July brings to the night sky the third of the year’s four seasonal star families, Manaiakalani, the Chiefly Fishing Line.
Manaiakalani is made up of a trio of stars in the northeast that form the Summer Triangle — Keoe, Vega; Pira‘etea, Deneb; and Humu, Altair. The southeastern horizon of this celestial star family is dominated by Kamakaunuiamaui, Scorpius; Pimoe, Sagittarius; and Kai‘a, the Milky Way. In the heart of Kamakaunuiamaui is the red super giant Antares, Lehua Kona, the 15th-brightest star in the night sky with a mass 12 times that of the sun. The center of our Milky Way galaxy lies in the westernmost part of Pimoe.
On June 20 the sun came to a standstill on its northward trek arriving at its annual June solstice position, 23.5 degrees north latitude. This event marked the official start of summer and the beginning of the northern hemisphere’s annual hurricane season.
Every year in June the sun moves to its northernmost post at the Tropic of Cancer, holding its highest noontime height for four days. On Tuesday it began its journey south, where it will once again come to a standstill at the Tropic of Capricorn for the December winter solstice.
At a place 500 miles west-northwest of Hawaii island and situated on the Tropic of Cancer lies the lonely island of Mokumanamana, Necker Island.
Archaeological evidence suggests that this small island is the westernmost island in the Hawaiian island chain to have been settled by oceanic explorers as they moved in a downwind direction from the eight major Hawaiian islands.
To date, there is no other evidence of settlement in the remaining western islands of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. A total of 55 cultural sites have been identified on Mokumanamana, with 33 believed to have been associated with religious worship.
In 1857, Kamehameha IV sent Capt. John Paty to claim the island for the Hawaiian Kingdom. From 1923 to 1924, over a period of two seasons, Cmdr. Samuel Wilder King led a survey of the island conducted by archaeologist Kenneth Emmory.
The late Hokule‘a captain Kawika Kapahualehua, raised on the island of Niihau, would recount stories of how men from his island would plan and execute annual fishing expeditions to Mokumanamana and neighboring Nihoa. As a child he remembers hiding under the picnic table at night and listening intently to the fishing tales shared by those lucky enough to have participated in those fishing expeditions.
They would spend several weeks on the island fishing and awaiting favorable weather for the return trip to Niihau.
Significant news — Poniua‘ena
Astronomers have worked with Hawaiian immersion school teachers to name an exciting new discovery from the early universe. After more than a decade of searching for the first quasars — highly energetic objects that are powered by supermassive black holes — a team of astronomers using the Gemini and Keck observatories on Mauna Kea have discovered a truly massive and ancient object dating back to the early universe.
Poniua‘ena, meaning “unseen spinning source of creation, surrounded with brilliance,” is the newly discovered quasar that formed only 700 million years after the Big Bang. The black hole that powers this unique object is estimated to be 1.5 billion times the sun’s mass.
The Hawaiian naming of celestial discoveries made in Hawaii was an innovative undertaking spearheaded by ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center’s A Hua He Inoa program. To learn more about this program and Poniua‘ena, visit imiloahawaii.org.
Special events
There is a unique astronomical phenomenon that occurs in Hawaii because of our tropical location. Familiarly known as Lahaina Noon, this phenomenon refers to the days when the sun passes exactly overhead during solar noon; at this time objects with smooth sides will appear to cast no shadow.
These events can only be observed in the tropics and your latitude within the tropics will affect when the Lahaina Noon will occur. In Honolulu, Lahaina Noon will occur on July 15 at 12:37 p.m. Hilo will not quite have a perfect Lahaina Noon, but the sun will be close to the center of the sky on July 23 at 12:26 p.m. and again on July 24 at 12:26 p.m.
Lahaina Noon occurs on different days throughout the state due to slight changes in latitude.
Evening observing
The largest planets in the solar system will be rising out of Manu Malanai and will be visible in the early evening. Jupiter will stand out as one of the brightest objects in the sky. Observers who look at Jupiter with a good pair of binoculars or a telescope will be able to spot up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons.
The four largest moons of Jupiter are Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, and they are often referred to as the Galilean moons, as they were discovered by Galileo Galilei in the year 1610. Galileo’s simple telescope was less powerful than a good pair of modern binoculars, yet he was able to observe mountains on the moon, moons around Jupiter, and the fuzzy band of the Milky Way that is made up of thousands and thousands of stars.
The slightly fainter planet, Saturn, will be accompanying Jupiter across the early evening sky. Saturn is most famous for its large system of rings, which can be observed through a good telescope. While Galileo was able to observe much with his simple telescope, he was not able to see the rings of Saturn; instead the rings caused the planet to appear elongated in his field of view, leading him to describe Saturn as a planet with “ears.”
Morning observing
In mid-July, careful morning observers will be able to view all five of the visible planets at the same time. The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are counted among the seven luminaries — seven bright objects that appear to move across the sky (the other two luminaries being the sun and the moon).
At 5 a.m. from July 12 through July 25, Jupiter and Saturn will be setting in Manu Kona, while Mars will be high in the southern sky and Venus and Mercury will be rising out of Manu Ko‘olau. Of these five planets, Mercury will be the most difficult to spot, as it is incredibly faint and will stay close to the eastern horizon.
IULAI (JULY ) SKIES AT 8 P.M. by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Chad Kalepa Baybayan (Kalepa.Baybayan@hawaii.edu) serves as navigator-in-residence and Emily Peavy (Emily.Peavy@hawaii.edu) as 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.
