Hawaii - the series: sunset & stargazing... on top of a dormant volcano

The last excursion we did was a 'Sunset & Star gazing' experience...from the top...of Mauna Kea...  

Since I don't listen very well I decided to go right to Wikipedia to prove to you what I'm talking about.  Sure, I can act like I'm the authority on this stuff & you'd never be the wiser... But that damn B-rad sends me texts & corrects me.  I hate to be corrected...

So here's the deal on Mauna kea:  Standing 13,796 ft above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over 33,000 ft tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest.  

We loaded onto a bus at our resort around 7 pm Hawaii time.  That was 1 AM our time.  (He said we'd be back to the resort around 10pm.  Can you guess what time that was here?!  OY!) The little dude drove us toward Mauna Kea telling us all about our surroundings.  We stopped at a little 'camp' area & they fed us dinner.

 We also had time to walk around & take pics....

 See what I have to deal with?!

I thought the name of the port-a-potty company was funny.  Hawaii John's...

 

We had a yummy dinner of beef stew & cornbread.  See the water bottles?  The tour guide said, "those are yours to keep!"  Oh, how nice.  Little did I know those water bottles were going to be important to our survival...

There are no highways to the summit (that's the tippy top) of Mauna Kea.  There is a rocky, uneven access road that shakes you to death.  I never peed so much in my life as I did this night.  That shaking & bouncing shook the pee right outta me!

 The driver made several stops as we climbed to the summit.  You can see here we are above the freakin' clouds...

At one of the stops we took pics.  Notice our attire?  Ok-you're supposed to wear layers, long pants & sturdy shoes.  UHM we were going to Hawaii.  I took t-shirts & shorts.  This was a problem.  B-rad had to wear shorts & I had capris I wore on the plane.  They did give us parkas & gloves so that helped.  It was about 40 degrees up there.... brrrrrrr...

 There are lines of buses going to the summit.  As we climb higher towards the heavens, the driver starts to explain some 'safety' things to us.  He talks to us about what can happen to you when we get 14,000 ft above sea level.  You will feel like you've had 2-3 glasses of wine on an empty stomach.  (I'm sure that's why they fed us...) It is extremely difficult to breath.  You should move slower & take long, deep breathes.  You should also yawn.  (Apparently yawning comes from your brain not getting enough oxygen.  He said to yawn to bring in more oxygen because the air was so thin up there.)  You should also drink.  A lot.  Ah, the water bottle life saver... This place was serious business.  If we experienced any nauseousness, that was the beginning signs of epoxia (I don't know how to spell it...) which could be very serious.  He had oxygen on the bus & was certified to use it.  We just had to tell him we needed it.  Holy crap...

Here's how bad ass it is: Mauna Kea is over 770 cu mi in volume, so massive that it and its neighbor, Mauna Loa,  depress the ocean crust beneath it by 4 mi. The volcano continues to slip and flatten under its own weight at a rate of less than 0.01 in per year

  Now, I don't really know what any of this means (especially the blue words), but this is just so I don't screw up any of the facts:  Despite ongoing controversy, Mauna Kea's summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation because a number of factors create favorable observing conditions. The atmosphere above the volcano is extremely dry, which is important for submillimeter and infrared astronomy because water vapor absorbs radiation in most of this region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The summit is above the inversion layer that separates lower maritime air from upper atmospheric air, keeping most cloud cover below the summit and ensuring the air on the summit is dry, and free of atmospheric pollution. The summit atmosphere is exceptionally stable; this lack of turbulence creates some of the world's best astronomical seeing. The very dark skies resulting from Mauna Kea's distance from city lights are preserved by legislation that minimizes light pollution from the surrounding area (the street lights in Hawaii are different than ours.  They are a yellowish color & don't radiate up into the sky because of this legislation.  Like, you know how you can see Louisville at night from the light shining up into the sky?  The Big island's not like that.); the darkness level allows the observation of faint astronomical objects. These factors historically made Mauna Kea an excellent spot for stargazing.  (B-rad sent me an article a week or so after we got back that they think they've discovered a new planet forming...& they saw it from Mauna Kea...)

THIS was our view from the top.  I think there are 13 telescopes up here.  He told us who each & every one of them belonged too but I can't remember...

The sun setting...

We were allowed to get outta the bus & walk around until the sun went down.  Let me tell ya about high altitude.  In was incredibly difficult to breath.  Just walking around up there was difficult.  We walked very slowly & chugged our water.  It was so weird...

We had a certain number of minutes to get the heck outta there because their headlights mess up the telescopes.

 Notice the big ass telescope on the right?  It's just there.  Sitting.  All closed up.  

 B-rad said, "LOOK!!!!"  That thing started to spin around & open up.  It was really, really cool!

 

 I got back on the bus because it was really cold & the wind was blowing really hard.  I'm a dork & didn't realize that the top of a volcano would be rocky, dusty & windy & kept getting crap in my eyes.  I wish I would've worn my glasses.  

After we left the summit, we drove back down to 9000 ft to look at stars.  It wasn't real clear that night so we couldn't see a lot of what he was showing us.  He pointed out constellations & told us the origin of them. Blah, blah, blah.  We got to look at the moon through a itty bitty telescope & that was kinda cool.  He served us hot chocolate & cookies too. (YUM!)   Then, all of a sudden he said, "Oh, you guys are in luck!"  Jupiter came out of nowhere & we got to see it through the telescope!

When I got back on the bus at the summit, Butterfly & Rhonda were in their seats.  Butterfly had his head down.  I said, "Is he sick?" & Rhonda shook her head yes.  So another lady on the bus told the driver that someone was sick.  He came back & asked Butterfly if he was ok.  Of course he said, 'Yes, I'm fine.  I just feel like I've had a couple of beers.'  The guy said that was normal but if he started to feel sick to his stomach, he needed to let him know right away & asked if he wanted any oxygen.  (Later, Butterfly teased that he was probably the most fit person there & was the sickest girly girl.  B-rad explained that because of all the intensive training he does, he requires more oxygen to run his body.  When we were 14,000 ft up with super thin air, Butterfly couldn't handle it.  Huh, turns out having a little meat on your bones isn't always a bad thing.  I knew it would come in handy someday...)