The exhibit will be on display at The Franklin through May 4, 2008. Opening day activities on February 9 will include a dramatic display by Star Wars Stormtroopers, as well as a museum filled with costumed characters enacting light saber battles and other movie scenes, trivia contacts and photo opportunities with some of your favorite characters from the movies.

Developed by Boston's Museum of Science in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd., the 10,000 squarefoot exhibit features over 100 Star Wars and real world artifacts and 21 innovative interactive exhibits that explore the fantasy technologies depicted in the Star Wars films, including Luke's original landspeeder from Episode IV alongside scale models of X- and Y-wing starfighters and TIE fighters.

Visitors will also see an original Yoda puppet from the classic trilogy and Darth Vader's actual helmet from Episode III. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), presented by Bose Corporation and locally sponsored by PECO, "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" is the first exhibition to showcase costumes and props from all six Star Wars films, while exploring cutting-edge research and modern technologies that could someday make the fantasy world of Star Wars a reality. As an added feature, experience a full-size cockpit replica of Episode IV's Millennium Falcon!

Take your seat in the Millennium Falcon exhibit, and you'll find yourself surrounded by a universe of sounds: beeping cockpit instruments, the roar of passing spaceships and comets, and the voices of your shipmates. Visitors watch a multimedia presentation featuring imagery from the Hubble space telescope that explores what we know about our own galaxy in a breathtaking journey to the edge of the Universe. Featuring a proprietary sound system from Bose Corporation, the recreated cockpit debuts the technologies of 3Space audio systems, providing visitors with a realistic three-dimensional audio experience. -- www2.fi.edu