‘Every kid remembers their first planetarium visit,” says Jay Schwartz, planetarium director at the New Jersey State Museum. Schwartz oversees shows at the state planetarium, which is housed under the large white dome off Route 29.
“When you walk in there’s a sense of magic that people feel,” Schwartz says, likening the experience to a Broadway show before the curtain rises. “You’re in a dome, there’s music playing. There’s an excitement that builds up. You’re waiting for something to start.”
He did say the word magic. Even among those whose “kid” years are a dim memory, the idea of “magic” at this time of year remains potent. Sometimes magic seems to be the only thing that will get youngsters to stop squirming. If that is the case, then the state planetarium’s “Laser Holiday Magic” show has arrived just in time.
The 30-minute production includes music that is boomer-friendly, featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks, “Frosty the Snowman” by the Cocteau Twins, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Burl Ives, “All I want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” by Spike Jones, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love, along with nods to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
There is something about waiting in a dark auditorium, anticipating celestial wonders, that evokes a first camping trip. Nighttime skies depicted during the course of a planetarium show are breathtakingly beautiful, and in the megalopolitan northeastern USA there really is no other way to see them.
“We started producing laser shows in 1990,” Schwartz says. “It was a three-color system and now we have millions of colors, and we are able to color the entire dome. Technology is always improving, and the audience is always demanding more, so we have to keep up.”
The word “spectacular” is not misused in this case. Toward the end of the holiday show, water vapor gets released from above, making it easy to see the laser beams crossing each other.
“We call that theatrical haze,” Schwartz says. “That really makes for the illusion that you are immersed in the program.” The lasers make precise designs possible and create an overall “gee-whiz” vibe.
The connection with the original planetarium experience that sends first-timers home with stars in their eyes is always paramount to Schwartz. “I noticed that when adults come back with children of their own,” he says, “they stop by the console and say, ‘I remember coming here when I was a kid.’ And that’s something they remember from their class trips.”
Laser Holiday Magic, New Jersey State Museum Planetarium, 205 West State Street, Saturday and Sundays at 3 p.m. through Sunday, December 18, and on December 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, at 1 p.m. $5 to $7. (609) 292-6464 or statemuseum.nj.gov.
New Jersey State Museum,
