Astro 25: Field Astronomy in the California Mountains - Summer '18

July 13-15, 2018

Chimney Peak Wilderness

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Our summer '18 offering of Astro 25 will be in the Southern Sierra, on BLM land in the Chimney Peak Wilderness area. The highlights that had me select this location is primarily (1) An opportunity to contribute some valuable science in observing and video-recording the occultation of a "bright" star by the asteroid Christa at midnight on Friday night, and (2) The opportunity to hike to an ancient Native American archeo-astronomy pictorgraph site. We'll be right on the the Pacific Crest Trail as well, which will provide some short hiking opportunities as well. I'll be searching for a good local peak to climb during the day on Saturday, to gain a panoramic view of the Kern River chasm, the faulted region bordering the Mojave Desert - perfect for some micro-lectures on planetary evolutionary processes. .

We'll be north of Lake Isabella in the Southern Sierra. The astronomical draw for this offering of Astro 25, is that a bright star (well, bright for this sort of thing anyway, magnitude 9.3 star!) will be occulted by the asteroid Christa just before midnight on Friday July 13 from a path that includes this area. We will show you how to observe and get valuable scientific data on this event, video-recording it. I hope to set up two different stations both with video-recording capability..

What else is the draw here? There are astronomical paleo-indian pictographs which we can study, and measure by azimuth to see if they line up with key astronomical directions such as the sun at key seasonal dates. Learn more about them here.

There is also a wonderful hot spring to visit on Sunday late morning on our drive back to Santa Cruz, along the lower Kern River (Remington Hot Springs, right on the Kern River itself).

We stayed at Chimney Peak once before, in March 2010 for Astro 28M (click on the link to see 100 images from our photographer/astronomy enthusiast Kirk Bender) - back when this class was called Astro 28A-Z. Here's my own photos from this trip. This time it'll be warm at the campsite and in the mountains, and we won't be driving down into the desert. We'll find hiking trails for doing our planetary processes micro-lectures, as well as exploring the paleo-native American astronomical pictograph area a few miles south of our campsite. I'll link some photos from the earlier Astro 28 trip sometime soon. "Total Escape" on Chimney Peak Camp

The Pacific Crest Trail runs right through our campground. By hiking this trail for 3.2 miles, we can get to a good desert overlook and view of Sawtooth Peak, which is above left on our webpage here. The elevation gain is only 600 ft. Still, the temperatures during the day are expected in the low 80's and the trail has much sun exposure, so iunless it is cooler and cloudier, I hestitate to do this hike as it might be too hot. It's an option. See the map for it at left from Google Earth

Trails in the Chimney Pk Wilderness

The Occultation by the Asteroid Christa

The main astronomical event that determined this date and location is a bright occultation of a star by the asteroid Christa on Friday night July 13 just before midnight. Here's the web page on the details of this event.

Schedule:

Sat June 30 9am-noon: Meet in room 705 for our pre-trip on-campus session. Here we'll do some necessary preliminaries:
* Review and sign liability waivers. If you're a high school or under 18 student, you'll need parent's permission and signature on this
* Collect $12 meal fee. This is beyond the campground fee which was collected by the college as part of your registration fees. The meal fee covers purchase of the food as I cook two dinners and two breakfasts for the group. If you are providing all your own meals, let me know at that time.
* Distribute the map packet - so everyone knows how to get to our campsite.
* Form carpools. I'll be driving the college van with 1 or 2 volunteers only. Astro major Anne Pike is one, and she should be there on this day. The rest of the room in the van is going to be filled with camping gear, kitchen gear, telescopes, etc. So I will not be transporting students!
* Take care of how we'll communicate further as the trip approaches (cell phones during the drive, etc.)
* Anyone who hasn't registered for the class by today will need to get an add code from me. No problem, just so you know, the class officially begins June 30

Friday - Jul 13
* 6:00pm - I'll plan to arrive and meet you at the campground. I'm flexible on when you arrive - it's a long drive - 6 hrs and 320 miles. Some of you may not be able to leave early. BUT, if anyone CAN leave early, even a day early, that would be fantastic so they can make sure we have a good spot.
* 7:30pm - dinner: pasta and romaine salad with home-made dressing, sourdough bread
* 8:30pm Observing session under the darkening sky; summer Milky Way explorations, we'll have at least 2-3 telescopes, and big binoculars
* 10:30pm - micro-lecture on the upcoming Christa Occultation , which happens in one hour. Celestron scope will be then outfitted with video timing gear. Star charts to locate the target star will be passed out to the other scopes. Students (with instructor help) will decide who will do what duties: smart-phone operation, at-the-eyepiece observation and practice session. The event is just before midnight!
* Midnight - discuss results, review video recording

Saturday - Jul 14
* 7:30am - begin prep for breakfast. French Crepes! Feel free to have brought along anything from the fridge to donate to the cause (fruit, sour cream, sweets...). If possible let me know ahead of time so I can do smarter shopping on the drive down
* 9:30am - Breakfast should be wrapping up, and we'll have Kirk (aka "Cap'n Kirk") helping us with solar filtered telescope viewing of the sun. I'll micro-lecture on the sun
* 10:45am or so - we'll plan to begin our hikes and explorations. I'm still planning exactly what spots we want to go to. Options include doing the archeo-astronomy site in the Lamont Meadow area (if not today, then Sunday on the return drive, before getting to Remington Hot Springs), then to the Kern River above Lake Isabella. Or we could hike part of the Pacific Crest trail for larger views and geology lectures involving the larger Sierra and Basin and Range desert region.
* by 5:30pm - Return to camp, some rest and relaxation time as I start to prepare for dinner.

Saturday Night
* 7:30pm - Dinner - our chef's' Asian Rice a'la Nolthenius : Jasmine rice, assorted vegetables, coconut cream, red bell pepper stock, various Asian spices. Vegetarian, but any meat-eaters are welcome to bring something to BBQ and we'll add it separately for those who would like that.
* 8:30-midnight: Telescope sessions under the stars. Kirk's 12" scope and our 8" GoTo Celestron, and likely another scope as well. Studying the star formation regions of Sagittarius and the center of our Galaxy. Mars will be bright, large, as will Jupiter and its moons. Some informal astrophotography as well. Bring tripod and your DSLR camera if you'd like some advice and help.

Sunday - July 15
* 7:30am - Breakfast prep, eating by 8am. Cowboy toast, black bean's and veges, burrito wraps, scrambled eggs
* 9:30am - Micro lecture nearby on planetary processes
* 10am - be packing up camp
* 10:30am or so, Start drive down from camp, down to Remington Hot Springs (~40 min drive) for our final official session. Enjoy the hot springs, enjoy cold dips in the Kern River bordering the hot pools. Last micro-lectures. Remington Hot Springs is not commercial, just a lovingly constructed set of hot pools from natural hot springs. It's a popular place and expect we'll have to share the pools with others. Be friendly and neighborly! After we're officially done with the last lecture, I'll hand out the take-home final exams and give instructions, and then you're free to have a good trip back to Santa Cruz.

Final on-campus meeting shown in the Schedule of Classes.... is not going to be conducted unless you all really want it to. Really, just a bookeeping item to give you time to do the take-home final before grades must be turned in. Return your hard-copy (no emails) Final Exam to the envelope outside my office door 706a before the deadline, or snail-mail it to me. Remember, I need the actual hard copy, so I can mark it for grading. You print your essay answers, staple to the multiple choice sheets, deliver to my office door or the mailroom at Cabrillo (room 701) or just snail-mail it. .

Camper's Checklist and a Word Document version