.........YEAR 2005.........

January 23, 2005: Journey Through the Universe Family Science Day took place at the Prince Kuhio Mall with exhibits and demonstrations from many of the Mauna Kea observatories. CSO's contribution was a demonstration showing that light but not sound can propagate through space, which is a vacuum. CSO staff members Melanie Leong and Hiroko Shinnaga conducted the demonstrations with the vacuum chamber apparatus constructed by volunteer Walter Steiger.

Staff Engineer Melanie Leong explains to a group of interested youngsters.

April 16, 2005: AstroDay 2005 took place at the Prince Kuhio Plaza with exhibits from all the observatories on Mauna Kea as well as other educational and cultural organizations. CSO's exhibit this year was prepared by Hiroko Shinnaga who developed a new set of visuals to explain to the public what CSO does. (see photo)

June - September 2005: Summer Internships. This summer our intern is Sarah Landstreet of Ontario, Canada. Sarah will be a senior this fall at McGill University in Montreal, majoring in mechanical engineering. Her assignment this summer is to develop a computer design of the telescope, and to design a new support system for the observatory crane.

Sarah Landstreet

July 3/4, 2005: CSO participated in the Deep Impact program, attempting to make spectral observations of the comet ejecta created by the impact. Derek Lis of Caltech was the principal investigator. CSO staff scientist Hiroko Shinnaga and student intern Sarah Landstreet (see above) provided commentary via WebCam to a Deep Impact presentation at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo, attended by an overflowing and enthusiastic audience. For more details, go to DEEP IMPACT CSO

October 8, 2005:   St. Joseph Country Fair
CSO contributed demonstration models and information bringing attention to preserving a radio free zone for radio astronomy in certain frequencies. The demonstration consisted of a radio-noise generator and a portable radio to illustrate the interference and hence loss of information created by radio noise. The radio noise was generated by a spark coil that was turned on and off by an adjustable timer. Visitors were invited to tune the radio and observe the degree of interference as a function of the radio tuning. Participating in the event from CSO were Hiroko Shinnaga as team leader, assisted by Ed Bufil, Pat Nelson, Melanie Leong, and Hiro Yoshida.

Hiroko Shinnaga explains the concept of interference to a young visitor.