Download `Eye` stars at planetarium

PATENT TRADER
Saturday, N o v . 13, 1971 — 1WA
PATENT TRADERs
N o v e m b e r 13-20, 1971
The Hudson River Museum
Sound and light
show
'Eye' stars at planetarium
By MOLIA B U S S
Y O N K K R S — \ ualk through
electronic music black light pasta
chalkv rotating earth and pocked
moon leads into the Hudson R i v e r
Museum s \ndrus Space Transit
Planetarium and its new show
The Hungrv K \ e
This hungrv
eye is nlso a
California institution
hut much
older than the Kingston Trio s showc ase It is the 200-inch telescope at
Mt
Palomar Observatory which
can reach farther into space than
an> other telescope in the world In
a 55-mmute sound and light produc­
tion the telescope s photographs
explore the universe
.\v the planetarium's dome fills
with stars Arthur Godfrey ion
tape i chats to
let vou get >our
night e\es
Surprisingly his folksy
deli\er>
doesn t jar
with
the
awesomeness of his subject The
beautifully
piogrammed
musichelps bind narration and graphics
\
M o o g seems just right for
describing space, sitar, recorder,
tlute and a lot of easy, Chet Atkinslike guitar drift with the projector
Uternate narrator Ric hard Lincoln,
who has the mellifluous
anony­
mous tones of a \ oice-ov er is a good
foil for Godfrey
D R A W I N G S detailing the history
of astronomy flash on the dome
The
Phoenicians
Galileo.
Wil­
liam Herschel early, gigantic un­
manageable telescopes built on the
fallacy the longer the telescope the
better the view
The constellations appear the
classical drawings outlined in light
around their stars Orion, grace­
fully kneeling, the unicorn, stiff
Andromeda, geometric Taurus The
Palomar telescope shows that what
looks like one star is a cluster of
thousands
It shows the Crab Nebula, 5,000
light years a w a y , six light years
wide, the remnants of a supernova.
radiation in pulses), ^facilitating
m o r e accurate m e a s u r e m e n t of
distances
A N D R O M E D A , the nearest ga­
laxy to our own, two million light
years or a nonillion m i l e s a w a y , is
no challenge for the telescope. " T h e
-Hungry E y e ' s . " c l i m a x shows light
gathered from clusters o f galaxies
more than two billion light y e a r s
away
To cheer the v i e w e r who might
be depressed and disoriented in all
this infinity, the show ends on an up
and somewhat existential
note.
Though the contemplation of space
makes
man
feel
insignificant,
Arthutur Godfrey says, it is only
man, after all, who can comprehend
it.
"The Hungry E y e " runs through
N o v e m b e r 28, with showings at 1-30,
3 and
4 p.m. Saturdays
and
Sundays,
3 30
pm
Tuesdays
through F r i d a y s and 8 p m Wednes­
days Admission is $1 25 for adults
and 75 cents for children.
Getting to the museum half an
hour or so before the show is a good
idea, as weekend lines a r e long and
spectators m a y have to wait for the
next performance
But waiting time is easily filled.
The current exhibition. " T w e n t i e t h
Century Painting and Sculpture
from the N e w Y o r k University A r t
Collection" is at least an hour's
worth of viewing
F o r children
STAR C L U S T E R S which appear to the naked eye and even an ordi­
under eight, there is the portable
nary telescope as single stars are illumined by the 200-inch telescope
playground in the courtyard, with
on Mt. Palomar. Photographs taken through the telescope are on view
plastic forms to c r a w l through,
in the new show at the Hudson River Museum's planetarium.
plastic two-by-fours to build with
and a collapsible see-saw.
What
looks
like
a
white
marble
or catastrophic stellar explosion
sundial
is
projected
on
the
dome
It
Across the w a y is G l e n v i e w , an
When the star came to its end in
is
a
radio
telescope,
instrument
of
a
Italianate
Gothic Mansion built in
1054. Chinese astronomers, seeing a
new
kind
of
astronomy
that
began
1877,
with
an
art rental g a l l e r y and
new body in the sky. named the neb­
after
World
W
a
r
I
I
,
when
there
was
three
rooms
containing
original fur­
ula "the guest star "
nishings
chosen
with
careful
atten­
a
surplus
of
radar
equipment
R
a
d
i
o
Through the hungry eye the
tion
to
"Hints
on
Household
T
a
ste,"
astronomy was prime in the discov­
Rosette
Nebula
is
blood-red,
the
Victorian's
bible
of
interior
vulvular, the horse in the Horseery of pulsars ( e x t r e m e l y dense neu­
head Nebula is an Arabian bay.
tron stars in supernovas -that emit
designj:eform
. . - - . J
L_
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