“I think looking at pictures of stars and stuff blows my mind every time.”

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Manfred Olson Planetarium stands with various astronomy shows open to the public. The planetarium offers a variety of shows throughout the year ranging from creepy adventures through space, star significance for indigenous cultures, and even colorful Northern Lights displays. As the engagement team for the planetarium Ashley Harrison, Britain Meade and Delaney Carlson have even found interest in astronomy and its relation to cultures. Show presenter Xander Strube shares the impact that the planetarium has made on himself, and how his presentations influence viewers.

Natalie Chudzik: What do you guys do here?

Delaney Carlson: Me and Ashley are both on the social media team, so most of our stuff is thinking of how we can promote ourselves on social media and how to effectively do that and try to get the attention of our audience to try to convert that into people coming to our programs and our events.

Britain Meade: I’m a communications associate, so I’m in publicity. I work on the website, and I had the skills necessary for the job. I’m also interested in the history of the stars and how different cultures perceive them. So, yeah, I explicitly found this job and tracked it down and I’m here now.

Q: Did you guys have an interest in the planetarium specifically?

Carlson: My dad sent me the job application and I thought, ‘this would be fun,’ and I personally I’m not super good with science, but I enjoy space. I think looking at pictures of, like, stars and stuff blows my mind every time, I’ve really enjoyed that.

Q: What have you guys learned while working here about the solar system, or the stars in general?

Carlson: I feel like I’ve learned so much about the actual “science-y” part of astronomy. I would say half of our shows focus more like the science aspects, but a lot of our shows are cultural shows. We get guest speakers in – for like Indigenous voices, our upcoming one, we’re having a Ho-Chunk student come in and present about their own culture, which is super cool.  Last year we did a series of African programs, which was four or five different guest speakers from those countries coming in and talking. It’s super cool to learn about how different cultures view the stars, how they talk about them, how important they are to them. I feel I’m learning so much about cultural connections to science and humanities and how they blend together.

Ashley Harrison: It’s interesting to think the sky is kind of the one thing that unites so many cultures, and there’s so many different ways of looking at the stars and that has been just a wonderful take away of working here, you know?

Q: When you found out about the planetarium being involved with Doors Open Milwaukee, how did you feel about it?

Xander Strube: I was nervous because I was going to be the one presenting in the planetarium, but I was excited just because I think it’s a great opportunity for the public to just get a free opportunity to just learn about the different things we offer.

Q: Would you say that you had an interest in anything regarding the stars before getting involved?

Strube: I’m a film major here at UWM. So a lot of sci-fi movies like Star Wars and stuff really got me looking to the stars. Once you start learning about space, you realize how incredible it is. It gives you a different perspective because we’re here on Earth.

Q: Do you feel you’ve learned anything while working at the planetarium?

Strube: Yes, absolutely. I can look in the sky and actually make out more shapes than just The Little Dipper and that’s always a fun party trick. Or if you happen to be under a nice night sky, like in northern Wisconsin or something like that. It’s always fun to learn more about how our universe works. I would consider it a hobby now.

Q: With the planetarium’s involvement with Doors Open Milwaukee, do you feel like the visitors have been pushed to be more interested in the stars?

Strube: A lot of guests afterwards have always said “Oh wow, that’s so cool. I didn’t know that,” and it’s always humbling to hear that your influence got someone to appreciate something about our planet or our universe. With the Doors Open event, we’ve got people in there that have been stealing broachers by the dozens and I think that’s really exciting going forward into our fall programming.

Q: What do you guys have coming up for the fall?

Strube: We’ve got a couple of shows. One I want to talk about is the Creepy Cosmos show. It’s our Halloween show. It happens every Friday at 7:00 and it’s a show that I’ve actually been working on personally. We’ll just take you through some of the stranger parts of the of the universe and it’s a lot of fun. Another one is “A Night in Greece”. That’s a really special show because our director Jean Creighton takes you on a tour of her hometown in Athens. It’s a really special program, so I’d encourage people to go and check it out.

Q: How are the shows offered to the public?

Strube: We have a couple of free events throughout the year, but most of our shows for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students is $5 and then general public is $6.