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Project Progress

In celebration of IYA 2009 and Venus as the planet for January, Dr. Sanjay Limaye, planetary scientist from University of Wisconsin Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, gave a public lecture on “Venus and Its Mysteries” at Kauai Community College on Jan. 30, 2009. This lecture was also part of the workshop so participants attended. Remote observing with the 2.0 meter Faulkes Telescope located at Haleakala Observatories on Maui was enjoyed by everyone that evening. Amateur astronomers from KEASA set up telescopes to show the phases of Venus. On Saturday, Jan. 31, participants did spectroscopy activities and worked on the curriculum materials developed for the Venus Express Mission. They calculated the speeds of Venus winds and applied the results to better understanding Venus. Marina Tangelder, HI STAR program student from Kauai, gave a presentation on her group project on classifying galaxies. On Monday, Feb. 2, UH NAI EPO lead Mary Kadooka gave astrobiology presentations to physical science and physics classes at Kapaa High School taught by UH NAI ALI’I program teacher James Cox. This was the third Kauai workshop sponsored by the UH NAI team. Recruiting students and teacher for workshops on Kauai has been a challenge. Even the turnout for the public lecture was poor despite a local newspaper press release. A critical consideration is having someone on Kauai informing us of the best dates. So we now poll teachers to get optimal dates.