{"id":2566,"date":"2026-01-15T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/?p=2566"},"modified":"2026-01-14T19:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:57:04","slug":"the-pfs-instrument-now-has-the-hawaiian-name-%ca%bbonohi%ca%bbula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/2026\/01\/p2566","title":{"rendered":"The PFS instrument now has the Hawaiian name \u201c\u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula\u201d."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On November 19, 2025 (Hawaii Time), a naming ceremony was held at the Subaru Telescope Hilo base facility, where the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) gratefully received its new Hawaiian name: \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula which is pronounced like “oh-no-he-oo-lah\u201d in the phonetic
spelling for English speakers (and “\u30aa\u30fc\u30ce\u30d2\u30a6\u30e9” for Japanese speakers with the Katakana characters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of giving a Hawaiian name on the PFS had been envisioned within the collaboration for some time. Following renewed discussions at the collaboration meeting in January 2025, the initiative officially launched with the dedicated support of the Public Information and Outreach (PIO) unit of the Subaru Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the naming process, we received the invaluable cooperation of Professor Larry Kimura, a leading authority on Hawaiian language and culture at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, through the mediation of Dr. Devin Chu (Astronomer in Residence at the \u02bbImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai\u02bbi). Upon learning from Dr. Chu about the overwhelming capabilities of the PFS and the grand research missions of the collaboration, Professor Kimura soon conceived the name \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula, which carries the profound meaning of unraveling our origins. On the day of the ceremony, after hearing a direct explanation of the instrument’s mechanisms and scientific goals from Professor Hitoshi Murayama, the Principal Investigator (PI) of the PFS collaboration, Professor Kimura reaffirmed his conviction that this name is truly fitting for the PFS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this naming, we sincerely hope that the PFS, the Subaru Telescope, and the research activities of astronomers will become more deeply rooted in the local community of Hawai\u02bbi and serve as a source of familiarity and inspiration for everyone in the islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Prof. Larry Kimura (right) and Prof. Hitoshi Murayama (left) having conversations about the meaning of \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula and its cultural background, and the unique features of the PFS instrument. (Credit: NAOJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the naming ceremony, Professor Murayama visited the Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, and observed the \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula PFS instrument in the midst of its scientific observing run. Although his stay in Hilo was brief\u2014effectively only two days\u2014it was an exceptionally dense and productive visit. In addition to the summit visit and the ceremony, he energetically engaged in a public lecture at \u02bbImiloa and a research seminar at the Hilo base facility. Moving forward, one of our key goals is to create numerous opportunities for Professor Murayama and researchers from around the world to share the scientific discoveries made by \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula PFS with the local community, further deepening our mutual connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Prof. Hitoshi Murayama visiting the Subaru Telescope at the Maunakea summit facility: (left)in front of the PFS Metrology Camera System on the Cassegrain focus of the telescope, and (right) in the middle of the four PFS Spectrograph Modules inside the dedicated clean room. (Credit: NAOJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 19, 2025 (Hawaii Time), a naming ceremony was held at the Subaru Telescope Hilo base facility, where the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) gratefully received its new Hawaiian name: \u02bb\u014cnohi\u02bbula which is pronounced like “oh-no-he-oo-lah\u201d in the phoneticspelling for English speakers (and “\u30aa\u30fc\u30ce\u30d2\u30a6\u30e9” for Japanese speakers with the Katakana characters). The concept of giving a Hawaiian name on the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/?p=2566","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-2566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcement","tag-collaboration","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions\/2584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfs.naoj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}