Monday, August 20th - CFHT and Keck (again)
Another early morning awaited us as we rose from our beds at 5:15 am and began preparing for another long day of shooting. We were well rested and relaxed from Sunday’s adventures down on the beach, but now it was time to get back to business. Krista, Steve and Bruce headed up the mountain towards the CFHT this morning to catch the changing out of the telescope’s primary mirror while Kris stayed behind and worked on tweaking the script for the companion planetarium program we are developing. At CFHT, Bruce was allowed to put on his specially issued hard-hat and enter the dome to capture some footage of the engineers moving the mirror from the telecscope. Steve and Krista left the dome and spent the morning cruising around the summit capturing last-minute b-roll of the telescopes and the summit’s history. They even climbed the true summit to get a shot of the altar made at the top of the mountain. They got some great footage on their last full day on the island.
In the evening, it looked like another normal night for the crew. They returned to the Keck Observatory to get some shots of the interior with telescope movement. Laura Kinoshita was our guide once again and was very generous in allowing us to get footage inside the Observatory’s “mirror barn”, the room that houses, cleans and prepares the telescope’s mirrors. We also set up our plan-o-cam to catch our final sunset on Mauna Kea that turned out to be a beautiful one.
Our night’s finale was experienced by our producer, Kris Koenig, who took his digital 35mm camera up to the summit and took time-lapse pictures of some of the telescopes’ lasers. The lasers on the telescopes are used to either get rid of the sodium layer in the atmosphere or to create an “artificial star” which helps the telescope to focus its mirrors on a fixed point in the heavens. Gemini, Subaru and Keck all have laser systems that are regularly used. All would have gone perfectly well if he hadn’t gotten a flat tire of all things on the third switchback on his way up the mountain, while cruising and enjoying the beautiful night. He changed the tire and made it safely back to Hale Pohaku lodge, without his picture, but with a story for this blog.
Tomorrow will be our last day on the island. We will complete our week with one final interview with Dr. Rolf Kudritzki and our final drive up to the summit. Join us tomorrow for more of our island adventure.