Have a close encounter with Mars at Renaissance Center Saturday

Release Date: 10/25/2005. Expired: 10/29/2005

Have a close encounter with Mars at The Renaissance Center in Dickson Saturday, Oct. 29, as the mysterious Red Planet passes closer to Earth than it will for more than a dozen years.

Midstate astronomers will set up telescopes in the parking lot of the center for special viewings of Mars rising in the eastern sky. Mars will not pass this close to Earth again until 2018.

To mark the occasion, the CyberSphere Digital Theatre at The Renaissance Center will present a special showing of The Mars Show, a planetarium program examining fact and fiction about the planet narrated by Patrick Stewart, better known as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Mars Show is presented at 7 p.m. Saturday in the CyberSphere, the center’s four-story domed theatre featuring state-of-the-art planetarium and laser projectors and a 14,000-watt digital Surroundsound system.

Named for the Roman god of war, Mars has played a major role in modern culture for the past 100 years, both in science fiction and fact.

Following the show, take a closer look at Mars as amateur astronomers from across Middle Tennessee bring powerful telescopes to The Renaissance Center for this special viewing. While waiting for Mars to rise, take the opportunity to look for double stars, star clusters and other planets such as Neptune and Uranus.

Tickets for The Mars Show are $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and children under 13. The telescope viewings are free. In the event of bad weather, the event will be postponed to Saturday, Nov. 5.

For more information on The Renaissance Center’s Close Encounter with Mars, call (615)740-5600 or visit the center’s Web site at www.rcenter.org.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the CyberSphere page for more about Planetarium and Laser Shows or the Home - News page for current and archived press releases.