Bishop Museum offers free admission Jan. 25

Bishop Museum is offering free admission to kamaaina and military guests on Jan. 25 in honor of museum founder Charles Reed Bishop.

Bishop, born Jan. 25, 1822, in Glens Falls, N.Y., was the husband of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. After she died, he established the museum to care for her possessions and other alii treasures.

Visitors can see the Ka Lei Papale exhibition, featuring the museum's 19th- and 20th-century hat collection alongside hats crafted by modern artists.

Large swells expected on northern shores

A large west-northwest swell is expected to bring waves up to 30 feet to northern shores today, according to the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

A high-surf advisory is in effect through 6 p.m. Tuesday and was expected to be upgraded to a warning this morning, forecasters said yesterday.

“;Surf heights will climb well above the warning thresholds for north- and west-facing shores on Kauai and Oahu Sunday afternoon and evening and on other affected shores through Sunday night. ... Warning-level surf may persist into Tuesday,”; the advisory said.

Waves on the northern shores will be 10 to 15 feet this morning, then rise to 20 to 30 feet by late afternoon, forecasters said. On western shores, waves are expected to be 8 to 12 feet in the morning, rising to 10 to 18 in the afternoon. The advisory is for north- and west-facing shores of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu and Molokai, and for northern shores of Maui.

Surf along northwest-facing shores will likely remain at advisory levels through Friday, forecasters said.

Mauna Kea telescope plan delayed

HILO » The University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy is delaying work on an environmental impact statement for a telescope to be built atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

Plans had called for a draft EIS early this year for the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, better known as Pan-STARRS.

But the institute said last week that the draft will be delayed for a year to 18 months while astronomers focus on fine-tuning the telescope's prototypes on Haleakala.

The Pan-STARRS program calls for four powerful digital cameras to rapidly scan the sky to detect large asteroids and comets heading toward Earth.

The project would replace a nearly 38-year-old University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope.