11/09/2022
I lied, i have more Mauna Kea for you!
Ever since we first went up this mountain in 2018, I’ve been dying to take a photo like this. Kilauea was erupting that year which meant that there was too much light pollution for the telescopes to operate. But that also meant we could stay at the top for as long as we wanted.
Unfortunately we were not prepared. You don’t think Hawaii would get cold but on the top of Mauna Kea it can fall below 30 degrees. I also had no camera gear at the time so i spent most of my time in the heated car, which i regret everyday, because my dad was able to capture one of my favorite pictures ever taken. (pictured second).
We came back a year later, and that time I was prepared to capture everything, as I had finally geared up with snow jackets and cameras.
But failure struck again. We were kicked off the mountain immediately after sunset. No volcano meant no light pollution. This meant better stargazing but also operating telescopes. However, this was a blessing in disguise as a member of our group hadn’t realized she had symptoms of altitude sickness, which meant we had to get down the mountain fast.
Cut to 2022. We’re back on the big island. My brother and I have upgraded our gear with new cameras and a goal to capture what we saw in 2018.
Knowing we would be kicked off the mountain at sunset, we got the inside scoop from a ranger who told us about this little spot we could go after sunset which isn’t far from the top of the mountain.
Finally, stargazing again on Mauna Kea. We spent about 2 hours at this spot (i could of spent the whole night) and this is the result. The fact is, you can see this with your bare eyes. Mauna Kea has some of the best star gazing I’ve ever seen, and you don’t need a camera to see this beautiful sight.
We’ll be back to Mauna Kea soon, and we will see how this story continues.
