KILAUEA MILITARY CAMP - HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK

ASTRONOMY DAY AND BBQ

August 15, 2009  

 

Several hundred people took advantage of the free-entrance day into the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HVNP) on Saturday, August 15th, where Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), a hotel for active and retired military, hosted a barbeque and invited observatories to present astronomy themed activities.  Representing the Visitor Information Station (VIS) outside, Dylan Berner and Nick Stertz, set up a solar telescope and used the Sunspotter to safely show the public the Sun.  Inside KMC's Koa Room, VIS volunteers Claire Bearden and Shannon Hillis made decorative astronomy magnets for visitors and shared information about VIS programs.  Thanks to Gary Fujihara at the Institute for Astronomy and Arlene Bali at KMC for organizing the event.       

 


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                VIS Volunteers Shannon, Claire, Nick, and Dylan did a great job!                                            Mahalo to local author, Stephen O'Meara for presenting the VIS with a signed 

                                                                                                                                                  copy of his new book "Observing the Night Sky with Binoculars"

       

                  

 

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        Dylan and Nick set up the solar telescope and showed many visitors the                                        Young visitors to the Park trace the outline of the Sun using the VIS Sunspotter.

            Sun for the first time.

 

 

 

 

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        It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.                                         The Institute for Astronomy, 'Imiloa, the Gemini Observatory, the Canada-

                                                                                                                                                      France Hawaii Telescope, PISCES, BigIslandAstronomy.Com and the VIS 

                                                                                                                                                       all took part in this fun-filled day.

 

 

 

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                   Volunteers Richard and Marian Hilliard came to show their support and take                               At the cool rocks and meteorite booth, Shannon got to touch 160 million- 

                    advantage of the free-entrance day into the Park                                                                     years-old Dino Dung!  

 

 

 

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                After the event was over,  volunteers Shannon, Claire, Nick, Dylan and Volunteer Coordinator, Callie,  took the opportunity to hike down into the bottom of the caldera.