Coming Soon “Water: a cosmic adventure” — new planetarium show

Planetarium show lovers have an exciting adventure to embark on: the search for water in the Universe. In early October the European Southern Observatory in collaboration with the Association of French-language planetariums (APLF) and Hamburg Planetarium bring you “Water: a cosmic adventure” — a 30-minute planetarium show that follows astrophysicist Eva Luna as she explores the turbulent origins of the vital molecule.

Realistic 3D animations and breathtaking footage will take you on a fascinating journey to the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile, where ESO’s ground-breaking telescopes search for planets that contain the essential molecule for life.

Released during its 50th anniversary year, the show highlights ESO’s greatest achievements while presenting some of the most spectacular images of the La Silla Observatory, the Very Large Telescope at Paranal and never before seen 3D models of the biggest eye on the sky — the planned European Extremely Large Telescope.

Watch the trailer here in English and here in French.

Produced by The Master Film Society, the show is available in English, French and German. The soundtrack has been recorded in digital 5.1 surround sound and the 3D-360° images were captured using the state-of-the-art RED-EPIC © 5K camera.

Interested planetariums can request one of the two formats available:

• fulldome video in standard 4k x 4k resolution or 1k for small or mobile domes; compatible with all standard digital fulldome systems (SkySkan, Evans & Sutherland, RSAcosmos, Zeiss, SkyPoint etc.)
• classical analog showkit (images in high resolution, all sky panoramas, and windows-format images and images).
• 1.2 K fulldome video for small and mobile domes

The full show will also be made available in Stereoscopic 3D and it will have a set of add-on modules of 10 minutes each, allowing post-show live interaction with the audience. The planned modules include topics such as: the European Extremely Large Telescope, water on Mars, water on Earth, the Drake equation and exoplanets. Updates on scientific issues presented during the show will be made available after September 2012 (only in fulldome format).

To learn more about the show, and to find out about presenting it at your planetarium, please check this PDF brochure (1.7 MB) or contact the Association of French-language planetariums (APLF) directly at [email protected].

More Information

Directed by: Didier Grosjean
Produced by: The Master Film Society
Co-production:
Dr. Agnes Acker (Strasbourg University & Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory), Thomas W. Kraupe (Hamburg Planetarium), Lars Lindberg Christensen (ESO)

Water: a cosmic adventure is APLF’s third collaboration with ESO after In Search of our Comic Origins (2009, 65 Planetariums across the world) and Mysteries of the Southern Sky (for ESO’s 40th anniversary, 2002, 40 planetariums).

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory