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Carey,
Just wanted to say thank you for your photos! I can get shots from my place but it means going out on the roof, plus you are much closer!
Given the forecast I doubt you'll have a good view until Friday, but please keep a lookout and let us know how the summit looks. I don't know how far down the snow level will be come Friday, but the skies should open up that day.
Tom
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The nasty stuff just moved in over Mauna Kea's summit. It'll be an interesting next 48 hours.
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Nasty? NASTY?!? You scullion. You rampallian. You fustilarian. I'm tickled at your catastrophe! (Sorry my British is bit dated
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I think "you rotten scoundrel" is the phrase you were looking for, or perhaps "a good-for-nothing bounder". In any case, it's a bit of a ripsnorter of a storm at the summit right now.
I'm planning to head up there on Saturday to survey the damage. I'll share pictures if things clear up as expected.
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Bounder - dog's bollocks that is, but horses for courses. Stone the crows, getting parky - don't fanny round, gen up nancy boy, have a butchers if it's all sixes and sevens. Best of British! Bob's your uncle, toodle pip!*
*not my first, or second (or even real?
language
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The clouds lifted just long enough to see how low on the mountain the snow is, couldn't see the top of the mountain still, but the snow was really far down the flanks this morning at about 6:45.
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Summit photos from a remotely operated camera at Keck:
http://darkerview.com/wordpress/?p=15184
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Today I was able to sneak a peek & image of Mauna Kea's new snow drape, but she would not allow a peek at the summit!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cda4lj4gzrg6ve...w.JPG?dl=0
There were some snow flurries (probably nothing sticking) down at the VIS
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Wow!! Good thing they are round in nature to take the wind/snow load! They look like snow globes! How do you keep, or how are you planning to keep the track clean of debris so you can operate the doors?
Community begins with Aloha
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Tink - good question. I can only really speak for UKIRT, and we simply have to let the sun melt the ice. Some areas can be scraped clear of ice, but some areas remain inaccessible until the dome can be rotated. As you can imagine, we have to wait for the ice to melt on the dome tracks before that happens otherwise we could cause serious damage. The top of the dome is an issue too, as the ice has to be cleared from that region as well or else risk large blocks of ice falling onto the primary mirror.
Unfortunately, the winds were westerlies, so the worst ice build up is on the west side of the dome which only gets sunlight towards the end of the day, so we'll likely remain closed for a few more days even if the weather is good.
If we can get up there tomorrow (the road is still impassable) we'll asses the situation then, and again on Saturday.
