The first half of this article, explaining the star family Kaiwikuamo‘o, is the last piece written by our beloved navigator-in-residence, the late Chad Kalepa Baybayan.
He was an extraordinary man whose life and actions brought positive and lasting change to people and place. His sudden death leaves a void that we will all feel for some time. But in his wake and in his honor, we persevere and celebrate all that he means to us.
On behalf of Kalepa’s ohana, we invite you to view his memorial service that honored him and celebrated his life of learning, teaching, voyaging, exploring and discovery. To view the recording of Kalepa’s service, please visit facebook.com/imiloaastronomycenter/ videos/374196820565888.
JUNE BRINGS US to the final month for the star family Kaiwikuamo‘o, the Backbone. To identify this star family, look to the northeast and locate Nahiku, the Big Dipper, a constellation of seven stars that resembles a ladle.
The leading two pointer stars in the scoop of the Big Dipper point toward the star Hokupa‘a, or Polaris, the North Star. Polaris sits at the very end of the constellation known as the Little Dipper. These two celestial ladles occupy the northeast quadrant of Kaiwikuamo‘o, with the two scoops appearing to “pour” into each other.
Following the curving southerly arc of the Big Dipper’s handle will lead us to the brilliant red giant Hokule‘a, or Arcturus, the fourth-brightest star in the night sky. With a celestial latitude of 19 degrees north, Hokule‘a is the zenith star for the Hawaiian Islands.
Continuing along the southerly track, we will cross the celestial equator and come to Hikianalia, or Spica, the southern pair star for Hokule‘a. Spica crosses the latitude just south of the Marquesas islands, believed by researchers to be the original homeland for settlers of the Hawaiian Islands.
Following Spica southeast, we arrive at the trapezoid constellation Me‘e, or Corvus the Crow; an imaginary line through the center of the trapezoid points toward the southern horizon and the constellation Hanaiakamalama, the Southern Cross.
The Southern Cross was a significant constellation for early oceanic explorers sailing south toward Tahiti. The Southern Cross points toward the direction Hema, south on our star compass.
Compasses, sidereal or magnetic, all work on the same principle: By pinpointing one known location along the horizon (magnetic north on the magnetic compass, or the sun on the sidereal compass), we can identify the 32 headings of the magnetic compass and the 32 houses of the oceanic sidereal compass.
Along Maui’s rugged southern coastline, winds from the ‘Alenuihaha Channel fan the jagged edge of the aa coast. In the shadow of Haleakala is the archeo- astronomical site known as the panana at Hanamauloa.
The panana is a pre-contact navigational device or “sighting wall”; its possible function may have been to identify the celestial meridian and the point we call Hema.
The sighting wall is fairly close to the sea and provides a fairly level horizon to look toward.
The wall is approximately 29 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall with a 2-foot notch at its center. Seaward of the wall about 213 feet away sits an ahu, or stone cairn.
Looking through the notch in the direction of the cairn provides the observer with a relative line of direction southward along the celestial meridian.
When Hanaiakamalama, the Southern Cross, is upright, it stands directly above the notch and frames the direction south. The panana at Hanamauloa serves as a navigational monument to explorers from generations past.
Special events
June 20 marks the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice, the day when Earth’s North Pole is at its maximum tilt toward the sun.
On this day the Northern Hemisphere experiences its longest period of daylight. The day length for Honolulu will be 13 hours and 25 minutes.
Evening observations
In June the incredibly bright planet Venus will return to our early evening sky.
After the sun and the full moon, Venus is the third-brightest object in the sky. Due to its brightness and close proximity to the horizon, Venus is commonly mistaken for a UFO.
While Venus will be prominent through dusk, in early June it will set by 8 p.m. The planet will continue to decorate the early evening sky throughout the summer.
A very interesting astronomical object can be found by using Hanaiakamalama. On a dark clear night, look toward the south and find Hanaiakamalama. As the cross is standing up, imagine a line coming out of its upper left side at a 45-degree angle.
Follow this line up into the southern sky for about 18 degrees, just over one hand length, and we will see a faint fuzzy object; this is a globular cluster called Omega Centauri.
Globular clusters like Omega Centauri are densely packed areas of ancient stars which orbit outside of the Milky Way’s plane. Globular clusters have often posed a mystery to astronomers as the stars within them are so much older than the stars that make up the main Milky Way and are very close to each other.
There are two main theories to the mystery of these ancient star clusters orbiting around our young millennial/Gen Z galaxy.
The first hypothesis is that the clusters formed early on in the formation of the Milky Way as gas was just condensing. In the second theory, the clusters were once the cores of small galaxies that got too close to the Milky Way, and our larger galaxy cannibalized the smaller ones, absorbing the gas and younger stars but leaving the ancient cores to orbit around the Milky Way.
Omega Centauri, just above Hanaiakamalama, is one of these ancient galactic clusters, and astronomers have even been able to detect a black hole in the center of Omega Centauri.
The prominent shape of Kamakaunuiamaui, or Maui’s Fishhook, will rise in the southeastern sky during the early evening. On clear dark nights, in this same region of the sky, we also will be able to see the beautiful “bulge” of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way will glow with a faint and fuzzy light as it is the combined light of millions and millions of stars which are all too far away for our eyes to make out individually. Using a telescope or even a simple pair of binoculars to view the Milky Way’s band, we would be able to see many of the stars that our naked eyes can’t see.
The “bulge” of the Milky Way, which rises with Maui’s Fishhook, marks our galaxy’s center.
In Hawaiian the Milky Way is often referred to as I‘a, which can also be interpreted as a fish.
Morning observations
Early-bird stargazers will enjoy a very different perspective of the night sky.
As summer approaches, the sun will rise earlier and nights will get shorter. Throughout June the sun will rise just before 6 a.m., and the light of dawn will color our sky starting just before 5:30.
In the early morning hours, the bright planet Jupiter and the fainter planet Saturn will be high in the southern sky. These two giant gas planets will continue to accompany each other through our early morning sky.
June 2021 Sky Chart by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Chad Kalepa Baybayan (Kalepa.Baybayan@hawaii.edu) was navigator-in-residence and Emily Peavy (Emily.Peavy@ hawaii.edu) is planetarium technician support facilitator at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, a center for informal science education at the University of Hawaii at Hilo showcasing astronomy and Hawaiian culture as parallel journeys of human exploration.
