Earth And Space Science Lab Open To Public On Monday

The gleaming new Earth and Space Science Laboratory is ready for its first public close-up.

The state-of-the-art Frederick County Public Schools lab will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. Visitors can take self-guided tours, take in a planetarium show and watch demonstrations presented by WJLA meteorologist Adam Caskey. The Washington television station's Storm Chaser, a state-of-the-art severe weather center on wheels, will be set on the center's parking lot.

"We'll present a full-dome show called 'Two Small Pieces of Glass,'" lab co-director Mark Bowman said Friday. "It's about 22 minutes and pays tribute to the telescope from Galileo to the present-day Hubble Space Telescope."

The planetarium show will run every 30 minutes from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The planetarium experience should be quite different from the one people remember from the old building, Bowman said. The old one had circular bench seating for 70 people. The new room has individual theater seating for 78 viewers. Each row is angled so that viewers are more comfortably positioned to watch the show, Bowman said.

"The new seats are definitely the right tool for the right place," he said. "They help make the show."

The new 35-foot dome is home to 360-degree productions that Bowman called "full immersion" shows.

Visitors on Monday will be invited to take a self-guided tour of the new lab, which includes classroom space, aquarium areas, oceanography and geology labs and office space. The building also contains 75 solar panels donated by BP Solar.

"Right now, they're tied into the regular grid system for the building," Bowman said. "The electricity generated isn't going toward a specific area, just to the building in general."

He said it would be a future project to calculate how much electricity is being generated and how much that saves the school system.

Bowman and co-director Jeff Grills have been busy getting the new lab up to speed.

"We're hustling," Grills said. "We're trying to keep our heads above water."

The building opened to students Oct. 5. Two fifth-grade classes from Walkersville Elementary School were the first to experience the new lab.

Bowman said the planetarium was the crown jewel of the old building, and the new planetarium carries that title for the new building as well.

The building provides and "ooh, aah" experience for all visitors, children and adults, according to Bowman.

And outdoor exhibit and pathway near the entrance provides the "ooh" experience and the indoor amenities add the "aah," he said.

Those who remember the glow-in-the-dark hallway in the old building will be happy to discover the idea was resurrected in the new one.

A glow-in-the-dark display is in the dome itself, and plays a part in the planetarium shows.

Bowman said he's excited for residents to visit the new center.

"This place comes alive with people," he said. "Especially with children, but with adults, too."

Copyright 2009 The Frederick News-Post. All rights reserved.