Posted on: Friday, January 24, 2003

$16,000 bid wins observatory trip

Associated Press

An anonymous buyer's $16,000 winning bid ended an online auction yesterday for a five-day trip to the Big Island that includes a night of planet hunting with a well-known astronomer using one of the largest telescopes in the world.

The online fund-raising auction by the nonprofit Astronomical Society of the Pacific on eBay drew 10 bids from six bidders. The winner gets tours of the W.M. Keck Observatory headquarters and telescopes atop Mauna Kea and a night observing astronomer Geoff Marcy.

"We sent (the winner) an e-mail right after the auction closed," said Michael Bennett, executive director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. "But through eBay his identity is protected and we haven't heard back from him."

The auction began Jan. 13 with an opening bid of $12,500 for the five-day trip, which had an estimated cash value of between $7,000 and $10,000. The rest of the money will go to the nonprofit society's educational efforts to help schools teach astronomy.