The advance of darkness means the return of prime aurora viewing season in interior Alaska, but a project being considered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks could make watching the northern lights a year round experience. UAF geophysical Institute director Bob McCoy says the facility would be similar to a portable planetarium. ”We’ve had an inflatable planetarium, we’ve had 2 of them, that we’ve been going around to villages, and putting up in town. We’re trying to turn the inflatable planetarium into something more permanent, someplace in town so that visitors summer or winter, if it’s bad weather, can come and sit inside a sphere, and see us project the aurora.” McCoy says the “aurorium” would offer a realistic experience by employing 3 dimensional projection of actual aurora recorded by an all sky fish eye lens camera. He says the Geophysical Institute is working on the video, but that funding for the facility, which could be located on campus, at Pioneer Park or at Chena Hot Springs, still has to be secured. ###
Dan has been in public radio news in Alaska since 1993. He’s worked as a reporter, newscaster and talk show host at stations in McGrath, Valdez and Fairbanks. Dan’s experience includes coverage of a wide range of topics, from wolf control to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and dog mushing.