For many Native Hawaiians, Maunakea is a sacred ancestral landscape — a wahi pana and part of the wao akua, the realm associated with gods and spirits. Hawaiian traditions connect the mountain genealogically and spiritually with Wākea and Papahānaumoku/Papa, linking the mountain, the heavens, the ʻāina and the Hawaiian people. The summit region also contains shrines, cultural sites and places associated with akua such as Poliʻahu, as well as sacred Lake Waiau. From high upon Maunakea, the Milky Way stretches across the darkness like a river of light. Below it, a blanket of clouds covers the lower elevations, leaving the photographer suspended between earth and sky. The glowing Galactic Center reveals enormous concentrations of stars, dust and gas, while the dark foreground keeps the mountain almost completely untouched by artificial light. That Glow on the Right is Lava from Kilauea I captured a sequence this evening and this is one that stood tall! JMV Photography