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SolarMax

SolarMax image

93 Million Miles Just Got Closer

Every 11 years the sun's poles reverse with unimaginable violence. The peak of the storm is called a solarmax. Now you can experience a solarmax from the toasty comfort of Central Nebraska's only giant five-story giant screen theatre. SolarMax is a breathtaking giant-screen adventure that explores man's quest throughout time for knowledge about the awesome vastness and mysterious power of our closest star.

Audiences will be able to look directly at the sun and see it as never before, through the eyes of the large-format film camera. The film uses computer data generated by the Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO), providing audiences with a spectacular sense of actually being on the sun.

The film examines man's quest for knowledge about our closest star. From the 5300 year-old Druids at New Grange, Ireland to the SOHO Satellite of today, the film portrays the historical, scientific and cultural effects of the sun. Viewers will visit every continent to witness how the sun is a part of life. From the land of the rising sun, Japan, where the Emperor of the Sun still reigns; to Cosco, Peru, where descendents of the Inca celebrate the annual arrival of the Sun King; from Frombork, Poland, where Copernicus theorized the sun was the center of the universe; to Barking Sands, Hawaii, to witness NASA's solar powered plane break the altitude record of 80,000 feet, you'll visit them all from the comfort of your theatre seat. Look directly at the sun and see the totality of an eclipse and the beauty of the Auroria Borealis, both from the Earth and from space.

When Director John Weiley and his crew began developing SolarMax, they received incredible access and cooperation from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The Super Screen offers a huge canvas to display the images of their work and an incredible opportunity to bring solar science to the public. NASA and ESA turned over all four solar arrays to the film team to generate the data for the film. The team collected data for 28 days, a full solar revolution, to create realistic images and enable audiences a rare, up-close glimpse of the nearest star.

In addition, crews traveled to Peru, Aruba, the United States, England, Norway, Poland, Antarctica, Greenland, Australia, Spain and Japan, literally trekking to every continent to build the story of exploration of the sun.

Portraying a star that is peaceful yet dangerous, SolarMax allows viewers to vividly experience the sun's power and beauty like never before. Audiences will soar on the wings of NASA's pathfinder solar-powered aircraft as it soars to a record height of 80,000 feet and to BP SOLAR's solar energy collector, the world's largest solar energy plant.

Enlightening and exciting, SolarMax amazes viewers with the true-to-life story of the modern day heroics of NASA and ESA engineers as they recover the lost SOHO satellite from the depths of space and resurrect the billion-dollar portal to the sun.

Click here for showtimes
or call 1-800-508-4629

Schedule is subject to change.