Planetarium

Yesterday Nate and I used our new OMSI membership for the first time to take in a couple of shows at the planetarium. We were joined by our space nerd friend who wowed Nate with some of the spacey apps on his iPhone as we waited for the first show to start.

There was hardly anyone there, so we were able to pick out the best seats (as advised by the doorman) under the domed ceiling.

First up:



"Learn about the interesting stories of the constellations and others in this live presentation in OMSI's Kendall Planetarium. It is not just stars everyone can see in the night sky—planets, constellations, zodiac, shooting stars and satellites are all there if you know when and where to look. Navigate by the stars and discover how you can become a backyard astronomer."

It was awesome. Our current local night sky was illuminated above us. The presenter used a laser pointer and zoom to point out different features of the night sky - planets, constellations (with a graphic overlay to show how an abstract grouping of stars can become, for example, a swan), stars of all different sizes and ages. She briefly explained how Polaris is used in navigation which I found interesting - how many thousands of people have looked upon and relied on that star to find their ways across oceans and unfamiliar lands? - the thought of which brings me to cartography which I have always found so fascinating considering the historical absence of the tools we rely on today. She told a few constellation stories and showed how a lot of the characters from the same stories are in the same area of the sky which proves those ancient Greeks spent a lot of time looking up towards their gods.

We liked the first show so much that we decided to stay on for the next one, Journey to the Stars. Here is the trailer:



This one was great as well. The graphics had me a bit motion sick at times which was kind of awesome. Nate let out a few audible "whoa"s as we zoomed through the universe towards interesting stars and nebulae and clusters and galaxies. The narrator (Whoopi Goldberg) talked about the life cycle of our own sun and at that point I was really grateful to have not brought Maya - it stresses her out to consider the sun engulfing the Earth, and she isn't comforted by the assurance that we'll all be long gone by then.

There is currently an Einstein exhibit going on at OMSI, so I can see us returning in the very near future.