Sudekum offers world-class stargazing

Adventure Science Center's new Sudekum Planetarium will officially open Saturday. Steve Lowry for The City Paper

Following six years of planning and construction, the Adventure Science Center’s long-awaited expansion space will open to the public this Saturday to reveal a world-class planetarium and a hands-on exhibit facility that allows simulated moon walking.

The $21.4 million project includes both a new Sudekum Planetarium, the only outside Japan to feature a GOTO Chiron Star Projector, and Space Chase, which connects the new planetarium to the original building and features 30 exhibits and 63 interactive stations.

“This will be the most technologically advanced system in the country,” Ron Samuels, chairman of the center’s board of directors, said of the GOTO apparatus and the equipment that drives it. “This is a world-class planetarium.”

In the 15,000-square-foot Space Chase exhibit hall, the Moon Walk allows users to experience the effects of reduced gravity as they walk, hop and skip on a moon-like surface.

The Moon Walk is part of the Test Bed exhibit gallery within Space Chase and includes Trajectory Trails, which teaches visitors how trajectory has an impact in how rockets are launched, achieve orbit and reach space destination.

Other Test Bed highlights include a MicroG Chair (experience Sir Isaac Newton’s “for every action there is an equal and opposite action” theory), EVA (extra vehicular activity) Experience and a Launch Pad (rockets are fueled and fired).

However, it is the Sudekum Planetarium, first opened in 1952 and named after Nashville philanthropist Anthony “Tony” Sudekum, that officials say will differentiate the overall facility from those similar science centers in other cities.

The purple GOTO machine, considered one of the world’s most advanced optical-mechanical star projectors, dominates the 166-seat domed space and its 63-foot dome.

For a comparison, the GOTO Chiron allows for the display of 6.5 million stars, while the facility’s previous machine offered only 2,500. As such, the 26-minute STARS visual presentation is breathtaking, its image clarity on the cutting edge of planetarium advancements, officials say. SunTrust partly contributed to the funding of STARS, the music for which is performed by the Nashville Symphony.

“Some planetariums have digital star projectors, and some have digital projection systems. And some have both,” said Susan Duvenhage, the center’s president and CEO. “What sets us apart is the that we have the two technologies seamlessly working together.”

Samuels said center officials visited a “significant number” of similar facilities, from which they took various ideas.

“It took years of research and work to get to this stage,” he said.

Another highlight of the Adventure Science Center is the Solar System Survey, which allows the user to explore the universe by “walking” through the solar system and which features eight specific exhibits. These include System Planet Scales (you can determine your weight on each of the planets) and Tilt a World (zoom in on a select Earth location).

Nashville-based Tuck-Hinton Architects designed the additions to the Adventure Science Center.

The center is at 800 Fort Negley Blvd. Call 615-862-5160 or visit adventuresci.com for more information.