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Twice a week, community members and college students go out to the Pretlow Planetarium for a show of the night sky. A while ago, my friend and I read the University Announcements and discovered this piece of information, so then we decided to head out and see what it was all about for ourselves.
The show started at 7 p.m., but we arrived a little early to explore. Throughout the entranceway of the Pretlow Planetarium, there are pieces of rocks from outside of this earth that are gorgeous and fascinating. They have little cards that tell you what each rock is, where it comes from and a little bit about it.
Then we went inside the dome and chose our spots for some astronomy trivia before the show. When we could not figure out the answer, the man running the show helped us out and taught us about the sky in general. Families and children came as well to watch the show.
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The lights went out and there was a gorgeous laser show about Perseus and Andromeda, teaching about the names of the constellations in an engaging, kid-centered way. The laser lights were absolutely breathtaking. The brilliant lines of colors lit the black and mesmerized the entire audience. They illustrated characters and places, forming images with such pure and brilliant color that was unparalleled to anything I had seen before.
Following the light show, it was time to look at the sky. Projected across the dome, the audience was led to a discovery of our solar system. We looked at what the night sky above us right then was and saw the constellations we learned about in the video before looking at other famous constellations. After covering what was in the sky right now, we saw the change that the sky took over seasons and looked at the other planets in our solar system. It was fascinating to see the sky from other planets perspectives and see how different it would be.
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Freshman Ashley Mazza said, “I have never seen anything like that before. It was very enjoyable learning about the different planets and constellations.”
Questions were encouraged and readily answered by showing different parts of the sky.
This fall, the shows are every Monday and Thursday at 7 p.m. They are not only doing light shows but also having a couple different bad movie nights, Be sure to check out what interests you at their website.
Please note that there are no bathrooms in the Pretlow Planetarium and not only is it unsafe to leave in the pitch black, but very distracting to everyone else, so make sure you finish texting and any other business before attending the show.