Dome Theater

May 25, 2012

The Dome Theater is a one-of-a-kind visual experience, featuring an inflatable room and using the latest in fish-eye technology to create a totally immersive experience that rivals IMAX. Movies will be shown throughout the day and last an average of 30 minutes. Tickets for each show are $1. Tickets go on sale May 25 and must be purchased at the branch.

Movie Descriptions:

Dome Theater:  Cosmic Collisions
The breathtaking new Space Show narrated by award-winning actor, director, and producer Robert Redford launches visitors on a thrilling trip through space and time to explore cosmic collisions - hypersonic impacts that drive the dynamic and continuing evolution of the universe. Produced by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Dome Theater:  Earth's Wild Ride
What would it be like to live on a lunar colony and to dream of visiting Earth? Experience the heart-pounding exhilaration of a water canyon ride near an erupting volcano, venture through an Ice Age scene with a herd of woolly mammoths, and travel to the time of the dinosaurs as an asteroid hits! Produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science/Rice University as part of the NASA-funded Immersive Earth Project.

Dome Theater:  Fantasy Worlds
Explore the limits of life! Is extra-solar life stranger than life on Earth? On Earth, scientists have discovered life forms flourishing in the most extreme and dangerous environments. Fantasy Worlds features artists’ and animators’ creations of possible life-bearing worlds that our telescopes and spacecraft may someday find around other stars. Fantasy Worlds is a joint production of the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the University of Houston. Partial funding was provided by an education and public outreach supplement to a NASA-Exobiology Program of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston.

Dome Theater:  Force Five
Feel Mother Nature’s fury. Extreme weather takes center stage in this show, revealing images not seen by the naked eye and their life-threatening nature. Using real movies and NASA based imagery, Force Five gives the audience a vantage that would never be safe in the real world, creating a sense of what it would look and feel like if you were standing in the middle of a deadly storm. Hunker down as you are hit by a force five hurricane, tornado, and solar storm. Force Five was funded by NASA’s Museums Teaching Planet Earth Project at Rice University and the Image Spacecraft Mission, and produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Sybil Media.

Dome Theater:  Future Moon
Catch a glance of what the future may hold for humans on the moon. This show takes us back to Apollo missions, humanity’s first step on the Moon, and a look at what a future lunar colony might be. Narrated by the legendary Walter Cronkite, Future Moon was developed by Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Dome Theater:  Microcosm
In this extraordinary adventure inside the human body; fly up the carotid artery, explore the eye, brain, ear, and heart, then shrink into a cell to see the nucleus and DNA. Microcosm uses the latest discoveries of nanoscale science to create a voyage that is realistic and only possible for inner space probes only a few nanometers wide. Audiences learn about using superconductors to measure magnetic fields outside the body and about deploying gold nanoshells to the sites of tumors or infections. Microcosm is produced in conjunction with Evans & Sutherland Corporation with collaboration and support from the Center for Biological Environmental Nanotechnology, the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering at Rice University, and the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston.

Dome Theater:  Night of the Titanic
A 25-minute multi-media planetarium program that combines "fully immersive" computer animation with the latest scientific research, allows viewers inside the dome theater to experience what it was like to stand on the deck of the doomed ocean liner Titanic the night she sank. Night of the Titanic shows the unique conditions in Earth and space that, coupled with human errors, contributed to the sinking of the ship on April 15, 1912.

Dome Theater:  Passport to the Universe
This is a thrilling journey out into the solar system, through the Milky Way Galaxy, and to the edge of the observable universe. Fly beneath the rings of Saturn, into the heart of the Orion Nebula, and back to Earth through a black hole. Experience these and other stunning cosmic destinations as never before! Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks and produced by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Dome Theater:  Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
Be totally surrounded by both music and video in Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon! You will become part of it all as it completely wraps around both mind and body. Join us for a wonderful dream-like, stress-dissolving state of consciousness you will want to experience again and again.

Dome Theater:  Pink Floyd's The Wall
Be totally surrounded by both music and video in Pink Floyd’s The Wall! You will become part of it all as it completely wraps around both mind and body. Join us for a wonderful dream-like, stress-dissolving state of consciousness you will want to experience again and again.

Dome Theater:  Season of Light
Enjoy the holiday season year-round, with this program that combines astronomy and holiday traditions. It's an elegant and sophisticated program about the coldest and darkest of seasons at time which holds some of the warmest and brightest celebrations of the year. One of the most popular shows in the Loch Ness Productions repertory.

Dome Theater:  Secret of the Cardboard Rocket
Climb aboard a magical cardboard rocket with two young children and enter an extraordinary ride through space in this lighthearted show. Experience a breathtaking, up-close look at each of our solar system’s planets, and receive special guidance from Astronomy Book, a character personified by a wise, kind old man. You’ll see each fascinating orb as you never have before! You’ll zoom through the crackling ice-and-rock rings of the gas giant Saturn, right after you investigate another gas giant Jupiter, whose size equals 1,000 earths. You’ll navigate around our other planets and find yourself hurtling toward the outer reaches of our system to our final destinations, the remote, frozen planet of Pluto.

Dome Theater:  Secrets of the Dead Sea
Secrets of the Dead Sea is a full-dome documentary, filmed at the Dead Sea and from space with historical clips and computer animation. In this show, the Dead Sea comes alive through stories preserved in its cliffs and caves, and in the stars overhead. Ancient scrolls chronicle the passage of time by motions of the Sun and Moon, while rock and sand preserve a living record of a place as timeless as the star patterns above. Produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science/Rice University as part of the NASA-funded Immersive Earth Project.

Dome Theater:  Stellarium
Ever wish you had a real planetarium? Now you do! Stellarium renders realistic skies in real time, simulating the skies from anywhere on Earth in close to photo-realism. It is a beautiful and engaging way to explore and increase your understanding of the night sky. See constellation art, deep space objects, meteor showers, solar eclipses, transits, and more!

Dome Theater:  The Dinosaur Prophecy
 Join paleontologists at the scene of the crime, excavating bones, and wondering what killed the mighty dinosaurs. Be amazed as your favorite giants come to life, roam across the dome, and meet their catastrophic deaths. Find out how NASA scientists monitor the Earth for potential disasters. The Dinosaur Prophecy is a co-production of the Rice Space Institute and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, funded by NASA’s Office of Earth Science under the "Immersive Earth" project.

Dome Theater:  The Search for Life: Are We Alone?
Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ancient mythologies and contemporary science fiction have presented imaginative possibilities, but how does modern science approach this question? The Search for Life: Are We Alone? begins to answer this intriguing question in a breathtaking new Space Show narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Harrison Ford. Produced by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Dome Theater: Saturn, The Ring World II
The Cassini Mission to Saturn has been a resounding success, giving us a greater knowledge of the gas giant and its spectacular moon Titan. Learn how sophisticated instruments have gathered vital data to help scientists understand this vast, mysterious region. Ring World is narrated by Star Trek’s John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox on the Enterprise) and was produced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.