Life in the Palmetto State: Aurora and the Planetarium

Saturday, Beverly and I went to an amazing show. No, it wasn’t a blockbuster premiere on the big screen. It wasn’t a Broadway play in New York. It wasn’t even a community theater with local talent.

It was at the Planetarium at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia – and what a show it was.

It was about the Aurora Borealis and boy was it interesting – hence the name “Aurora.”

For those of you that have never heard that term or phrase, in short, it’s the Northern Lights.

By definition, the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, is a natural light display in the night sky, when charged particles from the sun (Solar wind) collide with gases in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, exciting them to glow in vibrant colors like pink, green, red, purple and blue most commonly seen near the magnetic poles. All of this was explained in an audiovisual setting that was something spectacular.

It was a small theater with very comfortable seating, arranged in a stadium like fashion and designed for the maximum experience.

I had not been to the planetarium since the early 70s when then Coach Dick Silvernail, my 7th grade science teacher at LMA, took us on a field trip to the Gibbs Planetarium on the USC campus to see the constellations – I think. All I can remember is the blob on the big screen. Real testimony to its effectiveness and my memory, right?

Well, I can assure you technology has far surpassed my expectations and my experience Saturday was nothing short of amazing.

We bought our tickets in the museum side of this huge building and made our way to our destination where we waited in line for just a few short minutes.

When it was our time to go in, we walked through the large double doors that entered the side of this techno-theater. It was dimly lit and it took a minute for these old eyes of mine to acclimate themselves to the dark sanctuary of high tech imagery and effects.

As our eyes gradually reacted to this low light setting, we were able to find seats suitable to our liking and sunk down in the comfortable chairs, ready to begin the show.

I told Beverly that these seats were perfect – perfect for me to fall asleep in. Well, I managed to stay awake and did enjoy the show.

Now, you need to understand the set-up. This is not a big, flat two dimensional screen that is straight in front of you. It is an overhead, multidimensional dome that you have to look up at to experience.

Now at first word, you would think that this arrangement would be uncomfortable, but the configuration of these seats blended nicely with the environment and you hardly realized you were sitting down. With this techno experience, you hardly thought about your seating, you were just blown away.

At this time, when everyone had shuffled in and found their seat, the lights began to lower and soften and then the night sky appeared. “Wow” is the best way to explain this experience for it was very surreal.

A voice from the back broke the silence and went over what to expect from this high tech show of light and sound.

When the actual show started, it took you to places very cold and very far away – Iceland, Finland, and Norway of the Nordic regions.

In this colorful presentation of symphonic accompaniment and vivid imagery, the documentary of facts telling how this phenomenon occurred, coupled with the visual impact, was stunning. It was so real, I almost wanted to go get my jacket, but by then it was over.

While not lasting more than 30 minutes, my brain receptors and visual cues were on overload but I was ready for more. However, the ambient lighting came up, the Auroras faded, and it was time for our departure. It was a fantastic show.

One interesting fact that I took from this presentation was that the more common colors of the Auroras were green, but the rarer colors were pinks, reds, and blues. Those colors became apparent by the height of the collisions of the solar winds with the available gases, nitrogen or oxygen, thereby determining the colors of the Northern Lights.

Now, this picture you see accompanying my article was taken in the NW sky over Alcolu in early May of 2024. I am not going to try to explain it after seeing this show other than to say it was a spectacular picture.

Even though I had heard about these lights my entire life, I had never witnessed them personally but this photo proved that they are sometimes visible here from thousands of miles away.

My intent, in this article, was not to educate you on the scientific phenomenon called the Aurora Borealis, but to let you know about the planetarium and its spectacular shows.

It would certainly be worth your while to take a trip to the SC State Museum and experience these splendid shows. You won’t be disappointed.

May God bless you.