Hawaiian Rodeo! Location: Waimea, Hawaii Day 3 by Wayne & Karen Brown

At the Center we meet Laura Kraft (No. Not Lara Croft!) She is the Public Information Officer. It is her job to teach people about the telescopes and how the telescopes are being used. In the court yard of the Center Laura shows us a big hexagon of green grass. (How many sides does a hexagon have?) This hexagon is 33 feet (10 meters) across. She tells us that this is the size of the huge mirrors in the Keck Telescopes -- the largest optical telescopes in the world!

Laura takes us to a room, probably about twice the size of your classroom. This is "mission control" for the telescopes. Laura introduces us to the chief support scientist, Mary. Mary shows us how astronomers can use the computers and monitors here to control the telescopes and see the same things the telescopes see.

In the lobby of the Center Laura shows us a scale model of one of the Keck Telescopes. The Keck Telescopes are reflecting telescopes. That means what you see is reflected off of a mirror. Each Keck Telescope is over 80 feet (24 m) tall and weighs 298 tons (270 metric tons)!

To learn more about the Keck Telescopes and learn how you can become an astronomer, visit the W.M. Keck Observatory web site: http://www.keckobservatory.org

After saying good-bye to Laura, we explore the town of Waimea. Only about 7,000 people live in this small town. This is cowboy country! Here in the high-plains at the foot of Mauna Kea there are more cattle (55,000) than people. The biggest cattle ranch is Parker Ranch. Parker Ranch is the second largest ranch in the whole United States!

We are in Waimea on a good day because this weekend is the annual Parker Ranch rodeo! (We expected to see surfing competitions in Hawaii, not bull riding!) We stay to see the cowboys get beaten by the cowgirls in the cattle roping competition! The most popular event in any rodeo is the bull riding. The bulls here are just as wild as any we have seen in any western rodeo. It is exciting to watch as the riders try to stay on the bull as the bull is trying to buck them off! Even though all the riders get thrown from the bulls, fortunately, no one gets hurt.

Just as the rodeo is ending it starts to rain. We run back to our SUV to make the 45-minute drive back to our expedition base in Kailua-Kona (KIE-LOO-AH-KOH-NAH). We chose Kailua-Kona because the Kona coast has the best places to scuba dive in Hawaii.

In case you were wondering...Instead of starting our expedition with scuba diving we went to the top of Mauna Kea first. This is because a big hurricane is headed toward Hawaii and we didn't want to be on top of the mountain during a big storm. Also the road to the top may be closed during the storm.

Tomorrow we will show you Kailua-Kona. We may have to delay the start of our scuba diving because the sea will get rough as the hurricane gets closer to Hawaii.

Best Fishes,
Wayne & Karen Brown

At the Mauna Kea Observatory Support Services Center, Karen and Laura stand by a big grass hexagon. This is the size of the huge mirrors on the Keck Telescopes!

Support scientist Mary sits by a bunch of computer screens that show different views of what the telescopes are seeing. The telescopes can also be controlled from here, too.

This is a model of one of the two Keck telescopes. The real telescopes are 80 feet high. (To see how big they are, enlarge the photo. Notice how big the telescope is compared to the two people on the right platform.)

At the Parker Ranch rodeo we watch the bull riding competition. The two guys near the bull are the rodeo clowns that distract the bull when the cowboy is thrown off.