Solar System Walk 2016
Walking from the Sun to Neptune is easy… At least when they are set up in a scale model along main street Waimea.
A fun day… The Sun, telescopes, the planets, a few asteroids represented by meteorites, and plenty of activities for the kids. It was a great day to be in Waimea as CFHT and Keck put on the Solar System Walk 2016…
Jungle Road
Pohoiki Stars
Ocean Entry
Obsession in the Dusk
M9 and B64
Observing at Kaʻohe
A dark night under the stars! It has been too long… Why not?
After all the work restoring the 20″ Obsession it was time to get it out under the stars for a decent observing run. During the many hours of work I had looked forward to simply using this telescope for a bit. While it would eventually be stored at the observatory and used for outreach, it seemed a shame not to spend a night or two under the stars with this instrument. Not like I need a 20″ telescope, my 18″ is just fine, but I loaded it up just the same, leaving Deep Violet in the garage.
My favorite close by site is KaʻOhe, taking only a twenty minute drive from home to reach. At 5,700 feet on the side of Mauna Kea nearby home does not mean second rate. I really like this spot, the view is spectacular with the coastline below and the Mauna Loa and Hualālai volcanoes dominating the horizon. The entire southern horizon is unobstructed, allowing observations of southern objects right down to the horizon.
Better yet, recent rains meant green grass and a spot near the road maintenance gravel pile was hard packed rock, no dust! The area had even been mown recently! I sometimes have a few uncharitable words to describe DLNR, but not this evening.
‘Heartbeat Stars’ Unlocked in New Study
Heartbeat stars, discovered in large numbers by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, are binary stars (systems of two stars orbiting each other) that got their name because if you were to map out their brightness over time, the result would look like an electrocardiogram, a graph of the electrical activity of the heart. Scientists are interested in them because they are binary systems in elongated elliptical orbits. This makes them natural laboratories for studying the gravitational effects of stars on each other.
In a heartbeat star system, the distance between the two stars varies drastically as they orbit each other. Heartbeat stars can get as close as a few stellar radii to each other, and as far as 10 times that distance during the course of one orbit.
Moana and Polynesian Culture
The film has not even been released yet and local commentators are complaining… Loudly.
I find it somewhat questionable that such accusations can be made without even seeing the film. Editorials written not on the content of the film, but on the author’s perceived version of it based on a two minute trailer. The film simply becomes a convenient vessel into which can be poured all of the author’s pre-conceived grievances. The accusation really have nothing to do with the film, but simply become a screed against whatever they want to rail against.