
There's been a noticeable decrease in the number of comments recently, I hope I haven't said something offensive or anything like that! If it's down to a lack of content, then I definitely understand, I just hope those kind enough to read my posts understand things have become incredibly busy recently and it's hard to find time to put much thought into what I write here - so it's pictures instead!
It's easy to forget we work on top of a volcano. Mauna Kea isn't active but is classified as dormant - certainly not an extinct volcano. It last erupted around 4,500 years ago but it will likely erupt again. No one knows when. The cinder cones that litter the summit area and the rest of the mountain bear testimony to a time not long ago when the mountain spat fire.
As the sun sinks below the horizon astronomers at Mauna Kea's summit start to work, the tourists leave for lower altitudes and the sky takes on some amazing colours. There comes a time when the light from the sun can no longer illuminate even the highest clouds and it tends to happen very quickly. One moment the cirrus clouds are bright red and the next they're a dull grey.
One or two people have said they're not bored of summit photos just yet. So here are a couple more. Just be aware that I'm running out of photos again!
A rare photo of Subaru actually opening at sunset. They always seem to open much later than the other observatories. I'm not sure why. What's even rarer is the Kohala coastline being visible from the summit. As you can see in the top photo it's usually hidden by clouds.
It's well after sunset but the horizon still shows the glow from the sun, at least on long exposure photos! Subaru is the telescope in the foreground. The dome is metallic coloured and often turns a golden colour at this time of night if there are high clouds around to reflect the red light. On this occasion, however, the sky is clear and the dome takes on a less interesting grey/silver colour and a lot less contrast to play with.
