The Honolulu Star Bulletin has a story in today’s paper on the incredible 3-D show at UH Hilo’s ‘Imiloa Astronomy Education Center.

Full story here (outside news source determines link expiration).

Here’s how the story starts:

The new three-dimensional projection system at the Imiloa Astronomy Education Center has transported you to Earth orbit, 1957, just as the Soviet Union’s newly launched Sputnik satellite sails by.

You reach out your arm, sure that you can touch it. You miss, but by no more than two feet, as the satellite coasts onward.

Installation of the new definiti 3-D system, making Imiloa the only planetarium in the world with true three-dimensional images, coupled with the movie “Dawn of the Space Age” by Mirage3D, makes for marvelous entertainment.

But is this 21st-century 3-D system of any real use to science?

Astronomers attending a daylong preview of the system and the movie this week gave a resounding “yes.”

“It’s wonderful!” said Imiloa’s astronomer in residence, Richard Crowe.

“I’ve never seen (data) presented like this before. I could not do this with a slide show. Flying around, you can see all kinds of things you couldn’t see before.”

Read more here .