Star talks are the quintessential planetarium presentation, the bread and butter of a star theater's repertoire. Since many people come to the planetarium specifically for the "what's up in the night sky" presentation, now you can always have a dependable one on tap! The advent of fulldome video technology has allowed us to create Seasonal STARGAZING, an extremely versatile set of star shows — at an extremely reasonable price. You get 16 ways to show "what's up!"

Each Seasonal STARGAZING show highlights the most prominent and easy-to-find stars and constellations of the season. We've upgraded the old standby green-arrow show, painting the dome with choreographed circles and colorful constellation lines. Audience members see and hear star names and constellations, and learn to star-hop for popular deep-sky objects.

They're a great start on stargazing for audiences of all ages!

An Incredible Package

A Winning Formula

Each show is structured the same way:

 * We start out under the starry sky and a little Geodesium night music to get people in the mood for stargazing.

 * After a short introduction, we do some stargazing from a typical "suburban/city" locale, with some light pollution for added sky realism. First we look north for the Big Dipper and Polaris and other prominent stars and constellations.

 * Then we rotate the sky to the south, to look for the season's easy-to-find patterns in that half of the sky.

 * At this point, the MINI versions wrap up and close; the FULL versions continue, taking audiences out to the country for some dark-sky viewing (rotating back to north during the transition).

 * From the north-facing countryside, we revisit the bright stars and constellations we saw in the city.

 * Then we turn to the south once again, point out the Milky Way if it's not low on the horizon, and locate some easy naked-eye deep-sky objects, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Orion Nebula, along the way.

 * And every show ends with some encouraging words: "The more you look at the night sky, the more you'll find. And all you have to do is go outside — and look up! Try it tonight!"

Each Season Has Two Lengths To Fit Your Needs

Every theater has different time requirements. Some want shorter shows, others use longer ones. Some teachers like modules to plug into specific lessons in the dome curricula. It seemed to us we could give everybody what they need by designing the shows to offer both MINI and FULL versions, averaging 7 and 14 minutes respectively, and they are all included in the package. It's win-win all the way around!

Two Voices, More Choices

The days of debating "which voice is better, male or female" are long behind us. The quality of a professional presentation transcends gender. But while an audience may experience a show only once, it's the show presenters who hear the soundtracks day after day, and end up memorizing lines and recalling entire shows verbatim years later. So, with a choice of two voices, you can help relieve console operator fatigue! Use the female voice for the winter and summer, and the male for spring and autumn. Or, alternate male/female each week! Or, use only male or only female all the time. It's up to you; you have the options. Find out more about our narrators.

But Will They Work In Your Theater?

These are Northern Hemisphere shows. The skies are depicted from 40° North latitude. That's close to where much of the world's planetarium-going population is. Most of the featured objects in our shows are prominent in their seasonal sky, and visible from latitudes well above and below 40°. Here's a full listing of what's in each show.

The shows work with both truncated and full dome master projector systems. We have optimized them for front-facing audience viewing. No sore necks from straining to see what's upside-down or behind the audience; we "rotate the dome" for you, and put cardinal points on the horizon so everybody knows which way they're looking! Of course you can show them in a concentric-seat theater too.

Our horizon is level, so if you have a tilted dome, the whole sky will be tilted the same angle as your dome. But that's probably the way you do your "what's up tonight" star talks anyway!

You Might Have More Questions...

... so visit Seasonal STARGAZING In Depth for more details. And be sure to check out the Seasonal STARGAZING FAQ; maybe we've answered your question already! If not, simply contact us; we'd be happy to hear from you.