Australasian Planetarium Society

Valentines Day coincides with the 30th Anniversary of the Pale Blue Dot Image.

Friday 14th February 8.15pm

The iconic Pale Blue Dot is an image of Earth taken from approximately 6 billion kilometers away by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft on 14 February 1990. The Earth can be seen as a tiny pale-blue bright dot within deep space. The image was part of a larger group of images known as the Family Portrait series that consisted of various images of the solar system.

….”On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, ….”

Carl Sagan

Be taken on an amazing Journey…………If it is cloudy a virtual Tour of the night sky will replace the live viewing at the telescopes.

Valentines Day – 30th Anniversary of the Pale Blue Dot and An Evening Under the Stars

The Dome Under Festival awards has now completed. The festival jury, Alicia Sometimes, Jack White & Monica Zetlin are pleased to announce the following winners:

Best Student Film

S is for Episode

An inventive, visceral narrative allowing us a deeper understanding into the narrator’s ever-changing interior world.

Best Experimental Film

Vestige

An emotive, dynamic film. Originally produced as a real-time, room-scale VR experience it has translated extremely well to the canvas of the dome. Adding to the language of what is possible within the fulldome experience.

Best Short Film

How it was told to Me

Efficient use of stylish animation bringing to life Maori culture in three delightful stories. Wonderful acting and a confident story.

Best Narrative

Beyond the Sun

With great characterizations and an absorbing story, this film utilizes science in a way that will inspire the young to keep learning.

Best Astronomy Education

Big Astronomy: People, Places, Discoveries

This elegantly produced film showcases the diverse collaboration of scientists that open our minds to the expanse of the cosmos. Extraordinary footage and engaging talent.

The jury decided that there were so many films of incredible quality, that they wanted to acknowledge three additional films.  The jury made the following commendations.

Commendations

Arora

An exquisite glimpse into the universe of auroras. A gorgeous blend of science and folklore.

Whale Super Highway

Beautifully shot. A reminder of why these animals are so important to the earth. Really punching high for a fulldome video.

Beautiful Baby Tilapia

A charming approach to fulldome graphics with a surprising story for children and adults.

Congratulations to all of the winners.  Thank you to the jury for their amazing work and support of the festival. Thank you to all of the sponsors and supporting partners of the festival and all those who contributed their films.

It is now just four weeks until APS2020. The program for this year is looking excellent with a huge range of talks and presentations. You can find the latest version of the program here:  APS 2020 Program – 200207

Anyone who has not already registered for the conference is strongly encouraged to do so as soon as possible.