Today, all the Year 5’s at WPS went on an Astro Tour with Dr. Glen Mackie, from Swinburne University’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.
The Astro Tour was a virtual reality theatre, set up in our multi-purpose room. We put on 3-D glasses and learned lots of interesting things about space by watching some cool movies!
Everyone was amazed by the 3-D effects - we felt like we could reach out and touch the objects on the screen!

20 comments
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May 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Natasa
I liked the 3-d presentation that Glen showed us. I learned alot about space and the idividual planets I liked the Detective movie best.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Jack d
It was a cool 3d movie it looked like it was coming at you when that happened people were sticking out their arms
and waving them every where trying to grab the galaxies.
It was a really good movie and i learnt alot off it.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Brady
Astro tours was fun and the 3D glasses were cool. I learned a lot about space and the planets.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Tamsyn!!
Hi everybody,
It was fun to go to a 3D screening about space.
I loved it i liked when the 3d rocket bumped into your face.I had fun.
Goodbye everybody.
From Tamsyn.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Jas
I learnt that there is a bigger star than the Sun. I enjoyed the 3D stars that came out when using the glasses. The “Detective” movie was best.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Mitchell and Jaeden
Hi the astrotours was great and me and mitchell wish that you were there
May 28th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Isaak
I think it was very interesting and I liked the 3-D effect was cool and it had all the the details of the planets and I asked a lot of questions.
Seeya later.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Tom
The astro tour was realy cool we got 3D glasses.
Everyone loved the astro tour,Glen Mackey was hosting the show.
He showed us what space is like on all the planets.
the astro tour even’ makes there own movies.
from Tom.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Bessie!!
Hi everyone,
On may the 24th we went to the astro tour.
My favorite part of the 3D movie was trying grab the 3D things That came out of the screen like stars,rockets, rocks & Planets.
I had fun-Bessie!!
May 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Russell Scott
Hi guys,
I’m glad you liked the AstroTour and I hope you learned lots.
Tom is correct, we do make our own movies! My name is Russell and I was
one of the two people who made ‘Detective’. It took us 1 whole year and we did it all on a computer (starting with nothing). If you have any questions about the movies I’d be happy to answer them.
I watched your movie on the early settlers and though you did a great job!
I particularly liked the drawings
keep up the good work!
Russell
June 4th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Hannah and Rheannon
We really liked the astro tour.We learned lots and our favourite bit was trying to grab the stars and rocks.
From Hannah and Rheannon.
June 4th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Mitchell & Cael
We thought the astro tours was great and i liked the 3D pictures of the planets and it was fun and lots of people were trying to grab the 3D things.
June 4th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Natasa & Jas
Hi Russell,
Thank you for the coment. We can make movies but not make them move how we want. How do you make the animations move? We enjoyed the movie that you made best.
June 4th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Bessie & Pollyanna
Hi Russell,
how did you make the movie?
The movie was great.
thankyou for brining the movie to our school.
from Bessie&Pollyanna.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Russell
Hi everyone,
it is going to be harder to answer your questions then I thought! Some of what I describe might be confusing, but if you watch the “making of” section to any movie like ‘Toy Story’ or ‘Shrek’, that will help.
To make the movie we follow a process:
1. we write the script
2. I draw pictures of the characters and buildings. The drawings help me understand if my idea is good or bad. if the idea is bad, I draw other pictures to try a new idea.
Here is a picture I drew of Jimmy’s dive shop:
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~rscott/misc/dive_shop_mid.jpg
I didn’t like the look or colour of the room, so in the movie it is different.
3. When I am happy with the drawings, I make models of everything on the computer. This is bit very hard to explain, it is a bit like modelling with clay.
4. We record the script using actors.
5. When the models are built I give the characters like the detective bones, which I move around (or ‘animate’) to make him move with the sound (from step 4).
6. When the animating is finished, I colour and light the scene and put it all together.
7. Astronomers like Glen take the astrotour to your school!
I’d love to tell you more, but it gets more complicated, and you would have to read for pages and pages. I hope, however, I have answered your questions a little bit.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Mitchell & Jaeden
Hi Russell

I liked your answers and i sort of understand how it works and i like the picture that u sent
June 18th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Coreys
☻ Hey Russell ☺
we looked at that picture on the link and we think it is cool
did you draw that picture on a computer or with crayons?
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Russell
hi guys,
sorry for the late reply.
I first draw rough pictures with pencils (on paper). Then, when I’m happy with that, I scan in the best drawing onto the computer and draw a picture using the computer, in a program called photoshop.
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~rscott/detective_s.jpg
from that I make the model (also on the computer).
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~rscott/detective_s.jpg
The above picture is a test picture where I wanted to see what the detective would look like if he were younger and had hair.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 am
Russell
oops, i got the second link wrong! sorry.
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~rscott/detective.jpg
November 8th, 2007 at 9:05 am
hORSEY cHICK
I went to the astro tour it was really good, we went for a trip to Jupiter and all those awesome space places, saw no Martians or Aliens lol!
Horsey Chick =]