Digital Dome Programs
Digital Dome Shows with Content Alignment
Atlas of a Changing Earth
This is the story of how a revolution in one of the most basic of all human enterprises – the making of maps – is shedding new light on our planet's evolution in the wake of rising global temperatures. Using stunning, latest-generation imagery from space, "Atlas of a Changing Earth" takes viewers into the dynamic processes causing coastal glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica to melt, and explores how rising seas could threaten coastlines the world over. These striking new images are produced by the confluence of satellites and supercomputers, revealing Earth in a degree of precise detail scarcely imagined a generation ago.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Tales of A Time Traveler
Time travel like never imagined! Explore ancient civilizations. Witness the birth of the universe. Journey to the edge of a black hole. In Tales of a Time Traveler, you will discover that time is not so easily defined. Time is illusive, impossible to hold. It can't be owned. It can't be stopped. Time travel surrounds you – from the biological clock in your brain and the changing shadows on a sundial, to the history of life on Earth. Then the story expands to the lives of stars, the time scale of the Big Bang, and the distortion of time by gravity.
Narrated by David Tennant
Great for all audiences
Stars of the Pharaohs
Travel to ancient Egypt to see how science was used to tell time, make a workable calendar, and align huge buildings. You'll learn about the connection the ancient Egyptians felt with the stars and various astronomical phenomena, and experience some of the most spectacular temples and tombs of the ancient world recreated in all of their original splendor.
Telly Award winner. Narrated by John Rhys-Davies, of the Indiana Jones films and The Lord of the Rings films.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Earth, Moon, Sun
Coyote has a razor-sharp wit, but he's a little confused about what he sees in the sky. Join this amusing character (adapted from American Indian oral traditions) in a fast-paced and fun fulldome show that explores lunar phases, eclipses and other puzzles. Engaging and immersive, Earth, Moon & Sun™ also examines how humans learn through space exploration. A perfect show for school audiences! Audiences age 5-11.
Educators guide available.
Natural Selection
Natural Selection celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. In Natural Selection we will join Darwin on his voyage with the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands where he was inspired to develop his later theory of transmutation by natural selection. From the comfort of Down House in Kent, Darwin himself will explain the mechanism of natural selection to the audience, and support it by showing many beautiful examples in nature. The thrill of a scientific discovery, the adventure of science and the beauty of nature are central in this show.
Educators guide available.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Edge of Darkness
The film features amazing scenes of places never before seen gathered by key space missions that culminated with groundbreaking discoveries in 2015. It features a spectacular flight though the great cliffs on comet 67P, a close look at the fascinating bright "lights" on Ceres, and the first ever close ups of dwarf binary planet Pluto/Charon and its moons.
Narrated by Hayley Atwell, Agent Carter, from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the ABC television series.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Two Small Pieces of Glass
Two Small Pieces of Glass: The Amazing Telescope was produced to engage and appeal to audiences of all ages. The film traces the history of the telescope from Galileo's modifications to a child's spyglass — using two small pieces of glass — to the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the future of astronomy. It explores the wonder and discovery made by astronomers throughout the last 400 years.
Great for all audiences
Distant Worlds
The night sky is a view of infinity. Does alien life exist out there? Nothing we can ask about the universe is so important for our understanding of the world.
In the show we examine the conditions for a habitable zone starting the journey in our own solar system. Then we imagine a tour to some of the recently discovered exoplanets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way. What might be essential for life on distant moons or planets and how could we detect it?
In this show we get an impression of the importance of telescopes, Mars rovers like “Curiosity” and space probes for these challenging studies.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Making a Star and Her Entourage
The Making of a Star and Her Entourage traces the evolution of humankind’s understanding of the universe. Discover the long journey beginning with the Earth-centered model of the universe in which the Sun was considered a planet to our current understanding that the Sun is a star centered in the Solar System and is one of billions that reside in the Milky Way.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Oasis in Space
Take the audience on a rich and fascinating journey through our celestial neighborhood, as we look for one of organic life’s key ingredients – liquid water.
Why is Venus considered the hottest planet in the Solar System? Is Saturn the only Solar planet with rings? And what can possibly hide under the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa? These and more questions are answered, as we visit the Sun in its cradle, the Earth as it used to be, the neighboring planets as they are today, and maybe even a yet undiscovered world which awaits our visit in the future.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Cosmic Adventure
This high speed adventure for family audiences takes you on a roller coaster ride from the Moon through our solar system, galaxy and beyond. You’ll be immersed in some of the most amazing sites in the universe. It’s a ride you will want to take again and again!
Narrated by Nancy Cartwright.
Recommended for all ages
Ancient Skies, Ancient Mysteries
The stars have been a source of mystery and wonder for people all around the world. Ancient cultures that lacked our current scientific understanding did their best to interpret and understand the movements and patterns of objects in the sky. By studying their observations, some cultures developed calendars; others predicted future events; and still others worshipped the magical objects in the sky. In this show we will look at these very different interpretations of astronomical cycles and events, and explore the Mayan prediction of the end of the world that they expected to occur on December 21, 2012.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
What’s in the Sky?
An interactive preK lesson about sky objects. Learn the names of sky objects, the difference between nighttime and daytime objects, and an introduction to the solar system all with hands-on activities and time for exploration.
Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge
Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge highlights Anishinaabe stories of constellations and moons in relation to contemporary insights about environmental changes. Teachings shared by Native Skywatchers Carl Gawboy, William Wilson, and Dr. Annette S. Lee are narrated by Aarin Dokum with Anishinaabemowin translations by Alphonse Pitawanakwat set to art by Elizabeth LaPensée.
Education Guide available.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Living Worlds
Earth is a planet shaped by life. From the forests that help stabilize our climate, to the winds carrying life-sustaining water and oxygen to far-flung parts of the globe, the fingerprints of life are visible even from many light years away. The newest original, all-digital, planetarium show from the California Academy of Sciences invites you to journey through space and time to examine life as an essential quality of our home planet. Narrator Daveed Diggs takes you on an exploration of the co-evolution of life and our planet, revealing the ways in which life has transformed Earth’s surface and atmosphere over billions of years. Along the way, you’ll see how light and color can help us spot a living world, even from great distances. As we ponder what forms life might take in the Solar System and beyond, Living Worlds encourages us to consider how a deeper understanding of our own planet can aid in the search for life across the cosmos, and to reflect on ways we can partner with our living world to ensure our continued survival.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Birth of Planet Earth
Birth of Planet Earth tells the twisted tale of our planet's origins. Scientists now believe that our galaxy is filled with solar systems, including up to a billion planets roughly the size of our own. The film employs advanced, data-driven, cinematic-quality visualizations to explore some of the greatest questions in science today: How did Earth become a living planet in the wake of our solar system's violent birth? What does its history tell us about our chances of finding other worlds that are truly Earth-like?
Narrated by Richard Dormer.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure
When Elmo’s friend Hu Hu Zhu stops by Sesame Street for a visit, he notices that Sesame Street is a little bit different from his home in China. But when he looks up at the sky, he feels right at home. Elmo and Hu Hu Zhu may live in different cities, but they share the same sky!
With a little help from Big Bird, the two friends learn about the Sun, the Moon, and the Big Dipper, then blast off in an imaginary rocket to the Moon! Along the way, they invite the audience to sing along to songs about space and celebrate the sky that belongs to everyone.
Recommended for ages 3-8.
Dinosaurs at Dusk
Take to the skies and discover the origins of flight in Mirage3D's latest fulldome production. Dinosaurs at Dusk is a learning adventure of a father and his teenage daughter Lucy who share a fascination for all things that fly. You'll travel back in time to meet the pterosaurs and the ancestors of modern day birds: the feathered dinosaurs. Lucy and her father will navigate from continent to continent to look for clues for the origins of flight until time runs out and they experience first-hand the cataclysmic last day of the dinosaurs. Science content includes topics such as continental drift, proper motion of stars, asteroids and impacts, extinctions and the convergent development of flight among species.
Recommended for all audiences
Dark Universe
Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dark Universe brings audiences to the cutting edge of cosmic exploration to reveal the breakthroughs that have led astronomers to confront two great cosmic mysteries: dark matter and dark energy.
In stunningly detailed scenes based on authentic scientific data—including a NASA probe’s breathtaking plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere and novel visualizations of unobservable dark matter—Dark Universe celebrates the pivotal discoveries that have led us to greater knowledge of the universe and to new frontiers for exploration.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Black Hole First Picture
Following the story of two young astronomers, you will embark on a journey around the world. From the enchanting Atacama Desert in Chile to the remote expanses of the South Pole, you will travel to the fascinating sites hosting the radio observatories part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). It was this global network of observatories — which includes the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), co-owned and co-operated by ESO — that, through years of observations carried out in unison, achieved the unimaginable: capturing images of the invisible supermassive black holes lurking at the heart of the Messier 87 and Milky Way galaxies.
Recommended for upper elementary and older audiences.
Supplemental lesson on black holes available.
Orbital
Voyage beyond the planet and experience our home through the eyes of Astronauts. Orbital is an epic journey from the Big Bang, to the flourishing of life on Earth, to low Earth orbit. A new film by Guy Reid and Planetary Collective, Orbital transports you through an abstract landscape of light, inspired by bioluminescent earthly beings and atmospheric aurorae. Guided by the voices of the astronauts and cosmonauts of Constellation Coalition who have looked back and experienced the awe of our place in the universe, you will feel your own “Overview Effect” as you meditate on our planet in Shared Reality.
Recommended for all ages.
Worlds Beyond Earth
Is there really water on Mars? What can Venus teach us about greenhouse gases? How do we know so much about worlds that are so far away?
Worlds Beyond Earth takes you on a riveting journey through our cosmic neighborhood and the groundbreaking science that revealed it to us. You’ll soar through the rings of Saturn, dive into buried oceans, float over active volcanoes, and search for signs of life on distant worlds.
Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, Worlds Beyond Earth was created by the American Museum of Natural History, the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space, and the Hayden Planetarium.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Sunstruck
Explore the sun in all its glory in this planetarium show. Sunstruck takes us on a journey to discover the wonders of our magnificent sun and investigate how our star has supported life on Earth for millennia. Travel back in time to experience the birth of our Sun and solar system. Discover how the Sun came to support life, how it threatens life as we know it, and how its energy will one day fade away.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Seeing! A Photon's Journey
Follow the journey of a single photon as it is produced in a distant star, before travelling across the vast expanse of space to land on someone's retina. This full dome planetarium show explores some of the fascinating processes of the cosmos, from astrophysics to the biology of the eye and brain. Funded through a generous grant from ZEISS, the show is narrated by astronomer and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Big Astronomy
Big Astronomy or Astronomia a Gran Escala is a bilingual planetarium show that extends beyond the dome using web-based and hands-on resources. In Big Astronomy, discover Chile’s grand observatories and meet the people who push the limits of technology and expand what we know about the Universe using world-class telescopes.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Rising Star: A South African Astronomy Journey
Take an astronomical journey from our beginnings through the development of astronomy research in South Africa, and discover what the future of astronomy holds for the country. Dive into multi-wavelength and multi-messenger astronomy with the many remarkable facilities such as Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and the most powerful radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, MeerKAT. See how astronomy can be a powerful force in the life of a nation, and inspire the next generation of explorers.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
One Sky
The sky connects us all. Experience One Sky, a series of captivating short films that highlight cultural and Indigenous perspectives of the night sky. Produced as an international collaboration, with culturally authentic storytellers, music, and stunning immersive visuals designed for the dome, One Sky will take you on an artistic and compelling journey exploring traditions around the world and showcasing the interconnectedness of humanity through our shared view of the cosmos.
This program features several select short films produced by the One Sky Project, which is led by the Imiloa Astronomy Center, sponsored by the Thirty Meter Telescope, and supported by the California Academy of Sciences, the Franklin Institute, NSF’s NOIRLab, and the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Large Format Films
Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness
Vast. Wild. Magical. The Arctic is not just one of the planet’s greatest natural spectacles, it’s a place with global ecological importance that has supported Indigenous communities and diverse ecosystems for generations. Follow the elusive Porcupine caribou herd as it migrates to the Arctic Coastal Plain, one of the longest animal migrations on Earth. Meet the polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, golden eagles, and people who call this area home. Experience the adventure of The Arctic, and learn why this remarkable land deserves our protection. Narrated by Indigenous film producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neet’saii Gwich’in) with National Geographic photographer Florian Schulz.
Recommended for all ages.
Back from the Brink: Saved from Extinction
Back from the Brink, from award-winning giant screen director Sean Casey, is an immersive film that will explore extraordinary true stories of animals rescued from the brink of extinction. Audiences will meet California’s endearing Channel Island Fox, the smallest canid in the world, imperiled by the introduction of Golden Eagles to their only habitat. We will witness the stunning migration of the Christmas Island Red Crabs, thinned dangerously by the Crazy Ant invasion. And, finally, we journey to Yunnan, China to find the enigmatic Golden Monkey, high on the most-endangered primates list, living in one of the most biodiverse and remote regions of the world. Back from the Brink, with real and inspiring conservation stories, will renew your hope that our threatened planet and all its inhabitants can be saved.
Recommended for all ages.
America the Beautiful: Our Natural Wonders (Coming Soon)
America the Beautiful is a sweeping giant screen experience celebrating the vast and varied natural worlds that define the United States and the conservation movement that has ensured their survival. The protection of America’s beauty, wonder and resources was set in motion by Theodore Roosevelt and other pioneers who popularized principles still in practice today, passed down through generations, that will keep America’s wild heart beating for many more.
Audiences will embark on an awe-inspiring journey from sea to shining sea, across the country’s most iconic and diverse environments - soaring mountain ranges, expansive plains, surprising deserts, flowing rivers and wetlands - captured with the scale, clarity, and immersion of spectacular giant screen cinematography. More than a visual spectacle, America the Beautiful reveals that these places were not preserved by chance, but through bold vision, determination, and an enduring commitment to conservation that continues to shape the nation’s natural legacy.
Recommended for all ages.
Music Shows
Psychedelic Mixtape
Embark on a mind-altering journey within, where the self dissolves and music is your guide. In The Psychedelic Mixtape: The Visionary Experience, renowned DJ, artist, and founder of Fascinated by Everything Chris Holmes weaves an immersive fusion of light, nature, and iconic tracks from musicians like David Bowie, Radiohead, and Juliana Barwick into an experience beyond space and time. Step into a realm of transcendent unity. Ignite your sense of awe and reach a higher state of mind in Shared Reality.
Mature audiences.
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd’s iconic album ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, originally released in March 1973, turns 50, and what more fitting a place to celebrate it and experience it than in a Planetarium, through the music set to visuals. With the help of modern technology, the idea of a show combining breath-taking views of the solar system and beyond, played out to 42 minutes of The Dark Side Of The Moon in surround sound, has been embraced by the band. NSC Creative have led the visual production efforts, working closely with Pink Floyd’s long time creative collaborator Aubrey Powell from Hipgnosis.
Mature audiences.
Seasonal
Spooky Space
Would you like to meet the stars of Halloween? And their terrible counterparts in space? Here is a fulldome show for the Halloween season.
The show finds space counterparts to Halloween characters. For example:
Ghosts - Nebulae
Vampires - Black Holes
Invisible Man - Invisible Universe
Spooky Space is a great Halloween show for almost all ages, ages 6 or 7 and up.
Let it Snow
Let It Snow features a new variety of festive classics from Frank Sinatra and Chuck Berry to Burl Ives and Brenda Lee, and includes a stunning multi-media finale by the Trans Siberian Orchestra. The soundtrack is visually enhanced with thematic animation and all-dome scenery in the audiovisual setting of the Acheson Planetarium. The 32-minute program is a fun and entertaining experience for all ages, especially families.
Recommended for all audiences
Other Content
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STEAM Library within Digistar (select examples)
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Biology
- Blood type inheritance
- Corrective lenses
- Visual illusions
- Phyllotaxis
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Physics
- Atwood’s machine
- Elevator weight
- Interactive pendulum
- Lens and mirror simulations
- Magnetic field simulator
- Michelson-Morley experiment
- Total internal reflection
- Space-time grid
- Prism refraction
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Chemistry
- Boyle’s Law
- Dalton’s Law
- Stoichiometry
- A large collection of 3D molecules and an interactive periodic table are also included.
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Engineering
- Steam engines
- Projectile motion
- Balance beam
- Tipping angles
- Four-stroke engines
- Robot movements
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Art
- Color angles
- Basics of color theory
- Rotation patterns
- Spirographs
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Mathematics
- 2D vector addition
- Audio frequency graphs
- Connect four game
- Cosine & sine theta unit circles
- Function graphing
- Fundamental law of fractions
- Pie charts & fractions
- Interactive unit circle
- Basic multiplication
- Sine-cosine wave
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