Universe set to open its doors at new planetarium

Venus, the closest planet to Earth, is 38 million km away.

Thankfully, it will appear a whole lot closer to home once the new TCOE Planetarium and History Theater complex opens its doors in late September or early October.

Just as Earth hits a hot-spot in our own galaxy, it's the location of the new facilities at 11535 Ave. 264 along Mooney Boulevard in Visalia that serve as one of the biggest improvements over its previous location along Burrel Avenue.

"The change in location is great, just in terms of being more centrally located in the county," said Conan Palmer, Planetarium and Science Center Supervisor. "More than half of the classes that visit are from the city of Tulare. So it is closer for more than half of our visitors."

Not to mention, the $3.9-million planetarium is practically located in the front yard of Mooney Grove Park, an added incentive for school groups seeking to spend a day learning about nature, science and history.

"A lot of teachers chose to do that when we were already five miles away from Mooney Grove Park, and we share a reservation system so it's completely seamless," Palmer explained. "They can make a reservation here and they're all set."

As TCOE spokesman Rob Herman noted, it's a veritable big-bang for the counties buck in that local schools can save big money on transportation costs as many school groups were already making an additional five-mile trip after visiting the old planetarium.

He was quick to note that the Sam B. Peña Planetarium itself has more than a few miles underneath its own Orion's belt, as it was once housed in an Farmersville elementary school, and even the Tulare County Fair, since it was first assembled in the late 1960s.

"It had always been tucked into these anonymous county buildings," Herman said. "So the opportunity to really give it an identity, I think that is huge."

All eighty pieces of the original dome were disassembled, transferred to the new location, reassembled, refinished, and repainted to adjust for a digital projector.

"It's a type of projector called DLP. It's only projecting one color at a time, so if you had a fast enough shutter on your camera you would only see red, green, or blue," Palmer said. "It's cycling so fast that we're perceiving different colors, but at any one time it's either red, green, or blue."

As of Monday he was spending a day fashioning a frame around the projection unit lest a tiny visitor was tempted to touch it, or in some rare instances, place a penny over it.

That's not to say only little eyes will be given a glimpse of the universe.

The Planetarium and Science Center will open it's doors to the general public every second Friday of the month for evening showings at 7 p.m., and depending on attendance, a later showing at 8 p.m., all at the low cost of $4 per adult.

The inclusion of a second theater — traditionally referred to as the history theater — isn't only additionally informative and entertaining, but also functional for large groups.

Visiting classes are usually big enough to fill the planetarium seats twice. The second theater functions to allow half of the students to watch a film before changing places.

"The more time they can spend here, the more they are getting for that transportation dollar," Palmer said.

That amount of time may even be extended when the second theater fully transitions into an exhibit hall for hands-on educational activities geared to each specific grade level.

"We have outlines they all revolve around the content standards for a given grade level," Palmer said. "Something that the students can do together to solve a problem or find a solution."

The center also functions as a production studio, with film equipment and and editing hub specifically for the purpose of creating dynamic new video content for TCOE.

The equipment allows the lessons to dynamically change whenever necessary.

"Tours of the night sky for example," Palmer said. "We show the stars from the proper perspective in Visalia so we can show you where to find different things in the night sky. That's something that changes every day and we update it as often as we can."

If a student is visiting in October for instance, then they will see the October night sky.

"That's one of the things we produce here and we're really increasing our ability to produce more in-house," he said.

The new Planetarium and History Theater emphasizes that education isn't relegated to the walls of a school, but rather that the whole universe is a classroom waiting for us to learn something new about ourselves and the world around us.

Details: The TCOE Planetarium and History Theater is located at at 11535 Ave. 264 in Visalia, and has a tentative opening set for late September or early October. Evening shows occur every other Friday evening of the month. Admission is $4 per adult.