The newly renovated Harry C. Vaughan University of Wyoming Planetarium will have a new experience for crowds this Friday. For the first time in the planetarium’s history, a full-dome movie will be shown on the planetarium's dome.

Travis Laurance, planetarium director, says this the new renovations make showing a movie a new possibility for the facility.

“We did not have projectors to start with, we just had what we called a star ball which rose out of the center, and it was basically a ball with a light bulb in the center and holes punched through it that showed the night sky,” says Laurance. “Now we have a projection system so it’s two projectors that overlap in the dome. Basically because they’re computer controlled, we can do almost anything with them. Where as with the old one it was very static.”

“Back to the Moon” will be shown on Friday, January 23 at 7 p.m. Laurance says the movie, narrated by Tim Allen, is approximately 25 minutes long. The show is about the Google Lunar XPrize in which the first to land a privately funded robot on the moon will be awarded millions of dollars.

“We have three movies so we’re looking forward to showing one of those and seeing how the reception goes because it’s quite different than our normal shows. Our normal shows, we actually talk and engage and interact with the audience,” says Laurance.

After the movie is shown, the rest of the allotted time will be dedicated to a discussion on moons in our solar system.

After the show, a laser show, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, will be shown at 8 p.m.

Tickets for start shows and laser shows are priced at $2 for students and $3 for non-students and may be purchased at the Department of Physics main office located in Room 204 of the Physical Sciences Building. Tickets may be purchased Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Fridays from 8 a.m. until noon.

Doors open 20 minutes before each show, where tickets will be sold if available. Many recent shows have sold out, so it is recommended to purchase tickets early.

The planetarium is located in the basement of the Physical Sciences Building.

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