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WinterFest – Day 2

December 21 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

$24 Adults, $19 Children (2-12) and Seniors (65+)

Members get in FREE

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Pack your mission gear and prepare for liftoff! Your winter adventure begins at the Chabot Space Station, where frozen frontiers await! Step through the portal and prepare to journey across some of the coldest, most captivating worlds in the cosmos: the ocean-covered moon Europa, the dazzling ice plains of Pluto, and a mysterious icy exoplanet orbiting a distant star. 

 

Ongoing Experiences

 

10AM – 5PM | NASA Ames Visitor Center 

NASA Ames will be popping up at the Center.

 

10AM – 4PM | Mezzanine 

Boo Bubbles uses dry-ice fog to create ghostly bubbles that mimic the extreme cold and thin atmospheres of frozen moons like Europa and Enceladus, inviting visitors to imagine icy, hidden-ocean worlds. 

 

10AM – 4PM | Mezzanine 

Planetary Cyro Chemistry with the pH of Dry Ice Demo – The pH of Dry Ice demo turns sublimating CO₂ into a color-changing wonder, revealing how carbonic acid forms and transforming liquids into vibrant hues reminiscent of dynamic chemistry on icy worlds. 

 

10AM – 4PM | Studio 3 

Icy Orbs invites visitors to examine mysterious frozen spheres and imagine their origins, sparking creative stories about distant exoplanets where extreme cold, shifting surfaces, and unusual chemistry shape alien worlds. 

 

11AM – 2PM | Upper Rotunda 

Pacific Face Painting – Ready for some extra sparkle? Stop by our face-painting area and let Pacific Face Painters transform your favorite characters, creatures, and colors into wearable art for all ages. 

 

12– 5PM | Observation Deck 

SMAX – A pop-up and test kitchen that focuses on creatively assembled sandwiches and treats served by Paris and Joog, two friends from San Francisco and Vallejo. 

 

3 – 5PM | Studio 3 

SIPREME Hot Chocolate – Stop by SIPREME Chocolate of Alameda for a steaming cup of out-of-this-world hot chocolate, right outside of Chabot’s historic telescopes! The perfect beverage for chilly nights staring up at the heavens! This is no ordinary hot chocolate — it’s made with shaved chocolate bar, giving it added richness and depth. Four fabulous flavors will be available in either 2% or oat milk. For more information about SIPREME, visit www.sipremechocolate.com.   

 

 

Timed Activities 

 

10:30AM – 10:50AM,  11:30AM – 11:50AM,  2PM – 2:20PM | Theater 

Icy Worlds Mission Briefing  – Join our educators in the theater for an orientation on icy worlds throughout the solar system and beyond. Take this knowledge along as you embark on the rest of Winter Fest to find icy experiments, winter crafts, and so much more! 

 

12:30 PM-1:15 PM | Theater 

Extraterrestrial McFlurries: Icy worlds in our solar system and beyond! Join astrobiologist Julia DeMarines, for a grand tour on the coolest places in and beyond the solar system and what it means for life out there.  

Julia DeMarines is an Astrobiologist working as a senior scientist on evolutionary intelligences for data security in the age of AI. She is a National Geographic Explorer and Educator. Her research involves detecting life in space through biosignatures and technosignatures, and the ethics of sending messages to contact aliens. 

 

3:30 PM-4PM | Theater 

Holiday Laser Show – Light up the night with our full-dome laser show featuring holiday classics! 

 

1:30 PM-2:15 PM | Planetarium 

Live Zeiss Show: Solstice Sky – Join us for a guided tour of the wintertime night sky. Discover this winter’s constellations and planets, and learn what “the Solstice” is all about.  This is a live planetarium show presented by Eastbay Astronomical Society members John Currie and Gerald McKeegan. 

 

12–12:30 PM, 1–1:30 PM, 3-3:30 PM | Portable Planetarium 

Solar System Adventures: Frozen Worlds – Join Josh Roberts from Astro Everywhere on a live tour of the icy worlds of our solar system. See moons, ice giants and minor planets up close and personal in the Portable Planetarium!  

Astro Everywhere brings the astronomy to YOU! From breaking astronomy headlines to telescopes or a planetarium at events, Astro Everywhere tries to connect Bay Area audiences with the night sky and the universe beyond it. 

 

11:30AM – 12:30PM, 2:30PM – 3:30PM | Lab 2 

Add-On Workshop: Gingerbread Rovers – Put your engineering skills (and your sweet tooth) to the test in our Edible Mars Rover Lab! Learn about the real rovers exploring Mars, then design and build your own gingerbread decorated version using graham crackers, frosting, and other delicious materials. It’s a fun, creative workshop that combines science, engineering, and holiday cheer all in one tasty mission. 

11:30AM 2:30PM

 

10:45AM – 11AM, 12:45PM – 1PM, 2:45PM – 3PM, 3:45PM – 4PM | Amphitheater 

Snow Fall – Head to the Amphitheater to catch some snowflakes as we transform Chabot into an icy winter wonderland! 

 

2PM – 4PM | Studio 2 

Miraculous Weekend – Live music in AstroLight! 

Miraculous Weekend is a 5-piece modern Americana and Bluegrass string band (Drew Thomas on upright bass, Jordan Klein on banjo, Zac Mathews on mandolin, and Mike Sinclaire and Alex Spector on guitars).  Based in Oakland and Marin, tight vocal harmonies and an at time frenetic energy are hallmarks of this group of friends. 

 

NEW Planetarium Show!

SPACETIME

Telescopes built to detect electromagnetic waves, like visible light, infrared, radio waves, and other forms, give us the ability to see objects and events at great distances in the universe, and far back in time. Today, a new type of instrument, the “gravity wave telescope”, is giving us the power to “hear” cosmic events beyond the sight of ordinary telescopes. Gravity waves are ripples in spacetime created by events like collisions between black holes, and powerful processes that took place in the earliest times of our universe.
The Dutch Black Hole Consortium is currently building an enormous underground gravity wave detector, called the Einstein Telescope. When completed, this instrument will provide unprecedented insight into the nature of the universe and its origin, allowing scientists to probe cosmic secrets that light waves cannot illuminate.

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