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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - May 2005 by Katherine Tandy Brown A Heavenly Experience
Opened in March of 2004 on the campus of Big Sandy Community and Technical College, the $2.4 million East Kentucky Science Center and Planetarium has filled its 3,000-sq.-ft. exhibit hall with a wild and wooly Wonderworks show called Ice Age Mammals. Through June 26, you can step way back in time to the trumpeting of a life-sized robotic Wooly Mammoth that’s 14 feet long and 10 feet tall, and towers over a life-sized saber-toothed cat, a giant sloth and a glyptodon. Come on a weekend, and after you’ve played ice age archeologist, you can catch a star show in the 85-seat planetarium. Having progressed way past the old “dots of light stars on the ceiling” technology, this facility is purely state-of-the-art. The centerpiece of the planetarium’s “sky theater,” a GOTO Chronos Star Projector can transform the 40-foot dome with 8,500 optically projected stars representing the night sky at any time or any date as seen from anywhere on Earth. Combine realistic night sky simulation with video, laser graphics, multi-image and movie theater surround sound and you’re in for a total immersion experience. “A planetarium represents the original virtual reality theater,” says Dr. Raymond Shubinski, the facility’s director and a native of Pikeville. “Our equipment projects a fabulous optical sky, as well as the sun, the moon and the planets. So we can do the traditional setting sun and the sky tonight. We create such a realistic looking sky, that when the stars come out, people still go ‘oohh.’ “But with a few clicks of the digital computer, we can take you two thousand years back in time in just a matter of seconds. It’s unbelievably accurate. There are only four of these (Chronos Star Projectors) in the world.” As an example of those time transporting capacities, a holiday planetarium production written by Shubinski, called “Star of Bethlehem,” recreated the exact night sky that the three wise men would’ve seen. On Saturdays and Sundays you can tour the universe as seen from Earth’s orbit via the Hubble Space Telescope’s breath-taking images of nearby objects in our solar system – planets, stars, supernovae, galaxies and black holes. Stay later on Saturday night and groove on either the 7:30 or 9 p.m. laser light shows. The center’s exhibit hall was styled as an art gallery and though exhibits change regularly, a 155-pound iron meteorite is one permanent display. “I think people come to places like this because they want to see stuff, and we have a lot of stuff,” laughs Shubinski, a Pikeville native. “Hands-on exhibits are great but they’re nothing like the real thing…. We have enough here to keep a school group busy for three to four hours. We do a fabulous electricity show with kids.” Those groups are flocking to the center and its 1,000-sq.-ft. demonstration classroom, with equipment to bring the science lab experience in biology, ecology, physics, chemistry and astronomy to life and, says Shubinski, actually make them fun. Programs run the gamut from microscope know-how to backyard fossils to the intricacies of light. School planetarium offerings target specific grade levels. For instance, the popular “Cowboy Astronomer” program, narrated by cowboy poet and humorist Baxter Black, is a laser-enhanced star show featuring constellations, star lore and cowboy tales for grades three through seven. If a class can’t take a road trip, the center’s outreach program has a mobile observatory, complete with high-quality, computer-driven telescopes and up to 40 different hands-on, interactive activities. Other features of this educational treasure include professional development workshops for teachers, classroom curricula with learning modules and a terrific Web site with updated science news, science fun at-home exercises and an Ask a Scientist feature for any questions about any facet of science. Should one of the center’s star shows inspire you to seek out the real thing, book a lodge room or cottage nearby at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, deep in the Appalachians on 1,100-acre Dewey Lake. “So many of us live in places where it’s hard to see the sky,” says Shubinski, “that the planetarium is almost becoming a surrogate for the real experience.” Find out about East Kentucky Science Center’s planetarium shows, hours, upcoming exhibits and educational programs at www.wedoscience.org or call (877) 889-0303. For info on Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, call (800) 325-0142.
Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2005, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2005, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Looking for the perfect escape from summer’s heat? Just pack up the kids and head to Prestonsburg to cozy up to some sizeable critters from the last ice age. And while you’re there, you just might learn a thing or two about a few heavenly bodies.
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