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| Astronaut Chris Cassidy |
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| Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego |
This past weekend I
attended a preview event hosted by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa
Park, San Diego. I also had the privilege to meet and chat with astronaut Chris
Cassidy who has been part of several space missions. As a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and serving
a ten year stint as a Navy Seal, Cassidy was drawn to the idea of being an
astronaut. His comments to me and answers to audience questions greatly enhanced the
experience of viewing the film depicting celestial events in outer space. To
complement NASA’s multimedia exhibit “Destination Station”, the Fleet Center
presented the new IMAX movie called “Hidden Universe”. This film highlights our universe through
amazing high resolution images captured by the world’s most powerful
telescopes. Two telescopes in the remote
Atacama Desert of Chile shot most of the images seen in this film exploring the
earliest galaxies,
distant celestial objects including gas nebulas, stars being born in vivid
clouds of gas and dust, precise images of the Mars landscape and excerpts of daily
life for the scientists and crew studying and working at the telescopes in
Chile. These telescopes, called The VLT(Very Large Telescope) located at
Paranal Observatory, and the ALMA telescope(Atacama Large Millimeter Array) is
actually 66 dishes connected to operate as one giant “eye on the sky”. ALMA sees
into the darkest regions of space by capturing images with wavelengths outside
visible light in space. “Hidden Universe” is a fantastic visual journey that
anyone can enjoy.
