February 25-27, 2022

Death Valley Dark Sky Festival

Volunteers:

• Cameron Hummels (Drive Friday morning w/telescopes and room for 1)
• Tina Seeger
• Dillon Dong (Drive Friday morning w/room for 3-4)
• Kathryn Plant (Drive Friday afternoon w/room for ?)
• Nitika Yadlapalli
• Ryan Rubenzahl
• Dee Dunne (Drive Friday morning w/room for 4)
• Emily Silich
• Janosz Dewberry
• Gina Panopoulou

We will be assisting with the Death Valley National Park Dark Sky Festival to take place Friday-Sunday Feb 25-27.
Our primary responsibilities will be to staff a booth with live demos and educational information at their Science Expo
and run a star party on Saturday night with our own telescopes.

In addition, Cameron will be giving an hour long lecture on galaxy evolution on Saturday and Sunday at 11:30AM.

DVNP will provide us with gas money to cover our transportation and a campsite for each of us in the educator
section of the Texas Springs campsite, adjacent to where all program activities will occur at Furnace Creek.

Drive time from Caltech to Furnace Creek is about 4.5-5h depending on the route and time of day. I would plan to leave
sometime on the morning of Friday, Feb 25 to avoid traffic and provide ample time for preparing for the weekend and exploring
DVNP. Google maps link to Furnace Creek

Ideally we would have 8+ people participate, which would allow for everyone to only work one "day shift" of 3h at the
Science Expo and then Star Party (~2 volunteers needed at any time). The rest of the time would be open for
hiking and exploring the park.

The science demos that I thought we could operate would be (1) "Build a Comet" using dry ice to show what composes a comet; and (2) parabolic marshmallow igniter where we show how telescopes work to collect light from the Sun and focus it.
We would also probably bring the good solar telescope (Coronado half-angstrom H-alpha) to show views of the Sun.

For the star party, we would bring the Dobsonians (6", 8", 10") as well as our own private telescopes. Cameron will bring his
Unistellar eVscope2, and others are encouraged to bring theirs if they want. DVNP rangers will also have a few telescopes
on hand, including a 14" Orion Dobsonian. We can also bring some laser pointers to help point things out.

Rough schedule:

Friday, February 25

• Drive to DVNP (~4.5 hours) in morning
• Prepare stuff for Saturday / Sunday
• Free time to hike around and explore
• Camp in cool isolated educator campsite at Texas Springs (near Furnace Creek)

Saturday, February 26

• Team 1: Do live science demo and operate booth at outdoor Science Fair (10AM-4PM)
  • Team 1a: Shift 10AM-1PM
  • Team 1b: Shift 1PM-4PM
• Team 2: Have the day off to explore and hike!
• Tamale Dinner with all other presenters -- Free food (w/ vegan options) @ Cow Creek Volleyball Court (5PM-630PM)
• Teams 1+2: Run Starparty with DVNP Rangers and telescopes outdoors (7-10PM)
• Camp in cool isolated educator campsite at Texas Springs (near Furnace Creek)

Sunday, February 27

• Team 1: Have the day off to explore and hike!
• Team 2: Do live science demo and operate booth at outdoor Science Fair (10AM-4PM)
  • Team 2a: Shift 10AM-1PM
  • Team 2b: Shift 1PM-4PM
• Drive back home (~4.5 hours) in evening