The class will be a concentrated weekend of high-powered astronomy at Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park. Mt. Lassen anchors the southern end of the Cascade Mountain Range. We'll explore planetary science by day, exploring the processes which dominate the geology of the inner planets and the Earth in particular.
Saturday morning, we'll tour of the Allen Telescope Array - this is the array of radio telescopes designed to search for signals from extra-terrestrial intelligence on planets around stars in our corner of the Milky Way Galaxy.
At night, we'll be camping near Mt. Lassen, but not inside the National Park. In the past, we've been at Hat Creek campground on Hat Creek, just outside Mt. Lassen National Park, and had exciting and memorable trips on our past Astro 28's here (Astro 28H in '03, and Astro 28P in '05, and Astro 28U in '09, and Kirk B's Flickr page from Astro 28U in '09, and Astro 28H again in 2012). However, Hat Creek Campground is now closed until April. Fortunately,we do have a nice option - Cave Campground has 16 sites which remain open year-round. So, this is our "Plan A". Camp at Cave Campground. It's right across from one of our very interesting sites to visit and do some micro-lectures: Subway Lava Tube, and here . Note that Subway Lava Tube is officially "closed" until April, but even if the gate driving in to the parking lot is closed, it's only a few hundred yard walk from Hwy 89 and across the street from our campground. And too, there are no gates blocking entrance to the cave.
For late Saturday, I'm pondering perhaps hiking from the South Entrance station to Mill Creek Falls and hopefully beyond, to the geothermal areas of Cold Boiling Lake and Bumpass Hell. Here's the trail information. It seems very likely, however, that there will be snow there in mid March, so this hike may not be possible.
Alternatives if Weather Interferes...
There's another issue, and that is weather. If a rainstorm is going to be hitting that weekend (not unlikely in March), we may make a last minute switch to a dry, clear location in the Mojave Desert (this last second switch has happened before, with a good trip still had by all).. What's certain is that the class WILL happen and WILL happen on March 13-15, with pre-trip meeting on the previous March 7 on campus.
Assuming we can camp near SETI and get into Mt Lassen... The skies here are among the darkest in California, and we'll be able to study the star formation regions, star clusters, giant molecular clouds, and globular clusters which dominate the summer evening sky as we face the center of our Milky Way Galaxy from our sun's vantage point near the outer edge.
Schedule:
March 7 9am - We'll meet at room 705 or next door in 706 for our pre-trip logistics meeting, and first lectures on astronomy. Prime logistics to settle are distribution of maps, helping you get into carpools, meals planning. Again, I STRONGLY urge you to have me cook for you and buy your breakfasts and dinner food and prepare it for you. It really helps with group cohesiveness and provides a place for us all to learn and bond together! You'll be responsible for your own transportation. I'll be driving a Cabrillo (small) van which will be packed with our astro gear, and also have my student assistant and gear. However, during our day excursions we'll have room to include at least some of you in the van for our explorations.
Friday night Mar 13 - meet at Cave Campground as soon as you can, hopefully by 5pm (or elsewhere if weather dictates - we can discuss that at the pre-trip meeting March 7, and also by email after that). I really deeply sincerely hope we have at least one or two cars who want to arrive early, like Thursday, and grab campsites for us. I think 5 sites ought to be enough, or even just 4. We'll take what we can get. Sites are $10/night and there are no reservations possible, hence the desire for advance scouts. Any takers? Let me know soon, to relieve my anxiety!
I'll prepare dinner and we'll try to get that done and cleaned up soon after dark. Then, we'll have out the telescopes and conduct micro-lectures on the planets and objects of the Milky Way. If partly cloudy or mostly cloudy, we'll sit around the campfire (firewood, anyone? I can bring SOME) and I'll entertain with astro fascinating things, especially on the prospects for intelligent life in the universe. I'll bring the 10" computer-controlled Meade LX200 scope, and we're likely to have a 12" Dob as well, and if we're lucky, JP's 17" scope and his enthusiastic tours of the deep objects in the sky.
Saturday: 8:30am - We'll have breakfast ready - my famous French Crepes breakfast! Bring your own utensils and save waste and trees. We'll then carpool about 12 miles to the SETI telescope site and tour the grounds, examine the spooky telescopes, and learn about how SETI is searching for ET's, and the prospects for discovery of ET's. We'll be done and can do a stop back at the campground to pick up your lunches (lunch, remember, and any snacks, are yours to bring. I won't supply these), and we'll then continue on and enter Lassen National Park (map and current road conditions, and snow coverage for California database), and hike around one of the lakes, have mico-lectures on planetary science and volcanism in the solar system as we work our way towards Bumpass Hell's boiling 
fumaroles by late in the day. Study up on the geothermals of Lassen here. We expect scenes like at left. With bad luck, maybe like this. Saturday night we'll cook a group dinner, and then settle in for a night under the stars observing and lecturing on the evolution of stars from birth to death, study Saturn and Mars in the telescope as well as the many objects making up the Milky Way 
Galaxy. We'll have giant 12" and maybe even a 25" Dobsonian telescopes, and a high power Meade 10" scope for planetary nebulae and the evening planets Venus, Mars, and Jupiter..
Sunday: 8:30am: I'll cook you a breakfast of scrambled eggs, and spuds 'n' veges, then head to Subway lava tube, one of the largest and most famous of these strange structures in the world, and continue our lectures of the formation of the Cascades and comparison with volcanics on other planets like Mercury, Mars, and Titan.
Field Notes on Planetary Geology (if your Firefox browser shows funny black diamonds scattered around, then at the top of your Firefox browser window click on view | character encoding | and change to "western")
The group campsite we used at Hat Creek in 2009. Alas, this campground is closed until April |
Regardless of where we are, we'll have campfire talks at twilight, and on into the night if it's cloudy |
Alternatives if Weather Interferes...
There's another issue, and that is weather. Lassen is over 200 miles north, and winter ends later here. If a rainstorm is going to be hitting that weekend (not unlikely in March), we may make a last minute switch to a dry, clear location in the Mojave Desert (this last second switch has happened before, with a good trip still had by all). It's very possible there will be too much snowfall up there closing the road through the Park. I'm working on that now. A prime plan "B" is here. and park info is here.
What's certain is that the class WILL happen and WILL happen on March 13-15, with pre-trip meeting on the previous March 7 on campus.
Rules, Grading, SLO's, Students with Disabilities
OK, final note is that I have all of your emails, and will be emailing you with any updates and important notices, right up to the day we take off. So, do check your email regularly as we get close, and be SURE to be at the pre-trip meeting - important information and logistics will be happening there.
Student Learner Outcomes
1. Infer the volcanic processes which produce the various landforms at an active volcano, and contrast with planetary landforms on the other inner planets.
2. Compare optical and radio telescopes and connect how and why the SETI Project looks for signals from extra-terrestrial civilizations via radio astronomy technology.
