Waimea – Page 4 – A Darker View

A Lecture and a Star Party

If you did not make a point to come to the last Keck lecture you missed a fun night.

Our regular free lecture featured one of Keck’s own this month. Greg Doppmann gave a very informative talk on using one of the Keck spectrographs, NIRSPEC, to examine the inner planet forming disks around young stars. In the near infrared it is possible to determine the presence of water and organic compounds in the material that rocky world may form from.

Greg did a very nice job of explaining spectroscopy. this is never easy, the details can get pretty technical. Making sense of spectra while talking to a general audience is a neat accomplishment. This is even worse when you are talking about the spectra of water in the near infrared where there are thousands of emission lines. Good graphics and a step by step explanation worked, animations of dancing water molecules, and dancing Greg not withstanding.

Waiting for Tony — Tony with a large line of folks waiting to see Jupiter in his 12″ ‘scope

After the lecture everyone was able to enjoy great views of the Moon and Jupiter through telescopes set up by our astronomy club. We got lucky, the notoriously fickle Waimea weather gave us a break. At the start of the lecture is was raining, not hard, just the usual Waimea mist. As Greg’s lecture wound down I ducked outside to be greeted by a bright Moon and no clouds. Somewhat stunned I hurried back inside to give the thumbs up to the crew, who scrambled to setup the ‘scopes before the Q&A session ended.

When the crowd poured out we were ready. A lot of folks stayed to view, and five ‘scopes were in operation to meet them. I have to give thanks to Tony, Chris, Rickey, Cliff, Bernt, and Purcynth, who manned the scopes and answered the flood of questions. As we were breaking down the clouds were rolling back in, very good timing indeed.

The lecture was recorded and should show up on the Keck website soon. I’ll try to post a link to it when it does appear. In the meantime, if you have not already done so, get your email on the Keck Nation list so you know about these events before they happen.

Postcard from Hawai’i – No Trespassing

Postcard from Hawai’i – Another Rainbow

Kohala Rainbow — A bright rainbow over ranch land south of Waimea

Postcard from Hawai’i – Another Rainbow

Postcard from Hawai’i – Tools of the Trade

Keck at the End of the Rainbow

Waimea could honestly use the tagline “Place of Rainbows”. I see more rainbows here than anywhere else I know of. The trades blow the wet tropical air into the saddle between Mauna Kea and the Kohala. This creates a bank of clouds that dissipates right over the town. Clouds and rain on one side of town, clear skies on the other side, add low morning or afternoon sunlight and the rainbows appear. Sometimes they appear in convenient locations…

Waimea Christmas Parade 2013

I may miss some of the events here in town, but I have yet to miss a Waimea Christmas Parade. This year was no exception, I always help out at the CFHT star party afterwards.

The difference this year is that I walked with the Keck float. Actually our parade committee came to me and asked me to take photos, oh… and here is a release form to sign.

Of course this is a lighted parade, not wanting to look out of place I spent the morning soldering and put together a flashing LED hatband for my good cowboy hat. It came out well considering it was put together with what I had lying about. It helped that Deb whipped together a nice band from from nylon webbing to build it on.

As usual the crowd was stunning, half the island shows up for these things. The main street of Waimea is lined ten people deep from end to end, sometimes more than that! Everyone is waving at folks they know in the parade, a true community event.

Keck Float — The Keck float proceeds down main street

Narration — Keck ohana Julia and Joe narrate the parade and have way too much fun.

Spectators — An atmosphere of pure fun pervades the whole event!

Riding in the Parade — Keiki riding in a truck during the Waimea Christmas Parade

Trucks! — Lighted trucks coming down main street Waimea in the annual Christmas Parade

Star Party at CFHT

Join us at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope headquarters in Waimea for a public star party. We will have telescopes setup in the front lawn for everyone to enjoy and activities inside. View through the telescopes, visit the CFHT remote observing room where the telescope is controlled, fun activities for the keiki, and hot cocoa!

Mr. O's Stars — Mr. O shows a family the stars at Kohala Elementary

We will be viewing right after the annual Waimea Christmas parade.

CFHT Star Party
Saturday, December 7th
7:00pm
CFHT Headquarters in Waimea (Across from Waimea Elementary)

Remember that main-street Waimea will be closed at 5:15pm for the parade. Come view the stars while you wait for the parade traffic to clear.

Postcard from Hawaii – Waimea Rainbow

This morning I was one of six cars traveling in a group towards Waimea. Then the rainbow appeared, nothing odd about that, rainbows are common here. This rainbow was a little more intense than usual, worth a second look. I slowed to allow the jeep in front of me to pull over, no surprise… An obvious tourist in a rental car and a pretty rainbow, he was going to pull over.

As we proceeded toward town the rainbow just got brighter. The next car pulled over, this time a local in an older vehicle. Then the next car, and the next, there is plenty of room to park along the Mamalahoa Highway south of Waimea.

I was now one of two vehicles from the original six… Why not?

I pull over to take photos of the rainbow.

Rainbows are not just common in Waimea, they are nearly an everyday occurrence. With the trade-winds blowing you can see a rainbow every morning and evening near the Waimea airport. Moonbows are also common in the blowing mist conditions that are prevalent here. It takes a truly spectacular rainbow to draw much comment.

A rainbow that has five out of six cars pull over?

Waimea Rainbow — An intense rainbow outside Waimea with a faint double.