The planetarium has been closed for the month of August, and now they are ready to reopen with a new “full dome” show, “Experience the Aurora.” From planetarium director David Leake: “Winner of two Telly Awards for video production,”Experience the Aurora” shares the science behind the aurora and tells the story of the quest to find and photograph the aurora. Its dramatic images involve high-resolution digital cameras outfitted with fisheye lenses. For the first time, the aurora has been captured as it was meant to be experienced, an immersive display covering the entire sky.”
This will be the inaugural show for the planetarium’s new digital operating system, Digistar 6. According to Leake, “the Digistar 6 system contains new features that will be both visible and “under the hood.” Tools such as auto-align and auto-blend will drastically reduce maintenance time by aligning projectors with the push of a button. Other D6 benefits for planetarium staff include a cloud-sourced STEAM library, a new NOAA Earth database, and a revised user interface. Audiences will be able to view various terrains including Earth and Mars as well as a volumetric Milky Way (i.e., shown more as a physical model than as a flat image).”
“Experience the Aurora” will premiere September 7th and 8th at 7 p.m., and will run every Friday and Saturday through the month of October.