Star Gazing at Maui’s Fairmont Kea Lani - April 10, 2007
By Casey Fukuda

On the evening of March 28, 2007, a group of 70+ people from Hoechst Canada was visiting Maui for a 2006 Sales Award Meeting.  This evening was their last night on Maui before heading back home to Canada.  The Haleakala Amateur Astronomers were on hand to give them a send off they will not soon forget.  Robert Ratkowski, Thomas Ingalls, Gary Durrish, Cliff Rhode and yours truly attended the evening’s festivities.

While the guests mingled and had dinner, the Haleakala Amateur Astronomers set up our gear.  We brought 3 Dobsonian telescopes with mirrors ranging in size from 12” to 13”.  Rob brought his 8” Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain and Cliff mounted his Celestron 10x70 binoculars on a tripod.  The conditions were overcast for most of the evening, but small, clear openings came by often.  The biggest hit of the night was Saturn.  Many of the attendees had never peered through a telescope before.  “Oooohs” and “aaaahs” could be heard throughout the evening. 

A few of the guests managed to capture Saturn with their digital cameras by holding them up to the eyepiece of the telescope.  The Haleakala Amateur Astronomers received rave reviews from the participants after the event.  A fun time was had by all including the members of HAA.

The biggest joy that I receive from being an amateur astronomer comes when somebody exclaims their “awe” for the object viewed through the eyepiece of my telescope.  There was a lot of “awe” and “joy” that night.

Thomas Ingalls (backwards ball cap rear of lawn, left center) sets up his 13 inch Albert Highe designed telescope.  Gary Durrish’s 12XT and Casey Fukuda’s 12.5 inch ultraligtht Albert Highe designed telescope (wooden scope right center) round out the Dobsonians on hand for the evening

Cliff Rhode, Gary Durrish, an unknown guest, and Rob Ratkowskin discuss the evenings targets.  Rob is pictured with his 8 inch Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain.

Thomas Ingalls (right) and his friend Bill, share a laugh while setting up for the evening.

Got 2 more piers underway.  I bought the baseplate material today, took it to HC+S Sugar and they cut it and I'll get it tomorrow.  Also have the dome step at the weld shop for a simple few extra welds on the decking, then to the sandblasters and then to the truck bed liner shop.  So many little steps to make a big one.  I even brought up paint chips up so we can choose a wall color !! All I need is a price on some cupboards and a few under counter drawers and I have a start price.  I'm guessing that the remodel could be done for $2500 and I feel that's on the high side.  Then there's the computers ...........................

Wednesday was the dedication of the TSLR-4 NASA Laser Station by Mees, this was a small group that attended in 40mph winds w/ rain and cold. Dane Maxwell blessed the laser trailer and support van. David Carter of NASA was the representative from Goddard Space Flight Center, a plaque was presented for continued support of NASA's laser ranging stations by the IfA.

Mike Pearlman did early laser work at Baker-Nunn and worked w/ the fellow that developed the laser, Scott Has been to Haleakala 4 times, never has seen the sky from there, Dave carter hopes to bring his 10 YO son out, we'll take him to HAA, his folks said he'd flip That's what we want KIDS and adults to get excited about the sky both night and day.

     "I used my 15X70 binocs behind my roof for the 1st view in daylight at noon on the 13th, I thought I saw the comet naked eye BUT it was some tree seeds blowing by. I'm about to post some of the images from Haleakala. This was and is the brightest comet I've seen, while looking for it I did find Venus and after about 1/2 hr (using my 555mm refractor), I did locate the comet. When we 1st got to our site, I set up my binocs behind the roof of the UChicago Gamma Ray Observatory and found it in 10 secs. The best views were thru binocs. We eventually had a crowd of members, some guests , a teacher and some students from Kamehameha School and a few actual solar astronomers ( J.D. Armstrong,Haosheng Lin and Yu Lin) that didn't realize the comet was visible. A good time was had by all."