About the Institute for Astronomy

The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) was founded at the University of Hawaii (UH) in 1967 to manage Haleakala and Mauna Kea Observatories, and to carry out its own program of fundamental research into the stars, planets and galaxies that make up our Universe. One of eleven research institutes within the University of Hawaii it has a total staff of over 200, including about 45 faculty. The Institute has an annual budget of $20m, including $15m in grants from the federal government.

• More about the history of astronomy in Hawaii

Research at the IfA

The Institute for Astronomy is one of the world's leading astronomical research centers. Its broad-based program includes studies of the Sun, planets, and stars, as well as interstellar matter, galaxies, and cosmology. Most IfA astronomers use the giant telescopes atop Mauna Kea and Haleakala to collect faint visible light, and infrared and submillimeter radiation from distant objects. They also use and support space observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra (an X-ray astronomy satellite), to make observations that cannot be made from the ground.

• More about research programs at the Institute for Astronomy

Academic programs at the IfA

The Institute has close links with the UH-Manoa Department of Physics and Astronomy through the astronomy graduate program, which has about 30 students working for their MS and PhD degrees. IfA faculty also teach many introductory astronomy courses on the Manoa Campus, reaching some 800 undergraduate students annually.

• More about academic programs at the University of Hawaii

Observatories

During the last thirty years, the State of Hawaii has become the most sought-after location in the world for the construction of large ground-based telescopes. The focal points for this construction are the 3000-meter peak of Haleakala on Maui and the 4200-meter peak of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii (the "Big Island"). The remarkable clarity, dryness, and stillness of the air above these isolated high-altitude sites led to the commissioning by the University of Hawaii first of the Mees Solar Observatory at Mount Haleakala on the island of Maui in 1963 and then of the 2.2-meter Telescope on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1970.

• Maps of Hawaii

Mauna Kea Observatory

The value of Mauna Kea for optical, infrared, and submillimeter observations soon became apparent to the international community, and during the 1970s three more large telescopes were built on its summit. These are the 3-meter Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the 3.8-meter United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). In 1993, the world's largest optical telescope, the 10-meter Keck I telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory followed in 1996 by the similar Keck II telescope. The 8-meter Japan National Large Telescope (JNLT, or Subaru Telescope) and the Gemini Northern 8-meter Telescope became operational soon afterwards. These telescopes all benefit from the remarkable seeing atop Mauna Kea, and from the transparency to infrared wavelengths that are largely inaccessible at lower (wetter) sites. By the end of the century there will be four 8-10 meter class telescopes plus four 2-4 meter class telescopes located on Mauna Kea.

Mauna Kea is world's premier developed site for submillimeter astronomy. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a 15-meter telescope run by a consortium consisting of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada. The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) houses a 10-meter submillimeter telescope run by the California Institute of Technology. The eight-antenna Submillimeter Array (SMA) is a collaborative project of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics of Taiwan. It will permit high-resolution imaging using submillimeter interferometry. All three facilities exploit the dryness of Mauna Kea for observations in the 350-micron to 2-millimeter wavelength range. 

Finally, the western most antenna of the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is located on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea.

University of Hawaii astronomers have full access to the UH 2.2 meter telescope and a guaranteed 10 - 15% of the time on all the other telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea.

• Mauna Kea Observatories

Haleakala Observatory

The University of Hawaii's Mees Solar Observatory on Haleakala on the island of Maui conducts daily observations of the Sun using a variety of detectors mounted on a Sun-tracking spar. Coronagraphic, magnetic field, and oscillation studies are presently underway. The LURE lunar laser ranging observatory is also located on the summit of Haleakala; it is operated by the IfA under contract to NASA.

The IfA is currently building instrumentation for the new 3.67 meter AEOS telescope which is under construction for the Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS). University of Hawaii astronomers will have guaranteed access to the telescope and its multi-object spectrograph when it is completed. 

• Haleakala Observatories

Sea-level facilities

The IfA operates facilities on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui. Its main base is in Manoa Valley, Oahu, just north of the main campus of the University of Hawaii, in Honolulu. The building includes offices, workshops, extensive computer facilities, classrooms and a large astronomical library. A new sea-level facility in  Hilo on the Big Island houses part of the faculty and staff of the IfA, with an emphasis on the support of Mauna Kea telescope operations. It also houses research groups involved in the development of adaptive optics and infrared detectors. On Maui the IfA operates a laboratory in Waiakoa for support of its Haleakala activities.

• IfA Hilo facility (Big Island)
• IfA Waiakoa Laboratory (Maui)
• Contact addresses
• Maps of Hawaii
• Other UH astronomy activities