ICY SCIENCE: SCIENCE SPACE ASTRONOMY Spring 2014 | Page 7

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I must admit that from the moment they see the dome from the outside (many believing it’s a bouncy
castle!) to when you give them the talk on how to enter the dome (makes it look like you are swimming)
down to instructions on how and where to sit. You have them in a trance.
Sitting in a dark room with either a space picture of project of stars over their heads ignites curiousity and
the feeling of expection straight off (you don’t know what Is going to happen). As a general rule I try to use
a nice NASA space picture, sometimes of the Earth as a means of at least providing some light for when
people enter the dome. IF pitch black they cannot easily see where they are going.
You try to advise them too that there is expensive equipment as they enter. To be honest you could buy a
singing and dancing brand new family car for the cost of the setup.

That said though the Moment the
Planetarium software fires up and
those stars are on the dome and
start moving the wow factor starts
to kicking in.
Starting with the rotation of the
sky to show how the sky would
look that night and whats up in
the night sky.
Begin then a tour of some of the

ICY SCIENCE | QTR 2 SPRING 2014