Katie Carolan

Katie helps run the nightly public observing program at Griffith Observatory, and is Telescope Lead at Black Rock Observatory. She earned a BS in Astronomy from USC and is pursuing a career in astronomy science communication and public engagement. Black Rock Observatory’s mission is to bring Science to Art Festivals and places where it needs champions. There are plenty of talks about the mystic side of our cosmos, but almost none from the modern scientific perspective. Both perspectives are necessary to give participants a holistic understanding of our universe.

Scheduled Workshops

  • A Window to the Universe: Space Telescopes and Cosmic Structures

    45 min | The Summit

    This 30 minute lecture provides a brief history of cosmology (the study of the origin and nature of the universe) and current scientific evidence for dark matter (curious, invisible matter that outweights the well-understood visible matter in the universe). Using creative storytelling and pretty pictures from space telescopes, the lecture is aimed at an audience of curious, intellectual festival participants. This lecture was presented at Burning Man in the official Black Rock Observatory SPACEtalks lecture series.

  • Nebulae's Light: Stellar Nurseries Newly Revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope

    60 min | The Summit

    This 30 minute lecture provides an introduction to stellar formation and evolution (the study of birth of baby stars nearby in our galaxy) and current scientific evidence provided by the James Webb Space Telescope (a brand new telescope, providing unprescedented views of these processes). Using creative storytelling and pretty pictures from space telescopes, the lecture is aimed at an audience of curious, intellectual festival participants. This lecture is brand new, and will be specifically curated to match the 2024 Lucidity festival theme, “Auroras’ Light.” The “transformative moment:” an unasuming cloud of cold gas condenses to birth a bright, hot baby star! The gas cloud is actually the remnants of dead exploded stars of the past–the new star is really made up of countless old stars, “reborn.”