It all started in 2022 with the idea of the church musician and professional organ player Susanne Hartwich-Duefel in Erlangen. She wanted to play pieces that have a connection to space on an organ and possibly show a few astronomy pictures. She reached out to A4E and a group consisting of Tobias Beuchert, Katharina Leiter, Annika Kreikenbohm and Leonard Burtscher got together to create “Register des Universums” — an audio-visual astronomy show in a church, with organ music and light installations. Short astro talks guide the visitors from the big bang to planet formation and are intercepted by video projections accompanied by the organ playing music from Star Wars, Interstellar as well as classical pieces by Bach or Boëlmann. At the end of the show, having explored the vastness of space, looked at the formation of stars and planets, we return to our own solar system and reflect on images of Earth as seen from space. And how the realisation that there is no planet B has to lead to more ambitious climate action on our planet.
The show has been performed three times in 2022-2023 in the Erlangen/Nürnberg region with great success as measured by reactions from the audience but also media perception.
Since the entire show is produced by volunteers, it has taken a little while until we were able to expand it to a new place. On 21st of November we finally were able to present the fourth edition of “Register des Universums” — and re-invented the concept such that it can more easily be repeated in the future. This time, we chose the Marienkirche in Benediktbeuern, 50 km south of Munich, Germany, as the location. We wanted to get into rural regions to reach people who would not regularly visit planetariums and we chose Benediktbeuern both because it is close to one of the organiser’s home as well as for its special connection with astronomy. It was there that Fraunhofer discovered the absorption lines of the sun in 1814.
The event was, again, a huge success with nearly 200 visitors, very nice reactions from participants as well as a wonderful press report in the local media.
For impressions of the show, see the picture gallery above as well as pictures and videos from earlier shows at the project’s website.
