Imiloa Center Preview Tour
December 7, 2005 • University Park, Hilo


Waiakea High School mathematics teacher Eric Hagiwara asked our SEPO office to put together a tour of the new Imiloa: Hawaii's Astronomy Center, with an emphasis on the (structural, electrical, computer, etc) engineering concepts that have gone into the design and construction of the facility, which is set to open mid February 2006. Many thanks to Director Peter Giles and staff members Amy Bugado, Kyle Brown, Bill Dement and Michael Pearson.


Bill Dement and Kyle Brown greet their respective groups at the entrance to Imiloa Kyle taking a group into the Piko, through the "Forest of Voices" The group in the Kumulipo Theater, which is still under construction
A curious student observing a display on "How Life Began" Kyle sharing some of the exhibitry that describes the "Scale of the Universe" Within a tunnel, within which the group learns about the "Scale of the Universe"
A scale model of the solar sytem Inlaid circles representing Mauna Kea telescope mirror sizes The Virtual Observatory An exhibit of a submillimeter dish, similar to those employed by the Submillimeter Array
Under wraps is a very accurate scale model of Hilo's voyaging canoe, Hokualaka`i A display panorama of the summit region of Mauna Kea, depicting all of the observatories Kyle inside the projection area of the 4DU Theater funded by Subaru Telescope
Bill going through reams of blueprints of all the various systems of the facility BIll explaining some of the structural components of the planetarium dome Lunch & debriefing at the IfA, with a viewing of Gary's time-lapse construction video