Saturday matinees at the planetarium - April 6, 2013

All shows in the "Saturday Matinee" series consist solely of the prerecorded program, with no time for additional live presentations or audience questions. The show length will be shorter and the cost will be 40 percent less. If you are looking for live interaction with expert presenters, we encourage you to attend one of our one-hour Friday night shows.

"Two Small Pieces of Glass" Saturday, April 6, 2-2:30 p.m. ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Room 220

Engaging and appealing to audiences of all ages, "Two Small Pieces of Glass" traces the history of the telescope from Galileo's modifications to a child's spyglass, using two small pieces of glass, to launch NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the future of astronomy. It explores the wonder and discovery made by astronomers over the last 400 years.

While looking through the astronomer's telescope, the students, along with the planetarium audience, explore the Galilean Moons, Saturn's rings and the spiral structure of galaxies. During their conversation with the astronomer, they also learn about the discoveries of Galileo, Huygens, Newton, Hubble and many others.

"Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity" Saturday, April 6, 3-3:30 p.m. ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Room 220

"Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity" is a full-dome show from Thomas Lucas Productions, developed in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, NOVA and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Narrated by Academy-Award nominated actor Liam Neeson, this cutting-edge production features high-resolution visualizations to bring the current science of black holes onto the dome. Audiences will be dazzled with striking, immersive animations of the formation of the early universe, star birth and death, the collision of giant galaxies and a simulated flight into the super-massive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy

"Natural Selection" Saturday, April 6, 4-4:40 p.m. ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Room 220

By Victorian times many physical phenomena had already been discovered and described by natural law, but life's most eloquent mechanism was still unknown. Join the young Charles Darwin on an adventurous voyage of exploration circumnavigating the world with the H.M.S. Beagle. Hear Darwin himself reveal the simple and beautiful mechanism that explains the evolution of all life on Earth: natural selection.

This full-dome program was created by Mirage3D, the 3-D animation and film studio that brought you the planetarium favorite "Dawn of the Space Age." This meticulously produced presentation seamlessly brings together photo-realistic animation and real-world footage to immerse you in the wonder of Darwin's world.

Tickets: Ticket reservations are available online only at UAATix.com. Remaining tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis at the door on the day of the show. The planetarium will open for seating 30 minutes before the start of each show. You must be in the theater 10 minutes before the show starts. Reserved seats will be released after this time to stand-by customers. There is no entry after the show begins.

For more information, including how to become a UAA Planetarium member, please visit the planetarium website.

April Archive