Black Rock City has an airport, a hospital, a post office... and yes, an observatory! For a decade, the Black Rock Observatory has served as a portal to the cosmos, bringing deep space to the desert. Father-and-son Zoom and Robin Newhouse are at the helm of the observatory that houses several telescopes for viewing planets, galaxies, and even our sun. It also offers a museum of meteorites that are billions of years old. The Observatory theme camp serves as an expert nexus: It is home to Space Talks with physicists and professors who are usually only available within academic halls or behind NASA’s walls. They bring these offerings to Burning Man Regional events, festivals, and eclipses worldwide, but they save the observatory structure itself for Black Rock City. They share stories of science and spirituality, and how they garner shared humanity from the cosmic perspective viewable through this lens. And they even have Space Deck tarot cards! They explore awe and expand perspective. It’s the hard work of building and running a theme camp made worthwhile in that single moment of cosmic connection. Listen in and look up!