Why take a trip to the mountains in Boulder's backyard when you can go to Hawaii? :-) But also, I imagine it has to do with the Mauna Kea Observatory, where ha

Why take a trip to the mountains in Boulder's backyard when you can go to Hawaii? :-) But also, I imagine it has to do with the Mauna Kea Observatory, where half the setup was. I'm not sure if it's for the observatory (e.g., it says they used a light source there, or possibly because they have some scientific equipment set up there already), or maybe because of the environment. This is what wikipedia says about the site "The location is near ideal because of its dark skies from lack of light pollution, good astronomical seeing, low humidity, high elevation of 4,205 meters (13,796 ft), position above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, clean air, good weather and low latitude location." of course the astronomical parts don't matter, but some of the rest is likely relevant. Also, many mountaintops that high will be covered with snow. Mauna Kea has some, but probably not as much.