Darren Baskill just finished an observing run at UKIRT, and during his run did some time-lapse photography of UKIRT and Mauna Kea. He has a bunch of movies and photos up on this flickr set, but these two are my favourites:
In this one UKIRT is illuminated first by the setting sun, and then by the moon through the night. You can see stars and clouds drift across the sky, and UKIRT switching from target to target. This looked like a productive night, if a bit cloudy.
The second video shows the control room during the night. Thor Wold is one of our telescope operators whose job is to keep things running smoothly. All the monitors mean there’s a lot of information to keep track of during the night!










#1 by Tom on 08 September 2009 - 11:46 am
How come the hands on the clock don’t move?
#2 by Brad on 08 September 2009 - 12:12 pm
I think someone needs to file a fault. :-)