Planetarium travels to the ‘dark side of the moon’

Erinn Williams

The Georgia Southern University Planetarium plans to leave students star-struck with its “Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Rock Show” as it transports students through space and time with this new digital system.

The show is sponsored by the Department of Physics and takes students on a voyage through space to the music from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album.

There will be four shows on Friday being at 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m. and each will be 53 minutes long at the GSU Planetarium.

The show goes through the whole “Dark Side of the Moon” album while immersing attendees in an outer space vibe.

“This is our way of welcoming the students back to campus and starting off the semester. The show is for fun and for your senses, and if you are a Pink Floyd fan and you are familiar with their music you will really love it,” Becky Lowder, astronomy lab coordinator for the Physics Department, said.

The shows are free but the planetarium can only seat 63 people at a time so tickets will be given out in order of arrival.

The Planetarium also aims to help the Statesboro community through this event by collecting cans and perishable items for the Statesboro Food Bank.

The Planetarium recently installed the Digistar 5 digital planetarium system last Friday, which features 5.1 surround sound and 360 degree views. This event will serve as its debut to students and the public.

“The planetarium is over 30 years old, but with this new system we are not as limited. So much more can be shown. It features real time tours of the solar system, a NASA high definition feed which allows you to watch live events, real time data and you can even virtually fly by planets,” Clayton Heller, director of the Planetarium, said.

“We have had a wonderful response to the full dome system and now it is even more spectacular and thrilling,” Lowder, said.

Telescopes will be on the roof for students and the public to freely enjoy after the show, as soon as the sun sets, to view Saturn and other celestial bodies with members from Statesboro Astronomy Club and the Department of Physics.

Free moon and sky maps will also be handed out to those who come to the shows to take home and discover the skies on their own.

Heller said, “It’s an activity, so it helps to improve student life on campus and bring awareness to the fact that there is a planetarium and we have a lot to offer the students here. We have many more events like this planned for the school year.”