Amita Manandhar
The PawPrint
As a new student in Adams State University, I had no idea what all the hype was about the planetarium. Last Saturday was the first time I had visited the planetarium, before that day I just used to watch the place from outside. Occasionally I saw few people walking around the dome, but I was never really interested in knowing what lied inside that dome.
So last week the planetarium had its grand opening and I went and paid a visit to the planetarium. To tell you the truth, I did not go there to watch the shows. I was there in order to get some information so that I could write a news story about the event for the campus newspaper.
However, I ended up watching a four o’ clock show about the Interstellar Boundary Explorer project. Several many people from the Alamosa community had come to watch the show with their families. One of the children was so excited and he was asking his dad to stay till the end and watch all the shows.
When I entered the theatre hall I was confused at first. Then I remembered reading the news article about the full dome projector. So I just grabbed a seat and started staring towards the dome.
Finally, we had a little information about the show and show etiquette. Then the lights were off, and all of a sudden I was transported into the space. The projection of the visual effect in the dome made it look so much more real. For a moment I felt like I was in a spaceship, the motion of the stars and the darkness of the theatre hall made it very realistic.
All the children around me were lifting their hands up as if they were trying to reach out and touch the stars and planets. I don’t know why but every time a planet like sphere rolled into the screen, the children were specifically mentioning one planet’s name “Pluto.” I wondered why they did that; then I thought maybe they must really like Pluto.
The show itself was very informative and informed us a lot about the solar system. I was surprised to know that the solar winds actually help protect our world. Before watching that show I always thought solar winds were harmful. The only thing that bothered me about the show was the scene where two students were presumably chatting with each other in their laptops. However, both their laptop had a black screen.
After the show ended, we were introduced with our galaxy’s constellations. Then we were transported into planets Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and their moons. It was interesting to learn facts about the planets and their moon.
All in all it was a great show, and the planetarium is one of its kinds. It was a great experience and I am glad I went in. Being in there was like traveling in the space without a spaceship, no wonder the children wanted to sit and watch all the shows.
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