09/06/2024
Bortle? What’s a Bortle?
Meet Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain on the Planet Earth, 33,000ft from ocean floor to top with13,796ft sitting above sea level. Only Mt. Everest reaches higher into the heavens, 29,029ft high yet shy of the world’s tallest mountain.
‘The summit of Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii hosts the world’s largest astronomical observatory, with telescopes operated by astronomers from eleven countries. The combined light-gathering power of the telescopes on Mauna Kea is fifteen times greater than that of the Palomar telescope in California — for many years the world’s largest — and sixty times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.’ https://www.maunakeaobservatories.org/
Mauna Kea is considered to be among the darkest places on Earth for stargazing. Remember an earlier post, she’s a Bortle 1. See link below.
Storytime
As stories often begin…’a long, long time ago…on the Big Island of Hawaii, we adventurers (a friend and myself) found our way to the 9,200ft MK Visitor’s Center. There was said to be a night sky tour, and not just any night sky tour, but one to behold as it was under one of the darkest skies in the world. And so, it was! We adventurers were mesmerized and for the next several years (during out extended stays) we volunteered at what is called, the VIS. These nights of wonder for us began about three years before Covid. After Covid the volunteer program was no more. Sad for us, but by this time we were hooked with searching the night skies for glorious wonders.
Post Covid, I hired a Milky Way photographer to teach me this mysterious skill. It was 2am on a dark, cold and windy night. We felt as if bathed in the stars. Shaking with the cold, teeth chattering, and learning, so filled with joy. It was amazing and changed the course of my life. Since that night, Milky Way trips and night skies. Idaho, Washington, Utah – road trips, flights, dark sky parks and my front yard patio. Bortle 2 skies and Bortle 6’s, doesn’t matter, just keep learning, shooting and having fun.
Susanscherrphotography. com Reach me at 206 200 6726.
Image: Mauna Kea Milky Way/Kilauea erupting in distance.
Next time – The Canada France Hawaii Telescope – up close and personal!
http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/lp_bortle.html
https://hilo.hawaii.edu/maunakea/visitor-information/station
https://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
https://www.masoncounty.com/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/