By: Dr. Omar Fikry

Since more than 3 years, the Planetarium staff at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina explored a whole new field different from the traditional field the Egyptian and the Middle Eastern Planetarium staff is accustomed to. This field is the planetarium shows production, this kind of shows is limited to a number of companies and planetariums in America and some European countries, there is no Arab World country or Middle East country succeeded in producing this kind of shows. The challenge lies in the absence of a staff capable of producing these shows; including scientists, technicians, graphic designers, animation specialists, and the required sound effects to be shown inside a planetarium.

The image inside the planetarium and the scenes differ from these shown on televisions or in cinema theaters, as the image is shown on a spherical shape screen in the form of a hemisphere, and the sound has to be embodied and compatible to the image shown on the hemispherical screen. As a result, these shows are very expensive to be shown at the planetariums, in addition to their production high cost.

The team work at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina exerted great efforts and time before involving in this experience, the team participated in international events displaying planetarium shows especially the advanced ones known as “All Sky” since 2004 until now. At the beginning of 2011, the team work has decided to produce their own movie, Dr Omar fikry, head of the Planetarium section, has written the show script and Dr. Farouk Elbaz has scientifically revised it and he approved the idea and greatly supported it spiritually and scientifically. Also, the eminent scientist Dr. Mostafa Elabady, Professor of Greek literature at Alexandria university, has revised it historically, it is worth mentioning that Professor Elabady is the god father of the new Library of Alexandria, and he is the one who worked on reviving it from scratch.

The technical tasks were distributed among a number of Egyptian youth headed by Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Production Unit Supervisor at the Planetarium Section, in addition to a whole team of promising youth who are enthusiastic about the show, in addition to the full support of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina administration in production stages.

The show revolves around finding the similarities between message of the old Library of Alexandria message and the new one, and the combined role of the two libraries to spread knowledge, science, the knowledge spirit and dialogue in the scientific fields. One filed was chosen in the show which is astronomy, discussing the great role the Old Library of Alexandria had in addition to the old astronomers role had to establish the bases of Astronomy, such as; Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Eratosthenes, Apollonius, and Hypatia.

The show focused on the most important astronomical achievements for each scientist previously mentioned explaining them through the planetarium techniques. The team work faced various difficulties and challenges including the absence of any reference or manuscript for the old Library shape and architectural structure or anything describing this great scientific and humanitarian institution, the team work hired specialists in old architecture especially at the time of the Old Library of Alexandria, also they referred to some international movies like Cleopatra, with all its versions and Agora; which documented the life of Hypatia, Theon the Alexandrian daughter. The reason the team referred to these movies was that it documented the shape and structure of the old Library of Alexandria.

Alexandria, the Cradle of Astronomy contains scientific and historic material, it is suitable for family, students, and the public, the movie duration is 25 minutes and it is available in Arabic and English.