TAMPA – Six-year-old Alison Morales Santis dropped his chin as he stepped into the newly opened Mosi Digital Dome Theater. There, the screen in front showed a broad image of the International Space Station, floating several miles above the Earth.
“I feel dizzy,” she said.
A small first grader at Forest Hills Elementary School in Tampa was one of the first children to attend the first field trip at the Museum of Science and Industry’s former IMAX Theatre on Monday. It has been converted into a dome planetarium with a 10,000 square feet curved screen, making it the second largest planetarium in the country.
Pinellas County astronaut Nicole Stott has been on the International Space Station for three months to serve the crew for the final mission of Space Shuttle Discovery, cutting ribbons to showcase his children the experience.
“When you’re in space, you don’t just see it, you’re surrounded by it. You feel it,” said Stott, a graduate of Clearwater High who frequently works with MOSI in their science education initiatives. “That’s what you’re trying to get a taste.”
Hundreds of children from several Hillsboro County schools settled down, tilting their heads to incorporate two-storey, eight-storey screens.
A cry of yelled from the crowd as the lights went off and the screen showed the night as it appeared on Tampa. The announcer pointed out the belts of Jupiter, Mars and Orion. This is easily seen in the current southwest sky without light pollution that can make such a sight difficult.
The 360-degree view of space then began to flee, and the children raised their hands in the air, as if to catch a meteor. The film “Oasis in Space” followed.
The popular planetarium show uses high-tech graphics to show Earth and adjacent planets as they once were. Children in the audience on Monday shrieked and cried out as if they were on a roller coaster as the camera zoomed through the solar system.
The Old Imax Theater screen has been replaced by a high-tech porous metal nano-seam screen that displays extremely sharp images while the sound is pumped from the surroundings.
The sharp images feature ten huge digital Christy projectors with 8K technology, creating a brighter cinema experience than seen in the Tampa Bay Area, said Mosi leaders. And the theatre, which previously sat 46 people, can wear over 300 people.
The museum is hoping to spend $4 million on new technology and facilities, and up to $10 million over the next few years to add facilities to the iconic Blue Dome buildings, including new learning labs and dining options.
Mosi offers the Star Show, Tours of the Night Sky, which allows you to zoom in with computer graphics on new images now available from James Webb Space Telescope or Hubble Space Telescope images.
The Digital Dome Theater is currently open and will host five shows per day. One show is included in admission and costs $5 if you want to see more shows on your visit.
“I think this will encourage them to look up,” Stott said before arriving at the planetarium show on Monday. “We should wake up every day remembering to be on the planet. What can we do today to do our part to keep it going?”
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Go to Mosi Digital Dome Theater
MOSI is open daily from 10am to 5pm. Admission is $20 and $15 for ages 3-17. It includes one planetarium show at the Digital Dome Theater, and costs $5 for an additional show. Tampa at 4801 E. Fowler Ave.
