Bill Nye, Hundreds Of Others Starstruck Over Jackson’s Giant New $8M Planetarium

JACKSON — When Ryan Stanley started working at Snow King Mountain 10 years ago, the facility was at its low point.

“The lifts were falling apart,” he told a crowd gathered to celebrate a new $8 million Snow King Observatory and Planetarium at the famous resort. “The skier visits were the lowest in decades, and there was no money to fix it up. They tried at one time to give it away, and, unfortunately, no one was interested.”

In town, Stanley would hear often from locals that they loved Snow King, but didn’t want to see it change in any way.

“That made improvements tough at times,” Snow King Mountain Resort owner Max Chapman told Cowboy State Daily.

It was so tough during this particular go-round, Chapman said threats were even made against his household, by people who were scared the planetarium wasn’t going to be good for their favorite mountain.

“The attitude was, and I appreciate this somewhat, this was the town’s hill,” Chapman said. “So, it was for the locals to use if they wanted to ski the mountain or hike up and whatever.”

There was none of that initial angst Saturday, however, as a crowd of hundreds gathered to hear Bill Nye the Science Guy talk about science and tout their new and already beloved planetarium.

‘Icing On The Cake For Snow King’

Nye, for his part, seemed as star struck by the new facility as anyone.

“This is going to be a thing!” Cowboy State Daily overheard him saying near the gondolas on his way down from the event, which was all day Saturday and didn’t conclude until midnight.

Nye told Cowboy State Daily he could just envision a future where people rode the Gondolas up for a Planetarium show, then ski back down at night, with the stars overhead.

“This new planetary observatory here is the icing on the cake for Snow King,” Stanley told the crowd. “This is a unique facility in many ways. As Max mentioned, I don’t think there’s anything like it in the world.”

The focus on public education at the top of a ski resort area that is privately funded is unique, Stanley added.

“It’s going to be an interesting challenge for us to figure out how to make this accessible to as many people as possible, while also making a sustainable business into the future,” Stanley said.

Stanley has recently read Nye’s new book “Unstoppable,” which included the concept of entertainment first, education second, for Nye’s “Science Guy” show.

“That’s a perfect way to conceptualize this new facility at the top of the mountain,” Stanley said. “Where we can entertain people and also educate them.”

Best Time To Be Born So Far

Nye’s talk ranged from his background starting out as a Steve Martin lookalike to volunteer time spent at Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

“It was like this, only not as cool,” Nye said, gesturing toward the planetarium. “And this place is very cool. You guys have walked around, it’s beautiful.”

The thing Nye spent the most time on while at Pacific Science Center was playing with liquid nitrogen and dipping stuff in it.

“As you know, liquid nitrogen is very cold,” Nye said. “So, I put celery in it that was gone limp, and it became quite crisp.”

Frozen onions, meanwhile, hit with a knife would sound like broken glass.

“The thing I spent the most time on was chewing frozen marshmallows so that steam comes out of my nose,” Nye said to laughter from the crowd, which included lots of parents with children who are fans of Nye’s show.

Nye talked a lot about climate change, but also expressed optimism that science will solve all of the issues involved in ways that are good for the planet and for people.

Now, he added, is one of the most exciting, best times in world history.

“If you couldn’t pick where you were going to be born, but you were allowed to pick when, as messed up as that sounds on the evening news, this would be the time you’d want to be born,” he said. “This is when the world is better for more of us than ever in human history.

“And this is just an exciting time, so don’t get down, be optimistic. We’re going to figure it out.”

A Lifelong Dream Come True

Chapman told Cowboy State Daily he’s been dreaming of putting a telescope on top of a mountain since he was a boy — and long before Sam Singer came to Jackson Hole and started thinking about putting one on top of Snow King.

Singer is the founder of Wyoming Stargazing, and in that role has publicly taken credit for the idea of putting an observatory on top of Snow King and has been a staunch advocate of the idea.

Chapman said he was looking at Brooks Lake Lodge, which he also owns, for the telescope. He had actually gone so far as getting permission to put a facility there from the U.S. Forest Service.

But when he really thought about it, he realized Snow King was a better location for what he had in mind. It would be more accessible and attract more visitors, touching more people’s lives, particularly school children.

“You know the old saying that there are a lot of authors of successes,” Chapman said. “So, thank you very much, Sam, but this is something I have thought about before.”

That said, Chapman was quick to say that Singer is a huge supporter of the planetarium and has been a great advocate for it.

“I’m happy for his support, and I think his work with the town on the Dark Sky Initiative is a really good thing,” Chapman said. “We’re all in favor of that. And I know his organization will work with us to do other programs here.”

Chapman said it took many people working together to make the planetarium a reality, and he appreciates all of them, but most especially the investors who have placed bets, which are not small, that astrotourism on top of a mountain with a great view can support a multimillion-dollar facility dedicated to people learning something new.

“Going from first graders in this planetarium seeing animals going across the sky to high schoolers who can talk about black holes and quantum physics, this is a great asset for this town,” Chapman said. “Not many places can do that. And now the residents will be able to do something besides fish and ski.”

Building Back Up

Chapman was a director in the old company, he added, and watched it going downhill.

“I finally said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I would rather buy you guys out and take responsibility for this and do some investment rather than just see this thing sort of fall apart.”

The changes started with replacement of the Rafferty lift and the installment of the Cowboy Coaster, the Treetop Adventure, miniature golf and other attractions, to build up summer visitation.

That provided some revenue to make investments in the ski resort’s wintertime game.

All told, Chapman said he and other investors have put $30 million into improving the resort’s gondolas, as well as other areas of the ski resort.

Another $12 million is going into building the restaurant, not far from the planetarium, which is expected to be finished sometime this year. That will allow guests to enjoy a meal and a cocktail or two before heading over to the planetarium.

After the restaurant is complete, Chapman said they’ll focus on cleaning up the landscaping. Then he believes that he and his investors will have created a sustainable year-round resort that can withstand ups and downs in both the weather and economy.

Starstruck In More Ways Than One

Starstruck people were everywhere to be found Saturday, regardless of which program they were attending.

Leona Wunnenberg, for example, was over the moon about getting to meet Nye for the second time in her life.

She’d brought with her a photo of herself and Nye taken at a National Science Teacher’s Conference in Reno in 2005.

“I waited in line to buy his book and get his autograph,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “One of my teacher friends snapped the picture, which I printed and had framed in my classroom.”

She had a color photocopy of that picture in hand Saturday, so that she could get Nye’s signature on it.

She felt that his most important message to the crowd was just his optimism.

“The Change the World theme is so important,” she said, adding that she has long shared Nye’s videos in her classroom because of its “down-to-earth” approach that makes science so accessible to so many.

Then there was the self-professed “space nut” Brad Endrizal, who came to Wyoming from Hawaii, where it was common to visit the telescope at Mauna Kea any time there was a meteor shower or other cosmic event.

Like everyone who participated in the night program, he was fascinated by the operation of the planetarium’s big telescope.

It’s Alive!

It’s a sight to behold. The 1-meter scope is just massive. So massive that, at first, it seems like it must be an immovable object.

But that’s not the case at all. It actually moves quite swiftly and silently, all at the press of a button.

When it suddenly moved without warning, it startled nearly everyone, causing some to jump back to the walls. It felt like a strange alien robot had suddenly come to life and turned its eye on a new part of the night sky.

When it stopped, things weren’t over just yet.

A low rumble started then. A sh-sh-shaking of the walls that felt almost like an earthquake happening all around.

The vibration was really just the dome itself moving to align with the telescope’s new position. The 1-meter-wide telescope — Wyoming’s second largest telescope — was pointing at M81, a nebula way out in deep space.

As a long line formed to view M81, Endrizal’s wife Cyndy joked that they were going to end up sleeping at the observatory if her husband had his way.

But she was just as excited about the planetarium and its monster telescope in her own way.

“I can’t wait to share this with my grandchildren,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I hope they’re going to have lots of public outreach with this.”

Reaching The Next Generation

Public outreach is top of mind for the planetarium’s director, Joe Zator.

“That’s really the main idea behind this whole facility is as much public outreach as possible,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Whether it’s locals and tourists who are coming to experience the night sky and the cosmos and things like that. But another element that I really want to bring into it is the school groups.”

The planetarium has lots of material suitable for all ages, Zator added, stuff that can really appeal to all ages.

“Over time we’d like to really get the Snow King name out there in the astrophotography communities and the scientific communities, too,” he added. “And hopefully, over time, we’ll be able to do more research with this and get scientists to work on and publish papers.”

The research Zator is hoping to see includes some of his own into exoplanets.

“This optical is very good for what’s called photometry,” Zator said. “You can do things like looking for the light curve that happens when like another planet goes in front of a star. It dips the light a little bit, so you can calculate when a star goes around it like that.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.