Well, it looks like we’ve all found our seats so we can get started right away. I’ll be back here behind this console. I think you can all see me. Hi there. And I’ve got lots of dials and switches and knobs back here that runs a lot of equipment, including that big machine there in the middle of the room. Now that is our star projector. And it’s responsible for projecting the image of stars and planets and moon and sun up on our domed ceiling above, which is where we’ll be looking during the whole show: up there. Not at me, I’m not the show.
Now our program today is called The Friendly Stars. We’re going to be learning about the stars and the daytime and nighttime sky, and we’re going to have a lot of fun in here. And I don’t want to give it all away: we’re going to have too much fun. So let’s get started. I’m going to sit down here and all of you can sit back and relax and we’ll get going.
I’m going to turn down a few lights and I’d like to use this blue light as my daytime sky. Tell me, boys and girls, what’s missing from my daytime sky? [The sun!] Oh, most of you said “the sun”. I hope you see our sun up here in our sky. Is it as bright as the real sun? [No!] No, no, of course not. If it was as bright as the real sun, it would be too dangerous to look at. I don’t want anybody looking at the real sun with just your eyes because you’d hurt your eyes. You’d damage them. But in here, it’s safe to look at the image of our sun.
You know, we can do all sorts of cool things in the planetarium theater. We can make it seem like time is going by very fast. Do you notice something happening to our sun? [It’s moving!] It’s moving. That’s right. Up—wait a minute. Does the sun really move across the sky? [No!] No, no, of course not. The sun doesn’t move. Something else does. What? [Earth.] Oh, the Earth does, I heard about that. But wait a minute. How does the Earth move? Does it bounce like a ball? [No!] No. What does it do? [It rotates!] It rotates. It spins like a top. That’s right. And it just gives the illusion that the sun and stars rise in the east and [music]—oh wait, here’s the sun. It’s getting bigger. I’ve never seen anything like this before. What’s going on?
Hello, there, boys and girls. My name is Sol. But you call me the sun. I’m a very special star. [Power chord.] No, not that kind of star. A star like—you know, “twinkle, twinkle”. That’s right, like a star you would see at night.
I’m a lot closer to you than the other stars. They are very, very, very far away. That’s why I look so big in the sky and they look so tiny.
As you can see, I’m shaped like a great big ball. You live on another ball, called the Earth. But I’m a whole lot bigger than your Earth. Why, if your Earth moved until it was just in front of me, the Earth would be almost too small to see.
I am also real hot and that’s why I shine. I’m made of gasses that glow and make heat. That’s what makes me a star.
[Minuet.] Your Earth circles around me, and I keep your world nice and warm and a good place to live. Why, if I weren’t around, your world would be very cold. All the water would turn to ice. Even the oceans would freeze solid. Plants would die and animals would have no food if I didn’t shine. So like I said, I’m a very special star.
By the way, your Earth isn’t the only world circling around me. There are others. Earth and these other worlds are called planets.
I like to think of all these planets that go around me as my special family. People on Earth must agree because they named it after me and call it the Solar System. See? There’s my name. S-O-L: Sol.
Wow. So that’s how the Solar System got its name. Oh my, I’m sure the boys and girls are proud of the planets. Well, we sure appreciate you showing us a little about what the’re like. Thanks, Sun! Boy, it was neat of the Sun to do that.
And boy, I—you know, I can’t forget about how important the Sun is to all of us here on earth. And all those neat planets. In fact, uh, let’s see, you know, the Sun is so important that if it was not around it would be very different here on the Earth. Boys and girls, what would it be like here on the Earth without the Sun? [Cold!] Cold and dark, that’s right. It’d be so cold and dark, what would happen to all the water on the earth? [It would freeze!] It would freeze to ice. That is right. It would freeze solid. And oh my, with all that water frozen, what do you think would happen to all the plants on the earth? [Die!] Yeah, they would die because they need the Sun’s light and heat and energy to make food, and water to drink. And, oh my, without the, uh, plants around, what about the animals? [They would die!] They would die, too. That’s right, because they need the plants, and the water, and the, and the sun for heat, and, oh my, you can see how important the sun is to all of us. Without the Sun, we could not live here on the Earth either, because we need all of those things. So good thing the Sun is around. We can live here on the Earth.
And, oh boy, you know, the Earth is just one of Sol’s family, or Sol’s, ah, system, which is where our Solar System comes from. And it’s made up of nine planets. Now those nine planets are pretty cool. Let’s see if we can remember those planets. Now, there’s one planet that was red. Do you remember the red planet? [Mars!] Mars, very good. Mars, the red planet, is about half the size of the Earth. But it’s a neat planet. It’s the next one out from us.
Now let’s see, umm. Hmm. There was one that had thick, white clouds all around it. And it starts with a V. [Venus!] Venus, that’s right, Venus. It’s the second planet from the sun. And you know what? Venus is about the same size as the earth, but, uh, it’s a very different type of place. It, uh, has clouds that are made of carbon dioxide, which is different than our clouds, and that actually traps heat. And it gets really hot there.
Now let’s see. Uh, we talked about some of those planets. Let’s see. Umm, hmm. How about the first planet away from the sun? It’s covered with craters and it looks like the moon. [Mercury!] Oh, I see it out there, Mercury. Mercury, the first planet from the sun. Yes, Mercury is very tiny but it’s not the smallest.
Now let’s see. Umm, how about the biggest planet in our Solar System? Which one is that? [Jupiter!] Jupiter. It’s huge. Jupiter is so big, over one thousand Earths could fit inside. It’s enormous.
Well, we got—we talked about Jupiter. Oh, I know. There’s the one that spins on its side. Do you remember? It starts with a U. [Uranus! (rhyming with “your anus”)] That’s right. It’s actually pronounced “Uranus” [rhyming with “ruinous”]. Uranus, and, uh, Uranus is one of the planets, and, uh, it’s smaller than Jupiter but it’s bigger than the Earth.
Now let’s see. Uh, twin to Uranus is the next one out from Uranus. It starts with an N. [Neptune!] That’s all, Neptune, that’s right, Neptune, and it looks blue in a telescope, that planet. And Uranus and Neptune are almost like twins, almost the same exact size, what they’re made of.
Oh, there’s one with the big rings. Which one is that? [Saturn!] Saturn. Yes Saturn is so pretty with those beautiful rings that go around it. Now Saturn is a neat planet. It’s kind of like Jupiter, made mostly of clouds. It’s not quite as big as Jupiter.
Well, let’s see. Oh, I know. The farthest, tiniest planet. [Pluto!] Pluto, that’s right, Pluto. Did you know that Pluto is so small, that it is smaller than our Moon? That’s right, our Moon in our sky is bigger than the planet Pluto. Wow, so think about it, if you could just, uh, imagine switching out the Moon for Pluto, you’d see a smaller, rocky thing out there in space that goes around here.
Well, there’s one last planet: the one we live on. [Earth!] Earth, good old Earth. That’s right, it’s the one we live on. And Earth has all types of life on it. It’s the only planet that we know of that has life. And you know, maybe later when you walk around our park, you might find some life, maybe something like this. What’s this? [Deer!] Deer, that’s right, you may see some deer around our park. That’s one type of life. Now if you look in our lake here in our park, what kind of life would you find in our lake? [Fish!] That’s right. You’d see some fish. You would see some fish. Oh, pretty fish inside of our lake. Now let’s see. Oh, you know, right now it’s springtime, lots of pretty plants all over. What do we call those pretty plants? [Flowers!] Flowers, that’s right. And then what’s that on the flower? [Butterfly!] A butterfly. That’s right, a butterfly. You might see one of those around later today.
And then there’s one kind of life we haven’t talked about yet, and that is—you and me. [People!] People. All kinds of life live on the Earth, and we all need to share the Earth and live on the Earth together. And there’s a turtle on there too, that’s right. Uh, boys and girls, boys and girls, you know, I think, I think we should thank Sol for visiting with us today. Let’s all say thank you. [Thank you!]
Well, boys and girls, I sure am glad I got to meet you all today. But I better get back up there in the sky. I’ve got a busy schedule to keep. People on the other side of the Earth need my light too, so I’d better get moving since it’s getting late. [Bye!]
Do you believe it? We actually got to talk to the Sun! What did he say his name was? [Sol!] Oh yeah, Sol. And we learned that Sol—our Sun—is a star, just like any of the stars we see at night.
But gosh, does the Sun look like those other stars? [No!] No. What—what shape is it? [Circle!] That’s right, a circle. Hey, how about if you pretend that you’ve got a crayon in your hand, and hold that crayon way above your head, and show me how you would draw a star. Oh golly, most of you are putting points on your stars. How many of you draw stars with points? Ah, well, I guess that I’d have to say that I draw stars with points, too. But look at our sun. Does it have any points? [No!] No. What shape is it? [Circle!] That’s right, a circle. Ca—can I tell you a little secret? [Yeah!] Yeah? Well, we draw stars with points because a long time ago, before we knew much about the sky, people thought that the stars were just tiny specks of light. But now we know if we could travel far out into space, and actually get close to one of those stars, we would see that it’s big and round and hot, just like our Sun. So what shape are stars, really? [Circles!] That’s good. They’re round, like circles. It’s okay for us to draw the other stars with points, as long as we remember they’re really just like our Sun. Our Sun is a star.
You know, it’d be pretty neat right now if we could see some of those other stars. What do you think, huh? [Yes!] Yes, it’s a good wish but I doubt it could happen.
Shh, shh! Hey, you!
Who said that?
We’re up here.
Did you kids say that?
We’re always up here shining. All the time, day or night.
What’s going on?
Gosh, is this one lost. Maybe if we yell together, we can get some attention. It’s worth a try. Hey, up here!
Oh, up there. Who said that?
We did. Us stars.
I can’t see you.
No matter, we’re still here. It’s just that during the day, your sun is so bright it lights your whole sky and we can’t be seen.
Oh, I see. Uh, I mean, I don’t see how, uh, that is—
Be patient. We’ll be out soon, as soon as the sun goes down. It will begin to get dark, and you’ll begin to see us. It won’t be long now. See? The sun’s getting lower in the sky. Night will be here soon.
Boys and girls, I’m so excited. We’re going to get to see the stars at night. It would be nice if we could welcome them as they appear. Do any of you know the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”? [Yes!] Oh my, let’s see. What are the words? Oh yeah: “Little star, how I wonder what you are.” I guess now that we’ve talked about our sun, we know that stars are just like our sun: big balls of gas, and they give off heat and light. Well, maybe if we can just hum softly. Let’s see if we can all hum “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. I’ll start, and you join in.
Wow, that was terrific. You do a great job. And the stars, they joined in singing with us. Look at them all up there.
Gee, thanks for the clear night. It sure is nice to see all those bright boys and girls down there.
Well, we’re glad to be able to see you stars, too. How many of you are up there?
With just your eyes, you can see about two thousand stars.
Imagine that. I suppose you’re all smaller and fainter than our sun?
No, of course not. Remember, we’re very far away. We look tiny, but a lot of us are much bigger and brighter than your sun.
Which ones?
Huh?
Which of you are bigger than the Sun?
Well, me. And me. Don’t forget me.
Oh, I’m sorry, but I can’t tell which of you is speaking.
Gosh, where did you come from?
Now, I’m doing the best I can.
Why don’t you ask the children? Yeah, ask the kids.
All right, I will. Boys and girls, would you point to any star up there that you think is bigger than the Sun? Just go ahead and point. [All of them!]
See, they got it right. They’re smart kids.
Hey, excuse me now, boys and girls, I’m sorry but I can’t see where you’re pointing. [All of them!] I can’t help it.
Let’s not be too rough. Maybe we can help out. What about the magic pointer? The magic pointer? Sure, all planetariums have one. I don’t know, maybe not.
Hey, your words ring a bell.
Umm, have you worked here long?
Well, yes.
Aren’t you forgetting something?
I don’t think so.
You mean you don’t get our point?
Wait, wait, my pointer. It always knows which way to point. That’s it. I’ll call out my friend Arnie, the arrow.
It’s about time you figured out what to do. We’ll stay quiet for a while. I’m sure your pointer will help take care of things.
That’s right. I’ve got my friend Arnie, the arrow, and he loves to point out the stars to all the boys and girls who visit the planetarium. But you know what? I haven’t seen Arnie yet today. And Arnie is always playing tricks on me and all the boys and girls who visit the planetarium. Well, how about this? What if I call out for Arnie, and you let me know if you see him. Okay? All right.
Arnie. Arnie. You saw him? [Yes!] You did? Okay, well, you keep looking. You let me know if you see him.
Arnie. Arnie. Oh wait a minute. You saw him again? You did? Where? [Over there!] Over there? Okay, I’ll look over there now.
Arnie. Arnie. Oh wait a minute, you saw him again? [Yes!] You did? Where? [Over there!] Over there? Okay, I’ll look over there now.
Arnie. Arnie. Ah, where, where? First you say look over there, and then you say look over there. Are you playing a trick on me? [No!] How about this. I know, what if we all call out for Arnie together? Let’s try that. [Arnie, Arnie!] Oh look, there’s Arnie. Arnie, were you playing a trick on me? No? Boys and girls, boys and girls, I think he was. Well that’s Arnie for you: he’s always doing that to me.
Well, Arnie here loves to point out the stars to all the boys and girls who visit. But before he does that, he likes to play his favorite game. And Arnie thinks he is the fastest pointer around. Would you like to play the pointing game with Arnie? [Yes!] Yes. All right, well, what you’ve got to do is if you point to Arnie as fast as he points out the stars, and if you can keep up with him, then he’ll show you some very special stars of the night. So I hope everybody is pointing at Arnie. Ready, set, go.
Oh, my, Arnie, he, he’s pining away there, he’s tuckered up. But you all kept up with him real good. You deserve to give yourself a big round of applause.
Well, that means, boys and girls, that Arnie has got to show you the special stars of the night. And, oh, oh, wait a minute. I just realized. He hasn’t shown you how he shows you one particular star. Well, you just look at the top of his head, and you know he’s talking about that star right there.
Well, we’re not concerned about that particular star. We’re concerned about a group of stars in the night sky that make the neat picture, uh, called the Big Dipper. Have you heard of the Big Dipper? [Yes!] If you have, great. If not, that’s okay because that’s why you’re here: to learn.
Well, Arnie would like for you to count the stars of the Big Dipper as he points them out to you. So, let’s go over to the Big Dipper, and we’re going to start with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... [He’s trickin’ us!] Uh oh, uh oh, let’s try this again and see how many stars are in the Big Dipper. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... Wait a minute, wait a minute, boys and girls, was Arnie playing a trick on you? [Yes!] He was? How many stars are in the Big Dipper? [Seven!] Seven stars, that’s right, seven stars. And you know what, boys and girls? The seven stars of the Big Dipper make what looks like a big spoon or pot or pan in the sky. It has a long handle and a big scoop that holds water. And people would use these a long time ago to dip way down in a well which is why it’s called the Big Dipper. And here’s the handle again, and here’s the scoop again.
Now we can see different pictures throughout the entire sky and with all the different stars. You can even see different pictures with the same stars. In fact, you know when it’s windy out in the springtime now, what’s a fun thing to do when it’s windy? [Fly a kite!] Fly a kite. That is right. You know how a kite has a diamond shape? Well, right here is that diamond shape of the kite and here’s the tail of the kite. And here’s the kite again. And if you see the kite, great. And if not, that’s okay. Takes a little practice to see the pictures.
Now we could see a kite, or a dipper, or a pot or pan. But you know, the Native Americans who lived here thousands of years ago, they didn’t see any of those things. They saw a great big bear. Roar! Oh, no, they may have seen something like this, a great big bear. Roar!
Oh boy, oh my, wait a minute, wait a minute, what, what kind of a bear is this? [A polar bear!] A polar bear? Oh, wait a minute. I thought bears had short, stubby, little tails. This one’s got a really long tail. Are you sure this isn’t a big, fat, white squirrel? [No!] No, you’re right. It’s a polar bear, all right.
And you know what? The Native Americans not only had cool pictures like this in the sky, they also had neat stories of—to go with the pictures. And in this story we learn how the bear got up in the sky and how it got such a long tail. Now would you like to hear the story of Sky Bear? [Yes!] All right, you need to sit back and relax, and I’ll tell you the story of Sky Bear.
Well, this bear wasn’t always up in the sky. He was an ordinary polar bear that lived in the Arctic Circle near the North Pole. But this particular bear was always hungry. That’s right. He would find some food and he would just gobble it up. Yumm. Ahh. Oh my, now because he was always hungry, he was always eating. And because he was always eating, he weighed over two thousand pounds. Oh, well, he was huge. Well, that big, giant bear was always gobbling up food, and because he was always hungry, he was also a mean bear. He would growl at the other animals and gobble up their food, and—even if he was stuffed and he couldn’t eat another bite. He would eat more food just so other animals could not eat it. Now is that nice? [No!] No way. That was a big, old, mean bear. That bear kept doing that all the time, growling and gobbling.
Well, one morning that bear woke up, and he could not find any food anywhere: he ate it all. And there was no more food left in the Arctic Circle. And he was getting hungry. Well, what’s a bear to do that lives up north, but to travel down south? And he did. He went down to what we now call Canada, and the United States, and even to Bay’s Mountain, right here at Bay’s Mountain. Well, that big old bear did find food, and I’m not talking about berries on a bush. He found stored food from the Native Americans that lived out here. Now what do you think he did when he found that food? [Ate it!] He ate it. That is right, he gobbled it up, yumm.
And then he left. That’s right. He just left. Now this happened in the middle of the night. No one heard the bear, no one saw the bear. But boy, when they woke up they saw a big mess. ... everywhere, packages ripped open, food eaten up. Well, they didn’t know who or what did this. But they lived with nature, and things like this would happen every once in a while. So they weren’t too concerned.
But the next night came, and the bear came back. And he gobbled up more of that food, and what kind of a noise does he make when he eats? [Arr!] Oh, my, this place is full of bears. That’s right. He gobbled up that food. But before he left, he also knocked out their campfires. So when the Indians woke up, they not only woke up hungry, but cold. Now is that a nice bear? [No!] No, that’s a big, old, mean bear, all right.
Well, that bear kept on doing that, night after night. No one saw the bear, No one heard the bear. But the next morning, no food, no fire. They were getting concerned.
Well, one morning, two Indians were walking through the woods, and they saw the bear. Now you know how it is in the early morning mist and fog? And they’d never seen a white bear before. It looked like a ghost of a bear, oh, why, maybe of a bear that they had once killed in the past for food and warmth, was now back for revenge.
They didn’t know what to do. They got scared. They told the rest of the Indians. They got scared. No one knew what to do, except one Indian. He wanted to teach that bear a lesson. He did not think it was a ghost of a bear but just a big, old, mean white bear. And this particular Indian, though, was probably the only one that could have dealt with such a big bear, because he was a giant, as big and tall as that machine in the middle of our room here. He was huge.
Well, he went after that bear. And eventually, after a few hours searching, he found the bear, turned away, eating some berries. And you’d think that would be the end right there. And the Indian thought, “well, I’m going to sneak up behind that bear and catch that bear.” And he snuck up behind that bear. He got closer and closer until—uh oh, he stepped on a twig. The bear turned around, saw the giant Indian, and started to run. He’d never seen a giant Indian before.
Well, the bear was running away, and the Indian wanted to teach that bear a lesson. So the Indian went after the bear also. So, uh, the two of them were running through the woods, hills, and valleys, and eventually the Indian was getting a little closer, and closer, and closer, until he was able to grab the end of that short, stubby little tail of the bear.
And you’d think that would be the end right there. But it wasn’t. That bear was trying to run away, and the Indian was pulling on that little tail, but not much was being done to teach that bear a lesson. So that Indian thought, “maybe if I pick that bear up by his short, stubby tail, then he can’t get away.” He did. He picked up that bear, all two thousand pounds worth, up over his head. And you should have seen it. It was kind of silly. The bear’s paws were wiggling all over the place. And then all of a sudden—rip! The bear’s tail started to stretch. Rip—it stretched some more. It stretched so much that the Indian was still holding the tip of the bear’s tail over his head, but the rest of the bear was down on the ground trying to run away.
Well, the Indian had never seen a bear with a stretchy tail before. Have you? [No!] No, me neither. That was something else. Well that Indian wanted to teach that bear a lesson, and so the bear—well, the bear was trying to get away. And the Indian thought, “maybe if I spin the bar around by that long tail, then maybe that’ll do it.”
And he did. He spun that bear around, and around, and around, till—what do you think happened to the Indian? [He got dizzy!] He got dizzy, that is right. He got so dizzy, he let go of the bear. But that bear was spinning so heard and fast, that bear did not fall down to the ground. That bear just shot up into the sky, and stayed there, to what we call the Big Dipper. The Native Americans call Sky Bear.
Well, look who it is. It’s Arnie. Arnie, were you scared of that bear? No? What do you think, boys and girls? [Yes!] Yeah, oh look, here he goes, he’s admitting it. That’s okay. Arnie would love to show you how they saw the bear in the sky. If we go up to the Big Dipper, and if this part was the body of the bear, boys and girls, what would this be of the bear? [Tail!] That long, stretched-out tail, that’s right. And here’s the body again, and the tail.
And so, they used the stars to teach lessons to their children, just like you get lessons at school or at home. The stars are very important to them, as I hope they are to us, too.
Well I think we should thank Arnie for showing us those cool stars. [Thank you!] Thanks, Arnie. He says you’re welcome. Boy, that was pretty nice of Arnie to show us all those cool stars.
All right, you did a pretty good job after all.
Thanks, and—say, have you stars been listening all this time?
Sure. We love to hear stories about us stars. And we hope the children enjoyed listening, too. Hey, listen. The sun is coming. It must be almost morning. Yes, the sky is beginning to brighten. Goodbye, girls and boys. [Goodbye!] Don’t forget to look for us. Goodbye. [Goodbye!]
Oh my, well, I think after a story like that, maybe we should stand up and stretch. Oh, it feels good to stretch after a story. Oh my, boys and girls, boys and girls, did—boys and girls, did you hear Sky Bear when it got dark? [Yes!] You did? Were you scared of Sky Bear? [No!] No, no, we’re just having some fun here, right. I hope that you had a lot of fun here in the planetarium. I hope you learned a lot. And you know what? The sky that we have—that we had in our planetarium theater, we saw the Big Dipper overhead—that’s really close to what we have right now. So if you go out any of these nights that’s clear, and look up when it’s dark, you will find the Big Dipper. And then maybe you can find the Big Dipper and tell your parents that neat story about Sky Bear. Or even just point out the bear for them, I think they’d find that a lot of fun.
Well, we are at the end of our program, and you have nature programs. Now we have two school groups in here, Lincoln Elementary, you have a nature program…