"What we have here is a complex, interwoven landscape full of diversity," Ho explains as we head up the mountain. "Hawai'i is the most remote occupied land mass on the earth - the furthest from any continent." He is particularly concerned with how the development has impacted the native mamane and naio forests, which provide habitat for various species, including the palila bird, of which there are apparently only about 1500 left. Construction has also destroyed very rare habitats for the wekiu bug, found only atop Mauna Kea.
"Do not disturb the terrain," signs ironically say, advising the growing number of tourists who get this high. Yet the most intrusive visual, physical, and auditory disturbances are clearly the massive, humming telescopes, which seem so out-of-place in this otherwise calm and rocky terrain. The small, deep-set, heart-shaped turquoise-colored Lake Waiau
contrasts with the huge, white, protruding, high-tech, space-age telescopes that crown and dominate the mountain, proudly displaying the all-conquering American flag.
"I love the mountain and I love astronomy," Tom Peek explained. The amateur astronomer worked as an official tour guide of the telescopes from l988 to l996 and has written about them for the trade publication "Sky and Telescope." Peek invited me for a drink at the Lava Lounge at the Kilauea Military Camp on the nearby volcano that is currently erupting and drawing thousands of tourists.
"Do not disturb the terrain," signs ironically say, advising the growing number of tourists who get this high. Yet the most intrusive visual, physical, and auditory disturbances are clearly the massive, humming telescopes, which seem so out-of-place in this otherwise calm and rocky terrain. The small, deep-set, heart-shaped turquoise-colored Lake Waiau
contrasts with the huge, white, protruding, high-tech, space-age telescopes that crown and dominate the mountain, proudly displaying the all-conquering American flag.
"I love the mountain and I love astronomy," Tom Peek explained. The amateur astronomer worked as an official tour guide of the telescopes from l988 to l996 and has written about them for the trade publication "Sky and Telescope." Peek invited me for a drink at the Lava Lounge at the Kilauea Military Camp on the nearby volcano that is currently erupting and drawing thousands of tourists.