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Milky Way • Kauai • April, 2026
Astrophotos from our trip to Kauai in April, 2026.
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Our first Milky Way attempt was at Kekaha Beach Park aka MacArthur Park, about 45 minutes from our hotel. The weather prospects were a little better than at the hotel, the angle toward the Milky Way seemed good, and our daytime scouting from our first birding trip gave us ideas for interesting foregrounds. There are restrooms there and camping isn't allowed.
Unfortunately, there were two problems. First, lights from Kekaha showed on the horizon. Second, there was a parade of yahoos driving pickups around on the beach and yelling at each other.
When we got back to the hotel at 2:30 am, we walked to the beach in front of the hotel and found the view of the Milky Way to be quite good. From the path in front of the hotels, we got some interesting photos with a dark horizon.
The string of hotels ends at Shipwreck Beach, where we had been on our Māhā’ulepū Heritage Trail bird walk. That seemed like a good prospect for the Milky Way, so we set up there the next night. The first quarter moon didn't set until 1:50 am, so we had lots of time to play with moon shadows.
This time lapse video shows the Milky Way emerging and rising in the sky. It was shot from 11:38 p.m. to 3:18 a.m. April 23-24. Despite being well after sunset at the start, the sky was still lit from moonlight. The long exposure shows the blue that our eyes can't pick up in such a low-light condition. When the moon sets (around 0:10 in the video), the sky gets darker and loses the blue cast.
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