Sacred Place

If you haven’t been to the top Mauna Kea, the highest peak in the Hawaiian Islands located on the Big Island, the scene is captured in the above photo (as well as in the 2/8/18 Blog Entry). It is a beautiful out-of-this-world landscape. The entire volcanic cone is considered sacred ground by Native Hawaiians. It has been in the news recently for that reason. A decade long fight between an international group and Native Hawaiians, along with other like-minded people, over placement of a 30-meter telescope at the summit has come to a head. While there are 13 other observatories on the summit, some to be decommissioned, the placement of another on the summit apparently is one observatory too many for Native Hawaiians who wants their original rights recognized.