Our 1/10 scale telescope model was the first exhibit presented to our visitors. The working model was connected to a control system similar to the one used on the real telescope. Students saw how the telescope operator could chose a target in the sky and make the model point to it!

Students gathered around the telescope model to hear explanations about the huge instrument that sits at the top of Mauna Kea.

Jim (left) and Bill (right) are probably trying to explain the same thing here: the Earth rotates on itself, which makes the night sky rotate too! In order to keep the telescope pointed on the same target for hours, there has to be a small telescope movement to compensate Earth's rotation

In the observatory's control room, at the top of the mountain, the telescope operator has a virtually identical set of computers and screens to control the telescope.

No, Bill is not going to eat the keikis, he is just saying that the telescope is very biiiig!

Computers always attract children...