Lanihuli Observatory

Can you visit Lanihuli Observatory? Yes

Open to the public free after evening Hokulani Imaginarium shows; tours by appointment (808-235-7321).

A public night at an observatory usually starts at dusk with a short talk, then a line at the eyepiece of the main telescope for the Moon, a planet or a bright cluster, with volunteers' smaller telescopes set up outside. Dress for the night air even in summer: domes are not heated, so the telescope stays at outside temperature. Many nights sell out or cancel for clouds, so check the observatory's site on the day.

Telescopes at Lanihuli Observatory: optical, radio

16-in Meade LX200 SCT; 6-in solar refractor with H-alpha; Radio JOVE log-periodic antenna.

radio telescope

How dark the sky is at Lanihuli Observatory

Lanihuli Observatory has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

Lanihuli Observatory among the observatories of Hawaii

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Hawaii observatories for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to Windward Community College campus (Wikipedia point): 21.408°N, 157.813°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Lanihuli Observatory

Lanihuli Observatory is about 19 km (12 mi) from Hanauma Bay, a Bortle Class 4 dark sky place. See Hanauma Bay for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Hawaiian Astronomical SocietyHonolulu, Hawaii, 10 km (6 mi). Meets Monthly board meetings Sunday afternoons (venue not published)

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Hawaii puts the dark sky places, observatories, clubs, star parties, planetariums and science centers of the state on one map, with the best night out worked out.

Lanihuli Observatory record

From the site's observatories dataset (observatories_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.