Observatories on Mauna kea, Hawaii

[johndavies]

Aloha

I am an astronomer who worked for several years on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. I have noticed that the observatories on the mountain are not in the Fs2004 scenery. If anyone would like to model them as a scenery add-on I would be happy to help by sending photos, maps  or whatever you need for the project that I might have, or be able to get.  However, I've no FS modelling skills, all I can provide are images and advice.

[RollerBall]

Being a bit inquisitive, I found this link

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/images/aerial-tour/

Very interesting - so presumably you were working at an altititude of 13000 ft +. How was that with the oxygen level?

[johndavies]

Aloha

Yes you're right 'my' telescope was indeed at high altitude where the pressure of oxygen is down by 40% compared to sea level  We had an acclimatisation policy.  For short visits (a few hours) we would stop for a coffee and a short rest at our 'hotel' at 10,000 ft, staying about an hour at this pont. For overnight working -whixh is what astronomers do- we spent at least the night before at the 10,000 level to acllimatise. This always worked for me  
However, some nights its hard to tell if you're slowing down due to lack of oxygen or lack of sleep, but for sure at the summit running up stairs is harder than at sea level. For my  version of a virtual drive up the summit see http://www.roe.ac.uk/~jkd/mkdrive.html

[Bell206freak]

I noticed that too. I flew quite a bit of sim-time in Hawaii when I first got Flight Simulator 98, and then when I went straight from FS98 to 2004, I noticed that the observatories weren't there.

I did find the Mona Kea Observatories as freeware add-ons over at AVSIM. I installed them and they're pretty well rendered.  

Check the link out.

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DL ... fs2004scen

[johndavies]

Mahalo Nui Loa (thanks a Lot)

I didn;t find it 'cos I seached on Mauna Kea and it is filed as Mona Kea

Mauna Kea incidently means 'White mountain' 'cos when it snowed the summit turned white a for a few days or weeks.

I guess that closes this topic. Thanks again