Starry night at sea

(Friday) After a lazy day (they're getting increasingly lazy) we went for one of the night time stargazing cruises run out of Lahaina Harbor by the Pacific Whale Foundation. The purpose of the cruise is to get you out to sea a bit away from city lights, to see dark starry skies. It works well, and the cruise itself in the balmy tropical night is great. Paradoxically we've seen even better dark skies where we're staying east of Pa'ia. The skies away from the city lights are very dark in Maui.

< Starry night: Scorpio, Sagittarius and Jupiter
The astronomy part of the cruise was narrated by local Maui astronomy teacher, Harriet Witt. As D also teaches astronomy he found it interesting to hear the approach taken to the diverse audience aboard ship. A very good introduction to the night sky. Definitely worthwhile. See adjacent image (not a photo, but a screen grab showing exactly what the sky looked like, from the Starry Night program). It shows the Milky Way, Scorpius, Sagittarius ('the Teapot') and Jupiter (top left).