The NRAO in Charlottesville has had this “space TV” setup in their lobby for some time now. I can’t remember what it is called**, but it’s a large, silent (ok, with some light background music), beautiful display that runs through various astronomy and space updates, all downloaded from this service. You can stand in front of it and watch the pretty pictures and read the descriptions, and come back days later to find it updated. Really cool! A few months back, I was up at UVa’s McCormick Observatory, and we had gotten one installed there, too! Sadly, it replaced the painting of the historic “McCormick reaper” but that’s okay. Well, I’m sitting in UVa’s Science and Engineering Library in Clark, and there’s one here, too! So as students study, they can look up and be fascinated by the gorgeous Hubble pictures and spacey sights. I don’t know how long it’s been here, since I’m hardly ever here, but I hope it sparks a few more inquiring minds, and even brings a few more students to our classes.
Speaking of spaciness, check out the Carnival of Space #75 at Lounge of the Lab Lemming!
And thank you to Greenberry’s in Clark for being open on a Sunday night…
**UPDATE: It’s called ViewSpace, and Richard Drumm gives us more info in the comments!
Nicole
Tim
That’s called ViewSpace, and it’s the brainchild of John Stoke, now working at NRAO as the ALMA EPO Program Officer. Pop in on him next time you’re at HQ and tell him how much you like his baby!
http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/exhibits/self-update/viewspace/
The content is updated weekly through the internet hookup of the computer that’s driving the big flat panel display.
By not having a voice-over or narration audio track the system is freed up from having to support numerous languages. The pleasant music track is also less annoying in the typical science museum setting than having several competing narration tracks playing on nearby screens. Less of a cacophony, you know.
As a video editor I’m accustomed to having a professional narrator reading a carefully prepared script and then cutting pictures to that track. Eschewing the VO (voice over) seems almost, well, heretical, but it works in this instance.
Personally, I’d be sorely tempted to try to incorporate a VO track from time to time. I think Dr. Pamela Gay would be just superb at this sort of thing, she’s a seriously great voice talent.