New Planetarium Show Goes in Depth on Comets
KINGSPORT – Having already been visited by Comet PanSTARRS in March, and expecting a visit from another this winter, were all a buzz about comets. And true to fashion, Bays Mountain Park has created a unique show about comets titled Comets & Discovery.
Comets & Discovery is much more than a straight narrative about comets. The show takes the viewer on a journey of discovery as it follows 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, viewers learn how they each searched the skies, made their discoveries, and reported them for other astronomers to bear out. Viewers also learn about – depending on the century of the observer – what people thought comets were and their importance to them. Comets & Discovery uses a blend of green-screen technology, 3-D environments, and good ol fashioned still art.
The program incorporates 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 the planetariums Carl Zeiss ZKP-4 star projector to show the 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 is about 40 minutes and is great for the whole family; specifically ages 3rd grade to adult.
Comets & Discovery 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 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.
Comets & Discovery can be seen Monday thru Friday at 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., and on the weekends at 1:00, 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. Tickets are $4.00 per person and can be purchased at the gift shop located in the Nature Center.
Annually, more than 150,000 visitors pass through Bays Mountain Park making it one of the State of Tennessees Top 50 Most Visited Attractions, according to the State of Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
One of the nations largest city-owned parks with 3,550 acres, Bays Mountain Park features nearly 40 miles of hiking trails, a state-of-the-art planetarium, wildlife habitats, fun exhibits, a 44-acre lake, ropes course with zip line, trails for mountain biking and much, much more.