1/31/2024 0 Comments Haleakala observatoryI'm probably missing something but that's what I know about.The cost for entering Haleakala National Park is $10 per vehicle. Down the hill a bit (not visible from the summit building) is the Faulkes/Las Cumbres telescope and one of the ATLAS telescopes which operates in tandem with another on Maunaloa (I think ATLAS are also UH telescopes). There is a NASA satellite laser ranging station behind Mees-it's cool to see their bright green lasers at night, probably more likely on a weekday night (AEOS also uses lasers but I haven't been there at the right time to see it). Pan-STARRS, Zodiacal Lights and the Mees Solar Observatory are more directly operated by UH, although of those only Pan-STARRS is really active (looking for asteroids/threats to Earth). DKIST (aka NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope) is operated by National Solar Observatory which is part of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). Their largest telescope is AEOS (the big silver tuna can). The largest complex belongs to the Air Force (kind of partially Space Force now?) and tours are not common. UH is responsible for the overall property but the different facilities are operated by a number of agencies. Other than that, your only chance is if you know someone. Employees could arrange tours for friends and family, but all tours are shut down due to CoVID right now. Strive for better, right!ĭKIST (the big white dome) is planning to have public tours for ages 16+ at some point, but I don't know when. I’m not being a jerk about the light pollution here or mocking it only being a Bortle 2. So some telescopes, depending on type, are excellent if they are outside our atmosphere entirely, in space- hence the Hubble Space Telescope and upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. So at the top of Haleakala, for example, you have pretty dark sky with minimal nearby pollution and usually really steady skies- a great combo. However, bright objects like planets aren’t impacted by light pollution, but they need really steady skies/no turbulence or they are blurred and look like they’re almost jumping around in the eyepiece. A faint nebula will not pop out and be easily visible if there’s too much light pollution. Deep sky objects are actually ok with some turbulence, but they need it to be dark. But it also depends on what you’re looking at. Generally, the more “twinkly” stars appear, the worse the atmospheric conditions for observations in a telescope. There are great forums that explain this better than I could- cloudy nights. Wind and incoming/recently passed low vs high pressure systems impacts it as well but that’s (pun intended) above my head. The higher elevation will get you to thinner parts of the atmosphere so you have less atmosphere to look through. Other factors for great seeing include atmospheric turbulence. Also, I’m sure the sign is right! The Atacama Desert in Chile, Canary Islands, places away from light pollution and at high elevation basically :) but I dunno what the sign thinks the other 3 better places are? The ones I names are great for observations but all also have cultural issues with building observatories, which need to be respected. Zarjaa is right! The darkness is one factor for seeing, but there are many things at play. Maybe Grand Canyon? Generally, I think of the Midwest states and the national parks - they all typically have low Bortle ranks because they are removed from the big cities. I think Death Valley is one that always gets spoken about. The others, not sure what their reference is - but there are a few other national parks that are renowned for low Bortle. But I highly doubt they truly think negatively about it, as you pointed out - there are very few places is as low a Bortle rank. I'm sure the negative connotation you picked up on likely stems from the unfortunate light pollution that gets picked up from the cities. Those who are passionate about astronomy/photograph want as low a Bortle rank as possible. High Bortle rank is more light pollution and therefore not much visibility, you might see a planet or very bright stars but highly unlikely other celestial objects. Low Bortle rank is lots of darkness and therefore lots of celestial objects can be observed (many with the naked eye even).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |