Fiske Planetarium

Under the dome: Why two longtime �鶹ӰԺ residents keep coming back to Fiske Planetarium

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 23:49:30 +0000

Under the dome: Why two longtime �鶹ӰԺ residents keep coming back to Fiske Planetarium Rachel Sauer Mon, 03/30/2026 - 17:49

Bradley Worrell

Although Drew Simon and Ron Marks did not attend CU �鶹ӰԺ, they have a deep appreciation for the university—and for Fiske in particular

When Drew Simon and Ron Marks walk out of Fiske Planetarium after a show, they intuitively know what’s coming next. It’s not applause or conversation or even a specific memory of a particular song or image.

It’s a feeling.

As the two longtime friends step back into the �鶹ӰԺ night, eyes adjusting, ears recalibrating, both of them are grinning from ear to ear. That part never changes.

“Every time we went,” Simon says, “we knew we’d walk out smiling.”

Longtime friends and �鶹ӰԺ residents Ron Marks (left) and Drew Simon are avid fans of the Fiske Planetarium, having attended dozens of shows over the past five years. They’ve seen some shows multiple times.

That quiet certainty—more than any single performance—is what has kept Simon and Marks returning to Fiske for years. Not because they planned to. Not because either of them studied astronomy or worked in the arts or even attended the �鶹ӰԺ.

And not because they expected to find something transformative inside the planetarium they had driven past many times. Instead, it began with curiosity and a misunderstanding.

Deep roots in the community

Marks, 80, and Simon, 71, have been friends for more than two decades, both with deep roots in the �鶹ӰԺ community stretching back at least four decades. Introduced to each other through a mutual friend—Marks’ housemate—they bonded over shared interests, which include hiking, live music, art and cultural events.

“There was a time when we were probably hippies, or hippie‑adjacent,” Simon says with a laugh. Over that time, CU �鶹ӰԺ has been a constant presence in their life—even though neither man attended the university.

Marks has been retired for several years from a career as an electric engineer for Lefthand Design in Niwot. Simon recently retired from his job as a principal at BSW Wealth Partners in �鶹ӰԺ. Like many longtime �鶹ӰԺ residents, Simon’s relationship with the university grew organically, through connections to the Leeds School of Business and the Conference on World Affairs. Also, his oldest son attended CU �鶹ӰԺ, further weaving the university into his family’s life.

Yet none of that connected either man directly to the Fiske Planetarium. Neither of them had a lifelong fascination with celestial mechanics or immersive films projected on a dome ceiling. Their first visit came the way meaningful discoveries do: by accident.

“As for Fiske specifically, we didn’t have some grand plan. It was probably curiosity,” Simon says, reflecting back. “We may have seen a flyer for the planetarium or something in �鶹ӰԺ Weekly back when that still existed. Or we may have simply asked, ‘What’s going on at the planetarium?’”

Whatever the case, Simon and Marks decided to check it out.

All the pretty lights

Their first show at Fiske remains memorable largely because of how unprepared they were for it. The show listing read “Pretty Lights”—and Simon assumed that meant exactly what it sounded like: a show featuring visually pleasing lights. He had never heard of the musical act called Pretty Lights and didn’t realize it was the stage name of the performer.

“That probably shows how naïve we were at the beginning,” Simon says with a laugh. That misunderstanding says something about where Simon and Marks were at the time. Not insiders. Not trend hunters. Just two curious locals trying something unknown to them.

They saw that first show more than five years ago—and since that time the two men have made up for lost time by seeing as many shows as possible. Still, an exact count is difficult to quantify, Simon says, because the experience resists counting. Some nights, they attend two shows, back to back. At dome film festivals hosted by Fiske, the two men might watch eight or more short films in a day. So, does that count as one event—or eight?

Simon says he’s never kept track “because it never occurred to me that one day someone would ask.” He estimates today that it could range anywhere between 30 and 60 shows.

What he remembers clearly is that—especially in the early years—he and Marks went a lot. They were enthralled.

So many shows to choose from

Marks says the variety of the programming offered by Fiske is a big part of the draw.

“We’ve done all of them,” Simon agrees. “We’ve attended traditional planetarium shows focused on astronomy—black holes, galaxies and large-scale maps of the universe. We’ve done laser shows and we’ve attended a lot of Liquid Sky performances.

“Early laser shows were sometimes underwhelming,” he confesses, “but the technology and the people running it have improved dramatically. Today, I wouldn’t dismiss a laser-only show the way I might have several years ago.”

“We’ve done all of them. We’ve attended traditional planetarium shows focused on astronomy—black holes, galaxies and large-scale maps of the universe. We’ve done laser shows and we’ve attended a lot of Liquid Sky performances," says Drew Simon. (Photo: Fiske Planetarium)

For Simon and Marks, Liquid Sky performances—the hybrid music-and-visual experiences—have remained their favorite over the years. Simon says that’s because these shows are not canned visuals synced to a soundtrack but instead are created in real time by artists operating sophisticated software during the performance.

Watching the artists (who refer to themselves as “navigators) felt like watching someone paint while the painting formed—”except the brush was digital and the canvas was the dome itself,” Simon says.

Over time, Marks and Simon became familiar faces at Fiske events. After shows, they stayed behind to talk with the navigators, who would ask what they liked about the performance and what might make the event even better. Did a sequence move too fast? Did a visual linger too long? Was there enough variety?

In an informal way, Marks and Simon became in-house critics, always with a focus on helping the experience become better. That sense of exchange and mutual engagement with the navigators deepened their connection to Fiske.

Music was the thread that tied many of these performances together. Simon and Marks say they’ve seen many Fiske shows more than once.

“We’ve seen a lot of Grateful Dead shows—probably more than any other artist. Pink Floyd would be second,” Simon says. “Some of that has to do with our musical preferences, and some of it has to do with relationships with navigators, who would tell us, ‘I’m navigating this show tonight—you should come.’”

“Each performance—even with the same music—felt different,” Marks adds. “The visuals changed. The pacing changed. The interpretation changed, so it was never the same twice.”

A place of musical discovery

Fiske also became a place of musical discovery. Simon says he and Marks had never heard of Tame Impala before attending a Liquid Sky show featuring the band’s music. Since then, they’ve seen that program at least three times.

The planetarium didn’t just reinforce existing preferences—it expanded them, Simon says.

At one point, Simon’s involvement with Fiske crossed a small but meaningful threshold. During conversations with one of the navigators years back, he mentioned that the program could benefit from different music. One idea that emerged from that discussion was a Jimi Hendrix show—and the navigator asked Simon if he’d curate the music. He agreed.

Simon says selecting the tracks, shaping the flow and keeping the program within the typical Liquid Sky timeframe gave him a new appreciation for the craft behind the scenes. The Hendrix show doesn’t run often, but Simon says he considers it a personal footnote in Liquid Sky history.

Film under the dome

If Liquid Sky showed Simon what live‑generated visuals could be, a single dome film revealed what else was possible. That moment came for Simon when Fiske hosted Samskara, a fully produced film by the visual artist Android Jones. Unlike the performances Simon had seen before, Samskara was created specifically for dome presentation. Although the film was only about 35 minutes long, the experience was, in Simon’s words, like going from black‑and‑white TV to color. It completely reframed his understanding of the medium.

“At its heart, Fiske isn’t just about astronomy or music—it’s an immersive experience. It’s an art form that’s still finding its full expression.”

The two men have seen Samskara at least three times. While it was more expensive compared to standard Fiske programming, Simon says he never questioned whether it was worth it.

The film demonstrated that the dome wasn’t just a venue for live experimentation; it was also a legitimate canvas for fully realized cinematic works. That realization carried forward into other film experiences, including Mesmerica and Beautifica by James Hood and collaborators, both of which Simon and Marks saw multiple times.

Then there was Dome Fest West, a judged film festival dedicated entirely to dome films. Fiske hosted it for multiple years, and Simon and Marks attended at least two full festivals, spending entire weekends immersed in the medium. Some films were short and abstract, others narrative or technically focused. There were panel discussions, awards and artists present. For Simon, it was one of the best experiences money could buy.

Fiske audience also evolves over time

Meanwhile, the audience has changed over time.

“When we first started going, there might be 10 people in the entire theater. And sometimes, we were the only ones there,” Simon says. “Now, shows sell out.”

Also, audiences now often applaud between songs—something Simon says would have felt out of place in a traditional planetarium setting.

The environment remains distinctive: everyone seated, the room dark and quiet, eyes turned upward. Simon says he always appreciated when navigators asked people not to use their phones, knowing how disruptive even a small phone screen can be in that darkness. While that messaging has become less consistent, Simon says he finds that audiences are generally respectful and engaged.

So why keep coming back?

Part of the answer is simple: Simon and Marks say they love the planetarium as a resource. Living in a university town is often talked about in abstract terms, but Simon says Fiske represents a tangible way to engage with CU �鶹ӰԺ. Simon and Marks also regularly attend performances through the CU School of Music, and Simon says Fiske feels like a natural extension of that cultural life.

Another part is commitment. Marks and Simon became Fiske members because they wanted to support the planetarium. Membership made them feel connected, not just as consumers of entertainment but as participants in a community invested in what Fiske could become.

And finally, there is fascination.

“At its heart, Fiske isn’t just about astronomy or music—it’s an immersive experience,” Simon says. “It’s an art form that’s still finding its full expression.”

Each visit to Fiske carries the quiet promise that something new will unfold overhead.

“The people at Fiske are wonderful and the programming is thoughtful. And every time we go, we leave smiling,” Simon says. “It’s not hard to say, ‘Let’s go to a planetarium show tonight,’ because we know it will be a meaningful experience.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about Fiske Planetarium? Show your support.

Although Drew Simon and Ron Marks did not attend CU �鶹ӰԺ, they have a deep appreciation for the university—and for Fiske in particular.

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From EDM to ‘I do’

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:16:49 +0000

From EDM to ‘I do’ Rachel Sauer Thu, 02/12/2026 - 18:16

Rachel Sauer

For Fiske Planetarium off-site education lead and CU �鶹ӰԺ astrophysics alumna MacKenzie Zurfluh, the famed dome isn’t just where she works, but where she found love

Did MacKenzie and Tanner Zurfluh fall in love and get married because of Fiske Planetarium? Not exactly, but it is where they met and it is where she works; plus, Tanner is frequently there helping out at various events. So, credit where credit is due, let’s say that theirs is a Fiske love story.

It began in October 2018, when MacKenzie was serving in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in South Dakota, and Frederick native Tanner was living in �鶹ӰԺ with several roommates who attended the �鶹ӰԺ.

MacKenzie and Tanner Zurfluh met at a Fiske Planetarium show in October 2018. (Photo: MacKenzie Zurfluh)

With all due respect to South Dakota, “there wasn’t a lot to do there when you’re 19 and living on base,” MacKenzie says. So, she and her then boyfriend decided one weekend to drive to Denver for an electronic dance music (EDM) show at Red Rocks and scouted around for something to do the other evening of their visit. They happened across the ILLENIUM laser show at Fiske.

Meanwhile, one of Tanner’s roommates knew someone on the Fiske production team, and that friend of a friend got tickets to the ILLENIUM show for the group.

So, that was how two 19-year-olds who didn’t know each other—one of whom had a boyfriend that she would break up with a week later—ended up at the same Fiske Planetarium EDM show on the same evening.

The show was great—“because all shows at Fiske are,” says the unbiased MacKenzie—and afterward most of the audience migrated to the lobby to chat and make new friends. Tanner was in one amorphous circle and MacKenzie was in another, and eventually the two circles merged.

The closest they came to actually talking, though, was when MacKenzie complimented the jersey that one of Tanner’s friends was wearing. And that was it.

“But we kept running into each other,” Tanner recalls.

Because of the aforementioned South Dakota issue and the fact that Colorado’s Front Range is an EDM hub, MacKenzie drove down most weekends and kept happening across this guy whose name she couldn’t quite remember.

Tanner, however…

After an EDM show at the Ogden Theater in December 2018, Tanner waited outside the theater for 45 minutes to see if she’d come out, not knowing she’d already left.

“My friends had to drag me away,” he says. “It was the first night we talked, and I remember thinking, ‘Come hell or high water, she is going to be my wife.’”

A few weeks later, at the 2018 New Year’s Eve Decadence festival at the Colorado Convention Center, MacKenzie walked up to a group and put her arms around the two nearest people, one of whom happened to be Tanner.

By that point, she remembered his name. SnapChats were exchanged. They were officially Talking with a capital T—not dating, but it wasn’t 100% platonic, either. “After we’d been talking for a while, he looks at me and says, ‘Were you at Fiske on this day wearing this color beanie at this show?’” MacKenzie says.

On Feb. 4, 2019—yes, they remember the exact day—they decided: We’re doing this.

MacKenzie Zurfluh (left, with husband Tanner Zurfluh) graduated at Fiske Planetarium and was a speaker at the ceremony. (Photo: MacKenzie Zurfluh)

Black holes and relativity

In the beginning, MacKenzie left base on Friday afternoon, arrived in �鶹ӰԺ late Friday night and drove back to South Dakota Sunday afternoon. Tanner made the trip north a few times, but they both agreed there was more to do in Colorado.

However, MacKenzie was also getting ready to deploy to the Middle East and tried to give Tanner the ol’ “Go live your life, don’t worry about me.”

“And I remember he goes, ‘That’s fine if you don’t want to have a relationship, but can I still be your friend?’” MacKenzie says, adding that while the deployment ended up being canceled, she was still there and he was here. “That gave us the opportunity to build a really strong friend foundation. There were times where things sucked, and I had him to talk to.”

When she planned to exit the military, MacKenzie knew she wanted to pursue a degree but wasn’t sure where. On the cusp of returning home to California, Tanner offered her an alternative: “Come live here."

Without MacKenzie knowing it, he’d spent months finishing his mother’s Frederick basement. She could live with him there and study astrophysics at CU �鶹ӰԺ, which is what she did. In the middle of earning her degree, while she was going to school full time and working as a server at a brewery in Longmont, she applied for a job at Fiske and got it.

“I wouldn’t be making as much, so I was really worried about how I was going to pay my bills, but I kept thinking that NASA doesn’t care if I was a waitress, they care if I worked at Fiske,” she says.

“You were chasing your dreams,” Tanner adds. “Studying space and being in the field was always the goal.”

“So, he said to me, ‘We’ll figure it out,’” MacKenzie finishes, and that’s what they did.

In class she was studying black holes and relativity, and at work she was helping them come alive. And in the middle of all this, on the last day of finals in May 2022, kneeling in the chaos of their home remodel—because they’d bought a house in Dacono—Tanner proposed.

She said yes, but with the caveat that they couldn’t even think about planning a wedding until after she graduated—which she did at Fiske Planetarium in May 2024. Seven months later, their wedding in California was essentially Fiske West because so many of MacKenzie’s colleagues attended.

“Our director (Professor John Keller) calls Tanner a Fiske in-law,” says MacKenzie, who is now the Fiske off-site education lead. “Any time there’s an event, he’s here helping.”

“It’s great to be part of the Fiske family,” says Tanner, who co-owns Jayhawk Tile LLC. Fiske has been part of many of their important moments, MacKenzie adds, and in fact her colleague Amanda Wimmer Flint, Fiske on-site education lead, programmed the ILLENIUM show at which they unknowingly first “met.”

Now, sitting in MacKenzie’s office in the depths of Fiske, Tanner can be honest: “As cheesy as it sounds, I fell in love with her smile and her laugh. I genuinely felt a connection.”

MacKenzie beams at him and gestures to her left. “And it happened right out there.”

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For Fiske Planetarium off-site education lead and CU �鶹ӰԺ astrophysics alumna MacKenzie Zurfluh, the famed dome isn’t just where she works, but where she found love.

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Fifty years of Fiske, 50 years of hits

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:23:24 +0000

Fifty years of Fiske, 50 years of hits Rachel Sauer Mon, 09/29/2025 - 18:23

Alexandra Phelps

Love the music and laser shows at Fiske? They’re the work of a dedicated team of students led by CU �鶹ӰԺ astronomy alumnus Jeremy Osowski

When looking at over 50 years of music hits, how would you narrow down the list to only 15 songs? This difficult question led to the creation of Fiske Planetarium’s 50th anniversary music show, which debuted Friday.

Fiske Planetarium is kicking off its 50th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than with some historical hits? “Flashback at Fiske,” a music and laser show that combines the iconic music of the previous five decades and space, will leave people walking out with the line between science and art blurred, say its creators.

The man behind the lasers

Jeremy Osowski is a CU �鶹ӰԺ astronomy graduate, Fiske Planetarium music show lead and visual arts specialist.

The man behind the show is Jeremy Osowski, a �鶹ӰԺ astronomy graduate, Fiske Planetarium music show lead and visual arts specialist.

Osowski began at CU �鶹ӰԺ in the aerospace engineering program. However, after taking some time to consider his interests, he decided to study astronomy. During his undergraduate studies, he worked at Noodles & Company and was offered the position of assistant general manager. Needing the weekend to consider the offer, he attended a show at Fiske Planetarium and realized that students were the ones running the show.

Equipped with no experience, he walked into the planetarium the next day and asked about a job. Initially, he was told that he could scan tickets and sweep floors. Osowski remembers thinking, “‘That sounds like a good gig to me.’ For the first two years I was an usher, scanning tickets, doing odds-and-ends things. Being a junior, there wasn’t a lot of availability in moving up and navigating and presenting in the planetarium. But what did have an opening was the outreach program.”

Working in the outreach program, he began presenting Fiske’s inflatable planetarium, solar telescope and meteorites lab at area schools. When COVID-19 hit, he was able to work at home with one of the laptops that contained the software the planetarium used to develop the music shows and began to experiment with the visuals and the playlists. During a livestream performance, he consulted on the playlist and performed some of the visuals. Finally, his bosses were beginning to see he knew how to put together a show.

When in-person shows resumed, Osowski got his break. One night the music show navigator was MIA while he was ushering. Despite starting out on the sidelines, he jumped in to save the show. Afterwards, he was hired as a temp worker with a nine-month term limit before a required hiatus. During his break, he worked as a dark skies ranger at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Thursdays through Saturdays, he guided hikes, led telescope observing sessions and more. He enjoyed this so much he made steps toward a career in teaching, first as a substitute teacher and then considering a master’s in teaching at CU Denver, but life had other plans for him.

Flashback at Fiske

A laser show for the decades, "Flashback at Fiske" is a retrospective of iconic music spanning five decades accompanied by Fiske's legendary artistic laser and liquid sky wizardry. "Flashback at Fiske" will play weekends through May 2026, and the next show is Saturday, Oct. 4, at 10 p.m.

Learn more

Three years ago, he was pulled back into Fiske’s orbit when Director John Keller told him about the new Science through Shadows educational program, which focuses on eclipses, occultations and transits. Osowski applied to manage the program and got the position. Now his job is 75% managing the program and 25% managing the music shows.

One of the shows that Osowski has been working to create is Fiske’s 50th anniversary show, “Flashback at Fiske.”

Five decades of hits

The “Flashback at Fiske” playlist began with five decades of Billboard Hot 100 charts, Rolling Stone magazine and other music charts. Searching for what songs were popular or celebrated was the easiest way to begin planning the playlist. After Osowski had narrowed the list down to around 100 songs, he shared it with the rest of Fiske’s staff. Together, they voted on songs. “It came down to what songs were popular in those decades and what songs flowed together best,” Osowski explains. After the challenging process of debating and voting, Osowski and his colleagues managed to narrow the playlist to 15 songs.

It was hard to only pick a few songs from each decade,” he explains. “But I looked at 1975—the year we opened—and one of the top songs was Pink Floyd’s ‘Welcome to the Machine,’ and I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan, so it’s a nod to all (my) planetarium shows; I have to have a Pink Floyd song.”

There is a lot of personal touch within the playlist, he adds; despite some of the songs being iconic, they still hold a, special place for many of the staff who contributed to the project. “There’s one song from the ’80s that not many people may know, but it’s our director’s favorite song,” he says. “I tried to keep it either songs people will remember listening to or that embody the feeling of the decade or genre it comes from.”

Visually, the song choices played an important role in creating the laser imagery, he says, adding that the artist who created the graphics for the featured Beyoncé song wanted them to mirror the pop sound of the song. If the song is EDM or bass music, for example, there are more beam lasers that shoot over audience members’ heads.

Because it’s a planetarium, the base of all shows is the specialized planetarium software, DigitalSky2. Within the music shows, including the 50th anniversary show, there is the element of being flown through space by the navigator: “I like to say we blend science, nature and art,” Osowski says. “I like to drop science on people without them realizing they’re learning.”

Throughout the fall of 2025 and more dates coming in 2026, different students will run the same show. Although the playlist and lasers will remain the same, the students have full creative freedom to choose what space imagery they want to use. This allows visitors to be flown through different parts of space each performance.

A full roster of shows

While the 50th anniversary music show has been months in the making and is a highlight in commemorating Fiske’s milestone anniversary, the planetarium is maintaining its full calendar of science and other music shows.

All of Fiske Planetarium’s shows are an hour long and the usual schedule is three shows a night on Thursdays through Sundays—one science show followed by two music shows. The music shows used to be designated Laser Sky or Liquid Sky, but among other changes, Osowski is blending the two styles.

One of the most challenging aspects of Fiske’s show, he says, is that they don't change every week like in movie theatres. Osowski considers how once people have seen a show with a certain artist, they may believe they don’t need to see it again because it won’t have changed. He is working to create shows that change from one year to the next, allowing fans to consistently experience something new.

Osowski says he and the team of students and staff are working hard to develop new shows, and that all of Fiske’s shows are either student-made or student-run. He notes Caroline’s Classic Rock Show, which features hits of the 1960s and 1970s and debuted Sept. 19, adding that it sold out by Sept. 16. Another show showcases Ariana Grande’s hits, and Osowski is currently creating a Twenty One Pilots show. Part of the art of putting together this and other shows is featuring an artist’s hit but not making it a “greatest hits show,” he says. Often, creating shows means finding a balance between what Osowski or his colleagues like and what they believe the audience will want to hear.

Fiske Planetarium is more than just a venue for the light shows; it’s a place for learners of all ages. The planetarium hosts K-12 field trips and CU student classes during the day, so Osowski and his colleagues have been creating music shows that cater to those audiences.

A surprise career

When Osowski took an astronomy class in high school, he didn’t believe he could make a career out of it. Working on the MAVEN Mission with spacecraft and model data, he realized that it was the science behind space and not building that he was interested in.

“When I started doing outreach with the planetarium, I realized what I really loved was sharing science with people,” he says. “I would much rather be going to a school or setting up a solar telescope in front of the planetarium and interacting with others than working on a computer by myself.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about Fiske Planetarium? Show your support.

Love the music and laser shows at Fiske? They’re the work of a dedicated team of students led by CU �鶹ӰԺ astronomy alumnus Jeremy Osowski.

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Fiske Planetarium, emeritus prof awarded $2 million NASA grant

Anonymous — Mon, 23 May 2022 22:32:43 +0000

Fiske Planetarium, emeritus prof awarded $2 million NASA grant Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/23/2022 - 16:32

Doug McPherson

This grant will be used to produce full dome videos that will educate the public on NASA’s latest scientific endeavors including two upcoming solar eclipses

University of Colorado �鶹ӰԺ’s Fiske Planetarium and an emeritus professor have won a $2 million grant from NASA to produce videos and distribute them to planetariums around the globe.

Douglas Duncan, emeritus professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and principal investigator for the project, titled “Science Through Shadows: Eclipses and Solar Science, Occultations and Solar System Origins,” will work with John Keller, director of the Fiske Planetarium, to produce videos on the sun, asteroids and NASA missions over the next three and a half years. The videos will be created in both “full-dome” format used by planetariums, and flat screen, used at libraries, schools and on YouTube.

“This award allows Fiske to continue to produce high-quality content on NASA exploration that will be shared with millions of audience members in planetariums across the planet,” Keller says.

At the top of the page: Fiske videos are now being seen worldwide (Photo by Casey Cass). Above: Chris Moore (PhDAstro’17), an astrophysicist at Harvard University, holds his shoebox-sized satellite designed to study the sun. The satellite was featured in one of Fiske Planetarium’s prior educational videos.

Duncan says a major emphasis of the grant and videos are two upcoming solar eclipses, one in October 2023 and another in April 2024, both of which will cross the United States.

“We’ll be producing videos that show people how to safely watch eclipses, why they should see a total eclipse, and what scientists are learning about the sun from eclipses and spacecraft,” Duncan says.

Keller says that in addition to eclipses, the videos will also feature occultations, where an object in our solar system passes in front of a distant star, creating a shadow.

“Occultations are another important technique scientists use,” Keller says. “The science-through-shadows project will share with audiences the adventure of international occultation campaigns that researchers use to plan encounters by spacecraft with asteroids and minor planets.”

Keller adds that researchers use eclipses and occultation to better understand our sun and solar system. “The accuracy and precision with which we can measure planetary positions and characteristics through stellar occultations surpasses even the Hubble or Webb space telescopes,” Keller says.

Another key element of the grant, Duncan says, is reaching audiences that have been “less served or exposed” to resources in science. So Fiske is partnering with museums in Detroit, Michigan, and Oakland, California, and involving high school students from those areas to help with the design and production of some of the videos.

Fiske has been producing videos since 2015, when it remodeled and added digital video production capabilities, including a new staff member to produce videos.

“Our idea was that any faculty member at CU could use Fiske and work with us to support their classes with stunning, 360-degree—full dome—video,” says Duncan, who directed the Fiske Planetarium from 2002 to 2018. “Not just astronomy, it could be geology, art, you name it. But then we went beyond campus, and in 2015 we won our first NASA grant to produce and distribute videos to other planetariums.”

Since then, Fiske has created videos on many topics including how satellites measure ground water, how scientists discover new worlds, the New Horizons spacecraft flying past Pluto, the Parker Solar Probe flying to the sun, moon rocks, miniature satellites and climate change. The videos have been seen in more than 260 planetariums worldwide.

“Our videos show the wide variety of things NASA does—not just Mars and Hubble—that benefit us here on earth, and they also are designed to interest students in space-related careers,” Duncan says. “Space is one of the most important industries in Colorado, and CU is one of the leading universities for space missions and funding by NASA.”

Duncan says the first video produced at Fiske shows how NASA satellites can tell how much water is underground by sensing the slight difference in mass and therefore gravity that’s seen in wet ground compared to dry.

Our videos show the wide variety of things NASA does—not just Mars and Hubble—that benefit us here on earth, and they also are designed to interest students in space-related careers.”

“As California is struggling with drought conditions, NASA can tell them how bad the drought is underground, not just in the visible reservoirs,” Duncan says. “Of course, water is important to people all over. So we tell stories about how NASA data can help us on earth.”

Another video shows how satellites are getting miniaturized and features CU �鶹ӰԺ alumnus, Chris Moore, who now works as an astrophysicist at Harvard University, and his shoebox-sized satellite designed to study the sun.

Duncan says the videos have received “very positive” feedback.

“Medium and small planetariums—which is most of them—don’t have the budget or staff to produce their own videos,” he says.

Keller adds, “Building off the subject matter expertise found throughout CU �鶹ӰԺ and the Front Range, Fiske is well known for producing high-quality, accessible content for the planetarium community.”

“CU is known as a leader in teaching and communicating science,” Duncan says. “For instance, our free science-teaching applets at PhET have been used over 1 billion times. This grant allows us to use our expertise to engage audiences all over the world.”

This grant will be used to produce full dome videos that will educate the public on NASA’s latest scientific endeavors including two upcoming solar eclipses.

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A digital look at ancient skies gets a showing at Fiske

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 07:00:00 +0000

A digital look at ancient skies gets a showing at Fiske Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/17/2016 - 00:00

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Fiske program weds ancient archaeology and astronomy with the latest technology

Having captured the summer solstice and a week’s worth of sunsets, sunrises and their lunar equivalents from the vantage point of ancient Chacoan people in southwestern Colorado, using parabolic video technology, a multi-disciplinary team from the �鶹ӰԺ counted its June 2015 trip a success.

But it wasn’t until they got back to �鶹ӰԺ that the team discovered a truly unexpected gem: A mesmerizing show by the Aurora Borealis, which rarely dips so far south.

Fiske Video Producer Thor Metzinger shooting at Chimney Rock National Monument. Photo by Bill Hanson. Click on picture for larger image.

Fiske Video Producer Thor Metzinger shooting at Chimney Rock National Monument. Photo by Bill Hanson.

“We were photographing kivas” — Chacoan religious structures — “that are oriented with the axis pointed to the north,” says J. McKim Malville, professor emeritus of astrophysical and planetary sciences. “The cameras were set up automatically to run all night.”

Back at CU, one of the crew going over the time-lapse footage at a major kiva noticed that something was flickering in the sky. A check of records from solar monitors confirmed that a blast of activity, a coronal mass ejection, had created spectacular auroral displays across North America that night.

“It’s extraordinary; we have time-lapse photography at the Great Kiva in Pueblo Bonito with the aurora lighting the sky behind it,” says Erica Ellingson, associate professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences.

The unexpected aurora created a connection across hundreds of years to the Chacoans, who left behind a petroglyph of an explosion blowing off part of the solar corona during a total solar eclipse of July 11, 1097. Some of these so-called coronal mass ejections cause aurora on the Earth.

And here’s good news for anyone who loves deserts, stars and ancient peoples: The aurora footage will be part of an upcoming program at newly renovated Fiske Planetarium on the archaeological astronomy of the ancient Chacoan people. Between the full-dome photography and the planetarium’s high-res, 8,000-pixel dome, audience members will be stunned by the realism of the space.

“We can show fully spherical movies on the dome. The feeling is going to be pretty similar to standing there at the site,” says Ellingson, who is writing and producing the show, along with Fiske creative director Thor Metzinger.

It’s fascinating that ancient people, a thousand years ago, were watching the same skies with great detail and attention, right in our back yard. We’re really excited to bring those stories to light at Fiske.”

Steven Lekson, professor of anthropology and curator of anthropology at the CU Museum of Natural History, provided archaeological expertise for the team.

The program, supported by a technology grant from CU’s ASSETT teaching with technology program and IMPART program for multi-cultural programming, can trace its roots to a struggling student 30 years ago in Malville’s introductory astronomy course.

To improve his grade, Mark Nuepert asked if he could write a paper about a stone that was oriented to the sun at the Yellow Jacket Ruin in southwest Colorado. Neupert had attended an archaeology field school at Yellow Jacket let by the legendary CU archaeologist Joe Ben Wheat.

Not only did he write the paper, but he took his professor out there, studied the ruin more thoroughly with him, and jointly presented a paper at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

A petroglyph of an eclipse is seen with a wide-angle lens in a photograph at Chaco Canyon, where CU-�鶹ӰԺ researchers captured a rare Aurora Borealis in the southern night sky. Photo courtesy of Fiske Planetarium.

Encouraged by Malville, Neupert went on to graduate magna cum laude from CU and obtain a PhD in archaeology. Malville was also transformed by that experience, which inspired him to create a new course, Ancient Astronomies of the World, and begin taking more students into the field.

The Chacoan, or Ancestral Puebloan, people lived in the in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico as early as 600 A.D. In the 11th century, they began building structures, known as Great Houses and Great Kivas, some of which were based on the movements on the sun, moon and stars. The Great House and kiva built on the high mesa at Chimney Rock Pueblo, for example, were at a place where the moon could be observed appearing between its two natural spires on an 18-year cycle, a fact discovered by Malville in 1988, and observed by him and his students, probably for the first time since the site had been abandoned some 900 years earlier.

“I had calculated that the moon would come up through the chimneys sometime on the night of Aug. 8,” he says. Sure enough, it did, and he correctly predicted that the conjunction would not occur again until 2004.

Later he discovered that tree dates confirmed that the buildings had been constructed in the 11thcentury at the times when the moon made its appearance between the chimneys. “Many important discoveries made in Chaco, Mesa Verde and Chimney Rock have been by my team of CU students, mostly undergraduates.”

When the U.S. secretaries of the interior and agriculture came to designate Chimney Rock a national monument in 2012 — partly in recognition of discoveries by Malville, Lekson and CU students — a local brewery created a special brew, Ancestor Ale, with a label that featured the moonrise between the spires.

The moon will not rise between the chimneys for another seven years, but the Fiske team filmed multiple alignments between the sun and stars and archaeological ruins at Chimney Rock, Aztec National Monument, Salmon Ruins and Chaco Culture National Historical Park. These alignments, visible only at the summer solstice, show how the Chacoans created intimate connections between their world and the sky.

The week-long shoot was grueling, as the team battled blazing summer temperatures, torrential rainstorms and long hikes into the desert laden with heavy gear. They rose each day at 3:45 a.m. to load up and drive to make that day’s sunrise shoot. They often worked until close to midnight, after filming sunset and setting up the cameras for all-night filming.

Ellingson was enthralled by the experience: “It was exhausting, but being in these places, watching the sun rise, was one of the most extraordinary experiences I’ve ever had.”

Ellingson, who is now teaching Ancient Astronomies of the World, will present the premier program on March 11. She is now working with CU-�鶹ӰԺ crowd-funding staff to raise funds to create a version of a show that will be shared with other planetariums worldwide.

“It’s fascinating that ancient people, a thousand years ago, were watching the same skies with great detail and attention, right in our back yard,” Ellingson says. “We’re really excited to bring those stories to light at Fiske.”

The Fiske production is scheduled to be the subject of a crowdfunding campaign later this spring. For more information on Fiske Planetarium, click here.

Clay Evans is a free-lance writer and longtime �鶹ӰԺ journalist.

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