Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome back to the State Trunk Tour podcast Americ Paulson,
and today we're not talking about a specific road or
a specific city or destination. We're going to talk about
planetariums and holiday lights, stars in the sky and lights
on the ground that celebrate the holiday season. Planetariums are
all over Wisconsin. There's actually quite a few of them.
(00:22):
Some are called minor ones, some are called major ones.
And one of the biggest planetariums is the Yukies Observatory,
which is in Williams Bay in the Lake Geneva area.
That's where the world's largest refracting telescope is. It's the
birthplace of astrophysics, longtime affiliated with the University of Chicago,
although that affiliation is not official anymore. They're actually hosting
(00:43):
the world's tallest glass tree, and we'll be talking about
that in our next episode, which will be released later
this week or early next. But in the meantime, we've
got an article on State Trunk tour dot com about
various planetariums around Wisconsin, where you can find them, when
you can visit, and what you can with them. And
we're gonna feature one in particular, and that's the Barlow Planetarium,
(01:04):
which is in Minasha. It's just off US ten and
Highway four to forty one, the Tri Cities Expressway that
kind of circles around Appleton to the south and to
the east, right by Highway forty seven and Highway went
fourteen too, So on a road trip, easy to get
to the Barlow Planetarium, which open back in nineteen ninety eight.
So we'll talk with doctor g from there in just
(01:24):
a couple of minutes. Make sure you go to State
trunk tour dot com and check out our list of
planetariums you can see around the state. And the holiday
lights shows are everywhere. We're talking walk through and drive
through holiday shows, the big ones with hundreds of thousands
or even millions of lights. Somerset they claim sixteen million
lights in their big show, which is amazing. It's called
(01:47):
Sam's Christmas Village and Light Tour. You can do overnight
cabins there and then there's strolls in the park with
holiday lights, like in Hudson at Puyinea Vista. Lacrosse Roadary
lights are a huge one that's about three million lights,
and a lot of these light shows from Marshfield to
Chippewa Falls to Milwaukee to Rhinelander to cedarberg y Yowega, Madison,
(02:07):
a bunch of them. There. We got you covered all
across the state here. Check out our holiday lights show
articles too at State Trunk tour dot com. And a
lot of these light shows are up already, but a
bunch more open up on Friday, so you can want
to check that out as you make your plans for
a road trip. Now, we're going to dive into the
planetariums Barlow Planetarium in particular. What can you see and
(02:27):
do there? You'd be surprised at all the cool shows,
from lasers to rock shows to of course learning about
our universe. And we will talk with them right after
this on the State Trunk Tour. Well, how are you, doctor,
g good to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I'm good. It's actually gee oh.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm sorry, it's gee gee e.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Okay, yes, most people pronounce it wrong the first time.
It's okay, that's all right.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Eight seconds in I'm already screwing up, but that's how
I do things around here. So welcome. And there's a
number of planetariums. First of all, we'll talk about this.
There's a number of planetariums in Wisconsin. Tell us about
the Barlow. Give us the elevator, pitch on it real quick,
so people are familiar with you right away, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So the Barlow Planetarium opened in nineteen ninety eight. It
was the first major planetarium in Wisconsin, and it's today
the second largest planetarium in the state. We have been
seeing upwards of thirty thousand people per year to field
trip shows and public shows and rock music laser.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Shows, rock music laser shows. That sounds out of this world. Now,
when you said first major planetarium, there's a number of
smaller ones, like in Marascine County, and there's one in
Madison on the UW campus. There's one at EWM Major Planetarium.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
What's the difference, So mainly the size of the dome.
So our dome is about fifty feet in diameter. Typical
university planetariums, like the ones that you will find in
the law of college campuses, are usually about half that size.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, yeah, I did not know the difference. I was
familiar with the Adler in Chicago and then the smaller
one and that's about it. So that's awesome. So you're
in the Fox Valley kind of well right next to Appleton,
just off of the four forty one bypass, so easy
and fast to get to. And first of all, you
we'll talk about a major event you have coming up.
It's Family Astronomy Night, which is happening, and there's also
(04:17):
well Family Astronomy Night is Saturday, November twenty ninth, and
that's in conjunction with Northeast Wisconsin Stargazers also known as
New Star.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah. So they members of New Star will come with
their telescopes and set them up outside the planetarium. So
if it's clear, we'll be able to look at the
Moon and Saturn.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Oh nice, so you get to see the rings firsthand. Yes, beautiful.
What's going to be happening on this night with Family Night?
What are people going to enjoy from start to finish?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So we have matinee shows in the afternoon starting at
one o'clock to thirty and four, and then as part
of our Family Astronomy Night, we actually have special showing
at six o'clock and seven thirty. Our six o'clock show
will be our family laser show called Laser Holidays, Christmas
Music full secular and religious music sets to our laser system,
(05:06):
and then at seven point thirty will have our Future
astronomy show which is called Season of Lights, and it
talks about different celebrations in the past and history that
have used the winter solstice as kind of the center
of their celebrations. And so it talks about Hanukkah, it
talks about the Saturnalia, it talks about Christmas, and you know,
(05:26):
it goes through a lot of those different kinds of traditions.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Very cool, and it's yeah, it's just under a month
at that point until the actual winter solstice can kind
of get you prepared and ready and winter viewing actually
at a planetary if you're looking out into the stars,
the winterviewing tends to be better than in the summer,
does it not?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It often does. Summer can be good if you get nice,
good clear skies, but it's often a lot more rainy,
take you much time. But typically you'll often find with
clear cold nights that you'll get more stable air masses
and so you can easel more easily see what's up
(06:03):
and there in the sky.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
It's kind of nice. Now we want to have Canadian
wildfire smoke around either, because that must have hurt things
this past summer.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, all right, yes, definitely, So, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Going to be a great time. There is a savings
you can get on Black Friday, which is coming up here.
And what two dollars off the price of any show.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Admission, right, yes, and it's automatically applied. And that's for
all shows on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Okay, beautiful, So yeah, it's a two day extravaganza, will
call it right yeah, right, Family Astronomy Night, Barlow Planetarium.
It's in Winnebago County, right by the borders of Calumeta,
out of gaming. If I'm not mistaken, right down there, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We're right there. They're all very close. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So yeah, get that on your calendars for this Friday
or Saturday. Easy to get to right off four forty
one in US ten And what else can people do
like for the rest of the holiday season and just
throughout the year at Barlow.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So we are going to be so the Black Friday
Fail kicks off our holiday season. We will showing these
Christmas shows. Our children's show right now is called Orion.
It is telling the story of the Greek myth of Orion.
And then we actually go through and show where all
of those constellations are at in the night sky. So
(07:15):
it's not Christmas themes, but showing you what constellations are
prominent during the winter months. And all of our Star
shows include a tour of the night sky, so you'll
get a laser show and a tour of the night sky.
You'll get our future show and a tour of the
night sky. Very cool, and that will be through the
entire month of December.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Excellent. Yeah, a lot of people can like name the
Big Dipper and maybe the Little Differ, but some of
those other constellations you need a little education on that.
You know, you need to go to a planetara and
find out. And then what's rid into twenty twenty six,
any highlights you want to share.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So we'll have a couple of newer shows that will
be coming in twenty twenty six. One of them is
on the constellations, just kind of a general introduction to constellations,
and the other one is called the Solar System Show,
and it will be a children's show that's giving you
information about all the planets in our Solar system. So
(08:06):
the Constellation Show will be showing in January, and Solar
System Show will be actually, I believe in February. I'm
still making the schedule for next year, but we're going
to have some fun shows and we also have our
evening rock Laser shows that I had not mentioned. I've
only kind of mentioned them in passing. So for December,
(08:27):
we'll have Taylor Swift, which is always very popular right now,
but if Taylor Swift is not your thing, we'll also
have Laser Queen so Queen Music that will be on
Saturday nights. Taylor Swift is on Friday nights, and then
we'll also have a longer version of our Laser Holidays
show on Friday and Saturday nights seven. And then we
(08:50):
have Pink Floyd Pink Floyd's the Wall on Friday nights
and Dark Side of the Moon on Saturday nights. And
on the twenty ninth, we'll actually have a Pink Floyd
double feature after all of the Family Astronomy Night.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Of It coming out of Saturday the twenty ninth. This Saturday, Yes,
Pink Flood.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That will be up. That will be a double feature.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So there'll be an inflatable pig coming out between Jupiter
and Saturn and just kind of landing and something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Probably not that, but it's a it's been a kind
of a tradition at the Barlow to have a Pink
Floyd show.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Every week, so very very nice. How about an Abba show.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We don't have Abba yet, we should probably look at
seeing it we can get out, but we do have
laser prints that will be coming up in I think
January or February on our evening schedule.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Very cool. A lot of purple involved in that when
I imagine, so yeah, no shorters of shows. In fact,
kind of a purple is the background color on your
website Barlow dot Winnebago County, wy dot gov. Is one
way to get there. If you google Barlow Planetarium or
catch my link off stag Front Tour dot com. You
can catch the website, keep on top of shows and events,
(09:56):
find out how to become a member if you want.
They do field trips and all kinds great stuff. It's
entertainment and education at the same time as you gaze
upon the stars. So it seems really really cool. And
don't forget about this whole weekend coming up here with
family Astronomy Night Friday and Saturday. Doctor Gee, thank you
so much for talking with us today.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yes, thank you for having me O.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Thanks again to doctor Gee who man now I want
to go to the Barlow Planetarium real bad. I want
to see those rock shows, and if they do an
Alba show, I'm totally in with that too. You can
find out more about Barlow and other planetariums State Trunk
Tour dot com. Just to look up planetariums if it's
not popping up right in front of you and our
holiday lights shows. We're gonna be talking next week about
the world's largest Christmas tree. We're gonna be talking next
(10:43):
week about the world's tallest glass tree. Yes, Jason Rob
we're gonna talk with them again this year as they
seek to break their record from last year. And amazingly,
the tree is in front of Yerki's Observatory, So the planetariums,
the observatories, the holiday season, the holiday lights, everything ties together.
So we'll look forward to talking with you next episode
(11:04):
right here on the State Trunk Tour podcast