Christmas Planetarium Shows

School is back in session, and the Museum's holiday hours and educational programming are all wrapped up.  It was a successful holiday season this year. The weather was cooperative, and we had great attendance.  I like the holidays, because it means I get to do some extra programming with the visitors.  Normally, I work with schools or other places who have hired me for some special program, but it has been a few years since I've worked regularly with the general public.  It is important to work with students, but part of our mission at the Museum is to reach the whole community.  The opportunity to reach out to the parents, grandparents, and other visitors is a chance to get them "turned on" to science!

During this year's holiday season I worked on three educational projects.  Two were planetarium shows and one was a comical science skit about dinosaurs.  In this post I will write about the planetarium shows, and discuss the skit in a later post.

"Santa's Sky" planetarium title slide

Santa's Sky Planetarium Show:  This is a children's planetarium show that lasts for approximately 20 minutes.  The idea is to use the planetarium's star projector to show the night sky from both Syracuse, NY and the North Pole.  I teach people how to find a few of the major constellations in Syracuse, and then we use the planetarium's latitude feature, to follow the north star until it stops directly above our heads at 90 degrees.

So what is different between viewing the stars at the North Pole and Syracuse?  Well for one thing, the sun doesn't rise for half the year.  This means you can watch the stars day and night for several months at a time.  I mentioned that the north star, Polaris, is right above your head.  Since this is just about the center point above the North Pole, and the Earth is constantly rotating, it appears that Polaris stays right above your head while all the other stars parade in a circle around the sky.  It reminds me of a carousel.  Sure, the north star appears to stay in one spot when viewed from Syracuse, but because it looks lower in the sky from Syracuse many of the other constellations rise and set with the seasons.  Pretty cool huh?  I like to mention to the families at the show that if you learn the constellations you can use them to navigate.  And if a certain someone needed to make his way around the world, he could do it at night by following the stars.  Before I bring the lights back up and send everyone on their way, I play some relaxing music on my Native American style flute while they watch the carousel of stars above their heads.

St. Matthew from the Ebbo Gospels

The Christmas Star - This is one of the planetarium shows I'm most proud of, and most cautious about.  It is a 40 minute show, which is mostly a slide show lecture on different theories about what the Star of Bethlehem might have been.  Was it a comet, a planetary conjunction, or a supernova?  During the show I take a look through the Gospel of Matthew to review the story about the "star" and find clues about when it occurred and what it may have been.  This is my third year performing this show.  When I first researched it, I read through sources on the internet, traveled out of state to see a lecture on the topic, and read a great book that became my best source.  The book is Michael Molnar's "The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi."  I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic.  What makes the book so great is that Mr. Molnar did a lot of work searching through ancient sources in an attempt to understand the astrology practiced by the "wise men."  The rules to ancient astrology are more complicated than you might expect, but he is able to find a day in 6 BC when the stars align in a way that may have signaled a birth of the King of the Jews.  Before next year's shows come around again, I plan to read Courtney Robert's "The Star of the Magi: The Mystery that Heralded the Coming of Christ."  She doesn't offer an exact date like Molnar does, but apparently she makes a good case that he and other's need to be looking to ancient Zoroastrian astrology instead of Greco-Roman astrology.

Possible date of Jesus' birthday. 
I made this image using Stellarium and Photoshop.

All the research I've done has been interesting to me personally, but what I like most about the planetarium show is that it reaches out to a community that sometimes has a complicated relationship with science.  Many Christians feel threatened by science.  Some worry that science leads to a world view that doesn't include God.  Another problem is that scientific discoveries and theories disagree with a literal interpretation of parts of the Bible (Creation in 6 days, Adam & Eve, Noah's Flood).  Some people will never find a way to reconcile their beliefs with science, but I think a lot of this bad blood is unnecessary, and may come from a poor understanding of what science really is.  In performing this show, my intention is to show respect for the Bible and the story of Jesus' birth while also introducing a historical and scientifically minded approach when interpreting it.  I hope this approach makes sense to the audience, and helps them to feel a little more comfortable with science.

Michael Molnar's
"The Star of Bethlehem"

Overall this has been a very positive experience.  If you work at a planetarium, you might be considering writing this type of show for yourself.  Maybe you are wondering about the appropriateness of the topic in a science museum?  Maybe you aren't sure what the response will be.  My opinion is that as free-choice science educators it is up to us to reach into the cultures of the communities in our area and find ways to connect.  Be very clear and upfront about your intentions with your audience.  Let them know what your goal for the show is and how you intend to accomplish it.  Don't discuss your personal belief or disbelief during the show.  Let the audience make their own conclusions about the content.

If you have done any research into the Star of Bethlehem or the Magi, I would love to read about it.  Or if you've given or attended similar presentations, I would be most appreciative to hear about your experience.  You can leave your thoughts with the blog's comment option.

Learning Constellations: Its not too hard... really

Ursa Major (Can you find the Big Dipper?)

During every planetarium show there is this special moment when the lights dim and the stars appear on the domed ceiling.  Apart from a few young children who are afraid of the dark, this experience is exciting and memorable for almost everyone in attendance.  I say this because each time I bring the stars out I can hear the response in the audience.  In the dark, when identities become anonymous, they aren’t afraid to let out gasps of amazement and wonder.  These sounds continue as I use a laser pointer to draw constellation patterns above their heads.  I believe that planetariums and a good starry night are inherently interesting for most people of just about all ages.  Even so, most guests I meet never make it past learning how to find the Big and Little Dippers. 

“Why is that?” I’ve wondered many times.  I remember back when I was in High School and I wanted to learn the constellations.  My friend and I went out to the baseball field a few times and lay in the grass looking up at the stars.  I don’t think we got past learning the Dippers either.  At least I know I didn’t.

It seems to me that learning constellations appears too hard.  I’m here to say that it is not.  When I am training people in the planetarium, it only takes a couple hours for them to learn a number of constellations.  Sure they have to refer back to pictures to double-check later, and maybe some constellations stick while others don’t, but my point is that it might not be as hard as you think.  Especially with free programs like Stellarium (www.stellarium.org), learning constellations has never been so easy.

There are 88 official constellations.  Wow, that seems like a lot doesn’t it?  How could anyone learn that many?  The good news is that you don’t have to.  Learning just a few constellations is all you need to go out on a clear night and feel good about yourself.  There may be 88 constellations, but a bunch of them are for the folks on the other side of the equator to worry about, and many others are seasonal, so you don’t have to worry about them until their season.  I recommend starting with a few circumpolar constellations.  These are the ones closest to the North Star, and because of that they never set (depending on where in the Northern Hemisphere you are).  These will always give you a good idea about what you are looking at in the north.  Each season has some good beginner constellations which I find easiest to look for in the eastern and southern skies.  This means you only have to learn a few at a time throughout the year in order to start becoming comfortable.  Once you get to know them, some will pop out every time, looking obvious; while others will still give you trouble.  Below is my list of some of the best constellations to start with.

Circumpolar:  Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper), Draco

Fall:  Perseus, Cassiopeia

Winter: Orion, Taurus the Bull

Spring: Leo the Lion

Summer:  Scorpius, Sagittarius, Cygnus (Summer Cross),