In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Illinois State University Planetarium will present a free showing of David McNab’s In the Shadow of the Moon at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 20. The film allows crew members of NASA’s Apollo missions to tell their story in their own words.

Even a half century after Apollo 11, the moon still fascinates. Illinois State University Planetarium Tom Willmitch and Department of Physics Chair Dan Holland recently spoke with The Pantagraph about returning to the moon 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission, and the journey to Mars. Read their interview here.

“Almost every year I have at least one student really interested in working for NASA,” Holland said in the interview. That included Zachary Temple, who spent a semester at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia. Read his story here.

The ISU Planetarium is in the Felmley Hall of Science Annex, at the corner of College Avenue and School Street on the edge of Uptown Normal.  The Planetarium entrance and white dome faces School Street.  Free parking is available in the ISU F-67 Red-tag Faculty lot, north of the Planetarium on School Street.  For more information, please call the ISU Physics Department at (309) 438-8756.