USC Aiken Planetarium Features Dark Side of the Moon

Aiken, SC (10/31/2019) — The DuPont Planetarium at the University of South Carolina Aiken will rock out to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon throughout the month of November, specifically every Saturday at 8 p.m.

Seating is limited; reservations are encouraged. For more information, go to planetarium@usca.edu or call 803-641-3654.

"Amazing visuals that accompany this sound track have filled planetarium domes for over 40 years," said Dr. Gary Senn, director of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center, where the DuPont Planetarium is located.

"Powered by the state-of-the-art Digistar 6 system at the DuPont Planetarium, this spell-binding show is an immersive full-dome presentation of sight and sound that will provide visitors with a mesmerizing experience."

He says that the wrap-around environment of the planetarium's digital dome theater allows for the creation of countless three-dimensional effects, which bring the music to life. Audiences will experience flights through space, soaring landscapes, spinning tunnels and abstract figures in this captivating journey for the senses.

"The music is classic, and the visuals are literally out of this world," Senn says.

"Patrons need to know that these visuals can create dramatic sensations of motion, which might make some people feel slightly queasy."

The album was first released in Mary 1973. According to Rolling Stone, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States and more than 45 million worldwide.

"A true colossus of classic rock, the album made its creators - bassist/vocalist Roger Waters, guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, keyboardist/vocalist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason - incredibly wealthy, and ultimately spent a mind-boggling 937 weeks on the Billboard 200," wrote Dan Epstein, reporter for Rolling Stone.

Epstein explains that the songs featured on the album were originally intended to share the pressures musicians face. In the end, though, the songs included on Dark Side of the Moon addressed other topics that related to the general populace.

"Dark Side was the first [Pink Floyd album] that was genuinely thematic and genuinely about something," Waters told Rolling Stone in 2011, according to an article written by Epstein in 2018.

"And as artists like Radiohead and Flaming Lips (both of whom have been profoundly influenced by Dark Side) can attest, the album's music and lyrics still hold up beautifully today," Epstein wrote.

Now, audiences can experience Pink Floyd's enduring sound during the Dark Side of the Moon show, every Saturday in November at 8 p.m., in the DuPont Planetarium located in the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center at USC Aiken.

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