I think the whole point of the thread is for you to name the place if you think you know where it is and what it is, so I suggest you just go ahead and tell us; otherwise, everyone will keep saying, "I know where that is, but I won't tell you!" Then, when someone else gives the answer, it's "See, I knew it all along!"
Well, normally I would. But I have guessed quite a few of these already, and don't want "to take up all the oxygen in the room," so I'll just say this: (for now)
During one of the trips up to Mauna Kea with one of the professional tour companies with some visiting guests of ours quite a few years ago had this very informative and talkative "host" on the bus who told us all quite a bit about each of the telescopes. One of the other patrons on the bus with us was from Germany and was asking several questions in very hard to understand "Ger-English" when the topic of the two Voyager missions came up. From that point on, the all the host talked about was the Telescope MyManao's picture is of.
01-14-2026, 06:32 AM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2026, 06:43 AM by TomK.)
So just say what it is. If you know the answer, why not just say it? I'll explain the picture I posted earlier about putting one thing on top of another at the same time. No one's even tried a guess at that.
PS. Several observatories on MK, probably most of them, have worked with NASA on their planetary missions, including the Voyager missions.
So just say what it is. If you know the answer, why not just say it? I'll explain the picture I posted earlier about putting one thing on top of another at the same time. No one's even tried a guess at that. PS. Several observatories on MK have worked with NASA on their planetary missions, including the Voyager missions.
Trying to be a Team player here and let others participate and as they say, "there is no I in TEAM" but if you insist, it is the:
01-14-2026, 07:28 AM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2026, 09:16 AM by TomK.)
I recused myself from answering the question. I didn't recuse myself from the thread.
So,
1) The 1970s orange paint meant it had to be the IRTF (NASA doesn't own it; it's owned by the University of Hawaii). Orange and blue were the choices for telescopes built in the 70s (and Durian Fiend was getting there when he mentioned the Starsky and Hutch era hairstyle).
2) The secondary mirror gives it away; it's an infrared telescope. The secondary mirror (just above the guy's head) is undersized. Only infrared-dedicated telescopes use undersized secondaries. Optical and optical/IR telescopes use oversized secondaries to capture as much light as possible, but the edges of those secondary mirrors are warm and emit infrared radiation. Telescopes designed to work only in the infrared use undersized secondary mirrors so the emissive edges of the secondary are not seen by the primary mirror.
3) If you look closely, there's a reflected image of the UH 88-inch telescope on the primary mirror, so you can rule that telescope out.
In addition, let' assume the guy in the image is 6 feet tall. That gives the aperture size away. It's a 4-meter class telescope. Then consider where the photo is taken. It's outside the dome, so there has to be a place for the photographer to stand on. Couple that with the Uh 88-inch telescope reflection, there's a building to stand on at the IRTF to take the picture while reflecting the UH 88-inch. The sun is to the south, the shadows give that away, and there's nowhere to stand at UKIRT to take such a picture. No "professional tour guide" needed.
That leaves CFHT, IRTF, and UKIRT if you ignore the shadows. It's not CFHT because the dome is too small, the telescope is the wrong color, and you see the UH 88-inch in the mirror. It's not UKIRT, because although that ghastly orange color was used, the telescope was painted blue; only the mount has that horrible color. So only one telescope is left - The Infrared Telescope Facility.
