The Dr. Edmond E. Griffin Planetarium, tucked into one of the buildings on the Conway campus, offers shows to the public on Fridays. I finally got up the energy to go see one called “Two Small Pieces of Glass — The Amazing Telescope.”
There were nine other members of the public there for the afternoon showing.
The view from my seat before the show started.
A professor hosted the show. He talked live as he showed us ariel views of Conway and then a view of what the sky would look like on this night. He showed us the major constellations — both as they would appear in the sky and with pictures (bear, swan, etc.) laid over them. He also pointed out the planets, and the next night I went outside with my spotting scope and found Venus and Jupiter (with three of its moons). This part of the show was cool. He then showed us three short films, two of which I was forgetting as I watched. The other was on light pollution and featured Chicago. The feature film gave the history of the telescope with animated figures and examples of what could be seen. It seemed like it was geared for kids and was too sketchy to be of real interest.
But I enjoyed it all enough that I’d go again if the feature film looked interesting. (The one the week before was on Brown Bears, which I would like to have seen.) After all, it was 10 minutes from home and free. I heard the professor telling someone that he was leaving the school at the end of the month. I tried to hear whether the shows would continue, but he sounded uncertain about what would happen.