This page contains the material submitted to the local paper - The Davis Enterprise - for Explorit Science Center's news column published in that paper on Fridays.

Article for: The Davis Enterprise
Date: July 23, 2004
Author: Leslie Madsen-Brooks

VIEW OUTER SPACE FROM INSIDE EXPLORIT

Sit back, relax, and travel through space and time.

That's the latest invitation from Explorit Science Center, which recently introduced a multimedia presentation that allows visitors to learn about recent findings in astronomy.

The program, called ViewSpace, projects high-resolution images, digital animations, and interpretive captions onto a screen in the science center's Discovery Den. Music that evokes the beauty and vastness of space accompanies much of the presentation, adding to the already relaxed, low-key atmosphere of the room.

The program has eight components that cycle continuously:

"Celestial Tours" covers a range of astronomical subjects. For example, visitors can travel through nebulae and watch stars being born, as well as look at space objects with infrared vision.

"Hubble Update" broadcasts images directly from the famous space telescope at the moment of their release.

"Astronomy Picture of the Day" provides a new photograph daily, as well as in-depth but accessible information about the object.

"Mars Exploration Rover Update" gives visitors a glimpse into the latest discoveries made from data provided from the Mars landers and rovers.

Explorit received images from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn shortly after their transmission to Earth, thanks to "Cassini-Huygens Update." Visitors will definitely want to check out the ViewSpace Program during the Huygens probe's exploration of Saturn's moon Titan.

"Skylines" introduces constellations, planets, deep sky objects, and other special astronomical events that can be seen from earth. This section of the program is updated monthly.

"Science as Art" presents poetry inspired and informed by astronomical discovery.

Finally, "Celestial Update" provides the latest images from NASA Great Observatories. 

"Reaction from visitors to date has been very positive," said Tom Wickersham, Explorit's communications coordinator. "People have really enjoyed seeing it."

Tabatha Bruce, an Explorit exhibit developer and education specialist, agreed. She added that ViewSpace fits in with Explorit's mission to provide many different ways of learning about science.

"This is brand-new for us, this technology, this way of observing," Bruce explained. "It's not only exciting for Explorit, but it's also good information in a friendly, accessible format."

ViewSpace may be experienced at Explorit during the science center's public hours.  ViewSpace runs through the end of Explorit's next exhibition, "Inner Earth to Outer Space: Origins of Life and the Universe," and is part of Explorit's participation this summer and fall in a series of events connected to PBS's NOVA television series Origins.

For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call 756-0191.
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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 5th St. in East Davis. The current exhibition "From A to Z: Spanning the Science Spectrum" runs through September 5. Public hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.