KEASA Observatory at 3 m (10 ft).

Research observatory · Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii

KEASA Observatory

KEASA Observatory is a research observatory in Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii. KEASA Observatory is about 12 km (7 mi) from Polihale State Park, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place.

KEASA Observatory in brief

Open to the public
No regular public access
Elevation
3 m (10 ft)
Bortle class
Not yet rated
Observes in
Optical

Official site

Can you visit KEASA Observatory? No regular public access

Observatory on military base, no walk-in access; KEASA holds free monthly public Starwatches at Kaumakani Park, between Hanapepe and Waimea.

For telescope views near KEASA Observatory, see the observatories open to the public and astronomy clubs nearby; clubs hold free public star parties.

KEASA Observatory
KEASA Observatory

Telescopes at KEASA Observatory: optical

17-in PlaneWave CDK; Celestron HD11; Tele Vue NP101.

US Naval facility

How dark the sky is at KEASA Observatory

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

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

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.

KEASA Observatory among the observatories of Hawaii

Ha'ena State Park Haleakala National Park Hanauma Bay Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Kalahaku Overlook Kau Forest Reserve Kaumahina State Wayside Koke'e State Park Manuka State Wayside Mauna Kea Na Pali-Kona Forest Reserve Pala'au State Park Polihale State Park Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Wai'anapanapa State Park Wailua Valley State Wayside Waimea Canyon State Park Mauna Loa Observatory Leeward College Observatory Gemini North Observatory Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Subaru Telescope James Clerk Maxwell Telescope NASA Infrared Telescope Submillimeter Array Very Long Baseline Array - Mauna Kea Station UH 2.2m Telescope Thirty Meter Telescope (proposed) Pan-STARRS Faulkes Telescope North (LCO 2m) Inouye Solar Telescope Advanced Electro-Optical System Mees Solar Observatory Solar-C Telescope Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (proposed) Haleakala Observatory ATLAS Haleakala Tohoku Telescopes W. M. Keck Observatory Lanihuli Observatory Maunakea Observatories KEASA Observatory Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii KEASA Observatory Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public

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 KEASA observatory at PMRF Barking Sands (Wikipedia): 21.983°N, 159.750°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 KEASA Observatory

KEASA Observatory is about 12 km (7 mi) from Polihale State Park, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place. See Polihale State Park for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Polihale State ParkHawaii212 km (8 mi)
Waimea Canyon State ParkHawaii212 km (8 mi)
Koke'e State ParkHawaii219 km (12 mi)
Na Pali-Kona Forest ReserveHawaii222 km (14 mi)
Ha'ena State ParkHawaii232 km (20 mi)
Hanauma BayHawaii4227 km (141 mi)

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

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.

KEASA Observatory record

Every value in the observatories dataset for KEASA Observatory
ID249
NameKEASA Observatory
AddressPacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands
CityKekaha, Kauai
StateHI
Zip96752
CountryUSA
Webhttps://keasa.org/
Publicn
Telescope17-in PlaneWave CDK; Celestron HD11; Tele Vue NP101
NotesUS Naval facility
Elevation3
Opticaly
Lat21.98306
Lon-159.75000
LatLonSpotKEASA observatory at PMRF Barking Sands (Wikipedia)
StatusActive
StatusNoteKauai Educational Association for Science and Astronomy; observatory on the PMRF Navy base; co-hosted Ohana Stargazing Mar 2025
PublicNoteObservatory on military base, no walk-in access; KEASA holds free monthly public Starwatches at Kaumakani Park, between Hanapepe and Waimea
Sourceshttps://keasa.org https://wiki.krisyotam.com/content/wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2026-03/Kaua%CA%BBi_Educational_Association_for_Science_and_Astronomy
ParkID198
ParkKm12.

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