AstroDay West Hawai’i Strikes Again!

Outreach Assistant Alyssa Grace (left) dressed in a clean room suit with her guest team of engineers practiced cleaning a mirror with carbon dioxide snow, just like we do with the larger Gemini mirrors.

The West Hawai’i community asked for another AstroDay and the Maunakea Observatories answered. The second annual AstroDay West at the Kona Commons Shopping Center in Kona, Hawai’i attracted over 3,000 families and public on October 6. AstroDay West is a spinoff of the annual AstroDay in Hilo held at the Prince Kuhio Plaza. Both iterations of AstroDay are organized by the Institute for Astronomy Hilo and include booths and activities from the Maunakea Observatories and other scientific organizations such as NOAA, HI-SEAS etc. Live science performances were also part of the program (see figure below). Additionally, over 400 participants joined in Gemini’s StarLab potable planetarium tours of the night sky, while many more collected our Legacy Images, took photos in our Gemini “photo booth,” and were treated to carbon dioxide snow while learning about the cleaning of our mirrors.