Starship Asterisk*

I was looking at the Haleakala concam when I noticed multiple strange streaks of light near the center of the image. It looks like something on the lens of the camera may be catching the light and refracting it, but I'm no camera expert.

Please note that this strange area of blurriness is in all recent Haleakala images, but is not as obvious in some images as in others. The image posted is an example that shows the blurriness well.

NOTE - Please disregard the image shown earlier (taken at 16:09) if you thought that the information accompanying it was misleading or confusing. The image that was supposed to go with the information above is the one that is now shown (taken at 13:36).

It is either water or ice on top of the fisheye lens.

I'm betting on ice, water droplets would be more circular.

Reports from the field (possibly elsewhere on the Asterisk?) indicate that it's actually water that has worked its way into the fisheye lens and settled at a central minimum. It evaporates eventually. The Haleakala (HL) crowd took their CONCAM3 inside to dry out just to get rid of their spot, before just replacing it recently. It is unclear if the water enters the lens from the top during a rainstorm or from the side from condensation during wet weather and fast temperature changes. I suspect the later.

- RJN