New Planetarium Show, “Comets & Discovery” now featured at Bays Mountain Planetarium
KINGSPORT – Were all a buzz about comets. And true to Bays Mountain fashion, weve created a unique show about comets. It is called Comets & Discovery.
The show is much more than a straight narrative about comets. The show takes the viewer on a journey of discovery. We follow two intrepid comet hunters in first-person. One, a modern explorer. The other, Caroline Herschel. The famous 18th century huntress that ruled the skies for many generations. With both, we learn how they each searched the skies, made their discoveries, and reported them for other astronomers to bear out. We also learn about, depending on the century of the observer, what people thought comets were and their importance to them. We are using green-screen technology, 3-D environments, and good ol fashioned still art. Together with a captivating script and sumptuous score, this is a great show for the whole family or school group.
We are also incorporating two live sequences to enhance the learning and fun. The first will be an activity to involve and engage the audience to learn more about the parts of a comet, the path a comet takes, and the dust and ion tails that splay out in their correct directions as the comet orbits the sun. The second sequence will use our Carl Zeiss ZKP-4 star projector to show our current night sky and also focus on comet ISON (C/2012 S1) that will hopefully be a nice comet in the early winter morning sky.
Show length ~40 min.
The show will be great for those 3rd grade to adult.
The show will run up through the end of the year to serve as an educational source for Comet ISON (C/2012 S1). Comet ISON will be at perihelion on Thanksgiving Day, but will be visible in the morning sky for, hopefully, weeks before and after.
Perihelion is when a celestial object makes its closest approach to the sun. ISON will get as close as 700,000 miles from the sun. The sun’s diameter is 865,000 miles wide.
Due to the bright glare of the sun, the comet will not be visible for a few days on either side of perihelion. It is hoped that the comet will provide quite a show for us earthbound spectators, but comets can be quite fickle. They could be great, or they could fizzle. The best way to view this comet will be with binoculars or the unaided eye.