MKAEC Signature Show / V 6
A Full-dome Video Show Script
for the
&
Evans & Sutherland
by
Dr. William Gutsch
Dissolve of quotes about
Slow
fade of house lights.
As last quote fades, we possibly hear
the blowing
of the ceremonial conch shell.
Slowly fade up and down,
“The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers
…
Queen Liliuokalani”
Slowly fade up and down …
“From
the Kumulipo, the Hawaiian Creation Chant”.
We hear (without musical
accompaniment) …
Chant (in Hawaiian)
O ka lipolipo, o ka lipolipo
O ka lipo o ka la, o ka lipo o ka po
(The intense darkness, the deep darkness
Darkness of the sun, darkness of night
Nothing but night.
The night gave birth.)
Male Voice
In the beginning, there was darkness …
Female Voice
In the beginning, there was “po” ...
Male Voice
And light … came from the darkness.
Female Voice
He po uhe’e i ka wawa
And darkness slips into light.
Sound effect build.
Portion of Big Bang animation from
“Universe”, Chapter 14
Dissolve to animation of the first stars
and galaxies
beginning
to form from “Universe”, Chapter 13.
Dissolve to some of Hubble Deep Field
image from “Universe”, Chapter 15
or similar from
with some 2-D movement.
Male Voice
The first stars …
the
first cities of stars, the galaxies.
Dissolve to zoom in toward our Milky Way
and, in turn,
zoom in on our local spiral arm.
Portion of Milky Way galaxy fly-in from
“Universe”, Chapter 2
dissolve to diffuse nebulae animation
e.g.,
from “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapter
6 & 7.
In one galaxy …
near
the edge of a graceful spiral arm …
around one of its billions of suns …
it is a moment of creation.
Female
Voice (again from the Kumulipo)
O he’e au loloa ka po
O piha, o pihapika
The long night slips along
Fruitful, very fruitful.
We have zoomed into our solar system (no
close planet fly-bys)
to the Earth.
The Earth becomes a chord on the horizon
slowly rotating away from us. We sweep
downward come up upon
the
Male Voice
In the middle of a vast ocean …
a sacred place is being born from the sea.
Female Voice
O Papa-huli-honua
O Papa-huli-lani
O Papa-nui-hanau-moku.
Then, without overlap.
Papa – mother earth’s womb turning
Papa in giving birth stirs the heavens
Great Papa gives birth to the islands.
Male Voice
Over the eons, it is to be a place of birth and
re-birth.
Its story is very old …
Female Voice
Its story is very old …
and its story continues.
We fly toward and focus on Mauna Kea
as it rises before us under a canopy of
stars..
And where once Papa, the earth mother …
and Wakea, the sky father were one,
in time,
they became separate.
Between … a mountain stood tall and strong ,
a sacred “piko”,
a sacred bond …
to connect earth and sky…
a sacred connection …
to the cosmos.
We slowly sail around the mountain.
Behold Mauna a Wakea, “
In time, it would be called
“
“Mountain with Snow.
Music Swell
Title
Opening credits.
Dissolve to
dramatic animation showing the
geological birth
of the
Male Voice
These sacred islands were born of fire deep beneath
the sea.
On the ocean floor, a section of the earth’s crust
moved at a crawling pace …
the pace at which a fingernail grows.
From beneath, over time, fiery lava broke through …
again and again.
The ocean chill froze the lava …
layer upon by layer …
foot by foot …
as a chain of mountains grew --
a chain of mountains that would pierce the sea
to become a chain of islands …
but if measured
from the sea floor,
some of the tallest mountains on earth.
Dramatic, beautiful animation illustrating
the story
of Pele, Na Maka o Kaha’i, and Poliahu.
Female Voice
And, in time, Pele, goddess of fire,
came to the first of these islands
and dug a crater at its top
to make for herself a home.
But her older sister, Na Maka o Kaha’i, goddess of the
sea,
followed her to this new land …
and drew water from the ocean
to flood Pele’s abode with fire quenching water.
And so, drove Pele to seek a new home on the next
island summit.
Pele and Na Maka o Kaha’i struggled …
island by island …
summit to summit.
Yet it was on the largest island –
where Pele met her greatest challenge …
one of fire and ice.
For there, at its highest peak,
Pele fought her fiercest rival, Poliahu, goddess of
snow.
Poliahu reached out and spread a mantle of chilling cold
…
banishing Pele to the neighboring
And so,
to this day,
and
call forth Pele’s presence
with glowing cinders and smoke
and rivers of fire that flow down to the steaming
sea.
Until now,
the sacredness of this place was untouched.
Until now,
the gods dwelled here …
the gods alone.
Gradual fade to just stars
plus faint ocean waters sound effect.
Slow diurnal motion.
Star field positioned in sync with script
as various stars and star groupings are
highlighted on cue.
We are under the winter sky at about the
latitude of
starting at about 4 hours sidereal time.
Then, one day,
there came another moment of birth … and re-birth.
Male Voice
From far away,
eyes would gaze in wonder across the great expanse of ocean.
Human eyes.
Female Voice
Eyes would gaze upward across the starry sky.
And the stars would point the way … to new lands.
The following lines are alternately chanted
and read.
Specific stars and star groupings are
appropriately highlighted on cue.
(From the Kumulipo we hear…)
Chant
Pa’a na hoku kau i ka lewa
Female Voice
Fixed are the stars suspended in the sky.
Chant
Lewa ‘A٬ a … lewa Puanakua
Female Voice
Glides Sirius … glides Rigel
Chant
Lewa Makali’i, lewa Na-huihui
Female Voice
Glides the Pleiades, the star clusters of Makali’i
Chant
Lewa Na Kao
Female Voice
Hurls the fish spears
Chant
Lewa Na Hiku, lewa Hiku-kahi
Female Voice
Circles the Seven, Na Hiku, circles the first of the
Seven
Music change (perhaps with the sound of
drums added).
Fade up scene.
We are on an ancient Hawaiian canoe on a
vast ocean.
Morning twilight still holds the night’s
last stars in the sky.
But dawn is approaching.
Male Voice
From the south and southwest they came … in remarkably
crafted canoes.
Female Voice
They were sophisticated engineers …
explorers …
navigators …
and astronomers …
who could read the secrets of the stars …
the winds …
the clouds …
and the birds
to fathom position and course …
to explore the vast Pacific …
to discover …
Camera angle pitches forward in front to
dramatically reveal
a scene as in Herb Kawainui Kane’s
painting as
in the first orange rays of the rising sun.
… this Hawai‘i.
Music swell.
Cross fade to
dramatic dissolve of unspoiled scenes.
And so they settled amid untouched beaches …
thriving forests … and cascading waterfalls …
and made this new land their home.
Up the slopes of
where Pele’s fire and Poliahu’s ice worked to forge
the hardest of stone,
they also ventured
… to seek out the makings of tools …
to carve new canoes --
new vessels of discovery.
Possible scene of stars reflected in the
waters of
with the mountain summits in the
distance.
But the lofty summits,
the highest of realms
remained the most sacred ‘aina --
the most sacred
land.
Here few were to tred …
only a high priest,
a kahuna, or ali٬i chief.
Male Voice
Possible animation depicting the arrival
of Captain Cook?
A millennium or more would pass before the next “wave
of discovery” --
the arrival of others from even more distant lands …
others with a different appearance …
different ways ...
yet sharing a common passion for exploration.
Montage of old photographs of early
western roads and buildings
on the mountain
and hikers at or near the summit.
And the new explorers came to the beaches …
and the forests …
and the mountain summits.
Female Voice
And footsteps tread where few had gone before.
Music change.
Slow fly in toward
From under a high, thin deck of turbulent
clouds.
It is near sunset.
Male Voice
Today, the age-old connection that
has seen yet another rebirth …
a new connection.
At this moment, we break through the
thin deck of clouds
(as they
turn yellow and orange in the setting sun)
as
For today,
of the largest collection
of advanced astronomical observatories in the world.
We slowly and serenely circle the
mountain top.
Female Voice
The observatories on
But through their essence, as quiet vehicles of
exploration,
many seek a balance that allows the spiritual,
cultural, and scientific
to comfortably coexist in harmony,
for the observatories,
like the mountain on which they stand
form a connection between earth and sky …
between Papa
and Wakea.
And so, today,
as it was in the beginning
the ultimate connection …
the ultimate piko …
IS
Unobtrusively, dissolve in and out flow
lines
depicting the inversion layer and
smoothness of the air flow.
Male Voice
Here almost 14,000 feet above sea level,
we find an ecologically fragile environment --
and, for humans,
a chilling, harsh, and challenging world …
but one perfectly suited to studying the cosmos.
Here, under crystal clear skies, through thin, dry,
unpolluted air
that glides smooth and stable from far across the
Pacific,
we can behold some of the sharpest, most exquisite
views of the universe possible.
We glide through the Gemini dome
and slowly around the telescope.
On cue, the slit opens
and we fly outward
into the starry night
and then, out among the stars.
Each
night, from inside their protective domes …
telescopes with giant eyes
gaze
out into space …
and back into time
to weave together a story of origins …
of birth …
and re-birth across the stars.
We sail serenely through interstellar
space.
Male Voice
The stars …
more stars in the universe
than there are grains of sand
on all the beaches on earth.
If we know just where to look,
we can seek out their birthing places.
Animation of slow flight past the Trifid
Nebula
as in “Wonders of the Universe”,
Chapter6.
Dissolve to naked eye view of the Orion
region of the sky.
Below and to the left, near the horizon,
we see, via animation, a stylized depiction
of ancient native Hawaiian navigators
on board a canoe looking up and
pointing.
On cue, the dart, or fish spear, stars
are highlighted.
In mid-winter’s sky,
in an area known to the ancient Hawaiians as Na Kao,
the fish spears,
and to others as the belt of Orion, the hunter,
we find such a place.
As the canoe animation fades,
we also dissolve from the naked eye view of
the Orion region
to a close up animation of a flight into the
Orion Nebula
as in “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapters
7.
Known as the Great Nebula, or “Cloud” in Orion,
it is a vast stellar nursery.
Dissolve to inner regions of M42.
Slow zoom up on protostar and
proto-planetary disk.
Deep within,
new stars, and possibly new families of encircling
planets,
stand ready to emerge from dark, embryonic cocoons of
dust.
Dissolve to naked eye view of the region
of the sky
that includes Serpens and Scorpius.
Below and to the right, fade in and out,
stylized depiction of ancient Hawaiian
navigators
on board a canoe looking up and
pointing.
Highlight the star pattern known as
In summer’s skies,
not far from a region known in
the Eagle Nebula is a similar place of creation.
Dissolve to Eagle Nebula fly over
animation
from “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapter
6.
Here, giant pillars of dust,
each more than 6 trillion miles long,
shroud infant stars that will someday also emerge
to spread their light across the vastness of space.
Add to existing animation, the light
from one or two stars
majestically
bursting forth
from the upper tips of M16’s “pillars of
creation”.
Dissolve to zoom-in of edge-on view of
our Milky Way Galaxy
as in “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapter5
showing red diffuse nebulae strung along
the spiral arms of the galaxy.
Such birthing clouds are far from rare.
Indeed, glowing like red torches in the night,
they are strung by the thousands
along the spiral arms of the Milky Way.
Dissolve to two fields of very early
galaxies that fill the entire dome.
The two fields overlap and slowly cross
through each other.
Billions of other galaxies are scattered across space
…
and back through time.
Fade in and out on the horizon,
semi-transparent depiction
of one or more of the observatories atop
At the limits of
incredibly faint swirls, spots, and streaks of light
reach our eyes after journeys of billions of
years.
And so we see them, not as they are tonight,
but rather as they were billions of years
ago.
Each is a galaxy, a city of billions or even trillions
of stars.
The earliest stars …
the earliest galaxies to form after the birth of the
universe --
the “Big Bang” …
the moment when …
he po uhe’e i ka wawa …
darkness slips into light.
The dome flushes softly with light as
the scene dissolves to
animation of colliding galaxies showing
star burst phenomena
as in “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapter
2 or other.
Elsewhere, galaxies collide over hundreds of millions
of years.
The complex interplay of their gravity
whips and compresses the gas between the stars
setting off huge bursts of star birth …
distorting the galaxies themselves
into strange and fanciful shapes.
Slow dissolve to 3-D star field.
We slowly zoom in on a red dwarf star.
Just as stars
are born, so too, they grow old … and die.
Some stars are tiny, “light weights” as stars go.
Such “red dwarfs” live for billions, if not trillions,
of years
and, eventually …
just fade out.
Dissolve to slow fly around of a
planetary nebula
as in “Universe”, Chapter 16.
Somewhat more massive stars, ease into old age
by blowing off colorful
bubbles, rings, and “hourglasses” of glowing gas known as “planetary nebulae”.
Dissolve to add-on collage of images
of a variety of actual planetary nebulae
including the Hourglass Nebula since
this shape is specifically referenced.
In the distant future, our own sun
will likely enshroud itself in a similar fashion,
its system of planets, including the earth, encased
within.
With the most massive stars,
nature works the most extraordinary of wonders.
Dissolve to fly-in toward black hole
surrounded by its accretion disk
as in “Universe”, Chapter 17.
Here, the core of a once mighty sun has collapsed
to tighten gravity’s grip so strongly
that nothing, not even light, can escape.
Where once there blazed a brilliant star,
we now find a dark stellar tomb -- a black hole.
Continue slow flight around the black
hole.
But, across
the universe,
such stellar death is ironically, inexorably linked to
life …
to birth … and re-birth.
During the following sentence,
dissolve to large blue-white supergiant
star/ supernova sequence
as in “Wonders of the Universe”, Chapter
9 retimed to fit.
For the process that crushes a mighty sun
into a black hole,
also involves the catastrophic explosion of such a
“supergiant” star.
These stars shine brilliantly
but do so at the expense of burning their fuel at a
prodigious rate.
The star begins to collapse.
When the fuel is ultimately spent,
gravity instantly collapses the star.
The heart of the star is quickly crushed.
But the outer layers rebound violently into space
amid a blinding
flash …
a supernova.
The star explodes as a supernova
flooding the theater with brilliant light.
After the audience has had time to see
and react, we hear…
For a few days,
this one star outshines its entire galaxy --
one star erupting with the brilliance of a hundred billion
suns.
We see a great cloud of debris moving
outward into space.
Over tens of millions of years,
the star’s interior furnaces have “spun” simple
elements
like hydrogen and helium into more complex ones.
In the unimaginable inferno of the supernova itself,
still heavier elements have been forged.
Now, through this single act of stellar death,
all these materials are cast out into space.
Dissolve to a section of the supernova
shell fragment
As it slowly collides with a diffuse
nebula in its path.
In time, they will plow into other gas, and dust, …
other nebulae in space
and squeeze such nebulae
to produce new stars and new planets
and …
Female Voice: (in quick succession so as to not lose the
continuity)
He po uhe’e i ka wawa
(As) darkness slips into light.
Male Voice:
… from death … also comes new life.
For, in the process, these places are seeded with the
elements
dispersed from inside the now dead star.
Dissolve to early solar nebula.
In exploring the heavens, the great telescopes of
have revealed evidence of such events …
the recycling of stellar material to form new stars …
and new planetary systems ...
just as happened in the local regions of our galaxy
four to five billion years ago
as our sun and its planets came to be.
The nebula begins to morph into a pair
of stylized, glowing human forms.
Indeed, the oxygen in your lungs at this very moment …
the calcium in your bones …
the iron in every cell of your blood …
almost all that you are
was created in massive stars that lived and died long
ago.
Slow dissolve to a grand view/ fly
around of
bathed in moonlight under a canopy of brilliant
stars.
We and all that surround us …
including the mighty and sacred mountain
at whose base you now sit …
were born of the stars.
Female Voice
The kupuna,
the Hawaiian elders,
tell us that we are “particles of the heavens”.
The astronomers of
we are “particles of the universe”.
And all should be treasured.
Female Voice
And all must be respected.
Music build possibly mixed with
Kumulipo Chant in background.
mountain crowned with white …
mountain of the sky god …
place of birth and re-birth…
sacred piko …
sacred connection between our earth and the heavens.
Optional additional lines.
May we never forget how special you are.
May we work together to preserve that which is
so special …
for all of us …
for all of time to come.
Music swell to end.
After a suitable pause, roll credits
over a postion of Iz’s “Twinkle, twinkle”.
House lights gradually up.
# # #