SESDA II Staff Collaborate on Planetarium Show
September 1, 2009
The planetarium show “Journey to the Stars” opened in New York City on July 4, 2009 at the Hayden Planetarium of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, part of the American Museum of Natural History.
Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this show uses NASA imagery and computer simulations to explore the life and death of stars, including our own Sun. SESDA II staff were instrumental in providing images of the solar corona from the STEREO mission, which are used dramatically in the presentation.
Dennis Overbye of the New York Times described “Journey to the Stars” as “easily the most beautiful planetarium show I have ever seen.” Of the part of the show based on the data provided by SESDA II staff, Mr. Overbye says “The filmmakers are not afraid to get in our faces. Showing us the Sun’s corona, the feathery hot gases that extend invisibly except during total solar eclipses far out into space, they pull the Sun down over our heads until it takes up half the planetarium dome squatting over us like a spider with rays fanning out around it, sort of like Doctor Octopus in ‘Spider-Man 2.”
Watch the show at Journey to the Stars.
