Personal Panoramic History, Part 2: 2009

Last time we looked at panoramas from Jordan, from 2008. In this post we'll skip forward to August 2009 (since apparently I didn't take any photos for a year and a half) when I moved to Hawaii at the tender age of twenty after completing two years of community college (and an Associate's Degree in Science) in order to finish my Bachelor's Degree at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. This year was a real life-changer! Moving out of my parents' home for the first time, coming to Hawaii where I would ultimately spend the next eight years, and being introduced to Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, my two favorite volcanoes—lots of stuff happened. So let's jump into…

August

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I don't have any pictures until August of 2009, but that's when I moved to Hawaii and I made up for by taking a pretty good number. And among them are three panoramas that I don't think I've ever shown before! When I flew out to Hawaii my mom came out with me for a week and we did some sightseeing, including my first trip to Volcanoes National Park, where these panoramas come from.

Puhimau Crater.

First up: a pit crater called Puhimau Crater found by the side of Chain of Craters Road in the park. It's not a particularly inspiring panorama, but I was obviously struck by the size of this giant gaping hole in the ground and tried to capture it in three photos. This panorama was only created while writing this post—it turns out that black lava rock plays havoc with your white balance and exposure, so I never bothered trying to stitch these together manually. Hugin, on the other hand, manages it amazingly well.

Kīlauea pali.

At the end of Chain of Craters Road, where it terminates in a lava flow after descending the steep pali (cliffs), I turned around and snapped this ambitious panorama (seven pictures!) of where we had just come from. If it looks hazy, that's because it was; Kīlauea was out-gassing significantly that day, so those aren't water clouds, that's sulfur dioxide and other fun gasses that volcanoes like to emit. I like this panorama (which like the one above was only made while writing this post) because it once again captures the immense flatness and and sheer breadth of Hawaiian volcanoes.

Kīlauea caldera.

Finally, another ambitious panorama of six photos, this one overlooking Kīlauea caldera itself, with Halemaʻumaʻu Crater just right of center spewing out noxious chemicals. This panorama I actually created manually all the way back in 2009, the day after taking the photos, though for some reason I omitted the left-most photo (with the fence and ʻōhiʻa tree); perhaps I found it too much work to integrate with the rest. Hugin had no problem with it, though, so that's the version you get today!

October

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September was apparently spent mostly settling in given its dearth of photos, but on October 9th I had my first opportunity to ascend Mauna Kea to the Visitor Information Station. I vividly remember the trip up that afternoon, because it had been cloudy and overcast in Hilo and all the way up until about maybe 7,000–8,000 feet, where we entered a thin layer of thick cloud for a bit only to suddenly explode out of it into a land of brilliantly beaming sunshine. The effect of that contrast was incredible, and the impression on me, indelible. In my many, many trips up Mauna Kea since then I've experienced the same thing two or three times, and it is awesome every time it happens.

I don't have panoramas from that first trip, but near the end of October, on the 26th, I had what I believe was my first chance to get to the summit of Mauna Kea.

Mauna Loa.

On the way up whoever was driving stopped the car on the side of Mauna Kea access road, allowing me to get out and snap this two-photo panorama Mauna Loa. Although I made these photos into a panorama manually a few days later, I don't think I was really thinking of it at the time or I'd definitely have taken at least a single additional photo on the left. Still, this one is right up there among my favorite panoramas I've ever taken. The serene calm of Mauna Loa beneath a few scattered clouds and cerulean sky, the green grass on the slopes of Mauna Kea, and right near the center of the image little Puʻu Huluhulu—he nani nō ia! (It's a wonderful thing!)

I'm often reminded, while looking at these panoramas later, of Isaac Watts' apropos hymn verse:

Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where'er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

Keck II and Maui from Mauna Kea.

The weather was cloudier at the summit where I took this small two-photo panorama, my first from the summit region of Mauna Kea. (I should clarify that when I say the “summit” of Mauna Kea I usually mean the large, relatively flat area near the actual summit—I've lost track of the number of times I've been to the summit area, while I believe I've only been to the true summit thrice, and only one of those times did I have a working camera with me.) This is actually a perspective I don't think I revisited, looking north from near the Keck observatories over the north plateau with Maui in the background on the horizon to left of center.

November

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November I continued my trips to Mauna Kea, and many of my pictures from that month reflect that. (The rest are a whole bunch of flowers—I guess because of the novelty of seeing flowers in bloom in November?—and a whole bunch exhaustively documenting my first attempt to cook a breadfruit into nachos.)

Hale Pōhaku, with Mauna Loa in the background.

Speaking of never-repeated perspectives, I think this is the only panorama I've taken from what I deduce must be the balcony outside the dining room at Hale Pōhaku. If you look closely you can see that the ridgeline of the building in the middle has a discontinuity—the two photos that make up this panorama were not enough, and quite divergent in exposure, so this is the best Hugin could do. I debated whether or not to put it up at all, but other than that glitch the image is pretty neat (well, it's overexposed on the right, but I like the view). The three buildings on the left are various dormitories for resident workers on the mountain to stay in, while the Visitor Information Station can be seen right of center.

The hill on the right is part of a series of three known as Puʻu Kalepeamoa, a Hawaiian name that means “cinder cone (puʻu) [that looks like] the comb of the chicken (ka-lepe-a-moa).” The summit of that hill is a popular spot for viewing the sunset, perhaps a quarter of a mile's hike from the VIS. It turns out, however, that that hill is merely the highest point in the rim of a large cinder cone, the second-highest point of which is visible here as the slightly lower hill in the middle of the image. The entire things is so large that I only first noticed its form while looking at the area on satellite imagery; in fact, the Access Road goes right through it just before reaching the VIS!

Mauna Kea summit observatories.

And here's my first panorama from the summit (region), of the summit (region, the true summit is behind the hill on the left). This is actually a hand-crated panorama which I literally cannot remake in Hugin, because some of the photos have gone missing since I made it. (I'm not sure if I deleted some of the less-interesting ones after making the panorama in a misguided effort to save storage space or what, but they're not there any more.) This panorama was taken from in front of the Keck observatory, and shows (at least a bit) of all the summit observatories there at the time. From left to right, we have the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Gemini North, the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope, Hōkū Keʻa, the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (currently being decommissioned, last I heard), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the control building for the SubMillimeter Array, Subaru, and the tiniest glimpse of the dome of Keck I.

December

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We round off 2009 with two more manually-created panoramas that I cannot reproduce due to missing images. I'm not sure why I decided to delete various source images after making a panorama, but I'm not happy with past me! Anyway, here are two panoramas from around dusk on December 13th:

Hale Pōhaku.

Another panorama of Hale Pōhaku from across the road at the end of the trail to the summit where it connects. Not much else to say other than that, no, those holes in the blue road sign are not bullet holes (as I was occasionally asked), they're there to protect the sign from the occasionally gale-force winds at this elevation. Also I love the background of the irenic sea of clouds. That above-the-clouds perspective is definitely one thing I miss in Australia.

Sunset from Mauna Kea.

My first attempt at a sunset panorama, and for being manually created I'm pretty happy with this one. To the left stands majestic Mauna Loa; in the foreground, mighty Mauna Kea; and, barely visible on the horizon, Hesperian Hualālai beside the setting sun. Very tranquil.

And with that we bid farewell to 2009! Join me for the next part covering 2010, where I don't make a whole lot of panoramas, but make a few decent ones with a bit of practice. A hui hou!