Our Fulldome Video Wins an Award

Last week I was in Germany at the international Jena Fulldome Festival, held at the Zeiss Planetarium. The Festival is a great way to see lots of fulldome videos (my company, Loch Ness Productions creates fulldome videos as part of our work in science and astronomy outreach).

This year we entered our short fulldome production called Losing the Dark, which we created for the International Dark-Sky Association. The festival organizer was quite interested in the subject and invited us to send it along. Not only did it play during the festival judging of some 80 fulldome videos, but it was also shown during the Festival’s Gala Awards night. AND, it won an Honorable Mention, up against some pretty stiff competition!

We’re pretty pleased that this little 6.5-minute entry garnered praise and interest from the international attendees of this festival. But, then again, light pollution is a problem that affects us all (as the video points out). It’s a problem that CAN be dealt with, as evidenced by the growing public interest and media stories I’ve been seeing about light pollution, light trespass, and their effects on both human and wildlife.

Here’s a flat-screen version of the video, which will give you an idea of the scope of the problem.

It’s a simple message about a complex issue that can be solved beginning with some simple steps.  If you’re interested in getting the video for your classroom, it’s free!  Check out the IDA’s Web site for HD downloads. You can also use the video in a classic planetarium (i.e. one that hasn’t converted to fulldome video) by downloading a flatscreen version and playing it through a single video projector onto your dome.

If you’re a fulldome theater operator, it’s available to you in many different formats from the Loch Ness Productions Losing the Dark Web page, where you’ll find all the details.

Here’s a fulldome preview for those of you in digital domes:

Watch it, download it (or contact us about getting frames for use in large theaters), use it to start a conversation about light pollution with your students, audiences, friends, and neighbors! It’s a timely, impressive, and thanks to the judges at the Jena Fulldome Festival, award-winning!

Do Y0u SciFi?

Science fiction is one of my favorite genres to read. I started as a kid with a book called “Robby the Robot” and it just went from there. I now have a room full of science fiction books and magazines, plus some videos and DVDs of a few of my favorite movies.

When I was a kid, I was discouraged from reading it not because science fiction was pulp fiction. No, that’s a conceit from an earlier age than mine. My formative years were during some of the most exciting NASA missions, and I figured that SF was leading the way and so was NASA.  No, I was discouraged by teachers who felt that science fiction (and indeed, science) wasn’t meant for girls.  I was kind of stubborn though, and I read what I wanted to.  Nowadays such twaddle as “science isn’t for girls” and “girls can’t do math” is nonsense peddled by people who want to constrain half the human race to some kind of religio-political role that doesn’t fit.

But I digress. My favorite science fiction nowadays is a wide spread of classic old masters (Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke (in that order) and newer writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Sawyer, Lois McMaster Bujold, and many others.  They have delighted me with many a techno-tale, all the while keeping the visions of the cosmos alive for me.  Science fiction is, principally, fiction that has a strong science bent. It’s what turned me on to science, along with the stargazing I did as a kid. I think there’s a very strong correlation between enjoying SF (as it’s properly shortened to) and an interest in science. And, it doesn’t matter if you’re reading it or seeing it on TV or in the movies, although just as there some pretty awful books, there are also some pretty awful attempts at SF in the movies and on TV.  Many variations on Star Trek are quite good and they played a part in my formative years, too. (Yes, I’m a Trekkie.)

Lately I’ve started to dabble in writing my own science fiction. I mentioned it sheepishly to Robert Sawyer (an old friend) and he said, “Well, get it out there!”   And so, I’m looking to astronomy to inspire me (as it has for so many others), and I’m seeing many cool things to write about.  Will I do good?  Only time will tell. But, science fiction is as wide open as the universe. If you haven’t tried any, or think that it’s all Star Trek or Babylon Five (and those are great works!), you have a great and wonderful journey ahead of you. And maybe I’ll figure in that trip someday.

In the meantime, check out the science fiction universe at your local booksellers (brick-and-morter or online).  And, if you want pointers, drop me a comment here and I’ll do my best to suggest some great SF.