Volunteering

You guessed it! This year ON Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010, we volunteered at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) on Mauna Kea. Again!

I guess I liked it so much last year that I actually suggested volunteering at the VIS again this year as our Valentine's Day togetherness. As Andy says, "Once; a fluke. Twice; a coincidence. Three times is a problem." But in this case, three times may just become a tradition?!... Have to wait for next year's story for that determination...

Andy 'promised' me "a nice, secluded Valentine's Day lunch and dinner at the 'exclusive' Hale Pohaku Café on Mauna Kea" last year then again this year Well...actually, it was I who suggested repeating our volunteering at the VIS on Valentine's Day this year like we did last year.

Once we got to cleaning eye pieces after lunch, we were happy to find that many of the eye pieces were being cleaned more often since our last maintenance run. They were still showing signs of cold-finger drops; but not as apparent as our previous maintenance run nor as depressing.

Last year on Valentine's Day was our first year volunteering at the VIS to do telescope maintenance for our Valentine's Day togetherness. You can follow my link to Valentine's Day 2009 to read about our fun during that first adventure. This year the cleanings went much faster, and there were fewer that had to be retired due to excessive wear. We also did the maintenance and cleaning in the Bookstore building this time. It was warmer and more fun because visitors were curious and asking great questions.

We only had time to clean the eyepieces and repair a couple of the wiring cables to telescope 'go-to' control paddles before it was time to close up for the night. I guess we will need to schedule another maintenance run to work on the many Dobsonian telescopes, and other astronomy equipment - before the end of 2010!?!?!

Andy did bring home some needed repair work in the form of "A Box 'O Broken Telrads".

IT WAS ANOTHER VALENTINE'S DAY WELL SPENT AND THOROUGHLY ENJOYED!!!!!

What an awesome way to go whale watching!!!! Okay. So...it was quite early to get up on a Saturday; but it was sooooo worth it! Just after New Year's, Andy registered us to participate in the 2010 Santuary Ocean Count on January 30, coordinated by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Check out the many links and bushel loads of information that they provide on their site.

'Bright' and EARLY on Saturday morning, January 30, we met the group at Kawaihae harbor (about 7:00am) and consolidated some vehicles then proceeded to the site that we were assigned to for the Ocean Count. The site had a GREAT 180 degree view from north to south of the Kohala coastline near Kawaihae on the Big Island of Hawai`i! We all signed in and gathered the papers that we would need for recording the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) data. This was to include a tally for the # of adults and the # of calves in each pod, and a tally for each time one of several behaviors were exhibited during each half-hour increment from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Followed by one final count-only period from 12:00pm to 12:15pm.

We all got settled in our chairs. We got our paperwork with writing implements, and our binoculars close at hand...and...at 8:00am began the count. Working in pairs, one would call out location, how many in the pod, and behavior observed; and the other would rapidly mark the tallies in the correct box on the paper. There was a lot of activity during the full four hours, and the time flew by! The Humpback were numerous and active on our west coast shoreline! We seldom had opportunity to just sit back and talk story; but we did get some casual conversation inserted into the very occasional lull. Captivating conversation at that! This made the time pass by even faster. The lowest number of whale spotted from our site in any half-hour block during the count was about 11 adults. The calves were rare early in the count and then reached a count of four in two or three of the mid-count time slots.

For those with concerns of what became of our...errrr...Cliff's unexpected hitchhiker, here's the rest of the saga:


Background Information: On March 27, Cliff Livermore brought his 24" newly refinished Dobsonian telescope to the VIS at 9200 feet to use while participating in the 2009 Messier Marathon. (Refer to the postings on A Darker View, Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station (the VIS) and my blog right here, Gadget Gypsy, for more in depth details of the whole 2009 Messier Marathon event at the VIS). Cliff is one of several of us who brought our telescopes for this marathon; but his was the only one that got so much attention and not solely because of the unexpected hitchhiker. You might understand why after examining the photo.

During assembly of the 24" Dob, the Primary mirror is near the beginning of the checklist in the order of assembly; and when that item on the checklist was reached, the mirror box was carried over and placed in a strategic position near the chosen site to make it easier to place on the "rocker box" for the telescope after the truss tubes and secondary cage assembly have been secured in place. The mirror cover was lifted off of the box and several bystanders erupted into laughter.

Although the evening telescope set-up began with the finding of our most unexpected hitchhiker who was probably truly regretting its choice of cover, I wasn't fully involved with the idea of the Marathon at the beginning of the night; but as the night wore on and the visitors were readily enthusiastic, I gained momentum! Andy has posted a nice write-up on the event at Darkerview.com with lots of detail on this marathon, and links that describe a Messier Marathon and its origin as well as links to his post for the 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon that was my very first marathon (Oh...and I viewed 106 to his 104 Messier objects! This also got a plaque for my NexStar 11 GPS Computerized Telescope, GyPSy).

Since 2006 was my very first marathon, I consider it to be more my coup de theatre than this year's is for Andy who has been in...hmmm...five marathons(?). Not to mention that the air at 9200 feet was so 'dry' that combined with my insulating layers of fleece (AND Andy's), the static kept making me reset and re-align GyPSy so I could not only get her back on track again; but I could also read the display. I am suspicious of Andy's 'sparking' GyPSy on purpose a couple of times though... We were also not ready for the horizons changing the 'rise' time in the morning of M31, M32, M33 and maybe M52, M74 and M110 so I was 'skunked' for catching up.

How does one spend Valentine's Day when married to an astronomer?

Well, Andy and I volunteered at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) on Mauna Kea where we cleaned and repaired the station's telescope eyepieces!

Before we set to work on the large task ahead that filled the rest of our day, Andy 'got' us lunch at Hale Pohaku Well, actually lunch was provided by the VIS for our volunteer time; but we were spending the time together on Valentine's Day! After lunch, we made our way back down to the VIS and gathered up all of the eyepieces. At the classroom/warehouse, we collected our tools and cleaning supplies and set up for the several-hour task ahead.

The tunes were the first order of business that we set up to keep us company. Then we organized the table with cleaning supplies, tools and eyepieces - MANY eyepieces. We kept notes for each make of eyepiece as we took it apart and sketched the order and direction of each lens and spacer so we were sure to put them back together in the right order and orientation.

It felt odd at first to take apart such nice elements of manufacturing; but I soon found that keeping the notes and carefully documenting each new configuration, the task was quite enjoyable. In fact, I enjoyed the challenge a great deal. It was also fun to get the lenses clean and fiber free then to succeed at getting all the pieces back together again, in the correct order; and still have it remain fiber free between the lenses They are like a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and a wood puzzle box; or in this case, a metal puzzle box.

Yes, tonight was the first of six nights as a Volunteer with the Read Aloud Program (RAP) by Read Aloud America (RAA) in Waikoloa. What a great way to spend an evening!

Our RAA Parent Trainer/Presenter at Waikoloa Elementary, Jed Gaines, expertly gave a short introduction for the program and explained that there is just one thing the students 'had' to do tonight and that was 'Have Fun'! There were no tests, and they were not expected to write anything. They were to Have Fun! Mr. Gaines did ask fun questions and handed out fun prizes to get the initial interest of the children and the parents who brought them.

After the introduction and explanation of what RAP means, the reading and escort (I am an escort) volunteers gathered out on the walkway with our signs for the grade/age group that we are waiting to take to their classroom. Then the children are released, one grade or age group at a time to find the escort holding the sign for their group or grade. All students for our group present...check...off to our assigned classroom.