Northern Lights Planetarium Show Field Test

Alan Gould

Lawrence Hall of Science; University of California

Berkeley, California; agould@uclink4.berkeley.edu; 510-643-5082

In cooperation with NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, the planetarium at Lawrence Hall of Science will be publishing a new planetarium show, "Northern Lights." This show, originally developed by LHS staff and Franck Pettersen of Nordlys Planetariat in Tromso, Norway, will be the next in the series of audience participatory programs, "Planetarium Activities for Student Success (PASS)." We are seeking planetarians interested in field testing the program this winter, to give us feedback prior to publication in spring of 2000. Field testers will receive a show kit comprised of slides, videotape, and materials needed to conduct audience participatory activities for the program whose subject is aurora.

In the introduction, audience members are asked how far north (or south they have ever been and how things are difference in far northerly (or southerly places), especially with regard to seasons or number of hours of daylight.

The first activity concerns seasons, sunrise, and sunset sunsets above the arctic circle.

We start with a home (Berkeley) sunset, then observe the sunrise. Each audience member uses a horizon pointer to predict where sunset will be, much as we do in our Stonehenge program (PASS, Vol. 12). We then move the planetarium from 38° N (Berkeley) latitude to 70° N (Tromso, Norway) and do the same exercise in Tromso , but starting with the Sun at noon . We show an image of midnight Sun from Tromso.

In the next activity, each audience member uses an Earth globe to make a model of midnight Sun, with the Sun being a bare lamp in the middle of the planetarium. W then show a video or series of slides with narration by Franck Pettersen depicting an auroral substorm as seen from far north in Alaska or Norway.

In another activity, visitors use fluorescent chalk to sketch aurora which they have just seen. We then turn on black lights to see the sketches glow.

After describing some historical interpretations of aurora, illustrated with slides, we discuss the most recent scientific views on the cuases of aurora, including images and movie clips of the Sun, granules, corona, holes in UV, solar mass ejections. We have a simple special effect which shows the "garden hose effect," the spewing of solar wind from coronal holes outward in a spiral pattern owing to the rotation of the Sun. We show the Earth's magnetic field in model with a bar magnet and iron filings on overhead projector as well as with slides showing how Earth's magnetic field is distorted by the solar wind to make a magnetotail. There is an optional demonstration showing real plasma in a "vacuum" tube which we magically bend and contort with a magnet.

We end with information and images from the latest spacecraft investigations of aurora from Space Shuttle, the FAST and POLAR satellites.

The field test show kit will consist of :