Puna, Hilo and Mauna Kea slide show

[pslamont]

Tom, that is the most glorious slide show I have ever seen. Thank you so much for sharing!

I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says

"Oh Crap, She's up!"

[oink]

quote:

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I have a question about the shot of Gemini north w/ the laser in Aug 09. While we camped in the eucalyptus forest at Hosmer Grove on Haleakala, we noticed green pulsating lights coming from the summit. It scared the c___ out of us. It was very late at night & VERY EERIE. Being an astronomer, do you have any idea what that was? It was in 2000 or 01.

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Tom,
What about the laser at the Mauna Loa observatory? Isn't it green? From Maui it could have appeared to have originated from Mauna Kea. When did that one go into operation?

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[Greg]

Awesome pictures Tom. I especially like the shots with kavena coming off the mountaintops. Reminds me of the tibetan flag.

Stoneface

[JonP]

Those are really beautiful, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing them. You are a very talented photographer. Do you sell prints?

[DoryGray]

Oops, my bad, I should have id'd which summit I was speaking of. We were looking at Haleakala's summit, not Big Island. Sorry for the lack of clarity in my question.

Dory

[TomK]

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments, very much appreciated! JonP - no, I don't sell prints, this is just a hobby. In fact I've only recently learned that my pictures from the summit can't be used commercially unless I obtain a permit from the Office of Mauna Kea Management. Apparently this applies to everyone visiting the summit. Oink - not sure about lasers on Mauna Loa (although it's moot now). I know they have lasers to measure cloud height but I don't know much about their operation. I've never seen lasers operating from there at night, but they could just be far too dim (the lasers on Mauna Kea are difficult to see with the naked eye, even from just a few hundred yards away).

DoryGray - my apologies for misunderstanding your question. I don't know what you saw but one thing comes to mind. On Haleakala's summit both NASA and the US military have lasers. I don't know an awful lot about them but they have been used in the past for lunar range finding (reflecting light off mirrors left on the moon during the Apollo missions) and for satellite range finding, even "star wars" experiments in the 90s. One of them I know is a "pulsed" laser and although operates in the infrared (so your eyes wouldn't see it) its secondary wavelength is 532 nanometres, which is the green part of the spectrum. I don't know if it's powerful enough to be seen by the naked eye easily, but that may have been what you witnessed. I really don't know for sure though.

Do you remember how fast the light was pulsating? E.g., was it very rapid or more like the beacons on an aircraft?

Tom

[mella l]

Fascinating thank you so much! I too favor the sun rays projecting over, off and or threw the clouds and mountains.

mella l

Paris London New York PUNA

[DoryGray]

Tom,

Thanks for your reply. They were medium rapidly pulsating, 2X a plane's lights. Also, they were very bright; stunning from the 7,000' elevation of Hosmer's Grove.
Thanks
Dory

[islandboo]

Tom, those are lovely! I have to agree with you about MaunaKea's shadow. The first time I saw the shadow it had a full moon rising up through it and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Mahalo for sharing.

[Chuysmom]

Thank you for sharing your photos. They are absolutely magical.

Carrie


"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." Galadriel - LOTR