A single piece of cargo worth $25 million is getting some special treatment. Telescope mirror gently
shipped to Big IslandA Japanese company, Nippon Express Co. Ltd., chartered an entire Matson Navigation Co. vessel to ship the one item from New Orleans to Honolulu.
The 27-foot-diameter mirror, to be installed in Japan's Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea, left New Orleans Oct. 12 aboard Matson's integrated tug and barge Moku Pahu. Matson hauled it through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific.
The item was transferred to a barge in Honolulu and hauled to Kawaihae Harbor on the Big Island, where it arrived yesterday. The shipping cost was not disclosed.
The mirror, to allow astronomers to see farther out in the universe -- and therefore further back in history -- than almost any other earthbound telescope, took four years to polish at the Contraves plant in Pittsburgh.
Only 8 inches thick, it called for gentle handling.
Matson said the haul was done by its new subsidiary, Matson Logistics Solutions, formed earlier this year. Matson Logistics plans special movements from start to finish and has handled shipment of the French-built Gemini mirror from Los Angeles for another Big Island observatory.
Star-Bulletin staff