The birth of an institute The story of modern astronomy in Hawaii begins not on Maunakea, but on Haleakala. In the early 1950s, Walter Steiger, then a physics professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, began thinking about building a solar observatory. He wrote in “Origins of Astronomy in Hawaii” that Mauna Loa, Maunakea and Haleakala were all considered. Mauna Loa was too volcanically active, and Maunakea, at the time, was too remote and lacked an access road. It was Maui’s Haleakala, translated as “House of the Sun,” then that became home of Hawaii’s first solar observatory in 1962. Conditions for observing on the mountain were extraordinary on most days, but, at 10,000 feet tall, Haleakala was not always high enough to be above the clouds. This became apparent to the world-renowned astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who was studying site conditions there following groundbreaking of the solar observatory with his assistant, Alika Herring. An even better location was not hard to spot. “Looking across the channel to the Big Island, Kuiper could see the summit of Maunakea Sunday, December 24, 2017 3 How a bold idea a half century ago put Maunakea at the forefront of astronomy By TOM CALLIS Hawaii Tribune-Herald See INSTITUTE Page 4 HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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