The camp where we slept for a couple weeks -- at the foot of Mauna Kea mountain -- has a remarkably clear atmosphere -- and just like you said -- meteor after meteor could be seen, maybe a hundred per hour under the pitch black sky.
But like every beautiful site on this Earth: after you've seen it for a while, it gets boring and no longer holds the charm it once did. Would love to see it again however.
At the top of the Mauna Kea mountain lies a few national observatories and international observatories — and it's the one place on Hawaii where it actually snows from time to time.
Observation: best to sleep at the foot of the mountain rather than the apex. As age creeps upon us, heights are not easily attained. Vertigo shows significant advances.
Difficult to envision Hawaii and snow, together.
REALIZATION: “Normal” life; will it ever return.
Find myself missing so much which would normally
be enjoyed on a yearly basis.
The Alaskan bears and the salmon streaming to
spawn.
Meteor showers, eclipses.
Time to stop and smell the roses.
Mountains are wonderful for viewing stars, since you’re almost sticking halfway into space. Not altitude-wise, but air-pressure wise.
Due to the location near the Equator, and the high altitude which leads to lower temperatures and fewer thermal distortions of the atmosphere, the Mauna Kea observatories are cutting edge. The EU’s got a high altitude observatory in Chile for the same reason. S’cool.