Origins of Astronomy in Hawai`i

Walter Steiger
Professor Emeritus, University of Hawai`i

Seeds of Western astronomy have fallen upon Hawai`i soils a number of times over the past century or more. The conditions for their germination were not always suitable. But in the mid-1950s the International Geophysical Year provided the climate and fertile soil where the germ sprouted and flourished. This is the story of that germination and growth.

Astronomy to the Early Hawaiians

Interest in the heavens goes back far into the ancient fabric of Polynesian culture. Many of the early Polynesian gods and demi-gods derived from or dwelt in the heavens, and many of the legendary exploits took place among the heavenly bodies. The demi-god Maui, especially, was known for such astronomical deeds as snaring the Sun to slow its passage across the sky (1), or of fashioning a magical fishhook (recognized in Western astronomy as the stinger in Scorpio) to fish up the Hawaiian Islands out of the deep ocean.

In a more practical vein, the early Polynesians were highly skilled sailors and navigators who sailed thousands of miles over open ocean between the Society Islands, the Marquesas, Easter Island in the east, the Hawaiian Islands in the north, and New Zealand in the southwest. Navigation was accomplished primarily, we believe, by a thorough knowledge of the stars, their rising and setting points along the horizon and their meridian passage as a function of latitude. Of course, there were other indicators in nature that helped guide them: the winds, the waves, the ocean swells, cloud formations, and birds and fish (2, 3).

No instruments or charts of any kind were used to assist these early navigators. But with the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778, and subsequent arrivals of foreign ships, the Hawaiians were introduced to spyglasses, sextants, compasses, clocks, and charts, and easily adapted to Western technology. The foreign ideas and techniques soon crowded out the ancient and extensive knowledge of the sky and, sadly, most of this ancient lore has been lost and forgotten. To a large extent our current lack of knowledge of Hawaiian astronomy can be attributed to the early immigrants, mostly missionaries, who transcribed the unwritten language of the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians had names for hundreds of stars and other astronomical objects and concepts. Many of the words were recorded, but not their English equivalents, which were unknown to the transcribers (4).

Since the 1970s there has been a rebirth of interest in Polynesian navigation and the astronomy that supports it. One of the leaders of this movement has been Nainoa Thompson, a native Hawaiian who set out to learn the ancient art. His early studies brought him to the Bishop Museum Planetarium where he spent many hours under the guidance and mentoring of planetarium lecturer and author, Will Kyselka, learning the appearance of the skies over Polynesia. Nainoa was a leader in the reconstruction of the Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe, the Hokule`a, and its ultimate non-instrumental navigation retracing the voyages of the ancients (18).

The first record of scientific astronomical observations being made from Hawai`i appears to be that of a British expedition on 8 December 1874. Captain G. L. Tupman of the HBM Scout observed a transit of Venus from a site on Punchbowl Street (5).  Observations of this transit were also made from Waimea, Kaua`i and Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i Island..

David Kalakaua reigned over the Kingdom of Hawai`i from 1874 to 189l. King Kalakaua was a worldly and progressive monarch, especially considering how recently his people had been exposed to the society and culture of the “civilized” Western world. It was his ambition, as King of Hawai`i, to travel far and wide to learn the ways of the outside world. Even before his voyage, which took place in 1881 (6), Kalakaua had shown an interest in astronomy, and in a letter to Captain R. S. Floyd on November 22, 1880, had expressed a desire to see an observatory established in Hawai`i. His voyage began with a visit to San Francisco, where he visited Lick Observatory in nearby San Jose. Mr. French of Lick Observatory evidently was the King’s guide at the observatory. In his journal Mr. French noted how interested and enthusiastic the King had been and how he had expressed a desire to bring such a telescope to Hawai`i.

Halley’s Comet

Soon after the turn of the century an astronomical event of major scientific as well as popular interest stirred the citizens of Honolulu: the predicted appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1910. By public subscription an observatory was built on Ocean View Drive in Kaimuki, which was then a suburb of Honolulu in the vicinity of Diamond Head.

A civic group known as the Kaimuki Improvement Association donated the site, which offered an excellent view of the sky. A six-inch refractor manufactured by Queen & Company of Philadelphia was placed in the observatory along with a very fine Seth Thomas sidereal clock and a three-inch meridian passage telescope. The observatory was operated by the fledgling College of Hawai`i, later to become the University of Hawai`i. The public purpose of the Kaimuki Observatory was served and Halley’s Comet was observed. But, unfortunately, the optics of the telescope were not good enough for serious scientific work.  

Because of Hawai`i’s longitude (157º W) and low latitude (21º N), it was well situated for observing Halley’s Comet. The Comet Committee of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America determined to sponsor an expedition to Hawai`i to observe and measure the comet. Professor Ferdinand Ellerman of the Mt. Wilson Observatory made up the one-man expedition. With assistance from the U.S. Weather Bureau, the College of Hawai`i, and the U.S. Coast Guard, he set up a temporary observing shelter on the seaward slope of Diamond Head, not far from the Coast Guard’s Diamond Head Light House, and obtained an excellent series of observations. 

In 1916 Professor Arnold Romberg of the youthful physics department of the College of Hawai`i joined forces with Frank E. Midkiff, science instructor at Punahou School, to make observations of Mars at its close opposition. They moved the superior Punahou telescope to the Kaimuki Observatory, and there it stayed for the next forty years. It was used periodically by persons from the College of Hawai`i, and others as well. During 1917 to 1918 the telescope was used rather regularly by R.W. French, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and E.H. Bryan, Jr., of the Bishop Museum, both charter members of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, to observe variable stars. During the following decades, the Kaimuki Observatory with the Punahou telescope was used mainly for educational purposes and public viewing of the skies. John S. Donaghho, professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Hawai`i, and Mr. Bryan took the leading role in attending to the observatory. 

Alas, the ravages of time and termites eventually took their toll, and in 1958 the badly deteriorated structure of the Kaimuki Observatory was demolished.

Radio Astronomy

Hawai`i played a minor role in the early days of radio astronomy. After the discovery of cosmic radio emissions by Karl Jansky in 1931, one of the first to take up the scientific investigation of these emissions was Grote Reber with a radio telescope in his backyard in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1951 Reber came to Hawai`i to take advantage of a unique geophysical condition. By placing his antenna atop 10,000-foot Haleakala on the island of Maui, he hoped to use the ocean as a reflector so that the antenna received both the direct signal from a cosmic radio source and the signal reflected from the ocean, forming a “Lloyd’s Mirror” type of interferometer. His antenna was built on a circular track so that it could be rotated in any direction.

Students at the Maui Technical School (later Maui Community College) constructed the welded steel and wood truss support system. Reber was disappointed with his results. In his research report on Haleakala observations, Reber (19) states that:, “In addition to the natural limitations imposed by the ionosphere (it is opaque at many wavelengths), a large amount of man-made electrical disturbance was encountered. This was due to the exposed position of the observer and the fact that the technique required looking at the horizon. The two main centers of disturbance were the local industrial area of Kahului-Puunene at a distance of 20 miles NNW, and Honolulu-Pearl Harbor at a distance of 120 miles WNW. Consequently the quadrant from north to west was frequently unusable. Radio astronomy observations should not be located atop high mountain peaks.”

He was still on Maui in 1955 when I first investigated Haleakala as a possible solar observatory site. Soon thereafter Reber left for Tasmania, where he continued his researches. In 1957 the antenna structure collapsed under the weight of heavy ice deposited by a storm, a not-unusual condition on Haleakala where supercooled clouds may pass over the mountain and cover exposed structures and wires with several inches of ice.

After many years of productive research in Tasmania and other places, Reber died in 2002. He is revered by his friends and associates as “The Father of Radio Astronomy”. As a memorial to him, his Australian associates have arranged to encase small amounts of his ashes in metal cases to be mounted with plaques at various radio telescopes around the world. One has been placed on the concrete block-house on Haleakala where he had worked.

Amateur Astronomers

During the 1930s and 1940s a growing number of amateur astronomers felt the need for some form of organization and the availability of astronomical information tailored to Hawai`i. E. H. Bryan, Jr., responded to this latter need by preparing a booklet entitled Stars Over Hawai`i in 1955 (7). It contained a star chart for each month for the latitude of Hawai`i. It also contained, in addition to basic astronomical information, some material on Polynesian astronomy, and an interesting discussion of the path of the Sun at this latitude. There are times in Hawai`i when the Sun passes directly overhead, which occurs nowhere else in the United States. This book received wide circulation and certainly must have had a significant impact on astronomical literacy in Hawai`i. Bryan also initiated the monthly publication in a local newspaper of the current star chart and a description of astronomical phenomena for the month, a tradition that was continued uninterrupted by the Bishop Museum Planetarium Director George Bunton and all subsequent directors to the present day. Bryan also authored numerous popular articles on astronomy in Hawai`i. Recalling also his frequent hosting of star-gazing at the Kaimuki Observatory, it is my opinion that E. H. Bryan, Jr., more than any other individual, served to inform and stimulate public interest in astronomy during the early decades of the twentieth century.

The idea of an Astronomical Society began in 1948. Regular meetings began in 1953 at McKinley High School. In June 1954 the public was invited to view Mars through amateurs’ telescopes in Kapi`olani Park in Waikiki. Public response was very enthusiastic. The close approach of Mars in 1956 prompted a second open house and, again, the telescopes were literally mobbed. But the society needed dynamic leadership, which serendipitously appeared in late 1956. Dr. Earl G. Linsley, retired director of the Chabot Observatory of Mills College had come to spend Christmas with his nephew, Dr. Linsley Gressit of the Bishop Museum. Under Dr. Linsley’s guidance the society flourished. Numerous distinguished scientists gave talks to the society, and he himself was a frequent and popular contributor.

The IGY Period

Soon after joining the faculty of the University of Hawai`i Department of Physics in 1953, I began to think about the unique potential of Hawai`i’s high mountains for observations of the Sun, and it became my goal to establish a solar observatory on the top of one of the mountains. There were three possible sites: Mauna Loa (13,680 ft.), and Mauna Kea (13,784 ft.), both on the island of Hawai`i, and Haleakala (10,025 ft.) on the island of Maui. Mauna Loa was an active volcano with very difficult access and was deemed unsuitable. Mauna Kea, though volcanic in origin, as is all of Hawai`i, was considered dormant or extinct. But like Mauna Loa, it was very remote and without vehicular access or electric power. Haleakala, though significantly lower than Mauna Kea, was still quite high as compared with other solar observatories around the world. Only the High Altitude Observatory at Climax, Colorado, at 11,000 feet was slightly higher. The great advantage of Haleakala was its ease of access via a paved road and commercial power to the summit. Site testing was begun in 1955 with the assistance of graduate student John Little.

The crucial parameter for solar coronal studies is the brightness of the sky immediately adjacent to the solar disk. The results of a year’s measurements with an Evans-type sky brightness photometer (8) showed that Haleakala was indeed an outstanding site, not only in terms of sky transparency but also in the number of clear days per year (9). But funds for planning and constructing an observatory were not readily available. 

In the meantime, the forthcoming International Geophysical Year 1957-58 placed Hawai`i in a crucial position, both in terms of latitude and longitude, for a number of geophysical observations in a worldwide network. Thus, the IGY provided the impetus and some modest funds to begin various projects. A solar observatory in Hawai`i was crucial to the work of the IGY but there was neither time nor funds to develop one on Haleakala. If coronal studies were forgone, a sea-level site could be suitable, and thus a site on the Island of Oahu at Makapu`u Point, about 300 feet above sea level, was found and developed. Fortunately, a small concrete building abandoned by the telephone company was available, and several experiments were installed and operating by the official beginning of the IGY, July 1, 1957.

A solar flare patrol telescope was set up on an optical bench inside the building with a heliostat outside the building directing a solar beam into the telescope through a hole in the wall. The telescope employed a Halle-Lyot 0.5-Ångstrom H-alpha filter and routinely took photographs of the Sun every two minutes on 35-mm film. These films were processed daily at the university campus and visually scanned in a microfilm viewer. Flares and prominences were measured and the data reported every evening via a military communications link to the World Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. 

An indirect flare detector (IFD) provided very useful data to complement the optical data or provide indications of flare activity when the telescope was clouded out. The IFD was an experiment of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, designed and built by Robert Lee of that institution. It consisted of two radio receivers, one tuned to 18 kHz with a long wire antenna, and the other tuned to 18 MHz with a very directional antenna pointed towards the zenith. The low frequency receiver picked up natural radio noise generated in the Earth’s atmosphere by lightning and propagated great distances by reflections from the base of the ionosphere. During the onset of a flare on the Sun the increase in ultra-violet and x-radiation reaching the Earth’s atmosphere causes an increase in the degree of ionization in the ionosphere and hence an increase in its ability to reflect the atmospheric radio noise, resulting in an enhancement of the atmospheric radio noise received. The high frequency receiver detected radio noise from outside the Earth’s atmosphere, referred to as cosmic radio noise (10). In the event of a solar flare, the enhanced ionization in the ionosphere resulted in a greater absorption of the cosmic radio noise arriving at the antenna. 

The Sun is itself a generator of radio noise and a study of this radio energy is a useful tool for understanding solar activity. Professor Iwao Miyake of the University of Hawai`i Department of Physics built and operated for the IGY a 200 MHz radio receiver adjacent to the Makapu`u Point Solar Observatory. Starting with a surplus Navy radar dish about 10 feet in diameter, he mounted it in an equatorial drive system so that it could be made to track the Sun. Bursts of radio noise in the frequency range used here are generated by the rapid expulsion of material from the surface of the Sun up through the Sun’s highly ionized atmosphere, and thus are an indication of violent disturbances on the surface of the Sun.   

In cooperation with Dr. Robert Brode and Dr. Edward Chupp of the Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, the Makapu`u Point Solar Observatory also operated cosmic ray neutron and mu-meson monitors. These were telescopes in a sense because their sensitivity was directional and they were designed to detect changes in the particle flux associated with solar activity. Only in the case of the neutron flux was any change ever noted – a so-called Forbush decrease – related to solar activity. Since these changes are related to the Earth’s magnetic field, it is the low latitude of Hawai`i that made it very unlikely to find such decreases.  

The IGY elicited a great deal of public interest which, to a large extent, was due to the planned launching for the first time in human history of an artificial Earth satellite. The planners of the IGY were very concerned about their ability to locate and track the satellite once it was launched. To accomplish the acquisition of the satellite, a volunteer citizen corps was established called operation MOONWATCH. For the precise tracking of the satellite, a worldwide network of twelve Super-Schmidt tracking cameras was envisioned. In both of these operations Hawai`i was in a position to fill a crucial gap in the vast Pacific.

In early 1957 I organized a MOONWATCH team made up of interested volunteers from the community. The base of operation was made at the Makapu`u Point Observatory because of its relative remoteness from city lights and access to electric power and telephone and other conveniences of the observatory. MOONWATCH telescopes were fabricated in the Physics shop and the MOONWATCH volunteers set up a row of sturdy pedestals on which to mount them. After numerous training sessions and many delays of satellite launchings, a satellite did finally appear in our skies, albeit, designated as a “sputnik”! And so the volunteers were finally rewarded. It is quite likely that the greatest payoff of the operation was the opportunity for citizens to participate in an active role in this exciting new era, rather than be passive bystanders.

The Haleakala Period

With regard to the telescopic tracking network: in 1956 Dr. Fred Whipple of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote a letter to Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees in Hawai`i. Dr Mees was the retired vice president for research of the Eastman Kodak Company and the developer of the color film Kodachrome. He was especially well known among astronomers because of his interest in developing special photographic emulsions suitable for astrophotography, and his insistence that the company provide these materials to the astronomers at cost. Dr. Whipple asked his old friend if he knew of some way a satellite tracking station could be established in Hawai`i. Dr. Mees in turn contacted me at the University of Hawai`i and he made an offer: if I would undertake the project he would donate some of his Kodak stock to underwrite the cost. I accepted the offer not only because it was an important project, but because I could see that Haleakala was the right place for such a tracking station, and this was an opportunity for the University to acquire land and establish a base of operations on Haleakala in preparation for the solar observatory.
The University sold the Kodak stock and with the $15,000 proceeds we managed to build on Haleakala a small cinder block building with a sliding roof to house the anticipated Baker-Nunn Super-Schmidt tracking camera, and a small wood-frame building for living accommodations for the observers. The informality of the project would be unheard of today–no environmental impact statements and no building permits. It was just a matter of finding a contractor willing to do a job at a very remote site on top of the mountain, 50 miles from the base yard, in the bitter cold, on a shoestring budget. Contractor Ed Ige of Kahului, Maui, was such a one. Of course, the university did take all the proper legal steps to obtain a use permit from the State of Hawai`i and, in due course, 18 acres were set aside for the university as a science preserve.

The satellite tracking facility was ready for the camera on July 1. 1957, but the camera was not ready. Because of the importance of the Hawai`i station, SAO decided to send one of its meteor-tracking Schmidt cameras, and with it came Dr. Richard McCrosky, his assistant and observer Walter Webb, and a crew to install the camera. It was this team, then, that initiated satellite tracking from Haleakala. Some six months later, the Baker-Nunn camera arrived and was installed. Walter Lang became the first full-time observer atop Haleakala. In subsequent years the SAO invested a great deal more money in the facility. It enlarged and improved the original structures and built a spacious, comfortable dormitory.

Finally, a Solar Observatory

In the mean time, the search for support for a solar observatory on Haleakala continued. The IGY program provided a great impetus to geophysics in Hawai`i, to the point that the University felt the need for establishing an Institute of Geophysics. It was decided to combine the two projects and include in the proposal for the Hawai`i Institute of Geophysics (HIG) the construction of a solar observatory on Haleakala. In 1961 the National Science Foundation approved the proposal and provided funds for the construction of the observatory. Plans were prepared, a construction contract awarded, and groundbreaking took place on February 10, 1962. Fortunately, weather conditions were very favorable during the following months and the basic construction was completed in November 1962. In addition to the 30-foot dome, the observatory housed dormitory space, a day room with kitchen facilities, a well-equipped machine shop, offices and laboratories.

During the following year, the furnishings, machinery, and the Boller & Chivens 10-foot, equatorially mounted, octagonal spar gradually arrived and were installed. The octagonal spar provided the new observatory with a great deal of flexibility, for it was, in effect an eight-sided optical bench that would automatically and continuously track the Sun with great precision. On it could be mounted a variety of optical telescopes. Initially, the flare patrol telescope from the Makapu`u Point Solar Observatory was moved to the new observatory. This was soon followed by a k-coronameter from the High Altitude Observatory in Colorado. Along with the k-coronameter came Richard Hansen and Charles Garcia, who later moved the instrument to Mauna Loa, as alluded to earlier in this report. 

Dedication ceremonies of the new observatory took place took place on a cold but sunny winter day in January 1964. The facility was named theC.E. Kenneth Mees Solar Laboratory in honor of the now deceased photographic scientist who did so much for astronomy in general and helped us get started on Haleakala. As part of the Hawai`i Institute of Geophysics, the facility was informally called the HIG Haleakala Observatory, or HIGHO, a rather neat acronym for a high altitude observatory, I thought! 

An observatory without astronomers is but a pile of brick and cement. But before there was an observatory no astronomer was willing to come to Hawaii. Now, at last, we had something to offer and were successful in recruiting, for a new program in solar astronomy, the eminent astronomers John Jefferies, Frank Orrall, and Jack Zirker. Marie McCabe soon joined them under their research grants. At this point I bowed out of leadership of the program and invited John Jefferies to provide the leadership and direction of the future solar physics program. It was, then, under his able direction that later the Institute for Astronomy was formed, separate from the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, and that the spectacular developments on Mauna Kea began — developments that in the 1950s I would not have dreamed of.

Epilog

Shortly after the dedication of the Haleakala solar observatory, a distinguished visitor appeared and asked permission to make some studies of the quality of the astronomical seeing at this site. His name was Gerard Kuiper, world-renowned astronomer and director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory based in Tucson, Arizona. He was interested in finding a superior site for a new telescope for his laboratory. With his assistant, Alika Herring and Alika’s superb 12-inch telescope, they found the seeing on Haleakala to be quite extraordinary. But on some nights there was a tendency for fog to climb over the summit and spoil observing. This is because Haleakala at 10,000 feet is not sufficiently higher than the normal inversion layer at around 8,000 feet to be always above the clouds. Looking across the channel to the Big Island (Hawai`i), Kuiper could see the summit of Mauna Kea high above the clouds and wondered if that peak might not be a better site.

Having also received an invitation from the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce to consider Mauna Kea for an observatory site, Dr. Kuiper visited the Big Island and expressed a desire to conduct a site evaluation, as he had done at Haleakala. Very soon the Governor of Hawaii, John Burns, released funds for the bulldozing of an access road to the summit of Mauna Kea. A small dome to house Alika’s telescope was set up on Pu`u Poliahu and the site study began. When completed, the study, to Dr. Kuiper’s delight, showed that Mauna Kea was a truly superb site, the finest he had ever seen. With this established, he submitted a proposal to NASA for a new telescope to be placed on Mauna Kea.

At this point, NASA decided to open the competition to other proposals and invited both the University of Hawaii and Harvard University to do so. The University of Hawaii had no astronomers experienced in telescope development, only the new team of solar astronomers. To Dr. John Jefferies, now in charge of the solar program, fell the responsibility of organizing an observatory development plan and submitting a proposal to NASA. The plan called for an 88-inch telescope. It was a well-conceived plan that ultimately won NASA’s approval for support! This outcome was, understandably, a terrible blow to Dr. Kuiper, who felt “his mountain” was “stolen” from him. Regardless of the outcome, Dr. Gerard Kuiper must be acknowledged as the discoverer of Mauna Kea as a superb astronomical site.

So, Mauna Kea’s incredible astronomical story begins with the construction of the University of Hawai`i’s 88-inch (2.2 meter) telescope. It is a story that has been told in various forms and places (16, 17).

Institute for Astronomy