Imaginarium opens doorway to stars

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Astronomy instructor Joseph Ciotti shows off the dome of the Imaginarium at Windward Community College. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser Joseph Ciotti Age: 54 Occupation: Astronomy professor, Windward Community College Family: Married, three sons Career highlights: Teacher, St. Louis High School; Teacher in Space finalist; director, Windward Community College Imaginarium Mission: "I'm trying to create people with excitement about life." 'The Star of Bethlehem: The Magi Story' 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. tonight and Friday; 10 and 11 a.m. Saturday The Imaginarium, Windward Community College $5, $4, students, military; $3, children 12 and under. 235-7433

The meaning of life? That one's still out there. But Ciotti did find what would become one a passion of his own existence.

The stars, so far away. And yet these distant pinpricks of light infused a teenager with a love of science, as well as the conviction that others can learn to love science, too.

"I grew up in the Bronx — talk about bad night-viewing conditions," he said. "The first constellation I saw was through a pair of binoculars. But it was the neatest thing, because I did it myself.

"At that time, I thought only astronomers were entitled to look at the planets, that only special people have that ability," Ciotti added. "What's neat about the sky is that it's there for everybody, and it's free."

The sky above the college campus in Kane'ohe is free, too, though not free of clouds. But the skies depicted within the Imaginarium, the college's new, high-tech planetarium, are always cloudless, perfect for education. Following the Imaginarium's debut in October, Ciotti has designed the second in an ongoing series of educational entertainments there.

Ciotti has added numerous facets to the science curriculum at Windward since his arrival to the faculty in 1987. Among these are the Aerospace Exploration Lab; the Lanihuli Observatory, including radio, optical and solar telescopes; and the Aerospace Education Laboratory, an extracurricular science program for middle schoolers financed by NASA's Science, Engineering, Mathematics & Aerospace Academy.

Clearly, however, the $4 million Imaginarium stands as the centerpiece, perhaps owing to Ciotti's lifelong affinity for these theaters of the heavens.

"I grew up in New York City, and when I was 16 I got a summer internship at the Hayden Planetarium," he said. "It sparked my whole interest."

At one point it seemed a small but tantalizing possibility that Ciotti could travel closer to the stars themselves. While he was a science teacher at St. Louis High School, he was selected as a state finalist in Teachers in Space, a program woefully set back by the death of Christa McAuliffe in the 1986 crash of the space shuttle Challenger.

Ciotti's personal enthusiasm for space exploration initiatives was undimmed by the tragedy.

"It's not how they died that's important, it's how they lived," he said. "You don't want to walk blindly, but the mission was worth the risk. ... If we don't take knowledgeable risks, our country will drift backwards. That's what I want the kids to know, that it's OK to take risks."

Ciotti spent many years as an instructor at the Bishop Museum Planetarium, but it wasn't until he signed on at Windward that the original spark of enthusiasm, the hope that he might one day help create a new planetarium, was relit.

The Imaginarium, which employs digital technology to enable some impressive visual effects that help the celestial story unfold, is part of the college's public outreach mission, a mission that Ciotti embraces wholeheartedly. He especially yearns to convince young students, those who have lost their natural confidence in their own aptitude, that they belong within the realm of scientists.

"The kids we're trying to encourage here were born with natural curiosity, and somewhere that curiosity is being doused," Ciotti added. "I want to re-ignite that flame, blow oxygen on it."