Introducing DJ Planetarium

As Beyonce’s “Countdown” plays, the planetarium at McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord lights up with glittering hearts, spinning clocks and the scenes of a rocket launch.           

“Countdown” is the opening song in the Under the Dome Beyonce experience, which features visuals projected onto the planetarium dome to a soundtrack of the artist’s greatest hits. The show is an immersive, visually stunning, unique way to listen to music, but it’s not quite what you’d expect to see in a planetarium if the last time you sat under a planetarium dome was during a school field trip. 

Aside from the glimmers of a launch, the visuals that accompany the Beyonce Under the Dome show feature more abstract shapes, colors and movement than night skies, stars or planets. 

That’s exactly what the team at McAuliffe- Shepard Discovery Center is going for with the Under the Dome shows. 

“There are so many opportunities outside of (our main mission, to educate the public) for us to utilize our space,” says Amanda Leith, education coordinator at the Discovery Center. During an Under the Dome show, she sits in a booth in the back corner of the planetarium, ensuring the music and visuals run. 

During the day, the planetarium offers a slate of educational experiences in the planetarium, hosting viewings of shows on topics like photons, the sun, and stars, as well as educator-led programs on the evening sky.   

Recently, the team at the Discovery Center started brainstorming additional ways to use the planetarium, bringing in new audience members and revenue to the nonprofit center, which welcomes more than 32,000 visitors annually.

Amanda Leith, education coordinator at the Discovery Center, monitors music and visuals during planetarium shows. Photos courtesy of McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

In May, a wind quintet from the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra performed music from “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, and other sci-fi favorites in the planetarium. Plans are in the works for future collaborations between the space center and the orchestra, Leith says. 

In addition to a Beyonce show, the Discovery Center has hosted Under the Dome shows for Taylor Swift and Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” (songs featured: “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Money” and “Us and Them”). There are two Taylor Swift shows, one geared at adults and another for families, which features clean versions of all the songs. 

“It’s been fantastic,” Leith says. “Families of all ages come, and they can sing along, dance and have a really fun experience together.”

McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center licensed the Taylor Swift and Beyonce shows from the Museum of Science in Boston. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center team made some tweaks to the Beyonce songs “Ring the Alarm” and “Formation” to account for visuals that couldn’t be licensed. That gave them the first taste of a bigger creative project they’re taking on: creating an Under the Dome experience for Queen. 

“Don’t Stop Me Now.” “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “Somebody to Love.” When you hear the iconic lyrics, what do you see? That’s what Leith and her co-workers are figuring out as they put together an immersive visual soundscape. They’ve got thousands of options for visuals. Now, they have to decide: Should they show visuals that mirror the lyrics literally?
Be more abstract? Follow the beat? Move faster? Slower?

Visuals that accompany planetarium music shows include abstract colors and shapes. Photos courtesy of McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

For “Somebody to Love,” Leith pictures the visuals leaning into a love theme — reds, pinks, hearts. For the rest? That’s for viewers to find out when the Queen show opens,
likely in late 2026 or early 2027, Leith says, as it takes about a month to create the visuals for each song. 

While the Queen show is under development, the Pink Floyd and Taylor Swift shows run regularly. Times and dates can be found at starhop.com/under-the-dome.