Springfield Museums transform Taylor Swift’s '1989' into planetarium light show

What never seems to go out of style is Taylor Swift’s popularity — and the Springfield Museum is catching onto it. They’re introducing a new light show in the Seymour Planetarium featuring songs from Swift’s album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” until May.

The lyrics to “Style” by Taylor Swift blasted from the speakers of the Seymour Planetarium and completely lit up the dome with a spectacular series of lights racing overhead to the song.

It’s a part of a new series at the planetarium, which features a 30-minute visual light show set to Swift’s most popular album right now, “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

Jenny Powers, the director of science at the Springfield Museum, said since they started putting on music shows last year, the most requested artist has been Taylor Swift.

“Not only that, but we have some Swifties on staff, and so we were pretty excited to be able to present that,” Powers said. “It's an entry point for people who might never have been before, and we want to be able to expose people to our planetarium.”

Nathan Wood, the planetarium’s coordinator and developer of the light show said he was able to capture the night sky from when Swift was born.

“So this is the night sky from December 13th in 1989. I just looked at it this morning. There's a full moon. Jupiter's right there. The arching Milky Way,” Wood said.

Wood is using the Ziess planetarium projector, which he notes as one of the best optical projectors available, to point out specific constellations and planets that appeared the night Swift was born.

Powers said this would be the only presentation after the light show.

“You know, it's okay just to have fun in the planetarium, too, because it's a special place. You don't get to go to that many dome theaters, so just giving people a relaxing evening or an afternoon of music and fun and being together with their loved ones, that's worth doing all on its own,” Powers said.

She said visitors, who are likely Taylor Swift fans, should be prepared for some surprises in the show.

"One of the things that I really like is that he [Wood] put little Easter eggs throughout the show, which is so cool," Powers said.

For those who can't make it to the show, Powers said there's another way to celebrate science and art.

"We love Taylor Swift, but also... April 8th there's going to be an eclipse. Please turn your music up loud and go outside and watch the eclipse. That's the best tribute you can give to both Taylor and to the Science Museum," she said.

The visual light show starts March 23rd and will run until May 18th. Future shows will include music from all of Swift's albums.

This story is a production of the New England News Collaborative. It was originally published by New England Public Media.