Gemini North & Mauna Kea

This image features the Gemini North telescope during laser guide star operations (LGS). This time lapse image consists of roughly 40 images edited together to create a star trails image, with an attenuation on the earlier images, which makes the earlier images appear to fade out. Shot near the summit of Maunakea, the glow of nearby Waimea can clearly be seen reflected in the low cloud cover. Also prominently featured in the image are the new photovoltaic (PV) panels that have been installed at all of the Gemini Observatory facilities.

Esta extraordinaria fotografía muestra los domos de Gemini Norte (al frente) y del telescopio Canadá-Francia-Hawai'i en la penumbra antes del amanecer. La imagen, obtenida durante el "COLOSSOS Large and Long program" sobre el estudio de los colores de los objetos del Sistema Solar, muestra a la Vía Láctea arqueada por encima de los domos como un caballete cargado de nieve.

This remarkable photograph shows the Gemini North and Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope domes in the pre-dawn twilight. The image, taken during the COLOSSOS Large and Long program program studying the colors of of Solar System objects, shows the Milky Way arching over the domes like a snow-laden trestle. The crescent Moon (the bright object at right) is being caressed by the delicate band of zodiacal light — a belt of dust in the plane of the inner Solar System illuminated by the Sun. 

El domo del telescopio de Gemini Norte parece desvanecerse en esta mágica imagen que utiliza un truco de fotografía para crear tal ilusión. 

El domo "invisible" se logró tomando una serie de imágenes digitales del domo de Gemini Norte a medida que rotaba con su "shutter" abierto. Las imágenes fueron fusionadas en un solo cuadro para crear la ilusión de la mitad de una concha. 

The dome of Gemini North almost vanishes in this magical image that utilizes a trick of photography to create the illusion. 

The “invisible” dome was made by taking a series of digital images of the Gemini North dome as it rotated with the shutter open. The images were then merged into a single frame to create the illusion of a half shell. 

The effect presents a fully unobstructed view of the 8-meter Gemini North telescope nestled on its altazimuth mount — a view that would be impossible to capture otherwise. 

The 8-meter Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope is located near the summit of Hawai‘i’s Maunakea — a long dormant volcano rising 4,214 meters into the dry, stable air of the North Pacific. Gemini North was designed and built, in part, to provide the best image quality possible from the ground for telescopes of its size. 

This remarkable photograph shows Gemini North (foreground) and the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope domes in the pre-dawn twilight. The image, taken during the COLOSSOS Long and Large program studying the colors of the Solar System, shows the Milky Way arching over the domes like a snow-laden trestle. The crescent Moon (the bright object at right) is being caressed by the delicate band of zodiacal light –– a belt of dust in the plane of the inner Solar System illuminated by the Sun.

This long-duration fish-eye view of the Gemini North telescope facility shows the propagation of the laser guide star (LGS) laser on the night of May 21, 2010. Featuring the sky over Mauna Kea (looking north), the glow of both dusk and dawn, as well as star trails, fill the sky and provide a backdrop for the orange glow of the Gemini LGS laser as it tracks through the sky. The LGS laser from the W.M. Keck Observatory and the peak of Haleakalā on Maui can be seen on close examination of the image. The bright streak on the left is the setting moon.

Here is a recent image taken of the Gemini North Observatory on Mauna Kea while propagating the Adaptive Optics Laser Guide Star into the heart of the Big Dipper.