July 17, 2010

Sesame Street's One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure plays each Saturday at 10:00 am.  The 20-minute planetarium show follows Sesame Street's Big Bird and Elmo as they explore the night sky with Hu Hu Zhu, a Muppet from Zhima Jie, the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street. Together, they take an imaginary trip from Sesame Street to the moon, where they discover how different it is from Earth.
One World, One Sky is a brilliant spectacle of light and color as the furry friends watch the stars twinkle over Sesame Street.

Earth, our only known haven for life, inhabits a special place in the cosmos. But how special? Sigourney Weaver guides audiences on an immersive excursion that will inspire a new perspective on our home world.  After a close look at Earth, Fragile Planet visits the planets and moons in our solar system in search of hide-outs for life, and then takes in our ongoing exoplanetary exploration and extragalactic discoveries.
    The visually intense program uses the latest visualization techniques to weave together observed data, including high-resolution satellite and spacecraft imagery, terrain maps, and pinpoint positioning of stars, exoplanets, and galaxies. Weaver’s sensitive narration provides a poetic counterpoint to the rich visuals, and renowned giant screen composer Michael Stearns creates a deeply evocative multi-dimensional sound environment. The spectacular visuals are augmented by an audio environment that is as immersive as the imagery.

Show times
 

Awesome Light: Seeing the Invisible playing in the 2 pm timeslot is back and in 3D with a new installment featuring Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Harvard Smithsonian Submillimeter Array, and the Very Long Baseline Array.  Awesome Light 2 showcases radio and submillimeter astronomy and how this area of astronomy reveals discoveries not possible in visible light.  'Imiloa's second planetarium show production and distributed by Sky Skan, Inc., Awesome Light 2 will soon be available to planetariums around the globe.  Check it out beginning Saturday, March 27 at 2:00 pm; it will replace Awesome Light 1 on our regular Tues-Sun Planetarium schedule.

1st Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference & Tournament
 
FREE Origami Workshop and Bipedal Robot Demonstration July 17

    Micro RoboticsThe first-ever Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament will be held at 'Imiloa in July.  The event offers a FREE and open to the public workshop on origami followed by a bipedal robot demonstration on Saturday, July 17 at 6:30pm.
     
    Dr. Hidenori Ishihara, a robotics professor from Kagawa University of Shikoku, Japan, will be presenting a workshop entitled, "Origami: From the Traditional Play to the Technology" in the Earl and Doris Bakken Moanahoku Hall.  Dr. Ishihara first introduced Waiakea High School and other Hawai'i schools to micro robots and is co-chair of the 1st Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament.
     
    The origami workshop will be followed by a demonstration of programmable bipedal robots.  The demonstration will be presented by Mr. Hideaki Matsutani, a technical teacher from Meinan Technical High School in Nagoya, and Ms. Risa Saito, a junior at Shizuoka Futaba High School.  Seating is very limited and will be first-come, first-served.

Micro Robot Tournament July 18

     The Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament will be culminated by the micro robot tournament on Sunday, July 18, starting at 1:15 p.m. in the Earl and Doris Bakken Moanahoku Hall.
     
    Students from Waipahu High School, Kalani High School, Kohala High School, Roosevelt High School, Waiakea Intermediate School, Waiakea High School, and Farrington High School along with representatives from industry and higher education are among the participants.
     
    Sponsors are the County of Hawaii Office of Research and Development, Friends of Hawai'i Robotics, 'Imiloa Astronomy Center, Subaru Telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope, Waiakea High School's Robotics Club, LETry Robot, Innovation FIRST, and UH Manoa's College of Engineering and Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium.
     
    For more information, please contact Art Kimura, Hawaii Space Grant Consortium at art@higp.hawaii.edu.