Subaru Telescope’s flagship instrument receives Hawaiian name, ʻŌnohiʻula

The Subaru Telescope’s new Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) now carries the name ʻŌnohiʻula, following a naming ceremony Nov. 19 led by Larry Kimura, a Hawaiian language and cultural professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.

Kimura is internationally recognized for previously bestowing the Hawaiian name Pōwehi on the first imaged black hole, a name drawn from the Kumulipo, the traditional Hawaiian creation chant. 

In attendance to receive the name on behalf of the international PFS collaboration were Hitoshi Murayama, principal investigator of the project, Naoyuki Tamura, and representatives Dr. Devin Chu, astronomer-in-residence at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, and Christian Wong of the Public Information Outreach unit of Subaru Telescope.

“It’s very important for Subaru Telescope to connect to our culture here in Hawaiʻi and the way we can do that is through this name” Kimura said.

Kimura said the name ʻŌnohiʻula represents the spectrum of the rainbow seen in Hawaiʻi and in the eye of the PFS. In particular, the word emphasizes the color red, which is associated with the heavens in Hawaiian culture.

“ʻŌnohiʻula represents not just a powerful new eye on the universe, but a commitment to conduct that exploration in conversation and collaboration with the people and place of Hawaiʻi,” Tamura said. “We are honored to carry this name forward as ʻŌnohiʻula PFS opens a new era of discovery.”

All future scientific publications and press releases will refer to Subaru’s PFS as the ʻŌnohiʻula PFS in recognition of this collaboration and respect for the culture and people of Hawaiʻi, the original Hawaiʻi-based astronomers 

A new flagship instrument for Subaru Telescope

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a powerful new optical and near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph mounted at the prime focus of the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope on Maunakea.

The instrument can observe approximately 2,400 celestial objects simultaneously across a wide field of view of about 1.3 degrees in diameter, and will be used to explore cosmology, galaxy evolution and the structure of the Milky Way by capturing spectra across a broad wavelength range from roughly 380–1260nm. 

The PFS has been endorsed by the Japanese astronomy community as one of Subaru’s facility instruments and began its major science operations in 2025, marking it as a new flagship facility for large-scale spectroscopic studies. 

For more information about the Subaru Telescope and the Prime Focus Spectrograph, visit the Subaru Telescope and NAOJ project pages.