"Dark Universe" Space Show by Riley San Nicolas

“Dark Universe”: A Space Show at the Museum of Natural History

May 4th

Mid-afternoon. After wandering through halls of stuffed animals and Buddhist artifacts and dinosaur bones, I get to the doors of the planetarium ready to see my first Space Show! 

The description of the show “Dark Universe” said that instead of telling you about the sun or physics or something else that can be readily explained by science, this show was going to ask more questions and discuss the highly theoretical matters of dark energy and dark matter. Walking into the theatre is magnificent as the huge dome above is dimly lit and looks like a spacecraft ready for lift-off. Sitting down in the surprisingly comfortable plush seats angled upwards, my entire body tingles in anticipation. 

All of a sudden the lights go off and I’m simply squealing with excitement at this point. The first scene is a little strange as a little girl wakes up in the middle of the night to open up a science book that transforms into the stars before our eyes. It feels like I’m spying on this child’s gentle slumber. Anyway, before I know it, I’m actually full-fledged soaring through space. It disorients your entire being at first. The sensation is like falling but the illusion is massive and you can’t tell if you’re drifting backward or forward, getting bigger or smaller. Solar systems and galaxies numbering in the millions are passing by you, or are you passing through them? Everything is upside down and and behind and above and you are longer human. You are a small pair of eyes witnessing the entire observable universe shrink and expand and look there’s a supernova! 

Then a voice that sounds like God breaking through every barrier of light comes to you. The voice belongs to Neil DeGrasse Tyson the acclaimed astrophysicist and director of the planetarium. He begins to explain physics and space and light. It is all very enlightening information but the sheer visual stimulation soon overcomes every word he says and it becomes more of a trance than anything. Stars explode and galaxies collide. The universe is reversed through time until the advent of the Big Bang. 

The experience ends with the skyline from Earth fading to black and then the lights come on. I can barely walk out of the theatre with my ind convinced it has discovered the meaning of life.