Observatory visit up for bid on eBay

By Janis L. Magin
Associated Press

How much would someone pay to spend a night watching a world-class astronomer hunt for new planets on the Big Island using one of the largest telescopes in the world?

An Internet auction for a night at the Keck Observatory with astronomer Geoff Marcy, which began Jan. 13 on eBay with an opening bid of $12,500 for the five-day trip, was up to $16,000 by yesterday afternoon. The auction ends tomorrow at 7 a.m. HST.

The auction, a fund-raiser for the nonprofit Astronomical Society of the Pacific, offers the winning bidder the chance to be the first person to spend the night watching Marcy work from the remote observation post at the observatory's headquarters in Kamuela, says observatory spokeswoman Laura Kraft. The trip will coincide with Marcy's observation schedule.

"We've never done anything like this," she said.

The winning bidder gets two plane tickets to the Big Island from anywhere on the Mainland, a rental car, meals and four nights in an ocean-view room at the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort. Also included is an escorted tour of the W.M. Keck Observatory headquarters and the twin Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea — a rare treat according to Kraft.

On the observation night, the guests will stay at the visiting scientist quarters on the observatory's campus in Kamuela.

"That's probably the most unique aspect of the trip," Kraft said. "We've never had a non-astronomer stay at the visiting quarters."

The trip up to the 13,769-foot summit of the dormant volcano is planned for the day before the observation night to give the winning bidder and companion a chance to recover.

"We thought about this, and we thought going up to altitude and coming down and trying to stay up all night would be too exhausting," Kraft said.

The observatory's headquarters are at a more comfortable 2,800 feet, she said.

The trip is not just a first for the observatory, but also for the San Francisco-based Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which helps pay for education and outreach programs to help teachers "teach better astronomy," said Executive Director Michael Bennett.

"The attraction is really the combination of the world's largest telescope and the very well-known astronomer and the experience of being in the inner sanctum, if you will, when the astronomer is actually working," he said.

Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, has discovered numerous planets outside the solar system, and is a frequent user of the Keck telescope, Kraft said.

"His work has caught a great deal of attention within the community," she said.

It is also the first time the observatory is allowing an organization from outside Hawai'i to auction a tour.

"We give four of those a year to benefit local schools and local charities on the Big Island," she said. "As far as the Keck Observatory is concerned, when we do auction packages like this, it's specifically to benefit the local community."