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The latest Sky Show, "The Stories of Solar Eclipse", will be screened from today (March 1) until August 31 at the Hong Kong Space Museum. It is the first time that the Space Museum has produced a full-dome Sky Show to be displayed using the digital planetarium projection system. The show simulates the spectacular stages of a total solar eclipse, revealing the cause of a solar eclipse and the influence of solar eclipses on human history.
Although solar and lunar eclipses can be viewed from somewhere on Earth every year, only a small portion of the population has witnessed a solar eclipse, let alone experienced the thrill of a total one. In a total solar eclipse, the bright sun will be slowly obscured by a dark shadow and the sky will begin to grow dim. Finally, day turns into night. In ancient times, people who witnessed this dramatic scene would think that a catastrophe was going to happen. By painstakingly recording solar eclipses, they finally discovered a pattern for this frightening phenomenon. Although it may seem that the orientation, area and duration of the sun being covered by the moon are all different in every solar eclipse, this is not always the case. After every 18 years and 11 days, the sun, the moon and the Earth will return to about the same configuration in space, and nearly identical solar eclipses will happen, just like a replay.
Besides sharing understanding of the cause of solar eclipses, studies of solar eclipses have also fostered the development of calendar systems and science. As the calculation of solar eclipses requires good understanding of the motion of the sun and the moon, ancient Chinese astronomers used it as a yardstick for judging the accuracy of calendar systems. In the West, the total solar eclipse provided evidence to verify the general relativity proposed by Albert Einstein. The theory predicts that when the light of a star passes near the sun, the immense gravity of the sun will cause the light to bend slightly.
The 35-minute show will be screened three times daily at 1.30pm, 5pm and 8.30pm at the museum's Stanley Ho Space Theatre. The museum is closed on Tuesdays (except public holidays).
Tickets priced at $24 (front stalls) and $32 (stalls) are available at the Hong Kong Space Museum Box Office and URBTIX. Full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above and people with disabilities are eligible for a half-price concession. For further information about the film, please visit the website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/en_US/web/spm/nowplaying.html.
The Hong Kong Space Museum is located at 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. For enquiries, please call 2721 0226.
Ends/Sunday, March 1, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:01
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