Kauai

The Island of Kauai boasts some of the darkest nights in America. Couple that with warm weather, few bugs and many clear views and this is the place for observational astronomy. My viewing area was in Kekaha on the west side of the Garden Island. There at Kekaha Beach Park most of the horizon is all ocean and unobstructed for thousands of miles, thus; some of the most amazing stellar vistas. With the moon waning the night sky was spectacular! It was almost as if the constellations of Orion, Taurus and Cassiopeia were in 3-D; jumping off the fabric of the sable heavens above.

I was fortunate enough to get in contact Roz Reiner, a Kauai resident and astronomy educator. Also known as "Rocket Roz", she is the webmaster for Astro Events -Stargazing Kauai http://rozhome.com/astroevents/?view. Roz hosts guided sky tours and offers an impressive variety of observational astronomy and Hawaiian celestial knowledge. If you are in Kauai and want to do some star gazing, contact Roz for a great viewing session. Thanks Roz!

Jupiter was impressive and we stole a look at Mercury as the sun set over the ocean. The Milky Way was like a swath of glowing light that looked like a painted stripe across the sky. Unlike my suburb viewing location here in Port Barrington the sky in Kauai is so dark that that open clusters in Cassiopeia could be seen with the naked eye. This included the Andromeda Galaxy and M42 in Orion which were even more impressive with binoculars. Orbiting satellites could be seen whizzing across the heavens and errant meteors were commonplace.