The Culp Planetarium at High Point University

That's a wrap on Spring 2024 Family Weekend planetarium shows! Thanks to all who attended, and a special thanks to the Natural Sciences Fellows volunteers who made it all possible!

HPU in 90 seconds!

HPU in 90 Seconds

Planetarium Manager Erin Brady is at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, LA, this week! She's working with associates at Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc., to show off the capabilities of their inflatable planetarium domes.

HPU recently released an episode of its Mentorship Matters series focused on senior physics major Bryce Smith & Culp Planetarium Director Dr. Brad Barlow. The video focuses on a research expedition Bryce took last year to collect data with a telescope in the Chilean Andes. Check it out below!

Mentorship Matters | Dr. Brad Barlow & Bryce Smith

We enjoyed watching the eclipse with everyone on Saturday!

What a SCARY good time we had hosting 100 students & teachers from Western Rockingham Middle School in the planetarium today! They got to learn about astronomical counterparts to monsters, zombies, and ghosts (black holes, zombie stars, and ghostly nebulae) in our Halloween-themed film "Spooky Space."

Come watch the solar eclipse with us on HPU's campus this Saturday, October 14th, from 11:45am to 3:00pm! As observed from NC, this annular eclipse will only be a -partial- eclipse, with up to ~40% of the sun being blocked by the moon at its maximum (around 1:17pm).

Special glasses are needed to view this partial eclipse, and we will provide them free of charge to all participants. We will also have telescopes equipped with proper filters for those who want a close-up view. The event will take place on the grass circle in front of the Wanek School of Natural Sciences. The public is invited, and the event is free. Registration not required. The Culp Planetarium will be screening the full-dome movie The Birth of Planet Earth during the event. Show times are 12:15, 1:00, 1:45 and 2:30pm.

Use the link below to see what the eclipse will look like from High Point:
https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse-simulator/2023/index.html?city_id=30705

More details can be found at the link below:
https://www.highpoint.edu/physics/eclipse/

October 2023 Solar Eclipse @ HPU - Physics A solar eclipse happens when the Moon’s shadow hits Earth. This can only happen if it’s New Moon and the Moon is crossing the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun....

Happy VAR! Day! (See attached post.)

Edwin Hubble Discovers the Universe (APOD: 2023 Oct 06)
Image Credit & Copyright: Courtesy Carnegie Institution for Science
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231006.html

Explanation: How big is our universe? This question, among others, was debated by two leading astronomers in 1920 in what has since become known as astronomy's Great Debate. Many astronomers then believed that our Milky Way Galaxy was the entire universe. Many others, though, believed that our galaxy was just one of many. In the Great Debate, each argument was detailed, but no consensus was reached. The answer came over three years later with the detected variation of single spot in the Andromeda Nebula, as shown on the original glass discovery plate digitally reproduced here. When Edwin Hubble compared images, he noticed that this spot varied, and on October 6, 1923 wrote "VAR!" on the plate. The best explanation, Hubble knew, was that this spot was the image of a variable star that was very far away. So M31 was really the Andromeda Galaxy -- a galaxy possibly similar to our own. Annotated 100 years ago, the featured image may not be pretty, but the variable spot on it opened a window through which humanity gazed knowingly, for the first time, into a surprisingly vast cosmos.

https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/PAST/m31var
https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=231006

Yesterday we were honored to host Dr. Derek Fish in the planetarium. He is the Founder and Director of the Unizulu Science Centre in Richards Bay, South Africa and is also serving as a year-long Fulbright Scholar in the Institute for Learning Innovation in Oregon this year. Dr. Fish gave a wonderful presentation on his experience working in science education in South Africa. The lecture was supported by the Fulbright Outreach Lecture Fund.

On Friday and Saturday, we welcomed nearly 1500 people into the planetarium for shows during HPU's Fall Family Weekend! These shows were made possible thanks to Planetarium Manager Erin Brady and the hard-working Natural Sciences Fellows listed below. Thanks to everyone for a successful weekend!

Alyson Acquard
Lucas Arciola
Kiara Busby
John Dickerhoff
Jalen Dixon
Michael Lee
Jenna Mastropolo
Tatum Mehring
Jake Mergenthal
Rebekah Olls
Sophie Spalding
Makenzie Wiseman

New fulldome movie alert! We have acquired "Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge." This show highlights Anishinaabe stories of constellations and moons in relation to contemporary insights about environmental changes, emphasizing how the environment and its changes affect star knowledge. It presents teachings about the stars, planets, seasons, and how to live a good life, respecting the lands, waters, animals, and all forms of life.

The show presenter has indigenous knowledge on its own and not in relation to western knowledge.

The script and art was created by Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée and the show heavily features the Eastern dialect of Anishinaabemowin. It was narrated, reviewed, and approved by Anishinaabe elders and community members. Teachings shared by Native Skywatchers Carl Gawboy, William Wilson, and Dr. Annette S. Lee are narrated by Aarin Dokum with Anishinaabemowin translations by Alphonse Pitawanakwat.

We often describe the Culp Planetarium as "the coolest undergraduate classroom in the country." This semester, there are several courses being taught in our facility, including Environmental Science, Astronomy, and Principles of Ecology, Evolution, & Biodiversity. Professors teaching these courses supplement traditional lecture presentations with fulldome movies and simulations to engage students in new and exciting ways!