Because nothing else seems to be worth writing about today, I thought I’d continue the multimedia posting I’ve been experimenting on. So to fill the gap, I’ll post one or two pictures I took while on my vacation/honeymoon to Hawaii this past October. I’ll try to vary the pics up and won’t bore you with pictures of my wife and I. If I post about Hawaii, I’ll keep it to the naturesque parts.

This first picture was taken on Mauna Kea at sunset.

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain/dormant volcano in Hawaii and rises 13,796 feet above sea level. When measured from its base, under the ocean level, it is 9km high making it the tallest mountain in the world. A top the Mauna Kea summit, are the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy.

I took a group tour up the mountain to see the telescopes, enjoy the 32 degree weather, and hot chocolate before we descended down to do some star gazing in the famously clear Hawaii night sky. Its because the weather is so clear up on the summit – being above most cloud formations – and the little atmosphere that the observatories are there and its a great spot to do some high-tech astronomical research; it was so cool to see all those instruments up close and it made me wish I could spend every night up there.

But astronomy doesn’t pay the bills so I settled for the tour.

Here is one shot of the sunset I took just before there wasn’t enough light to take pictures at all: