  {"id":96139,"date":"2019-05-08T15:23:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T01:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=96139"},"modified":"2019-05-08T15:29:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T01:29:39","slug":"hilo-astroday-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/08\/hilo-astroday-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Hilo AstroDay 2019 draws a crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-2.jpg\" alt=\"kids at astroday\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-96148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-2.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-2-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>AstroDay 2019, celebrating 18 years, brought science educators from around the state to Prince K&#363;hi&#333; Plaza in Hilo to share their knowledge and enthusiasm on May 4.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is the largest crowd I\u2019ve seen in years,&rdquo; said Makana Guillermo, property management associate for the Prince K&#363;hi&#333; Plaza. &ldquo;There\u2019s so much energy here today!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-1.jpg\" alt=\"parent and child posing with stormtrooper\" width=\"250\" height=\"350\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-96149\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-1.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-1-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-1-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The annual event is sponsored by the Maunakea Observatories and coordinated by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifa.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (<abbr>IfA<\/abbr>). More than 200 volunteers from observatories on Maunakea, Mauna Loa and Haleakal&#257; on Maui, and other science and educational organizations staffed 85 tables throughout the mall. A variety of activities and demonstrations fascinated hundreds of participants, from preschool children to seniors.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomy and physics activities were presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/imiloahawaii.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Imiloa\">&#699;Imiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center<\/a>, Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> Science and Technology Museum, <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo<\/a> Department of Physics and Astronomy and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s astrophysics club.<\/p>\n<p>Robotics and technology were highlighted by high schools in Hilo and <span aria-label=\"Keaau\">Kea&#699;au<\/span>. Enthusiastic students were eager to showcase their projects. There were programs onstage throughout the day, from a planetary game show run by <abbr>IfA<\/abbr> graduate students, to comet making and a black hole demonstration.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We were even treated to a <em>Star Wars<\/em> Storm Trooper, who roamed the aisles and thrilled the public all day. After all, it is &lsquo;May the 4th Be With You&rsquo; day,&rdquo; said Carolyn Kaichi, <abbr>IfA<\/abbr> outreach and education specialist and coordinator of AstroDay, &ldquo;From what I saw, parents were more excited than their children, since I suppose we grew up with the franchise!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-3.jpg\" alt=\"child at astroday\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-96146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-3.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-3-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hilo-astroday-2019-3-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AstroDay 2019, celebrating 18 years, brought science educators from around the state to Prince K&#363;hi&#333; Plaza in Hilo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[34,35,174],"class_list":["post-96139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-astronomy","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-space","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96139"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96159,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96139\/revisions\/96159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}