Bad weather at FTN

Maui is being pelted with bad weather at present.

Mark Elphick, the FTN Telescope manager, took this footage from the summit of Haleakala (video1, video 2) a few hours ago (with sound!).

It looks like Mark has done a good job of battening down the hatches, as FTN has not sustained any damage. Unfortunately not all of the observatories have been so fortunate, with several doors being blown off their hinges.

Sorry to everyone who is booked on the telescope for the next couple of days, it looks like the weather will be stopping observations.

If you want to know more about the weather in Maui have a look at the Hawaii Weather Today website.

Latest news from Mark,  7 Dec 2007

"The latest on the power outage is that FTN could be out of action for an extended period. Parts of Kula are still without power and have been for 48hours. The problem on the mountain is a little more complex because not only does the mains feed up the mountain need to be fixed but also a problem with the main sub station feed at the summit. Apparently there was damage sustained when the AEOS generators initially fired up and then they did fire up and burst into flames." 

(Thanks to Mark Elphick for the photos, videos and keeping FTN safe!)