Oswego State is home to a variety of informative and entertaining events designed to educate the community on certain subjects, one of which is the planetarium show given every Sunday evening at the Shineman Science Center.

The Oswego State planetarium’s history goes back much further than its recent move to Shineman in 2014. As far back as the 1970s, shows were given with an older-style optomechanical projector in the Hewitt Student Union. They were free and open to the public, just as they are now. However, the new facility in Shineman is more modern and features a new projector for an enhanced viewing experience.

Scott Roby is the head coordinator for the planetarium. This past academic year, John Zielinski began giving his own presentations. Roby and Zielinski now alternate giving presentations each month that have a new topic. Zielinski hosted the first show of the month on Sunday, titled “The Eclipse is Coming!” as eclipses are relevant this year.

Zielinski discussed the solar eclipse in August and gave the details on where to see it. He said it will be visible in the United States for just over an hour and a half.

Solar eclipses move across the Earth’s surface quite rapidly. This year’s eclipse will be visible for just over two minutes in any one location, Zielinski said. Solar eclipses occur when the moon’s shadow from the sun passes over the Earth’s surface, creating a brief few moments of darkness for those under the shadow. Once the moon is directly in front of the sun, a ring of light, called a corona, is formed around the moon, giving it a glowing effect. Zielinski used several projector slides to illustrate the physics behind the phenomenon.

After the presentation, Zielinski brought a telescope out onto one of Shineman’s observatory decks and invited people to take a magnified look at both the Earth’s moon and some of Jupiter’s moons.

Oswego State’s planetarium is more than a movie theater-style place to come and watch animated graphics about the solar system.

“The planetarium is nearly 100 percent an educational tool, it’s not a research tool,” Zielinski said. “It’s a way to simulate the sky and teach people about constellations and how things move in the sky, due to the Earth’s revolution and rotation around the sun.”

Stars and constellations are among the most popular topics at the planetarium. Starting in the fall, at the beginning of the academic year, Zielinski and Roby do shows on the stars of each individual season. Roby also does a show talking about double stars and Zielinski does another on astronomical subjects in literature, pertaining to the works of Shakespeare and Mark Twain.

While speaking about his favorite aspect of running the facility, Zielinski explained how important visual aides are in educating viewers.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished the most when I can take something that’s fairly complicated, and in a series of two or three slides, I can make that accessible to someone that isn’t technically trained,” Zielinski said.

Zielinski said he enjoys giving the presentations as much as audiences enjoy seeing them. Kyle Faraci, a sophomore geology student, saw a show about the stars in the fall and expressed his amusement with the show.

“I really enjoyed the stories that went along with seeing the star maps,” Faraci said. “The graphics and narrations really make the whole show look really cool.”

Zielinski and Roby each program their own custom shows, designed not only to educate, but to amuse.

“I think we’ve put together something that’s interesting and, sometimes, a little bit entertaining,” Zielinski said. “And it’s free.”