Les Etoiles Francaises

For the past three months the planetarium staff has been working diligently to produce a French language star show to entertain and educate students enrolled in French classes. We wanted to give the students a very different context in which to practice understanding the language they’re studying.

Through many days of recording, editing, installing, and practicing, the staff got themselves ready for the show’s big premiere on April 29^th. The first group to see this wonderful show were the combined French classes and French club from Fayette Ware High School. Their teacher, Mr. James Kuhn, was the man behind the revival of this retired star show. He contacted the planetarium director and asked if it would be possible to view a star show in a foreign language. Of course! The planetarium staff was happy to oblige, pulled out the old show, and polished it up to be better than ever.

During the star show the students were able to follow along with the narrator and get a glimpse of the universe through the various images and multimedia visual effects. Afterwards, there was a reception for the students to discuss what they had seen and heard.

The show itself is a fun educational experience. As the house lights dim, the audience gets to see various images of Paris representing daily life and architecture. Then the audience witnesses a planetarium sunset and views the different features of the Moon and of the constellation Ursa Major (also known as the Big Bear, which contains the asterism of the Big Dipper.) The students learn the words for the different parts of Ursa Major’s body, such as the tail (la queue) and the neck (le cou). For a sample of the narration, push the play arrow on the controller below:

Once they have learned about the constellation, the audience blasts into space where they can learn more about the Sun (le Soleil), the Moon (la Lune), and the planets (les planetes). They learn the French names for each of the planets: Mercure, Venus, Terre, Mars, Jupiter, Saturne, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluton. One effect used during the discussion of the solar system is a three minute video created to display each of the planets zooming toward the audience and rotating on its axis as it is described in the narration. The video even shows how Venus rotates in the direction opposite that of every other planet.

As the journey continues through space, the audience even gets to “land” on the surface of Mars. After they see canyons and volcanoes on Mars’s surface, the viewers see a pair of little green men in a flying saucer hover above the panorama scene.

Finally the show returns to the Earth from where the audience observes one last thing visible under a clear, dark sky—the Milky Way, or la Voie Lactee. Then the Sun begins to rise again, and the narrator says, “Bonjour.”

The Craigmont Planetarium staff worked really hard to put together a fun, educational show from a very different perspective, and in the end all the work paid off. The program was a success, and we hope to present it to many more French students in the future. Au revoir, mes amis!

Return to the Skylights menu