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One of the weeks in Hawaii we are going to be spending in Hawaii itself and one of my excursions is to go to the top of Mauna Kea.

I have several questions:

1) Can we bring a scope up the mountain?
2) Do any of the obervatories let you go inside?
3) Do any have scopes you can use?
4) Is it safe to bring kids to 14,000 feet?

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I didnt get to visit the observatories but I can tell you the skies are simply AMAZING from the beaches on Maui. I has a Orion ST-80 and it worked perfectly, I could see Omega Centauri naked eye! My family and I are going next summer, I will have my little C-90 Orange tube for that trip thankfully! I would just get an ST-80 or something. Maybe a Pronto? Either way you will be good to go.

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Well I can't take one on the trip, but maybe there is an astronomy shop that I can buy a short tube refractor. The only issue is that I hate to waste money and to buy a telescope and then throw it out is so unlike me.I am bringing binoculars, but it isn't the same. If I could rent a scope that would be awesome.

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I was there in November. The best thing to do is to take a tour: they will drive you up to the visitor center and then to the top. It's a long drive and much of the road is pretty rough. Most car rental places forbid bringing their cars on the road.

You can't get in the domes but the trip to the top is worth it none the less. They close everything above the visitor center at sunset. The visitor center has a number of public outreach scopes. The tours also bring scopes -- ours had a Celestron 11". Unfortunately, our viewing was cut short by fog pushing up from the SE. But seeing and transparency was very good before the fog rolled in.

The rest of the island is nothing special in terms of the skies. On the east side (Hilo) it is cloudy pretty much every night, with rain on many days. The west side (Kona) is much drier with some clear nights, but still with an ocean haze. If you get away from the local lights it is a pretty good sky as there are no big cities on the island, but not as good as the mountaintop of course.

I think bringing some good binoculars and signing up with a tour is the way to go. No hassle (they pick you up in hotel-land on the Kona Coast, serve dinner, etc.) and you get to look through a bigger telescope than you can carry from home or buy for a reasonable price. The family will also enjoy it more. But it is a long trip from Kona (>8 hrs round-trip).

My

Edited by GaryML (06/04/09 10:56 AM)

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HJF:

My Lady & I made the trip last October and had a wonderful time. We went with one of the excursions that takes tours up on the mountain - they pick you up at a pickup point near your hotel, take you to the visitor center, feed you a box lunch, take you to the top for sunset and then take you down near the visitor center where they set up their own scopes (in our case a CPC 11) and we spent a couple of hours looking at the sky. They then take you back to your original pickup point. It ain't cheap, about $200 per, but what an experience.

PM me for any more details.

Arizona Ken

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So we decided to go to Hawaii. As we have never been and it meets all 5 goals.

One of the weeks in Hawaii we are going to be spending in Hawaii itself and one of my excursions is to go to the top of Mauna Kea.

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