HAWAII'S IMAGINARIUM
Windward campus Schools and organized groups are lining up for one of the hottest shows in town at Windward Community College's new planetarium.
opens new star show
A decade in the making, the
$4 million planetarium has already
enthralled sneak-preview audiencesBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comPeople were waiting for more than two hours for Halloween shows presented Friday night in a public preview.
"It was insane. All shows were packed," said Krissie Kellogg, who runs the college's aerospace lab and does free Kailua Beach star shows. "At 10 p.m., people were still there. I had to kick people out of the aerospace lab."
Five 9 12-minute shows had been planned with scary slides and sound effects, a 3-D graveyard, bats and ghosts, but a couple of extra shows were added, Kellogg said."It was really great to listen to the audience respond because I know how hard Joe worked on the show."
Joe Ciotti, astronomy, physics and math professor, worked more than a decade to develop the $4 million planetarium, called "Hokulani Imaginarium."
It will not be open to the public until January but a Halloween "teaser" was presented to show Windward residents "what resources are available for them in their own back yard," Ciotti said.
Schools and organized groups can reserve the theater now and the dates are filling up, Kellogg said.
Ten school groups are scheduled in November, starting with Le Jardin Windward Oahu Academy second-graders Thursday. They asked for a repeat of the Halloween show, which also was shown to faculty members and volunteers Friday.
A cosmic perception show will be presented to other students and groups. They will see how humans observe the universe with their sense of vision, how the human eye works, how signals go from the eye to the brain, and how the brain interprets the information like a computer, Ciotti said.They will observe the sky with the naked eye, look at different stars in constellations and see how instruments like telescopes and spacecraft are used to amplify the sense of vision.
Among many conferences that have booked the "Imaginarium" next month are the Pacific Island Math Teachers, University of Hawaii Library Council and the U.S. Department of Defense Activity for Nontraditional Support, which supports voluntary education for the military.
"Windward was just recognized as a service member opportunity college," Ciotti said. "It's kind of nice that we can do something for the military, especially at this time."
Schools and groups wishing to reserve the planetarium theater should call Kellogg at 235-7321.
