Inside the Subaru Telescope
Visiting the largest japanese telescope on Hawaii.

The Japanese Subaru (pronounced Sumaru) Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii is an impressive building. It is the flagship of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and was named after the open star cluster Pleiades. This is the reason for the seven stars in the Subaru sign.
We were lucky to get on one of the rare tours in English language.





When you get into the observatory the first thing you get is a helmet. On a model, we got an overview about the telescope. The Subaru Telescope is the home of an 8,2m large mirror, which had to be polished for a couple of years. Until 2005 it was the world’s largest of its kind.




In the basement of the observatory you find a huge concrete platform on which the telescope is standing rock solid.




The door to the universe. During the night, the Subaru Observatory open the gates.




This view is just breathtaking, here I was standing in aw for a couple of minutes. The Subaru Telescope in all its beauty in blue.




A Japanese technician who was making some adjustments to the configuration of the telescope.




To capture the telescope and the technician in one picture I had to create a panoramic shot, that huge is this high precision machine.




Comparison in size between the telescope and myself. Just a little bit bigger than my star tracker.




Unbelievable how much hardware is needed to operate such a huge telescope.




This is a wide-angle view of the bottom of the telescope.




On the balcony of the observatory you have an amazing view. The summit of Mauna Kea is most of the times above the clouds.




Next door the W.M.Keck observatory was built. The most powerful observatory on the Hawaiian Islands. In each orb, a 10m mirror is mounted. The mirrors are composed of 36 hexagonal segments. Each night they are looking for new galaxies together.




Further down the mountain one of the most beautiful observatories is situated, the Caltech Submillimeter Telescope.




Beautiful sky at 4139m.




Another interesting site is the Submillimeter Array, which contains eight submillimetre antennas. In this picture you can seven of them.




On top of Mauna Kea at night is one of the most spectacular views you can have. In this picture, you can see the Milky Way with a very strong airglow.




For mor information check the website of the Subaru Telescope: https://subarutelescope.org
Gianni Krattli - 29.06.2017

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