| Universe | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Roman Kroitor Colin Low |
| Written by | Roman Kroitor Stanley Jackson |
| Produced by | Tom Daly |
| Starring | Donald MacRae |
| Narrated by | Douglas Rain Gilles Pelletier (French) |
| Cinematography | Wolf Koenig Denis Gilson |
| Edited by | Tom Daly Kathleen Shannon (sound) |
| Music by | Eldon Rathburn |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada |
Release date |
|
Running time | 29 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $105,146 |
Universe (Notre univers) is a 1960 black-and-white documentary short film made in 1960 by Roman Kroitor and Colin Low for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The NFB writes: "[The film] creates on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed."[1]
This visualization is grounded in the nightly work of Dr. Donald MacRae, an astronomer at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario.[1] Using the technology of his era, MacRae prepares his largely manually-operated equipment and then photographs, by long exposure, one star. He actually strikes an arc between iron electrodes and makes a simultaneous exposure, which he can compare to the star's spectrum to determine its movement relative to Earth.