HOW DID I MISS THIS LIVING IN TEXAS ALL THESE YEARS?
I’ve been pretty good about looking
for locations for day-trips to do (mostly for when my parents come to visit),
and I’d thought I’d pretty much tapped out the Austin area.
I know there’s a mammoth exhibit up in Waco and an air museum in San
Marcos which were on my list which I hadn’t gotten to yet, but I don’t even
recall hearing about this. I’ve been
good about scanning the visitor centers of various places in order to look for
potential trips, and somehow this one had escaped me.
(As a side note, a similar
planetarium in San Antonio
also somehow was overlooked by me, and I only learned of it when I was finding
my information about this place. Seems
the San Antonio started major renovations in early 2013, and there’s no ETA on
when it’ll even re-open. That day trip I
took to the San Antonio Zoo and Witte
Museum
Thanks to information on Living
Social, Groupon, or such similar site, my co-worker Penny had brought this to
my attention. Considering the major
connections I have now with trying to make the Austin Planetarium a reality, it
made sense to check it out. Sure I’d go
as a tourist, but I could also be scoping out what was done there to gather
information (so when the Austin Planetarium, when built, will put all others to
shame).
I bounced the idea off Bill and
Bobby to see if they wanted to go with me, as they’re also big supporters of
Austin Planetarium, too. (And Bobby is
my partner-in-crime when it comes to the volunteer work we do at the A.P.
offices.) They were game for it, so off
we went.
THE VENUE, AND ALL THERE IS TO SEE
Named after the couple who donated
the money to first create this (Frank and Sue Mayborn), the planetarium is
located on the campus of Central Texas College ,
in the city of Killeen . It’s rather easy to get to, as it was only
about an hour’s drive north from the Austin-Round Rock area. Since we went on a Saturday (and early
afternoon), parking was easy (and free).
The building is a two-story
structure, shaped like an “L,” with a rounded portion in the elbow. The rounded section is the “Planetarium and
Space Theatre.” While there were a few
side rooms, the rest of the building was made up of class rooms which are used
by the college.
The entryway is nicely designed, as
it directs you to the booth to purchase tickets for the shows. There’s some random astronomy facts on the here
and there on the floor, and a central “fountain” which is used to simulate
things being sucked in by the gravity of a black hole. It’s designed for visitors to put their
change into a slot, and watch it spin around for a bit before it vanishes into
the compartment below. A fun way to get
meager donations, but lacking any appropriate scientific explanation.
We got our tickets for two shows
(the first starting a few minutes from now).
As we’d have an hour between the shows we chose, we figured we’d explore
during that time. The auditorium was
nicely designed, with a huge screen overhead.
The chairs could’ve leaned back a little bit more, as I still had to
move my neck in odd positions to see the ceiling portion, and the backs
should’ve been higher to provide support.
The first show was called “Stars,”
and it was narrated by Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker). This gave some good explanation of how a star
is created, and the different types out there.
The program lasted about thirty minutes (which is about right for this
venue). A star field then appeared above
our heads, as the planetarium employee pointed out some of the major
constellations could be seen tonight (as the star field was representing the
current positions for this Memorial Day weekend time period). There were some children in the audience, so
the “Q&A” presentation was nice, as it was interactive. After about ten minutes with the star field,
the show ended with a five minute “space roller coaster” video. This was similar to any “180 Vision” type
theatres I’d been to before, except this was a CGI version of an intense ride
over the volcanic surface of Io (Jupiter’s moon). After it was over (and Bobby mentioned the
vertigo he got from it), we filtered back into the planetarium proper.
We’d planned on having a snack when
we got there, but there was nothing there except some vending machines. Not the normal meal I’d have, but M&M’s
and Mountain Dew (as there was no DP) would hold me.
Next to the space theatre entrance
was an artistic display showing the nine planets. While it did give the distances from the Sun,
and diameters, but there was no attempt at capturing the actual colours of the
various bodies or their respective sizes in comparison to each other. That’s why I said it was an artistic display,
not a scientific one. This hall opened
to the floor above, and the rotunda above that (which had a skylight). The second floor had no exhibits.
We went down each of the hallways
of the wings, as that’s how we knew the rest of the building was
classrooms. There were about a
half-dozen constellations made into the floor.
While they were named, there was no other information presented about
them (nothing tacked on a nearby wall, for example). Again, this was more of an artistic
representation, as opposed to a scientific one.
We made the observations of how not
to have a planetarium. This was a clear
example of someone who donated a huge amount of money because they had an idea
(or a belief, or felt there was a need), and the building was constructed by a
committee who really didn’t know what the end result should be. Sure this was part of a college campus, but
having a café and small gift shop would be a nice thing for visitors (as it
would generate some more revenue). Also,
having other exhibits, things to keep people interested between shows not only
gives them a reason to stay around, but to keep coming back. That ends up generating more proceeds.
The single side exhibit room was
pretty sparse. There were some
informational posters about dinosaurs, a display of rocks and gems which could
be found in the area, a scale to show your weight on Earth, Moon, and Mars,
plus a massive rug with a representation of the solar system. That is what’s in the picture above (and you
can see the mineral display on the wall behind it to see how impressive the
specimens were). There was a large
flat-screen monitor which had short (five-minute) presentations from NASA on
weather and space discoveries, but that was a passive exhibit, as opposed to
something more interactive.
One interesting thing there was
what appeared to be a damaged heat tile from the Columbia
We filtered back out to the lobby
as it was getting closer to the other show we had tickets for. In front of the planetarium’s logo was a metallic
meteorite, so you could “touch a rock from space.” The hands-on portion of this exhibit (no pun
intended) had a red magnet to show how this is a melted hunk of iron. I made sure to get a nice picture of Bobby
and Bill together on this. Of course, my
picture with the rock had to be sufficiently perverted (as I tend to do
off-the-wall stuff). No, I’m not
actually kissing the damn rock; just the angle of the shot creates that
illusion. I was about an inch away from
it. You can be sure _everyone_ has
touched this, so hand sanitizer is a good thing to keep with you for things
like this.
The second show we saw was called
“We Are Astronomers,” which was narrated by David Tennant (the tenth actor to
play Doctor Who). David got to use his
true Scottish accent for a change, which was nice to hear. I found this presentation a bit more
interesting, as it showed some of the different way the stars are viewed,
whether via radio telescopes or something that detects another wavelength. Like the previous one we saw, it was about a
half-hour, and was followed by an explanation of some constellations of the
current sky. As there were fewer people
in the auditorium for this show, the presenter was less interactive (but still
as informative). The space roller
coaster video at the end was a bit more subdued, as it was on one of Neptune ’s icy moons.
I’d told Bobby before that began that he should just shut his eyes if he
was starting to feel any vertigo.
That brought up to 4pm. There were other shows we would’ve liked to
see, but they didn’t start until 8 or 9 o’clock. There was nothing else in the area to justify
hanging around for, and we were starving anyways. (Bill found a good Italian restaurant nearby
for us to consume some much-needed nourishment.)
Still, it was a good day trip, and
the presentations were reasonably priced (it was $30 total for three adults
each doing two shows). Mayborn
Planetarium was close enough that future trips could be made for evening shows. This was geared towards the casual observer,
and pretty “science light,” but it was nice to go.
More information can be found on the places we visited at:
Mayborn
Planetarium: http://www.starsatnight.org/
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