Dickinson’s Charles M. Kanev Planetarium hosted its first-ever movie screening with the critically acclaimed movie, Interstellar, this past Friday.

The event came together when the Society of Physics Students invited MOB to host a movie in the planetarium.

“We were approached by the Society of Physics Students about screening a movie, and we agreed that it would be a really unique experience to offer students the opportunity to watch Interstellar in the planetarium,” said Patrick Robinson ’20, MOB’s Weekend Chair. “One of MOB’s goals this year is to do more collaborative programming between us and other organizations on campus, and we really loved working with the Society of Physics Students, as well as all the other clubs we’ve collaborated with so far, this semester!”

As Amanda Baylor ’20 said on behalf of the Society of Physics Students, “We decided to do it in the planetarium because it’s simply just a better setting for a movie. We were able to project the movie onto the inside of the dome for a widescreen movie theater experience, and not to mention the planetarium’s comfortable seating! We thought Interstellar would be a good choice because not only is it a visually-stunning, attention-grabbing movie, it’s also a beautiful representation of real life physics.”

Interstellar is a science-fiction film that follows a team of astronauts as they travel through space and time in hopes of finding a habitable planet for the survival of the human race. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan, the director of other acclaimed movies such as The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. The film also stars renowned actors Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.  Interstellar has won several awards, such as the Empire Award for Best Director, the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects and the Academy for Best Visual Effects.

Although the movie is technically a science-fiction, Nolan worked with theoretical physicist, Kip Thorne, in order to maintain as much scientific accuracy as possible, especially when dealing with subjects such as black holes and wormholes.

Jacob Kaufhold ’21 described the screening as “A fascinating experience! It was really cool to watch it in a planetarium since it is a movie about space travel. I’d love to watch another movie here.”

Claire Jeantheau ’21 said that it “was the first time I’ve seen Interstellar, and I thought it was so cool I got to have that experience on the big screen of the planetarium.”

The screening ran for a total of approximately three hours, and consisted of the two hour and  49 minute presentation of the film along with a 10 minute break halfway through.

Leigh Parrott ’18 also hopes the planetarium will host more movies. “I thought it was really fun – something we should definitely do more often,” she said.

According to Robinson, however, MOB does not “currently have plans to do another screening in the planetarium, but seeing as it was a successful event, we’d love to do it again!”

Approximately 25 students attended the screening at the Charles M. Kanev Planetarium last Friday, Oct. 20.

Baylor, however, said that the Society of Physics Students does “absolutely plan on showing more movies in the planetarium, with free pizza too!”