Posts Tagged Hawaii
Suisan Fish Market, Hilo, Hawaii
Posted by Brad in Hawaii, Photography on 28 January 2009
The second in my long exposure series (Singing Bridge was the first), the Suisan Fish Market has been on my list of things to photograph for some time now.
Suisan Fish Market in Hilo, Hawaii
I think the photo works. Hilo’s street lights cast an orange pallor over the scene. The red neon from Suisan’s sign is a little drowned out, so possibly it could be recovered and bumped up in post-production.
The composition isn’t quite what I was going for, but that’s because I’d forgotten about the street lights in the area. You work with what you have, though!
Singing Bridge, Hilo, Hawaii
Posted by Brad in Hawaii, Photography on 12 January 2009
When leaving Hilo northbound along Highway 19, the first bridge you cross is the Singing Bridge over the Wailuku River. Just past it on the right is Bayshore Towers, where I lived for my first year or so in Hilo.
The other night I had some time to kill downtown, and since it was getting dark I thought I’d try my hand at some long-exposure photos. This photo was one of the results.
Singing Bridge in Hilo, Hawaii
It probably would have turned out better had I been 15 feet taller. Oh well.
White Christmas in Hawaii
If you thought about a white Christmas, Hawaii would probably be the furthest from your mind. Bring it closer, because Hawaii has a white Christmas this year!
It’s a bit foggy at the summit of Mauna Kea but there is currently snow up there, as you can see in this picture from one of the webcams at Subaru:
Snow on Mauna Kea, as captured by the Subaru Telescope webcam.
The National Weather Service currently has a Winter Weather Advisory in place for Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, stating “expect rime icing of less than one quarter inch…along with snow accumulatino of one half inch or less.”
Merry Christmas to all my readers!
Hazards of Mauna Kea: Getting There
In the last couple of months I took two sets of friends up to the summit of Mauna Kea. I’m always sure to explain all of the hazards that come with being at 14,000 feet, but given I was the one driving I probably didn’t fully explain the hazards of getting to and from 14,000 feet.
Last night Tom was coming down Mauna Kea and came across an overturned truck. Like he says, it’s a good thing this crash didn’t happen about a mile further down the road, as that’s where when you go off the side you keep going and going and going…
A Basic Sunday Job
Posted by Brad in Chemistry, Environment, Hawaii on 14 December 2008
Living up in Volcano, away from civilization, we rely on catchment for our water. In our back yard is what looks like a pool with a cover on it. That’s our catchment tank, which is hooked up to the gutters on our roof. Rain comes off our roof and ends up in our catchment tank, where it’s then pumped into our house. We have three sediment filters and a UV filter to make the water safe to use.
Since we live in Volcano, the rain is acidic. Sulfur dioxide from Kilauea mixes with water in the air to give the rainwater a slight tinge of sulfuric acid. This means that the water coming into our house is slightly acidic. When that reacts with the copper pipes, we get copper sulfate, and it turns our bathtub blue.
Which brings me to today’s basic job. To counteract the acidity in the water I periodically add some baking soda to the tank. Today was three boxes mixed with hot water, dumped right into the catchment tank. See what I mean by basic?
First good winter storm
The first good storm of the winter is upon us. Oahu got hit this morning, with reports of rainfall in the four to five inches per hour amounts. We’re starting to get hit with it now. The road to the summit of Mauna Kea is closed, our daycrews left early to avoid getting trapped, and both UKIRT and JCMT are closed for the night. There are reports of ten-inch drifts up around UKIRT. We’ve been getting sporadic thunder and lightning here in Volcano.
All in all, a good time. :-)
Edit: For more information and pictures, go see Tom’s write-up and Andrew’s take on things.
Edit the second: The lightning is coming in from the west. Getting a little fast and furious now!
Vog in Hawaii
Posted by Brad in Environment, Hawaii on 08 December 2008
Probably unique to Hawaii, at least unique within the United States, is vog. Similar to smog, vog is formed by a combination of sulphur dioxide from Kilauea, oxygen, and water vapour. With the increase in gas output vog has made its presence felt more often recently. Living in Volcano, we notice vog all the time. Most of the time it affects communities such as Glenwood or Mountain View more than us, as the vog blows either over us or to the north of us, then descends onto these communities. Driving through it is like driving through a thick fog, but you get the bonus of sulphuric gas to make your throat hurt.
A good demonstration of how vog affects Hawaii comes from the MODIS instrument on two satellites in orbit around the earth. Their December 7, 2008 image of the day shows the bulk of Hawaii covered by clouds and vog. Clouds are obvious. Vog is the thick haze spreading to the north-west from the southern-most Big Island.
Clicking through to the high-res image shows two sources of heat on the Big Island, denoted by red boxes. The southern-most heat source is the Kilauea ocean entry near Kalapana. The northern heat source is a brushfire — you can even see the smoke plume drifting off to the west.
You can also clearly see evidence for the tropical inversion layer that makes Mauna Kea an excellent site for astronomy. The inversion layer keeps clouds and moisture below roughly 10,000 feet, and the summits of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Haleakala on Maui are well above this elevation. You can clearly see all three poking above the clouds.
[Thanks to Andrew for the original link to the MODIS page]
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