The Big Island is a fantastic place for looking at the stars and hosts some of the world’s best telescopes. This makes stargazing a natural thing to do while on Hawaiʻi island and there are a few obvious stargazing-related activities you can fit it into your itinerary ranging from a (free) nighttime picnic to an adventurous sunset visit to the summit of MaunaKea.
Table of contents
- Mauna Kea FAQ
- How to visit Maunakea yourself
- Getting to the MaunaKea Visitor Center (MKVIS)
- Free stargazing program at the MKVIS (currently suspended)
- How to drive to the Maunakea summit
- Seeing the sunset: from the visitor center and from the summit.
- MaunaKea Stargazing Tours
- Learn about MaunaKea
- List of observatories on the MaunaKea summit
- What’s in a name: Mauna Kea or MaunaKea?
- Health hazards associated with being at high elevations
Table of Contents
- Mauna Kea FAQ
- How to visit Maunakea yourself
- Getting to the MaunaKea Visitor Center (MKVIS)
- Free stargazing program at the MKVIS (currently suspended)
- How to drive to the Maunakea summit
- Seeing the sunset: from the visitor center and from the summit.
- MaunaKea Stargazing Tours
- Learn about MaunaKea
- List of observatories on the MaunaKea summit
- What’s in a name: Mauna Kea or MaunaKea?
- Health hazards associated with being at high elevations
In this guide we explain how you can visit the Maunakea Visitor Center and see the telescopes and sunset at the summit.
If you like stargazing you should definitely have a look at our astronomy calendar for Hawaiʻi to see if there is a meteor shower or any other good excuse to make looking up at the stars special during your stay.