What is it like to work at 14,000 feet? Shoveling snow, maintaining equipment in below zero-degree temperatures and mounting a 3-ton camera atop a telescope are some of the amazing and unusual things you might do working at Subaru Telescope.
Astronomers make up only 20 percent of observatory staff. It’s mostly technicians and engineers that keep things going.
Come meet Subaru’s staff and get a “behind the scenes” look at the observatory at 7 p.m. Friday during the next Maunakea Skies talk at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.
Engineers, technicians and educators at Subaru Telescope will share their experiences, challenges and triumphs, and the astronomical discoveries they made along the way. Four presenters — Kiaina Schubert (senior system administrator), Timothy Castro (summit technical supervisor), Matthew Wung (instrumentation/electronics technician) and Yuko Kakazu (public outreach specialist) — will take you “backstage” at Subaru Telescope.
Join the presenters and explore the universe using the first dataset from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Plan. Hyper Suprime-Cam is a groundbreaking giant digital camera with a total of 870 million pixels and an extremely wide field of view.
As a bonus, Subaru will give away door prizes with the grand prize a VIP summit tour of the Subaru Telescope for a maximum of five people. Other prizes are Maunakea books and Subaru DVDs.
Hosted by planetarium technician Emily Peavy, ‘Imiloa’s monthly Maunakea Skies program includes observational highlights of the current night sky over Hawaii, with the audience able to view prominent constellations and stars visible during this time of year.
General admission tickets are $10, $8 for members (member-level discounts apply). Pre-purchase tickets at ‘Imiloa’s front desk or by phone at 932-8901.