Monday, October 26, 2009 - Galileo Block Party
As a feature of the International Year of Astronomy, the Galileo Block Party was held on astronomy row in the University Park of Science and Technology on the campus of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo (UHH) on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. Most of the observatories on Mauna Kea, UHH Physics and Astronomy Dept, and amateur astronomy groups participated by engaging in interactive outreach with thousands of visitors during the five hour event. Dr Bobby Bus, NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and I represented the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy with a meteorite exhibit. Bobby‘s research in spectroscopic properties of asteroid families and their population distribution complemented my exhibit of complete individual and full slice specimens of over three dozen fall and find locations wonderfully. It was fun to see the many familiar faces of students, teachers, parents, community leaders, colleagues and members of the astronomy community during the event. In addition, it was fulfilling to be able to share with my community, my passion for these rocks from space, and what they provide the body of knowledge in science (not to mention the wonderful stories many of these stones had to tell). Meteorites are great to find, collect, cherish and admire. But what a lonely existence should they only languish in an unseen private collection. I urge members to share your collections with your respective communities. Its as much fun as finding your own fresh, fully crusted chondrite. Okay I lied, not that much fun, but very fulfilling and who knows? Maybe an opportunity to inspire others to pursue this hobby/obsession/business. Many thanks to Kumiko Usuda for developing and organizing the event, otsukare sama deshita! Also, mahalo to the MKOOC members and volunteers who helped make the block party a huge hit with the Hawai‘i Island community. Awesome teamwork!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - Astronomy on Mauna Kea
That was my perspective as I gave a presentation to Waiakea High School students of Mr Joey Watts today. As part of a triumvirate of presenters that Joey has booked to give their respective viewpoints of Mauna Kea, it was an honor to represent the astronomy of the white mountain. Other presenters included Paul Neves of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I representing the Hawaiian cultural perspective, and Nelson Ho of the Sierra Club representing the ecological and environmental aspects of Mauna Kea. Since the period is only 50-80 minutes (based on whether its on a MMW or TTh schedule), each presenter was booked on a separate day, which may have been a prudent strategy since each viewpoint could be divergent from each other. I first met Joey when I was working on the mountain as a telescope operator for the Subaru Telescope, and he was a van driver for a tour company. His tours would coincide with my times on the mountain and it was always nice to see a friendly face on the mountain. As good a tour driver as Joey was, I know he is a better teacher, and can see his effect on his students. I am glad that Joey Watts is a teacher at Waiakea High School because I know his students are getting a good education. His idea to bring in representatives of different factions with interests in Mauna Kea is brilliant. It provides an opportunity for his students to hear all sides of an issue and to form their own conclusions regarding them. Thank you Joey Watts for inviting me to present to your students today, and allowing me to share my perspectives of astronomy on Mauna Kea.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - In the Classroom
I‘ve been spending a lot of time in classrooms of schools around East Hawai‘i this week. Four periods a day at Connections Public Charter School has been a blast, bringing my meteorite travel kit to share with students in grades K-6. For the younger ones in Kindergarten through second grade, I read them a children‘s book (which I donate to the class afterwards) about meteors, "Pieces of Another World" by Mara Rockliff, 2005, Sylvan Dell Publishing. After a brief discussion about meteors, meteorites and impact craters, I provide each student with an opportunity to create their own impact craters in a box of flour and chocolate powder, using a marble. Sometimes the kids have more fun seeing how much flour they can kick up out of the box than the craters that were formed from that excavation. Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners. For the older students in grades 3 through 6, I turn all of the kids into scientists for a day with a science inquiry using real meteorites. Over the course of the four months that I‘ve been conducting these activities, I have continuously refined the process to address Hawaii Content Performance Standards and benchmarks. During the activity, the students learn about working cooperatively in teams, making accurate observations, measurements and data recording, analyzing the acquired data, drawing conclusions, making predictions and giving public presentations. We hit a couple of GLOs (General Learner Outcomes) too. But I think the best part of the activity is that the students learn without realizing they've done so because they were having fun. At the end, I give each student an authentic meteorite with a certificate of authenticity that also provides information about the specimen. Its a lot of fun for the kids, and a lot of fun for me, so I am really looking forward to the rest of the week when I will be in a high school giving a presentation on astronomy in Hawai‘i. A hui hou!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - Meteors Everywhere
There have been many reports of meteors falling in the skies above the Earth the last couple of weeks. On Friday night September 25 at 9:03 pm, an asteroid the is of a tricycle hit Earth just above Lake Ontario, Canada. The passage produced a blinding fireball 100 times brighter than the full moon, and was caught by several all-sky cameras operated by the University of Western Ontario. The asteroid exploded in flight, which produced strong low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere. The meteors terminal explosion was recorded by a Doppler radar in Buffalo, NY. Rob Matson, a veteran meteorite hunter has located the data in a NOAA archive and calculated a possible fall site. Matson contends that based upon the size of the radar returns compared with past recovered falls that also appeared on Doppler radar, it is likely that several kilos of meteorites could ultimately be recovered. Fast forward to today, where in the Netherlands, hundreds of people report seeing a spectacular fireball over Tuesday evening‘s clear skies in Groningen. The police emergency number, Dutch coastguard and KNMI weather bureau all report scores of phone calls about the meteor, which was also seen in Germany and Belgium. There is a great photo sequence of the meteor, which fragmented into many pieces while still in ablative flight. This meteor has a resemblance to the October 9, 1992 Peekskill fall, which was photographed and videotaped by many people, and which deposited a meteorite through the trunk of Michelle Knapp‘s Chevrolet Malibu. The 27 pound stone meteorite was recovered under the car and sold to meteorite collectors and dealers, along with the car through which it crashed. Many in the meteorite collecting world are traveling to Canada and the Netherlands to hunt these black stones, and to them I wish the best of luck.
Friday, October 9, 2009 - TGI(A)F
Thank Goodness Its (Aloha) Friday! I've been waiting all week for this day to arrive, and its good to have my family back home in Hilo again. Chizuko and Kaipo were visiting family and friends on O‘ahu during the fall break from school. Kaipo was able to meet several of his cousins for the first time, and make a visit to the Bishop Museum to see the Dinosaur exhibit ("awesome" as he describes it). The weather was blisteringly hot in Honolulu with no tradewinds and vog permeating the atmosphere, which made a return to Hilo quite welcome and comfortable for them (even though I was, and still am sweating bullets). After a great family reunion at home, we settled into our routine, and I scouted the internet for LCROSS mission information and updates. There weren't many. I couldn't get the live feed, and didn't see much NASA information on the social network sites or NASA's own sites. In addition, the weather seemed a bit dicey on the summit of Mauna Kea earlier in the evening, with relative humidity wavering around the 70-90% level. I haven't seen anything of the mission impact this morning either, though reports indicate success for which I am happy that NASA was able to achieve its objective. Now its just a matter of crunching some data. I wish i could have had a role in this event, but had neither the time nor the budget to do so. I would like to thank all of the science centers and amateur astronomers who observed and imaged the impact event for their contributions toward science and public outreach. Great job!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - Make A Wish
The astronomy community rallied together to help fulfill a dream for Make-A-Wish child Paul Kobyluch, Jr. Paul and his parents Paul Sr and Regina were on the Big Island visiting from their home in Salem, New York. Their visit to the island was arranged by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who contacted me a couple of weeks ago. Paul Jr‘s dream was to visit Hawaii, something that has been on his mind since he was seven years old. Paul Jr also has an interest in astronomy, and I was tickled pink to learn that Paul Jr‘s uncle had built himself a number of telescopes in the past. With this information, I proceeded to develop an activity at the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station at the 9200 ft elevation, since Paul Jr is too young to ascend to the summit. With the help of my colleagues at the Mauna Kea Observatories, we welcomed the family to the mountain and proceeded to head to the presentation room, where I gave a brief show-and-tell about meteorites and the information researchers have been able to extract from these primitive rocks from space. Mary Beth Laychak of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope then did a very interesting edible asteroid activity that showcased her wonderful baking skills (the activity was to match the confectionaries with cross sectional photos of actual meteorites). Inge Heyer of the Joint Astronomy Centre brought a Galileoscope, and helped Paul Jr assemble it. After the activities, we presented Paul Jr with gifts from the astronomy community on Mauna Kea, before heading to Hale Pohaku for a scrumptious dinner. Many thanks to Gemini Observatory, Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, Joint Astronomy Centre, Subaru Telescope, Institute for Astronomy, AstroDay Institute, Submillimeter Array, and the Visitor Information Station. Mahalo nui to all who helped make a dream come true for Paul Jr.
Saturday, October 3, 2009 - St Joseph Country Fair
Okay, I can accept the fact that the previous 3/4 of the year has passed by in the blink of an eye, but it just reinforces the need for me to spend much more quality time with my nine year old son Kaipo. He is growing up fast and I need to be there with/for him while he does so. Today, Kaipo had a soccer game and a shift to help his DeSilva Elementary School robotics club teammates at the HELCO Energy Fair at the mall. Unfortunately, I was committed to hosting a meteorite booth at the 22nd Annual St Joseph Country Fair, so I couldn‘t videotape his game (which his team won and in which he scored a putback goal), or to see his robotics club‘s creations. The day started out very dark and dismal with rain clouds everywhere depositing their liquid load onto Hilo throughout the night and into the morning. That did not dampen the spirits of organizers or participants as we scurried to set up our respective areas for the event that was to start at 8:00 am. In the 60‘ x 20‘ Astronomy Tent, I was joined by Junichi Noumaru and Saeko Hayashi of Subaru Telescope, Callie McNew and Eric of the Visitor Information Station, Vinnie Recinto of the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, Dan Dolaptchieff of Big Island Astronomy.com and his wife Janet (Meteorite Mama) of Hot Rocks Hawaii. Although the rains kept some people away, by mid morning, a steady stream of visitors trekked through the fair grounds. I was able to share information about meteorites to boys and girls and their parents. Unfortunately I had not met any teachers outside of St Joseph School visiting this year (and so couldn‘t distribute my meteorite science inquiry activity flyers). Most likely due to the fact that another observatory was hosting a teacher professional development workshop in Kona. This conflict of scheduling prevented a few other observatories from joining us at this event as well, but did not reduce the spirit or enthusiasm from the staff hosting the booths. In all, the event was fun and engaging, with good music, onolicious food, and awesome camaraderie in the Astronomy Tent.