Space, the final frontier, explored

What's happening in the universe these days?

Southern Nevadans interested in a little night life -- beyond the Strip -- can be dazzled by light that left its star 2.2 million years ago, learn about terraforming Mars and get the latest on developing galaxies.

The Planetarium at the Community College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne campus, opened its new double-feature presentation "Destination: Universe and Sky Watch" Friday. The show will run through the end of March.

The 60-minute presentation offers more than 300 images, such as Earth, its orbit, the solar system, galaxies, other galaxies and the farthest reaches of the universe, then returns to Earth -- as it might appear 100,000 years from now.

"We cover pretty much the whole universe in this program," said Robert Pippin, planetarium manager who has been busy piecing together the multimedia presentation.

Slide, zoom and video projectors, laser disks and computer graphics are used in each presentation.

For those wondering what the night sky would look like beyond the neon, the Sky Watch program uses a star projector to present local early evening skies.

The 26-year-old planetarium, niched at the southeast end of the campus, seats 75 under its 30-foot dome.

"For a planetarium this size, we're probably the highest technologically advanced planetarium in the country," Pippin said.

Although it caters mainly to students in the college's astronomy program and students in the Clark County School District, the planetarium is open to the public Fridays and Saturdays.

As Southern Nevada's only planetarium, it averages about four different shows a year.

Outside telescope viewing sessions are available at the student observatory after evening performances.

"People always like to come out and look through the telescopes," said Deborah Bazar, who manages the Nevada Regional Educator Resource Center at the campus. "They actually realize there's other worlds."

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