BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – With his $500,000 projector and a love for the stars, Bakersfield College Professor of Astronomy and the director of the William M. Thomas Planetarium, Nick Strobel took his audience through the wonders of space exploration during the presentation of From Earth to the Universe on Thursday, Sept. 25.

“I want people to come to these shows just to see the beauty that’s in the universe and the sense of awe that is there,” said Strobel. Strobel began the show by dimming all the lights in the room, and then turning on his star projector, a machine with thousands of little holes that allows light to pass through and paint the inner dome of the planetarium with the same stars someone might see on a cloudless night. Strobel then showed some of the common constellations, pictures made by grouping together stars, such as the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and Cassiopea, explaining some of their meanings and histories, and how to find each one in the real world. After the initial tour of our night sky, another projector was turned on, and the large dome was turned into an encompassing theater screen, where the documentary style presentation From Earth to the Universe was played.

One of the people in attendance was Bryanna Martinez, a first semester student at BC.

“I came because I think stars are super cool and I love space stuff,” said Martinez. “One of the coolest things I got was the constellations that you could see in the night sky currently.”

Another person who enjoyed the show was Stevie Gregory, a music and art major at BC. Her view of art and culture made her very interested in learning about the ancient people who learned astronomy, like the Aztecs and the Mayans.

“It was really cool to see the art that they made from the constellations like on the rocks and on their sundials and star dials, it was really cool.”