NOIRLab Staff Celebrate AstroDay in Kona!

November 23, 2021

NOIRLab, in conjunction with the University of Hawai‘i’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) and the Maunakea Observatories (MKOs), shared the Universe with learners of all ages at Astroday Kona on Sunday 14 November 2021. The free, open-air event, organized by IfA, attracted over 500 family and visitor participants at the Kona Commons shopping center where shoppers joined observatory staff in activities ranging from making star lei to solar viewing. After a break in 2020 due to the pandemic, AstroDay Kona resumed this year in Kona for the fourth time. The Maunakea observatories were joined by other Hawaiʻi astronomy facilities from Hawaiʻi Island and Maui.

IfA Outreach Manager Carolyn Kaichi led the organization of the event and said, “We are extremely grateful to the community partnerships that allow for the continuation of AstroDay in Kona and especially the support of Kona Commons and its staff.”

The NOIRLab booth featured handouts including image packets with information on the Globe at Night program, and a Lei Hōkū kit that contained materials for students to make a lei (garland) out of origami stars.

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NSF’s NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (operated in cooperation with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.