La Voz

Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Anna Rendall

Patrons ranging from children to adults attended the sold-out Spooktacular Halloween laser show at De Anza College's Planetarium last Saturday, Oct. 20 at 9:30 p.m. The show began with an introduction by Karl von Ahnen, technical director of the planetarium, and his son Garth von Ahnen, the laserist performing the show.

"I create the effects live, manually, so if you like what you see let me know by cheering and I'll try to do more of that," said the younger von Ahnen.

Unlike most laser shows, Spooktacular Halloween featured animated graphics and cartoons in addition to the traditional musically synchronized laser light presentations.

Phrases like "that was cool" and "cool graphics" were heard from the crowd after the songs were played.

The one-hour show was filled with Halloween-inspired images and songs, including "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder and "Monster Mash" by Bobby Picket.

The show ended with an encore performance: a 60-second overview of the stars in the night sky that illustrated the new Star Machine's capabilities. Following the encore was a sampling from the Pink Floyd Laser Show that was to follow at 10:30 p.m. The encore elicited cheering and hooting from the crowd.

"I liked that part after, with the squigglies," said Erin Gott, a 10-year-old who came to the show with her father and sister.

"And the stars in the sky," she added.

The planetarium has changed a lot over the years, said Bart Connoly, 48, of Los Altos, and Bill Brandenburg, 47, of Cupertino. They used to come see the shows at the Planetarium back in the 70s; this year they brought their families along.

"The show is faster paced," said Connoly, "It's great to see the stars move. Before it looked like fake lights, but now the stars look more like real stars and the moon looks like the moon."

In additional to the seasonal Spooktacular Halloween show, the planetarium offers other laser light shows, including ones featuring music by Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix combo, The Beatles, sci-fi theme songs and a Holiday Magic show in December.

To learn more about the stars, planets, constellations and celestial occurrences, the planetarium offers several modernized astronomy shows, utilizing the all new state-of-the-art Digital Video System. "Very few facilities have this degree of sophistication in the world right now," von Ahnen said. "It's very special."

Admission to laser light shows is $7 for adults and $6 for children.

There is a discount coupon available on the Web site along with show schedules, at www.planetarium.deanza.edu.

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