Saw Mars several times quite clearly while I was in Kauai, at Kapaa. Our resort was about fifty feet from the eastern beach, and about 11:00 or so Mars rose and shone quite brightly over the ocean.

On the big island, we went out to see the volcanic flows (small ones) on the south shore. When the sun went down, it made getting back over about two miles of old flow very difficult, but really showed off the glowing lava parts.

It was a bit unnerving when it got darker and I noticed that the bottoms of the deep cracks all over the places I was walking on were glowing red. I knew that not far under my feet lava was slowly flowing through tunnels to the ocean. I made an orderly retreat. There were many other people there, and it's surprising no one gets hurt or surprised by a sudden breakout. The entire area makes me nervous. South of Volcano Park there are huge cooled lava flows EVERYWHERE.

As we were walking out on the highway (partially buried under cooled lava) I saw the Southern Cross for the first time, low in the sky. My daughter was quite superior about the whole thing, having traveled to Australia a couple of years ago.

Never made it to the observatory, but flew past it once or twice.