Stars share bill with Hubble, music at State Museum events

The S.C. State Museum continues to come up with new ways to showcase its renovations, with two very different star-gazing events in the next week.

Friday, the museum throws open its doors at night for Happy Hubble 25, a family-friendly event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch. Then April 30, the crowd likely will skew a little older for Quadrivium, a melding of science and live classical music from 7-11 p.m. Both have celestial underpinnings and take advantage of the new Boeing Observatory and the new BlueCross BlueShield of S.C. Planetarium.

At Happy Hubble, a live-stream webcast from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum will feature experts from NASA detailing the telescope’s launch and how it has opened new realms of discovery. Visitors will be able to check out the moon, Jupiter and plenty of stars through telescopes arrayed outside the museum as well as the large Alvan Clark in the observatory inside. (Of course, cloud cover cannot be controlled.)

Hundreds lined up for the observatory’s first public sky viewing night back in September, and the rest of the museum wasn’t open that night. This time, the visitors can tour the museum, take a 25-minute Hubble sky tour in the planetarium or watch “BUGS! Giant Robotic Creatures” in the 4D theater.

Admission is $5 per person (free for museum members), with additional fees for the planetarium and 4D theater. The sky viewing is free at the event, which runs from 5-10 p.m.

Eight days later, Quadrivium is an event born in the active mind of observatory manager Matthew Whitehouse, whose educational background has one foot in science and the other in music. Quadrivium refers to the Latin educational track that focused on arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

Live music will be choreographed to celestial images on the planetarium dome, with performances by the Trinity Cathedral Chamber Singers as well as Whitehouse on organ. Whitehouse’s part will be improvisational, drawing from the Italian Renaissance piece, “Sicut cervus,” sung by the chamber group as well as the movement of the star field on the dome.

“I’ll be composing it on the fly,” Whitehouse said. “It’s a tradition in the organ field.”

Two quartets from the South Carolina Philharmonic also will perform throughout the evening in the observatory area, continuing the melding of music and science.

“This project is taking us into new territory,” Whitehouse said.

Also, a short silent film, “A Trip to the Moon,” will chronicle a group of astronomers who travel to the moon. And the rest of the museum will be open.

While children might enjoy the music, the Quadrivium is aimed at adults. Tickets are $50 for the public and $40 for museum members. Hors d’oeuvres and alcoholic beverages will be available at the event from 7-11 p.m.

If you go: Happy Hubble 25 is 5-10 p.m. Friday, April 24; tickets: $5 per person (free for museum members); the first 200 guests will receive a free astronomy poster. www.scmuseum.org

Joey Holleman

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Stars share bill with Hubble, music at State Museum events."