Free online planetarium shows?

[bny]

Hi,

While I live in an area with a fairly clear view of the sky, it's a-wash in suburban light and so much is lost (once you get down to about 15 to 20 degrees from the horizon, if something's not bright, it's lost completely.)  My only other option would be to drive out into the desert--which isn't advisable to do alone, anyway, but esp. this time of year since scorpions, large spiders and worse have started moving again.

When I was younger I was a huge fan of planetarium shows--peaceful, mythological, informative shows.  Things like Stars of the Spring Sky.  I know my constellations and enjoy watching the planets lounge across the sky, but I long for a little poetry and theatrics (beyond what passes for a planetarium show around here--a movie in a domed imax theater.)  It's a two hour drive from where I live to a real planetarium with interactive show.

I read sky and telescope, watch sky watch, keep stellarium on my desktop...many things like that, but I was wondering if anyone knows of someplace online with a free planetarium show--a Stars of the Spring Sky variety (maybe even something that would work with an ipod or ipad projector?  I'd consider getting one if I could find a nice, zen planetarium show again.)

Thanks so much!

bny

[Bizibilder]

I was going to suggest Stellarium - but you already have that.  Do you have a large screen TV?  Maybe you could run it on that for a more imposing view of the heavens?

[soundwave]

Hi,

You might have done this already, but I did a search for planetarium shows on YouTube, and found that the Houston Museum of Natural Science upload some of their shows to their channel.

Here's a link to a search on their channel that will bring up all their planetarium shows (13 total, ~20min each): https://www.youtube.com/user/naturalscience1/search?query=planetarium

I also came across this round-looking planetarium video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jslMU3kios8

There is also a constellation tour script in Stellarium, but it has no audio or anything. I assume it's for voice-overs and stuff like that.

And while not really planetarium-related... if you're looking for some poetry... the original Cosmos series (carl sagan) and the new Cosmos series (neil degrasse tyson) are pretty great.

You might have seen them already (numerous times). But on the off-chance that you haven't.. it's worth a mention.

Just search YouTube for "cosmos carl sagan episode 1" and keep going 

Dunno if this is what you were looking for, but that's all I've got  Have fun!

[bny]

Thanks for writing back Super Giant and Nebula!

Nebula, quote made me smile, i've kept it up in the kitchen for years since the first Cosmos aired.  It's immense, all-embracing, powerful and humbling all at once...and once you read it you can never take anything for granted again.  Plus, it aways makes me hungry for pie lol!  

How are you liking the new Neil deGrasse Tyson /Seth Mc Farland episodes?  I wasn't expecting to like these as well, but the storytelling seems to have transcended the orignal a bit now that people are a lot more clued in about science.

I'll be able to watch the videos tomorrow, which will be bliss   And the Stellarium constellation script.

The crazy thing is there's a small public obseratory about 2 miles away, but the astronomy club that runs it has mostly just been running private star parties and the telescope will close down between July and August due to the heat's effect on electronics (life ove 120 deg F.)  Basically they type coordinates into the computer and let people have a look.  They have a projection system with seating that goes largely unused.  And under the *bewitching* winter nights with all those mag-1 wonders, when it's finally cool enough to enjoy an evening walk, the astronomers rarely leave the observatory.  People would be interested if there were sometihng more of a show there, but it's like people have forgotten the large, entrancing narratives they grew up on made them want to know more. 

Thank you both so much

You've started me on a happy goose chase!

bny