The James Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, marks the spot where Captain Cook brought his ships into the bay and subsequently was killed by native Hawaiians on January 17, 1779. Photo credit: David J. Eicher
After long flights to Hawaii from a variety of localities,
Astronomy’s first tour group of 54 assembled yesterday morning at the Royal Kona Resort on the northwestern edge of the Big Island. It was a day for getting acquainted, getting over the long travel, and enjoying the island’s pleasures. I am joined on this trip by Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley, a famous astronomer with many accomplishments, just one of which is his major role in the supernova search teams that discovered the mysterious dark energy in 1998. Melita Thorpe of MWT Associates is our travel partner on the journey and has set up this tour for the group of 54, and an additional 43 people who will arrive today.
Alex and I began by each giving about an hourlong talk. Mine consisted of two parts, “Astronomy’s New Frontier,” which covered numerous major developments in astronomy and cosmology over the past decade or so, followed by a discussion of meteorites and meteorite collecting. Alex spoke about research with the Keck Telescopes at Mauna Kea Observatory, which we will visit today. Among the tidbits that came out during Alex’s talk is the fact that a new, distant supernova (SN 2012cg) is now glowing at 12th magnitude in the Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4424. So get out there and observe it!
Quite a few of us on ship believed we saw a brief green flash at sunset on the ocean; it was harder to capture, though, with cameras. Photo credit: David J. Eicher
We then had a reception in which wonderful snacks and drinks were consumed amid questions for Alex and me. One long thread during this session centered on what we can do to get more young people interested in astronomy — a hot topic of the moment. Many good ideas and interesting observations shot around the tables.
By late afternoon, the group embarked on a dinner cruise along the coast of the Big Island, during which we saw many interesting and historic oceanside sights, the coolest of which was the James Cook Monument. Here, on January 17, 1779, in Kealakekua Bay, Captain Cook brought his
Resolution and
Discovery into the bay, only to be killed by the locals when they discovered he wasn’t a god. Some days it doesn’t pay to be an adventurer.
I enjoyed a great dinner with Alex and his lovely wife, Noelle, and talked over a great many ideas in astronomy and in astronomy outreach that will come about later on.
Today, we head up to the summit of Mauna Kea for the first of two times this week. Many images and reports to come from the Keck Observatory.
And be sure to check out all the images from this trip at
www.Astronomy.com/transit.
Enjoy!