A Gentle Rain of Starlight: The Story of Astronomy on Mauna Kea: Michael J. West: 9780931548994: Amazon.com: Books
Review
What goes on up there in the observatories atop Mauna Kea? University of Hawai'i professor Michael West gives readers an insider's perspective. Looking for the perfect place from which to observe the heavens, Dutch-born astronomer Gerard Kuiper settled on 13,796-foot Mauna Kea. West takes the story from there, describing the building of the road to the extinct volcano's summit, the $1 billion global village of 13 major telescopes built by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Britain and the United States. The best parts are when he describes what it's actually like to be up there: On a moonless night, the skies over Mauna Kea are so dark that the glow of the Milky Way casts shadows across the landscape. While West doesn't address the contention between the astronomy complex and Native Hawaiian groups who protest the construction of future observatories, he respectfully writes about Mauna Kea's important place in Hawaiian culture. As he writes, 'there is growing awareness of the need to protect the mountain's fragile ecosystem, and for increased sensitivity to native Hawaiian cultural concerns over the continued development of Mauna Kea's sacred summit.' --The Honolulu Advertiser, January 2006 Construction of a road to the summer of Mauna Kea began in April 1964 and was completed in a few weeks. Two months later, with funding from NASA, a small prefabricated observatory with a 0.3-meter telescope inside was placed on Pu'u Poli'ahu, one of the highest peaks on the mountain. Nighttime observations exceeded expectations...In July of that year Gerard Kuiper declared enthusiastically, 'This mountain is probably the best site in the world I repeat in the world from which to study the moon, the planets and the stars....It is a jewel! This is the place where the most advanced and powerful observations from this Earth can be made. While it is primarily about astronomy at the mountain's summit and thirteen of the biggest and most sophisticated telescopes ever built, the book also touches upon the cultural significance of the mountain to Native Hawaiians and the mountain's history and the controversy over its future. Full-color photographs, most taken by the author, with many others courtesy of the Mauna Kea observatories, Hawaii State Archives, NASA and other photographers. --Astronomical Society of the Pacific The story of astronomy in Hawai'i deals in the main with the giant telescopes built on the summit of Mauna Kea. Professor Michael J. West, of the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, who teaches classes and makes frequent journeys to the university s telescope on Mauna Kea, where he studies the formation and evolution of galaxies, has written a history for the layman that describes how and why the giant tools were brought to the summit of a place long held sacred to the Hawaiian people. A Gentle Rain of Starlight: The Story of Astronomy of Mauna Kea (Island Heritage, Honolulu, 2005) is profusely illustrated, with more than a hundred entrancing photos of the stars, the skies and life in and about Hawai'i's cosmic home. --Spirit of Aloha, January/February 2006