A bit less than 2 hours ago, at about 10:40:50 HST, somebody controlling the streaming cameras started panning and zooming back the V2 cam to a different seldom-seen view of the crater, with the vents no longer in view on that cam.
ETA The V3 cam was pointed differently from about 8:08 to 10:41 or so, with a few different views right at the end of that sojourn.
Interesting! I wonder why.
ETA: The daily update says “New vents opened at Kīlauea summit eruption site last night.” But the new view doesn’t look like it has a particularly large vent. There is a spot or two which is smoking, but you see things like that all the time throughout the crater.
then I think this means the smoking line at the top left is one of those new vents and it actually flowed last night, but it was off-camera.
current snapshot just now from V2
It’ll be interesting to look tonight when it’s dark. Maybe that whitish stuff is fresh lava flow. If so, it should have at least a few glowing spots visible.
I’m 95% sure it is. I meant to say so in my last post.
The USGS update is pretty interesting. It says there are multiple changes happening in the crater and they have no idea what is going to happen. It’s hard for me to even attempt to summarize the update but it seems like the best show in the world is maybe planning for a few changes.
Gret pictures ! Thanks!
As long as we don’t get “Krakatau, so far East of Java that it’s in Hawaii”. That would be bad.
Oh yeah.
Woo hoo! New behavior.
I think they were expecting the changes to be a little more localized 
HVO’s latest explanation … HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY STATUS REPORT - HVO
Short version: new vents opened within the outer crater & darn near anything could happen next. But probably soon.
Chopper footage from Sep 16th, closeups of the recent vents, angles we don’t get to see from the cams.
Wow! Very cool.
Yes, very cool. Except for the pools of lava which are anything but cool. 
I was impressed to see in the longer shots that the cumulative effects of the last couple years’ eruptions has gone some way to filling the outer crater. It’s in no imminent danger of overflowing, but given another 5 years like the last 5 it would be getting close. And that assumes no outer wall collapses meanwhile.
I’m happy to see that we have icons for 
, 
, and 
. We’ll certainly use them in the days ahead. This one though, 
, the giant comet or meteor impact I hope to avoid needing to post.
I’m wondering at these new vents that are right at the base of a cliff, does that mean the cliff is more likely to collapse?
I had a similar thought.
Either that or the fresh lava soon to flow out of those cracks will shore up the cliff.
The vents are on the interior face of the larger crater wall. Not the exterior face. So any lava they vent will end up inside the crater.
And AIUI, what we see in the images as the outer crater wall is in fact a couple mile wide crater within the truly huge main crater that’s tens of miles across. So there’s craters within craters and growing cones and spewing vents within the inner crater.
Big Island Video News: Kīlauea Eruption Update: The End Of Lava Fountain Episodes? Sept. 18, 2026, 2 minutes.
They do a nice job of zeroing in on the interesting parts, using clear language for lay people.
Huh. I am eating at a popular local dive with the TV tuned to the webcams, and it’s looking a bit more active than it has in a while. Check the v1 cam … dunno how long this will last or if it will fade/intensify. Worth a look though.