HAWAII - Jim Colyer

In "Swim with Dolphins," I wrote, "I wanna see the stars, Mauna Kea's calling me." On September 13, 2003, I stood atop the extinct volcano 13,750 above sea level. "This is a beautiful sight," I thought. The mountain was brownish and stark, barren of vegetation. There was a Mars-like surrealism. I watched as the sun set above the clouds. I saw the stars. They blazed. The Milky Way, the plane of our Galaxy, arched brilliantly overhead. I was on the Big Island of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It gets no better than this. Hawaii is at 20 degrees northern latitude, so the north star appears lower in the sky and the constellation, Scorpius, higher than from Kentucky/Tennessee although nowhere near as high as from Australia where it gets straight up. I sensed the curvature of the earth. Mars was at its closest. It looked like Jupiter. I wondered why it was less red than when it was farther out. "The increased sunlight hitting its surface neutralizes its redness," our guide said. The moon rose. I like astronomy and got to see a bit of everything. 13 telescopes spread across the summit of Mauna Kea. There are two Keck domes and the Japanese telescope called Subaru. Subaru is Japanese for "The Pleiades." The University of Hawaii and Caltech run Mauna Kea. It is the only large observatory I have seen. I was above 40% of our atmosphere's oxygen, 90% of its water vapor. It misted at the visitor's center on the drive up. Rainbows were everywhere. I felt invigorated. Beauty heals.
Contact: jim@jimcolyer.com