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| A park ranger points to constellations during last year’s Death Valley Dark Sky Festival. Photo credit: NASA Earth to Sky/G. Demessieres |
Called “a land of extremes” Death Valley National Park is the hottest, driest and lowest national park in the US, but Park Ranger Gia Ponce says the park also has some of the darkest skies in the country. This weekend the park is hosting the Death Valley Dark Sky Festival Friday, February 6th- Sunday, February 8th. The three-day event will give visitors a chance to learn about astronomy and stargaze with other sky enthusiasts.
Within the last few years, Death Valley National Park has seen an increased interest in star gazing. They usually anticipate about 30 people during their daytime programs, and about 200 people for their night sky programs Ponce says.
“It’s way more,” Ponce says. “We’re expecting about 2,000 people for the Dark Sky Festival.”
Located in the Mojave Desert on the border of California and Nevada, the park goers are privy to some breath taking views of the night sky. On any given night visitors can view several constellations like Orion, the Little Dipper and The Milky Way – our home galaxy. Ponce says in the winter you can see the tail end of one of the Milky Way spiral arms which looks like a cluster of stars. The Milky Way appears much brighter in the summer. During the festival, visitors will also be able to see the planets Jupiter and Saturn which will brighter. Ponce says whether stargazers come in the summer or winter they will still get a spectacular view.
The Dark Sky Festival highlights the importance of preserving dark skies and celebrates Death Valley’s role as a planetary analog. Dark Skies Park Ranger Matthew Lamar says the park has played a large part in astronomy and space exploration for years. NASA used the terrain and topography at Death Valley to simulate landing on Mars and the original Star Wars was also filmed at Death Valley National Park. Dubbed “The Coachella of stargazing” by a social media influencer, Lamar says it’s less Coachella and more of an educational festival. The programming for the festival includes high keynote speakers such as Bill Diamond of the SETI Institute who will talk about alien life beyond Earth and Gregg Hallinan who will present on building the world’s most powerful telescope. Other panel topics include astrobiology, ocean worlds, the formation of galaxies and much more.
Ultimately, Lamar says the festival caters to people who can’t go out in their backyard and see the Milky Way. The Southern California Physics Club will have telescopes on hand so attendees can get a closer look at the constellations. As the lead organizer for the event, Lamar says there has been an increase in dark sky program attendees because being able to see the cosmos is not as common as it used to be.
“Before electricity most people could go outside and see the night sky and the Milky Way,” Lamar says. “Now it’s not as common and its an extraordinary event.”
Entrance to the festival is included with the regular park fee of $30. There is no additional fee needed for the keynote speakers, but you must pick up your ticket in person. For more information visit www.nps.gov.