DEATH VALLEY, CA – Mark your calendars! The annual Death Valley Dark Sky Festival will take place February 10-12. Explore the wonders of space from one of the darkest locations in the United States. Join scientists and park rangers to learn about the cosmos and how Death Valley National Park has been used as an analog for the exploration of distant worlds.
Most people in North America cannot see the Milky Way from their homes due to light pollution. Death Valley National Park is a great place to see the stars. It is recognized as an International Dark Sky Park.
The Death Valley Dark Sky Festival is a partnership between the National Park Service, Death Valley Natural History Association, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ames Research Center, Las Vegas Astronomical Society, and California Institute of Technology.
All Death Valley Dark Sky Festival programs are free and open to the public. Some of the programs are specifically targeted for families with children. For a full list of programs and lodging options visit the park’s website at nps.gov/deva.
| Friday, February 10 | |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | Astrophotography for beginners Furnace Creek VC auditorium Bring DSLR camera and tripod. |
| 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm | Exploration of Venus by Ralph Lorenz, Applied Physics Lab
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm | Night Sky Photography Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Bring a DSLR camera and tripod. |
| 8:00 pm – 8:45 pm | Astronomy Program Harmony Borax Works Bring a red flashlight. Optional items are binoculars and a chair. |
| Saturday, February 11 | |
| 5:30 am – 6:30 am | Moon Walk
Badwater Basin Walk under the light of the moon. |
| 9:30 am – 10:30 am | Searching for Signs of Life on Mars
Mars Hill (junction of Badwater Road & Artists Drive Exit) Short walk |
| 10:00 am – 11:00 am | Dynamic Landscape of Death Valley, As Seen by NASA’s NISAR Mission
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 10:00 am – 4:00 pm | Exploration Fair
Furnace Creek VC courtyard Solar telescopes and booths staffed by scientists from NASA, JPL, SETI, CalTech, park rangers, Desert Studies Center, and the Las Vegas Astronomical Society. |
| 10:00 am – 10:45 am
|
Build a Mars Lander (family programming)
Furnace Creek VC tent Become a NASA engineer! Design, build, and land your own “spacecraft” on Mars. |
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | Life in Europa’s Salty Waters?
Badwater Basin |
| 11:00 am – 1:00 pm | Ubehebe Crater: Mars-like Places on Earth
Ubehebe Crater Strenuous walk to the bottom of Ubehebe Crater. |
| 11:30 am – 12:30 pm | The Science of Black Holes
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | 30 Years of Mars Exploration: The Roving Generation
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | SunRISE Mission Parallels Humans Hiking
Dantes View |
| 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm | Build a Mars Lander (family programming)
Furnace Creek VC tent Become a NASA engineer! Design, build, and land your own “spacecraft” on Mars. |
| 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm | Astrophotography for beginners Furnace Creek VC auditorium Bring DSLR camera and tripod. |
| 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm | Dune Stories on Earth, Mars and Titan
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Short walk into sand dunes. Compare and contrast dunes on Earth with other planets. |
| 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm | The Cosmic Autobiography by Katarina Markovic
Furnace Creek VC auditorium Cosmology is the study of the full history of our universe from the first moment of the Big Bang, to its inevitable death in the distant future. Listen to the story about how we understand the universe came to be as it is, including its particles, forces, stars, galaxies, as well as the ever-mysterious dark matter and dark energy. |
| 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm | Star Party
Sunset Campground overflow lot Night sky viewing with telescopes. |
| 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Night Sky Photography Harmony Borax Works Bring a DSLR camera and tripod. |
| Sunday, February 12 | |
| 9:30 am – 10:30 am | Searching for Signs of Life on Mars
Mars Hill (junction of Badwater Road & Artists Drive Exit) Short walk |
| 10:00 am – 11:00 am | Dynamic Landscape of Death Valley, As Seen by NASA’s NISAR Mission
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | Life in Europa’s Salty Waters?
Badwater Basin |
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | Analog for Planetary Volcanism
Ubehebe Crater Short walk |
| 11:30 am – 12:30 pm | Astronomist Q&A
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | 30 Years of Mars Exploration: The Roving Generation
Furnace Creek VC auditorium |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | SunRISE Mission Parallels Humans Hiking
Dantes View |
| 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm | Dune Stories on Earth, Mars and Titan
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Short walk into sand dunes. Compare and contrast dunes on Earth with other planets. |
| 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm | Star Party
Sunset Campground overflow lot Night sky viewing with telescopes. |
Death Valley National Park is the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone and preserves natural and cultural resources, exceptional wilderness, scenery, and learning experiences within the nation’s largest conserved desert landscape and some of the most extreme climate and topographic conditions on the planet. About two-thirds of the park was originally designated as Death Valley National Monument in 1933. Today the park is enjoyed by about 1,300,000 people per year. The park is 3,400,000 acres – nearly as large as the state of Connecticut. Learn more at www.nps.gov/deva.
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Nice! Sounds like fun. Too bad Inyo County took at least 12 years to create and pass a lighting ordinance, and now they refuse to do any enforcement