Here we are vacationing in Waikiki and my brother posts on my FB page that there will be an incredible Geminids meteor shower tomorrow night and we need to watch it! Being from Chicago where the only stars in the sky are the twinkling lights of planes lined up for landing at O'Hare, we decided we had to do this. Lo and behold, we found Astro-Tours online and one phone call from our concierge later, we were booked for the following night.
Ray Young is the owner of Astro-Tours and also the owner of an enormous telescope as well as several smaller but also very powerful telescopes and binoculars. Ray runs his business out of his house which is located at one of the highest points of the island, 1100 feet, and where he has a separate small observatory in his back yard, complete with a retractable ceiling that opens to the stars.
On the night we went for our astro-tour, we were told that Ray would call two hours ahead to let us know if we were still "on" because he will only do a tour if it is a clear night. On this particular night Ray called and told us we were still on because of the meteor showers, but to expect intermittent cloud cover due to strong trade winds, and that we would need to dress for cold weather.
We arrived at 8pm, his normal scheduled star-gazing time. Ray met us along with two other groups of people. We were led to his back yard where, using a very strong laser pointer, Ray showed us the primary constellations and explained how they rotated in relation to the earth, and also talked about some new nebulas and finally, about the meteor shower that was occurring that night. From there we all went into the observatory where we viewed Jupiter from Ray's 12 inch Maksutov Gassegrain telescope. Ray also had other telescopes and binoculars set up for us to view the seven sisters, the new nebula, orion's cluster, and some other interesting stars.
From there we went to the yard where Ray had viewing mats and binoculars set up in the yard. We laid down, pointed our eyes and binoculars up, and prepared to watch for meteor showers and to revisit the stars we had seen. We immediately did see several meteors and they were breathtaking. And it was incredible to see so many stars- Ray's instruments are so powerful, it is hard to see the regular constellatons because you can see so many other stars among them :-).
We particularly loved looking at Jupiter from the powerful telescope, you could see the bands around the planet as well as the circulating moons!. I was also able to see several meteors showering across the sky both through the binoculars as well as with the naked eye. It was amazing.
During times when there was cloud cover, Ray went inside and made hot chocolate for us, and he also served us fresh baked pineapple pie, something we'd never had before. Both were delicious!
Overall, we had a fabulous time, although I have to admit I started getting tired early so we did not stay the entire time (which is until 2AM!) When we left there was still a group of girls there who had brought a lot of bedding as well as popcorn and the like. My advice to anyone going there is to disregard whatever weather is by your place and prepare for strong winds and cold weather. Considering we were lying on the ground, despite Ray's kindly providing us with large mats the size of blankets to lie on, I wished I'd brought a pair of warm gloves and a sweater in addition to the sweatshirt I was already wearing. I would have also brought a blanket and especially a pillow to lay on while looking up at the sky!
I highly recommend this trip if you want to do something different and informal and if like us, there is little chance of your seeing the stars from your house! Ray is a fabulous host and we will look for him when we come back!! read more
