Ball State’s Charles W. Brown Planetarium Hosts Student 'Astronomy SLAM' on Nov. 8 and Season of Public Shows

Student-powered Astronomy SLAM returns Nov. 8

The Charles W. Brown Planetarium at Ball State University will present its annual Astronomy SLAM on Saturday, Nov. 8. Four students will deliver 10-minute, audience-judged presentations using the planetarium’s full-dome visuals. Tickets are available online for $4; refreshments will be provided and attendees are invited to vote for awards including SLAM champion, best visuals, most thought-provoking and best energy.

Topics and presenters

This year’s topics include exoplanets and extreme exoplanets, dark matter and dark energy, and agricultural practices timed to lunar cycles. Some presenters are student staff at the planetarium, while others are participating out of personal interest. “We're hoping to get a full house. The students are putting a ton of work into this,” said Planetarium Director Dayna Thompson.

What to expect at Brown Planetarium

As the largest planetarium in Indiana, the Brown Planetarium aims to inspire the Muncie community through accessible, interactive science programming. The facility runs more than 400 events each year, welcomes over 20,000 visitors annually, and is supported in part by donations to the Ball State University Foundation.

Public shows typically last 45–60 minutes; doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Weekend public presentations are generally first-come, first-served and require no reservation, and the planetarium welcomes guests of all ages.

Season highlights and free programming

Alongside the SLAM, upcoming shows include Water Worlds Live (exploring the search for water in the solar system), beginning Nov. 14, and The Christmas Star (examining possible explanations for the Star of Bethlehem), beginning Dec. 5. Most other planetarium events this semester are free: weekdays are often reserved for school groups and weekends for public shows.

Technology, outreach and collaborations

Thompson, who began at the planetarium as a graduate student in 2010, oversaw a major upgrade when the program moved from a 1967 basement dome to the current 30-foot Brown Planetarium in 2014. The move doubled seating and introduced full-dome digital projectors alongside an opto-mechanical star projector. The planetarium uses two full-dome projectors with fisheye lenses to present seamless images across the dome, plus an opto-mechanical system that can recreate the night sky for locations on Earth within roughly ±10,000 years and map about 4,000 bright stars.

Visitors can even use binoculars pointed at the dome to see added detail without losing image quality. Thompson emphasizes an astronomy-education focus that models scientific thinking and encourages curiosity rather than simply delivering facts.

Audience engagement and unique offerings

To broaden programming, Thompson became a certified yoga instructor and now offers dome yoga sessions, and the planetarium stages themed shows such as the recent Halloween: Celestial Origins—co-written with a Ball State professor. Collaborations are a key outreach strategy; next semester the planetarium will partner with the Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site to create programming that uses the North Star to explore routes to freedom in the antebellum north.

Programming targets a wide range of ages—from Pre-K audiences enjoying Sesame Street shows to older kids’ Magic Treehouse presentations and adult-friendly lectures on spectroscopy, black holes and the search for life on other worlds. Thompson notes that the planetarium’s live shows are interactive: presenters talk with audiences, not at them, to spark curiosity and inspire future scientists.

“Financial accessibility is a big part of what we do and what Ball State is about—providing free opportunities for anyone who wants to come and enjoy what we have here. Beyond that, we are not just teaching people science. We are hopefully teaching them to love science or really just to be inspired,”

—Dayna Thompson, Planetarium Director

Logistics

Tickets for the Astronomy SLAM must be purchased online for $4. Most other public weekend shows are free and do not require advance tickets. Doors typically open 30 minutes before showtime; arrive early for the best seating.

Note: For dates and ticket links, check the Ball State planetarium’s official schedule before attending.