Dancing lasers aren’t an everyday sight. But they are a sight to see on Fridays and Saturdays at the Lane Education Service District Planetarium.
This Friday, two new laser shows are opening at the planetarium, which is located at 2300 Leo Harris Parkway behind Autzen Stadium. “Laser Offspring” will make its appearance in Eugene, and “Laser Floyd ‘The Wall’ 2000,” a revised version of a previous Pink Floyd laser show, will follow.
Pink Floyd has been very popular, said Jon Elvert, the planetarium’s director, probably because it appeals to different generations. The audiences are usually of mixed age groups, he said. “Laser Floyd ‘The Wall’ 2000” is not a new show, he said, but an updated one. He said it incorporates new graphics and technology. Laser shows are about entertainment for all ages, he said.
Basically, he said, a laser show involves images choreographed to music.
There are two components to the creation of a laser show, said Scott Huggins, vice president of the museum and planetarium division of Laser Fantasy International, a company based in Bellevue, Wash., that develops and programs most of the laser shows the Lane ESD Planetarium presents.
“There’s the part that we do as artists and technicians before the show,” he said, which includes animating and digitizing hand-drawn and computerized designs, much like cartoons. Synthesizers are used to create moving, abstract images, he said, and those images are then assigned to a soundtrack.
And there’s also a live component to a laser show, Huggins said. A technician stands behind the scenes and controls attributes such as size and color.
“They’re interpreting the show like an artist,” he said.
In a laser show, most visual elements are projected onto the dome of the planetarium, Huggins said, but sometimes lasers are cast from the front of the room to the back, and theatrical fog is used to make the beams more visible.
“The lights and music were choreographed well,” said James Powers, a senior biochemistry major, referring to the time he saw “Laser Floyd” a few years ago. “It was eye-catching and just all-around neat. If I had more time and money, I would go to them a lot more often.”
The money required to see a laser show at Lane ESD Planetarium is $6, and tickets go on sale at 9 p.m. the night of the show. “Laser Offspring” begins at 9:30 p.m., and “Laser Floyd ‘The Wall’ 2000” begins at 11 p.m. Both shows are featured on Fridays and Saturdays. Most laser shows run for about 45 to 55 minutes, Huggins said.
The show schedule changes about every three months, Elvert said. Occasionally, the planetarium features holiday laser shows, but a Halloween show has not yet been scheduled for this year.
Laser shows light the night at planetarium
Daily Emerald
October 11, 2000
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