How do you observe the night sky when it is daytime? You use a telescope on the other side of the world.
“Remote observing” on a telescope in Africa (weather in Africa permitting) will be one of the activities at the UH Manoa Institute for Astronomy annual Open House on Sunday, April 14, from 11a.m. to 4 p.m. at its Mānoa headquarters, 2680 Woodlawn Drive.
There will be short talks on hot astronomical topics such as comets visible in Hawaiʻi skies this year, strategies for long-term human survival, solar eclipses, and how Mauna Kea became the world’s foremost observatory.
As usual, there will be activities for everyone, from keiki to kupuna. New this year are the opportunity to build and control a robot; a display about ATLAS, the system being built at IfA to warn us about incoming space rocks; help from IfA experts in astrophotography so that you can take amazing photographs of the nighttime sky; a scale model of the solar system on the IfA lawn; and a hologram of the Thirty Meter Telescope proposed to be built on Mauna Kea.
Old favorites will be there, too, including comet and sundial making, bottle rockets, and the Bishop Museum’s Magic Planet.
Admission and parking will be free. Lunch will be available for purchase. For up-to-date information, visitwww.ifa.hawaii.edu/open-house/.
This year’s Open House is sponsored by IfA, the UH NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Friends of the IfA, and Kamehameha Schools.
Founded in 1967, the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa conducts research into galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, and the sun. Its faculty and staff are also involved in astronomy education, deep space missions, and in the development and management of the observatories on Haleakala and Mauna Kea. The Institute operates facilities on the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawaiʻi.