Mid-way through our stay on Oahu, we flew across to Maui for a couple of days. Flying out of Honolulu to other islands you sometimes get great views of the Oahu coast. Mum took lots of photos on the way and despite the dirty windows of the aircraft she got some good ones. Here's one of Diamond Head and suburbs between it and the Koolau range. If you click on the image to get a larger zoom, you may see the lighthouse (on the coast, mid-image) and two of the old gun sites (higher up to the right). Maui is actually 2 shield volcanoes (classed as dormant) joined by a low plain. In the second photo you can see Haleakala shield volcano, a wide rounded mountain rising 10,020ft. There were 2 locations the Oldies wanted to see, Lahaina the old capital of Hawaii, and Haleakala Observatory. Being astronomers, their first target was the observatory. You can just see the white domes of the observatory on the closest volcano, above the cloud. The observatory is 10,000ft above sea level and is the forth-highest observatory in the world. The drive to the summit of Haleakala (House of the Sun) is steep in places and has great views over the island. We were above the cloud while we were there so the view below the summit was not visible, but on a clear day there are spectacular views of the crater and cinder cones of the volcano. The domes in the images house telescopes of the University of Hawaii, the USAF Space Surveillance Complex, and overseas observatories. The largest dome will house the 4m Daniel K Inouye solar telescope, due to be completed next year. Daniel Inouye was a Hawaiian war hero; the Honolulu international airport is named after him. The lower slopes of the volcanoes have some spectacular scenery, lava slopes and canyons. We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort, a great spot to relax on the lanai, sipping cocktails and watching spectacular sunsets.
Labels: astronomy, Hawaii, lighthouse, telescopes
# posted by Bart Bear @ 4:40 pm
