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  • Visitors watch a high resolution image of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) during a planetarium show Friday night at Mankato East High School. Pat Christman

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  • Mankato East Astronomy Club member Carson Lee is surrounded by the constellations of the winter sky as she watches the show from the control booth Friday at the school's planetarium. Pat Christman

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  • An image of the Apollo 17 landing site is superimposed over a high resolution pictture of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) during a planetarium show Friday at Mankato East High School. Pat Christman

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January 28, 2012

At East planetarium, high resolution images make the moon a star

Story and photos by Pat Christman Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — The Mankato East Astronomy Club showed a recently purchased Italian space opera video Friday as part of their monthly planetarium show. It was an impressive sight watching planets and comet debris fly past as it is projected across the planetarium’s half dome, all set to music.

The star of this month’s show, though, wasn’t even a star. It was the moon and the new high resolution images recently produced by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, projected by East’s recently installed Spitz projector. As Astronomy Club member Carson Lee talked about LRO’s mission, fellow club member Matt Weingartz ran the projector, flying visitors just 100 miles from the moon’s surface, showing not only the detail in the moon’s surface, but the landing site for Apollo 17, including tracks made by the lunar rover.

Students in the club, advised by East teacher Dave Burgess, learn about astronomy by coordinating monthly planetarium shows for both students and the general public. The next planetarium show is on March 30. To reserve a seat in the 58-seat planetarium call the school at 507-387-5671 the week of the show. Most shows are free to the public, but donations are taken to help purchase software and videos.

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