Experiencing life on ice

Bakersfield College hosted a showing of “Ice Worlds” from Evans and Sutherland on Feb. 20 at the William M Thomas Planetarium.
Dr. Nick Strobel is a BC Professor in Astronomy/Physics and the Planetarium director. He hosted and directed the audience through the many prominent patterns of stars. Emily Watson is the narrative voice that guides the audience through the exploration of the ecosystems of ice-covered landscapes.
The tour was broken down into three parts. It began with a realistic experience of the night’s view after sunset. The audience is submerged into this nighttime atmosphere where we are navigated around the north, east, south, and west star alignments.
Dr. Strobel guided us through the second portion of the event with some of the most well-known constellations such as the Big Dipper, Big Bear, and the constellation of Perseus. The full-dome show is an hour and a half long and uses the Spitz SciDome to then travel to the Arctic and Antarctic regions of our planet.
The evening finishes out with a recollection of the night sky’s star constellations and its lively and thrived coastal ice-cold regions, leaving everyone in awe of the vastness of the natural world.
Most of the people in the audience do not anticipate a career path in astronomy, but the show gives them excitement and knowledge of our earth’s existence, its landscapes, and the natural systems on other planets.
“I would say the most highlighted event of this evening was definitely exploring the star constellations and figuring out what kind of figure it was made out to be,” said Bakersfield local, Danny Madden.
BCs planetarium hosts regular shows on the first Fridays and Saturdays in February, March, and April for people of the city to come together and explore the planet’s birth and its natural systems.