TRI-LAKES AREA — Is there anything as wondrous as looking at the planets and stars? As someone who grew up in the Space Age, I have always been fascinated with the night sky.
One of my favorite memories is going to an observatory in 1994. We parked away from the hilltop telescope and walked through the woods, illuminated only by a little moonlight. You don’t carry a flashlight near an observatory. Through a gate, the woods ended, and there was the iconic view of a dome, with a slice opened to the sky.
That night, 20 pieces of a comet hit Jupiter. There were monitors around the buildings showing the view from the 16-inch telescope, but you could also stand in line and take a turn at the telescope’s viewfinder.
From about 400 million miles away, it wasn’t fireworks, but seeing a hole larger than North America darken the gas giant’s bands of color was impressive.
The best way to see the stars is to go indoors to a place where state-of-the-art projectors cast a computer-generated image on a huge ceiling and reproduce our view of the universe in air-conditioned comfort.
Don’t think that is a cynical comment. I just enjoy the way a planetarium improves the experience. The planetarium in the Reynolds Science Center at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia has opened for four shows, one in each month for the remainder of the year.
There is also a lot more than stars. The projector system that was installed in the planetarium last year also shows pictures and video over the entire 360-degree screen, which seems to put you inside the picture. The programs are called an immersive experience. Planetarium operators can single out one planet or star in the sky and bring it closer until it fills your field of vision. Add narration and music, and you have a show that can be as dramatic as it is educational.
The first presentation of the season will end tonight. It follows the missions of the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes that explored the outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune over a period of 10 years.
The next show, Light Years From Andromeda, will begin Thursday, Oct. 14. Jim Duke, planetarium manager at HSU, said the program is an “interesting look at how early man perceived the heavens.”
That’s a good lead-in to November’s program, Stars of the Pharaohs, a spectacular show about how the ancient Egyptians used the stars to calculate the year, predict the seasons and even work the placement of the sun and stars into their buildings.
The last program, Season of Light, traces the stories behind some of the familiar holiday traditions. It also includes information on how the movement of stars and planets, seen from Earth, might cause a sight like the Star of Bethlehem.
Tickets to the planetarium are only $3 for the general public. It would be worth a trip to see the stars.