Featured Maunakea Observatory Discovery/ Observation/ News
A University of Hawai‘i telescope on Maunakea will play a key role in a newly approved $19.5 million NASA space mission that will put an artificial “star” in orbit around the Earth.
The star will be a satellite that scientists will use to precisely calibrate telescopes and more accurately measure the brightness of objects ranging from nearby stars to distant explosions of supernovae in far-off galaxies. As part of the NASA Landolt Space Mission, astronomers at the UH Institute for Astronomy (IfA) will utilize observations to generate fresh star brightness catalogs.
The UH 88 telescope will be one of two ground-based telescopes to observe the Landolt satellite.
Prime observing conditions on Maunakea where the UH88 telescope is located make the IfA-operated observatory an ideal facility to support NASA’s Landolt mission, according to UH astronomers.
The NASA mission is named after the late astronomer Arlo Landolt, who compiled extensive catalogs of stellar brightness from the 1970s and into the 1990s. The Landolt Space Mission will send a satellite into orbit in 2029 that will emit photons at a known rate and be observed alongside real stars to create accurate catalogs of stellar brightness. To achieve this, the satellite, functioning like an artificial star, will emit light from eight lasers directed at ground-based optical telescopes, allowing for precise calibration of these instruments for observations.
Special events
Meteor shower
The beautiful Perseids meteor shower decorates the sky each summer from late July through August. A peak of activity will occur on the night between Aug. 11-12, with up to 100 meteors per hour.
The shooting stars of this meteor shower are the remnants of material left from the comet Swift-Tuttle. When this comet last passed through the inner solar system in 1992, it left behind a cloud of dust and ice in the orbit of the planet Earth. Every year when the Earth passes through this debris cloud, the dust and ice fall through our atmosphere and burn up creating the shooting stars of the Perseids meteor shower.
The shooting stars will roughly originate from the constellation of Perseus rising in the Northeastern sky.
The radiant of the meteor shower, where the shooting stars appear to originate, will rise above the horizon shortly before 10 p.m. throughout the month. The best viewing time during the peak will be after 11 p.m. following the moonset.
Mars-Jupiter conjunction
Morning sky watchers have probably noticed the planets Mars (Hokuæula) and Jupiter (Ka‘awela) in the pre-dawn sky since early June. During August, these planets will appear to slowly move closer to each other until they are extremely close during what is known as a planetary conjunction on Aug. 14.
A conjunction occurs when two planets appear to be very close to each other from our perspective on the Earth.
Evening observing
Summer months in Hawai‘i are the best times to see the center region of the Milky Way sitting behind the constellations of Kamakaunuiamaui (Maui’s Fishhook) and Pimoe (Sagittarius).
The glow of the Milky Way band appears fuzzy and cloudlike from the combined light of hundreds, even thousands, of stars.
Stretching along the Milky Way band will be the navigational star family of Manaiakalani. Manaiakalani is made up of three main components: Kamakaunuiamaui, the fishhook of Maui, Pimoe, an ulua fish swimming away from the fishhook, and The Navigator’s Triangle.
Morning observing
The pre-dawn hours will be best in August for planet finding. Three planets — Jupiter (Ka‘awela), Mars (Hoku‘ula), and Saturn (Makulu) — will be visible before sunrise, with Jupiter and Mars meeting in a planetary conjunction on Aug. 14 (see Special events).
Saturn will be visible in the Western sky with Jupiter and Mars following in the East.
Nearby, the shape of Orion (Kaheiheionakeiki) will be rising in the Eastern sky along with the other stars which form the navigational star family of Kekaomakali‘i.
