Mauna Kea Observatories
- April 4, 2003
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Sweet Willie from Des Plaines, Illinois
The observatory at Mauna Kea? Sounds good to me--lets go! Tip one: take Waikoloa Road as a shortcut to Saddle Road. The concierge at the Hilton suggested going all the way up to Waimea before coming south to Saddle. Tip two: Saddle is a long and bumpy road but fine to take any car on (forget what your rental agreement says). Tip three: you know you are getting close to the turnoff for the Mauna Kea observatories when you pass a small military base with an airstrip--the turnoff is near mile marker 28. Total travel time from the Hilton to the observatories was about 45 minutes (I was driving fairly fast over the speed limit). They had 6 very, very high power telescopes, but only three were set up. I think someone had moved one because it really did not focus on anything, but the other two were incredible. One was turned to Jupiter; you could clearly see almost all of Jupiter’s moons and the “eye” of Jupiter. The other was focused on the three-star belt for the constellation Orion. The three stars sit within a nebula (think spider web effect)--just stunning. It is well worth the trip up here even though it is cold (45 degrees) and very windy. They also have some small displays set up inside a building and serve hot chocolate.
From journal Hawaii - Big Island, Lanai, Kauai