by Pierre Chastenay
The Planétarium de Montréal has a brand-new show for four- to six-year-olds: Draco, the Celestial Dragon. Draco is scheduled to play in French and English until at least June 2006. The show has been running strong since it opened, and Draco’s future looks bright. The Planétarium de Montréal special show for the winter holidays, Season of Light, also opened in mid-November. In addition, the staff is currently adapting a show from Chicago's Adler Planetarium, Clouds of Fire: The Origin of Stars. Louie Bernsteinis in charge of this project, which includes translating the text from English and recording the narration in French. Clouds of Fire will open at the end of January and will be shown Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. Contact: Pierre Chastenay at chastenay@astro.umontreal.ca
The Manitoba Planetarium celebrated the close approach of Mars with a series oftelescope observing sessions, a planetarium program, and a science galleryexhibit. The planetarium show focused on the observations of Mars through telescopes and spacecraft in the past, present, and future, while the exhibit looked towards potential human exploration of the Red Planet.
The Planetarium staff is also involved in producing a new program to open in February 2006 which aligns with the Grade 9/Senior 1 science curriculum. Contact: Scott Young at scyoung@manitobamuseum.ca
In Calgary, the TELUS World of Science presented a series of nightly Marswatch live lectures in the Discovery Dome theatre during the two weeks surrounding the close approach of Mars at the end of October and early November. These nights followed a successful format established in the past with special astronomy and space events, where a locally-produced live presentation was coupled with either night sky viewing, or a NASA-TV feed. In this case, the Observing Deck was opened up after the lecture for viewing of Mars though the big 8-inch refractor and smaller telescopes. In total, about 500 people attended during the two-week period. Through late 2005 the principle production work in Calgary was devoted to a new federally-funded planetarium show about astrobiology, tentatively titled Is Anybody Out There? This joint production among the planetariums in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal is being written and coordinated by the Calgary theatre. In addition, November saw the official ground-breaking for a new “wing” to the science centre to be called the Creative Kids Museum. Opening in late 2006, the “CKM” will be a children’s museum with an emphasis on artistic skills. Contact: Alan Dyer at alan.dyer@calgaryscience.ca
For the fall of 2005 production work at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre included the creation of a new presentation for the science demo theatre (Ground Station Canada), entitled “Space: A Dangerous Place.” As a complement to a new planetarium show “Going to Extremes,” school groups are offered a program package consisting of a planetarium show, science demo, and/or a related workshop. “Space: A Dangerous Place” focuses on the extreme nature of the environment of space by examining the need and function of a space suit. Students build marshmallow people which are subjected to a vacuum chamber. To simulate the use of a space suit, a sealed jam jar is used to protect a marshmallow person inside the vacuum chamber, while a second marshmallow person is left unprotected to demonstrate the need for a space suit. Students also learn how water-cooled underwear protects astronauts from the extreme temperatures of space. Contact Erik Koelemeyer at ekoelemeyer@hrmacmillanspacecentre.com