The Honeymoon - Hawaii (The Big Island)
Mauna Kea Sunset - Page 2
After reaching the summit of Mauna Kea I jogged back to Jamie and watched an incredible sunset. Though Haleakala in Maui is famous for its sunrise, the sunset seen from Mauna Kea is just as brilliant if not better. We were surprised that none of our guidebooks had even mentioned this adventure. We watched the sky fill with all kinds of pinks, reds and oranges. Along with this brilliant light show, we had a view of Mauna Loa and even Haleakala in the distance. Too soon it seemed, the sun had set and we headed back down the mountain with no headlights so that the observatories would not be disturbed.
We stopped part of the way down and did some some star gazing with the guide's eight inch telescope. Even with out the telescope the star gazing was amazing - billions and billions of stars. When we were so cold we couldn't stand it anymore, the group continued down the mountain, back to the Onizuka vistors center and looked at the heavens through their large telescopes. We got to see the Andromada Galaxy which looked more like a fuzz ball than distant galaxy. All in all, this was an incredible trip and again we were shocked why the guide books had ignored it.
Sunset from summit of Mauna Kea
Haleakala (Maui) in distance and NASA infrared Telescope
Kech telescopes, Maui and NASA infrared telescope
Sunset and Subaru telescope
End of Sunset
Us on Mauna Kea with the summit in the background
Mauna Kea Sunset - Page 1 <- Big Island Adventures -> Volcano Village
Wedding -> Honeymoon -> The Big Island
September 19, 2001