Go on a solar system expedition at the UW-Milwaukee Manfred Olson Planetarium

I love this because we're going to explore space without even leaving Milwaukee. Oh my gosh, you can do that if you go to the UW-Milwaukee Manfred Olsen Planetarium. That's where Derricka is this morning. Derricka, this sounds so cool. It sounds cool, it looks cool, and I'm just so excited about how this all comes together. So really, we're exploring, you know, the hidden galaxies and looking beyond our solar system, and UWM's planetarium brings everything a little bit closer to us here on Earth. We have Jack Koschkin here, the outreach specialist with UW's planetarium. Good morning, how are you? Good morning, thank you for being here. I'm great, how are you? Wonderful! It's so simple because I've always driven by this and I never knew it was open to the public. That's right. And it sure is. It sure is. Would you like to come in? Let's go. All right. Follow me right this way. Welcome into the UWM Planetarium. This is our beautiful theater under a full 30-foot dome. And this is where, yes, we have shows bringing the cosmos closer to people here on Earth, ranging from public events that we have on Friday nights and the occasional matinee or Wednesday night, but as well as many, many dozens of school groups throughout the entire year. And we also host fun things like birthday parties or anniversary celebrations as well. This is so fun. I'm just excited to be in here. And I'm also Marveled by the equipment. Alright, so I want to know a little bit about how you bring the wonders of space to life here. Yes, so the pride and joy of this room is the machine that's in the very center. This is a Spitz Laboratories A3P Optomechanical Projector. And the magic that's in there is that none of this is digital. It uses light bulbs and mirrors and gearboxes to manually create and project the night sky across the entire dome you see above us. And the amazing thing is this machine was original to the planetarium's construction 60 years ago. Wow. So we're celebrating 60 years of this year. Talk to me a little bit about that over time. How you've seen technology change, how you guys are keeping up with this, and how the students are playing a major role. That's right, yeah. So technology, of course, has made many leaps and bounds over the decades we've been open, but we keep what is original and still works. bringing the stars to people and then we've changed the first part of our programming to be as you said almost entirely student created. The themes are kind of put together by our director Dr. Jean Creighton, astronomer, and then she works with students undergraduate students here at UWM to create the marketing, to create the actual presentations, the graphics, we make special animations for them sometimes and so it's really a team effort to To bring the cosmos down to the people I love that, and I love that you're bringing it to the people, because I'm like, hey, is Pluto a planet? Is it not a planet? I don't need a different segment for that one. So, Josh, what are some of the discoveries that you're sharing right now with folks? Yeah, so one of the really exciting things is that we, because we're always updating our programming, we can stay current with what's going on in astronomy. So when there's news coming back from the Mars rovers, we've just updated a moving to Mars program. Or when the James Webb Space Telescope first launched, we did a whole program focused on what it's going to look for out in the universe. And, in fact, we have a program just about to start about northern lights. Which is really topical because they've been happening more often at our latitude in recent years. Now, when our photographer, Matt, walked in here he was like, oh wow, I haven't been in here in a couple years. And that was when we had the eclipse. That's right. So this is a place that we are learning but also living what's happening right now too sometimes. Absolutely, yeah. And it really has been a thrill and a joy for me for a few years here, both as a student and now as a graduate and alumni. Don't I? To share that with audiences of all ages, all backgrounds, from school groups of very very young kids to groups of seniors, and yeah, giving them what's most current across astronomy. outreach that you guys have because I know my daughter's school was invited here one of the Girl Scout groups that we know from one of our co-workers has been invited here share a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of the growth of interest in the planetarium or STEM yeah it's been amazing so I know these aren't exact numbers but under Dr. Creighton's leadership in the last 20 years we are almost at the mark of a quarter of a million visitors coming We're going through our planetarium. And we're reaching just about 18,000 people coming through here every year. And we're always trying to push that number a little higher and working with Milwaukee Public Schools and other private groups like Girl Scout Troops, like you said. There's something different about being able to sit here and be in this dome. It just kind of hits you differently. Absolutely. experience it in this way. I'm sure people walk away with a different sense of kind of where we're at within the world. You know, I want to get into that. We have so much to talk about. I'm so excited. And we're going to get a sneak peek of Northern Lights, too, because that's the latest one they have coming up. So still lots more happening here at the UWM Planetarium. This is so cool, Jack. That's what I say every day. I still can't believe I'm lucky enough to work here sometimes. And the awe that you're talking about experiencing under a full dome like this, I think only amplifies the awe people experience when they then go outside and look up at the real night sky. Amazing. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the UWM Planetarium where we are bringing the wonders of space and astronomy to life. We have Dr. Jean Creighton in here. Good morning. Thank you so much for being here. It's thrilling to have you here today. Yes. Well, I want to say congratulations first. Thank you. 20 years. Share a little bit about your time here, your tenure, and you've had lots of accomplishments to say the least. Thank you. It's been a thrill to be here and see it grow. So when I started we had about 5,000 people a year and now we've Surpassed some years 20,000. So it's been a great quest to see how to bring more people and get them thinking about space and the night sky. Now, we were just talking to Jack earlier and he was sharing how the students and the staff, you guys create all of these events, all of these shows, and a lot of work goes into them. The next one up is Northern Lights. Share a little bit about that. Oh, I love Northern Lights because many people have actually seen them in the last few years. The sun has been active. They're beautiful. Colorful, and it's a way to marry beautiful things with science. Amazing. And sometimes we obviously can't see them, depending on where we're at, trying to, you know, catch a night light. But this is the perfect way to do that. Can we take a little look and a listen? Sure. This is the view from the International Space Station. So this is live. Well, not live now. No, no, no. This was taken from there. Yeah. Look at the beautiful curtains of light. And that's the most common color. And I love that it's all actual, the things that you guys are using to create these shows. There's something almost in awe about being in a space like this and seeing, you know, the lights. There's a celestial situation that you guys really bring to Earth for us. Well, I think specifically for people who live in cities, we just don't get to see a beautiful night sky, a dark sky. We have so much light pollution. So it brings that experience to everyone. And we also connect culture. So sometimes people think, oh, planetariums are just for people who are interested in science. It's for them too, for sure. But it's also for people who connect through their culture. There's so many references to the sun, to the moon. Every holiday from every religion is related to where the sun and the moon are. So we just got a little snippet of that. So how does that work? Is there a narration through it? Do you guys do the verbiage as we're listening? Yeah, it's a live program. Wow. All our programs are live, which is one of the things I'm very proud of. Because then you can attend your audience, depending on who they are. You can make sure that... If that didn't make sense, if that didn't land, you can say it again. And if this is the people who are in the know, you can kind of up the game a little bit. Just Planetarium is intimate too, because sometimes you go to so many and they're huge, you know. I'm sure this is a great moment too for question and answer, to delve a little bit deeper. Which is my favourite part actually, because when you have a question and answer period, people ask you what they want to know and then you have a chance to explain something that they're interested in. And you really are making this accessible to the communities. You have several different shows and events. Northern Lights is, I think, almost even every Friday for the next couple of weeks. Until mid-December. So they just have to go to our website, which is uwm.edu slash planetarium, and you can find tickets. Some of our tickets, some of our events are ticketed, which means there's a price. Some of them are free. So... If you can visit us at a date that suits you, please come. We'd be very happy to have you. I just, before we go, I want to ask you, how does that make you feel? I know Jack said he came in here, obviously as a student years ago, but wanted to be part of this program. I'm sure when people come in here, they realize the possibilities, you know, and you've seen a lot of growth in that over time. How is that for you, knowing that you've really affected, you said, thousands of people that have come through these doors? It warms my heart to see when you get that little sparkle in people's eyes when they get it and you think, ah, that's exactly why I wake up in the morning. Beautiful. Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate being here. And this is so cool. I didn't realize it was like right in our backyard here at UWM. Yes. Please come and visit. I want to. All right, guys. That's so calming. Any questions? This is so cool in here. And, yeah, we're talking about Northern Lights now, but if you go to their website, I saw they have a plethora of shows that you've been doing, too, that are coming up as well. I'm talking about my 20th anniversary on the 14th of November. We have two shows that are free, one at two, one at three. So I'm going to talk about the highlights of my career, some of the things that have been particularly memorable. And in the next year, we're already working on flying. Me to the Moon, a program that starts in late January, where we're talking about all this excitement of going back to the moon and what that might mean. And you really make this tangible because there's something about seeing it from this aspect, because obviously we're here, we're on Earth, and our perspective is different. But when you're seeing it from that perspective, you're thinking larger. You are. But also seeing stars makes you feel more connected to that bigger picture and that our planet is a piece of that, of the cosmos. And you were actually mentioning that you've encouraged people to even do better when it When it comes to being here on Earth, from just some of the shows that you've been Yeah, I think that if we realize that we're special and there is no Earth 2.0, that we need to make sure that we take care of our own planet, our own home. Dr. Creighton, Jack, thank you so much. And guys, this is so cool. Once again, go to the website, book the tickets. If you have a group even, come on. This is great. Awesome. Thanks, Derek. I love that place, too. I love the fact that it's National Sandwich Day, which plant joy is in the house. Donovan, let's go to the kitchen and find out what that is made out of.