"The Star Record" — a living archive of dark skies and ancestral stars
🌟
See Tonight's Sky
Explore the stars visible from Hawaiʻi right now. Tap any star to learn its Hawaiian name and the story Polynesian navigators told about it.
⛵
Sail With the Ancestors
Watch the night sky change as a voyaging canoe sails from Hawaiʻi south toward Tahiti or the Marquesas — exactly how our ancestors found their way across the Pacific.
🌑
Find Dark Skies
See where in Hawaiʻi the night sky is still dark enough for stargazing. Tap "Find Me" to check your own location.
📝
Share What You See
Help build a community record of which stars are still visible from your part of the islands. Every reading matters.
Curious about a word or measurement anywhere in the app? Look for the small ? icons — tap one for a plain-English explanation.
Hōkū Palapala
The Star Record
A living record of dark skies and ancestral stars
Dark Sky ScienceCultural AstronomyMaunakea StewardshipPolynesian NavigationCitizen Science
Tonight's Sky ?
Tonight from Hawaiʻi
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↓ Explore the full sky below
Tap a star to hear its Hawaiian name and story
Date
Hour (HST)
What to show ?
N — Hōkūpaʻa
S — Nā Leo
E — Koʻolau
W — Kona
✦
Click any star to explore its Hawaiian name, navigation role, and astrophysics data.
↑ Click a glowing point above
Hoʻokele — Sail With the Ancestors ?
Watch how the stars change as you sail south — the same way our ancestors did
N — Hōkūpaʻa
S — Nā Leo
E — Koʻolau
W — Kona
Simulated: late April evening · LST 14h 30m
Voyage
Position
Latitude
19.6°N
Kawaihae
Star Overhead ?
Hōkūleʻa
Arcturus · Hawaiʻi
Wayfinding Notes
Departing Kawaihae
Hōkūpaʻa hangs 20° above the northern horizon — its altitude is your latitude. Hōkūleʻa rides directly overhead.
25°NHawaiʻiEQUATORMarquesas25°S
Find Dark Skies ?
Where can you still see the stars in Hawaiʻi?
Map Layers
Filter by Darkness ?
Seasonal Sky
Location Detail
Click anywhere on the map for an estimate, or tap "Find Me" to identify your location.
How Dark Is Your Sky? ?
How bright is the sky where you are? ?
6.5
Faintest star you can see ?
Sky Quality ?21.6 mag/arcsec²
Bortle ClassRural Sky
Milky WayClearly visible, complex structure
Maunakea Threat LevelLow
Zodiacal LightVisible in spring/fall
How to check your sky at home
1. Let your eyes adapt to darkness for 20 minutes — no phone screens. 2. Look toward a known star field (the Pleiades/Makaliʻi area works well). 3. Note the faintest star you can clearly see without averted vision. 4. Match that magnitude to the Bortle scale above. 5. Submit your reading with your location on the Submit tab.
A star is visible to the naked eye when its apparent magnitude is less than or equal to the NELM. Stars near the horizon lose ~0.5 mag to atmospheric extinction. Navigation stars near zenith have no extinction penalty.
Kaulana Mahina — The Hawaiian Lunar Calendar
The Hawaiian lunar calendar divides each month into 30 nights, each with a name, a ruling deity, and traditional guidance for fishing, planting, and navigation. Makahiki — the Hawaiian new year — begins when Makaliʻi (the Pleiades) rises on the eastern horizon at sunset, typically in mid-November.
Current Phase Calculator
Date
Select a date to see the Hawaiian lunar phase
Makahiki Calendar — Key Navigation Nights
During Hoʻoilo (the wet season, roughly November–April), Makaliʻi is visible all night and the Milky Way arches overhead — prime navigation season for long voyages. During Kau (the dry season), the Great Fishhook of Māui (Scorpius) dominates the southern sky, and shorter coastal voyages were preferred.
⟡ Makahiki begins: ~Nov 18 (Pleiades/Makaliʻi rises at sunset)
⟡ Makahiki ends: ~Feb (four-month festival period)
⟡ Best navigation season: Dec–March (Hoʻoilo)
Key Nights of the Month
Submit a Sky Brightness Reading
Your reading contributes to a permanent archive documenting dark-sky conditions across Hawaiʻi Island. Data is used by the Center for Maunakea Stewardship and to track whether ancestral navigation stars remain visible from traditional Hawaiian sites.
Observer Name (optional)
Date of Observation
Bortle Scale (1–9)
Observation Site
Navigation Stars Visible
Notes (optional)
✓ Reading submitted! It will appear in the archive.
Community Archive — Recent Readings
0
Total Readings
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Avg Bortle
No readings yet. Be the first to submit!
About Hōkū Palapala
Hōkū Palapala
"The Star Record" — a living archive of dark skies and ancestral stars
Hōkū Palapala started with a simple question: can the stars that guided Polynesian voyagers across the Pacific still be seen from the places they once launched from?
This tool is my attempt to find out — and to build something that lets other people on Hawaiʻi Island ask the same question from their own backyard, beach, or ahupuaʻa.
It sits alongside the work of Maunakea's observatories, not in competition with it. The observatories measure the universe. This measures something smaller and closer — whether the night sky above our own communities is still dark enough to see the stars our ancestors named.
Built by Reese Reilly, as part of a passion project that brings together all my interests.
Stewardship Partners
Community partnerships currently in development.
About the Builder
Reese Reilly — Hello! I am a student from Mid-Pacific Institute on Oahu with a passion for astronomy, coding, and the cultural heritage of the Pacific. Hōkū Palapala grew out of a desire to build something that belongs to the community — a tool that uses computational methods to serve Hawaiian ways of knowing the sky, not the other way around.
This project combines four things I care about deeply:
01
Cultural Astronomy
Hawaiian star names, navigation lore, the star compass, and the Kaulana Mahina lunar calendar
02
Astrophysics
I am hoping to major in astrophysics in college — I used real math for sky brightness physics, NELM and Bortle scale conversions, and spherical astronomy
03
Coding
Vanilla JavaScript, HTML, CSS — built from scratch without frameworks
04
Community Stewardship
Ahupuaʻa geography, traditional voyaging sites, and the belief that data should serve the people it comes from
Key Sources
Nā Inoa Hōkū — Johnson & Mahelona
Polynesian Voyaging Society / Nainoa Thompson
IfA Hawaiʻi — ifa.hawaii.edu
maunakeaobservatories.org
Globe at Night (NOIRLab) — for NELM calibration
NOAA Atmospheric Data
Office of Hawaiian Affairs GIS
ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo