Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination Grand Opening at the Discovery Science Center

Tonight was the grand opening of the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA. This is the same exhibit that came to Los Angeles in 2007, and has been touring ever since.



I arrived around 5:00pm and parked. It was like Three Card Monte, except with three Honda Elements and a droid.



Star Wars characters, including R2, were invited to participate in the Museum VIP preview at 6:00pm, followed by the general audience admission at 9:00pm. Besides greeting the visitors, R2's main roll was to lead the Science Center's president down the red carpet for the 9:00pm opening. I did a few rehearsals, but there were no surprises. Just drive straight.



Once the VIPs entered, the characters provided plenty of photo ops for visitors and media.







This guy was definitely a favorite.




This being a Star Wars exhibit and all, I managed to get a few pictures of the official Lucasfilm props on display.





At 8:30pm they cleared the place out for the general audience, and we went back outside for the red carpet event.

Rich and Sarah Woloski were there. You may recall R2 was the ring bearer in their wedding.



At 9:00pm, the fanfare sounded, and R2 took to the red carpet. The picture is dark and grainy, but R2 is leading DSC president Joe Adams (dressed as a Jedi Knight) to the stage.



Once inside, folks lined up for the exhibit, and formed a second line for pictures with R2.



I ended up staying until around 11:00pm, which is about how long it took to get through the line for pictures with R2.

It was a fun event, and there's a chance R2 will be back for an R2 Builders event before the exhibit ends in April 2012.