A Full Launch.
A summer off and a month of vacation were an excellent way to spend a hot summer’s break off-Island! Our first stop was to visit my family in Oregon. Then to Alaska for sight seeing, FISHING – Halibut & Salmon, and more sight seeing! Every week was BEAUTIFUL!!! Every week was AWESOME!!!
As Andy mentions in his ‘back-to-work’ entry at A Darkerview.com: “Long vacations seem to be common here in Hawai’i, particularly when flying to the mainland. When purchasing tickets, families tend to make the best of the expense and do everything in one trip. The result is that many vacations are measured in weeks, not days.” I am very glad we optimized our travel like we did and also arranged a visit ‘home’ then to Alaska! 🙂
The call came while still away off-Island, “Are you still interested in working here at the School? Please call me quickly to let me know. I have vacancies to fill and we start SOON!” My reply was made as soon as I was within Cell coverage again, “YES, I am interested!” I was asked to sign in the Monday following my return, August 3, 2009 (the first day of School). How exciting! I was so there!
Having the summer off meant that the ordeal of Email and paper pile-up causing, “No real work accomplished, just the task of catchup and restarting everything” that Andy dealt with so well was not an issue that I had to bear upon my return to work at the school. I was greeted by many “genuine expressions of welcome” and shouts of recognition by students as well as teachers.
It felt good to be back and even better to be remembered with such enthusiasm! The Bear Cub Hugs are a real treat, too!
The unnamed beach where we made our entry. Photo by Andrew Cooper
Yep! Four-Wheel Diving on May 31, 2009 along the North Kohala Coast on the Big Island! Okay. Maybe the vehicles didn’t get wet; but it was quite the road to get to the dive site! 😉 Will we make it back up after we have exhausted ourselves in the dive?
Everyone in today’s group met at Kohala Divers at 9:30am, and we caravan up the Kohala Coast from there to find our dive spot for the day!
An Urchin shell becomes home to a small, very fast entity at 46ft.
We’re all here! We gather some suggestions from the dive shop personnel and we’re off!
~Check out one possible: Mmmm…NOPE.
~Check out next possible: Bump, thump…Mmmm…YIKES! No way!
~Check out third possible: Watch that first bit off the highway … umph … bump … ka-thump … Hmmm … this looks passable. Uh, oh … didn’t see that one coming … well, hmmm, hey, it wasn’t that bad … Hooray, we are almost there! Ummmm … how do we get down THAT? Ah ha, there it is … Whew … we made it!
This is p r e t t y! WOW! Let’s gear up and go diving! FIRST, we scout the area to get familiar with our surroundings and to find the best path of entry that is safest for marine life and for us!
Thomas is carefully taking a CLOSER look into the reef.
Okay, now let’s gear up and go diving! Slippery entry where the rocks have a thin layer of alga; but take it slow, one step at a time and the entry is fairly easy. Hmmm, the water is warming up as we move into summer. A little murky close into shore; but looks promising out a bit further on the reef – way out from shore. Oooooh! Now that is a pod of dolphins – spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris longirostris) that is! My camera was not ready 🙁 But Andy’s was! If he ever puts it back on his blog, you can Check out his entry at DarkerView.com!
Bubbles over a Coral Seascape. Looking up from about 35ft.
Yes! We are starting to see more fish and less murk! 🙂 Okay, this looks good! Let’s go down here! When I get to the sandy bottom at 46ft, I find an Urchin shell that became home to a small, very fast entity that was in and out of the coral around it, then BACK in the Urchin shell. I was not fast enough (nor was my camera) to snap a picture of it in the short time that I dallied so an ID was not possible and there was so much more to see before I breathe my air tank to its safe limits. The sandy bottom and coral ‘walls’ along its sides made an interesting channel to explore.
Eeeeek! We both seem to exclaim as I nearly put my gloved hand right on top of him in one (1) foot of water?! A Snowflake Moray (Echidna nebulosa).
Even though the sand did not have any life in evidence and it took a little while to get to where more fish were hanging out, the coral made it very picturesque! Towers or mounds here and there. Low coral ridges dotted about the sea floor. Although pictures cannot begin to do its beauty justice (even after some modifying), I did my best to capture an essence of what the dive was like in person!
Despite the particles and murk in the water, it was still something special to see!
Then we had made our way around a point of coral reef and found LIFE – Marine Life! The fish that had been scarce until now, some shells that still housed their inhabitants, live Urchins; and down in some caves, some LARGE Lobster, and other night dwellers! I photographed a Crown-of-Thorns Star (Acanthaster planci) at 30ft and it turned a nice red because I ‘Flashed’ it.
On my way to shore to get out of the water and make our way to lunch, I literally stumbled across a Snowflake Moray (Echidna nebulosa) by almost landing a gloved hand right on top of him or in his mouth as it would have been! Glad I still had my face in the water and was able to take pictures instead! 😀
Now to find my land legs again… What a great dive!
For those with concerns of what became of our…errrr…Cliff’s unexpected hitchhiker, here’s the rest of the saga:
Cliff Livermore’s newly refinished 24″ dob in heavy use after a successful Gecko eviction & assembly completion.
Background Information: On March 27, Cliff Livermore brought his 24″ newly refinished Dobsonian telescope to the VIS at 9200 feet to use while participating in the 2009 Messier Marathon. (Refer to the postings on A Darker View, Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station (the VIS) and my blog right here, Gadget Gypsy, for more in depth details of the whole 2009 Messier Marathon event at the VIS). Cliff is one of several of us who brought our telescopes for this marathon; but his was the only one that got so much attention and not solely because of the unexpected hitchhiker. You might understand why after examining the photo.
An unexpected hitchhiker [Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris)] on the 24″ Primary of Cliff’s newly refinished telescope.
During assembly of the 24″ Dob, the Primary mirror is near the beginning of the checklist in the order of assembly; and when that item on the checklist was reached, the mirror box was carried over and placed in a strategic position near the chosen site to make it easier to place on the “rocker box” for the telescope after the truss tubes and secondary cage assembly have been secured in place. The mirror cover was lifted off of the box and several bystanders erupted into laughter.
Cliff had turned to pick up a necessary piece for assembly when he heard the laughter and visibly stiffened a bit. He turned quickly back to his “Primary Gecko” … ummm … I mean his Primary Mirror and joined the chorus of laughter while asking us and the hitchhiker not to move until pictures could be captured!
“Yikes! I didn’t call for First Light!,” says a Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) on Cliff’s 24″ Primary.
There was a large Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) crouched on the very shiny mirror surface! After we had taken multiple pictures and had several viewers of the Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) on the Primary mirror, it decided to attempt a run for cover. I managed to coerce the cold, confused Gecko into a plastic jar that I thought I had taken up with me to put leftover pecans in after I had opened the new bag :-O I put the jar in a warm spot in the VIS to keep it from getting too cold (or frozen as the temperatures dipped below 32 degrees F) and then took it back to Waikoloa with us.
Saturday morning, March 28: Before we headed down the mountain, however, we had breakfast at HP and talked story of the events and happenings of the long, cold and fascinating night. During this time, the Gecko was safely (al beit, a bit cold…no…make that VERY cold) in our vehicle awaiting the journey back to warmer habitat. The Gecko got cold enough that it went deep into a state of torpor and appeared to have been taxidermied with all four legs in the air – EEEEW! Although I knew of this state of ‘temporary hybernation’, I had never seen any living being actually in the state of torpor before. It worried me because I hadn’t considered what torpor would actually look like. Breathing slows soooo far that it could easily be mistaken for dead. Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) awaiting fate.
How does one spend Valentine’s Day when married to an astronomer?
Volunteer
Well, Andy and I volunteered at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) on Mauna Kea where we cleaned and repaired the station’s telescope eyepieces!
Before we set to work on the large task ahead that filled the rest of our day, Andy ‘got’ us lunch at Hale Pohaku 😉 Well, actually lunch was provided by the VIS for our volunteer time; but we were spending the time together on Valentine’s Day!
Andy and I methodically cleaning all of the eyepieces for the VIS .
After lunch, we made our way back down to the VIS and gathered up all of the eyepieces. At the classroom/warehouse, we collected our tools and cleaning supplies and set up for the several-hour task ahead.
The tunes were the first order of business that we set up to keep us company. Then we organized the table with cleaning supplies, tools and eyepieces – MANY eyepieces.
My first Tele Vue 16mm Naglar eyepiece of many parts that I had the pleasure of cleaning.
We kept notes for each make of eyepiece as we took it apart and sketched the order and direction of each lens and spacer so we were sure to put them back together in the right order and orientation.
It felt odd at first to take apart such nice elements of manufacturing; but I soon found that keeping the notes and carefully documenting each new configuration, the task was quite enjoyable. In fact, I enjoyed the challenge a great deal.
In pieces to better clean it throughout. No need to mark the field lens on this one, it had a Fractured chip to mark it.
It was also fun to get the lenses clean and fiber free then to succeed at getting all the pieces back together again, in the correct order; and still have it remain fiber free between the lenses 😀
![An unexpected hitchhiker [Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris)] on the 24" Primary of Cliff's newly refinished telescope.](http://gadgetgypsy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/OA33-44-09087-Dm-200x150.jpg)
