Astro 28Z – Field Astronomy at Mono Hot Springs

1. Cheap! The class is cheap! A course like this, with nice home- cooked meals, would cost you $400 in the “real world”, so enjoy your good fortune to be able to do this for about $50 total, including tuition fee for the 1 unit Your camping fee must be paid to the College Bank using the Pay Voucher outside my Office Door. This must be done before you can go. The camping fee is $10. I paid for the 4 camp sites out of my own pocket, and will be reimbursed for those expenses by the College when I turn in the receipts. I’ll be paid out of the “Astro Clearing Account” which receives your payment

Liability Waivers The Dean will not permit this course to go unless I turn in signed waivers from EVERYone, I must do that early this coming week! Anyone missing this pre-trip meeting is subject to being dropped. Anyone not signing the waiver cannot go on the trip, even if they are not in the class Sign the waivers, and keep the front page for yourself (just tear off the top page and keep)

2. Maps! You are responsible for getting yourself to Mono Hot Springs (no yellow school bus!). Think of it like getting yourself to any other class in the morning. No valet service! I have a map packet I’ve prepared, with the suggested route to follow to get there.

It’s 202 miles, and about 4hr 40min of driving. Pretty, but slow in the Sierra, especially the last 12 miles

Campsites We have 2 single, and 1 double site… Site #14 – 6 people, 2 vehicles Site #17 – 6 people, 2 vehicles Site #30 – 12 people, 4 vehicles Excess vehicles will pay the ranger extra, I think it’s $10/car. You can divvy that amongst your fellow campers when the ranger visits us Saturday morning. Site #30 is also our “kitchen”, and probably our astro telescope viewing area as well.

So…. We have 26 students, plus one instructor, 2 volunteers helping in the Kitchen. That’s 29 total We have paid for 8 vehicles total, one of which is the college van I will be driving. The van will have me, my lab assistant, and my kitchen help, and all of our astro and cooking gear and food, and will not have room for other students, alas. I plan to arrive before sunset on Friday

…We’ll Need to Carpool! It’s one of the main tasks for today I’ll now give you time to get to know each other and decide on car pools, exchange phone numbers etc.

Schedule Sept 12 at Sat 9am - 2pm in Room 705 and the planetarium (room 706) Pre-trip meeting. Distribute maps, carpooling, logistics, food, and lecture/planetarium presentation on the formation of the solar system, and star formation. Mandatory if you want a good grade! Sept 18 5pm - Fri evening Arrive at the campground as soon as you can. The central site for us is the dual campsite #30, where the "kitchen" will be and the scopes near the river bank. I'll fix dinner and we'll eat before by the time it's dark at 7pm or so. Then, be ready for Friday night around the telescope, lecture on stars, the summer Milky Way and demonstration of the sun's place within the galaxy. Sept 19 - Saturday 8am: Group Breakfast prep (French Crepes!). 9:45am - Hike to Doris Lake, stopping for "micro-lectures" along the way with chemical composition of the Earth's crust, origin of elements. Lunch - On the cliffs above the lake, with more lectures on the differences between the inner planets geology and planetary evolution. 2 pm - Return to camp, prepare for 2nd hike to Little Eden Spring, (1/2 mile uphill hike). We'll sit in the hot springs (big enough for the whole class if no one else is there). Lectures on the formation and evolution of California and the Sierra. Contrast with that of other planets and the moon. 4 pm - Lecture on cosmology, the origin of the universe at Little Eden Hot Spring. Hike back to camp (about 1/2 mile) 6pm - Dinner prep at camp. Asian rice/vege's a'la Nolthenius! 8:00pm - At the telescopes for more studies; star clusters, galaxies. More explorations of the Milky Way galaxy, showing stars with known planetary systems as a bonus. Sept 20 - Sunday 8am: Breakfast prep, enjoy meal at Campsite #30 9:30am Lecture at the hot springs right across the river, on planetary processes relevant to hot spring formation, and final pages of the handout lecture material on origin/evolution of the inner planets and principles which apply. Distribute final exams with instructions.

What Will We Do? Nice thing about this Astro 28 is there’s no driving once you arrive. It’s just some short hikes We’ll show you the stars, talk about the formation of the planets and the chemical elements that make them up, I’ll have a computerized telescope We’ll do day hikes to Doris Lake, where I’ll discuss planetary processes and how they contrast between planets and to two different hot springs, including Little Eden, perched on a hillside with a panoramic view of the Sierra We’ll talk about the origin of the Universe there too!

Fri night Telescope viewing! (looking out, not in!)

The Veil Nebula

My French Crepes Breakfast Saturday Morning!

What Will We Do?

Lecture at Doris Lake after Saturday Breakfast; about a 2 mile hike to get there

Where I’ll talk about planetary processes

Doris Lake, after our lecture there

After a returnt o camp, A few miles of hiking, a bit of scrambling to get to Little Eden

Little Eden – great lecture spot for Afternoon

Saturday night telescope viewing. Milky Way and the Sagittarius region: star clusters, nebulae, stellar processes and the variety of different stars

You’ll be up till late, up for Breakfast. Rest up before you go!

Pedro Hot Springs is just across the river from our campground, for Sunday morning’s final lecture

Take Home Final The last thing, about noon, we hand out the final exams. These are take-home finals which you complete at home. They MUST be done and printed and snail-mailed or handed in to me. No submissions that I have to print ! Mult choice, and also essay questions. Take notes during the lectures!