As construction on the International Dark Sky Discovery Center approaches completion later this year, Dark Sky Preservation organized the annual Dark Sky Festival taking place on March 29.
This year’s event was highlighted by keynote speakers with local roots. NASA Astronaut Dr. Chris Birch is a Valley native with family members living in the Verde Communities. Naturalist Amy Burnett is a former Fountain Hills resident and ranger at McDowell Mountain Regional Park before working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department as Information and Education Program Manager.
Birch was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in 2021 and reported for duty in early 2022 for two years of extensive training. She spoke to a standing-room crowd in the Community Center ballroom estimated at more than 500. Birch had a slide presentation describing what it was like on the International Space Station orbiting 250 miles above earth at more than 17,000 miles per hour.
