Hurricanes whirling past, satellites breaking up overhead. I am reluctant to ask… What is next?
Who Painted the Target on Hawaiʻi?
Tag: Hawaii
Here we go yet again…
It looks like yet another hurricane is coming this way, the island squarely in the predicted path. The seemingly endless series of storms passing through is making the 2015 hurricane season one of the most active on record.
Ignacio is expected to become a major storm, crossing the island as a full hurricane. If that is not enough we have Jimena further out and following a similar track. No one expects that to be the end of the series either, with sea water temperatures well above normal and continuing to warm there will be further storms.
I am truly grateful we live on the leeward side of the island, sheltered from the worst of the effects of these storms. A 14,000ft mountain standing between our house and the oncoming hurricane. I do worry about our many friends who live on the other side of the island.
As the storm nears and if it becomes apparent that the island will be hit we will perform our last minute storm preparations, fill the water jugs and secure the lanai furniture. Everything else is already done, held over from the last storm, plenty of emergency supplies and propane on-hand.
A Washer Full of Aloha
Is it bad when you can fill an entire washer load with only aloha shirts?
Yes, we really wear Hawaiian shirts here in Hawaiʻi. Or, as they are called locally, aloha shirts. I remember my first week on the job. I was wearing a modestly colorful shirt in the office and I was wondering if it was appropriate. As I looked about the meeting I noted that two thirds of those present were wearing the colorful shirts, including my supervisor and department head. Yeah, need to buy more.
Here we go again…
Previous forecasts showed the hurricane passing well north of the island, following the same track as the last two storms. Then this evening’s forecast came out.
I can only hope it changes again…
Transit of Mercury May 9, 2016
On May 9th, 2016 Mercury will transit the Sun. While transits of Mercury are not rare, they are not all that common either. The last transit was almost a decade ago in November of 2006. On average there are fourteen transits of Mercury each century or one every seven years. If you wish to observe one the situation is much better than transits of Venus which occur in pairs over a century apart.
This particular transit will favor observers in Europe and North America where the entire transit will be visible. Unfortunately for observers in the islands only the final three hours of the transit will be visible having begun well before local dawn. Sunrise will occur around 05:48 for the island of Hawaiʻi, with the transit ending at 08:42 in the morning.
| Mercury Transit May 9th, 2016
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UT (geo) | HST | HST (offset) | ||
| First Contact | 11:12 | 01:12 | –:–:– | |
| Second Contact | 11:15 | 01:15 | –:–:– | |
| Greatest | 14:57 | 04:57 | –:–:– | |
| Third Contact | 18:39 | 08:39 | 08:39:58 | |
| Fourth Contact | 18:42 | 08:42 | 08:43:10 | |
| Source: NASA Eclipse website | ||||
First contact is simply the first moment that the disk of Mercury begins to impinge on the disk of the Sun. Second contact will be the moment when Mercury is entirely in front of the Sun. Third and fourth contacts are a reverse of first and second with fourth contact as the end of the event.
Observing a planetary transit of the Sun requires proper eye protection. If you can not look safely, do not look! The Sun can cause permanent eye damage if viewed without proper protection. As Mercury is quite small some magnification will be useful in observing this event, a telescope of binoculars with a solar filter. A pinhole camera can be made out of things lying around in your kitchen that provides a very good image. Read my Guide to Safe Solar Viewing for a lot more information on viewing the Sun safely.
The next transit of Mercury will occur November 11, 2019 at 15:20UT (mid-transit). This next transit also favors Europe and eastern North America where the entire transit will be visible.
Some Holiday Diving
Boat dives are always a treat. We generally shore dive, where the only costs are the tank fills and a little gas to drive to the site. Many sites along the Kohala Coast are easily reached from shore. There are a number of great sites that are more difficult to reach, sites for which a boat provides a nice alternative. When going with a dive boat you also have the crew to assist in rigging gear and getting in and out. They also provide drinks, snacks and friendly conversation while you wait through a surface interval between dives. A holiday treat? A mutual Christmas gift? Whatever you want to call it, we booked a dive with Denise and Dave from Blue Wilderness for a day of diving.
There were several divers beside Deb and myself. Ben, from London, had left his girlfriend back at the resort for a morning of diving. A family from Saskatchewan was escaping the winter with a couple weeks in Hawai’i and a morning of diving. The wife and daughter were simply snorkeling. The father, an ex-navy diver, was introducing his son Brett to the sport.