Special to the Register
Gainesville Daily Register
Gainesville —
The John Parker Planetarium at North Central Texas College will explore new twists on a very old story with special public showings of “Mystery of the Christmas Star.”
With new state-of-the-art digital projection and audio equipment, new seating and other upgrades, the planetarium offers “quite an amazing visual experience” according to Sara Flusche who runs the facility.
“Those who may have seen the ‘old’ version of this holiday theme program in years past are in for quite a treat with this digital version,” Flusche said.
The program takes visitors back 2000 years to Bethlehem as they seek to discover a scientific explanation for the Star sighted by the wise men.
Using the planetarium’s digital star-field simulator, this program recreates the night sky at the date and time of Christ’s birth to see what the wise men could have seen and to discover if the story of The Star of Bethlehem is based on an actual celestial event.
“We’ll investigate possible dates for this occurrence,” Flusche said, “and look at recorded sightings of significant astronomical events during this timeframe. We will see which ofthese signs in the sky could have been remarkable enough to cause the wise men to travel across the desert from Babylon to Bethlehem.
Flusche added that this modern retelling of the Christmas story is sure to charm and captivate audiences of all ages.
She stressed, however, that seating is limited for the four scheduled showings on Dec. 19, 21 and 23 at 7 p.m. and on Dec. 23 at 5 p.m.
To find more about the planetarium show call the NCTC Science Department as soon as possible at 668-3351 or by email at sflusche@nctc.edu to reserve seats.
