Pu'u Poliahu


Click on a location on the map below to see that section of
the island from Mauna Kea at night. Clicking on Mauna Kea
will bring you to the Mauna Kea Observatories web site.
Click HERE for a small image of the entire mosaic (663x542 GIF), or
Click HERE to see a full resolution image of the mosaic. (4223x3455 JPG)

Honolulu Maui Kawaihae Waimea Honoka'a Mauna Kea Kailua-Kona Mauna Loa Hilo Kea'au Pu'u 'O'o North South East West

Examples of light seen from Mauna Kea:
About the Mosaic Image

There are 17 images in the two strips of the night view of the island as seen from the catwalk of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Most were taken during time when the Moon was not in the sky. The remaining two (that including the IRTF dome, and that showing moonset) were taken during times of bright moonlight. The one showing IRTF has been artificially dimmed. The image of the Mauna Loa lidar was underexposed and has had its contrast enhanced to show its position in the night sky. Eleven of the 17 images were taken with a small diffraction grating mounted to the front of the camera lens. This allows identification of the varying sources of light below the mountain. The diffracted spectra of several bright stars and planets are also visible (the direct images of some of which are out of the field of view).

I used ASA 200 Kodak 35mm print film. Most images are about 20 minutes exposure time with a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. The negatives were scanned to produce this combined image.

Map and Photographs by John McDonald.

CFHT