Four major planetariums in Canada are busy this spring completing work on the first planetarium show to be jointly produced across Canada, and one that will help promote Canadian astronomy. The Quest for Origins/La Quete des Origines will open in late May at the Montreal Planetarium, Manitoba Planetarium, Calgary Science Centre, and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (Vancouver) in a co-ordinated national opening. The 35-minute multi-media program, produced in French and English, takes CASCA's Long Range Plan as a starting point to explore current and coming research into the origins of stars, planets, and galaxies. The program highlights Canadian projects and observatories along the way.
Each of the show's four main segments is introduced through a videotaped appearance of a Canadian astronomer working in that field, and we thank Doug Johnstone, Rene Doyon, Rene Plume, and Christine Wilson for their tremendous help and terrific on-camera skills. Scenes for our theatres' panoramic projection systems were shot on location at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory last autumn and on Mauna Kea in February. The music and soundtrack is being prepared by Donovan Reimer, a professional composer in Edmonton, while well-known astronomical space artist Don Davis is creating original computer animations of proto-galaxies and early star formation sequences. Science writer Ken Hewitt-White researched and wrote the script.
The project has been made possible through a grant from the Museums Assistance Program of Heritage Canada, with each facility contributing many person-months of staff labour, in the form of video animations, original artwork, image processing, video editing, and production co-ordination. We hope CASCA members, friends and family will be able to take in the show at the Manitoba Planetarium sometime during CASCA 2004 this June in Winnipeg.
Alan Dyer
Calgary Science Centre
alan.dyer@calgaryscience.ca
(403) 268-8331