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Post date: Feb 6, 2020 12:27:10 AM
Feb 9, 2019
This was our first day of the kilo ʻāina astronomy project. We began by doing an overview to what we would be doing and what would be expected of us. On that day it was cloudy, about 46% of the sky was covered, and it was cold because we had met at about 6- 6:15ish in the evening. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity from birds or other animals so it was the perfect opportunity to pull out some of the telescopes. However we could not find the power source to one of the larger telescopes so we had to make due with smaller and older ones, one of which was from 1997 that was handed down from NASA. Most of this meeting was spent looking at the moon and discussing things like ecliptics and the properties of our moon. For some who knew little to nothing before about astronomy before starting this project there is a fair amount I learned and I am excited to learn more.
February 23rd,
This week we came back and met around the same time, at about 6pm.This time we had an objective.
Previously we were talking about moon cycles and how they affect modern day, so now during this meeting we came back with a ton of information concerning Hawaiian culture and how deeply the moon affected it (for examples see here). When I returned this week, I had found the same source of information that Professor Mohan had found, and we compared information about the numerous moon phases. We found that there are many things and times that the moons had sway over. Brandon, my partner, had also found information from a different source. With more information we had begun discussing Hawaiian history and how things began to make sense due to the information we had found. This meeting was also very cloudy and cold. Due to the amount of clouds we could not do any substantial stargazing or moon watching.
March 2,
In the early evening today, there were few clouds and weak winds coming from the East. We had the opportunity to take the telescopes out for observation, however, we got caught up in a conversation about how ancient Hawaiians used the stars for navigation (see here for more information). With the help of scholarly websites and a book by E.H. Bryan Jr., “Stars Over Hawaii”, we learned of the earliest recorded Hawaiian navigators and of the main constellations that help them cross vast oceans. We then entered another area of discussion switching between two perspectives of whether the ancient Hawaiians travelled throughout all the months of the year or whether there were breaks in between lunar phases or times of months. We then went outside of the observatory and looked at many constellations and where they were located in concerns to modern constellations. There was also the topic of the Elliptical and where the stars positioned themselves in perspective to the Hawaiian calendar. The meeting went on longer than usual until about 9pm when the clouds began to roll in from the mountain side.
- Nelson
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