Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

Well Hidden

As I headed to the mid-week farmers market I spotted this absurdity behind the Parker Ranch center. Never mind there are no large trees nearby, never mind there are no fir trees in sight, firs are rare on the island. No… They decided to disguise this cell tower as a tree. It would have looked better as a simple tower.

You are not fooling anyone…

Not Fooling Anyone
A cell tower “disguised” as a fir tree in Waimea

Postcard from Hawai’i – Dried Mangoes

The fourth batch is processed and underway.

Our mango tree did not have a heavy crop this year, but has produced far more than we can use in the week or two they ripen. The food dehydrator has been in heavy use, three batches done and one underway. The end results are pretty good, better than some stuff I have bought at the farmers market. Perfect for snacking on in the middle of the night next to a telescope.

Between me and the birds, the tree is now picked out. I have enough mangoes on hand for at least one more go…

Mongoes in the Dehydrator
A batch of mangoes in processing to load the dehydrator.

The Moon and Jupiter

This evening the Moon and Jupiter will be close. The two will be visible in the sky throughout the day becoming a striking pair as the sky grows dark. The Moon will be 11% illuminated and about 6° from the bright planet at sunset.

Mercury should be visible 18° below Jupiter, a 1.3 magnitude object lower in the sunset glow.

A Dearth of Camelopardalids

A possible meteor shower, a dark. moonless night, the beautiful skies of Mauna Kea… Why not plan for a trip up the mountain? We all hoped that the new meteor shower would produce a show for us. If not, it would be a dark night with a late rising crescent moon. As I would be working the holiday on Monday, I took Friday off, did some chores around the house and packed my gear.

Meteor Photo Rig
The mount with four cameras mounted on top hoping for meteors. Photo by Raymond Lara.
I brought two bit of kits with which to enjoy the night. First was my old Losmandy mount to be used as a camera platform. Using a tracking mount would allow longer exposures and nice starfields against which to capture any possible meteors. I had along a long plate with five camera ball mounts, something Chris lent me. As expected, as soon as the others saw this there were plenty of volunteers looking for a spot on one of the mounts. Four cameras rode the mount for the evening, hoping to catch a few meteors.

The second bit of kit was Deep Violet, my 18″ telescope. As usual, setting up the big scope quickly gathered a crowd. The line did not dissipate until well after 10pm, a steady flow of visitors hoping to check out the view in the largest telescope present.

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