Yesterday marked the start of the New Zealand International Science Festival’s Nanofest, a smaller week-long science festival held every other year to their larger event.
In the Wall Street Mall, school holiday crowds were dazzled inside the Science Alive Charitable Trust’s ‘‘discovery dome’’.
Trust chief executive officer Lauren Pugh, of Christchurch, said it attended Nanofest every year and this time it had brought along its very popular dome.
When people entered the dome, they would be directed to sit in the middle while a 180˚ show played for them, focused on either Antarctica or the solar system.
‘‘We’ve had footage taken down in Antarctica showing science down there and animals ... and through our computer programme we can zoom in right up on the planets and look at volcanoes and craters, and look at the orbits around the sun.’’
The dome could fit 30-40 people at one time.
Ms Pugh said the feedback from the first day had been ‘‘awesome’’.
‘‘It’s so interactive and the kids just love being kind of in the centre of it so they can explore it outside of a book or what they might see on TV,’’ she said.
‘‘They can actually feel like they’re in the experience.’’
There will be six sessions per day until Saturday.
This year will be the last of the smaller week-long science festival held every other year.
Demand has grown enough for a full-scale yearly event from 2027.
The change has also been driven by the rare solar eclipse due to cast a shadow over Dunedin in 2028.
The smaller iteration was born after Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the main event in 2020.
Nanofest this year will have more than 60 interactive events covering a wide range of themes, including technology and robotics, marine biology, astronomy, anatomy, geology, botany, entomology, conservation and the intersection of art and science.
