High Tech Planetarium Show in Dormant Fire Performing Arts Center

On March 22nd, 2018, I attended the Planetarium Show at Vincent Science Center in Slippery Rock PA. It started with a cool aesthetic and mellow music. It had a very Hotel California by the Eagles vibe going. The colors were much brighter than I anticipated and the visuals of different structures and drawings engulfed the room. Then, it transitioned into a story about the dawn of man. It went through underwater species leading into reptiles walking on earth. Charles Darwin would’ve been proud. The transition into dinosaurs and the asteroid hitting earth was awesome. The dinosaurs looked so realistic. There was a caveman, which I captured, playing guitar and walking with all the various animals on earth. It was as if every animal on Noah’s Arc was walking with man, who was carrying a guitar ready to riff his way into the new era of time. There was a special afterwards on space travel, and the history behind it. Tim Allen narrated about the Russians and United States space race. There were various clips of John F Kennedy speaking on this situation, including the infamous, “We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.” Tim Allen went on to talk about 30 teams across the earth that were competing for a Google prize. Penn State created a rover called Lunar Lion that they hoped to get to the moon, and win. It has to get to the moon, and travel 500 meters for it to be a success. After that video, there was a new age music video for Rocket Man by Elton John which I thoroughly enjoyed. They even had an astronaut on Mars for the line, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids,” as they moved away from the moon.

It was a newsworthy event because it brought college kids together in a friendly environment, and it was a learning experience from an education standpoint. Also, planetariums are very expensive and are touched on in local newspapers when they are renovated or built. My high school was all over the news for its 6-8 million dollar investment into a high tech planetarium in 2014.

Overall, the planetarium experience was one I won’t forget anytime soon. The visuals were pleasing, and the information about space travel, coupled with the great soundtrack made the entire experience cohesive. Each video meshed into the next, creating a great environment for college students, or anyone interested in space/technology. I interviewed Alex Sharo, a Psych major here at Slippery Rock. “I never imagined myself going to something like this. I’m not the biggest fan of space related things.” He went on to talk about astronomy being interesting to him in high school however, and how the experience was well worth the 40 minutes of his Thursday evening.

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1033449760989642755