Astronomy in Hawaii under threat?

[TomK]

But that requires the ocean to be a lense. I also note that some sea creatures exhibit luminescence, so perhaps that's important. Space Karen, please clarify.

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A solar flare with reach earth on July 19th.  We most likely will notice nothing, but social media is already abuzz and exaggerating the possible effects.  COMMUNICATION SATELLITE APOCALYPSE!   

Not sure if stars will suddenly appear in lunar photos, or light scattering and color shifting will dramatically be affected (other than auroras near the poles), but right here seems like the go-to thread for this sort of think right now.

Or, more to the point TomK might inform us if the solar flare will threaten equipment and observatories on Mauna Kea, and what precautions (if any) may be taken.

Apologies, I missed this. The answer is no action was taken because there was no threat. Now, if there was a possibility of a Carrington-like event, then I suspect the observatories would just turn everything off and hope that Helco survives.

https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event