June 9, 2008
Contact: Bob Adams
(425) 564-3081
badams@bcc.ctc.edu
New digital planetarium projector to be showcased in June 21 public showings
BELLEVUE -- Bellevue Community College will offer three public planetarium shows June 21 to share the new educational experience made possible by its brand new, digital star projector - so advanced that it is one of only five of its kind in the world.
The shows will be presented at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. in BCC's Willard Geer Planetarium (room 244 of the Building). Each will begin with a 12-minute demonstration of the new projector's capabilities, followed by a 20-minute astronomy show, "Wonders of the Universe."
Tickets, at $2, are available only in advance and only in person at the Bellevue Community College bookstore, located in the Student Services building, north of the central flag circle and the visitor parking lot. (The bookstore is open Mondays and Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m., Fridays from 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., and closed on weekends.)
Because the planetarium must be totally dark during the show, no one can be admitted once the presentation begins.
The show is not considered suitable for children ages six and below.
BCC's new star projector, a "Digistar 3, is actually a high-resolution computer whose image appears on the facility's domed ceiling in full color and three-dimensional perspective.
"With this upgrade to solid-form, full-color, 3-D perspective, the visual impact of our planetarium shows is exceptional, said BCC astronomy instructor, Arthur Goss. "The entire visible universe and the known features of many space objects are plotted in the computer's memory, so we can take you up close to and even land on planets, or travel millions of light-years away to see supernovas and colliding galaxies."
BCC's Geer Planetarium was the first to be built in the Puget Sound region. Thanks to donors to the BCC Foundation, it is still the only public digital planetarium in the state and now one of only five in the world using the advanced Digistar 3.
The facility was originally the brainchild of Willard Geer, BCC's first physics instructor and one of the inventors of color television.
Today the 60-seat planetarium, located in room 244 of the college's B Building, is in almost constant use as a classroom for more than 1,400 BCC astronomy students and 1,600 elementary and middle school students each year.
For more information about the planetarium or the June 21 shows, please call the BCC Science Division at 425-564-2321.
BCC's main campus is located at 3000 Landerholm Circle S.E., Bellevue, at the intersection of S.E. 28th St. and 148th Ave. S.E.
Campus maps are available online at www.bellevuecollege.edu/about/around/.