Notes from Hale Pohaku

There's of course loads to write, so this is just a very quick report! I finally slept longer than usual this morning (6 hours), which was great, but even though this location (Hale Pohaku, the mid-way facility with lodging and food for the owls (astronomers)) is not as high as the summit of Mauna Kea, it is still high enough to make you lose your breath if not moving slowly. So now, time for a quick dinner, and then going up to the summit and JCMT for another night (12 hours!!!) of observing. This is my 3rd night, and it's been amazingly fun to learn so much at such a short time (and to actually grasp it as well - feels very efficient). A funny thing that I didn't know before, is how projects (to be observed) are scheduled, depending on the weather. First night we actually had too good weather for our galaxies in the start of the evening! And last night, we started up with totally excellent weather (i.e. too good), which deteriorated in a rapid speed and became too bad for our project (!). This is governed by the amount of humidity in the air, and the more there is, the harder it is to get good data. Anyways, since I am starving, I'll just post a few pictures. Could you ever imagine this much snow on Hawai'i?


The lodging at Hale Pohaku. And in the bakground is the slope of Mauna Loa, the huge flat volcano in the south


On our way up to the summit, with the setting sun in the background. Obviously these photos can't really make justice to how it really looks like... :) It's rather grand, to say the least!


Upon leaving the telescope building the morning after the first night of observing... the light was just divine!


The sun is happily trying to keep you awake! And with great success - I had no wish to go to bed anymore when being blinded like this.


Here's a view a little from above, showing JCMT in the middle (the white cylinder - it contains a 15 m antenna)

If anyone wants to see JCMT observing in action, check out this camera (apparently it has won price for most boring webcam in the world - can't see why though. Especially not now when I'm in it...)

Almost Christmas

My mom sent me this picture:


Safely arrived back to Winnipeg yesterday. It's pretty decent weather actually (-5 then, -9 now). I mean, it could be worse. It's a good thing there are so many wonderful people here. It is also a good thing I return to Hawaii in 2 weeks. Without David though, but hopefully I'll be rather busy.

Oahu moments

View from Waikiki (1 block from our hotel - a hotel we luckily got upgraded to, since the room we had booked in the original one was broken somehow). Yesterday was a day of contrasts. Leaving this (approx -25):
And arriving to the opposite temperature here (approx +25):


Today we rented a car, visited church (the building was amazing!), and went around Oahu. My favourite place was the Laie temple, built in 1919, reminding somewhat of the Cardston temple.


We also saw pineapples at a plantation and studied the vegetation quite a bit.
It is evening time, and David keeps falling asleep due to the jetlag.

Winterpeg -07

It's early December, and we have the winter I dreamt of when I was little. If there were hills, I'd surely go play in the snow. -28 this morning, and yesterday snowing without end - sounds like an excellent time to go to Hawaii. So, on Saturday, it's time.. :) All according to plans formed when I was 4. It's actually a rather special feeling, to have something come true that was planned so long ago. This morning, the sun was surrounded by icy halos, very pretty :) I ccan still see one over the tower through my window. It's Sinter Klaas day today! D and I realised we needed to combine our traditions somehow, so we'll simply do both Sinterklaas and Julafton!

In other news: LOADS of lab reports to grade.

it's an entire galaxy!!!

Saturday evening, a friend and I decided to try out a telescope I got for the Let's Talk Science program a while ago. Since it is November, and Manitoba, being outside at night becomes far more agreeable when dressing right, so even though it was just around zero degrees, I equipped myself with three layers on my legs, and 5 on upper body (including wool, fleece and a downjacket as the crowning piece. A friend of mine let me "inherit" a pair of horse skin mittens. They are amazing - they manage to keep my hands warm, an accomplishment previously unheard of. Anyways, you get my point; it's important staying warm.
After learning the little quirks of the telescope, we managed to observe the comet Holmes (presently bigger than the sun..!) which due to its size actually was best observed through binoculars. Maiko was very impressed: "WOW! WOW! That's totally awesome!" etc. Slightly paraphrased perhaps. I was equally ecstatic about it. We also checked out Mars, the halfmoon, and M31 (the Andromeda galaxy). Now, a galaxy is cool. There's not many things cooler than a galaxy. And M31 is a very pretty specimen. From a small telescope like ours, it looks however mainly like a fuzzy elongated... fuzzball. The following conversation thus took place:
Maiko, upon observing fuzzball galaxy for first time, slightly disappointed: "That's IT?"
Heather, somewhat exasparated: "It's an entire GALAXY!" This gave me the giggles... But it turned out an eye-opener for me too. Maybe I've grown too used to what's going on in my life. What is it really we are looking at? From where? And how? Every trial of writing down that feeling of incredible awe turns out halfbaked. But seriously... it's an entire galaxy!!!!!