Aerial Tour of the Mauna Kea Observatories

New aerial photographs of the Mauna Kea Observatories were obtained in February 1998.

The first 10 photographs in these series show many (and in a few cases all) of the observatories at the top of Mauna Kea. The next series of photographs provide a closer look at some of the telescopes.

The photographs can be accessed from the index below, or can be viewed as a series using the arrows at the bottom of each page.

After looking at some of these photographs, you may wish to look at some of the aerial photographs of Mauna Kea Observatories in 1995 to see the changes that occurred between 1995 and 1998.

View the first photo.

Quick Index

1. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the Northeast
2. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the North - 1
3. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the North - 2
4. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the Northwest
5. Keck Telescopes viewed from the North
6. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the South
7. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the Southeast
8. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the West
9. Submillimeter Array viewed from the South
10. Mauna Kea Observatories viewed from the East
11. W.M. Keck Observatory viewed from the North
12. Subaru Telescope
13. Submillimeter Telescopes of Mauna Kea
14. NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
15. Mauna Kea Summit Ridge
16. Gemini Northern 8-meter Telescope
17. Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
18. Keck 2 Telescope
19. Hawaii Antenna of the VLBA
20. Hale Pohaku - Onizuka Center for International Astronomy
21. Mauna Kea Summit seen from above the access road
22. Mauna Kea Summit Ridge seen from the Northeast
23. Keck and Subaru Telescopes
24. Helicopter and Photographer

About these photos

• These photographs were taken from a helicopter on February 10, 1998 by Richard Wainscoat.
• The photographs were taken from altitudes between 13,300 to 14,500 ft; most were taken near 14,500 feet.
• It takes about 12 minutes to fly from Waimea to the summit by helicopter, and about 8 minutes to fly back. It takes about 2 hours by car.
• Most helicopters cannot land on the summit of Mauna Kea - it is too high. Although some helicopters may be able to land safely, they may be unable to lift off again.
• It was relatively warm when these photographs were taken - about 10 degrees Celsius at the summit. It was much colder in 1995 when the previous series of photographs were taken.
• Hawaii had a very dry winter because of El Nino - there was only a little snow when these photographs were taken. There is a lot more snow in the 1995 aerial photos.
• The image files presented here are each approximately 50-70 kbytes in size. With a 28.8 kbaud modem, each image should take 15-20 seconds to download. Each image measures approximately 650 pixels in its long dimension.
• These photographs are Copyright 1998 by Richard Wainscoat, All Rights Reserved. We hope that you have enjoyed looking at these photographs, but please note that further use of them is not permitted without written permission.

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