I have lived in the Hilo area for 15 years and this planetarium has been here for the last nine. I never got around to going until an invitation from a Japanese family we know who lives near there. Chiaki invited us since her husband is a scientist for the Japanese team at Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, which makes them automatic members.
I was in the first group of visitors allowed in to tour the new telescope when I first moved here. I was the translator for the group of Japanese school teachers. The guide at the telescope was Japanese so I was free to feel the effects of high altitude dementia and just follow along.
My wife, her friend and I started out at the restaurant on site. A Chinese place that has a buffet at lunch that many Japanese tour busses frequent. It opens at 10:30 for lunch and that works well for many of the tours who are outbound to the volcano.
Our friend can have two guests at any time so she got us two tickets to two of the shows currently playing in 3D. We ate lunch and saw the first one, which is there signature show that is live with dialog from a staff member
While we waited between shows, there was an exhibit area full of fun things, pictures and facts.
Then, we flew through the universe in a “state of the art, full dome planetarium” I remember the line in a Moody Blues song that states, “don’t it make you feel small? It happens to us all” I walked away thinking nothing I do, will do, or have done, makes any difference or sense. I enjoyed the 3D but with that large screen and passive glasses, it was far from HD and what is available at home now with 3D. Still, it was a lot of fun and the second show about the sun, well worth it. The whole saga of the “stereo” mission to the sun was fascinating.
There was a couple from the mainland with us in the theater and we overheard he was 88 yrs old. He was moving around and lucid like a much, much younger man. Only hope that may happen to me in a diminished way. They stayed through all the shows and I heard the wife say, we have to, we may not be back for another five years. He mumbled something about not making it to then and I agreed mentally. Life is a short, sharp shock, to quote another rock song. If you are in Hilo Hawaii and don’t spend the time for at least one show and a walk through, you’ll be missing something.
Thanks go out to our deceased, renowned Senator, Daniel Enoye, who built this for us [with our tax dollars of course]. Go, take a journey. Then stop off at the Onizuka station on your way to the top to visit the telescopes on Mauna Kea. Wave to me, I can see the buildings from my home at sea level. Take a jacket though, very cold up there.
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