RU Planetarium announces new features

Scientific mystery and imagination merge in the latest offerings by the Radford University Planetarium.

Through Nov. 19, the RU Planetarium will feature "Amazing Astronomers of Antiquity" on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and "We Choose Space!" will be featured on Saturdays.

"Amazing Astronomers of Antiquity," produced by Discovery Dome, the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) and NASA, highlights that 2,000 years ago ancient astronomers knew the Earth was round, measured its diameter and distance from the sun, created an accurate star map with magnitudes, knew the length of the year to the precision of our modern calendar and developed a method for predicting eclipses. On their journey of discovery with stops at the Pantheon, the Library of Alexandria, the streets of Leptis Magna, aboard a ship on the Mediterranean and a pyramid in Egypt, viewers will explore the wisdom of ancient astronomers who made the Pantheon an astronomical instrument and created the Saqqara Step Pyramid and the Antikythera mechanism, marvels of the advanced astronomic knowledge that is our heritage.

On Saturday mornings beginning at 10:30 a.m. through November 14, the feature will be “We Choose Space!,” a planetarium show for audiences of all ages who dream of space and human spaceflight. Filled with real adventures for the near frontier, astronauts Scott Parazinsky, Tom Jones and Gene Cernan and veteran space reporter Walter Cronkite are the guides for trips to the completed International Space Station and to the past and future moon. “We Choose Space!” is a production of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Home Run Pictures and Tietronix with scientific oversight by Rice University.

The RU Planetarium will be closed over the Thanksgiving break and the annual Christmas show will start after the Thanksgiving break.

The RU Planetarium offers 32 reclined planetarium seats within its 24-foot diameter dome and can accommodate up to 45 people. To visit the planetarium at times other than its regularly scheduled showtimes or with a group, contact Rhett Herman at rherman@radford.edu. All shows are free and open to the public. The planetarium is located in Curie Hall 43. Enter through Reed Hall from the main campus and follow the signs in the building.

A complete RU Planetarium schedule can be found on their website.