Makin' chips, first physical parts...

I just got my first parts back from the machine shop. This bracket contraption is a mount for the ROVER for use with the HARP-B instrument. The bracket will correctly position the ROVER for use on the JCMT telescope. Is is a manual slide assembly so the rover may be easily placed into to the "optical beam".

I don't know what HARP does, something in the sub-millimeter wavelength anyway; but rover is a polarimeter. At some of us learned in physics energy waves are polarized, and travel with the with a 90deg. opposition. The polarimeter is just a fancy pair of polarized sunglasses, the active element of the polarimeter strips off one of the waves as it passes through the device, and apparently this is helpful to astronomers.

If Hawaii were good for only one thing, this would be it...

Ahi Poke (ah-hee - Poh-kay)

A Hawaiian twist on sashimi, OMG soo good!
Sushi is very affordable here:
24 pcs of the rolls, the Ahi Poke and some miso... about $16USD

Ahi (red tuna), sesame oil, sesame seeds, green onions and soy...

It's been a while since the last post...

Using different people's cameras has put my blog a little out of chronological order, but well just pretend that it still is in the correct order...

a couple of weeks back Ashley and I toured around Crater Rim Road, a six mile road that runs around a dormant crater, dormant in the fact that it still expels a huge amount of steam. According to the legend, Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the Lava lives some 280 feet below the bottom of the crater. The Hawaiians on the whole are quite terrified of Pele; offerings of fruit and alcohol are very common around the rim of the crater (as human sacrifices are reciently frowned upon by the US government).

here are some photos...

there should be large panoramic here that hasn't happened yet...

Ash and Hardy in front of a cave-ish thing...




pretty Hilo Photos, near the Hilo Botanical Gardens...

Strengh of materials lesson...

Rocks are harder than surfboards...






There were really good waves at Honolii on friday after work. I caught one wave early on but on the paddle back out i was wiped out by a big wave; the board and i got tossed onto the rocks, and my day was ended.

(the board is now repaired)