Talk:Mauna Kea Observatories

protests
Please don't use this page as a platform for protesting the Mauna Kea observatories. The opposition and protests are certainly relevant and deserve mention and links but they do not deserve to occupy a significant portion of this page. kanoa (talk) 01:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

stay
are scientists really required to stay at a lower elevation for a day? i drove up to the top without such a wait, but only for a short visit. a half hour wait at ~9000ft was recommended by rangers.
 * I also visited on a day trip, and had the stop over for an hour on the way up, no longer. Could it be different for those planning to stay at high altitiude longer? MartinRe 21:31, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Updated it to say half an hour, as have verified that is what is officially suggested. The same board that states this, also says that those under 16, pregnant women, and those with heart problems or in poor shape shouldn't go up. Is that also worth noting, or it thst more for a general altitude article? MartinRe 12:33, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Altitude and acclimatization
Hi guys,

I work on Mauna Kea, and in most cases, observers will spend a night at Hale Pohaku (9300') before spending however many nights on the summit (with the days in between spent sleeping at Hale Pohaku).

Most of the larger observatories provide similar acclimatization nights (spent either entirely at HP, or half there and half on the summit) for their operators.

Operators at smaller observatories (like the one where I work), as well as certain support people, will often get only 30-120 minutes of acclimatization at HP before working a night on the summit, but these represent a minority of the people working on the summit.

I'd be happy to help work out some good wording on this... and I'll also check over the article as a whole for any missing or incorrect info.

Aloha! :) Dan 11:51, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Historical note: Alika Herring
I seem to remember reading in Sky and Telescope about the discovery of Mauna Kea as an observing site. The story as I remember it was:-

A famously skilled optician named Alika Herring discovered the seeing on Mauna Kea was superb and wrote to a number of astonomers about it. Only one replied, Gerard P Kuiper. Kuiper being important, things happened.

It might be nice if someone added an accurate historical section in the main article. Man with two legs 17:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Mauna Kea: Observatories, not Observatory
The Mauna Kea Observatory does not exist by itself, there is a collection of Observatories on top of Mauna Kea. This is very well explained in the introduction of the article as well as in this link. Mauna Kea Observatory should be replaced by Mauna Kea Observatories.

It is however true that there is some oversight from the University of Hawaii (UH) who has the lease for the Mauna Kea Science Reserve from the State of Hawaii (see this link) and from the Office of Mauna Kea Management (OMKM) responsible for the management of the summit. Gellule 19:16, 15 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Looking around on Wikipedia, I notice that not only this observatory site, but also those at La Silla and La Palma have singular names (i.e. observatory instead of observatories), in spite of the fact that all three sites are home to quite a number of individual observatories. Is this related to the general Wikipedia policy which prefers article titles to be in singular form? In that case, I guess we should leave the title of this article as it is.
 * Cheers, MHD 13:18, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Is Pan-STARRS available?
Pan-STARRS  Thanks, CarpD 4/26/07.

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Page cleanup and neutral point of view
Can I ask for some help from editors with some factual errors and POV matters? I have an alleged (and likely correct) COI. I work for an observatory located on Mauna Kea but I'm not paid to edit and I have no affiliation with the management of Mauna Kea, the observatory complex, or the TMT.


 * "The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture." I don't think this is accurate. The Mauna Kea Ice Age Reserve includes an adze quarry that is listed on National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii but the astronomy precinct is not in the reserve. The entire mountain is a National Landmark but that does not mean it falls under the HPA.


 * In "Telescopes" the request for citation is because people often say there are 13 telescopes. Keck is usually counted twice. VLBA is well off the summit area so the typical assumption is that there are 13 telescopes on Mauna Kea and 12 in the summit region. The site is no longer proposed for PanSTARRS, which was built on Haleakela.


 * In "Origins and Background" "On the "Big Island" of Hawaii, Mauna Kea is considered the highest island mountain in the world." does not make sense to me. Mauna Kea is not the highest island mountain. If it means that people on the Big Island mistakenly believe that I'm not sure it is a noteworthy observation.


 * In "Origins and Background" notes about opposition to planned telescopes should probably be moved to the new section about opposition.


 * Oppositions and Protests. I feel that recent edits overly weight the significance of this subject and exaggerate the amount of opposition. I believe it should be noted and should include links for more information but I don't think it should take over the article. The new section is almost impossible to parse with references to an unidentified historical governor, hyperbolic claims about "the most visible example of the conflict western science has encountered". There is considerable mention of birds of which there are none in the summit area and the concerns of hunters, of which there are also none. The tone is not neutral; opposition groups are "non-profit groups" without mention that the observatories are also non-profit organizations. There is a redundant and presumably inaccurate mention of historical preservation.

Rename to "Maunakea Observatories"?
(not sure who are the right people to ask, for now pinging

The IAU's Minor Planet Center recently announced the adoption of the preferred spelling "Maunakea", which was recommended and adopted by the University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy back in 2014. Should we change the spelling to reflect this? Nrco0e (talk) 06:21, 14 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Does the MPC have anything to do with it? I see that the UH now calls it the "Maunakea Observatory", but still has "Mauna Loa Observatory", which is inconsistent. But the links there don't work. The main page is still "Mauna Kea Observatories". That page has "The summit of Mauna Kea" but also "The telescopes on Maunakea", and links to what may be a new Maunakea Observatories website. There's also the Maunakea Visitor Information Station. So it appears to be in flux. — kwami (talk) 06:29, 14 October 2022 (UTC)