Storm Lifting Over Gemini

After more than a week of wintery weather, the clouds started lifting over the Gemini North telescope of the international Gemini Observatory (center) on Maunakea. Joy Pollard of NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory snapped this shot during a visit to the mountain on 15 January. While snow is not uncommon on the nearly 14,000-foot summit area, this is the first major snowfall this winter on the mountaintop. The snowfall left drifts as high as 2 meters (7 feet) surrounding Gemini North and required the recruitment of staff volunteers to help shovel snow off the dome in order to get back on the sky as quickly as possible.