Mauna Kea | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 30, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Snow Play

“(A)t early morning, March 30th (1820), to the joy of our expecting little company, the long looked for Hawaii appeared in the West. The lofty Mauna Kea lifted its snow crowned summit above the dark and heavy clouds that begirt its waist.”

“As we approached, we had a fine view of about sixty miles of the NE coast of the island – the districts of Hilo, Hāmākua, and part of Kohala; and as the sun shining in his strength dissipated the clouds, we had a more impressive view of the stupendous pyramidal Mauna Kea …”

“… having a base of some thirty miles, and a height of nearly three miles. Its several terminal peaks rise so near each other, as scarcely to be distinguished at a distance.”

“These, resting on the shoulders of this vast Atlas of the Pacific, prove their great elevation by having their bases environed with ice, and their summits covered with snow, in this tropical region, and heighten the grandeur and beauty of the scene …”

“… by exhibiting in miniature, a northern winter, in contrast with the perpetual summer of the temperate and torrid zones below the snow and ice.” (Bingham)

Such was the first impression of Hiram Bingham as the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries first approached and landed in the Islands. He later (September, 1830) visited the summit region with Kauikeaouli, King Kamehameha III.

“(T)he king set out with a party of more than a hundred, for an excursion further into the heart of the island, and an ascent to the summit of Mauna Kea. To watch over and instruct my young pupil, and to benefit my health, I accompanied him.”

“(C)rossing over to Kawaihae with my family, we ascended at evening to the new inland station. When we had escaped from the oppressive heat on the shore, and reached the height of about 2000 feet, we were met by a slight rain and a chilly wind, which made our muscles shiver, though covered with a cloak, as we came within some twenty-five miles of the snows of the mountain.”

“The rain and clouds passed away as we approached the place of the sojourn of Mr. Ruggles and Dr. Judd. The full-orbed moon looked serenely down from her zenith upon the hoary head of Mauna Kea, and the ample and diversified scenery around.”

“The babbling brook, the sound of a small cataract in a glen, the rustling in the tops of the trees, at a little distance, the scattered huts of the natives in the settlement, while their occupants were hushed at midnight …”

“… and the hospitable light of a fire and lamp, beaming from a glass window of the missionary cottage pitched near the north side of the plain, over against Mauna Kea, which appeared in its grandeur …”

“… all contributed to awaken peculiar emotions, and called forth the aspiration, ‘May the Gospel and the Spirit of God dwell here, and the wilderness and the solitary place be glad for them.’”

“The excursion occupied nearly five days, though it might have been accomplished much sooner. Crossing in a southerly direction the plain of Waimea, some on horseback and some on foot, the party ascended a small part of the elevation of the mountain, and being in the afternoon enveloped in dense fog, they halted and encamped for the night.”

“The next day they passed over the western slope of the mountain to the southern side thence eastward along a nearly level plain, some seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, to a point south of the summit, and encamped out again, in the mild open air.”

“In the course of this day’s journey, the youthful king on horseback, pursued, ran down, and caught a yearling wild bullock, for amusement and for a luncheon for his attendants. A foreigner lassoed and killed a wild cow.”

“The next day was occupied chiefly in ascending in a northerly direction, very moderately. Our horses climbed slowly, and by taking a winding and zigzag course, were able, much of the way, to carry a rider.”

“Having gained an elevation of about ten thousand feet, we halted and encamped for the night, in the dreary solitudes of rocks and clouds. When the night spread her dark, damp mantle over us, we found ourselves in the chilly autumnal atmosphere of the temperate zone of this most stupendous Polynesian mountain.”

“Below us, towards Mauna Loa, was spread out a sea of dense fog, above which the tops of the two mountains appeared like islands.”

“We found it a pretty cold lodging place. … In the morning we proceeded slowly upwards till about noon, when we came to banks of snow, and a pond of water partly covered with ice.”

“In his first contact with a snow bank, the juvenile king seemed highly delighted. He bounded and tumbled on it, grasped and handled and hastily examined pieces of it, then ran and offered a fragment of it in vain to his horse.”

“He assisted in cutting out blocks of it, which were wrapped up and sent down as curiosities to the regent and other chiefs, at Waimea, some twenty-eight miles distant.”

“These specimens of snow and ice, like what are found in the colder regions of the earth, excited their interest and gratified their curiosity, and pleased them much; not only by their novelty, but by the evidence thus given of a pleasant remembrance by the youthful king.”

“After refreshing and amusing ourselves at this cold mountain lake, we proceeded a little west of north, and soon reached the lofty area which is surmounted by the ‘seven pillars’ which wisdom had hewed out and based upon it, or the several terminal peaks near each other, resting on what would otherwise be a somewhat irregular table land, or plain of some twelve miles circumference.

“Ere we had reach’d the base of the highest peak, the sun was fast declining and the atmosphere growing cold. The king and nearly all the company declined the attempt to scale the summit, and passing on to the north-west crossed over, not at the highest point, and hastily descended towards Waimea.” (Hiram Bingham)

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April 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mauna Kea Observatories

Mauna Kea started to form over a million years ago, in stages typical of all Hawaiian volcanoes. Magma rising through fissures in the ocean crust hot spot slowly built a volcanic cone of pillow lava and glassy fragments, rock formations created by underwater eruptions. About 800,000-years ago Mauna Kea rose above sea level, and intensive mountain building began.

Mauna Kea’s shield-building phase ended about 130,000-years ago. Cinder cones at the summit mark the location of subsequent eruptions, which buried a larger central caldera. Eruptions flared even when Ice Age glaciers gripped the summit. (National Geographic)

Since 150,000 to 200,000-years ago, there have been three glacial episodes. Glacial debris on the volcano formed about 70,000-years ago and from approximately 40,000 to 13,000-years ago. Mauna Kea is presently a dormant volcano, having last erupted about 4,500-years ago. (USGS)

No point on the planet reaches higher into the atmosphere than Mount Everest: 29,035-feet (unlike the hot spot that formed Mauna Kea, Mount Everest formed as the result of a convergent tectonic boundary.)

But as a geologic formation, Everest is substantially smaller than Mauna Kea. Everest begins its rise in the Himalaya at an average elevation of 19,160-feet above sea level. Its height from base to summit averages 10,000-feet. The base of Mauna Kea starts about 45-miles out from shore at a depth of some 18,900-feet, giving it a total rise of 32,696-feet. (National Geographic)

“The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers, and (they used terms that) appertained to the heavens, the stars, terrestrial science, and the gods. Curious students will notice in this chant (Kumulipo) analogies between its accounts of the creation and that given by modern science or Sacred Scripture.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“In ancient times, the class of people studying the positions of the moon, the rising and setting of certain fixed stars and constellations, and also of the sun, are called the kilo-hōkū or astrologers. Their observations of these heavenly bodies might well be called the study of astronomy.”

“The use of astrology anciently, was to predict certain events of fortunes and misfortunes, victory or defeat of a battle, death of king or queen, or any high chief; it also foretells of pestilence, famine, fine or stormy weather and so forth.” (Nupepa Hawaiʻi, April 2, 1909)

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) undertook fencing, road building and visitor facilities on Mauna Kea. The CCC built a stone cabin at Hale Pōhaku, which gained its name (house of stone) from that structure. The cabin at Hale Pōhaku provided a shelter for overnight hikers, hunters and snow players.

In 1943, construction of a road from Hilo to what would become the Pōhakuloa Training Area began. After the end of World War II, the Saddle Road, as it was called, was extended to Waimea, greatly improving access to the south side of Mauna Kea.

In 1961, an Executive Order by Governor Quinn set aside land on the summit of Haleakala in a place known as Kolekole, to be under the control and management of the University of Hawaiʻi which established the ‘Haleakala High Altitude Observatory Site,’ sometimes referred to as Science City. (IfA)

Observatories are an ‘identified land use’ in the Conservation District pursuant to HAR §13-5-24, Identified Land Uses permitted in the Resource Subzone include, R-3 Astronomy Facilities, (D-1) Astronomy facilities under an approved management plan.

In 1964, the first road to the summit, a “jeep road” was completed, and in July of that year, the Lunar and Planetary Station, located on the summit of Pu‘u Poli‘ahu was opened (Group 70.) The jeep road was improved in 1970, allowing much easier access to the summit.

The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) was founded at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) in 1967 to manage the Haleakala Observatory on Maui and to guide the development of the Mauna Kea Observatories on Hawaiʻi Island, as well as to carry out its own program of fundamental research.

In 1968 Governor John A. Burns established the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, and through a lease with the Department of Land & Natural Resources, the University of Hawaiʻi was granted the authority to operate the Science Reserve as a scientific complex.

The University of Hawaiʻi’s Board of Regents adopted its first master plan for the Science Reserve (Mauna Kea Science Reserve Complex Development Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement) in 1983.

The University’s 2000 Master Plan for the UH Management Area designated 525 acres of the UH leased land as an Astronomy Precinct within the 11,288-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve.

Office of Mauna Kea Management (OMKM) was established in 2000 as part of a master plan to provide responsible stewardship of Mauna Kea, including protecting cultural, natural and scientific resources, monitoring public access, and decommissioning astronomical facilities.

Kahu Kū Mauna (Guardians of the Mountain) is a volunteer community-based council whose members are from the native Hawaiian community. They give advice on Hawaiian cultural matters affecting the UH Management Areas. They review proposed projects and give their input to the Mauna Kea Management Board.

The 1983 plan included seven areas in the Science Reserve that were designated as Analysis Areas. The 2000 update of the Master Plan enabled the refinement of the Telescope Siting Areas within the Astronomy Precinct, to include all existing observatories, proposed redeveloped facilities and new facility sites.

The areas were anticipated to provide suitable observation conditions with minimum impact on existing facilities, wekiu bug habitat, archaeological sites and minimal visual were selected.

The astronomy precinct, where 13-existing telescopes are located, delineates the area of development of astronomy facilities, roads, and support infrastructure. (The remaining 10,763 acres are designated a Natural/Cultural Preservation Area in order to protect natural and cultural resources within the UH Management Areas.)

The 13-telescopes with the Mauna Kea Astronomy Precinct include:
• UH-Hilo 0.6-meter (24-inch) (1968)
• UH IfA 2.2-meter (88-inch) (1970)
• NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, 3.0-m, (1979)
• Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope, 3.6-m, (1979)
• United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, 3.8-m, (1979)
• Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, 10.4-m (1987)
• James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, 15-m, (1987)
• Very Long Baseline Array, 25-m (1992)
• Keck I 10-m, (1992)
• Keck II 10-m, (1996)
• Subaru Telescope, 8.3-m, (1999)
• Gemini Northern Telescope, 8.1-m, (1999)
• Submillimeter Array, 8x6m (2002)

(The Hubble Space Telescope’s mirror is similar in size to that of the UH 2.2 meter telescope — the second smallest telescope on the mountain. However, Hubble’s position, orbiting the Earth, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.)

With today’s technology and the fiber optic communications system, many of the studies occurring at these observatories can be operated remotely either from Hale Pōhaku, off-mountain Hawaiʻi locations (Waimea, Hilo), or via the Internet.

The mid-elevation facilities at Hale Pōhaku have typically been associated with support of astronomers, dating back to times when all facilities were operated by on-mountain astronomers and technicians.

Today, the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy located at Hale Pōhaku has living facilities for up to 72 people working at the summit. Also located at the center are the Visitor Information Station and other support buildings. The station is managed by the Institute for Astronomy’s Mauna Kea Support Services.

In 2006, ʻImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaiʻi was completed. The 42,000-square-foot exhibition and planetarium complex is located in the University of Hawaiʻi’s Science and Technology Park. It was designed specifically to promote the integration of modern astronomical science and the Hawaiian culture.

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UH 2.2 meter Telescope 1968-1970

NASA Infrared Telescope Facility Built in 1979

Canada France Hawaii Telescope Photo IFA 1979

United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (Photo UKIT) 1979

Caltech Submillimeter Observatory 1987

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope 1987

The Very Long Baseline Array 1992

Twin Keck (Illustration by Tom Connell) 1992-1996

The Subaru Telescope (Photo Subaru) 1999

The Gemini Northern Observatory 1999

The SubMillimeter Array 2002

Road to the Summit with support buildings IFA

Hale Pohaku Photo IFA

Map of the Summit. ( IFA )

April 17, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lake Waiau

Mauna Kea falls in the senior line genealogy. (Maly)

Former Queen Emma, widow of the late Alexander Liholiho Kamehameha (IV,) and David Kalakaua were in competition for the position of monarch of Hawai’i.

Both of them needed to prove their connection to the senior line and connect back to a wahi pana (celebrated and storied places). Kalakaua went to Kanaloa-Kahoʻolawe to bathe in the waters of the ocean god Kanaloa.

Emma went to the top of Mauna Kea to bathe in the waters of Waiau. The ceremony was to cleanse in Lake Waiau at the piko of the island.

The water caught at Lake Waiau was considered pure water of the gods much like the water caught in the piko of the kalo leaf, the nodes of bamboo or the coconut and is thought of as being pure. (Maly, Mauna-a-Wakea))

Papa is a goddess of earth and the underworld and mother of gods. Wakea is god of light and of the heavens who “opens the door of the sun”. (Beckwith)

“In the genealogy of Wakea it is said that Papa gave birth to these Islands. Another account has it that this group of islands were not begotten, but really made by the hands of Wakea himself.” (Malo)

Waiau is named for the mountain goddess, Waiau (Ka piko o Waiau), and home of the moʻo (water-form) goddess Moʻo-i-nanea.

It is a place where piko of newborn children were taken to ensure long life; and from which “ka wai kapu o Kane” (the sacred water of Kane) was collected. (Maly)

Lake Waiau, located at the 13,020-foot elevation, is on the Island of Hawaii, near the summit of Mauna Kea.

The ancient Hawaiians believed that spirits traveled to and from the spirit world through Lake Waiau, which had ‘no bottom.’ (Actually, the lake has been measured in modern times at 10 feet deep.) The lake freezes over in winter. (Allen)

Lake Waiau is a ‘perched’ water body, in which water is held in a depression by an impermeable substrate of layers of silty clay, interbedded with ash layers, and it has been proposed that permafrost also underlies the lake. It has also been suggested that permafrost surrounds the lake and provides a catchment that directs water into the lake. (USGS)

In 1830, Hiram Bingham and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) ascended Mauna Kea and stopped at Lake Waiau – Bingham noted, “In the morning we proceeded slowly upwards till about noon, when we came to banks of snow, and a pond of water partly covered with ice.”

“He assisted in cutting out blocks of it, which were wrapped up and sent down as curiosities to the regent and other chiefs, at Waimea, some twenty-eight miles distant.”

“After refreshing and amusing ourselves at this cold mountain lake, we proceeded a little west of north, and soon reached the
lofty area which is surmounted by the ‘seven pillars’ which wisdom had hewed out and based upon it, or the several terminal peaks near each other, resting on what would otherwise be a somewhat irregular table land, or plain of some twelve miles circumference.” (Hiram Bingham)

Others made the ascent, “(T)hrough the sliding, weathered lava and cinders, to the pass to the right of the summit cone, and down the slope of the shoulder of the mountain wherein nestles the surprise of Mauna Kea – Lake Waiau.”

“Here, as the sun dipped behind the blue waters of the Pacific, curving up to meet it, we gazed with astonished eyes upon a tiny emerald gem, glacier made in some past time, set in a niche in the arid side of Mauna Kea.”

“We pitched our tent hurriedly by the green, cold lake, built a fire in the whipping trade wind, with its chilly bite, ate an early supper, and retired like packed sardines between our blankets. We were in an arctic zone under a tropic sky.”

“Taking our last look across the lake, we saw the image of fair Venus, streaming in white and shimmering light across the tiny, rippling waves. A thousand jewels glittered in the reflected phantom light of our neighbor planet. The next morning, ice over a half-inch thick was found in the gravel bar about the lake.” (Daingerfield, Paradise of the Pacific, December 1922; Maly)

Another noted, “At last, about 3 PM, we clambered over the rim of a low crater west of the central cones, and saw before us the famous lakelet of Waiau, near which we camped.”

“It is an oval sheet of the purist water, an acre and three quarters in extent, surrounded by an encircling ridge from 90 to 135 feet in height, except at the northwest corner, where there is an outlet, which was only two feet above the level of the lake at the time of our visit.”

“The overflow has worn out a deep ravine, which runs first to west and then to the southwest. A spring on the southern side of the mountain, called “Wai Hu”, is believed by the natives to be connected with this lake.”

“The elevation of Waiau is at least 13,050 feet, which is 600 feet higher than Fujiyama. There are few bodies of water in the world higher than this, except in Thibet or on the plateau of Pamir. No fish are found in its waters, nor do any water-fowl frequent its margins.” (Alexander, Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 14, 1892)

“Lake Waiau … is the highest lake within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean Basin. The southern rim of the depression containing the lake is a low segment of a cinder cone, Pu‘u Waiau, on which rests moraine of the latest period of glaciation.”

“The lake water is perched on a layer of silt and mud washed into the basin from the sides of the cone and from the glacial moraine. … The lowest point of the rim is on the western side, where the lake water occasionally overflows into the headwaters of Pohakuloa Gulch.”

“The water is derived entirely from precipitation and runoff from the edges of the basin.” (Geology and Groundwater Resources of the Island of Hawaii, Stearns & Macdonald, 1946)

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Lake Waiau on September 26, 2013

Lake-Waiau

March 15, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Harold Melville Clark

Harold Melville Clark was born October 4, 1890, to Charles Asa Clark and Amanda Palmer Clark in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Clark family had a strong military tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.

His father fought Spanish forces in the Philippines while assigned to Company E, 13th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish American War of 1898. Clark’s older brother, Charles, served as a field-artillery officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.

The end of the Spanish American War brought a period of growth and interest in the Philippines. In 1904, the Clarks moved to Manila, where they enjoyed considerable wealth and prestige due to the family’s business ventures. During this time, Harold attended the American High School in Manila; he graduated April 1, 1910.

Harold followed in his family’s footsteps and returned to the US for military training. After being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry in 1913, his first assignment was with 1st Cavalry Division.

A couple years later he transferred into the Signal Corps’ aviation section and went to the North Island Flying School in San Diego, Calif. On May 3, 1917, Clark received his rating as a junior military aviator.

While Clark was getting his Army wings, the Signal Corps’ aviation section and military aviation in general was getting a troublesome start in the Hawaiian Islands. The first Army airplanes, pilots and crews arrived in Oahu in July 1913. The planes were based at Fort Kamehameha, near present-day Hickam Air Force Base.

Lieutenant Harold Geiger, who commanded the aviation assets, noted his limited aircraft were in poor shape. His flights were limited to short flights in Pearl Harbor and a longer flight to Diamond Head and back to Fort Kamehameha.

Geiger was ordered to cease all flying operations in late 1913. The planes were sold locally, and the engines were sent back to the North Island Flying School. The Hawaiian Islands wouldn’t see any more Army aviation activity until 1917. (Romano; Arlington)

Major Harold Clark became Army Department Aviation Officer and arrived in the Territory of Hawaii in 1917 to take command of the Army’s 6th Aero Squadron.

A major construction effort was initiated at the new Army air base at Pearl Harbor. Before long, Ford Island had two double seaplane hangars with concrete ramps, two wooden land plane hangars, one small motor repair and machine shop, and a supply warehouse.

In the center to the south end a narrow strip of land was cleared for land plane operation. By this time, the 6th’s strength increased to 10 officers. (hawaii-gov)

Clark quickly began to learn the Hawaiian winds and how to fly in them. On March 15, 1918, he flew to Molokai and back to Oahu – the first round trip inter-island flight ever made in the Hawaiian Islands.

His next feat was to try a three-island flight. Agreeing to take the mail, on May 9, 1918, Clark and mechanic Sergeant Robert Gray took off from Fort Kamehameha Oahu and flew to Maui. (Griffith)

After landing in Maui, they continued onto the island of Hawai‘i; nearing Hawai‘i’s coastline, Clark encountered thick cloud formations and promptly lost his bearings. Darkness added to his worries, so the Army flyer decided to land quickly. His airplane crashed on the slope of Mauna Kea.

Unhurt, pilot and mechanic found themselves in a jungle-like brush with no civilization in sight. Hoping to draw attention to their location, the pair set a fire some distance away from the wreckage … no rescuers came, so they started to walk out. (Hawaii-gov)

Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerged from the jungle unhurt. Clark delivered the letters, received an enormous welcome from the island’s residents and was the first airman to fly the mail in the Hawaiian Islands. (Griffith)

Clark continued to make regular flights among the islands. However, he was ordered back to the US mainland August 28, 1918, for pursuit training at the North Island Flying School.

Following this, Clark assumed command of Pursuit Group, First Provisional Wing, at Minneola, Long Island, N.Y. Clark commanded this group for only a short time before being ordered to Panama at the end of 1918.

On the morning of May 2, 1919, Clark and two other aviators, Lieutenant JRL Hitt and Lieutenant Thomas Cecil Tonkin, left France Field for Balboa in an Army seaplane. While enroute, the plane developed engine problems, but the trio made it to Balboa safely.

That same afternoon, the three aviators began the return flight to France Field with Hitt at the controls. Due to the plane’s earlier troubles, the flight followed the Panama Canal at an altitude of 250 feet. Shortly into the flight, the plane’s engine stopped.

The plane crashed into the front of Miraflores Locks at about 5 pm. “The machine crumpled up like a house of cards, and the three men were thrown into the water of the lock. Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine.”

“… Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it’s not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned.” (Panama Star & Herald; Romano; Arlington)

Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but bystanders rescued him. The Army ruled his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by “aeroplane traumatism,” according to a Defense Department report on Clark’s death dated May 8, 1919. Clark was buried May 29, 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

The base in the Philippines that would eventually bear Clark’s name was established in 1902 as Fort Stotensberg. The Army used this installation as a cavalry post following the Spanish American War. During World War II, this base would be pivotal in the Army Air Force’s effort to win the air war against Japan.

Following the end of World War II and creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, Fort Stotensberg was renamed Clark Air Base. The US turned over possession of Clark Air Base to the Republic of the Philippines November 26, 1991. Clark Air Base is now an international airport serving the Philippines. (Romano; Arlington)

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In 1918 Maj Harold Clark & Sgt Robert Gray flew a Curtiss R-6 seaplane (similar to this) on the first flight from Oahu to Big Island

In 1918 Maj Harold Clark and Sgt Robert Gray survived a crash on Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii

Cloudy slopes of Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, where Maj. Harold Clark crashed in 1918

Harold Melville Clark gravestone

Clark Air Force Base

September 5, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hale Kilo Hoku

“In ancient times, the class of people studying the positions of the moon, the rising and setting of certain fixed stars and constellations, and also of the sun, are called the kilo-hoku or astrologers. Their observations of these heavenly bodies might well be called the study of astronomy.”

Hawaiʻi’s last King, Kalākaua, has been referred to as a Renaissance man. While seeking to revive many elements of Hawaiian culture that were slipping away, the King also promoted the advancement of modern sciences, art and literature … and astronomy.

King Kalākaua has also been described as a monarch with a technical and scientific bent and an insatiable curiosity for modern devices. He became king in 1874. Edison and others were still experimenting with electric lights at that time.

Five years after Kalākaua and Edison met (1881,) Charles Otto Berger, a Honolulu-based insurance executive with mainland connections, organized a demonstration of “electric light” at ʻIolani Palace, on the night of July 26, 1886.

“The first telephone ever used in Honolulu belonged to King Kalākaua. Having been presented to him by the American Bell Telephone Company.” (Daily Bulletin, December 4, 1894) (It followed (1881) the placement of a phone in the White House (1879.))

Kalākaua’s interest in modern astronomy is evidenced by his support for an astronomical expedition to Hawaiʻi in 1874 that came from England to observe a transit of Venus (a passage of Venus in front of the Sun – used to measure an ‘astronomical unit,’ the distance between the Earth and Sun.)

The King allowed the British Royal Society’s expedition a suitable piece of open land for their viewing area; it was not far from Honolulu’s waterfront in a district called Apua (mauka of today’s Waterfront Plaza.)

Kalākaua addressed those astronomers in 1874 stating, “It will afford me unfeigned satisfaction if my kingdom can add its quota toward the successful accomplishment of the most important astronomical observation of the present century and assist, however humbly, the enlightened nations of the earth in these costly enterprises to establish the basis of astronomical distance.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 19, 1874)

(When American astronomer Simon Newcomb combined the 18th century data with those from the 1874/1882 Venus transits, he derived an Earth-sun distance of 149.59 +/- 0.31 million kilometers (about 93-million miles,) very close to the results found with modern space technology in the 20th century.)

Kalākaua later helped astronomy with the Transit of Mercury (November 7, 1881.) “The king, Kalākaua, offered me the free occupancy of the site from which the observations of the Transit of Venus were made in December 1874 …” (Rockwell, Royal Astronomical Society)

Kalākaua reinforced his positive feelings toward modern astronomy – and noted the importance of scientific learning versus the financial aspect of it. On November 22, 1880, King Kalākaua wrote to Captain RS Floyd noting his interest in telescopes and astronomy:

“I must thank you sincerely for the pamphlet you sent me of the ‘Lick Observatory Trust.’ Something of this kind is needed here very much but we have so few people who take interest in scientific matters. Everybody is bent upon making money on sugar and the all might dollar.” (King Kalākaua)

The King then took his trip around the world, “Among our passengers on the voyage to San Francisco was a well-known Englishman, a lecturer on astronomy, returning from Australia.”

“’He discussed with the King the astral theories of the Polynesians, which were, it must be confessed, not as advanced as those held by the present generation of Europeans, but quite as valuable as those of learned men two centuries before, who believed that comets were sent by the Almighty to frighten men into obedience.”

“The King became much interested in these semi-scientific conversations, and at the end of the voyage their effect upon him was shown after a not altogether unexpected fashion.” (Judd; Around the World with the King)

Later, in 1881, during his travels to the US, King Kalākaua visited the Lick Observatory in California and was the first to view through its new 12” telescope (which was temporarily set up for that purpose in the unfinished dome.)

“Then that magnificent type of a man, stalwart fellow with black hair, splendid features and bronzed complexion stood before Mr Lick, and said that he had heard what Mr Lick had done, and that he proposed to do for the state, that he thanked him on behalf of humanity.” (Wright)

“Kalākaua arrived … at a crucial time, as the first important astronomical venture on Mount Hamilton was about to be launched. The 12-inch dome was not yet finished.”

They improvised “by mounting the telescope temporarily on the pier in the open air. The next morning … he again went up the ‘hill.’ He told (Thomas Edward) Fraser (builder of the Lick Observatory) he was delighted with what he saw and wanted a transit at his place.” (Wright)

Hawaiʻi had a chance for a Hale Kilo Hoku (observatory or astronomy building (Pukui)) in 1887. Harvard College Observatory issued a circular, “looking about for a suitable site for a station.”

“It appears that by the will of the late Uriah A Boyden, property the present value of which exceeds $230,000 was left in trust for the purpose of astronomical research, ‘at such an elevation as to be free, so far as practicable from the impediments to accurate observations now existing owing to atmospheric influences.’”

“A location in the southern hemisphere will be preferable for various reasons one of which is that ‘the southern stars invisible in Europe and the United States have been less observed than the northern stars and by the aid of a southern station the investigations undertaken at Cambridge can be extended upon a uniform system to all parts of the sky.” (Harvard)

“There is no doubt Professor Alexander (of the Hawaiian Government) will be able to show that the Hawaiian Islands are fully qualified to fulfill some, if not all, of the required conditions (called for in the Harvard prospectus.)” (Daily Herald, April 13, 1887)

“The response to the Circulars was enthusiastic. (Harvard) received letters recommending mountain sites in the Andes and the Himalayas, and in South Africa, Australia, Japan and Hawaiʻi.” (Harvard College Observatory) Harvard chose ‘Mount Harvard’ in Lima Peru for The Boyden Station of Harvard Observatory.

It wasn’t until nearly a century after Hawaiʻi’s participation in the first Transit of Venus that a high elevation observatory was constructed in Hawaiʻi – in 1964, a NASA-funded 12.5-inch telescope was installed on Puʻu Poliahu to see if Mauna Kea provide the right observation conditions.

Dr. Gerard Kuiper’s team began “seeing” studies. Kuiper concluded that “The mountaintop is probably the best site in the world – I repeat – in the world – from which to study the moon, the planets, and stars.” (Ironwood Observatory Research)

At the close of the decade Mauna Kea saw the construction of a 0.6-meter (24-inch) (1968) and 2.2-meter (88-inch) (1970) telescopes, provided to University of Hawaiʻi by the US Air Force and NASA.

These were followed by NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, 3.0-m, 1979; Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, 3.6-m, 1979; United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, 3.8-m, 1979; Keck I and Keck II, each 10-m, 1992 & 1996; Subaru Telescope, 8.3-m, 1999; Gemini Northern Telescope, 8.1-m, 1999; Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, 10.4-m, 1987; James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, 15-m, 1987; Submillimeter Array. 8x6m, 2002; and Very Long Baseline Array, 25m, 1992.

In 1891, while ill in bed, King Kalākaua recorded a message on a wax-type phonograph in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Kalākaua died in San Francisco a few days later (January 20, 1891.)

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