State Museum celebrates “Windows to New Worlds” anniversary with 2-for-1 deal
August 1, 2024
Get up close to sea turtles in an immersive 4D experience and enjoy special planetarium shows.
The South Carolina State Museum is celebrating the 10th anniversary of our “Windows to New Worlds” expansion every Saturday in August with a 2-for-1 deal on planetarium and/or 4D theater shows. Guests can buy two planetarium or 4D theater tickets for the price of one!
“This August marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the museum’s observatory, planetarium and 4D theater,” said State Museum Executive Director, Amy Bartow-Melia. “We are so excited to celebrate this milestone and look forward to guests visiting and enjoying these amazing shows.”
Now showing in the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Planetarium, “Solar Superstorms” is an immersive experience that takes viewers into the tangle of magnetic fields and superhot plasma that vent the Sun’s rage in dramatic flares, violent solar tornadoes, and the largest eruptions in the Solar System: coronal mass ejections.
The show, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, features one of the most intensive efforts ever made to visualize the Sun’s inner workings, including a series of groundbreaking scientific visualizations computed on the giant supercomputing initiative, Blue Waters, based at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois.
Guests of all ages are also invited to enjoy “Turtle Odyssey 4D.” Showing daily in the Rev. Dr. Solomon Jackson 4D theater, the show follows Bunji, a baby Australian green sea turtle, as she navigates the dangers of life at sea, growing into a thriving adult along the way. The remarkable reptile encounters sharks, octopus, whales and more on her beautiful journey thousands of miles through the depths of the oceans.
On August 14, 2014, the South Carolina State Museum completed the first major renovation in its 35-year history with the opening of the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Planetarium, the Rev. Dr. Solomon Jackson, Jr. 4D Interactive Theater and a new state-of-the-art Observatory.
Over the past 10 years, guests and students from across the state and beyond have explored the universe under the planetarium’s 55ft digital dome, danced in the ‘snow’ in the 4D theater and taken an up-close look at craters on the moon, distant planets, constellations and more in the Observatory.
Since opening, nearly 500,000 planetarium tickets have been sold, 420,000 guests have visited the Observatory and more than 41,000 students and educators have participated in Observatory programs on-site and through outreach.
Showtimes and tickets to both “Solar Superstorms,” and “Turtle Odyssey 4D” are available now on the museum’s website at scmuseum.org.
General admission to the South Carolina State Museum is $13 for adults, $11 for Seniors, and kids aged 3-12 are $10. Infants 2 and under are free. Tickets to planetarium experiences and 4D shows are an additional charge. Every Saturday throughout August, shows will be discounted to 2 for 1 (or $5 for 2 shows). The museum is open Tues. – Sat. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sun. from Noon – 5 p.m.
About the South Carolina State Museum
Since opening in 1988, the South Carolina State Museum has been committed to collecting, preserving and showcasing the rich culture, art, natural history, technology and innovation of the Palmetto State. Through a comprehensive collection of over 1.1 million objects and four floors of stimulating exhibitions and displays housed within the historic Columbia Mills Building, the State Museum provides educational environments that entertain, inspire and enrich the lives of millions of visitors and students from across South Carolina. For more information about the museum, visit scmuseum.org.
