Honokaa High School students win telescope time on two of the most powerful telescopes
April 17, 2018: The final Maunakea Scholars awards ceremony of the year was held at Honokaa High School. After months of traveling around the state awarding telescope time, it was satisfying to wrap up the year on the Big Island. The 2017-2018 school year was a busy and exciting time, with a record number of schools and students participating. Twenty-six projects and thirty-six students received time on the Maunakea Observatories, Las Cumbres Observatory and Robo-AO.
“The number of students we worked with this year is incredible. In our first year, we worked with two schools and awarded ten students telescope time. To see the program grow at this rate with the quality of the proposals improving each year is a testament to our teachers, students and mentors” said Mary Beth Laychak, outreach manager at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. “We continue to be impressed with the big questions in astronomy that our students seek to solve.”
The Honokaa High School Maunakea Scholars winners include:
- “The Key to Detecting Dark Matter” by Keilani Steele. Keilani will use the W.M. Keck Observatory to observe the Draco dwarf galaxy to map the galaxy’s rotation curve. She is the first two time awardee of telescope time in the Maunakea Scholars program.
- “Investigating Malin 1” by Shania Ebreo and Kiralee Tanaka.Shania and Kira used the Subaru Telescope to observe the largest known disk galaxy Malin 1 in late April. They want to study star formation in the galaxy.
The Honokaa students wasted no time in collecting their data. Shania and Kira observed Malin 1 at the Subaru Observatory on April 22nd, less than a week after receiving their telescope time.
Congratulations to all the students that received telescope time this year. We are excited to see what your future holds and where your research takes you.