Planetarium

Your Question: Is the Moon getting further away?

The short answer is yes, the Moon is getting further away - it is retreating from Earth by 3.8 cm per year.

Close-up of Planet Earth with Moon in background
Image: NASA, JPL
Source: NASA, JPL  
The history of the Moon gives us clues about its future. Over 4.5 billion years ago, a planet-sized body collided with a young Earth. Although most of the impact was absorbed into the still-molten Earth, the collision threw debris into space. A large section of this debris solidified in orbit around Earth and formed our Moon. The Moon has been slowly getting further from Earth since then.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Image: NASA
Source: NASA  
If we were to fast-forward from the impact event to about 1.2 billion years ago (over 3 billion years after the Moon formed), the Moon was still relatively close to Earth; much more so than it is today. As a result, the Moon’s gravitational effect on Earth was greater, and the tides were 20 per cent stronger than they are today. The Moon would have appeared much larger in the sky, although there was no life on earth equipped to see it.

Earth as seen from the Moon, Apollo 8 Mission
Image: NASA
Source: NASA  
If we fast-forward again, this time 600 million years into the future, the moon will have less influence on Earth - ocean tides will be significantly weaker. From Earth the Moon will appear tiny by today’s standards and events like eclipses will no longer be visible.

Got a question? Ask us!

Links:

Moon rocks land at Melbourne Museum

Dynamic Earth: How the Moon formed

I’ve always loved summer – nothing beats the summer holidays, trips to the beach, warm sunshine and lazy summer evenings. But this year it means even more to me, because right now we are putting the finishing touches on a new planetarium show that opens on 26 December.

The summer solstice (22 December) is that day of the year when the Sun's path reaches its highest and longest across the sky. Our new show Tilt is a whirlwind adventure that describes how the seasons work.

In the new show Tilt, Kelvin (the robot) shows Annie and Max the long path of the Sun on the summer solstice.
Image: Melbourne Planetarium
Source: Museum Victoria 

The changing seasons are so important to the way we live our lives. The summer holidays, the changing colours of autumn, the cosiness of winter and the blossoming of spring. And all this happens because our Earth spins on a tilted axis.

Without this tilt our days, year-in and year-out, would be the same. The Sun would always rise due east and set due west. The Sun’s path through the sky would be constant, reaching the same height every day. There’d also be 12 hours of daylight followed by 12 hours of night.

The tilt is what shakes this all up. Most importantly, the tilt varies the direction at which sunlight hits the Earth. Our warm days of summer occur when sunlight beams down most directly because our part of the world is tilted towards the Sun.

So enjoy the summer solstsice and the remarkable difference a little tilt on the world can make.

Links

Session Times for Tilt

The Sun and the seasons

I don’t know about you, but I’m already feeling the pressure of December madness. Really it’s a fantastic time of the year when we catch up with friends, celebrate with colleagues and generally wind things up for the summer. But cramming all this in alongside final deadlines and the Christmas shopping can be a mighty task!

When it all gets a bit too frantic and crazy, there’s nothing like sitting back and taking in the night sky. And this month, there’s even more reason to do so.

This beautiful composition shows the extent of the Earth's shadow. It was taken from Europe, so you might notice that the Moon appears upside down.
Source: Laurent Laveder

During the early hours of Sunday 11th December there will be a Total Lunar Eclipse. We can watch the Moon change colour as it plunges into the Earth’s shadow.  

The eclipse begins at 11:46pm (AEDT) on Saturday 10th December as the Sun, Earth and Moon fall into line. At first, the shadow will appear to take a bite out of the Moon. Then, the Moon will enter full shadow or totality, just after 1am on Sunday morning. It will stay in shadow for 51 minutes, a little on the short side for a lunar eclipse as they often continue for over an hour.

By 2am, the Moon will begin to light up again and it’s amazing how bright that first glimpse can be. At 3.17am all will be back to normal.

The interesting thing about an eclipse is that the shadow isn’t completely dark. The Moon takes on a reddish glow as light travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. Depending on conditions, it can also take on a hint of blue around the edges from light that passes through the ozone layer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

So what might we see during this eclipse? On NASA’s Science news website, atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colarado says:

"I expect this eclipse to be bright orange, or even copper-coloured, with a possible hint of turquoise at the edge."

Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Apparently our atmosphere is nice and clear at the moment. Let's just hope the clouds stay away.

Best to try for this eclipse as we are coming up to some lean years. The next lunar eclipse will be a partial in June 2012. But to see a Total Lunar Eclipse, we'll have to wait until April 2014.

The Moon plunges into the Earth's shadow.
Source: Public Domain

Eclipses are uncommon because the Moon's orbit (shown in green) is misaligned with the Earth's orbit around the Sun (shown in blue). If the Moon and Earth orbited in the same plane, we'd see an eclipse every Full Moon (as well as a solar eclipse every New Moon). But because the Moon's orbit is tilted by just 5 degrees, most of the time the Moon misses the Earth's shadow and moves either above or below it.

So enjoy taking some time out to appreciate the Universe we live in, as long as the weather lets us!

On Wednesday 9 November an asteroid is going to fly past Earth.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft was sent to the Asteroid Belt to obtain close-up images of Vesta.
Source: NASA

But not this one! This is a picture of Vesta, the third largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt, located about 200 million kilometres away. This lovely picture was taken by the Dawn spacecraft, which is currently in orbit around Vesta. It shows what a large asteroid looks like from a distance of just 5,200km.

 Radar image of the near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 when it was 2.4 million km away.
Source: NASA/Cornell/Arecibo

The asteroid that is going to fly past Earth is known as 2005 YU55. This radar image of the asteroid was made last year using the Arecibo Radar Telescope in Puerto Rico. At 400m across this near-Earth asteroid is over 1,000 times smaller than Vesta. Rather than having to send a spacecraft out to it, this asteroid is coming to us.

But there’s no need to go crazy - the closest the asteroid will get is 325,000 km from Earth. That’s just a little closer than the Moon which on average is 380,000 km away. It won’t pose any threat to Earth or have any noticeable gravitational effect. But we should get a great look at it.

NASA scientists will be using antennae from the Deep Space Network to bounce radio waves off the space rock. The data is then used to create a three-dimensional  model of the asteroid and with the asteroid being so close it should provide us with a really detailed image so we can learn more about it.

Hundreds of asteroids have been observed using radar astronomy and the interesting thing is that asteroids can be so different. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with some having very smooth surfaces and others being rough and textured. Radar astronomy can also be used to determine the composition of an asteroid and it's even discovered some asteroid moons.

Most importantly of all, radar astronomy gives us the best insight into an asteroid’s trajectory. That’s how we can work out that this near-Earth asteroid won’t harm us and provides the lead time to prepare for great science observations like this one.

I look forward to the day when astronauts will once again take the leap beyond Earth orbit. Many say that after the Moon, the next step for astronauts should be a near-Earth asteroid. The information that’s gathered now could one day be used to choose just which asteroid we'll be visiting.

Links

JPL’s Asteroid Watch Page

NASA’s Near Earth Object Program

The 6th Science Centre World Congress was held last month in Cape Town, South Africa and the Planetarium's adventurous dog, Tycho, was there to take in all the action.

Special screenings of Tycho to the Moon were held at the Iziko Planetarium throughout the week of the Congress. And it seems that Tycho won the kids' hearts there just as he does here at home.

The audience enjoys Tycho to the Moon in the Iziko Planetarium, Cape Town, South Africa
Source: Sky-Skan

Tycho to the Moon is our longest running show at the Planetarium. It was the first show we produced for the Planetarium's move to Scienceworks. Hundreds of thousands of children have seen the show and we love hearing young Tycho fans lining up for yet another visit to see their favourite dog.

Of course being around for over 12 years, Tycho has had a few necessary modifications. He began life as a brown mutt, adorable but scruffy. The Tycho we're used to seeing today is a bit sleeker and shinier but he never lost his mischievous ways.

All good astronauts need a mission badge and here's Tycho's collection, from his original trip to the present day.
Image: Melbourne Planetarium
Source: Museum Victoria

Three years ago, when the show was converted to the Planetarium's fulldome format, we also took the opportunity to produce a Northern Hemisphere version of Tycho to the Moon. But of course some minor tweaks were needed first.

Since they can't see the Southern Cross over there, Tycho's favourite constellation became the Big Dipper, a prominent and well-known feature of the northern sky. And when the rocket leaves Earth, rather than blasting off from a backyard in Melbourne, we fly above the San Francisco area.

Now you may never have thought about it, but when you change hemispheres the Moon switches from being in the north to the south, as well as turning upside down! So while we see the phases of the Moon growing from left to right, in the northern hemisphere it's the exact opposite. I must admit it made for some tricky moments trying to work with something that's so familiar when you see it in Melbourne but so foreign when viewed from San Francisco.

But wherever he is Tycho still loves to watch for the Full Moon to rise. And when he sees it ... well if you don't know, you'll just have to come visit the Planetarium to find out!

Links

Session times for Tycho to the Moon

How exciting it was to wake up to the news this morning that an Aussie astronomer had won the Nobel Prize for physics. Three cheers to Brian Schmidt and Australian science!

Brian Schmidt, professor of physics at the Australian National University, shares the prize with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”

Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.
Source: Nobelprize.org

This was, and still is, a mind shattering discovery for astronomy. One that I enjoy sharing with people at the Planetarium's Discover the Night Sky evenings each March and August.

The result was completely unexpected and has led to the concept of dark energy. We don’t know why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, which is to say that it’s expanding faster now, than it was in the past. But this research puts us on the hunt for an answer and for now dark energy is just what we call it.

The journey to the Nobel Prize for these three astronomers began around 20 years ago. Saul Perlmutter was head of the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, while Brian Schmidt headed up the High-z Supernova Search Team from Mt Stromlo Observatory, Canberra. Adam Reiss was an integral part of the High-z Supernova Search Team and based at John Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Oddly enough, the two teams were searching for the exact opposite of what they found. They were trying to measure how much the expansion of the Universe was slowing down not speeding up. The idea went like this. We know the Universe was given a big kick at the start of its life by the Big Bang. So since then everything has been expanding away from everything else. But the Universe is also filled with matter and that means gravity. Gravity works against the expansion, making objects in the Universe tug on each other.

Astronomers had counted up the mass of the Universe and found that there was just enough mass to slow down the expansion but not enough to stop it entirely. The Universe wasn’t going to end in a big crunch, but would likely drift along, forever slowing but never stopping.

That was now, but what about then? The thing about astronomy is that when you look at objects that are far away, it means you are looking into the past. By observing distant supernovae, the two teams were able to look back into the past, to measure how fast the Universe was expanding back then.

So it was assumed that gravity had been slowing things down, or in other words, the expansion of the Universe was decelerating. The HubbleSite, has a fantastic explanation of dark energy, where Adam Reiss, who analysed the data for the High-z Supernova Search Team says:

“I wrote a computer program to tell me, 'so what is the mass of the universe that is causing that much deceleration?', which I was assuming was going on. It reported that the universe had a negative mass. Now the universe can’t have a negative mass but what that really meant is ‘hey dummy you should look at the data!’ It’s not decelerating at all. It’s actually the negative of deceleration, that’s acceleration.”

About 14 billion years ago the Universe began with the Big Bang. This initial expansion was slowed by matter in the Universe. However, around 7.5 billion years ago, when the Universe was half its current age, dark energy kicked in. We don't know the reason why but it makes the expansion of the Universe accelerate.

While the two teams had always had a friendly but competitive rivalry going on, they must have been thrilled to have had each other when this startling discovery first appeared. I've always loved Brian Schmidt's quote at that time which appeared in the New York Times:

"My own reaction is somewhere between amazement and horror. Amazement because I just did not expect this result and horror in knowing that it will likely be disbelieved by a majority of astronomers – who, like myself, are extremely sceptical of the unexpected.”

Each team independently came to the same fantastical conclusion.  This meant that together they could convince the rightly sceptical science world that what they were seeing was correct.

Congratulations to everyone who worked on the two teams and produced this brilliant discovery. It’s your day to enjoy the time when you were amazed by the Universe.

Links:

Brian Schmidt describes the High-z Supernova Search

Last week was pretty special. Over at ACMI, they celebrated the launch of their fantastic new exhibition, Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen. To help them out, they had the real deal in town – someone who has experienced space, not just seen it in the movies – a NASA astronaut.

Mission Specialist Rex Walheim, has flown in space three times. It so happened, that each of his trips was on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, including the final ever flight of the space shuttle program. That last mission was just over two months ago.

NASA astronaut Rex Walheim.
Source: NASA 

I remember staying up until 1.30am on that July evening to watch Atlantis’ final launch – little did I know that I’d soon meet one of the amazing people that I saw zooming into space that morning.

At the opening of the Star Voyager exhibition, Rex won our hearts as he described seeing the aurora australis on his recent trip into space. He noticed Melbourne had left its lights on for him and said how much he’d hoped he would get to visit the city that looked so beautiful from space.

The aurora australis as seen during the final flight of Atlantis. The space shuttle is in view on the right and one the space station's solar panels can be seen on the left.
Source: NASA 

There are so many things you want to ask an astronaut and so many amazing things to learn. It’s refreshing to hear that even astronauts have to pinch themselves before take-off, to be certain they’re really there. And encouraging to know that when you practise hard enough, even a spacewalk ends up feeling commonplace. Like with anything else, all that practice just kicks in and you simply realise you’ve done this a hundred times before, once more will be a breeze.

We all imagine how hard it must be do to all the everyday things of life in space – but it seems that adjusting back to Earth is also quite a challenge. As someone who loves their sleep, I was surprised to hear that sleeping in space is easy - as long as you tie your sleeping bag down so you don’t float away. Whereas, it’s when you get back home and have to deal with gravity pushing against you, making your head feel like lead against the pillow, that sleep is hard to find.

Rex Walheim working on the Columbus Laboratory outside the International Space Station in February 2008.
Source: NASA 

What a difference a day makes! This is the same spacewalk as above but since the ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, the astronauts work in the sunlight for 45 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of night.
Source: NASA

But the best thing for me, was hearing how zero-gravity works from someone who has been there and done that. Now believe me, I’ve described this effect many a time, but there was something special hearing it first hand and the way Rex set it up was just perfect.

If you could take an elevator 350km up into the air (that’s how high the International Space Station flies above us) and you were silly enough to step out, Earth’s gravity would grab you just as you’d expect and send you plummeting back to Earth. Of course, it's kind of obvious, but what an image it creates! And I did the maths – at that height the gravitational force is only 10 per cent smaller than what we feel on the ground. Your instincts would be spot on.

Of course the trick of zero-g is the speed at which Atlantis or the ISS are travelling, and here Rex fell back to Isaac Newton’s famous description. But where Newton used a cannon, Rex described a tennis ball. Using his fist as the Earth, he got us to imagine throwing that ball hard into the air. It might manage to fly a little way before falling back on our knuckles. Throw it harder and it might go half way round our fist. Throw it at 28,000 km/hour, the speed of the shuttle, and it will keep going, forever circling the Earth and always falling, just never re-connecting with the ground.

Newton's description of free-fall using a cannonball that's shot around the Earth.
Image: Brian Brondel
Source: wikimedia commons 

When we watch astronauts floating around it looks like zero-g. But it isn’t. We’re told microgravity is the correct term, but I must admit, that never really did work for me. Both those terms seem to say that the gravity up there is insignificant. From now on, I’ll always call it free-fall. That experience of falling without ever hitting the ground because speed has overwhelmed gravity. Rex says it's just like being a kid and dreaming you can fly.

NASA’s been under some criticism as it closes-out the shuttle program with only a hazy view of what might come next. But with people like Rex Walheim involved, you can but hope that NASA gets the support and backing it needs to build a future just as amazing as our science fiction dreams.

 Rex Walheim enjoys a final look at Earth from inside the cupola on the ISS, as he completed his week long visit to the Station.
Source: NASA

Links:

MV Blog: Chat with an astronaut

The mornings are getting lighter, as the days are getting longer. The promise of warmer weather is just around the corner and hayfever season is upon us. Welcome to Spring!

This Friday is the Spring Equinox. In truth, the equinox is a mere moment in time and this year it will happen at 7:04pm, 23rd September.

Of course, this means that the equinox will occur after the Sun has set in Melbourne. So what's so special about that time?

 At 7:04pm on Friday 23rd September, the Sun sits on the celestial equator, the sky's equivalent to the Earth's equator. This year the equinox will occur when the Sun is below the western horizon.
Source: Museum Victoria

The equinox is the moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. Just like the Earth is split into two hemispheres by its equator, the celestial equator does the same, splitting the stars into those of the south and those of the north.

In fact the celestial equator is intimately linked with the Earth’s equator. Just pretend for a moment that the stars sit on a sphere surrounding the Earth. We call it the celestial sphere. Now take the Earth’s equator and push it off our planet and out into space – there you have it, the celestial equator.

So at 7:04pm, the Sun will cross the boundary between the northern and southern stars. We welcome it back to our hemisphere and as it returns our weather warms.

In the Sun and the Seasons you'll find more explanation of the link between the equinox and the seasons, along with the path of the Sun around the time of the equinox.

And there's one last thing to mention  – the 23rd isn’t when day and night are equal. That was last Tuesday and the September Skynotes explains why.

Now is your chance to see an asteroid from within the asteroid belt. Vesta will be at its best for the next few weeks and it is the only asteroid that can ever be seen with the naked eye. Even thought it's smaller and further away than the dwarf planet Ceres (the largest object in the asteroid belt), Vesta's surface is great at reflecting sunlight.

Mind you, it still won't be easy. Astronomers measure brightness in magnitudes and by historic convention, the lower the magnitude, the brighter the object. The Sun comes in at a whopping -27. Alpha Centauri, a famous bright star and the closest star to the Sun, clocks in at -0.3.

In comparison Vesta, at its brightest, will reach a magnitude of 5.6. That's only just above the naked eye limit. So you will have to get out to a dark location to see it. Of course with binoculars or a small telescope you'll be doing much better. Remember though, it's only 530km across, so it will only ever look star-like.

Finding chart for Vesta looking eastward at 9pm on 5th August, prepared with the help of "Starry Night" software.
Source: Museum Victoria

So what's so special about now? Vesta will be at opposition on the 5th August, which means opposite the Sun in the sky. It will be in the sky all night and all of the Sun's light will be shining on it (just like a Full Moon occurs when the Moon is at opposition).

And there's more - objects are generally closer to us at opposition and this opposition will bring the asteroid particularly close - still 184 million km away, but 27 million km closer than last year.

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft was 5,200km from Vesta when it took this image.
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

But for a really close view of Vesta, nothing can beat the Dawn Spacecraft which entered orbit around the asteroid just two weeks ago. Dawn is the first craft to orbit an asteroid and will stay with Vesta for a year before moving on to study Ceres.

Exploring Vesta is sure to uncover some fascinating science. Asteroids are the oldest objects in the Solar System and from them we hope to learn more about how the planets, including Earth, formed.

And did you know that we have more pieces of Vesta here on Earth, than we have of the Moon! It's clear that something crashed into Vesta creating a huge crater and all that rock was sent flying out into space. About 5 percent of all meteorites that fall to Earth are said to have come from that collision.

Asteroids are fascinating relics of the Solar System, if you've ever wanted to see one now's the time to do it.

Whilst the animation of our key characters for the show "Tilt" is well under way, another part of the story is taking shape (and colour). Max's rocket.

With the details still highly classified, it is expected that "Ptolemy" will be able to fly.
Image: Brendan Williams
Source: Museum Victoria

With its chic retro styling and awesome pull-back action "Ptolemy" is just the vehicle for our protagonists.

It may appear to be just a tin toy with painted on details but this rocket packs quite a punch. For reasons of security most of the technical specs are still classified, but we can confirm that the ship does indeed have a lever. The other main technology that gives this ship its futuristic edge is a great deal of buttons and switches, not to mention screens with wiggly lines on them.

Based largely on second hand accounts, this image shows some of the future-tech we can expect in the ship.
Image: Brendan Williams
Source: Museum Victoria

We’re proud of our planetarium shows and know how important it is to deliver high quality productions that speak directly to our local audiences.

But did you know that it's not just Melbournians that get to enjoy our planetarium shows? 

Melbourne Planetarium shows screening around the world. The eight shows are distinguished by colour.
Image: Warik Lawrance
Source: Museum Victoria

Since 2007, we have been licensing our shows to play in planetariums around the world. From countries as different as India, South Korea and Turkey, to cities across Europe and the USA, people are enjoying our unique brand of planetarium shows. We’ve even had one show Black Holes: Journey into the Unknown translated into Spanish, Swedish, Finnish and Russian.

Have you seen any Melbourne Planetarium shows on your travels?

As I collected my boys from after school care the other evening, my seven year old stopped in the middle of the playground and cried out “Mum, what’s that in the sky? It looks like a rocket!”

He had stumbled upon the International Space Station, and let me tell you, it really couldn’t be missed. It was shining more brightly than any star and of course, it was moving. We stopped to watch it for a minute or so, as it slowly made its way across the sky before becoming lost in cloud.

 Sunlight glinting off the International Space Station.
Source: NASA

The boys were thrilled, especially when I told them that people were living up on that shiny dot of light. Right now, it’s home to “Expedition Crew 28”, made up of six astronauts who will live on the station from May to September.

We wondered what kind of view they were getting of the Earth. Perhaps looking down on us and seeing the twinkling lights of Melbourne and the other capital cities.

The Expedition 28 crew members (from left to right): Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa, Mike Fossum, Ron Garan, Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov and Commander Andrey Borisenko
Source: NASA

Maybe, like us, the astronauts were looking forward to dinner. The boys were chuffed to discover that even astronauts can eat Spaghetti Bolognese (a favourite in our household). Of course, up there you have to bolt your dinner plate down or have it float away.

If you haven’t seen the ISS, I really suggest you try. We might have lucked upon it, but there are great websites like Heavens Above that give the precise time and direction for your next chance to see it.  

And while you stare up at that bright little light, travelling steadily across the night sky, I encourage you to imagine what it might be like to trade places, just for a moment, with a spacefaring astronaut. 

A rare event happened this morning... when my 1 year old started calling out for Mummy just after 4am, the usual dread of having to face another cold and early start was gone, replaced by the thrill that my little guy was just the perfect astronomer!

This morning we were treated to a total lunar eclipse and it began with a beautiful starry, but certainly cold, morning sky. Just before 4.30am a small chunk was seen to be missing from the top right of the Moon. The first sign that the Earth's shadow had found its target.

The Earth's shadow hit its target.
Image: Tanya Hill
Source: Museum Victoria

Lunar eclipses occur on those rare occasions when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in perfect alignment. They only ever happen at the time of Full Moon, when the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth. Most of the time the Earth's shadow misses the Moon, falling either above or below it, but this morning it was right on track.

By 5am, the Earth's shadow was covering more than half the Moon and a reddish glow was already beginning to appear. The stars was twinkling perfectly, with one of my favourite constellations, that of Scorpius, sitting directly to the left of the Moon, and the centre of the Milky Way right above it. Totality officially began at 5.23am and the Moon was certainly an eerie red colour.

Where does that red come from? Well the only way sunlight can now reach the Moon is by passing through the Earth's atmosphere. That light gets bent and scattered, so only the reddest light can make it through. Particles in our atmosphere, like the volcanic ash that's been annoying so many air travellers these last few days, added to the scattering effect, making the eclipse redder and darker than the last few that I remember.

For those who love statistics, totality was due to last 100 minutes, making it the longest lunar eclipse since 2000, which clocked in at 106 minutes. A rough rule of thumb is that totality generally takes around 1 hour, but a couple of times each decade we get a good one lasting 90 minutes or more. This was one of those.

Except for those pesky clouds that rolled in just after 6am, blocking the view for those who got up at their usual time. They were obviously in need of my own precious little alarm clock.

This guest post is from Brendan, an animator and illustrator who is currently working on Tilt, the Planetarium’s upcoming show.

Here is Max’s first smile! After a process of design, approval, modelling, approval, etc. the characters for the new Planetarium show are starting to come to life!

Whilst it is a laborious and ongoing process, one that involves making a separate 3D model for each expression that the character will need, I can’t help feeling a bit of the exhilaration that Victor Frankenstein must have felt when his creature sat up and came in to being. Well, OK, that is a bit melodramatic but hey, I’m easily entertained (I wonder if that excuse would have worked for the doctor?)*.

Max with a grin!
Image: B. Williams
Source: Museum Victoria

There’s still plenty of work to be done, but it is these small victories that keep me excited and pointed in the right direction.

*before you all grab your pitchforks and storm the Planetarium Production Room, please note that Max and all associated characters exist only on in the computer!

As our visitors relax under the Planetarium’s stars, what many of them don’t know is that just next door it’s a hub of activity. We’re busy working on a brand new fulldome planetarium show that will be launched later this year.

The question we’re exploring? What would happen if you accidentally messed up the seasons? That's what our characters, Anni and Max, have just done  – they’ve made it snow in the middle of summer!

Our storyboard of snow inside Anni's bedroom in summer!
Source: Museum Victoria

We've taken our script and mapped it out in storyboard form. The storyboard has a strange shape to capture the Planetarium's unique fulldome format.

You see we don’t use a normal rectangular screen but a 180-degree dome above our heads. It's the perfect way for showing a starry night sky and it also puts you in the centre of the action.

But behind the scenes, it means we must work with circular images – where the bottom is the front, the top is the back, (left is left, right is right) and the centre is what you see directly overhead.

A scene from Spinning Out, a show we made on the seasons many years ago.
Source: Museum Victoria

Can you imagine how the room above would look if it was projected onto a dome?

This new show we are working on will be our 14th production since the Melbourne Planetarium opened here at Scienceworks in 1999. It’s also our 4th production made in fulldome (the official name for this circular format).

Follow us on the blog as we give you some sneak-peaks of the show and its characters, Anni and Max, taking shape!

I missed the Leonid meteor shower in November so I was delighted to learn that there's another shower on its way in mid-December. Astronomer Tanya Hill explains more in our monthly Video Skynotes.

Twenty Geminid meteors an hour? Those are pretty good odds for spotting one!

If you prefer your Skynotes in written form, head to the Skynotes page on the Planetarium website.