One more thing about the black holes planetarium show: the producer, Tom Lucas, emailed me, telling me I was remiss in not mentioning that the show is being distributed by the venerable Spitz company (they were the makers of the good ole planetarium ball projector you see in older venues). They also have a trailer for the show online, and it’s pretty cool.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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February 3rd, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Phil,
Have you ever checked out http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/ ?
The First One is a bit long winded but the idea is good. I notice you say “I like reality the way it is” and the FSM has been chosen as the Church’s optional diety.
so here’s to keeping it real; really good work this week Phil.
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:56 pm
No offense, but a 20Meg download for just over a minute worth of trailer is a bit too much (MPEG, 320X176). Solely judging on the size I was expecting a bit more…
Anyway, it looks quite interesting. When is it coming to Europe?
February 4th, 2006 at 9:53 am
You should’ve just downloaded the wmv version Casper. It’s only 8 megs.
February 4th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Maybe i keep missing the answer, but is this going to be playing anywhere near the Bay Area in the near future?
February 4th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Distribution of the show is not set yet. We want it to go everywhere, but the Bay Area is a priority for us. Stay Tuned.
February 4th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Well, since the London planetarium is closing this summer, it won’t be coming here… although the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is building a new one which should be open sometime next year.
One way or another, I’ll get you to the ROG…
February 4th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Hi, BA,
hope you’ll excuse teh non-sequitur, but have you seen the latest about UB-313 (aka “Xena”) in Nature? It claims radiowaves prove Xena is substantially larger than Pluto.
February 8th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Extreme kayaking there…
Looks good. Hope it comes to Burke Baker Planetarium.
February 8th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Deutch, the 24-year old journalism major and Bush-Cheney campaign
worker, has now been forced to resign after it was revealed he lied
on his resume and never had that journalism degree since he
never graduated.
February 10th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
You have to remember that there are not that many planetariums that can show a show like this. Your local planetarium would have to be equppied with a “Full-Dome” video system. There’s about 6 dozen such theaters in the country. For a directory of these theaters see: http://www.lochness.com/lfco/lfco.html
Note also, a show like this can be very expensive, and if you really want your local planetarium to show this you may have to offer a hand fundraising!
February 11th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Kevin Conod Says:
You have to remember that there are not that many planetariums that can show a show like this. Your local planetarium would have to be equppied with a “Full-Dome†video system…
Yee ha!
“SPICE automation. First fulldome system in the U.S.”-Burke Baker, Houston
Note also, a show like this can be very expensive, and if you really want your local planetarium to show this you may have to offer a hand fundraising!
Umm, they can use the money that was given to fix the observatory that they wrongfully allocated to the general fund. :-0