Lunar Odyssey

Setup

Cheat sheet. The middle stack of slide projectors (G, H, and I, behind the DLP) have no room for the Lunar Odyssey slides. These three trays have to be replaced before and after the show.

  1. Slide projectors: Remove trays from G, H, I and insert the three Lunar Odyssey trays. They are stored up in the cove to right of projectors J, K, L and contain about 17 slides each. Run TEST.CUE as far as projectors G, H, I. The new trays begin with the same white-on-black grids as the old trays. If they do not appear properly, GANG FOR and GANG REV.

  2. Sound board: volume up for output (to 0), CD (to –30), and DVD (to –25); down for all others.

  3. Video projector: monitor select line 1, input select line 1, to enable show DVD. You should see one rectangular button on the monitor; brightness and contrast down to prevent audience from seeing it. Unplug XP from line 1 for brighter video.

  4. CD player: entrance music.

  5. DVD player: Lunar Odyssey in show DVD.

  6. Laser pointer: needed for this show.

  7. Zeiss: crescent moon high enough to see. To display the planets and their motions, sun on meridian with Mercury and Venus nearby. Lamps off.

  8. Spice computer: DVD-LUNR.CUE

  9. Slew (Projector R): when 63 RUN is highlighted, aim straight ahead, as low as possible. Leave in automatic at speed 9:30 or 10:00.

  10. Cassette tape, VCR, Zoom (Projector T), animation DVD, XP computer, orrery, DLP: not used.

  11. Audience enters while 74 Time 19.20 is highlighted.

  12. Audience entry sequence.

Show: 43 minutes

  1. Launch show: aim DVD remote at show DVD and press ENTER on remote.
    Video projector brightness and contrast up (otherwise you won’t see Kennedy).
    Zeiss stars on.

  2. “A typhoon suddenly hit us.”
    Zeiss stars off.

  3. “There is no one among you, my brave colleagues…”
    Zeiss stars on.

  4. “We copy you down, Eagle.”
    Zeiss moon panorama on (HP HP PA PC).

  5. “We leave the Moon as we came…with peace and hopefor all makind.”
    Zeiss moon panorama off.

  6. History specialist George Herbert: “What did they see? The stars…”
    Zeiss stars on.
    “…from which patterns—constellations—could be drawn.”
    Zeiss zodiac on. You’ll have to be quick on the draw to have time for Zeiss planets.
    “And…the Moon.”
    Zeiss Moon on.

  7. “To the Greeks and Romans, the moon was Selene…”
    Zeiss stars, moon, zodiac off.

  8. “Now switching to hemispheric imaging system…”
    Zeiss stars on, fast latitude motion (LA) down.

  9. Earth chord:
    Halt LA, settle into left-to-right diurnal motion.

  10. “In 1609, humanity’s view of Luna changed forever…”
    Zeiss stars off, halt diurnal motion.

  11. “Mountain ranges were named after their Earthly counterparts…”
    Laser point out

  12. “Excuse me again, Mr. Herbert, but we’re ready to break Earth orbit.”
    Zeiss stars on when Earth chord reappears.
    Diurnal motion as we approach video moon.

  13. “…I’ll take it from here. You’re getting into my area of expertise.”
    Zeiss stars off.

  14. “…what will you see? Magnificent desolation.”
    Zeiss stars and moon panorama on.

  15. “Hi, folks, I’m Harry Entzena, spokesperson for TransLunar Tours…”
    Zeiss stars and moon panorama off.

  16. “It’s an easy pace to walk, and that’s what you do: shadow pace.”
    Zeiss moon pan on.

  17. “That’s why the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. Oops—lights out!”
    Zeiss moon pan off.

  18. Video of leaving moon:
    Zeiss stars on, diurnal motion.

  19. Video of approaching Earth:
    Zeiss stars on.
    Diurnal motion to a point at which Zeiss moon would be visible.

  20. “…the tilt of its axis, relative to its orbit, gives us four distinct seasons…”
    Zeiss stars off.

  21. “We’re on our final approach.”
    Zeiss stars on, diurnal motion.

  22. “3…2…1…Touchdown.”
    Halt diurnal motion.

After the show, replace the original G, H, I trays. Run TEST.CUE as far as projectors G, H, I.

Links

Lunar Odyssey is a show from the Sudekum Planetarium in Nashville, Tennessee; maybe this is why the soundtrack pronounces mare as if it were a female horse. (It also pronounces Korolyov with the stress on the first syllable and without the y.) Captain Barbara Kane is named after Jules Verne’s Impey Barbicane. Premiered Saturday, January 5, 2008 at Andrus.

The show (1998) emphasizes that the Apollo astronauts found no water. It must have been made before NASA’s March 5, 1998 announcement that Clementine found lunar ice.