• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Astronomy%202009/196/221/28
• http://www.lettherebenight.com/pltm.html
• http://www.lettherebenight.com/whatsnew.html
• http://www.lettherebenight.com/dvd.html
• http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/ltbn.php

The SL structure itself, which is like a holodeck in which multiple scenes can be individually rezzed from a control panel, was designed by a SL consultant listed in the SL website. Though one function of the building was merely to be the backdrop for machinima, the two selectable scenes offer unique opportunities for visitors. First, as media focuses on Galileo during this International Year of Astronomy, our one scene recreates a nearly unreachable real world destination—the villa courtyard in Arcetri where Galileo lived out his latter years under house arrest. The second scene, of a modern urban streetscape, allows visitors to see the impact of their lighting decisions on the urban and natural environments through interactive lighting.

LTBN demonstrates how SL can be an incubator for educational projects in the real world without the investment that would have been required in a previous era. With seed money from a Toyota TAPESTRY grant, we were able to create an educational package that reaches an audience (e.g., small and portable planetariums) typically so strapped for cash that they cannot purchase outside content.

By controlling our environment in which the machinima was filmed, we could create the LTBN animated video with less money, with more options, and in less time than a standard planetarium production. Though our film presentation may not be as slick as large professional releases, our homegrown result has both a charm and inherent effectiveness that bigger dollars can’t always buy. The International Planetarium Society chose to distribute LTBN to over 700 members in a couple dozen countries and across the United States.

LTBN exemplifies how a single structure in SL can have multiple uses. We use ours as a Hollywood-like western storefront for machinima; as an alternative to static artwork enhanced with mere pan and zoom functions; as an interactive destination after a planetarium visit; as a stand-alone highlight on the Astronomy 2009 island; as a meeting place to be toured during a RL conference workshop; as a future gallery hall during IYA2009; and, personally, as a sanctuary to sit by a telescope and reflect on the achievements of Galileo.

Still, the bottom line is that the SL environment allowed us to generate instructional video for our students, and then pass that resource on to hundreds of other astronomy educators internationally for a negligible cost.