Telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea. Foreground: The Caltech Submillimetre Observatory (CSO). Centre: The 15m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Background: The submillimetre array (SMA)

After a competitive application process, I was awarded time on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), so I had to travel to Hawaii in August in order to fulfil the observing allocation of five nights. The JCMT is a 15-metre submillimetre telescope located near to the summit of Mauna Kea (‘White Mountain’) Hawaii at an altitude of 13,500 ft. Fortunately the mountain did not live up to its name, there was no snow fall, and we managed to obtain some first class submillimetre observations destined for my thesis.

After spending a night in Hilo in my ‘deluxe ocean view’ room, I headed to Hale Pohaku (HP) – located three-quarters the way up the mountain of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 9,000 ft. There is a strict rule in force which dictates that no one for any reason can spend more than 12 hours at the summit of Mauna Kea. This means that astronomers eat, sleep and play at HP, and drive to the summit for observing - a very rough and steep climb in a four wheel drive.

Once at the telescope, we had to climb the stairs (an arduous task at an altitude of 13,500ft!) to the control room. I had a tour of the telescope, which if you’ve ever climbed a telescope you would know requires even more stairs. After the exhausting tour, I had to settle in for 9 hours of observations. The upper level of the building in which the JCMT is located also rotates with the telescope throughout the observations. It was rather interesting making bathroom breaks since the toilet (located on the bottom floor, which didn’t rotate) appeared to be in a different location each time. The return trip back to the control room was just as disorienting since the stairs would continue to move during your break.

After 5 nights observing and 5 days of data reduction, I said ‘goodbye’ to HP and returned to Sydney appreciative for the experience to observe at the largest telescope in the world designed for submillimetre observations and for the chance to visit and interact with astronomers from one of the world’s first class observatories.

Tracey Hill