Program Descriptions

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MS-ESS3-5

The Friendly Stars
(pre-school, 4-5 years old; 45-minute program)
Our sun, Sol, takes us on an interactive, entertaining tour of the Sun, Solar System and the daytime sky, and the friendly stars guide us through the night sky. We sing, explore, and laugh our way through this non-threatening introduction to the planetarium and things we can see in the sky.

Did an Asteroid Really Kill the Dinosaurs?
(grades 3-adult, 1-hour program)
Did a space rock slam into the Earth 66 million years ago and wipe out the dinosaurs? Cosmic collisions are abundant in our solar system. See the numerous craters on worlds like the moon, Mars, and even distant Pluto. Explore the dinosaur disaster up close.

Season of Light
(grades 3-adult, 1-hour program)
This delightful multicultural program leads us through the discovery of many basic astronomy concepts as we explore the holiday traditions of several cultures and religions. We’ll also give you a tour of the current night sky, finding planets and constellations. (This program is only available in December)

Cosmic Recipe: Setting the Periodic Table
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
The famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” It’s true! Pull up a chair at our Planetarium’s Periodic Table and learn the cosmic recipes that created everything in our world – even us! Discover how the Big Bang and the stars have cooked up the everyday elements we interact with every day — like the calcium in our teeth, the silicon in our smart phones, and even the carbon in our apple pies. Explore the world of chemistry — the protons, neutrons and electrons! See how tiny atoms relate to the mammoth stars! Connect the physical worlds of the small and large in this engaging and inspiring show.

Cosmic Safari
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets out there orbiting distant stars. Could they harbor life? What might that life be like? In differing environmental conditions, you’ll discover what living creatures might look like on worlds very different from our own. Narrated by John de Lancie, “Q” from TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation, Cosmic Safari transforms scientific theory into exotic worlds filled with fantastic creatures never before imagined. This program supports the 8th grade Amplify Natural Selection unit, and can be combined with a visit to support your unit on the phases of the Moon as well.

Ice Worlds
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
The delicate balance between ice, water and the existence of life has been a topic of scientific inquiry for generations. In travels to the Arctic and Antarctic regions of our planet, we'll examine the ecosystems that exist and thrive there and learn how their survival is connected with our own. Beyond Earth, we'll see how the existence of ice shapes the landscape and the natural systems on other planets and moons in our Solar System. Narrated by Academy Award nominated actress, Emily Watson. This program supports the Amplify 6th grade 6.6 (Ocean, Atmosphere, Climate) and 6.8 (Earth’s Changing Climate) units. You could also arrange for a double feature and participate in the Planetary Energy Revealed program too.

The Sun, Our Living Star
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
The Sun has shone on our world for four and a half billion years. The light that warms our skin today has been felt by every person who has ever lived. It is our nearest star and our planet’s powerhouse, the source of the energy that drives our winds, our weather and all life. The passage of the Sun’s fiery disc across the sky — day by day, month by month — was the only way to keep track of time for countless past civilisations. Don’t be fooled by the terminology; although it is a typical dwarf star, the Sun consumes 600 million tons of hydrogen each second and is 500 times as massive as all the planets combined. Discover the secrets of our star in this planetarium show and experience never-before-seen images of the Sun’s violent surface in immersive fulldome format.

Two Small Pieces of Glass: The Amazing Telescope
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
This film traces the history of the telescope and explores the discoveries made by astronomers over the past 400 years. The setting is a star party, where two teenagers learn about telescopes and astronomy from an amateur astronomer, from the invention of the telescope to today's modern observatories. We also explore the current night sky.

Galileo: The Power of the Telescope
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
This film tells the personal and powerful story of Galileo Galilei, and explores how his discoveries displaced long-held views about the universe. We also explore the current night sky. Learn about his experiments with gravity and laws of motion, how he enhanced the early telescopes, how his observations provided evidence for a Sun-centered model of the Solar System, and more. We also explore the current night sky.

Seeing
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program) Follow the journey of a single photon of light as it is produced in a distant star, across the vast expanse of space to land on the retina in an observer’s eye. This fulldome planetarium show explores some of the fascinating processes of the cosmos, from astrophysics to the biology of the eye and brain. The show is narrated by astronomer and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and is 27 minutes long. Including the introduction to the program, a follow-up discussion, and a brief introduction to the current sky, this program is 1 hour.

The Stargazer
(grades 6-adult, 1-hour program)
Learn about the lives of stars and astronomers as Dr. James Kaler shares his excitement about the fast-moving field of stellar evolution. Nichelle Nichols (Uhura from the original "Star Trek") and Dr. Kaler narrate this personal look at gravity, light, and the spectrum and how they help us, and scientists of the past, to decipher the lifestyles of the stars.

Cosmology
(grades 9-adult, 1-hour program)
What is the structure of the universe, how did the universe begin, and how is it evolving? How do we know all of this? In this program we’ll explore our place in the cosmos, and we’ll delve into the history of astronomy, spectroscopy, Big Bang Theory, cosmic microwave background, and more.

Dark Matter Mystery
(grades 9-adult, 1-hour program)
One quarter of what the universe is made of is something we can't see that we call Dark Matter. We can detect it, but we don't know what it is made of. This film explores one of contemporary Astrophysics' greatest quests, with experiments taking place deep underground and out in space. We also explore the current night sky.

Phantom of the Universe: The Hunt for Dark Matter
Teachers Guide (external PDF) (grades 9-adult, 1-hour program)
This film is an an exciting exploration of dark matter. It reveals the first hints of its existence through the eyes of Fritz Zwicky, the scientist who coined the term "dark matter." It describes its discovery made by Vera Rubin in the Andromeda galaxy, and then plummets deep underground to see the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth, housed in a former gold mine. From there, it journeys across space and time to the Large Hadron Collider, speeding alongside particles before they collide in visually stunning explosions of light and sound, while learning how scientists around the world are collaborating to track down the constituents of dark matter. This film is also available in Spanish.