December 2004 Vol. 33, No. 4

Vol. 33, No. 4 December 2004

Journal of the International Planetariu m Society

Sce ne from "Fascin ation Ra in fore st" a t th e Kie l Planetarium, Germany.

The Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is published quarterly by the International Planetarium Society. ©2004, Inter- national Planetarium Society, Inc ., all ri ghts reserve d. December, 2004 Vol. 33, No. 4 Opinions expressed by authors are personal opinions and are not necessarily the opinions o f the International Planetarium So ciety, its officers, o r agents. Acceptance of advertisements, announcements, or other material does Executive Editor not imply endorsement by the International Planetarium Society, its officers or agents. John Mosley The Editor welcomes items for consideration for publication. Please consult "Guidelines Griffith Observatory for Contributors" at www.GriffithObs.org/IPSGuidelines.html. T he Editor reserves the 2800 E. Observatory Road right to edit any manuscript to suit this publication’s needs. Los Angeles, California 90027 USA (1) 323-664-1181 daytime phone Articles (1) 323-663-4323 Griffith fax 6 Beyond The Fair Use Fallacy: Copyright Primer for Planetarians . [email protected] ...... Christopher S. Reed Advertising Coordinator 10 Ticket to Heaven: Live Music in the Planetarium . . Christine Högl Chuck Bueter 13 Whale’s Tale (script) ...... Jon Bell 15893 Ashville Lane 19 Fascination Rainforest ...... Hannes Petrischak Granger, Indiana 46530 USA (1) 574-271-3150 Columns [email protected] 21 President’s Message ...... Jon Elvert www.GriffithObs.org/IPSratesheet4.htm 30 NASA Space Science News ...... Anita Sohus 35 Mobile News Network ...... Susan Reynolds Button Membership 39 Reviews ...... April S. Whitt Individual: $50 one year; $90 two years 43 Forum: Digital Divide ...... Steve Tidey Institutional: $200 first year; $100 annual renewal 47 What’s New ...... Jim Manning Library Subscriptions: $36 one year 53 International News ...... Lars Broman Direct membership requests and changes of address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman on next page. 60 Gibbous Gazette ...... James Hughes 64 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt Back Issues of the Planetarian IPS Back Publications Repository maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chairman; Index of Advertisers contact information is on next page Adler Planetarium ...... 9 Index allsky.de ...... 29 A cumulative index of major articles that have Astro-Tec ...... 52 appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue Audio-Visual Imagineering ...... 12 through the current issue is available online at Calgary Science Centre ...... 62 www.GriffithObs.org/planetarian_index.pdf East Coast Control Systems ...... 46 Evans & Sutherland ...... outside back cover Final Deadlines GOTO INC ...... 38 March: January 21 Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd...... 34 and 59 June: April 21 Learning Technologies, Inc...... 20 September: July 21 December: October 21 R. S. A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover Scott Electric ...... 18 SEOS ...... 5 Sky-Skan, Inc...... centerfold International Planetarium Society WWW home page: Spitz, Inc...... 63 www.ips-planetarium.org Zeiss A.G...... inside front cover Planetarian journal WWW home page: www.GriffithObs.org/IPSPlanetarian.html

C o v e r : This allsky was taken at a small waterfall sur- Associate Editors rounded by tropical moist fo rest in the Costa Rican Forum Last Light Reviews mountains by Hannes and Simone Petrischak. It is a n Steve Tidey April S. Whitt April S. Whitt eleme nt of the new pla netarium show "Fascination Rainforest" which is being presented in the Mediadome Gibbous Gazette Mobile News Network What's New of the University for Applied Sc iences in Kiel, Germa- James Hughes Susan Button Jim Manning ny. The production of allskies for this show was sup- International News NASA Space News ported by Kenan Bromann and Tim Florian Horn. See Lars Broman Anita Sohus the article which begins on page 19.

December 2004 Planetarian 1 I. P. S. Off i c e r s President 61 3 63233776 fax for Science and Technology Jon W. Elvert, Director [email protected] 6560 Braddock Road Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA Louisiana Art & Science Museum Past President (1) 703-750-8380 100 South River Road Martin Ratcliffe (1) 703-750-5010 fax Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA Director, Theaters & Media Services [email protected] (1) 225-344-5272 Exploration Place (1) 225-214-4027 fax 300 N McLean Blvd Treasurer and Membership Chair [email protected] Wichita, Kansas 67203 USA Shawn Laatsch (1) 316-266-4255 P.O. Box 1812 President Elect (1) 316-263-4545 fax Greenville, North Carolina 27835 USA Martin George [email protected] (1) 252-328-6139 office Launceston Planetarium (1) 252-328-6218 fax Queen Victoria Museum Executive Secretary [email protected] Wellington Street Lee Ann Hennig Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Planetarium 61 3 63233777 Thomas Jefferson High School

I. P. S. Affiliate Repre s e n t a t i v e s

Association of Dutch Speaking Canadian Association of Science Japan Planetarium Society Russian Planetariums Association Planetariums Centres Shoichi Itoh Zinaida P. Sitkova Chris Janssen John Dickenson, Managing Director Planetarium Ur Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium Director, Europlanetarium Pacific Space Centre Suginami Science Education Center Pokhvalinskii S’Yezd 5-A Planetariumweg 19 H.R. MacMillan Planetarium 3-3-13 Shimizu, Suginami-ku Nizhny Novgorod, 603 600 Russia 3600 Genk Belgium 1100 Chestnut Street Tokyo 167-0033 Japan (7) 831 2 30 51 51 +32 89 30 79 90 Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 3J9 (81) 3 3396 4391 (7) 831 2 30 51 66 fax +32 89 30 79 91 fax Canada (81) 3 3396 4393 fax [email protected] [email protected] (1) 604-738-7827 ext.234 [email protected] [email protected] www.europlanetarium.com (1) 604-736-5665 fax [email protected] [email protected] Southeastern Planetarium Associ- Association of French-Speaking Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society ation Planetariums Council of German Planetariums Paul Krupinski John Hare Agnes Acker Dr. Andreas Haenel, 180 Crandon Blvd. Ash Enterprises Observatoire de Strasbourg Planetarium des Museums am Mobile Dome Planetarium 3602 23rd Avenue West 11, rue de l'universite Schoelerberg Buffalo, New York 14225 USA Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA 67000 Strasbourg France Am Schoelerberg 8 (1) 716-681-0204 (1) 941-746-3522 03 90 24 24 67 D 49082 Osnabrueck Germany [email protected] (1) 941-750-9497 fax 03 90 24 24 17 fax +49 541 560 0326 [email protected] [email protected] +49 541 560 0337 fax Nordic Planetarium Association [email protected] [email protected] Lars Broman Southwestern Association of Plane- Dalarna University tariums Association of Mexican Planetariums European/Mediterranean SE 791 88 Falun Sweden Tony Butterfield Ignacio Castro Pinal Planetarium Association (46) 2310 177 Houston Museum of Natural Science Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 Dennis Simopoulos [email protected] One Hermann Circle C.P. 01490, México D.F. México Eugenides Planetarium www.planetarium.se/npa Houston, Texas 77581 USA (52) (55) 55 24 51 50 Syngrou Avenue-Amfithea (1) 713 639-4637 (52) (55) 55 24 01 40 Fax Athens Greece Pacific Planetarium Association (1) 713 639-4681 fax [email protected] (30) 1 941 1181 Gail Chaid, Director [email protected] (30) 1 941 7372 fax Independence Planetarium Association of Spanish Planetariums [email protected] 1776 Educational Park Drive Ukranian Planetariums Association Javier Armentia San Jose, California 95133 USA Lydmila Rybko Planetario de Pamplona Great Lakes Planetarium Association +1 408-928-9604 Kiev Republican Planetarium Sancho Ramirez, 2 Chuck Bueter +1 408-926-9515 fax 57/3 Velyka Vasyikivska Street E-31008 Pamplona Navarra Spain 15893 Ashville Lane [email protected] 03150 Kiev Ukraine +34 948 260 004 Granger, Indiana 46530 USA +380 442 27 27 81 +34 948 260 056 (1) 574 271 3150 Planetarium Society of India +380 442 27 37 43 fax +34 948 261 919 fax [email protected] Professor S. Gopinath [email protected] [email protected] Director-Astronomer [email protected] - Great Plains Planetarium Association Daruna, cio.com Jack Dunn 80, Kathatorn Road Ralph Mueller Planetarium Amper Muang, Australasian Planetarium Society University of Nebraska- Lincoln Ratchaburi- 70000. Thailand Glen Moore 210 Morrill Hall +66 323 26156 Planetarium, Science Centre Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA [email protected] University of Wollongong (1) 402-472-2641 [email protected] Northfields Ave, (1) 402-475-8899 fax Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia [email protected] Rocky Mountain Planetarium +61 2 4286 5000 Association +61 2 4283 6665 fax Italian Planetaria’s Friends Jim Manning [email protected] Association Taylor Planetarium http://home.vicnet.net.au/~apsweb Loris Ramponi Museum of the Rockies National Archive of Planetaria 600 W. Kagy Blvd. British Association of Planetaria c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Serafino Bozeman, MT 59717 Teresa Grafton Zani +1 406-994-6874 London Planetarium via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 [email protected] Marylebone Road 25066 Lumezzane (Brescia) Italy London NW1 5LR England United (39) 30 87 21 64 Kingdom (39) 30 87 25 45 fax 44 (0) 20 7487 0243 www.planetaritaliani.it 44 (0) 20 7465 0923 fax [email protected] Teresa.Grafton@madame- tussauds.com

2 Planetarian December 2004 I. P. S. Standing Committees

IPS Conference Committee IPS Awards Committee IPS Ethics Committee Jon W. Elvert, Director Jon Bell vacant Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Hallstrom Planetarium Louisiana Art & Science Museum Indian River Community College IPS Finance Committee - President, Past- 100 South River Road 3209 Virginia Avenue President, President-Elect, Treasurer, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA Fort Pierce, Florida 34981 USA Secretary (1) 225-344-5272 (1) 561-462-4888 (1) 225-214-4027 fax [email protected] [email protected] IPS Publications Committee IPS Membership Committee Dr. Dale W. Smith Shawn Laatsch BGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman Hall P.O. Box 1812 Physics &Astronomy Dept. Greenville, North Carolina 27835 USA Bowling Green State University (1) 252-328-6139 office Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA (1) 252-328-6218 fax (1) 419-372-8666 [email protected] (1) 419-372-9938 fax [email protected] IPS Elections Committee Steve Mitch, Chair IPS Web Committee Planetarium Alan Gould Please notify the Editor of any changes Benedum Natural Science Center Holt Planetarium on these two pages. Oglebay Park Lawrence Hall of Science Wheeling, West Virginia 26003 USA University of California Contact the Treasurer/Membership Chair (1) 304-243-4034 Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA (1) 304-243-4110 fax (1) 510-643-5082 for individual member address changes and [email protected] (1) 510-642-1055 fax general circulation and billing questions. [email protected] I. P. S. AD HOC Committees

Armand Spitz Planetarium Education Fund IPS Planetarium Development Group IPS Technology Committee Finance Committee Ken Wilson, Chair Jan Sifner, Chair Ethyl Universe Planetarium Planetarium Praha IPS Education Committee Science Museum of Virginia Observatory and Planetarium of Prague April Whitt 2500 West Broad Street Kralovska obora 233 Fernbank Science Center Richmond, Virginia 23220 USA CZ-170 21 Prague 7 Czech Republic 156 Heaton Park Drive NE (1) 804-864-1429 +420 2 333 764 52 Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA (1) 804-864-1560 fax +420 2 333 794 44 (Jan) (1) 678-875-7148 [email protected] +420 2 333 764 34 fax (1) 678-874-7110 fax [email protected] [email protected] IPS Portable Planetarium Committee www.planetarium.cz Susan Reynolds Button IPS History Committee Quarks to Clusters John Hare, Chair, IPS Historian 8793 Horseshoe Lane Ash Enterprises Chittenango, NY 13037 3602 23rd Avenue West (1) 315-687-5371 Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA [email protected] (1) 941-746-3522 (1) 941-750-9497 fax IPS Professional Services Committee [email protected] Mike Murray Clark Planetarium IPS Job Information Service Subcommittee 110 South 400 West (Professional Services Committee) Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA Steve Fentress, Chair (1) 801 456 4949 Strasenburgh Planetarium (1) 801 456 4928 fax Rochester Museum & Science Center [email protected] 657 East Avenue Rochester, New York 14607 USA IPS Script Contest Committee (1) 585-271-4552 ext. 409 Steve Tidey (1 )585-271-7146 fax 58 Prince Avenue [email protected] Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN England United Kingdom IPS Language Committee [email protected] Martin George Launceston Planetarium Strategic Planning Committee Queen Victoria Museum John Dickenson, Chair Wellington Street H.R. MacMillan Planetarium IPS Permanent Mailing Address Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Pacific Space Centre 61 3 63233777 1100 Chestnut Street International Planetarium Society 61 3 63233776 fax Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 3J9 c/o Taylor Planetarium [email protected] Canada Museum of the Rockies (1) 604-738-7827 ext. 234 Montana State University IPS Outreach Committee (1) 604-736-5665 fax Christine Shupla [email protected] 600 W. Kagy Blvd. Arizona Science Center Bozeman, Montana 59717 USA 600 East Washington Street Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA IPS Web Site (1) 602-716-2078 www.ips-planetarium.org (1) 602-716-2099 fax [email protected]

Produced a t the Gr iffith Observ atory, Los Angel es, Californi a; www.GriffithObs.or g/IPS Planet arian.html

December 2004 Planetarian 3 The La wrence Hall of Science pion eered Editor’s Keyboard participat ory-oriented plan etarium shows ing me thods that have been systematica lly several decades ago. From time to time I hear tested and shown to reach diverse students.” about these “POP” programs, a nd 15 articles In scientific t eaching, students do not listen abou t p articip atory programs have b een passively (or just take notes) while the teach- publish ed in the P l a n e t a r i a n (although few er talks , but actively participate in the pro- in the last decade), but my sense is that they cess of disco very. The authors ask why so remain the exception. We lecture to our stu- many teachers continue to use “transmis - dents – or play entertaining multi-media kids sion-of-information” lecturing methods that shows – because that is what we know and it are known to be ineffective in fostering con- is easy. But I wonder if, as a profession, we’ve ceptual understanding. not given this enough thought. The eleven authors don ’t mention plan e- The authors of the S c i e n c e article present tariums, but that is what I was thinking of as recommendations for moving forward the I read the article. I thought of our own school revolution to reform teaching methods. Most shows, where – until this fall – our staff talked don’t apply to planetariums, but their call for and the students listened quietly and absorb- action requires the leadership bot h of “pro- ed wisdom, and where the students partici- fessional societies” (the IPS obviously comes pated only by answering questions designed to mind) and of dedicated individuals. There The April 23, 2004, issue of S c i e n c e m a g a- to see if they are keeping up and for review. are a number of forward-thinking individu- zine (vol. 304, pages 521-2) contains an article Are we reaching them the best way we can? als w ithin IPS who make a differ ence, but on “Scientific Teaching” by Jo Handelsman Are we really changing the way they think perhaps there is a role here f or our “profes- and ten other authors. Scie ntific teaching about the sky? O r are we j ust givin g them sion al in stit ution .“ Is the refo rmation of “involves active learning strategies to engage factual inf ormation that they forget by the school shows a worthy project for IPS? students in the process of science and teach- time the bus arrives back at school?

The Winter 1979 issue (which appeared in speech he presented to the Great Lakes Plane- May 1980 – bu t that’s another story) pa cked 25 Years Ago tariu m Associat ion. Don shared what he’d quite a bit in its 26 numbered pages. lea rned in his 18 y ears in the plan etariu m Geo rge Reed reported on his success in tarium Program.” He compared four ways to business about what audiences want, react to, establishing the third week of October as the describe a planetarium show to the audience: and are motivated by. And how to get more official International Planetarium Week, and written handout, personal introduction, slide people to attend his shows. He revealed Hall’s he encouraged planetarians to celebrate it. I show, and no int roduction. After much ado, Law of F amiliar Situat ions and Hall’s Law of wonder if Planetarium W eek is still on the several tables and diagrams, and multivariate Peaks and Valleys in a thoroughly enjoyable books; I don’t recall hearing anything about analysis, he concluded that a personal int ro- and thoughtful a rticle that rem ains valid it. duction is most effective. today. Some things don’t change. Adler promoted the upcoming IPS Confer- Davi d Ale xande r previe we d “A P ublic Herb Schwartz described how to build a 3D ence, to be held in Chicago. The P l a n e t a r i a n Observatory for the Wichita Kansas, Area” to globular cluster projector out of mirrors and used to be a vehicle for getting people excit- compli me nt the new Om nisp here, to b e scrap plastic for about $30. ed about future conferences, and I wonder if known as the Lake Afton Public Observatory. In his “Sky N otes” colum n, J ack Dunn it will be again one day. I believe it’s been a success (see http://webs de scribed dir ect-to-disc records wit h their By far the long est article (and with by far .wichita.edu/lapo). low noise and high fide lity , and previewe d the lon gest name) was W alter Bisar d’s “An Jeanne Bish op “Focus on Education” col- plans for digital sound (on vinyl records). Experimental Study of the Relative Effects of umn outline d “NA SA’ s Sp ectrum of E du- Jane’s Corner ended t he issue. Reproduced Four Introductory Formats to a Public Plane- cational Services” long before the world wide below is her youthful photo which appeared web made NASA’s job easy. I remember well at the end of the P l a n e t a r i a n for quite a few Ben Casados of JPL; he was a great guy. Jeanne years. I hope Jane is having fun in retirement! also me ntions Cu rtis Graves of NASA headquarters. Charles Gronauer reported on “A Study of Distortion Resulting from Viewing Angles in the Plane tarium Theater” with fou r graphs. This study was included as an appendix to his Master of Arts in Architecture thesis on planetarium design. We all have an intuitive feeling the distortion of the starfield that visitors expe rience from diffe rent seats in the theater, but Charles graphed it. In his short “What’s New” column, James Brown listed additional sources for slides and slide panoramas. Donald Hall of the Strasenburgh Planetar- 3D mo tori zed gl obul ar star cluster pr oje cto r a s de scri be d by He r b ium in Ne w York appealed t o “Know Your Schwar tz, Sargent P lanetari um, De s Audie nce.” His article was adapted from a Moines, Iowa. 4 Planetarian December 2004

Beyond The Fair Use Fallacy: A Copyright Primer for Planetarians Christopher S. Reed CSR Media, LLC 12106 West 75th Lane Arvada, Colorado 80005-5306 (1) 720-236-3007 (1) 253-423-2278 fax [email protected]

There are few areas of law that cause as period of time. Copyright protection is based “w ork s of authorship” in clu din g lit erary much public confusion as that of copyright. on the theory that creators will be more like- works, musical works, dramatic wor ks, pan- As widespread changes in technology make ly to generate new works of authorship if tomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, it easier and cheaper to create, manip ulate, they are guaranteed the right to exclusively graphic, and s culptural works, mot ion pic- and transfer c ontent, a nd as our e conomy use their w orks. This exclusive -use pe riod tures and other audiov isual wo rks, s ound moves from one of t he industrial age to recordings, and architectural works. one of the information age, copyright is Copyright is one of the most publicly Fo r an average p la netari um, that quickly becoming a centerpiece of ou r misunderstood areas of modern law. means that virtually everything used in modern vernacular. As technology continues to evolve, a typica l show is c opyrightable – slides Despite in creased public in terest in and other images fall int o the pictorial, cop yright, fe w truly comprehend how and content becomes easier to cre- graphic and sculptural works c ategory, copyright law works or what, exactly, it ate, manipulate, and transfer, under- the soundtrack is a s ound recordin g, protects. Particula rly in the context of standing copyright law and its impli- while the printed script and any accom- education, miscon ceptions about copy - panyin g produ ction notes wou ld fall right la w a bound. Terms like “fair use” cations will become a crucial skill for under the literary works category. are o ften throw n aro und wit h lit tle those in the planet ari um indus try For works created on or after January understandin g of what they actually who plan to use copyrighted material 1, 1978, copyright protection is automat- mean or how they actually apply to a in their productions. ic for any works that are fixed in a tangi- particular s ituation. This article endeav- ble me dium of e xpression . Thus from ors to d emy stify the m ajor prin cip les o f creates an economic a dvantage in c reators, the moment you finish a particular piece of copyright la w by providin g a conceptual which allows them to recoup their in vest- work, it is protected by copyright. Even your framew ork wit h w hich pla netarians c an ment in in novation and enjoy the fruits of notes, doodles, and indiscriminate markings attempt to answer copy right relate d qu es- their labor. are technica lly protected by a copyright. tions. After the limited period of exclusive use, Note, though, that if something is not in tan- It is impor tant to realize , h owe ver, that the work falls into the public domain, allow- gible form, it may not be copyrighted. The this article is not designed t o s ubstitute for ing anyone to use the material without first w ords s po ke n durin g a live p lanetarium professiona l leg al advice . This article aims obtaining permission. Copyright law then, at show, for e xam ple, are not copyrightable only to provid e a general back ground of least in theory, is designed to promote cre- unless they are written down somewhere or some key concepts of copyright law which ation of new expr ession as well as establish are being transcribed, v ideot aped, or other- many planetarians are likely to encounter. and grow a rich public domain. w is e f ixe d in som e tangible me di um of Be cause v irt ually every cop yright-relat ed The notion of copyright law finds its ori- expression. question must be considered within the con- gins in the late fift eenth c entury w ith the Cu rrently, copyright p rotection last s for text of the unique scenario in which it arises, introduction of the printing press. Since that the life of the author plus an additiona l 70 you should consult a qu alified a ttorney for time it has been refined and developed into years. I n cases w here there are m ul tip le guidance in specific situations. the relatively complex body of law we have authors, the c op yrig ht la sts for 70 years today. In the United States, c opyright law beyond the life of the long est lived author. What’s a Copyright? dates back to the birth of the nation. Article Where the work was prepared anonymously A copyright is a government grant of lim- I, Section 8, C lause 8 of the Constitu tio n or pseudonymously, or when the copyright ited rights to an author to u se or authorize gives Congress the authority to create patent is owned by an employer (when works are others to use his o r her “origin al works of and copyright law. created with in the scope of an individual’s authorship” (17 U.S.C. § 102(a)) during a finite Over the years, Con gress has exercised its employmen t), the c op yright e xtends for 95 constitutional authority to develop compre- years after the year of first publication or 120 Christopher S. Reed is the president of CSR hensive s cheme s of copyright protection. years after creation, whichever is shorter. Media, LLC, a broadcast and multimedia The most recent incarnation was established I n short, fo r all in tents and p urposes, consulting firm. He is currently pursuing by the Copyright Act of 1976. Today, the Act everythin g is copy rig hted b y som eo ne, Juris Doctor and Master of Intellec tual and its various amendments are codified in some where, and it la sts f or an extrem ely Prop erty d egrees at the Franklin Pier ce Title 17 of the United States Code. long time. Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. Cop yright p rotects several categories of

6 Planetarian December 2004 Government Works The Classroom Exemption mance “to the members of a particular class.” There is one exception to the above state- Recall that copyright is a grant of limited This requirement is also tricky in a planetari- me nt that “everythin g” is c o py rig hted. rights to authors. To ensure that c opyright um setting. In circumstances where the plan- Works c reated b y the federal government la w remains true to its underlyin g p olicy etarium is effectively being used a s a class- are not subject to copyright protection and goals, Congress included a number of excep- room, this requiremen t would pr obably be may be u sed freely. The government is n o t tions to the rights of authors. Of particular satisfied. But most planetarium facilities also precluded fr om own ing copyrights that are impor tance to plan etarians is the so-called p resent a varie ty o f public shows d uring transferred to it, however. Also, this provi- “clas sroom e xe mption ” fo und in S ection which time the planetarium is not function- sion does not apply to state or local govern- 110(1) of the Copyright Act. ing as a classroom, leading one to reasonably ments. This exception essentially permits instruc- conclude that the classroom exemption may Many pla netaria ns are alre ady fam ilia r tors and students to publicly perform copy- not apply. with this rule, as it is the reason why most righted works, without consent of the copy- Considering the requirements of the class- NASA imagery, for example, is in the public right owner, “in the course of face-to-face room exemption, some uses will fall squarely domain. The one caveat that exists, however, teaching activities of a nonprofit education- within the bounds of the provision, whereas is work prepared by government contractors al institution, in a classroom or similar place o thers w ill f all into the prove rbial “gray or partners – they a r e permitte d to obtain d evoted to in struction.” Like v irtually all area.” For those cases where you are uncer- copyright protection, even if the work was legal doctrines, however, this seemingly sim- tain abo ut or unco mfo rtabl e wit h yo ur created using government funds or support. ple phrase leaves ample room for interpreta- review of the relevant facts and their appli- tion. cation under the exception, it is impor tant A review of the legislative history behind to consult with an attorney. this section reveals that Congress did not intend to suggest that the instructor and students must actually see each other, but they m ust be “in the same build ing or general area.” The “face-to-face” lan guage is merely de signed to specifically exclude elec tronic transmissions. Planetarium use of copyrighted materials would therefore probably meet the face-to-face requirement. C ongress f urther noted that “teaching activi tie s” specif ic ally exclu de s pe rfo r- mances or dis plays “that are given f or the recreation or e ntertainment of any part of R ig ht s c o nfe r r ed by § 1 0 6 of t he their audience.” The copyrighted work must The fair use factors. Copyright Act. actually be used in the process of delivering instruction, not merely to accent a lecture or What’s In a Name? presentation. In a planetarium setting, live Fair Use The singular wor d “copyright” is actually shows that take the form of an interactive The classroom exemption applies o n l y t o a misnomer , as a copyright actually confers lectu re or discussion-based presentation are the public pe rformance and display rights upon its owner several different rights. These m ore likely to le an towards mee ting the and applies only in a small number of cir- include the right to r eproduce, to prepare teaching activities requireme nt w hereas a cumstances. In cases where your intended deriva tiv e wo rks (e.g. a fo reig n la nguage pre-recorded show falls further away from use of content does not fall within the class- translation of a boo k, a movie based on a the in tent of the “teaching activities” lan- room exemp tion , the doc trine of fair use novel, etc.), to distribute copies, to publicly guage. may be helpful. perform, and to publicly display. Similarly, audience composition may also The phrase “fair use” has become widely During the period of copyright protection, b e a conside ratio n. Audien ces comp ris ed know n in the education commu nity but only the copy right owner or those autho- sub stantia l ly of stude nts w ould tend unfortunately, it is frequently used incor- rized by the copyright owner ma y e xercise towards a teaching activity, wh ereas pu blic rectly t o mea n any permissive use of copy- these rights. Exercise of one or more of these sho w s may b e de eme d recreatio nal in righted materia l without authorization of rights without permission is an infringement nature. Using copyrighted materials merely the copyright ow ner. Fair use is actually a of the c op yri ght whic h can subject the to improv e the aesthetic quality o f a pro- specific and statutorily defin ed exception infringer to substantial financial detriment. gram, ir respective o f audien ce or type of found in Section 107 of the Copyright Act. In certain narrowly defined situations, copy- show, would almost certainly be considered Contrary to popular b elief , fair use doe s right infringement can carry criminal penal- “recreation or entertainment” and therefore not grant educational users carte blanche to ties including imprisonment. not fall within the scope o f t he c lassroom use copyrighted materials without compen- The rights may be subdivided, meaning exemption. sation o r pe rmiss ion . Instead, the statute for any particular work, one party may, for Finally, the “cla ssroom or simila r plac e articulates the following test, which requires example, own or have the right to reproduce devoted to instruction” phrase is essentially a user to consider and balance four factors: while another party has the right to publicly d esigned to confine the display or perfor- 1. The p urpose and c haracter of the use, perform a particular work. including whether such use is of a com-

The Copyright Clause of the Constitution. Courtesy: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

December 2004 Planetarian 7 mercial nature or is for nonprofit educa- work, the fourth factor would weigh against though the produ ct was purchased and is tional purposes; fair use. Duplicating a particular poem from now “owned.” 2. The nature of the copyrighted work; the anthology in the above example is not Note , though, that when a license agree- 3. The amount and s ubstantiality of the likely to harm the market for the anthology ment is present, the terms of the license gen- portio n used in rela tion to the copy- as a whole. The fourth factor would there- erally override t he exemptions in the copyrighted work as a whole; and fore weigh in favor of fa ir use. If a teacher right law . In other words, it is p ossib le to 4. The effect of the use upon the potential were duplicating p ages from a consumable “contract around” the various productions market for or value of the copyrighted w ork boo k that wo uld o therwise b y pur- discussed here. work. chased by the school, however, t he fo urth This has c ritica l r amifica tions for many The f irst factor is rela tively straightfor- factor would weigh against fair use. plan etarium products – it means that show ward. While one may c o n s i d e r the educa- Just like t he classroom exemption analy- packages, music libraries, video clip libraries, tional or nonprofit nature of a particular use, sis, some proposed uses of copyrighted mate- and anything e lse that requ ire s a lice nse, it doe s not have any d eterminative value ria l w ill fall dir ectly w ithin the fair use even a royalty-free license, is bound by the alon e. Edu cation al use weig hs tow ards a guidelines, but many are close calls. If ever in terms of that particular license agreement. finding of fair use whereas commercial us es doubt, as always, it is importan t to seek the For examp le, suppo se a show p acka ge lean towards finding against fair use. advice of an attorney s killed in c opyright license agreement inc ludes a provision that When considering the first factor, courts issues for guidance relevant to your s pecific prohibits use of the show’s visuals outside of have al so loo ke d to the transf ormativ e situation. the actual performance of the show itself. nature of the u se. Uses that employ c opy- W hile o rdin arily, i ndep endent use of righted material to change or adapt (e.g. to Getting Permission those imag es may be justifiab le u nder the create a parody) weigh more in favor of fair This article has focused largely on exemp- clas sroom ex emp tion or the fair use doc - use than those which simply take the copy- tion s to copy rig ht pro tectio n and cases trine, because the license expressly prohibits righted work and exploit it in total. where you may lawfully u se material with - it, such use would be unlawful. It is therefore Note that just be cause a plan etarium is a o ut e xp ress pe rmis sio n o f the c op yrig ht of paramount importance to read and under- nonprofit organization does not immediate- owner. It is importan t to always remember, stand lic ense agreeme nts associa ted wit h ly turn the first factor towards a finding of however, that the safest way to use the copy- shows or other planetarium content. fair use. The test calls for one to consider the righted content of another is to obtain per- nature of t he u s e of t he copy righted work. mission to use it. Conclusion Use of a work in a show for which admission Obtaining permission for many materials It bears mentioning again that this article is c harged could be viewed as a commercial can be as simple as ask ing for it. Be cause is not a s ubstit ute fo r le gal advi ce; it is activity ev en though it is being c onducted plane tariums are generally noncommercial intended to provide a working knowledge of by a nonprofit entity. in nature, you may be able to obtain the per- the general principles of copyright and a n The second factor is designed to recognize mission you need for free or for a nominal analy tic al f rame work to help d etermin e that “some works are closer to the core of charge. when certain copyright exemptions apply. intended copyright protection than others.” Ev en if yo u requ est pe rmiss ion on the Ev ery le gal situation is dif ferent and con- [Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Mu sic, 510 U.S. 569, phone or by e-mail, be sure to get the copy- cepts like classroom exemption and fair use 586 (1994).] Works that are based substantial- right owner’s permission in writing. A signed can become technical and the results uncer- ly on factual material a re afforded less pro- letter or fax is best, but e-mail will typically tain. Unfortunately, t here are no bright line tection, and use thereof is more likely to be suffice. Written permission is essential eve n tests and no hard and fast rules. fair. Works that are more creative or artistic if you request permission and d iscuss your To date, n o United States court has ever in nature are affor ded greater protection , proposed use by telephone. As movie mag- adjudicat ed a copyright infringement claim which weighs against a finding of fair use. nate Sam Goldwy n once qu ipped: “An oral against a planetarium. Moreover, the author The thir d f actor sim ply lo ok s to the contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed was unable to identify a ny planetarian that amount of the wo rk taken rela tive to the on.” had been threatened with litigation ov er a work as a whole. To photocopy a poem from A similar w ay to avoid potentia l copy - copyright issue. Still, understanding copy - an anthology, for example, would probably right problems is to use royalty-free content. right law is quickly becoming essential for weigh in favor of fair use, whereas to dupli- As the name implies , royalty-free products anyone involved with using or creating con- cate the entir e antho log y wo uld lik ely inv olve the u ser p aying a one-time fee f or tent. weigh against fair use. This is one area that unli mit ed use in a p artic ul ar contex t. Alth ough c opyright infringement claims gives rise to many of the fair use misconcep- Exa mples of royalty free materials in clude again st pl anetariu m s are rare o r even tion s. Traditiona l wisd om found on many stock image ry and many production music presently nonexistent, such is not a license web site s suggests that there are solid rules libraries. to ignore the rig hts of c opy right owners. abou t how much of a c op yrig hted work Ongoing or widespr ead copyright in fringe- may be taken – the “8 bar” rule for music, or An Important Word of Caution me nt wit hin the plan etarium c ommunity the “10 % rul e” f o r b o ok s, fo r exam pl e. M any cop yrig hted material s that are could potentially lead to increased enforce- Unfortunately, no such rules exist. The quan- “sold” for particular purposes are not actual- me nt vigilan ce, p articula rly as the “copy - tit y of material t ake n must be c onsider ed ly owned outright by the purchaser. Rather, rig ht ind ustries ” b ecome mo re and more along with the other three fair use factors. the purchaser is simply licensed t o use the reliant on licensing revenue as a source of Finally , the fou rth f actor conside rs the materials. A common exa mple is computer income. Planetarians and related profession- ef fect on the market f or the cop yrighted software, where the end user does not actual- als must therefore be fam iliar wit h their work. Because the very essence of copyright ly own the purchased program, but instead rights and responsibilities when using copy- is to protect authors’ economic incentive to owns the right to install and use the program righted content to ensure compliance with create, i f the u se is lik ely to result in an on a particular computer. Because the license applicable laws. term is usually a lengthy period, it seems as adverse effect on the sales of the copyrighted (Please see Copyright on page 41)

8 Planetarian December 2004

A Ticket to Heaven: Live Music in a Planetarium

Christine Högl Überlinger Str. 23 D - 88696 Owingen Germany +49 (0)7551-972284 0721151 496074 fax [email protected] www.christinehoegl.com

The vision expe rience f or me and it’s a relief to kn ow Storyboard In 1992, I traveled to t he “Granite Rose,“ that not everything shown on the dome has I attach a “storyboard” f or the perf or- the lege ndary coast of Brit tany in western to be 100% perfect for a live concert. Often, mance to provide artistic directions on the France, which is f ull of myths and fables. “less” may even be “more;” concerts with the sequence of events of the music and sounds Under these circumstances, it didn’t surprise music and “almost nothing but the starry and the im age projections. The storyboard me to suddenly see a huge, white ball appear sky” were impressively beautiful. In the final together with my music on CD is the major during an excursion through this country- analysis, it is the music which should be in p reparatory material fo r the technician. I side. Was it the Celtic fairies who wanted to the foreground. In all the years I’ve toured, will reach a decision on the exact sequence abduct me to their “other” world? I was mag- I’ve alwa ys received many pos itive sugges- with each planetarium on the phone, based ically attracted and s teered t oward it – and tion s in the German plan etariums – many on the technical abilities of the respective la nded in the p lanetarium of C osmo po- thanks to all concerned. planetarium. If we can use allskies, I will pro- lis/Pleumeur-Bodou. vide them; the planetarium is to take ov er It was my first visit to a planetarium. I was Tips programming the presentation of the allskies deep ly mov ed when I loo ked at the starry I’d like to list a couple of items which have and the star p rojector and is to p rovide a sky – simulta neously, I h eard mus ic with in proven to be of help in or ganizing my live technician for the final checks as well as the my self and the desire to pla y the harp. A concerts during the past ten years in the concert itself. vision grew, “ Harp Mu sic under the Starry hope they are useful to others: Sky.” Back in Germany, I started this project with great fascination but without any idea Just as looking at the stars is a gateway to a person’s soul, so is of how to transform it into reality. The first music. Stars and music have cast their spell over people since in vita tion came from the pla netariu m in primeval times. Both awaken feelings. The starry canopy of the Berlin (Wilhe lm-Foerster-Sternwarte), and dome also speaks to our feelings. This is certainly one of the pil- appeared t o me to be like “a ticket to heav- lars on which the worldwide success of planetariums is built. en.“ When it’s possible to meld music and the stars together harmo- In actual practice n i o u s l y, it opens up a new world within us. We often live in an The success of a live c oncert depends on everyday world full of hectic rushing and distractions, overstimu- comm itment by the musician (s) as well a s lated by the flood of images and noise of the modern world. The the planetarium. Musician s are attracted to the special ambience and the technical possi- experience of music beneath the planetarium dome offers a coun- bilities of a p lanetarium, but they usually terpoint. It opens an internal side of our existence. The harp is have no real know ledg e o f the technic al specially suitable for accomplishing this – even in the legends of aspects. My experience shows that it is advis- ancient peoples, this is the instrument which has enchanted man able for musician s to become acq uainted and animal. with the differences in the expense and technic al effo rt req uir ed fo r a show . A basic The modern world of the planetariu m is currently underg o i n g know led ge of the pro jectors enable s the conversion to alldome video projection with its spectacular effects. musician to co-create the show, and this also Among them are those which can intensify the power of music prevents fa lse expe ctation s right from the and the stars even further: when they are employed with the eyes start. of a composer, the composition and visual dramaturgy are blended For my harp music, t he projection of the starry sky was (and still is today) an impor- with each other with sensitivity. It is challenging and fulfilling to fol- tant design element, combined with special low this path. Together with Christine Hoegl and the Digistar III projectors and selected allskies. With the aid f r om Evans & Sutherland, we reach a audience in Kiel which is of creative improvisa tion from b oth sid es, often more appreciative than the audiences of the spectacular the creation of a harmonious program has shows. always resulted (in spite of the great variety of plane tariums!). The audience has alway s – Eduard Thomas, Director of Mediadome/ been enthusia stic . This is a fundamental University of Applied Sciences in Kiel, Germany 10 Planetarian December 2004 I provide the technician w ith a remote- For almost 20 years, cultural events have been a part of our controlled visual signal (light) for his actions. program profile in the Wolfsburg Planetarium because the plane- Audio/Sounds tarium is an ideal place to find peace, beauty, and an opportunity The acoustics in the do me are usually damp ened. To obtain a bright sound, the to reflect. Under these aspects, making a selection which pro- harp music and any sound effects are ampli- vides the visitor with a unique experience and not just a bit of fied by the planetarium’s louds peake r sys- “culture beneath the stars” has always been especially important tem. Additionally, I work with sound effects to us. such as singing birds, ocean waves, and wind. Christi ne Hoegl’s program ‘Harp Music Under the Starry Sky’ In the special atmosphere of the dome, some well-chosen effects give an add itional spa- immediately awakened our interest. The resulting cooperation has ciou s sound, w hich is nice. My husband, continued now for almost ten years and the enthusiasm is undi- Bernhard Schmidt, a ccompanies the project minished. The music appeals to a broad public and the sparing right from the start; he takes care of harp- use of allsky slides alternating with the heavenly bodies allows rela ted sound wit h his o wn eq uip me nt: the visitor to enjoy the atmosphere free of stress. The time re- Mackie mixer, Lexicon echo, direct sound- pick-up and wiring with suitable connectors. q u i red for rehearsal and technical arrangements as well as with Rehearsal and Concert the media, works out perfectly. In preparation for the c oncert, I r ecom - The audience shows its approval with sold-out presentations. mend a compact rehearsal on the day of the – Dr. Bernd Loibl, Director of the Planetarium concert; our experience has shown that two in Wolfsburg, Germany to three hours are enough for setting up, sound checks, transfer of the allskies in to your trays, and the fin al program checks. achieved so that the total revenue c an be audien ce as we ll as the m usicia n(s). As a This period for preparations should be made increased with only little additional e ffort. harpist, I have the advantage that the heav- available by the planetarium before the con- When selecting engagement dates, it should ens supplemen t harp music perfectly (and cert starts – without any interruptions caus- b e consid ered what season of the year o r vice versa) – but of course there are many dif- ed by the planetarium’s normal program. w hat special occasion would allow one to ferent kin ds of “heavenly music.” As musi- A s pecially prepared lamp provide s the expect a full house. Additionally, it is practi- cians in plan etariums, we have the luckiest minimum amount of light on the harp dur- cal t o pla n a concert tour together w ith job: “to let the s tars s ing” f or us, reaching ing the concert; it will not impa ir v iewin g other planetariums in the region, in order to very close to our hearts. what is projected on the dome. reduce the travel expenses. Sinc e the travel, Music in Planetarium Shows Advertising and Public Relations hotel and r elated expenses are not insignifi- I have noticed that, in planetarium shows, The p lanetarium should announce the cant, meeting the costs mus t be clarified in visual stimuli are often accorded more atten- concert in its program of events as well as all cases. It must also be borne in mind that tion than the musical selections – according provide information and hang posters with- GEMA / ASCAP / SACEM - or similar organi- to the maxim, “We’ve already invested a lot in the planetarium. Flyers sometimes are use- zation s’ in tellec tual-p roperty-right fe es - in the v isual show, now we need some sort ful. The expense of extensive posters outside may be due. of music to accompany it.” I think the effort the planetarium is often too high to be prac- Philosophy and e x p ense of goo d m usic i s w o rth i t tical. In some cases, towns have a free contin- You ma y ask, “Why have live music in because through the music w e experience gent for posters at suitable locations. the plan etarium?” So that the heavens can the vis ual a spects in another dime nsion . The successful ticket sales in Germany bloom in our hearts! With the multitude of media, it is increasing- result to a la rge extent, f rom active press Playing live in the “heavenly” atmosphere ly importa nt to create space for one’s own work for all mon thly/weekly/daily periodi- o f the dome touches the e mot io ns o f the expe rie nces – and not to sim ply “f ill t he cals and newspapers, up to radio audience u p t o t he brim.” This can and TV interviews. A phone call be accomplish ed with good music with a personal invitation often sele ctio ns, i nclu d in g o ccasion al works wonders with editors. The silen ce and a certain “emptiness.” events are then fe atured as a One should provid e the audie nce hig hlig ht and app ear w it h a with time to exp erience the v isual pho to o n the tit l e p age, or and auditory stimuli, provide space announced as “tip of the day” in for one’s own fantasy. the event calendar. This usually ensures a full house. Conclusion Finances A vision of music under the starry Financing and the conditions sky is some thing beautiful; the im- are subject to negotia tion and pleme ntatio n, on the other hand, are treated in various ways by means work; one doubts, one some- artists. The possibilities include a times even desp airs, there’s alway s fixed-fee remuneration or a cer- not eno ugh of s o me thin g (tim e tain pe rcentage of the tic ke t and/o r mo ney) ... b ut so me ho w sales. The ticket prices are to be everything coalesces at the end, and set correspondingly. Allskies with an astronomical theme or allskies of land- scapes, buildings, and nature always have an impressive The question is, how can sev- effect on the au dience. Photo taken i n the P lanetar ium (Please see Live Music on page 51) eral (sold-o ut) concerts best be Wolfsburg, courtesy harpART.

December 2004 Planetarian 11

The Whale's Tale (and Other Fishy Folklore) Jon Bell Hallstrom Planetarium Indian River Community College 3209 Virginia Avenue Fort Pierce, Florida 34981-5596, USA

Here’s the script that was awarded Second als and the IPS wishes you to credit them as was published in the June issue of the Plane - Place in the latest IPS/Eug enides scriptwrit- being the copyright holder. t a r i a n, I hope you will find enough inspira- ing c ompe tit io n. It’ s filled with Jon B ell’s W e’re o n course f or launching the next tion to submit a script of your own. Watch characteris tic and no t o ver-used fo lks y IPS/Eug enides scriptwriting c ompetition in this space for more information. humor, and it’s an e asy read. So if you find the March 2005 P l a n e t a r i a n, wit h a com- yourself wishing to use Jon ’s show you are pletely revised set of attractive rules. And so, Steve Tidey, Co-ordinator free to do so at no charge, as long as you real- given the strength of Jon’s script and Gary IPS/Eugenides Scriptwriting Competition ize that you have to provide your own visu- La zich’s Firs t Place winning script , w hich

Planetarium setting: CAST: Carmen, about 6 years old, Dan, about 15, Mom, Starship Enterprise. mid-northern lati- Dad and Grandma Dan: Yeah, right, Dad. tude, 20 hours side- Carmen: Oh, Daddy! There’s one that looks like a real time. Carmen: Hey, you missed a spot. Rake over here! whale! Dan (somewhat annoyed): Oh, all right. Grandma: And such a whale. A great blue whale, unless I HOUSE LIGHTS Carmen: Now do over here. miss my guess. Largest and heaviest animal fade to BLUE with Dan (muttering): I don’t see why I gotta listen to my ever to exist on Earth. Over a hundred feet TITLE and kid sister! She’s not my boss … long, and more than 300,000 pounds! CREDITS. Carmen: Very good. Now rake over here. Dan: Gosh, that’s bigger than any dinosaur! Dan: I already did that spot! Mom! Carmen’s bug- Various all sky Carmen: How many kinds of whales are there? ging me! whale types Grandma: Oh, there are lots of different kinds of whale. Carmen: Am not! There are pygmy whales and pilot whales, Dan: Are so! and narwhals and sperm whales, and killer Mom: What’s going on here? Are you two fighting whales … over leaves? Dad: And beluga whales, and humpback whales. Sound of raking Carmen: Mommy, I’m trying to help but Danny won’t Mom: And gray whales, and right whales. leaves let me use the rake, so I’m supervising. Dan: What, no left whales? Ow! Dan: I don’t need supervising! Grandma: And let’s not forget the dolphins! Dad: Right – that’s my job. Dan: Grandma, dolphins aren’t whales. Leaf pile panorama, Dan: Dad, tell Carmen to stop bugging me. Grandma: Au contraire, grandson. Dolphins are in the suburban houses Dad: Oh, you want me to tell her to, “leaf you delphinidae family but they are also ceta- alone”? Heh, heh. ceans, which is the same order of animals to Dan: Oh great. Thanks, Dad. which whales belong. Dad: Hey, it looks like you kids have done a great Dan: So a dolphin is a little whale? job raking up these leaves. Grandma: Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. The Grandma: Yes, indeed. Now there’s just one thing left to largest dolphin is no more than about fifteen do. feet in length. Carmen: What’s that, grandma? Dan: So are dolphins and porpoises the same Dan: Oh, I know. Now we bag ‘em. thing? All sky leaves and Grandma: Nope. Dolphins vs. Grandma: No, not exactly. Dolphins are typically larger panning clouds Carmen: We spread them out again? porpoises and more streamlined than porpoises. Grandma: Nope. Now we jump in them! Whee-ee! Porpoises have wedge-shaped dorsal fins – (Sound of scuffing leaves). that’s the fin that sticks up out of the back – Both Kids: Yeah! Whee-ee, etc. while a dolphin’s dorsal fin is a sickle shape. Dan: Grandma, you’re OK. Also, dolphins have long, sharp snouts while Grandma: Thanks, I think. Now this is what I like to do. those of porpoises are blunt. Lie back in a big pile of leaves and look up at Cetaceans vs. fish Mom: But porpoises, dolphins and whales are mam- that pretty blue sky. mals, not fish. Their tails are horizontal, not Carmen: Did grandma say that? vertical like those of fish. They lack a fish’s Mom: Your grandmother’s a very unusual person. gills, so most surface every so often to take in Dad: I’ll say. Mother whale and more air through blowholes. And their All sky cloud figur- Grandma: Do you kids see those fluffy white cumulus baby whale/Talk- young are born live, and the mothers will es, duck, elephant clouds? When I was a little girl, we used to ing whales nurse them for a year or more. etc. watch the clouds and imagine their shapes Whale song were all kinds of animals up there. Why, Grandma: And let’s not forget their ability to communi- there’s one that looks like a duck! cate. Whales and dolphins make a variety of Mom: Oh, I see an elephant! sounds – clicks, whistles, squeaks and groans. Starship Enterprise Dad: There’s one over there that looks like the We know they use these sounds to locate

December 2004 Planetarian 13 schools of fish and other underwater crea- God bless the Moon and God bless me! tures. But there are a lot of times when they Oh, Mr Moon, Moon, bright and shiny Moon, just seem to be talking or singing to each Won’t you please shine down on me! other. We don’t know what it all means, but Oh Mr Moon, Moon, bright and silvery Sun low in the west someday maybe we will. Moon, Carmen: Mommy, I’m cold. Hiding behind that tree. Mom: Here, honey, put on this jacket. I want to see you shining down on Earth Dad: Yes sir, the frost is on the pumpkin, now. below, Dan: Does he always have to talk like that? See you shine way up above us so, Mom: Ever since I’ve known him, dear. Oh Mr Moon, Moon, bright and shiny Moon, Dad: We’ve turned the corner, season-wise. Won’t you please shine down on, Autumn began in late September, and the Please shine down on, Sun is definitely headed south for the winter. Please shine down on me, shine down on me! Nights are coming earlier as the daytime Dan: The Moon looks so big! grows shorter. Carmen: And orange, like a pumpkin! What makes it Dan: Pretty soon it will be dark by the time I’m orange? home from school. Dan: What makes it so big? Carmen: Daddy, why does it have to get cold and dark Moonlight and Dad: Two good questions. Let’s see … The Moon now? atmosphere looks orange because it’s near the horizon, Dad: Honey, you know the Earth is moving. diagram that line where the land meets the sky. You Rotating Earth Carmen: Uh-huh. It spins around itself. know why the sunset is red, right? video Dad: Rotates. Both Kids: Yeah, right. Carmen: Uh-huh. And that makes day and night. Dad: Well, for the same reason the Moon is tinged Revolving Earth Dad: Right. And how else does the Earth move? red, or orange in this case. We’re looking at video Carmen: It goes around the Sun every year. Oh, I forget the Moon through a thick layer of air and the what the word is … particles in our atmosphere – air molecules, Dad: Starts with R, honey. dust and water vapor – scatter out the other Carmen: Oh yeah! It revolts! Hee, hee, you said it. colors of moonlight, leaving only the red for Dad: Pretty close, dear. It revolves. us to see. Carmen: So when we’re close to the Sun that’s sum- Moon turns yellow, Mom: Later on when the Moon is higher in the sky mer, and when we’re far away that’s winter? then silvery its color will turn yellow, then silver-white. Dad: Uh, no, honey, it’s not that simple. When we look up overhead we’re looking Remember what we’ve talked about before? through less air, and the Moon looses its Tilted earth video Are we straight up and down when we go pumpkin-orange color. round the Sun? Dan: Is that why the Moon looks smaller, because Carmen: Oh no, that’s right – we’re tipped over! it’s higher up and farther away from us? Dad: Yes, our Earth is tilted about 23 and a half Dad: Well, actually, the Moon is a little bit closer degrees over from straight up and down as to us when it’s higher in the sky, and proba- we orbit the Sun. The moon illusion bly ought to look bigger, except the change Tilted Earth and Dan: It’s like a gyroscope right, Dad? Our planet’s in distance is so tiny we can’t see it. The Sun video axis is lined up so that its north pole is always Moon looks larger when it’s near the horizon pointing towards the North Star. That means because of something called the Moon illu- that sometimes the top half of Earth leans sion. toward the Sun, and that’s summer for us; Dan: The Moon illusion. OK, I give up, what’s that? and then half a year later the Earth’s north- Moon with horizon Dad: Apparently, when we see the Moon near the ern hemisphere leans kind of away from the in foreground horizon with trees and buildings in between Sun, and that’s when we have winter. us and it, our depth perception gives us a feel All sky Sun arcs Dad: Couldn’t have said it better myself. This tilt for how far away the Moon really is. Later, of the Earth causes the daily path of the Sun when the Moon is higher in the sky and we across our sky to change just a little bit from see it all by itself in that great big open sky, it one day to the next. So when we lean in looks smaller because we lose our depth per- toward the Sun its path takes it high into the ception. Now, to defeat the Moon illusion sky. And when we lean away from the Sun it you need to disorient your depth perception. stays low in the sky, even at noon. A good way to do that is to turn around so Dan: Oh, so the higher the Sun the hotter we get you’re facing away from the Moon, then because the sunlight is more direct, more bend over and look at the Moon upside intense. The lower the Sun, the cooler it gets, down through your legs. kind of like when you stand off to one side of Dan: For real? a fireplace – in this case, a fireplace in the sky. Dad: Hey, try it. You make a good teacher, Dad. Dan: Oh, all right. Like this? Grandma: Well, there’s something my father taught me Dad: Perfect. when I was little. “Whether the weather be Strobe Camera strobe flash sound cold, or whether the weather be hot, we’ll Dan: What! Hey, who took the picture? weather the weather, whatever the weather, Photo of son in Dad: Hee, hee, one more photo for the family Sunset whether we like it or not!” ‘position’ album. Mom: Look, the Sun’s going down. Dan: Mom! Moonrise Dad: And the full Moon’s coming up on the other Mom: Well, he’s your father … side of the sky. Sunset in the west, moonrise Sepia tone photo of Grandma: That’s all right, Danny, remind me to show in the east. The world’s turning beneath our dad in same ‘posi- you a picture I took of your father in just that feet. tion’ same position. Song lyrics Grandma (sings): I see the Moon and the Moon sees me; Mom: Oh, look there’s the Lady in the Moon.

14 Planetarian December 2004 Dad: Hmmmph. You mean Man in the Moon, to it. Full moon don’t you? The eyes, the mouth, the nose … Dad: Pumpkin, that’s true. But in the Fall of the Mom: No, dear, the Lady in the Moon. She’s turned year we use another star group instead. Look Pointer sideways to us, in profile. Here is her throat back to Cassiopeia. Now, take the outside …her chin …her mouth …her nose …her eye arms of the W, and stretch them out until Kodalith overlay of and eyebrow …her hair …her ear …and the they wrap around each other. That star you face on moon back of her neck pass by halfway out is the North Star. Grandma: A beautiful cameo! Those dark spots on the Dan: It’s not very bright. Moon can look like so many things to any- Dad: The North Star’s not famous for being bright. body with the right kind of imagination. Just for being in the north. Pointer Carmen: What are they? Dan: What else is up there? Dan: Ah, that’s one I can answer. The dark areas on Use video projector Dad: Hmmm, I’d like to show you some more con- Kodalith of overlay the Moon are called oceans, or seas. But aimed at NE, 20 d. stellations, but the light from that bright lady cameo on there’s not really any water in them. The for eclipse effect, Moon is keeping us from seeing most of the moon Moon is very dry. The Latin word for sea is video disc moon faint stars tonight. “mare”. And these maria – that’s the plural or slow play for eclipse Dan: Hey, speaking of the Moon, check it out – mare – are actually made up of basalt, a dark effect there’s something wrong with it! Telescope and bino- rock kind of like what you might find under Dad: Yep, right on schedule. I’d almost forgotten. cular views of maria the earth’s oceans. These are places on the Mom: Oh, you know it had slipped my mind, too. Moon where basaltic lava has come up and And this is why we wanted to come outside spread out across the lunar surface. And these tonight, remember? rocks are old, billions of years old. That big Dan: Oh yeah, the eclipse! dark blotch on the left is the Ocean of Carmen: Oh yeah! Storms, and the Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Mom: You can already see the Earth’s shadow be- Rains. Then there are three lava basins that ginning to take a bite out of the left side of kind of run into each other on the right. the Moon. That bite is going to get bigger and Pointer They’re the Sea of Serenity … the Sea of Tran- bigger, until … quility … and the Sea of Fertility. Oh, and Partial eclipse Both Kids: Totality! there’s one little dark spot, the Sea of Crises, photo Dad: Well, not every lunar eclipse is a total one. all by itself near the right edge. Oh, and near Sometimes the Moon only slips into part of the bottom of the Sea of Tranquility is where the Earth’s shadow, and we get just a partial astronauts first set foot on the Moon. eclipse. But tonight you’re right. Totality is Xfoto moon pan Grandma: My, such a bright grandson I have! scheduled to occur one hour from … let’s see and LEM video Dan: Well, I was thinking of becoming an astro- … now. with interior rocket naut and going to the Moon one day. Dan: Kinda … slow isn’t it, Dad? sound Thought I should brush up on some basic Eclipse diagram Dad: No, this is as fast as it goes. The Moon orbits Moon landmarks before going. video the Earth at a speed of about 2300 miles an Carmen: When Danny goes can I have his room? hour. And since the Moon is about 2200 Mom: Later, dear. Right now the stars are coming miles in diameter, that means it moves out. See those three stars high up in the west? roughly its own diameter each hour. Xfoto full moon They make a large triangle. Dan: OK, I get it. An hour for the Moon to get com- pointer Dad: Yes, and astronomers call this triangle – the pletely inside the Earth’s shadow, another triangle! hour of travel through the shadow and Both Kids: Oh, Dad! another hour to get out of the shadow – three Mom: Actually, kids, your father’s right. It’s called hours in all. the summer triangle, so named because it’s Carmen: Mommy, I don’t think I can stay up that late. easiest to see in the summertime, but even Can’t we make it go faster? now in the Fall we can see it in the early Dan: Well, if we were inside a planetarium we evening. By mid-night, though, the summer could make things go faster. Planetariums are triangle will have set below the horizon great! They can simulate not just planets, thanks to the Earth’s rotation. Now, almost stars and constellations, they can speed up or Pointer overhead are four stars that make a large slow down time as well. square. Fast video play of Mom: So an eclipse that might take hours to watch Dad: Yes, and they call that “the Great Square”. lunar eclipse out in the real world, could be made to hap- Mom (sighing): Yes, the Great Square of Pegasus, the pen in just a matter of seconds … Flying Horse. Now over in the northeast you Slide whistle sound can find a few more stars that look like the Dad: OK, is everybody ready for totality? Get outline of the letter “W”. Astronomers call ready! this … Dan: Wow, that hour sure flew by. It was almost Dad: The Great W. Ouch! like being in a planetarium … Mom: No, it’s called Cassiopeia. Now look low in Carmen: Daddy, the Moon’s gone all red again. the northeast, and there’s one more bright Video effect reaches Dad: Oh, now this is something. You see, the spot – that’s Capella. totality Earth’s shadow is all over the Moon, blocking Dad: Capella is a yellow star like our Sun, but a lot sunlight from reaching it. But as we enter larger. totality, you can still see the Moon because a Carmen: Where’s the Big Dipper? little bit of sunlight is getting through. This Mom: Oh, honey, this isn’t a good time of the year light is being bent through the Earth’s atmo- to find it. The Big Dipper is very low in the Red eclipse diagram sphere onto the Moon. The part of the atmo- north now, and hard to see. sphere that’s transmitting the light is where Carmen: But how can I find the North Star? Daddy all the sunrises and sunsets are happening all said I use the pointer stars in the Dipper to get over the Earth.

December 2004 Planetarian 15 Mom: And just like our red sunset and orange Angry Poseidon beauty to that of his mermaid’s? He decided moonrise, the color of the light that reaches to punish Cassiopeia. the Moon is mainly red. Dad: Poseidon sent a great sea monster, named Dad: And that’s why the Moon looks red during Cetus the whale Cetus, to Joppa. Cetus was a great whale. totality. Dan: Hey, I thought you said it was a sea monster. Grandma: Aren’t you children glad your parents are so Dad: Well, to folks long ago whales did seem like smart? Whale turns into a sea monsters, although, oddly enough, we Dan: Hey, it’s really dark now! monster think the people who first told this story had Grandma: And look at those stars! You can even see the never seen a real whale before. Milky Way stretching across the sky – our Dan: Hmmm, so you’re saying that it wasn’t sup- home galaxy on view tonight. posed to be a whale at all, but a sea monster. Dad: Well, looks like we’ve got about an hour of Dad: Yeah, that’s about the size of it. dark skies before the Moon can get out of our Dan: So it was kind of a fluke, huh? shadow. Let’s make the most of it. The Dad: Ooh, good one, son. I’ve trained you well. Moon’s over in the constellation Aries the Anyway, Cetus caused a lot of trouble when Ram, just off to the east of Pegasus. Cetus’ tail making he got to Joppa. He caused tidal waves that Dan: Wow, there are lots more stars around tidal waves knocked down buildings, town and cities, Pegasus. But I still can’t imagine a flying and generally got everybody all wet. horse. Grandma: This really got Cassiopeia’s attention. She Dad: Well, maybe you can see something I call the Cassiopeia begging realized that Poseidon was upset with her, baseball diamond in the sky. Poseidon and asked him to forgive her for her boast. Dan: How’s that? Mom: Poseidon agreed, but only if Cassiopeia made Pointer Dad: Take the four stars in the corners of the a sacrifice. Square. Now this one here is First Base, over Dan: That sounds pretty cool. here is Second base, then Third, and of course Andromeda Dad: The sacrifice was her daughter, Andromeda. this star is … Dan: Whoa – that’s definitely uncool. Dan: Home Plate. Yeah, I see it! Mom: Andromeda was taken down to the shore and (Baseball stadium sound effects). Chained chained to the rocks. There she was to await Dad: Now here’s the pitcher, there’s the catcher, Andromeda the coming of Cetus … over here is the team’s manager yelling at the Grandma: Who had worked up quite an appetite after umpire about the last call, here’s the short Hungry causing all those tidal waves. stop, center field, a guy over here selling hot Andromeda Dad: Meanwhile, across the oceans, another mon- dogs, and all those other stars are the fans ster was causing more trouble. This was a gor- who showed up for the game. Medusa the gorgon gon, named Medusa. Gorgons were hideous (Groans all round). creatures who had living snakes for hair. Mom: And of course they’re playing the all star Medusa was so gruesome that she could turn game. Statues you to stone just by looking at her. (Laughter). Mom: Well, that doesn’t sound very gneiss. Dan: Well that makes a lot more sense than a fly- Grandma: My sediments exactly. ing horse. (Everybody groans appropriately throughout this par- Carmen: Daddy, can you show me the flying horse? ticular dialogue). Pointer Dad: I think so, Carmen. First of all, I have to tell Dan: Oh, so that must be why there are so many you that this horse is upside down. The statues in Greece, huh? square is the body of the horse, this is the Dad: Certainly, you can take that for granite. horse’s back, here is his neck and head, there’s Grandma: Oh, simply marbelous. the tip of his nose, here’s his chest and front Mom: Well, the situation with Medusa was getting legs, and the north side of the square is his grim. Something had to be done to stop her. stomach. Dad: Luckily a hero was found who would fight Carmen: Where are his back legs and tail? Perseus the gorgon. His name was Perseus, and he was Dad: Umm, he doesn’t have any of those things. very brave. He also had some magical help – Carmen: You mean he’s just half a horse? Winged sandals the winged sandals of Hermes, messenger of Dan: Oh-oh, this is getting weird. the gods. These enabled him to fly. Dad: Well, there is a reason for it, but it’s a long Pluto’s helmet Mom: The helmet of Pluto, which made him invisi- story. ble to his enemies. Dan: Uh, Dad, I think we’ve got the time. Still Zeus’ shining shield Grandma: And the shield of Zeus, a shield so shiny that another 42 minutes ‘til the end of totality. it was like a mirror. Dad: Right you are, son. Here goes. This story Perseus over island Dad: Perseus flew to the island of the gorgons. comes from ancient Greece, and it starts with There he found Medusa, who was fixing for a Pointer Cassiopeia and ends with Pegasus. fight. The monster nearly got him, too. Mom: Cassiopeia was a beautiful woman, and the Perseus, Medusa, Grandma: But Perseus used the shield of Zeus to look at Cassiopeia on ruler of a land named Joppa. sword and shield Medusa. Her reflection was awful, but at least throne Grandma: But she was also a very vain and boastful per- he didn’t turn to stone! With one stroke of son, and took great pleasure in telling every- his sword, Medusa was vanquished. one just how beautiful she was. Mom: Perseus put Medusa’s head into a bag, and Cassiopeia and mir- Dad: One day she went too far. She told everyone Flying Perseus, bag flew back to Greece. As he traveled over the ror with attendants that she was more lovely than the mermaids and blood in ocean ocean, a little blood from the gorgon fell into who waited on King Poseidon, who ruled the the sea. From the mixture of blood and sea- oceans. Pegasus emerging water came the birth of Pegasus. Mermaids and Mom: When his fishy friends had told him about from sea Dan: Uh, Mom, that’s not possible. Our biology Poseidon Cassiopeia’s boast, Poseidon was very angry. teacher told us that the spontaneous genera- Who was this mere mortal to compare her tion of species is a discredited theory.

16 Planetarian December 2004 Dad: Hay, we’re talking about a flying horse here. happy about this, and he asked if he could Dan: Oh, good point. Continue. Arion and dolphin sing one last song before being tossed into Dad: Pegasus came up out of the sea, which is why the sea. It was a beautiful song and the sailors he’s only half a horse in our sky. His lower nearly changed their minds, but they really half is still in the ocean. wanted his gold and so over he went. Dan: Oh, I get it. Dan: And the dolphin saved him? Dad: Perseus saw a chance to hitch a free ride back Dad: Yes. The dolphin had heard his song and was Perseus on Pegasus to the mainland, so he hopped on to the fly- moved to rescue him. It carried him to shore. ing horse’s back. In fact, he got back before the sailors. When Grandma: But as luck would have it, Perseus’ flight car- Arrested sailors they got off the boat, they were arrested and ried him over the coast of Joppa. “voted off the island”! Perseus spies Cetus Mom: It took only a moment for Perseus to see Dan: It seems like there are a lot of sea creatures up and Andromeda what was happening and come to the rescue. there in the sky. Are there any others? Dad: He swooped down to the shore and told Dad: Well, let’s see … there’s also another fish down Andromeda to cover her eyes. Then he took below Pegasus and Cetus. This is the Perseus shows head Medusa’s head out of the bag and showed it Piscis A outline Southern Fish, marked by the bright star to Cetus to the sea monster. Fomalhaut, which means, “fish mouth”. And Cetus turns to Grandma: Cetus took one look at the gorgon, turned to Capricornus outline then there’s Capricornus, the Sea Goat. Half stone, sinks stone and sank to the bottom of the ocean. goat, half fish, this constellation represents Mom: Then Perseus released Andromeda from her the goat god Pan, who once turned his lower Shoreline panora- chains, put her on the back of Pegasus and half into a fish so that he could swim away ma, Perseus, they flew off and lived happily ever after. from a large and hungry dragon. Finally, Andromeda and Dan: So this is what people did before computer between Capricornus and Pisces is the con- Pegasus on X/Y games were invented. Aquarius outline stellation Aquarius, the Water Carrier. Some Dad: But it served a purpose. It was a great adven- say that this whole region of the sky is ture story that taught kids not to brag but to Pointer known as the Sea, because of the water that be brave, honest and true. And it also taught spills from the water jug of Aquarius, the lit- Cassiopeia, Pisces them a lot about the sky. We began with tle Y shape up here. and Cetus outline Cassiopeia, who started all the trouble. Here Dan: Anything else up there we should know she is, seated on her throne. about? Pegasus, Androm- Mom: Then on to Poseidon. Nearby the Square of Dad: Well, there are quite a few pretty sights that eda and Perseus Pegasus you find two of his fish, the Pisces. can be found through binoculars or tele- outlines Grandma: And let’s not forget the sea monster. Cetus is a Algol eclipsing scopes. For instance, that star Algol I told you scattering of stars in the southern sky. This binary video about. Pointer pentagon shape here is his snout, and over Dan: Oh yeah, Medusa’s eye. here is his body and tail. Dad: When you watch it over several nights you Dad: Back up to Pegasus, again, the winged horse. discover that its brightness changes. One Mom: The princess Andromeda is here, dangerously night it’s fairly bright, a couple of nights later close to the hungry sea monster. She shares a it’s dim. Ancients thought this was the mon- star with the Square of Pegasus, and looks like ster’s eye, winking at them. a big letter A. A for Andromeda. Dan: Why does it do that? Is the star unstable? Dad: And finally we find the hero, Perseus, nearby Dad: No, but we’ve discovered that Algol is really Cassiopeia and Andromeda. He kind of looks two stars that orbit each other – an eclipsing like a bunch of fishhooks bound together. binary. When we see these distant stars side This is his head, his body and his legs, his arm by side, they look like one bright star to our holding a sword, and in his other hand is eyes. But when one star passes in front of or Medusa’s head. This star here, Algol, is the eye eclipses the other, it blocks the light from the of the gorgon. star behind and we see Algol go dim. Grandma: So those are the star players in this old, old Slow play on lunar Dan: Hey, Dad, speaking of eclipses, it looks like fish tale from long ago. eclipse video this one’s about to end. Mom: That was a long tale. Our little one’s asleep. Dad: Oh, thanks, that gives me time to point out Dan: Dad, what’s that small group of stars between two more deep sky objects before we lose all Pegasus and the summer triangle? this dark. First of all, look off to the east and Delphinus outline Dad: Oh, that’s Delphinus, the Dolphin. According Pointer you’ll find a beautiful star cluster known as … to the myth, this dolphin rescued a man who Grandma: The Seven Sisters. That’s one of my favorites. had been thrown off a boat. The man’s name Pleiades Dad: Ahem, yes. There are more than seven stars; was Arion, and he was a musician. with binoculars we can find dozens of stars Dan: Somebody threw a musician off a boat? He in this cluster, which is also known as the must have been a really bad musician. Pleiades. Dad: Actually, he was really good. He was the Elvis Mom: Oh, honey, don’t forget about Andromeda. Presley of his day. Go ahead and show him. Dan: Who? Pointer Dad: Thanks, dear. Up above Andromeda there’s a Dad: Never mind. Let’s just say that he was so little faint fuzzy spot in the sky. good, that thousands of years after his last Dan: Hmmm. It looks like a piece of the Milky way performance we can still find a picture of his that broke off. musical harp up there in the heavens, repre- Grandma: This is the one thing you can see that doesn’t Lyra outline sented by the constellation of Lyra, the Harp. Small telescopic belong to our Milky Way. It’s a whole other Dan: So why did somebody try to drown him? Andromeda galaxy galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, way, way out Arion and sailors Dad: The sailors threw him overboard because in space. they wanted to steal all the money he’d Dad: And this is the most distant thing you can see Arion overboard made playing at a concert. Arion wasn’t without a telescope. The Andromeda Galaxy

December 2004 Planetarian 17 is well over two million light years away, and naming them is a first big step to under- almost fifteen million, trillion miles. standing the sky and the Universe beyond. Dan: Far out! Grandma: Well, who’d like some ginger snaps and some Dad: My, it’s gotten late. The Moon is higher in the hot apple cider? Reset lunar eclipse sky, thanks to the Earth’s rotation. And now I Chorus of, “I would”, “Me, too”, etc. and run daily see an old friend rising in the east. Mom: I think we’ve got time for a song or two motion and video Carmen: Who’s that, Daddy? before we head in. Let’s do a whale song. moon Dad: Oh, did we wake you, pumpkin? Well, it’s Chorus of “Yeah”, “All right”, etc. almost time to go in. But not before I tell you Kodalith: ‘Song of Mom: Come all of you people and listen to me, I’ll about my old friend over there. And not just the Whales’ sing you a song of the whales in the sea … my friend. About a hundred years ago a man In this windy old weather, stormy old weath- Kodalith quote and named Robert Frost wrote about him in a Kodalith: ‘In this er, the wind blows we’ll all sail together. poem poem called, The Star Splitter. And it begins windy old weather, Well, first come the humpback, a singin’ a with, ‘You know Orion always comes up side- stormy old weather song, Jumpin’ and laughin’ and splashin’ ways …. And rising on his hands he looks in … etc.’ along … on me, Busy outdoors by lantern light with CHORUS: And then come the blue whale if I do recall, something I should have done by daylight, Kodaliths of each Of all the big ones he’s biggest of all … and, indeed, After the ground is frozen I whale type CHORUS: And then come the right whale, you’ve left should have done Before it froze, and a gust such a few, I’ve sailed the world over and flings a handful Of waste leaves at my smoky only saw two… lantern chimney To make fun of my way of CHORUS: And then come the finback, a swimming doing things, Or else fun of Orion’s having right in, Chasin’ a school of a thousand her- caught me.’ ring … Dan: So you and Robert Frost talk to constella- CHORUS: And then come the sperm whale, and guess tions, Dad? what she did? She came to the top with a Dad: Certainly we do. Do you think we named fifty foot squid … Orion? No. That picture has been up there for CHORUS: Then up jumped a dolphin with her bot- Orion outline a long time. I remember seeing him when I tlenose, She’s a good friend that everyone was a kid. knows … Grandma: And I saw him when I was a little girl. And CHORUS: And then come the orca, the killer they my grandparents saw him, too. claim, But it is the whalers that merit that Mom: Orion is an old friend. People have been see- name … ing him for thousands of years. CHORUS 2X Dad: To know the stars and call them by name is to recognize them as old friends, who will be House lights up Exit music C with you all your lives. And knowing them Fascination Rainforest: Butterflies, Snakes and Monkeys Take Over the Planetarium Dr. Hannes Petrischak Holtenauer Str. 311 D-24106 Kiel Germany [email protected]

Darkness falls early this evening at a little Di gis tar 3 (b y E vans & Sutherla nd ) in home planet. We plunge through the clouds waterfall surrounded by lush mountain rain- January 2004. directly into the heart of Costa Rica’s forest. forest vegetatio n. As We are quickly surround- cric ke ts and cica d as The Media dom e at the Cent er for Mult im edia of the ed by a band of inquis i- begin their lou d , tiv e w hit e-f aced cap u- rhythmic concert, the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel (northern Germany) chin monkeys. We soon first bright stars shine is one of the first planetariums in Europe which doesn’t notice ma ny interesting between the trees. The just take visit ors to the stars. In 2004, a show about phenomena and associa- So uth ern Cro ss ap- tions: Red bloss oms (e.g. pears o n the horizon Costa Rica’s rainforest was produced and pre m i e red at helic onia s and passion in the south. A rme d this digital theatre. This presentation of the variety of life flo w ers) attract hum- wit h fl ashlig hts, we on our planet giv es “clo se encou nters” with fro g s , mingbirds, offering them search for the kobolds snakes, monkeys and a lot of other interesting animals. nectar in exchange for of the night: Scorpions being pollinated. Butter- craw l o n the tree flie s are m ult i- color ed, trunks. A red-eyed t ree frog peers at us with Show Contents brilliant blue, transparent, or show the grey- his la rge red e yes from a small branch. A “Fascination Rainforest” takes the audi- b rown colo r o f the dry f olia ge ly in g all rustling noise in the underbrush draws our ence fro m outer space back to our b lu e around. These colorations can serve as cam- attention to an armadillo, and a slo th ouflage, can wa rn or trick potential ene- searches leisurely for fresh leaves. mies, or help to attract a mate. We discov- This is a small taste of what awaits visi- er similar patterns in snakes: The harmless tors at “Fascination Rainforest”. vine snake s are almost invisible among the b ranches, b ut o pe n thei r m o uth Idea and Production threateningly wide when alarmed. Other As a bio lo gis t and an enthusi astic non-poison ous snake s disp lay bands of hob by astrono me r at the Ki el P la ne- black, yellow and red – the warning colors tarium, I wondered a few years ago if it of the de adly coral snake s. Thi s p he- would be possible t o c ombine these two nom en on, calle d mi mi cry, can b e relative ly unrelated work fields , i.e. bio- ob served in abund ance i n tro pic al logical r esearch in the rainforest and tak- regions. Also impressive are the warning ing pe op le to the univ erse, under the color s of p oiso n-dart frogs, the thorny dome of the planetarium. The idea of pro- front legs of the predatory praying man- ducing a show about the rainforest was tis, the penetrating c alls o f the howler whole- heartedly supp orted by E duard monk eys, and the amusing courtship Thomas, t he director of the Mediadome, dances of the ma nakins (amazing birds ). and Dr. Wolfg ang Boe ckeler , mentor o f The in credib le abundance o f spe cie s my zoologica l dis sertation on the color fou nd in tropic al rainforests and their and b ehavior al patterns of Costa Rican endangerment by man is c ommented at butterflies. I took many trips to the jungle, the end of the show. lugging a large assortment of equipment for macro-p hotography, all sk ies , and Reactions and Perspectives video and sound recording, in order to The presentation in the Mediadome of capture a detailed impression of the land- Kiel is enjoying great success. The dome is scape, flora , and p articula rly the fauna. an excellent surface onto which the natu- During the production phases I received a ral “dome” of the forest can be presented. lot of help f rom students and volun teer The audienc e feels p articular ly close to assistants of the Mediadome team. One of the animals, which are often presented in A harmless short-nosed vine s nake demon- the students at the University of Applied strates his threatening behavior in the pro- giant format allskies, and they get a sense Sciences, Nils Dohse, finish ed program- jection visible above the Mediadome’s c on- ming the show for our projection system sole (Courtesy Eduard Thomas). (Please see Rainforest on page 51)

December 2004 Planetarian 19

as a societ y were apparent in the Strategic President’s Message Plan ning Committe e’s presentatio n at this summer’s Council and IPS business meetings. exhausting experien ce, but also a tremen- John Dickenson, Chair of the Strategic Plan- dously rewarding one. The more memorable nin g C omm it tee, and Robert Ballan tyne moments for me during the conference were summarize d t he results of the committ ee’s the conversations I had with new IPS mem- survey. Due to the importance of the survey, bers, with members I have never seen before, Co uncil continues to provide fe edback to or with those attending their first IPS confer- the Strategic Plan ning Co mmitt ee on the ence. These conversations usually centered Council’s list serve. The outcome of this on- around why the IPS was important to them line discussion will be presented to the gen- professionally and the answer I heard most eral membership hopefully in the next issue often was that they wanted to be part of an of the P l a n e t a r i a n. Remember that the pro- international community of plan etariums, cess of change within our society - how our to share day-to-day work experiences w ith society e volves, improves and e xpands will colleagu es worldwide , and to participat e at eventually r ely on your particip ation. The international c onferences. Although no one p endin g results of the S trategic Pla nnin g I spoke to had mentioned that they joined Committee will allow you to be a part of the Jon W. Elvert, Director because of membership benefits, I doubt few de cis ion-making process. In fact, the o ut- would join without the professional benefits come of all the work completed by our com- Irene W. Pennington the IP S does offe r, especially our primar y mittees is the direct result of the amount of Planetarium benefit – the quarterly P l a n e t a r i a n j o u r n a l . work from individuals on the com mittees. Other benefits include the numerous educa- Committee work is the substance of our soci- 100 South River Road tio nal resources that are s tuff ed in sid e ety and without committees there would be Baton Rouge, Louisiana almost every journal – DVDs, CD-ROMs, The very few benefits or reasons of becoming an IPS member. 70802 USA Planetary Report, posters, and more recently a N ASA sponsored pla netarium program According to our By-Laws, our society is (1) 225-344-5272 “Ring World.” Of course, the feedback from made up of several committ ees - Standing and Ad-Hoc committ ees. Unlike the S tand- (1) 225-214.4029 fax deleg ates I j ust me ntioned are v ery impor - tant benefits as well. in g Com mitt ees, w hich are predic ated by [email protected] The Valencia conference was also a reflec- our By-Laws, the Ad-Hoc Committees can be tion o f just how well our organiza tion is created o r dis solved b y the I PS Pr esid ent Although our IPS200 4 Conference took doing overall. Because of the continued hard depending u pon the committee’s usefulness place nearly five months ago, I continue to work of the Officers , ou r Execu tive Editor, or relevancy to our membership. Of the cur- receive an occasional message or phone call and most committees and regional represen- rent 21 commit tees, 12 are Ad -Hoc. Upo n from attending dele gates expressing how tatives, our society remains sound, very rele- becoming your president, I decided that dur- much they enjoyed the conference in Valen- vant, very f isc ally stable , a nd po ise d fo r ing my tenure I would include reports from cia ; t he re-acquain tance of colleag ues, the mem bership growth. Alth ough there have each committee chair to be included in my cultural ambience, the invaluable time shar- been numerous changes within the IPS over qu arterly me ssage rather than having me ing of ideas during paper sessions and work- the past several years, the one organizational summarize com mittee actions, which had shops, and being awed by new technologies. trait that has not really changed is how little been the practice of previous presidents. By Not all the messages I received, howe ver, the ove rall membership v olunteers, either having the committee chairs report directly, were laud able – there w ere or ganizational for committee work or to run for an elected my in tention was to hold the chairs m ore glitches and a common complaint that there office. I realize, however, that getting non- accountable for their committee’s relevancy, was simply too much content offered in four E ngli sh nati ve s p eaki ng m em bers m ore their purpose, fu nction and current status. days. Our biennial conferences are becoming involved in our society has been and contin- The idea was to give the committee chair an increasingly complex, more challenging for ues to be a challenge, but the strength of our op portunity to ex press their commit tee’s the host in stitution to mee t expe ctation s, society depends upon international involve- vision, c urrent projects, future goals, as well and more profit oriented. These are is sues me nt, volun teers from around the glob e as listing those participating on the commit- that our IPS2006 conference hosts will need willing to share resources, t heir creativity tee. During the past two years and eight pres- to consider, either by reorganizing the way and v ision, or just helping to get some pro- ident’s messages later, all but one committee past hosts have scheduled vendor and dele- ject c ompleted. Ma ny of you who wish not chair responded to my request – our History gate session s or pe rhaps by extending the to become involved in committee work can Committee’s Chair did not submit a report. conference an extra day . Despite these chal- contribute by s ubmitt ing an article to the The la st com mit tee to report (the Me dia le nges, o ur Valen cia confe rence was the P l a n e t a r i a n, a script to our IPS script ba nk, Distribution Committe e) is included at the third best-attended conference ever and we send in any regional updates to the appropri- end of this message. I thank all the commit- did get a bounce in attracting new member- ate people, or just express your ideas and sug- tee chairs for their contributions during my ships. The conference attracted 330 delegates gestions to the officers on how you think the tenure. from 41 countries and 23 new memberships IP S could become a better organiz atio n. Over the pa st several years, some Ad-Hoc for a net increase in our membership to 720. Remember, without the current worldwide, Committees have become stagnant and inef- I look forward to readin g the Co nference volun tary group of de dicated plane tarians, fective, or irrelevant and have out lived their Proceeding, wh ich will a ppear on a CD for- certainly the IPS would not be the society it usefulness to the member ship. I have taken mat with a future issue of the Planetarian. is today, so think about how you can con- the initiative to realign or merge three of the Pr esid in g o ver this year’s IP S Co uncil tribute in some way. 12 Ad-Hoc Commit tees in order that they me eting and c onference was a pe rsonally The current and future challenges we face combine their resources and become more December 2004 Planetarian 21 ef fective in s erving our memb ership . The March 20: In ternational “Day of Planetaria”. International Plan etarium S ociet y Con- actions I have taken include the mergence of http://www.planetaritaliani.it f e r e n c e , C rown Prom enade, Melbo urne, the Laser Committ ee with the Technology April 10-11: Con ference of German Speaking Australia. http://www.ips2006.com Committee, the Consumer Affairs/Astrology Planetaria (ADP), Europlanetarium, G enk, Since this is the la st o f my presid ential Committee with the Educ ation Committee Belgium. messages to appear, I want to express grati- and the Media Distribution Committee with April 15: Yearly deadline for the applicants of tude for the opportunity of serving in this the Outreach Committee. All three commit- “A week in Italy for an American Planetar- office and wish to thank so many colleagues tee chairs were fir st c onsult ed and each ium Operator”. http://www.brescia scien- worldwide who make the IPS possible. It has approved of their committ ee merger. They za.it/cityline/cult/photog.htm been the greatest honor of my career to serve will also remain a me mber of the merged Late April or early May 2005, Middle Atlan - as your president and to work w ith such a committ ee. A revised de scription of these tic Pl anetariu m So ci ety Co nf erence wo nderful group of caring members. Your merged committees will be written to reflect (MA PS), Fels Plan etariu m, Philade lph ia o ffic ers and other council m em bers c are the changes. Last year I proposed dissolving (USA). de eply about how they represent you and the Ethics Committee. Since this committee May 6-8: BAP Annual Conference, Museum what the IPS does f or you. I have e njoyed has been a Standing Committee, the By-Laws of S cience and Ind ustry, M anchester. It representing p lanetarians wo rldw ide and need to be amended to reflec t the dissolu- will be a joint meeting with the AAE (Asso- value the contacts of colleagues I have made. tion of this committee, which can only be ciation for Astronomy Education). I will miss the honor of holding this office, achieved through vot er approval. As of t his May 6-8: III European Meeting of Itine rant but at the stroke of midnight on 31 D ecem- writing, the outcome of this fall’s elect ion Planetaria, Nantes (France) in conjunction ber Ma rtin George becomes our Presiden t, I and vote on this proposal are unknown. with the yearly meeting of Association of become Pas t-President, and either Anthony In this issu e of our journal, you will find French-Spe ak in g Pla netari ums (APL F). Fairall or Susan Reynolds Button (depending the minutes o f t his year’s Council meeting h t t p : / / w w w . a p l f - p l a n e t a r i u m s . o r g again upo n thi s No vem b er’ s ele ctio n) held in Valen cia. Ple ase take the time to h t t p : / / w w w . c o l i b r i o n l i n e . i t / M G / i n t e r n a - become our new President-Elect. Martin Rat- revie w them caref ul ly and no ti fy yo ur tional_collaboration.htm cliffe revolves off the list of officers. Our new regional representative or the officers if you June 10-12: European collabor ativ e for sci- p reside nt, Martin George, brings his ow n have q uestio ns. Ne xt year’s I PS C ouncil ence, industry and technology exhibitions unique talents for the challenges ahead and I meeting will be held in Beijing, China, at the (ECS ITE) Annual Co nference, Heurek a, wis h him well. I look forward to w orkin g Beijing Planet arium Septembe r 24-25, 2005. Vantaa (Helsin ki) , F in land. http:/ /www with him, as well as c ontinuing to s erve, as Pr esid ent-elec t Martin Geo rge vis ited the .ecsite.net Pa st-Pr eside nt, alo ng side f ello w council Be ijin g f acility in August where the new June 14-18: Southeastern Planetarium Associ- members. p la netariu m wi ll soo n b e op en. M artin atio n Co nfe rence (SE PA ), Fernb ank thanks Cou ncil a gain for pa tiently waiting Scie nce C enter, Atlanta, Geo rgia , USA. Committee Chair Report for his decision and apologizes for the delay http://www.sepadomes.org As p art of my promise to provid e a way in announcing the site. The Beijing planetari- July 12-14: Japan Planetarium Society Confer- for IPS Committees to be more visible in the um is in the northwestern pa rt of the city, ence (JPS), Osaka Science Museum, Japan. context of the membe rship, the f ollowin g dir ectly opp osit e the famous Beijin g Z oo. September 16-18: Nordic Planetarium Associ- report on current updates and highlights of Tentative disc ount hotel rates c lose to the ation Con ference (NPA), Orion Planetari- the Media Dis tribut ion C ommit tee is the planetarium have already been negotiated. um, Jels, Denmark. f inal e ntry in this series . Again , I w ish to At the Beijing meeting, Council will vote Septembe r 24-25: International Planetarium thank all the committee chairs that partici- on selecting the IPS conference site for 2008, So ciet y Council Meeting, Beij ing Pla ne- pated in providing reports. so please begin thinking of where you would tarium, Beijing, China. like our conference to be held and then con- September 30: Yearly deadline for the appli- IPS MEDIA DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE tact y our regiona l r epresentative to vo ice cants of “A week in Italy for a Spanish and Thomas W. Kraupe, Chair your choice. Once again, the conference site a French Plan etarium Ope rator.” http:/ / Planetarium Hamburg candidat es are: Morelia, Me xico, Glasglow, w w w . c o l i b r i o n l i n e . i t / M G / i n t e r n a t i o n a l _ Hamburg, Germany Scotland, Oakland, Ca liforn ia and Chicago, collaboration.htm Illinois . Throughout the c omin g year, w e October 9: XX Nation al Meeting of Italia n I. Function of the Committee will be receiving more details and informa- Planetaria, Brescia, Italy http://www.colib- The IPS Me dia Dis trib utio n Com mitt ee tion on our IPS 200 6 C onfe rence in M el- rionline.it/MG/planetari_news.htm w ill in it iat e, coordin ate and ov ersee - in bourne, Australia. Octo ber 17 -23 : A w eek in It aly fo r an cooperation with the appropriat e partners Speaking of future dates to keep in mind, A meric an Pla netarium Op erator (each and institutions - the cost-effective and non- Loris Ramponi, Brescia, Italy, has put togeth- year since 1995). http://www.bresciascien- commercial adaptation, duplicat ion, dist ri- er the following calendar of regional plane- za.it/cityline/cult/photog.htm b ution and doc umentation o f me dia, i.e. tarium conferences and related events. Please December 31: Deadlin e of Eugenides Foun- visuals and other AV-materials, towards free refer to t his list in planning your next con- dation Scriptwriting Contest (contestants of charge use in planetarium shows around ference, or notify Loris ([email protected] can submit scripts from July 1, 2005). For the wo rld and in exhibit areas. This will - [email protected]) if there are any correc- more infor mation: s tidey@ sabreshockey in clu de in particu lar educatio nal, public tions or updates. .com domain material from Space Agencies - such 2005 2006 as NAS A, ESA, CNES and JSA - with the IPS March 1: Deadline for application for the pro- June 8-10: European collaborative for science, Slide Service and the IPS Video Service as an gram that starts A ugust 22, 2005 , a bou t in d ustry and technol ogy e x hibit io ns integral pa rt of the initiatives. Appropriate M aster o f Scien ce comm unic atio n at (ECSITE) Annual Conference, Technopolis, storage me dia, f ormats, distr ib ution m eth- Dalarna University, Sweden. www.Science Mechelen, Belgium.http://www.ecsite.net ods, etc. will be chosen by the Committee in Communication.se July 24-27: “Under the Southern Skies”, XVIII co op erati on wi th the I PS Techno lo gy Co mmitt ee and vendors with close atten-

22 Planetarian December 2004 tion to the following: Copies still available of each of these three merge the MDC with the Outreach Commit- * Quality achieved when used in plan etari- compilation s for $95.00 each f rom the IPS tee, while keeping the different services thru ums treasurer! de dicat ed pe rsons, e specially the IPS Slide * User base - i.e. the current number of IPS In addition, several DVDs and CD-ROMs Dist ribut ion Service : D avid C. Le ak e and members, both overall a nd international- were d istribut ed as freeware with our IPS Mary J. Schindewolf. The function of MDC ly, who will be able to make use of it Planetarian journal. This was quite often pos- chair could be altered to some thing like a * Trends for the user base and new technolo- sible by joining forces with Christine Shupla, “Media Distribution Coordinator or Officer.” gies Chair of the IPS Outreach Committee, who IV. Budget Requirements IPS Media Committee will make accessible has been very active in acquiring new mate- There are no urgent requ ir eme nts o f a doc umentation and appropria te in forma- rial for IPS! budget, since future projects shall mainly be tion abo ut the respe cti ve me dia fo r IP S III. Future Goals of the Committee “freebees” for IPS and IPS members. Depend- members in the form of a web-based media 1. Continue the slide service as long as the in g on the future (possible merger) of the library. number of subscriptions is high enough (cur- committee , pr ojects will be p roposed only II. Accomplishments of the Committee rently at 76!). after the IPS president decides on this matter. The IPS slide distr ibution service c ontin- 2. Promote the DVDs and LDs in order to V. Committee Members ues to supply all members who subscribe to achieve more sales. The rather low numbers Thomas W. Kraupe, Chair this service wit h the late st Hubble Ima ges reflect the fa st-paced change in imag e stor- Planetarium Hamburg (thanks to the s upport f rom Joh n Stoke / age technologies and the sharp drop in prices Hindenburgstr.1b NAS A/STScI) and select im ages o f NASA’ s of DVD productions until now. D-22303 Hamburg plan etary m ission s (thanks to the suppor t 3. Reconsider fu ture digital media compi- Fax. +49(40)428 86 52-99 f rom A nit a So hus at NA SA/J PL) . E ven lations. We recommend not producing large Em ail: thomas.kraupe @planetariu m-ham though the trend in planetarium technology numbers of any further compilations at this burg.de is tipping over towards becoming fully digi- time. Instead, we recommend to “press/pro- tal, the number of subscriptions currently is duce copies on demand” of any such compi- David C. Leake at 76. lations in the format of a DVD. In case there William M. Starkel Planetarium Mitch Luma n, after many years of exc el- is a high-bandwidth connection upgrade to Parkland College lent service, s tepped down and D avid Leake our website, we could offer single sequences 2400 West Bradley Ave too k ov er alon g with Mary J. Schindewolf via ftp-download as mpeg-files. The decision Champaign, IL 61821 (taking over for David de Remer) to continue of the next most useful compilation will be Fax: +1(217) 351-2581 to p rovide IPS membe rs w ith this service. up to IPS me mbe rs and the com mitt ee. A Email: [email protected] Many thanks to all of t hem for their ex cel- de cision w ill depe nd also on communica - lent work and dedication! tion s with respective media office rs of the Mary J. Schindewolf The Committee has also produced the first space agencies and obs ervatories, since we WVHS Planetarium Coordinator “products” of IPS: prefer to initiate such compilations and their 2590 Ogden Avenue, Aurora, IL 60504 1. The IP S-E SA Vid eo Co mp ila tio n: A distribut ion through those partners (saving Fax: +1(630) 375 3301 NTSC-laserdisc featuring a compilation of a costs and building partnerships) as “freebees” Email: [email protected] variety of videos about ESA missions includ- mailed along with the IPS Planetarian. ing laun ch and deployment of a variety of 4. All dom e Seq uences: T he commit tee Shoichi Itoh, spacecrafts will explore ways to make all dome scenes/ Tokyo 2. The IPS-NASA/JPL Mars Video Compila- movies available to members, as well as fos- JAPAN tio n: A NTSC-las erdisc with highlights of ter creation of such scenes by research insti- Email: [email protected] NAS A’s explor atio n of the plan et M ars. It tutes and agencies (along what John Stoke at includes a variety of images and video c lips STScI has p ione ered to create). An o nlin e Asuncion Sanchez Justel, of spacecrafts and the planets surface. database/documentation of what is available Planetario de Madrid 3. The “Exploring the Sun with SOHO and for use in planetariums would be a goal for Madrid CLUSTER” DVD: This first DVD produced by the next term. SPAIN IPS is a double sided DVD to meet all require- 5. Debating the future of the committee. Email: [email protected] ments of planetarium users Side 1: PAL, Side Since there is a lot of beneficial crossover (we 2: NTSC. Bo th s ides in clude mo re than an bo th have to talk with m any of the same Marc Moutin hour of vide o clips from NAS A/ES A Sola r people at agencies and research institution) Cite Espace missions. It explores the Sun’s internal struc- and the need for an even closer cooperation Toulouse ture, its extensive outer atmosphere and the b etween the two comm itt ees, the Med ia FRANCE origin of the solar wind with dramatic origi- Distribution Chair is suggesting to stream- Email: [email protected] nal footage of our sun. line the work of both by considering even to

Minutes of the July 3-4, 2004 Treasurer Shawn Laatsch Secretary Lee Ann Hennig IPS Council Meeting Sala de Prensa, Museo de * indicates action items Affiliate Representatives: las Cienciás In attendance: Association of Dutch Speaking Planetariums L’Hemispheric, President Jon Elvert (ADSP) - Chris Janssen President-Elect Martin George Association of French Speaking Planetariums Valencia, Spain Past President Martin Ratcliffe (APLF) - Agnès Acker December 2004 Planetarian 23 A sso cia tio n o f Me x ic an Pl anetariu m s was made regarding a spellin g error, then which is available on request from individu- (AMPAC) - Gabriel R . Mu ñoz for Ignacio Shawn L aatsch m ov ed to accept the al members. Council discussed the possibility Castro Pinal M inutes, s econde d by J im Mannin g, and of providing the certificat es on-line in the Association of Spanish Planetariums (APLE)- approv ed b y Co uncil. Secretary Lee A nn m emb ers-only section . This w ould allow Javier Armentia Hennig reported that most of the material of members to print their own certificate from Australa si an Plan etarium Societ y (APS ) - the 2004 IPS Council Packets was distributed a template. Discussion by Council resulted in Martin George for Glen Moore electronically. This was followed with a hard a * motion by Chuck Bueter to provide an Brit is h A sso cia tion of Pla netaria (BAP ) - copy packet distributed by postal mail. The elect ronic template of the IPS Membership Teresa Grafton secretary will continue to work on improv- Certificate on the me mbers-only section of Canadia n A ssociat ion o f Scien ce Centres ing the elect ronic version dis tribution f or the IPS We bsite, s econded by Jim M anning (CASC) - John Dickenson 2005 . The secretary reported on effo rts to and approved by Council. Shawn reported Council of German Planetariums (RDP) – Dr. produce a report to the membership which o n the cost e stima tes and c ondit ion s fo r Andreas Haenel w ould inclu de the Af filia te, Com mit tee, ob tainin g audit s of the IPS Treasury. The European/Mediterranean Planetarium Asso- Treasurer, Pr esid ent and P ast Pr esi de nt approximate cost of a full audit is approxi- ciation (EMPA) – Dionysios Simopoulos reports. mately $2500. Council considered the advan- Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) Shawn La atsch presented the T r e a s u r e r ’ s tages of a full audit v ersus a review of the – Chuck Bueter R e p o r t . Cou nci l r evie we d and dis cussed bo oks and agreed to t he full audit. * Joh n Great Plains Planetarium Association (GPPA) specifics of the 2003 Financial R eport, the Dicke nson mov ed that IPS provide a full – John Hare for Jack Dunn first quarter 2004 Budget, and the proposed audit for each year of the S ociet y’s op era- Italian Planetaria’s Friends Association (IPFA) 04/05 Budget. The Treasurer reported t hat tions commencing with 2004 and addition- - Loris Ramponi the S lid e Servic e should b e dist ribu ted in ally to amend A rticle IV, Sectio n 2 of the Ja pan Plan etarium S ocie ty (JPS ) - Shoich i July and that there w ere S OHO DVDs still Standing Rules to read: The Treasurer should Itoh available . Cou ncil dis cussed c oncern ove r arrange for an audit of the fin ances of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS) the high cost of DVD production and print- Societ y prio r to each mee ting of Cou ncil. - Lee Ann Hennig for Paul Krupinski in g expenses fo r the P l a n e t a r i a n. Shaw n The audit should be completed in sufficient Nordic Planetarium Association (NPA) - Lars explaine d that the advertisin g mo nies f or time for circulation with the Council papers. Broman the Planetarian would not be reported until The motion was seconded by Jim Manning Pacific Planetarium As sociation (PPA) - Gail la ter in the budget cycle , and theref ore and approved by Council. Chaid wou ld o ffset some of the apparent deficit. Shawn reported that the Benefits of Mem- Rocky Mou ntain Plan etarium Association Jim Manning suggested that more detail on bership Document is ready fo r posting on (RMPA) – Jim Manning expenses ove r several years of the budget the IPS Web Site. John Dickenson raised t he Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) cycle be included in the Treasurer’s Report so question of the status of the Corporate Mem- - John Hare that trends and changes would be easier to b ersh ip pro p osal an d Martin Ratcli ff e Southwestern Association o f Pla netariums monitor . The Publica tion C ommitt ee and responded that no progress has been made (SWAP) – Donna Pierce the Finance Committee will consider reeval- on the issue to date. Council agreed to con- uating the adve rtisin g rates in the P l a n e - sider the Strategic Planning Committee’s rec- Affiliates not in attendance: t a r i a n. Shawn reported on the Star Partners’ omm endations regarding Cor porate Me m- Planetarium Society of India (PSI) Fund activity. Cu rrently, 58 plan etariu ms b ership . J on Hare mo ved to app rove the Russian Planetarium Association (RPA) from around the world have been selected to Treasurer/Membership Reports, seconded by Ukrainian Planetarium Association (UPA) receive sponsored IPS membership. The full Donna Pierce and approved by Council. report will be published in the P l a n e t a r i a n The P a s t President ’s Report was delivered Guests: and reported to The Plan etary Society as a by Past Presiden t Martin Ratcliffe . M artin Susan Reynolds Button- Chair, Portable Plan- sponsoring organization. commented on the following topics relative etarium Committee Treasurer/Membership Committee Chair to his six years in office: Thomas Kraupe- Chair, Med ia Distribution Shawn Laatsch presented the M e m b e r s h i p • Negotiations are continuing regarding an Committee R e p o r t. Discussion centered on reasons f or outstanding sum of money owed to IPS by Jan Sifner- Chair, Technology Committee the increase in membership for 2004 (at 696 the Radiss on Hotel in Wic hita f rom the Dr. Dale Smit h- Chair , Public ations Com- as of the time of the conference). It was spec- IPS 2002 Conference mittee ulated that the P l a n e t a r i a n, the IPS Website • The Con ference Guidelines will be c om- and the 200 3 Wic hita C onference mig ht plet ed by the end of the year with Mar- The meeting was calle d t o order at 9:15 account f or the impr ove d interest in the tin’s additional c omments as Con ference A.M. by President Jon Elvert. Jon welcomed organization. John Hare announced that his Host Council to Valencia and reviewed changes in co mp any is of f eri ng hi s c ustom ers the • The IPS membership is the highest since the agenda and detailed events to be attend- option of paying their dues (up to $25) to a 1997 ed over the course of t he conference. As in- regional organization, or to contribute to an • The Strategic Planning Committee under trodu ctio ns w ere made , Co uncil form ally associ atio n’s f unds, such as the IPS Star the Chair manship of John Dicke nson is welcomed s everal new Council members as Partners’ Fund or the SEPA Scholarship Fund, proceeding well in helping us to plan for well a s C ommit tee Chairs . The P reside nt in the name of the customer. John w ill be the future of the organization emphasized the importance of participation publicizing his company’s efforts on behalf • Martin expr essed his gratitude to Council by Cou ncil members and the value of our of supporting planetarium associations and f or supp ort and f rien d ship d uring his Committee Chairs in the success of IPS. their projects. Publication Chair Dale Smith tenure on the Council T h e Secretary’s Report on the Minu tes of reported that the IPS Membership Brochure • Joh n Dickenson mov ed to thank Martin the 2003 Jena, Germany M eeting had been will be mailed with the next issue of the IPS Ratcliffe for his service to t he Society for previou sly publish ed in the March 2004 Directory update mailin g. Shawn showed the last six y ears on Council and as Con - Planetarian. One correction to the Minutes samples of the IPS Membership Ce rtifica te ference Host, se conded by John Hare and

24 Planetarian December 2004 approved by Council. Jan Sifner reported on the progress of the for the IPS Service Award and * John Dicken- Presiden t Jon Elver t presented the P r e s i - A ssociat ion of C zech and Slova k Region son moved to accept the nominations, sec- dent’s Report as a summary of the organiza- Plan etariums. Presently there are about 25 onde d by Donna Pie rce and approved b y tion’s general condition and future goals: members from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, C o u n c i l . The honorees and Service Awards • Jon offered thanks to the Council and Past and Hungary. The organization was estab- w ill be presented in 2006 at the IP S Mel- Presiden t Martin Ratcliffe for his leader- lished in 1991 with annual meetings and sev- bou rne Co nference. The Pr esiden t’s Award ship and guidance eral special events every year. Jan will docu- Plaqu e will be presented to Past Presiden t • All vacant Com mittee Chairs have been m ent the progress of this organiza tion in Martin Ratcliffe at the Banquet this w eek. filled and the c ommitt ees are resumin g anticipation of a possible affiliation with IPS. Jim Mannin g suggested that the Aw ards their functions C AS C Rep resentativ e Jo hn Dic ke nson Committee be encouraged to make an effort • In the Pre siden t’s Message in the P l a n e - reported on the highlights of the June CASC to in crease the visi bilit y o f the vario us tarian, he has instituted reports from vari- Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. The 2005 aw ards to the m em b ershi p via the IP S ous comm ittee Chairs to encourage and Conference will be held in Montreal the first Website and the Planetarian. enlighten the members hip on committee week of June. P resid ent Jo n Elv ert presen ted the work GLPA Representative Chuck Bueter report- Ele ction s Com mitt ee rep ort on behalf o f • Jon will eliminate, incorporate, or redesign ed on the upcoming Extreme Astronomy at Chair Steve Mitch. the c ommittees to better meet the goals the Planetarium, a short course for planetari- The Comm itt ee’ s selection of q ualif ied and objectives of the organization um staff on Sept. 24-46, 2004, which will be candidates for the offices of Pres ident-Elect, • The President has attended many Affiliate presented by the Kavli Institute for Cosmo- Ex ecutive Secretary and Treasurer/Mem- meetings and conferences logical Physics at the University of Chicago. bership Chair are as follows: • Jon is continuing his efforts at enhancing GLPA and the Adler Planetarium are collabo- For the office of President-Elect: the im age of IPS with p rofessional soci- rators in this endeavor. There will be a fol- eties/organizations and seeking opportu- low-up session on Oct. 20 at the GLPA con- Susan Reynolds Button nities for c oope ration with those entities ference in Detroit. The 2003 Galileo Award, 8793 Horseshoe Lane (NASA, JPL, STScI) f or intensive service to the p lanetariu m Chittenango, NY 13037 USA • Jon hopes to promote IPS as a distribution community and in particular to the interna- center for NA SA materials- a vehicle f or tional community, was presented to Dr. Dale Professor Tony Fairall dissemination of information Smith. Chuck reported that the Center of Department of Astronomy • IPS will work with John Stoke to promote Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio has University of Cape Town the View Space Exhibit among planetari- suspended operation of its brand new plane- Rondebosch 7700 South Africa ans tari um b ecause o f f in ancial d iff ic ult ie s. • Jim Switzer in Chicago and Anita Sohus of Many of the GLPA membe rs enjoyed clea r For the offices of Executive Secretary and JPL are w orking with Jon on deve lopin g skies and lar ge enthusiastic crowds for the Treasurer/M em b ershi p C hair , Le e Ann methods to provide planetarians with pro- Venus Transit on June 8, 2004. Hennig and Shawn Laatsch agreed to run as fession al developme nt/workshops/semi- RDP Representative Dr. A ndreas Haenel incumbents for the offices that they current- nars. This may also involve the local news reported that for the reduced price of $2000, ly hold. Three ot her nominations for Pres i- media/IPS/NASA as a cooperative endeav- “Ring World”, was now available for interna- dent-Elect were submitted, but declined for or. tion al dis tribut ion . This was an ite m dis- various reasons, a nd one other nomination • The Jena 2003 IPS Council Meeting wa s cussed at the Jena Council meeting regarding for Ex ecutive S ecretary was submitted but very successful the higher cost of the Ca ssini plan etarium sub seq uently d ecli ned . Durin g the IP S • Web Com mitte e Chair Ala n Gould and program, “Ring World”, for non-US IPS mem- Business M eetin g on Monday, addit ion al his de dica ted and tale nted com mit tee bers. Presiden t Jon Elvert replied t hat he is nomin ation s fo r the three off ices will b e have in stit uted several pro ductiv e pursuing projects that are inclusive of inter- accepted from the floo r. Voting will take changes and redesigns to the IPS Website. national planetarium material distribution. place in the fall, an d t he newly elected offi- More details to follow in the Committee IPS should be instrumental in dealing with cers will take o ff ic e on Ja nuary 1, 2 005 . Reports. variou s agencies in dis semina tio n o f not * Motion by Donna Pierce to accept the Elec- o nly materials , but also pla netarium p ro- tio ns Comm ittee Repo rt, seconded by Jim Affiliate Reports grams. IPS is now firmly committed to insur- Manning and approved by Council. Written Affiliat e Reports were reviewed. in g that all members are treated equ itably The Pu blica tions Committee C h a i r D a l e In Affiliate News from the floor: on this distribution issue. Smi th repo rted o n the activ it ie s o f the ADSP Representative Chris Janssen report- Donna Pierce moved to accept all Affiliate Committee. The Planetarian, under the lead- ed t hat they wou ld be hosting two c onfer- Rep orts, seconded by Shawn Laatsch and ership of John Mosley (now in his 17t h y e a r ences in 2005 at the Eu roplanetarium, the approved by Council. as Editor), is midway through its second year International Dark Sky Association on April as a full color publication. Council expressed 28, and German Speaking Plane tariums on Standing Committee Reports its gratitude to Editor John (who has edited April 10-11. Standing Comm ittee Repo rts we re p re- 70 consecutive quarterly issue s) and his tal- IPF A Rep resentati ve L ori s Ramp oni sented, reviewed and discussed. ented a nd de dicated A ssociate Editor s and anno unced the f ir st week in It aly f or a President Jon Elvert announced that Chair co ntri buto rs. C huck B ueter is the new French Plan etarium Operator would occur Jon Bell of the I P S A wards Com mittee h a d A dve rtis ing Coo rdin ator. Dale remin de d in Nov emb er 200 4 a nd next year a week only just arrived in Valencia when he had to Affiliates to solicit articles from their mem- would be in trodu ced f or a Sp anish Pla ne- return ho me f or a m edi cal eme rgency. bership for publication consideration in the tarium Operator. This expands the collabora- Discu ssion c oncerning the list of nomina- Planetarian. tion of Serafino Zani Astronomical Observa- tions for the IPS Fellows and details relating • In December of 2003 , The IPS Directory tory to three weeks devot ed to a diffe rent to p rocedures and criteria was tabled until was place d on the members-only section countries participating in the project. Sunday. Council discussed the nominations o f the I PS We bsit e. Chair Dal e Smi th

December 2004 Planetarian 25 expressed his thanks to Web Committ ee moved to have the Finance Committee eval- p urpos es of comm itt ees in terms of their Chair Alan Gould for creating the Website uate the request and report back to Council activities and goals. structure to hold the direc tories and fo r on S unday, seconded by Jim Ma nning and T h e I P S Histo ry Co mmitt ee R e p o r t w a s making the direct ory update forms avail- approved by Council. d eliv ered b y Hist oria n Jo hn Hare. Agnés able on-line. The update of the listings will Pr esiden t Jo n Elve rt remin ded C ouncil Acker and her associates are scanning back lead to the new edition of the dire ctory that the amendment to abolish the E t h i c s issues of the Planetarian for archival purpos- CD-ROM in 2005. C o m m i t t e e, a decision made by Council in es. Council discussed some of John’s propos- • The Proc eedings of the IPS 2004 Confer- Jena in 2003, would be on the ballot this fall als for archiving materials and suggested the ence in Valencia will be a work in progress for the IPS membership to consider. following: for the next few months. • Agnés will continue to focus on scanning Special Publications: IPS 2004 Conference Report the Planetarian • I P S A stronomica l S ongbook - (Jon Bell, Pre sident Jon Elvert reported there were • John will concentrate on scanning the IPS Editor) includes texts for doze ns of astrono updates on the 2004 Valencia Conference Conference Proceedings nomical songs and recordings of many of which wou ld alte r the publishe d p rogram, • Dennis Simopoulos will scan the slides and them. The CD-ROM ma ster is ready and and that everything appe ared to be well p rov id e a m aster DVD-RO M f or the copies will be pressed and distributed with organized and on s chedule . Jos e Carlo s is archives a future issue of the Planetarian. expected to give a detailed report to Council • J ohn will b e responsib le f or two arti - • The M oon Phase Bo ok (Jay Ryan, artist/ on Sunday. cles/year in the Planetarian, one of which author) artwork has been digitally scan- 2 00 6 IP S M elb ourne Co nf erence he will author and one of which he will ned and the presentation for mat is being spokesperson Martin George reported on the edit. John’s articles will focus on the histo- arranged. Relea se date for the CD-ROM pla ns f or the July 24- 27, Australian e vent. ry of IPS and its evolution. The edited arti- will be early 2004. Conference organizer s expect the registra- cles w ill f ocus on specific regiona l affili- • The text and electronic files are now com- tion fee to be approximately $360.00 (USD). ates. Bot h articles will fe ature histor ical ple te and fina l arrangements are being Pre-Conference Tour will include a two-day p erspective s includ ing key indiv idua ls made for its release in CD-ROM format. visit to Tasmania ($300) and the Post-Confer- and events. These articles w ill appear in Status of other do cuments, publicat ions, ence Tour will include visits to observatories the 2005 Planetarians. and efforts: and planetariums of New S outh Wales and The Language Committee Report was pre- • Agnés Ack er and La urence Demond are Sid ing Sprin gs ($700.00 ). Air fares are not sented b y C hai r M artin George. Marti n aiding in the effort to scan past issu es of included in those costs. Updates will be post- reported on the committee’s efforts in com- the Planetarian into electronic format. ed on the web. pleting the series of translations for the IPS • In coo peratio n with the Language Com- M emb ership Brochure and exp lor ing the mittee, wor k is continuing on translating Ad Hoc Committee Reports role of the Committee in translations at con- and printing the m embe rship brochure The IPS Consumer Affairs/Astrology Com- f erences. The La nguage and Pu blic ation s into several languages. m it tee Repo rt was subm it ted by Ch ai r Co mmit tees are workin g very clos ely o n • Dale reported t hat IPS keeps three reposi- Jea nne Bish op. Je anne’s article concerning projects related to multilingual issues. tori es of b ack pub lic atio ns: the U. S. the nomenclature of astronomical objects, IPS Media Distribution Committee Report Repository is with Treasurer/Membership “How Astronomic al Objects Are Na med”, w as presented b y Chair Thom as Kra upe . Chair S hawn La atsch; the Europe an Re- will b e publish ed in an u pcomin g iss ue of There are currently no pla ns f or any new pos ito ry is w ith C hris Ja nssen in Genk, the P l a n e t a r i a n. Jeanne reports that there is DVDs or video s, primar ily because o f the Belgium; and the Asian Repository is with an op enin g fo r a revie we r of materi als expe nse. The c omm itt ee will explor e the Shoic hi It oh at the Sugin ami Scie nce emphasizing astronomical accuracy. Plea se possibility of a distribution of images via the Center in Tokyo, Japan. contact J eanne if yo u are in terested . The web or downloading – this would eliminate • IPS continues the program of exchanging committee continues to monitor the astrolo- the cost of hard copy distribut ion. Council abstracts between the Planetarian and the gy vs. astronomy issues and consumer issues discussed the issues of expense of production APLF French journal Planétariums and the relating to astronomical claims. and distribution of DVDs and the conversion JPS Japanese journal Twilight. The IPS Education Committee Report was p roblem s. On-lin e m aterials are easier to • The Publications Committee now coordi- submitted by Chair April Whitt. The “Focus access and place on a format preferred by the nates the inserts included in the P l a n e t a r - on Education” Column in the Planetarian is user. Lars suggested that storing the imag es ian. currently without an e ditor. This is an im - on the web would be more convenient for Council discussed the possibility of mak- p ortant fe ature that C ouncil fe els need s the membership. Agnés comme nted that it ing previous IPS Publications available in an attention. The committee is involved in the w ould be help ful to some memb ers if we electronic format, providing publications for following pursuits: could provide short sequence DVDs on edu- the visually im pair ed, reprinting sele cted • compilin g lists of regiona l a nd national cational/astronomica l t opics. Thomas will articles from past issues of t he P l a n e t a r i a n, education standards of science/astronomy take these suggestions back to his committee and remindin g the membership of the on- • providing a separate space for the S tarlab and s ubmit a proposal t o Council. The next line reference to Planetarian articles on the Lesson Plans on the IPS Website round of materials for the Slide Service is due website. • establishin g a Teacher Pen Pal system to out next week. Lars Broman exp ressed his thanks to his exchange les son plan s and education al Council reviewed the Outreach Commit- regional reporters for their contributions to ideas tee repo rt subm it ted by Chair Christ in e his column in the Planetarian. C ounci l d is cussed the need to have a Shupla. The committee is focusing on work- Because the length of Council meetings foc used mission f or the column as well a s ing more closely with organizations sharing has expanded to cover two full days of busi- d ef in ed o bjectiv es fo r the co mm it tee. a common goal with the planetarium field. ness, Council discus sed the possibility of re- Pr esiden t Jon Elver t will be w orkin g wit h This should r esult in more resources for the imbu rsing Council mem bers for a second each IPS committee in his continuing quest membership and a n improved awareness of nig ht of hotel exp enses. * L ars B rom an to increase the effectiveness and define the the planetarium field as an educational out-

26 Planetarian December 2004 reach resource for astronome rs. Christin e • Be available to give recommendations to feels are important to the future of the plan- presented a proposal for Council considera- candidates and institutions regarding pro- etarium field as they relate to his committee. tion which aims to solidify some of the com- files and a pplicat ions (offering assistance Jo n als o w ill add ress the m iss io n o f the mittee ’s goals in working jointly with orga- to planetarians seeking j ob related guid- Plane tarium Developmen t Committee and nization and to improve relations. * Council ance within our field) the IP S T echno lo gy Co mm it tee i n the expressed concerns on some of the de tails The committee will design a survey which reevaluation process to ensure they are not and Pre sid ent Jon Elve rt will reque st the will help formulate the implement ation of in c onflic t or ove rlapp ing o bjectives . Sug- committee to address the questions for fur- these ob jectiv es. C ounci l dis cussed the gestions from Council included the possibili- ther clarification. apparent dis connect between the w ebsite ty that the committee could serve as a venue George Fleenor, Chair of t he Light Pollu- po sted function of the c ommittee and the for discussing standards and marketing tools. tion Initiative Subcommittee under the aus- Standing Rules description of the committee. Lars s uggested that Jim Manning’s P l a n e t a r - pices of the Outreach Committee, and Jack * It was the c onsensus of the Council t hat ian c olumn could a lso serve as a forum for Dunn are working on several articles related the comm itt ee reconcile the dif fe rences some of the committee’s issues. to light pollution. among the web sit e pos ting, t he Standing President Jon Elvert presented Chairman The IPS Planetarium Development Group Rules de scrip tion and the newly p roposed Alan Gould’s report of the IPS Web Commit- chaired by Ken Wilson is making progress on guidelines and report back to Council for a t e e . Alan could not be at the Council meet- the IPS Plan etarium Developme nt Guide, standard reading. in g b ecause of a s udden illn ess. Sin ce the however the project is not complete. “So You Steve Tidey, Chair of t he IPS Script Con- winter of 2003/04 se veral improvement s to Want to Build a Planetarium” has been contest Committ ee, submitt ed a report on the the IPS Website have been instituted: verted to PDF format and has been posted on Eu genide s Foundation S crip t Contest. His • Updated contact information the IPS Website. report detailed a review of the contest guide- • Fo nt changes and mi nor page la yo ut Chair Susan Reynolds B utton presented lin es and suggestio ns regarding im prove- refinements the Portable Planetarium Committee Report. me nts in the implemen tation and goals of • N ew I PS M emb ersh ip Dir ecto ry and The committ ee would like to have contact the contest. Considerable discussion over the Resource Dire ctory files (PDF) po sted in people in each regional affiliate to monitor future of the contest, and the objectives and the members only area the presence and utilizat ion o f portables. goals of the contest resulted in two motions. • Reorganization of the file structure into Susan encouraged Affilia tes to in clud e in *Donna Pier ce m ove d that the IPS Scrip t logical folders according to the main navi- their newsletters infor mation of interest to Contest be dissolved and t hat the funds be gation links portable planetarium directors. The commit- pla ced in an e ducational fund to be de ter- The IP S We bsite is now ho sted by the tee strives to promot e quality wo rkshops mined in consultation with Council and the Scie nce M useum of Virgin ia – thanks to and p resentatio ns und er th e do me , as Eugenides Foundation; the motion was sec- committee member Ken Wilson for volun- opposed to v endor demonstrations. RMPA onded and then amended by Shawn Laatsch teering to host the website and to commit- Representative Jim Manning mentioned that to read: the IPS Script Con test shall be dis- tee mem ber Randi Slau ghter (also at the one of the difficulties his regional has is iden- solved. The motion was defeated by Council. Science Museum of Virginia) for working on tifying portable pla netarium operators. In * Jim Manning moved that Council direct the w ebsite redesig n. Committ ee member orde r to get them in vo lve d in region als Steve Tidey and t he c ommittee to consult Joyce Towne did an analysis of the website and/or IPS it would be helpful to find a way w it h Denni s Si mo p oulo s as Eu genid es and her findings will enable the committee to ident ify these facilities/operators. Once Foundation representative, to disc uss the to impro ve the form and f unction of the identified, Jim suggested t hat the planetari- submitted report and offer an effective solu- site. The committee has accomplished a suc- ans c an determine if membership is viable tion to revise the contest and determine the cessful mock election through a voting web for them by offering complimentary plane- b est course fo r the contest, seconded b y page form and expects to have on-line elec- tarium journals, or even reprints of articles. Shawn Laatsch, and approved by Council. tion capabilities in the near fu ture. Chair- This would serve to pass on useful informa- Ja n Sifn er, Chair of the IPS Technolog y m an Ala n has assembl ed a talen ted and tion to them, and also give them a reason to Co mmitte e reported on the c hallenges he devot ed committee to redesign as mu ch of join the pla netariu m organizatio n. Susan sees to the successful operation of this com- the site as possible on an in-house basis. agreed that the issue is worth exploring and mittee. The two main objectives of his com- Joh n Dicke nson mo ved to adjourn the perhaps discussing among the Affiliates. mittee should be: Council Meeting, seconded by Jim Manning Presiden t Jon Elver t reported that Chair • To help planetarians to use, maintain and and a pproved by Council. Council Meeting Mike Murray of the IPS Professional Services upgrade their devices was adjourned at 6:00 P.M., t o be continued Committee is reevaluating the committee’s • To help assess and utilize new technolo- on Sunday, July 4, 2004. goals and objectives. Mike submits that the gies in the planetarium field function o f the commit tee should b e “to Further, Ja n suggests the committ ee ex- help p lanetariu m profession als and those plore the following actions: Continuation of IPS Council interested in dev elopin g p lanetariums to • Set up databases of vendors, spare parts, Meeting, 9:20 A.M., July 4, 2004 gain the knowledge and backgrounds neces- technical solutions sary to manage a professional operation.” To • Discuss with vendors their technical sup- Additional Attendees: that end, Mike and his committe e are pro- port for older systems Robert Ballantyne - Strategic Planning Com- posing the following directions for the com- • Set up databases of products specific to the mittee Consultant mittee: planetarium field Alex Barnett - Chabot Planetarium, 2008 IPS • Outline the general aspects of planetarium John Hare offered to assist Jan on the tech- Conference Bid management and a business approach to nology aspects of planetarium facilities and M ario Di Maggio - Sco ttis h Pow er Space planetarium operation vendor particip ation. Pr eside nt Jon Elver t Theatre- 2008 IPS Conference Bid • Provide guidance to people interested in reiterated his support of the Committee and Genove vo Figueroa and Gerardo Trujillo- potentially becom in g in vo lve d in the i ts im po rtance to the me m bership and Centro de Convenciones de Morelia - 2008 planetarium field d irected Jan to foc us on the obj ectives he IPS Conference Bid

December 2004 Planetarian 27 Jose Francisco Salgado - Adler Planetarium, Meeting work with Jon on the production to produce 2008 IPS Conference Bid Council addressed ite ms tabled from the the tex t i n vario us transla tion s and the previous day: Media Distribution Committee will work on President Jon Elvert called the meeting to Item 1- Awards Committee the distribution. order as a continuation from the previou s Because of outstanding questions regard- Cou ncil reviewe d the S tanding Rules re- day. The first order of business wa s to c om- ing procedure and requir ements regarding garding Affiliate Organizations, in particular: plete the Ad Hoc Committee Reports. John nominations for IPS awards in general, the Section II.A .2.i, a nd which addresses the Dickenson, Chairman of t he Strategic Plan- Council felt it imperative to have Chair Jon minimum number of members of a poten- ning Committ ee summarized the commit- Bell present for consultation on the commit- tial affiliate organization. tee’ s status and in trod uced C onsult ant tee’s recommendations. As previously stated, Af ter conside rable disc ussion regardin g Robert Ballantyne to present the Exec utive Jon was unable to attend the Council meet - whether to adopt the broad est in terpreta- Summary of the Planning Report prepared ing because of a medical emergency and was tion of the rule or to define the rule in more by Ian McLennan (Ian could n ot attend the unable to c ommu nicate with Cou ncil o n d e t a i l , * John Dickenson mov ed to reword m eetin g d ue to m edi cal co ncerns) and comm it tee busine ss during this time . I n Section II.A.2.i to read: Rob ert B al lantyne. Ro bert dis cussed the order to move forward with some commit- The min im um number of members of a study and fielded questions from Council re- tee b usiness, * Martin Ratclif fe mo ved to potential affiliate organization shall be four gardi ng survey statis tic s, co ncl usi ons, have Council accept the proposals forward- (4) IPS members each from different institu - options, definitions of terms, financial issues ed by the committ ee except for two issu es tions /planetariu ms providin g the general and other details generated by the report. that are yet to b e resolv ed , seconded b y geographical region is not currently served The discussion was tabled until later in the Shawn La atsch and approve d by Cou ncil. by an IPS affiliated organization. afternoon. NPA Representative Lars Broman requested and additiona lly to amend Section II. C.2 to be listed on record as votin g against the to read: IPS Conference Reports m otion . C ounci l d ir ected Pr esid ent Jo n Af ter affiliat ion, minimum me mbership 2008 IPS Conference Bids were submitted by Elvert to work with Chair Jon Bell to reeval- to maintain voting representation on the IPS the following representatives: uate the procedure, doc umentation , and Council shall be four (4) IPS me mbers each • Genovevo Figueroa and Gerardo Trujillo- requir ements relev ant to the c ommit tee’s from different institutions/planetariums. Centro de Convenciones de Morelia and functions and to report back to Council. Seconded b y Lars Broman and approved Gabriel Muñoz, Morelia Planetarium 2008 Item 2- Finance Committee by Council. IPS Conference Bid- Morelia, Mexico Council revisited Lars Broman’s motion to Council reviewed the draft of the Affiliate • Alex Barnett, C habot Plan etarium, Oak- have the Finance Comm ittee e valua te the Responsibilities Document and suggestions land, California USA request to reimburse Council members for a w ere mad e for im provin g the f inal d ocu- • Jose Francisco Salgado, Adler Planetarium, second evening’s hotel expenses. D i s c u s s i o n me nt. * Jim Manning m oved to accept the Chicago, Illinois USA resulted in a * motion by John Dickenson to doc ument as a “welcome let ter” accompa - • M ario DiM agi o, Scottis h Po wer Space reimbu rse Council member for two nights’ nied by a bullet ed list and prop osed revi- Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland UK expenses, subject to treasury conditions, and sion s, second ed b y J ohn Dic ke nson and Both Morelia and Glasgow had submitted that this procedure be continued through approved by Council. prelimina ry b id s in Jena in 200 3. Council subsequent Council meetin gs, seconded by NPA Representative Lars Broman reported reviewe d each propos al with attention to Jim Manning and approved by Council. on the status of the Armand Spitz Planetari- facilit ies, conference agenda, a ccommoda- um Education Fund grant approved for two tion s, t ravel requireme nts, pre-post confer- Constitution Issues master students’ internships and field work ence options, expenses, and conference dates. The general membership will be voting on at a pla netariu m for three m onths, April- Specific c oncerns from Cou ncil dealt with the By-Laws amendment regarding the disso- June 2004. Claudette Martin is pursuing her the following items: lution of the Ethics Committee on this fall’s m aster’s thesis at H.R. M acM illa n S p ace • actual suppo rt f rom in divid ual in stitu- ballot. The Strategic Plann ing Committee is Centre in Vancouver “examining visitor atti- tions, t he local planetarium/professional in the process of reviewing the By-Laws and tudes and motiva tions”. Hamid Asgari a nd astronomy fie ld, touris t in d ustry, and Standing Rules to iden tify s ections whic h Kayvan Seyed Nejadian of Falun, Sweden, are local governments need u pdated termin ology, other modifica - doing their field work at the Falun Science • job security/stability of t he host institution s, as we ll as reviewin g the docu ment’s Center investigating “important parameters tion personnel overall structure for ease of reading. The Sec- in designin g and p resenting exhibit s and • precautions regarding possible cancella- retary had include d the guidelin es o f the planetarium shows in science centers: A visi- tion of conference venue support Armand Spitz Planetarium Educ ation Fund tor-based framework”. In keeping with the Each of the potential conference site hosts and t he Star Partners Fund as appendices to provisions of the grant, the students are sub- will present a bid to the general membership the Standing Rules. mitting a report describing their experiences on Monday during the Busine ss M eetin g. and the signif icance of their project to be La rs Broma n b rought up the q uestion o f Old Business published in the P l a n e t a r i a n and posted on selection of dates for the conference. Council President Jon Elvert addressed the status of the IPS Website. * Lars requested a renewal of discussed the advantages and disadvan tages Lor is Ramponi’s propo sal concerning the the grant fo r a seco nd year and it w as of holding the meetings at various times of production of IPS Update Video for u se by approved by Council. Loris encouraged t he the year and reviewed the historical reasons affiliates at regional conferences. * Jon will promo tion o f the Fund and p ossibilit y of why particular dates were chosen. * Council have the CD available for affiliates this fall. grants by giving it visibility on the website agreed to canvass the membership again as He be lieves that wou ld be the best time for and in the Planetarian. Thomas Kraupe sug- to a preference of dates, perhaps in an on-line distribution s o that affiliates can share with gested that the IPS Pro fe ssion al Service s survey. their members the latest updates from Coun- Committee should be more involved in this cil alon g with the m ost recent conference endeavor. Tabled Items from Saturday’s news. The IP S La nguage C omm itt ee will Council returned to discussion concerning

28 Planetarian December 2004 the Strategic Pla nning Co mmit tee Study. on small facilities tants Robert Ballantyne and Ian McLennan Although the survey generated some inter- • a det ailed definition of terms used in the fo r their work on the s tudy. Cou ncil will esting opinions, Council questioned the sta- study immediately begin to look at the specifics of tistical rele vance of s uch a small, select ed Council did agree that the study can be an the study and continue the discus sion e lec- sample, as well as solicited anecdotal com- impetus for discussion on issues facing IPS. It tronically. ments. Other concerns included the follow- provides a chance for the general IPS mem- ing issues: bership to comme nt on these issu es, and it New Business • the lack of input by committee members, will help Council utilize the information in On b ehalf of IPS , Denni s Simo p oulo s officers, Council memb ers, international a constructive way to plan for the Society’s requested that Robert Ballantyne c onvey to members future. Be cause of the number of concerns Ian McLennan (the f irst IPS Service Award • absence of alternatives/options presented generated by the study and the sense of recipient) our warm regards and best wishes at a lower cost level Council for more membership participation for a speedy recovery. • not enough time to see the study results/ and Cou ncil interaction , t he fo llo win g * Wit h business complete d, Jim Manning report before Council meeting motion was made by Jim Manning: to charge moved to adjourn the Council Meeting, sec- • the p roposals offered significant change the Strategic Planning Committee to estab- onde d by Donna Pie rce and approved b y with too many questions unanswered lis h a p rocess (on-lin e, disc ussion , etc.) to Council. • the apparent contradic tion s in some of d ef in e the is sues and pla n strategies fo r Respectfully Submitted, the study’s options obtaining the informa tion needed in order Lee Ann A. Hennig • the need for a more statistically valid sur- to de termin e the future d ire ction of the IPS Secretary vey instrument organization. The motion was seconded by August 30, 2004 • the perceived notion that higher member- Dennis Si mo po ulo s and app ro ved b y ship fees equals mor e membership bene- Council. Addendum to the Minutes of Council: At fits Pr esiden t Jo n Elve rt thanked the Com- the general me mbership business mee ting • the impact of significantly increasing dues m ittee Chair Joh n Dickenson and consul- on Monday, July 5, 2004, there were no additional nominees for any of the offices.

December 2004 Planetarian 29 on January 14. The two-and-one-half-hour NASA Space Science News de scent should p rovide a b onanza of data abo ut Tit an’s thi ck nit rogen-ric h atmo- ing up that you and your students and audi- sphere, and could, maybe, mig ht e nd in a ences will be hearing about. The Mars rovers landing. Just in case, the probe is e quip ped have now la sted three tim es lon ger than with landing lights. The mother ship Cassini their design lifetime, and just got funding for will relay the probe’s data, and then spend at least another six mon ths of e xploration. 2005 making 15 encounters with Saturnian Although the rovers are showing signs of age moons ranging from 750 to 50,000 km alti- the operations team continues to find clever tude (see table). That’s about one flyby per w ays to cope with these inf irmitie s. Now mo nth. The only “dark” m onths are May that they have s urvive d the de pths of a and June. M artia n win ter, the available s unligh t to On Ju ly 4, D eep Impa ct will excavate a power the craft will increase and the diurnal deep crater in Comet Tempel 1, the better to tem pe rature swin gs will begin to be les s see its innards and learn about the composi- severe, which is good news for the electron- tion of primordia l obje cts in ou r solar sys- ics. tem. The impa ct will occur at about 02¡00 The c omm unic ation s network around UTC July 4, and telescopes around the world Mars is working well, as the rovers can com- w ill be o bserving, includin g H u b b l e. The Anita Sohus m unic ate dir ectly w it h Ea rth o r rela y event is expected to be visible even through through Ma rs Global Surveyor, Mars Odys - small tele sco pe s as a brig htenin g o f the NASA/Jet Propulsion s e y , or Mars Exp ress. In August, the M a r s comet, if it is after dusk at your location. Laboratory Reconnaissance Orbit er w ill be la unched, Table 2 shows other solar system events in carrying a camera whose images will knock 2005-2006. It is hard to believe that the long- 4800 Oak Grove Drive your socks off. Its highest resolution images await ed m is sio n to Plu to will b e on the Pasadena, California 91109 will rival Ikonos images of the Earth, resolv- la unch pad in a year’s tim e! As usual, all ing objects as small as 1 to 2 meters. The next launch events are subject to change, so check USA landed mission will be the 2007 Phoenix lan- http:// solar system.nasa.gov frequently for (1) 818-354-6613 de r, which uses the hardware intended f or updates. the cancelled 20 01 m iss ion. P h o e n i x w i l l One of the signature education and out- (1) 818-354-7586 fax land in the north polar plains in northern reach programs of the 1997 Mars Pathfinder anita.m.sohus@jpl.nasa.gov summer and trench u p to a meter dee p to mission was Mars Millennium, a project co- sample surface and subsurface soil and ice. sponsored by NASA, the Nationa l Endow- me nt for the A rts, and a number of other What a w onderful experien ce to see so C a s s i n i will r ing in the new year with a organizations as an arts, science, and human- many of you in Valencia and to enjoy the flyby of Iapetus at a distance of 84,000 km ities educational program. Mars Millennium hospitality o f Jo se Carlos Guirado and his on January 1. (By the way, JPL is using some continues tod ay unde r the tit le Im agin e staff amid the incredible architecture of the of its award fee money to put a float in Pasa- Mars. Imagine what it would be like t o live Ciuda d de las A rtes y las Cien cias d e s i g n e d d ena’s Ja nuary 1, 2005 Rose Parade.) The on Mars: not just to survive, but to have a by Valencian architect and engineer Santi- l ong-await ed de scent o f E SA ’s H u y g e n s qu ality o f lif e, a com munity. How wo uld ago Calatrava. Calatrava recently completed probe through Titan’s atmosphere will occur the cantilevered Turtle Bay Sundial Bridge in Redding, California, w hich I think we shall have to go see. Table 1. Cassini Mission Events in 2005 Many of you watched the Genesis sample return along with us v ia satellite, and right 2005 Cassini Events about the time we’re all thinking, gee, what Jan 1 Ring in the New Year! Orbiter flyby of Iapetus at about 64,000 km an amazingly close camera shot, and gee, its Jan 14 Descent of Huygens probe onto Titan, lasting about 2-1/2 hours. A signal not sp in nin g, it s tum bl in g, and go ll y, received about 2 hours later should confirm that data has been collected. shouldn’t the parachute be out … thud. My Orbiter flyby of Titan at about 60,000 km heart went out to the science and engineer- Feb 15 Flyby of Titan at about 950 km ing teams (and their f amilies ) who have Feb 17 Flyby of Enceladus at about 2,900 km worked so hard on this mission . The good Mar 9 Flyby of Enceladus at about 750 km news is that much of the science appears to Mar 31 Flyby of Titan at about 2,500 km be recoverable, a s curators sort through the Apr 16 Flyby of Titan at about 950 km damaged capsule. And hey, I hear that crater- Jul 14 Flyby of Enceladus at about 1,000 km ing exp erts are happy fo r an unexpe cted Aug 2 Flyby of Mimas at about 50,000 km source of data, too! A review board has been Aug 22 Flyby of Titan at about 4,000 km convened and their report m ay be out by Sept 7 Flyby of Titan at about 950 km the time you read this. The lates t informa- Sept 24 Flyby of Tethys at about 28,000 km tion is always available at http://genesismis- Sept 26 Flyby of Hyperion at about 1,100 km sion.jpl.nasa.gov. Oct 11 Flyby of Dione at about 1,600 km In preparation for the Western Allian ce Oct 28 Flyby of Titan at about 1450 km Confe rence in San Dieg o, I d id my usual Nov 26 Flyby of Rhea at about 1,300 km sleuthing to be able to tell you what’s com- Dec 26 Flyby of Titan at about 10,400 km

30 Planetarian December 2004 Table 2. Solar System Exploration Mission Events in 2005-2006 The NASA Astrobiology Institute’s “Astrobiology 2005 Education Poster” Jan 14 Huygens probe descends through Titan’s atmosphere (ESA) Feb SMART 1 arrives at Moon (ESA) Daniella Scalice, March Rosetta first Earth gravity assist (ESA) NASA Astrobiology Institute, May Return to Flight (STS-114) Ames Research Center July 4 Deep Impact excavates crater in Comet Tempel 1 (2 a.m.) July 29 MESSENGER gravity assist at Earth Astrobiology is an emerging field of inter- August 10 Launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter d iscip linary s cie ntific in quir y addressing August Launch of SELENE to Moon (Japan) some of the most fundamental questions of October Hayabusa (MUSES-C) arrives at asteroid Itokawa (Japan) humanity: Are we alone? What is life? What November Launch of Venus Express (ESA) is the future of life on Ea rth and beyond? November 14 Launch of STEREO Astrobiology integrates numerous tradition- December Launch of GOES-O ally discreet scientific disciplines – physics, astronomy, geology, and biology, to name a 2006 few. Its mission is to combine the e xpertise Jan 11 Launch of New Horizons to Pluto from e ach and foster a rich dialogue about March Launch of Space Technology 5 (small sats) the o rig in , evo lut io n, dis tribu tion , and June 17 Launch of Dawn (Ceres and Vesta) future of life in the universe. Educating the August 22 Launch of THEMIS (5 small sats; Earth’s magnetosphere) next generation of astrobiologist s is a lar ge part of the success of that mission. The NASA Astrobiolog y Institute dev el- one dance in 1/ 3 G? Shoot hoop s? M ak e Participation in the Imagine Mars Project ope d t he pos ter (inserted into this journal) music in a thin atmosphere? Bu ild habitats is easy, and can be as simple or as complex as fo r middle and high school cla ssroom s to in a severe environment? Grow food? Get you want it to be. help inspir e and prepare that next genera- around? The project is tailor-made to get stu- Just follow these steps: tion. The poster has a three-fold approach to dents thinking about what makes communi- Reflect on what you value about your com- addressing the que stion s of astrobiolog y. ties function and thrive. Local experts in just munity – why is it unique? Why do you First, it can be used as a visual tool. Students about any field can contribute their insights like living there? will see the lin k b etween e arthly extreme into these areas, truly making Imagine Mars I m a g i n e a futuristic com munity on Mars. envir o nme nts and tho se on other Sola r a commu nity event. Stephenie Lieven se of What would people on Mars need to sur- System bodies just by looking at it. Second, JPL coordinates the program. Let’s hear from vive ? W hat wo uld mak e M ars a goo d the back of the p oster c ontains e xtended her directly: pla ce to liv e? Ask your f amily and city background science readings appropriate for leaders what they think too. the teacher, regardless of her/his science dis- D i s c o v e r the p lanet you liv e on and the ciplin e ex pe rtise . The narrative is me ant Imagine Mars planet on which you will live – learn from both as a professional development ex peri- ence fo r the teacher, as we ll as a source of Stephenie Lievense, Mars experts like scientists, architects, engineers and artists. information supporting the three classroom Public Engagement Team, Create a new community for the 21st centu- activities described below. Jet Propulsion Laboratory ry – design a new commu nity and d raw, Fin ally , there are three standards- and build, dance, p aint or sing about it, and inquiry-based classroom activities. Field test- Want to integrate science, technology and then write about it. Ma ke it your own. It ed by middle and high school teachers, t he the arts in a creative and community-based can be as big and wild as you want! activities are usable across a variety of sub- project for your students? Then the Imagine Share your project with students all over the jects, from biology to physics to astronomy. Mars Proje ct at h t t p : / / I m a g i n e M a r s . j p l . n a s a world by loading it into the Imagine Mars The activities can be used separately or in .gov might be just what you’re looking for to project gallery. sequence. Activity One is on the back of the in spir e yo ur stude nts and energiz e your pos ter in its entirety. All three activities, as classroom or after-school program. The Pro ject sit e, http:// Ima gineMars.jpl well as further background reading and addi- The Imagine Mars Project is co-sponsored .nasa.gov, c ontains partic ipa tio n guide s, tional resources can be found on the website: by NASA a nd the Nationa l Endowment for resources for teachers, profiles of artists, engi- http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/poster. the Arts (NEA). It is a We b-based initiat ive neers, and scientists, a project gallery, and These activities will be useful support for that provid es you with les son plan s, Mars other interactive features. We invite you to any curriculum – be it integrated or dis ci- facts, and other resources to lead student pro- visit our Web site and utilize the resources of pline -based. The qu estions of astrobio logy ject teams. The goal is to encourage students the Imagine Mars Projectin your curriculum. transcend traditional discipline bou ndaries, to explore their own community, to interact On behalf of NASA and the NEA, the Jet and have the power to engage students in a with scientists, artists, and community lead- Propulsion Laboratory in Pas adena, Califor- unique and inspiring way. ers, and to u nderstand the differ ent plane- nia, manages the Im agine Mars Pr oje ct as One last word from me (Anita) this month: tary environments on Mars. Ultimately, stu- part of the Mars Public Engageme nt Pro - B e sure to b oo km ark N AS A ’s I nfo rm al dents complete a project that highlights the gram, w hich seeks to educate the p ublic Edu cation w ebpage http:// www.nasa.gov/ scientific and cultural elemen ts they deter- about scientific d iscoveries and benefits of a u d i e n c e / f o r e d u c a t o r s / i n f o r m a l / f e a t u r e s / min ed would be imp ortant to their ima g- NASA’s missions to Mars. JPL is a division of index.html as it becomes the portal for infor- C ined community on Mars. the California Institute of Technology. mal education from all the NASA Centers.

December 2004 Planetarian 31

breakfast, lunch and a picnic were provided guide our telescope viewing. He recommend- Mobile News free of charge too! Learning Technologies, ed and helped us to examine the newest ver- Inc. provided the funding for this meeting. sion of the computer program “Starry Night During the conference three plan etarium Pro.” less ons (“Native American Skies”, “Reasons Two books recommended by David a re: for Seasons”, “Lunar Antics”) were presented Build Your Own Telescope by Richard Berry in a Starlab portable planetarium. Reed pre- (f orme r E dit or of A s t r o n o m y m a g a z i n e ) sented an Astronom y Upd ate about the ISBN: 0-684-18476-1 and Starry Night Com - amazing exploration of Saturn. We were also panion by John Mosley (Executive Editor of able to examine and exp eriment with the our own journal, the P l a n e t a r i a n ) ISBN: 1- new Starlab Fib erarc projector, alon g wit h 894395-04-2. Some websites he recommend- the mos t recently produ ced Starlab cylin - ed are: www .space.com; ww w.starrynight ders, and to discuss a newly initiated Starlab .com, and www.skymaps.com. “Ambassador Program.” Contact Reed for an Participan ts at this two-day meeting e x- explanation of challenges and opportunities pressed that they were thrilled to be able to that he is ma king available for Starlab users attend this min i- conference w here they in his region at [email protected]. we re able to acquire new information and On Monday afternoon we had the plea - techniques as well as freely share and discuss sure of visiting the Hoover Price Planetarium ideas. at the McKinley Museum where Mr. David Richards (Direc tor, Hoover Pr ice Plan etar- Portable Planetarium Outreach Susan Reynolds Button ium, 800 Mc Kin ley Monument Drive NW, Programs: Quarks to Clusters Canton, Ohio 44708 USA; phone: 1-330-455- Bruce Brazell (Director of the Cook Center 7043; f ax: 1- 330-45 5-113 7; We bsite: http:/ / Pla netariu m, Nav arro C olleg e, Cor sic ana, 8793 Horseshoe Lane w w w . m c k i n l e y m u s e u m . o r g / i n d e x . h t m l ) Texas USA; email: br uce.brazell@navarrocol- Chittenango, New York demonstrated lessons under a beautiful sky leg e.edu) wrote to tell me, “A few months that was produced with his Spitz A-3P projec- ago, I posted an informal inquiry to the plan- 13037 USA tor under a stationary dome. etarium listse rv Dome-L regarding existin g (1) 315-687-5371 On Monday evening Reed V arian provid- p ortable p lanetarium outreach programs. ed and awesome picnic on his farm complete We are currently consider ing such an out- [email protected] with a hayride, a bonfire, a Native American reach program and w e were in terested in storyteller, clear skies and a stargazing ses- how s uch programs are conducted at other PIPS Meeting: sion held by the Stark County Astronomy facilities. I only received responses from five Fift een enthusiastic teacher plan etarians Club! Reed involved the community further planetarians.” attended a meeting of Powerful In teractive b y inv itin g a loc al Gir l Scout Troo p and Bruce is very thankful for those pe ople Planetarium Systems (PIPS) that was held, on their leaders to join us. that did take the time to reply to his inquiry Monday and Tuesday (August 16 and 17). Participants demonstrated their own suc- and he would a ppreciate hearing from oth- Reed Varian (6344 Orchard Vie w Drive, cessful less ons and ideas on Tuesday. Later ers. So if you have a minute drop him a note East Canton, Ohio 44730 USA; phone: 1-800- David Ross, a loc al amateur astro nome r, at the e-mail address above. 704- 4338 or 1- 330-488-0801; fax: 1-330-488- explained and showed the steps involved in The Questions: 0928; email: [email protected]) along with build ing a homemad e tele scope. We were (1) How many portable planetarium domes lot s of help from Janice Nie to, gracious ly able to examine o ne of his tele scopes and do you operate? hosted this m eeting. The Co nference was then use it outdoors to safely look at s un- (2) Typically, how far do the domes travel? held at the Drage Career Center in Massillon, spots. Following that experience he explain- (3) How many school childre n are serviced Ohio. There w ere no registration fees and ed how we could use a computer program to on average during the year by your trav -

Davi d Ro ss demons trate s hi s hom emad e tel esco pe. Photo Ohio PIPS Conference participants. Photo Thomas Button. Susan Button.

December 2004 Planetarian 35 eling dome program? 309-686-7000). Glor ia says that the p lanetarium off ers (4) How do you ma n your traveling dome La keview Museum Plan etarium has one two shows a week at 11:30 AM, one on Satur- program (volunteers? staff?)? dome that travels distances varying, from 80 day and one on Sunday, during most of the (5) Do you provide teacher training on dome km (50 miles) one way to only 8 km (5 miles) year. (Tuesday - Sunday during the summer) usage and allow t hem to take it back to o ne way. The average dista nce traveled is The programs last approximate ly 50 to 55 their schools? about 27 km (17 miles) one-way. The Lake- minutes. They are live shows (with recorded (6) What do you charge for portable dome view Museum Plan etarium services about music & some automated segments), so the programs or to rent the dome for a teach - 1300-1400 children per year with the Starlab. exact length may vary. They have one lec- er to use? A staff member (Dave) operates the Starlab. turer who does about an hour and 15 min- The Responses: Training for teachers is offered periodically utes pretty regularly before he has to stop Alan Gould (Dir ector, LHS Holt Plan e- so that teachers can rent the Starlab and give the show. tarium, University of Californ ia, La wrence their ow n presentatio ns. The c harge i s They let peo ple know that it is a show Hall of S cience, Berkeley, Californ ia 94720- $60/day for rental of Starlab, or $250/week. directed at the youngest visitors through the 5200 USA; voicema il: 1-510-643-5082; email: W hen Dave give s the presentati ons, the show de scription . The description usually [email protected]; Web: http://lhs.berke charge is $100 for up to 2 presentations of 40- includes the following (or w ording to this ley.edu/sii) . 50 minutes each. Addition al p resentations effect): Three portable domes are in oper ation at are $35/each. In addition, a charge of 35 cents “Wonderful Sky: Recommended for ages 7 the Law rence Hall of Scien ce. The dome s per mile is added for driving to any site out- and younger. Wonderful Sky is designed for travel all around the San Francisco Bay Area, side of the city. our y oungest vis ito rs and is an excelle nt wit hin a radiu s o f 80 km (50 m iles ), but M arc Ro ule au, Dir ector (Palu cci Sp ace in trodu ction to the p lanetarium and the they’ll go 2 to 4 times farther than that for Theater, 1502 East 23rd Street, Hibbing, Min- things they can see in b oth the d ay and extra “m ilea ge” fe e. Usually 3 shows are nesota 55746 USA; phone: 1-218-262-6720). nighttime skies.” giv en per vis it at 30 kids per show . That Pa lucc i S pace Theater has two portable Gloria says, “Alth ough we’re pretty bla- means that 90 students are served pe r visit. planetariums that travel as far as 300 km (180 tant in the description, we’re still frequently They go to approximately 20 or so s chools miles) . On average Marc takes the portable asked if t he program is appropriate for chil- per year, so that’s about 1800 students. Most out once a month. Last year the charge for dren. Sigh!” of t he time regular staff members man the the first show was $50. The cost for addition- Denni Medlock (Public Programs & Inter- domes. Half-day trainings are made available al shows wa s $30. A $0.50 per mile one-way im Volunteer Coordinator, Chabot Space & so that teachers can qua lify to rent the Star driving fee was also added to the fee. Schools Science Ce nter, 100 00 Skylin e Blvd. , Oak- Dome. Cu rrent pric es for teacher trainin g pay so muc h for busing that this wa s more land, California 94619 USA; phone: 1-510-336- can be found on our website at http://www affordable for most schools. Marc is thinking 7368) wrote, . l a w r e n c e h a l l o f s c i e n c e . o r g / p r o f d e v / s t a r l a b about raising the price. Marc will also rent “Chabot Sp ace & Scie nce Center show s .html a nd the charge for u s to present pro- the Starlab to a teacher if they request it. He S u n s h i n e for the under-five c rowd o nce a grams at schools is $485 for two sessions and charged $300 weekly rental last year and the day at 10:45a m during the summer hours, $105 for each additional session. teacher was responsible for transporting the and once e ach weekend day: Saturdays at Meredith Close (Outreach Coo rdinator, dome from the Space Theater to the school 11:00 a m a nd Sundays at 12:30 pm. This is a Arizona Science Center, 600 E. Washington and back. He only had a couple requests for 15-minute-long interactive show which we St. Phoenix, Arizon a 85004 USA; phone: 1- that as he recalls. advertise on our website , in -house pos ters, 602-716-2065; Website: http://www.azscience and directly to the parents and younger chil- .org/home.html). Primary Level Shows for the dren who frequent our Discovery Lab area in The Arizona Science Center’s one portable Public: the Center.” planetarium usually travels in and around Marc Taylor (Coordinat or, An drus Plane- “As for makin g sure everyone knows it’s the city of Phoenix (up to about 50 km or 30 tariu m, Hudson Rive r Museum, 5 11 War- for the under-five set, we always add that in miles) with a fe w exceptions . The Starlab b urton Av enue, Yon kers, Ne w York 10701 our advertising and p ay attention to who Outreach was deliver ed about 65 time s to USA; ph one: 1-914-963-4550 x223; fax: 1-914- enters. Very, very occasiona lly do we get schools last year, to an average audience of 963-8558; em ail: m taylor @hrm.org) pos ed adults who want to see it just for fun.” 30 students each time . S o, approximat ely these questions on dome-L: 2000 students were served last year. One out- For those of you who do preschool (pre-K Digitalis Happenings reach staff transports, sets up, and de liver s to perhaps 1st grade) shows for the public: Ka rrie Berglund (Dir ector of Ed ucation , the program. Volunteers are always welcome - How many do you have a week? Digitalis Education Solutions, P.O. Box 29 76, to help, though! The Arizona Science Center - Which day during the week? Bremerton, Washington 98310 USA; phone: does not offer a training program for teach- - What time of day? 1- 360-616-8915; We b: http://Digita lis Educ a ers. However, Arizona State University has - How long is the program? tion.com) wrote to say,” I wanted to fill you started to offer a Starlab Trainin g Sessio n - How do you let people know that it is a on some Digitalis happenings.” that consists of 5.5 hours of training to get show directed at the youngest visitors? If you would like to evaluate the Digitalis certified. Once teachers have completed this M arc o nly receive d the f ollow ing two in action and talk abo ut pric es, contact sessio n, they may bo rrow the Unive rsity’s responses. I am sure he w ould appreciat e Karrie directly. Starlab (at no cost) for their classrooms. The more feedback from you! Karrie wrote: Arizona Science Center charges $100 to $150 Glor ia A. Villalo bos (Director, Robert J. 1) “As a public service we decided to ma ke for a 60-minu te presentatio n. (This price Novins Planetarium, Ocean County College, our less on pla ns f reely availab le o n our may vary depending on the time of year and College Dr., PO Box 2001, T oms River New we bsite. There are 12 lessons written for how many presentations will be given). Jer sey 08754-2001 USA; fa x: 1-7 32-255-0467; use with kindergarten through 12th grade Dave Grebner (A stronom er, La ke vie w phone: 1- 732-255-0400 ext 2111; email: gvil students on a v ariety of topics, as well a s Museum Planet arium, 1125 West Lake Ave - lalob [email protected]; We b: w ww.ocean.edu/ in formation about alignment w ith the nue, Peoria Illinois 61614-5985 USA; phone: 1- planet.htm) Na tio nal Scien ce E ducation Standards.

36 Planetarian December 2004 W hile the l essons are w rit ten to tak e struction is 4. 35 meters. The whole is sur- advantage of the Digita rium Alpha’s par- rounded with a theatrical black curtain, leav- ticular features, they can be modified for ing the supporting legs, on the outside of the use with other systems. Here’s the URL for structure. Inside the dome setup, the dome the lesson s: http://digitaliseducation.com/ then seems to fly above the audience, with- curricula.html” out supports.” 2) “W e are mo dif yin g the o ptic s f or the “In case the loc ation fo r the po rtable Digit arium Alp ha projector in o rder to dome does not have a high ceiling, t here is improve starfield quality and sligh tly in- an alternative solution: the supporting legs crease brightness. This will result in a price can be split in two, a nd the result is a 2.35 increase. However, we feel that the Digitar- meter high structure, where the dome itself ium A lp ha will remain by f ar the mos t can be hoisted as high as the ceiling allows it affordable turnke y dig ita l p lanetariu m (sticking out above the circular truss).” proje ctor currently on the m arket. The “There is enough space between the dome new optics will be available in No vem- pe rime ter and t he curtain to e ven mount ber.” Exterior view of the Mirage3D Dome. multiple projectors around the “cove” of the 3) “We’ve also added some new features since Photos provided by Robin Sip. dome. This space also allows for some air to yo u wrote about us in the March 2004 be refreshed, and the dome c an be operated issue. Here’s a brief list: without an air-conditioning system. It also * The Digitarium Alpha allows you to dis- allows for slightly more people in the dome play your own video or images from CD than in a normal 15-ft (4.5 meter) dome set- or DVD. Thi s fe ature op ens up your up.” dome to any topic you might want to “The setup is very flexible, as it supports a exp lor e. Yo u can also proj ect u nen- single projector in the center of the dome, or cryp ted vid eo DVDs and f ul ld om e multiple projectors around t he cove of the video. dome. The dome can be used horizontally at *Polynesian constellations. any height, as well as tilted in any angle. The *Meteor showers. p rojectors and sound s ystems can be sus- *Planet orbits. pended from the dome and there will be no *Choice of language for sky labels.” visible cables.” 4) “Sin ce Decembe r we’v e been selling “The audience does not have to sit on the Digi talis p ortable dom es. The dom es are floor; they can sit on chairs or stand upright, available in diameters from 4 to 7 m (13 to 23 and they can walk in and out normally.” ft). Purchase price in clude s the dom e and Tr uss suspe ns i on sy st em f or t he “The Mirage3D Dome setup can be trans- logo, carrying bag, blower and carrying case. Mirage3D Dome. ported in a rental van which c an be driven Several dome exterior color choices are avail- with a s tandard driving license (so you can able. transport it yourself). It takes about one day The audien ce is able to access Digita lis to set it up, b ut loa din g the v an, requir es domes by use of a vertical zippered doorway, additional time. It is a nice setup, for a medi- as opp osed to an entry tunnel. This allo ws um length event.” for projection upon the entire interior sur- “The Mirage3D dome setup is located in face, a s maller dome foot print, and easie r The Hague the Netherlands, where Mirage3D entry and exit. The domes are composed of uses it as a test/production dome . It is also three layers of fabric, which helps reduce the available for rent.” problem of pinholes. Here’s the URL for the dome information: http://DigitalisEducation Week in Italy Contest .com/domes.html. It is a pleasure to announce that the 2004 winner of this year’s “Week in Italy” contest The audience can sit on chairs under Mirage3D Portable Dome Setup: the Mirage3D Dome. is John T. Meader (Northern Stars Planet ari- Robin Sip (Mirage3D, Hoenderlostraat 51, um, P.O. Box 302, Fairfield, Maine 04937 USA; 2573 RK The Hague, The Netherlands; phone: Website: www.northern-stars.com). +31 70 345 7500; Web: ww w.m ira ge3d .nl) John is a business owner who has provid- wrote to further enlighten me about a new ed excitin g Starlab p ortable pla netarium kind of por table dome setup. This seems to shows fo r school child ren in Maine since be another interesting solution for setting up 1987. He has also w ritten numerous articles a plane tarium as a semi-permanent exhibit fo r plan etarium trade j ournals such as the for a visit to a museum or a school. International Planetarium Society’s publica- Here some information about the setup: tion the Planetarian and the Middle Atlantic “The Mirage3D Dome set-up consist s of Planetarium Society’s publication The Con - the Astro-Tec 15 f t (4.5 me ter) f ibe rgla ss s t e l l a t i o n. For those interested, go to http:// dome, and a truss suspension system, which ww w.northern-stars.com/articles.htm for a allows the dome to be raised above the audi- listing of some of John’s planetarium articles ence, with hand hoists. The diameter of the circular truss is 6 meters, supported on 4 legs Th e Mi ra ge 3D D o me pac ke d i n a (Please see Mobile on page 41) of 4 meters. The heig ht o f the whole c on- rental van. December 2004 Planetarian 37

The Depths of Space: The happened to live opposite a key Pioneer offi- Reviews cial and was convin ced by frien dly chats Pioneer Planetary Probes that it was in the AEC’s interest to provide Mark Wo lverton, Jo seph Henry Pr ess, 5 00 the flight units at no cost. Fifth Street NW, Washington D.C. 20001, In a particu larly eye-opening sectio n of 2004, ISBN 0309090504, US$24.95. the book we read that a ‘shootout’ was held in which the 25 teams of scientists vying to Reviewed by Steve Tidey, Southend, Es sex, de sign one of the 13 onboard experimen ts England. had to give a 20-minute presentation to the Pion eer team managers, a nd then answer Over the las t ten years or s o I’ve found questions thrown at them by their competi- myself drawn more and more to this type of tors! book, which describes in detail the otherwise untold human dramas that often lies behind ”… a tale of human achie- the high profile space projects. So this publi- veme nt – indo mi tabl e, cation f ollows in the wake of ma ny ot her notables such as D r a g o n f l y (about the com- perhaps even heroic – at bined Shuttle/Mir flights) Genesis: The Story the bou ndary betwe en of Apollo 8, A Man on the Moon and Failure the possibl e and the Is Not An Option, to name but a few. Ja mes Van Allen ’s Foreword sums it up impossible.” neatly when he writes, “This book is a tale of The human drama that is evenly sprin- April S. Whitt human achievement – indomitable, perhaps kled throughout the text gives us other use- even heroic – at the boundary between the Fernbank Science Center ful tidbits to drop into our presentations. For po ssib le and the impos sible . It c arrie s the examp le: a fish ing trawler in the Atlantic 156 Heaton Park Drive NE reader along with the gusto and fa scination accide ntally snagged and broke a transat- of a good novel.” Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA la ntic comm unicatio ns c able , c utting the The author begins b y taking us back to d ata flo w fro m Pio neer 1 0 at a cruci al [email protected] the lat e 1950s at NASA ’s A mes facility in moment just as it reached its closest point to C al ifo rnia , chartin g the earl y career o f Jupiter (I hate it when that happens) and dis- Charlie H all, the man who was destined to A range of topics for y our home or dome aster was averted with only minutes to spare become the revered Pioneer Project Manager this month, dear readers. We offer a bit of b y ro utin g pro be comm and s across the for 18 years. He turns ou t to be the bo ok’s history, a bit of cosmo logy, a bit of moon world t o the Deep Space Netwo rk of radio main star. In 1962 he was put in charge of a exploration, and another excellent teaching d ishes b y old -fashio ned telet yp e routed project to build a series of solar probes. They resource. My repeated plea is repeated here: if through Engla nd; there was backb it in g were named Pioneer 6 through 10, following you would like a free book to review, con- b etwe en the Pio neer and Voy ager teams on from other spacecraft that had borne the tact me at the address above. abo ut the o verall usef ulness o f the two Pionee r name, bu t which had lar gely been T hanks to our review ers fo r this i ssue: Voyager probe’s Jupiter data, as the Pioneers glor iou s failu res. The new Pio neers w ere Francine Jac kson, Terry Johnson, and Steve had b een there f ir st, and $ 12, 00 0 in US lau nched between 1965 and 1969, c reating Tidey. import duty taxes were avoided on diamond what was e ffec tively a s pace weather net- material for Pioneer Venus when the mission work. The last one, Pioneer 10, crashed into managers successfully argued that the mate- the A tla ntic Ocean and so m is sio n con- rial was simply in transit to Venus! trolle rs d ecide d to k eep the mo nike r i n P ion eers 10 and 11 are justif ia bl y the reserve and use it again for a future probe. author’ s main fo cus; they were the fir st The author uses an economical a nd fluid probes to examine the Sun and the asteroid literary style that zips along nicely. We learn belt, visit Jupit er and Saturn and examine that in the la te 1960s NAS A ask ed A me s the void beyond Pluto. They paved the way Research Center engineers to deve lop two for the Voyager probes and everything that probes to examin e Ju piter and t he asteroid followed, drove the perfection of communi- b elt . To make it look m ore attractive to catio n and telem etry system s and tech- Congress and les s of a risky mis sion , t hey niques and p roved the concept of gravity applied the tried and tested Pioneer name to assist maneuvers. At heart they were simple, the program, and costs were kept d own by uncomplica ted probes that, from the evi- designing the probes as refinements of the dence of this book, carried a big piece of each Pioneer solar probes. team member with them. The book’s closing The A tomic Energy C om mis sio n hap - chapters are p artic ula rly touching, as we pened to be developing a small hybrid nucle- read a bou t the de termin ed, lovin g ef forts ar power package and were anxious to raise that w ere mad e to ke ep i n touch wi th its profile by putting it on a spacecraft, a nd Pioneer 10 right up to its final transmission so the Pio neer managers saved $15 m b y in 2003, an incredible 31 years after launch. accepting the AEC’s proposal to build proto- It’s as though we’re learning of parents look- types f or f ree and to only charge f or the ing for their lost loved ones, so close is the fligh t units. Bu t ultimat ely e ven the fligh t relationship between the engineers and their units were free, be cause a key AEC official creation.

December 2004 Planetarian 39 This is a fine book, filled with lots of nos- searching the flu ctuations in the CMB for talgia and heart-warming stories. I’m glad to patterns, the team of scientists working on have it on my bookshelf. the WMAP data was able to nail down some long sought-after values such as the percent- ages of mass, dark matter, and dark energy in the universe. WMAP also s hows indications that the first stars “turned on” muc h earlier than p revious ly thought. That fact alone could re-write many of the details in the Big Bang Theory. Lemonick explains the science behind the data with remarkable c larity. However, the book still requires that reader know quite a bit about physics and a lot of astronomy to understand the specifics. The science explanations can be skipped without losing the o verall fe eli ng, s o the bo ok can s till be enjoyed by those who just skim these parts. The largest part of the book is the human sto ry behin d p ulli ng to gether a sm all research team and each membe r’s involve- m ent in de signing and building a unique satellite. Lemon ick colorfu lly characterizes the specialists by discussing the background, hobbies and fa mily life of each. The many challen ges they faced are brought out in detail — from seeking NASA funding to solv- Welcome to the Moon! in g m echanical prob lems to fig uring out Twelve Lunar Expeditions for how to sort the vast amount of data as it Small Telescopes came in. How their lives changed t hrough- Echo of the Big Bang Robert Bruce Kelsey, Naturegraph Publishers, Michael D . Lemonick, Princ eton University out the WMAP project is as interesting as the Inc., 3543 Indian Creek Road, H appy Camp, Press, Prin ceton, New Jersey, 2003, ISBN 0- project itself. Califor nia 96039, ISBN 0-87961-245-2, 1997, 691-10278-3, US$24.95. “Lemon ick us es bro a d paperback, US$11.95 Reviewed b y Terry Joh nson, Co nway, Ar- s t rokes to paint the cos- Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Providen ce, kansas, USA mol og ists’ view of the Rhode Island, USA. universe, and he lets us Echo of the Big Bang is an insightful book Hi! Welcome to the Moon! Well, not real- that disc usses the specifics of the W MAP see the in side story of ly. Our last ma nned t rek there was over 30 satellite and takes the reader into the mind- those who seek answers years ago, although there are suddenly whis- set of the cosmologists who made it happen. the big questions.” pers about going back – probably to retrieve Written in an historical f ashion, the book the golf balls launched from t he Apollo 14 opens with a brief ov erview of cosmology, landing site by Alan Shepard. leading up to the COBE satellite. The contro- The last chapter is reserved for the results. However, we now have close to the next versy of t he Hubble constant is briefly cov- Some of our theories of the Big Bang were best thing. R.B Kelsey’s slim (112 page) book is ered wit h the majority of the ba ckground co nfir m ed whi le o thers we re p la ced in a great way to becom e introduced to the story foc using on the de tection and mea- doubt. Both sides of this coin caused a great landscape of out nearest celestial neighbor. sureme nt of the cosmic mic rowave b ack- deal of wor ry to those first announcing the Through 12 “ ex pedit ions ,” he slow ly goe s ground (CMB). results to the public. But the science behind through the varied and increasing illumina- Uncertainties in the well-known ‘distance the data is solid, and the results have under- tion from a 3-day old Moon to its full phase. ladder’ give s ris e to in dividua l in terpreta- gone much scrutiny, g iving u s confiden ce For readers just beginning to observe with tions that c an make t he hypothetic age of that they will be validated in future observa- a telescope, t he most importa nt sections of the universe any value from 10 to 20 billion tions. the book w ill be chapters 1 and 2. Kelse y years. In 2001, scientists got their chance to I found this book to be simply wonderful. starts at the very b eginning, alig ning the stop makin g cosmo logy mostly guesswork Le monick uses b road stroke s to p aint the finder scope, then reminds the reader to start and give solid numbers to the variables that cosmologist s’ view of the u niverse, and he slow and “Read the manual” before attempt- control the universe. lets us see the inside story of those who seek ing a night’s activities. The W ilk inson Micr owave Anisotropy answers the big questions. It would be a great And, then, it’s off to the Moon! Ea ch sec- Prob e (WMAP) deliv ered on a promise to read for anyone wishing to keep current on tion shows sketches of r elevant surface fea- give us measurements unparalleled in the where cosmology is headed. tures, and gives a litt le in formation about history of cosmology by circumventing the them. For example, “(Crater) Petavius’s walls dista nce-ladd er altogether and measuring have been damaged by other impa cts, and variation s in the remnant of the big bang under some light angles you can see rilles in it self . B ut W M AP d id n’ t sto p there. B y its floor, indicating lava flows.” Each section

40 Planetarian December 2004 has a “Lunar History,” explaining how fea- “Thi s bo ok…is a lig ht, tures were probably f ormed, why we went informal, introductory but to the landing sites we did, or how differing eyepiec es change the view of the relevant scientifically accurate landscape. Kelsey uses a format similar to an a p p roa ch to aspe cts of amateur astronomer’s “star-hopping,” start- a s t r ono my that are no t ing at an e asy-to-find feature and movin g around with respect to that poin t to f ind always found in books on other areas of importance. the subject.” There are only two points about this book that I found a bit weak. The first appeared to bo th metric and “standard” versio ns. The be Ke ls ey’ s d esi re to sho w the f eatures analogies are excellent. The cartoon illustra- through e ach type of telescope, so some of tio ns are am usi ng. The bo o k is a great his ske tches show east to the right, others resource. show it to the left ; in fa ct, there are many Let the reader beware, however. There are doub le pages where each page’s sketch is a number of numerical mistakes (M31 is far- oppos ite the other. Perhaps he should have ther than the printed 2.2 light years, and in just de cide d on a convention and let the the conversion of miles to kilometers for the reader figure out the orientation for himself. circumference of Earth an extra zero is list- Also, there are s everal photographs of the ed), a nd I’m pretty sure Meteor Crater is in Moo n. Unfo rtunately , s om e of them are the Arizona “desert” rather than “dessert.” If bright and washed-out, and the relevant fea- you’re recommendin g this book to a stu- C ture is h ard to m ak e o ut. For exam pl e, dent, remind them to check the math. Proclus in Photo 2 seems more like a white smudge than a c rater. Perhaps the use of a Reviewed by April Whitt, Fernbank Science (Copyright, continued from page 40) lunar filter wou ld have made these imag es Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. stand out in more detail. W hen Geo rge Reed mention ed that he The notion of copyright was included in “(this) book is a great way had a new book coming out, and I recalled the Constitution because the founders of the to become introduced to all the times I’ve used his “cosmic art-toons” United States recognized the importan ce of promot in g a d ive rse array of expression . the landscape of out near- in plan etariu m programs and in teaching classes, I asked for a review copy immediate- While the complexity of the copyright code est cele stial nei ghb or. ly. While the price seems a bit high for a 165- sometimes s eems like it does mo re to chill T h rough 12 ‘expeditions,’ p age paperback, I’d still r ecomme nd it to rather than promote e xpression, with the proper background knowledge and under- (the author) slowly goes anyone with a gift shop, anyone with students aged 10 to 100, and anyone who wants standing of copyrig ht and its u nderlying t h r ou gh the varie d and a b ook t hat is easy to read and amusing as principles and goals, the ability to navigate i n c r easin g ill umi natio n well. the waters of copyright can become sec ond from a 3-day old Moon to The back cover describes the b ook well. nature and a p owerful compon ent of the To paraphrase, “Ev eryo ne has qu estio ns planetarian’s toolbox. its full phase.“ abo ut our univ erse. The q uestion s range f rom the c reatio n of the univ erse to the The author w ishes to thank Jim Be aber effect of the moon on human behavior. But and Thomas G. Field, Jr. , for their assistance C However, as an introduction to the Moon few people want long answers. Short, simple with this article. and its myriad mysteries, this book is great. explanations with some humor are so much Not only was it a good read, but I could see it better. This book … is a light, informal, intro- become a mini-Bible for amateur or school ductory but scientifically accurate approach (Mobile, continued from page 40) astronomy clubs lookin g for an obs erving to aspects of astronomy that are not always project. Its reading level is basic enough for found in books on the subject.” and where to find them. John holds the posi- all ages; t herefore, everyone should be able Based on 20 years of his popular newspa- tion of Historian of the Middle Atlantic Plan- to follow, and enjoy, this firs t look at our per columns, the book is organized in a ques- etarium Societ y and is also a Fellow of the lunar landscape. tion-and-answer style t hat allows the reader International Planetarium Society. to “start anywhere in the book and move in The next deadline for the applicants of “A any d ir ectio n” (ano ther p arap hrase). Week in Italy for an Amer ican Planetarium Chapters discuss objects in the day and night Operator” is Apr il 15, 2005. For more details How Many Pieces of Toilet skies, teles cope s, seasonal c onstellatio ns – go to the follow ing web sit e: http://www . Paper Do I Need To Get mos t from a northern hemisphere pe rspec- colibrionline.it/MG/Week_in_Italy.htm. tive, astronomers from history and alien s From Here to the Nearest from outer space. Signing Off Star? I’ve already used the section about mete- Thank you to all those peo ple who sent George Reed, Publish America; P.O. Box 151, orites, comets and near-Earth objects to reas- me news this time. That really made my job Frederick, Maryland, 21705, USA, www.pub- sure the public that asteroid 4179 Toutatis is a lot easier. The best way to advance our pro- lish americ a.com , 2004 IS BN: 1413 7116 69, not a threat. fession and refresh our spirits is to keep shar- US$19.95. Units of mea sure are usually expressed in ing information and inspiration! C

December 2004 Planetarian 41 Education Session at the UK National Astronomy Meeting, April 2003 From the International Astronomical Union Commission 46 Newsletter 59, October 2003

The aim of the Ed ucation session at For more information see the AstroGrid For more details see the ROG website at NAM 2003 was to highlight some interesting website at http://www.astrogrid.org. http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk. new resources and oppor tunities available for teachers of astronomy. The Suntrek project Space Science News Dr Helen Mason (Cambridge University) Billy McClune described a project under- Virtual Observatory then spoke a bout the Suntrek project. Sun- taken by himself and Dr Ruth Jarman (Grad- The first speaker was Dr Nicholas Walton trek is a programme of promotional and edu- uate School of Education, Queen's University (Institute of A stronomy, Cambrid ge) who cation al m ateria ls abou t the Sun and it s Be lfas t) entit led Space S cience N ews - the spoke about the Virtual Observatory, a pro- effe ct on the Earth's environment. The UK Secret Life of Newspapers. ject still on the horizon but which has mas- has a very strong research commu nity in How can newspapers be used to support sive p otential as a resource not o nly fo r these scientific areas. The project aims to pro- space science education in schools? The pre- researchers bu t also for all levels of educa- vid e accessible ex plan ation s of the lat est sentation illustrated how authentic newspa- tion. The concept behind the Virtual Obser- research, inclu ding recent data highlights, per articles c an be used in the science c lass- vatory is to make available the data collect- and to provide educational resources linking room to enrich a number of aspects of the ed by modern ground-based or space obser- these scien ce areas wit h the curric ulu m. secondary school curricu lum. The session vatories at all wavele ngths from X-ray to Some of the material used in Suntrek is based highligh ted Space Scien ce New s, a special radio, for others to use. on the successful web site called SunBlock99, edition newspaper supplement, produced by Data taken in recent years has all been in which was produced for the 1999 total solar teachers in N orthern Ir ela nd. The gro up digital form and huge independent databases eclipse and uses the presentation of young received a PPARC grant, and worked closely exist. The scientists who made the observa- solar researchers to promote the science. with Northern Irelan d's regional newspaper tions have analysed the results for their own The s o ftw are com p any, I nteractiv e the Belfast Telegraph. research bu t another project could u se the Media Design Consultants, has worked close- In science, as in ot her subjects, teachers same observation for a completely different ly wi th the pro ject team: Dr Dave Pik e are being encouraged t o e xplore a range of purpo se. A simp le examp le may b e that (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), Dr Helen addition al resources o f whic h newspapers when a supernova is discovered in a distant Mason (Cambridge Univer sity ), Dr Robert are an important elemen t. Lift any newspa- galaxy it is interesting to find out what is Walsh (University o f Central Lancashire), per and you are almost sure to come across known about the progenitor star before it and Dr Rosalind Mist (ECSITE UK). The Sun- science-relate d s tories . App ropria te articles erupted. Observation s of that galaxy may trek websit e is launched in autumn 2003. do not appear to or der, however, a nd rele- have been made in the past. The task of the The style and presentation of the material is vant news does not break conveniently just Virtual Observatory is to use the latest tech- unique. The main aim has been to make the as you are about to teach a topic. Further- nolog ie s in in f ormation managem ent to site interesting and fun, as well as being edu- more, once suitable stories have been found develop the software tools for astronomers cational. Particular attention has been paid it takes time to design interesting and effec- to access, s ele ct and analyse hundreds of to areas of dire ct interest in the classroom, tive activities around the report. gigabytes of data on a remote computer and such as the Earth and Beyond, Satellites and The group of teachers working with Billy to see the result s without transferring the Energy Resources. Care has b een taken to McClune and Ruth Jarman, has developed a data to one's own computer. ensure that the presentation and content are novel science resource which addresses these Dr Walton is Project Scientist for Astro- appro pria te fo r the target age range (11- 15 issues. This pu blication is in newspaper for - Grid, the UK's contribut io n to the Virtual years). Suntrek also c ontains m ateria l of mat and comprises a selected set of authentic Observatory. AstroGrid is one of the first of interest to the general public. articles on astronomy which have appeared the UK's e-Science projects and its priority is For mo re in formation contact Hele n in the Be lf ast Teleg raph ov er recent years. to develop a virtual observatory capability Mason, [email protected]. Associated with the articles are cla ssroom for astronomical data of importa nce to the activit ies whic h teachers can u se to help UK community. This will include data from Public Astronomy on a Heritage catch the interest and imagination of their Jodrell Bank, La Palma, Hawaii and Chile a s Site pupils as they read the news stories and learn well as space pro jects such as S OHO and Dr Robe rt M assey (Royal Observatory, about the related science. The 20-page colour Cluster. There are seven UK ins titutions in- Greenw ic h) gave a talk entit l ed Pu bl ic iss ue addresses topics in cluding the Moon, volved in the Astrogrid consortium, which is Astronomy on a Heritage Site: Antique Tele- lun ar and solar eclips es, meteors, asteroids in turn a member of Europe's Astrophysical scopes and Online Education. He described and comets, radio astronomy, living in space, Virtual Observatory (AVO) Project. The AVO the educational activities at the Observatory, and includes a number of specially commis- partners held a meeting in January at Jodrell in clu din g a s choo ls programm e of wo rk- sioned feature articles. Bank Observatory at which a p rototype of shops for children of all ages from the start of The newspaper was launched in Febru- the software was presented. The AVO pa rt- primary school (elementary school) to post- ary and is currently available , free on re- ners are also members of the In ternational 16. There are also Short Courses for the whole que st, to post-primar y schools in Northern Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) which family, suitable for age 8+, normally held on Ireland. consist s o f 12 consortia f rom around the successive Sundays, and one-day conferences For infor mation contact Billy Mc Clune world including the United States and the on selected topics such as a forthcoming one [email protected]. Asia-Pacific Region who are working togeth- on Ext raterrestria l lif e. Students can also er to define global data standards. Astrogrid study f or GCSE astronomy (taken at 16 in is a 3-year project which officially started in schools) in a programme run in conjunction September 2001. The IVOA aims to be fu lly w ith Gold smit h's Colle ge, Univ ersi ty of The full text of this newslett er is avail- operational by 2007. London. able at http://physics.open.ac.uk/IAU46. 42 Planetarian December 2004 1. Yo u can p ro mis e your p artner the first step you have to take into consideration Moon and stars - and deliver! is whether you want to run a movie theater Forum 2. You c an drive yo ur c at or do g crazy, or a planetarium. In my case, I want a plane- wiggling the dot from your laser pointer tarium. all over a wall at home. When we chose to renovate the Schenec- 3. Kids think you know everything. tady Plane tarium (now kn own as the Su its- 4. And w hen y ou can answer all of their Bueche Planetarium), we went for the system many questions to their satisfaction, a that will give us the b est end prod uct, the small part of you does, too. clearest views, and ease of operation, keeping 5. The look of gratit ude on the faces of in mind that we wanted to remain a plane- teachers and parents gives you a warm tarium, and not become a c inema. So with glow. the help of ECCS, we opted for our main pro- 6. Occasion ally, the p articu lar ly young jection to be 21 Kodak EIII’s. We also have a kids will give you a hug after a show. It’s Sony video projector, and an LCD projector, the cutest thing … that we use when warranted. For example, in 7. It’s great to be in the small percentage of the “Hubble Vis ion 2” program by L och the workforce who love their job. Ness, there is a video segment. But our main 8. You get to work with kids. (Or is that a projection is the slides. negative point? It changes from day to So why did I choose to remain in the “dark day). ages”? Because it’s better. I continuously g et 9. The spirit of comradeship and willing - comments from t he public, asking why my Steve Tidey ness to help each other in the profession im ages are cle arer than ones they see in 58 Prince Avenue, is priceless. other plan etariums? The answer is simple: 10. W e’ re gi vin g p eo p le an ex p erie nce Because the old technology of slides is clearer Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN they’ll probably remember fondly f or than video and full do me. Yes , all dome is England the rest of their lives. pretty awesome, but when we have bea uti- ful photos sent back from the HST, why put [email protected] Apart from a ll those factors, it’s a pretty them up on a dome with the latest technolo- average job! gy that ma kes them blu rry and the colors Over the last ten years or so we’ve seen in diffused? Every planetarium that I go to that It’s only me. planetaria an increasing amount of digitally has this new technology shows images that Welcome to … enhanced, 3-D, multi-screen, color-surround, are inferior to t he old technology. We talk Wait a moment, there’s a TV newsflas h. laser-projected, s pinning, hologram images – about Hubble giving us “crystal clear” views “Astronomers all over the world have report- and those are just the exit signs. But I jest. I’m of the universe, and then we blur them up in ed seeing a cow jump ing ove r the Moo n. talking about digital technology under the our domes. What’s up with that? More on that story later …” dome, of course. Love it or hate it, it’s here to The fact of the matter is that all dome and Wow. Can’t wait. stay and is rapidly gaining a high profile, or, dig ital has a very lon g way to go bef ore it Now, where was I? Oh yes, the colu mn. depending on your point of view, spreading comes close to the old slide projection sys- Welcome to t he column in which cogent like a virulen t diseas e, so polarized are the tem. And because the technology is comput- and thought-prov okin g argument are as opinions some planetarians have of the tech- er based, it has to be u pgrade d every f ew guaranteed as a slide projector gate sticking nology in its current state of development. years and it still doesn’t get much better. My in the middle of a show. Believe it or not, this So is it the biggest mistake since the king of Kodak slide projection theater is clear now, is t he tenth anniversary of my first column the Vikings ordered 10,000 helmets with the and 15 years from now w ill s till be c lea r, as Forum editor . (Yeah, I kn ow, it fe els like horns on the inside, or will it turn out to be wit hout any upgrades. And not only that, twenty to me, too …. ) B ut yo u’ll be eit her the profession ’s saving grace in tight fiscal but my 30 ye ar-old Sky-Skan special effe cts pleased or disappointed to hear that I’m not times ? The current Forum topic for discus - projectors, s uch as the Lunar Ec lips e, S olar going to be giving up anytime soon; I’m just sion is thus: Eclipse, and Rotating Jupiter, project a clearer about hangin g on to the c oat tails of Sue and more realistic view than any of the new Button-Reynolds and Jim Manning, who There’s clearly a ‘digita l divide’ growing in video or full dome projection around today. have been doing their columns , I think, for the p lanetarium community . On the one Now everyone has their ow n reason for 12 and 15 years respectively. So I c an’t stop side are pla netaria ns who d on’t like f ull going “new” or s taying “old”, but I think it now; I’ve got to catch them up. Hey, Sue and dome v id eo technology , and on the ot her has to do with how y ou were raised in the Jim, slow down! are those who have been fully converted, planetarium field. When I went into the field I was thinking of updating the picture of and see the technology as the key to our pro- in 1973, I did it for one reason: t o t each the me that’s used at the top o f this column , fession’s lon g-term, s table future. How can wonders of astronomy and the cosmos. As a with one I h ad taken recently in which I’m that gap be bridged? matter of fact, all of us old “ Luddites ” (and gap-toothed (a crown fell out), unshaven and we all know who we are) went into this busi- wearing my Buffalo Sabres road jersey. That’s A strictly non-digit ized , f ully analogu e ness for that reason. However, the folks that as close as I’ll ever get to being mistaken for Steve Russo tips off to get us underway. are coming into the field today (with a cou- an NHL player …. ple of exceptions) are not astronomy people. To mark my tenth anniversary column, I * * * They are “techno-geeks” (a term used affec- thought it would be neat to list the: tionately here) who see the dome as a way to Ten Reasons Why it’s Great There is definitely a “digital divide” in the p lay wit h their technolo gy. When “old ” plan etarium c ommunity, and I t hink t hat folks my age went to a planetarium as a kid, to be a Planetarian my opinion is well known on this issue. The it made us want to be astronomers. When

December 2004 Planetarian 43 kids go to p lanetariums today, they c ome able, standardized, and affordable. Any insti- p l a n e t a r i u m from another should be em- out wanting to be video producers and com- tution that in vests in full dome c apability braced as a valued diffe rence, rather than a puter programmers. Is there anything wrong needs to know it w ill remain we ll used threat. with that? No. If it sparks som e kid in to a beyond the enthusiastic tenure of its original Ryan Wyatt career, then that’s good. But, as the sky disap- advoc ate. Presenters and facility stewards Rose Center/Hayden Planetarium pears due to lig ht pollut ion , is n’t it more alike must be comfortable with putting the American Museum of Natural History imp ortant to show a nice clear starry sky, equipment through the paces, lest it be tech- 200 Central Park West than it is to show an all dome pyramid? nolo gy that only a selec t few can c ajole to New York, New York 10024 USA So if you want to become a movie theater life. If, in the long run, price puts quality full get the late st d igita l technology , s ome all dome video out of the reach of most poten- * * * dome projection and you are on your way. tia l c ustom ers, it will not be ubiq uit ous The o nly thing miss in g is the Raise netts, among planetariums. My opinion in all of these “have vs. have popcor n, and sticky floors . If you w ant to Regardless of your hardware, give them a not” issue s is that you can always put on a remain a planetarium, where the starry sky is good story. good show if you have a realistic star field, more import ant, then stick with the opto- Chuck Bueter and someone who has the enthusiasm and mechanic al star proj ector and the “d ark 15893 Ashville Lane sensitivity to present a great show. You don’t ages” technology of Left, Center, Right slide Granger, Indiana 46530 USA need all the bells and whistles to keep 10 or projection, t wo 6-part slide pan system, and 100 or 500 people spellbound. You just need non digital/video special effects projectors. * * * sincerity in your voice and a steady hand on In “Mr. Russo’s Neighborhood”, staying a the point er. If you’ve got that, it’s half the planetarium is the way to go. I question whether the gap requires bridg- battle. You can make just as bad a show with Steven LJ Russo in g. A dig ita l divide s hould not result in a b ig budget as you can wit h a lit tle one. Planetarium Manager zealots who cannot see benefits to the other Keep the viewer in min d, a nd the rest will Suits-Bueche Planetarium s i d e ; rath er, w e sho uld recogniz e and fall into place. Schenectady Museum emphasize the strengths of our p a r t i c u l a r James Hughes 15 Nott Terrace Heights medium. Planetarium Producer Schenectady, New York 12308 USA E arth’s ni ght sky is an end ang ered Buhl Planetarium & Observatory resource. W e should attem pt to p r e s e r v e Carnegie Science Center * * * that resource, even in the form of planetari- One Allegheny Avenue ums’ er satz projected stars. Traditional pro- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15212 USA All plan etariums b egin w ith a star f ield. jection techniqu es will do a better job of From there, our paths d iver ge. I p refer to this than digital technology for some time to * * * thin k of o ur dif fe rences not as gaps and come, and w ell beyond t hat point p eople divides, but as b ridges and multipliers. The will benefit from the opportunity to remove As one who operates within a panoramic more useful resources are available, the more themselves from the frenetic pace of modern video dome facility, I have learned to adapt planetarians can impleme nt their own cre- life and contemplate the sky as our ancestors to doin g shows in such an enviro nment. ativ ity. Requir ing o ne to choos e between have for millennia. There are quite a few drawbacks in video- full dome video and alternative techniques Even as we recognize the need to treasure enhanced facilities, such as the maintenance is akin to the tiresome discussion, “Which is and preserve the human-centered astro- costs of video projectors, the reliance on pro- better: o pto-me chanical o r dig it al? ” The nomical experience, however, we must also prietary software that makes using multiple audience, capable of apprecia ting div erse recognize that we live in a universe incom- vendors for shows more difficult, the lack of venues, is the fina l arbit er of what merits parably more vast than the ancients’. For the fle xibility in putting together a show on support. first time in human history, we can visualize short notice to accommodate the needs of a When I enter a theater of any kind, I have our place in the universe in a coherent, uni- few c lients, to name a fe w. And, no ma tter baselin e expectations. A humble stage can f ied manner that allows an indiv idua l t o what the bean counters think, video is not a provi de as rewardin g an expe rien ce as a experience varying scales continuously a nd panacea for solving short-term or long-term Broadway production. Once the lights dim, I in teractively. Full dome plan etariums can financial goals. judge the impact of the performance, not the teach 21s t -century astronomy in a way that Until the video “revolution”, the tools of bricks and mortar. A well-crafted lesson with traditional domes cannot. our trade were such that there was flexibility a star field under a portable dome can be as The two goals I d escrib e certainly inter- and ease in both installin g and generating equally dynamic as an immersive thrill ride sect, but they can also be pursued exclusive- shows. And, by shopping around, one could through a digital cosmos. ly, and a range of options exists in between. get show kits at reasonable prices (reasonable The planetarium industry is evolving, giv- True, the concept of “planetarium” becomes as defined by the meager budgets many of us ing rise to new opportunities and challenges. muddied and more complex, but I b e l i e v e still operate under, despite the move to more Not everyone has to embrace each emerging that enric hes our field, even if it presents exp ensiv e technolo gy). And, p resented technology. We should celebra te when we some marketing problems. Face it: the plan- p roperly , a udien ces could be amazed b y are happy with what we have. If full dome etarium medium evolves, and our profession these non vide o-based programs, b ecause video serves your institution best, then capi- appears to have speciated. Rather than refer- many wanted to see the stars (which we still talize o n its d azzlin g c apabilities . If other encing dinosaurs or extinction in my analo- do best) and gather information on the par- techniqu es help y ou to mee t institutio nal gy, I wou ld p refer to emphasize the more ticular topic addressed. obje ctives, t hen p lay that strength. One’s contemporary concept of biodiversity: dif- Now the tools have been taken away to preference is not to the de trimen t o f the fering technology does not mean that only some extent. Without large budgets to either other camp. the most pixellated will survive, but rather hire folks to create video streams for us, or to What is important for stability is that the that specialization and variety can thrive. A p urchase them f rom vend ors, m ore and emerging technologies be user-friendly, reli- dig ital divid e that separates one species of more the result c an be the presentation of

44 Planetarian December 2004 the same show over and over and over again, In regards to the “digital divide issue”, I do abo ut the w onde rs of the night sky , but reducing the freshness that was possible with not see that this issu e is any differen t then rather that it has become a multi-media the- moderate means and litt le/no vide o. D o n ’ t when video first started to appear in plane - atre in which m ore is p ossib le. Those few get me wrong, I enjoy using video in my pro- tarium shows back in the early 80s, or e ven facilities that have both large format f ilm grams. (I would much rather fly to the Orion when 35mm slid es s tarted to show up in and p lanetariu m show s unde r the same Nebula than look at it from a dist ance, fo r shows way back when. I can remember talk- dome, know that the visitor does n’t always e x a m p l e ) . My own history with it included ing with other planetarians about the use of know the differ ence between the two for- working with the technical people here at vide o in shows , a nd how some we re de ad mats when reading the schedule. To them, a the unive rsity in the old facility, to get a against it while others embraced it enthusi- shows is a show. With full dome approach- decent three-gun vid eo projector in stalled. astically. Anyone remember the big divide ing the resolution of large f ormat film, has Through i t, I c ould p la y segm ents f rom when Digista r firs t came out? Has the fact the line been b lur red between these two vid eo tape, las er dis k, and my com puter, that some of us have Digistars and some of us industries as well? I read that at the IPS con- which I also had installed because it opened have opto-mechanica l p revented u s from ference in Valencia Sky-Skan showed parts of up addit ion al vide o clip pos sibilit ies. But sharing programs? A re there theaters that the large for mat film, Solar Max, on one of that is also exactly the point; with a limited don’t use video or 35mm slides? Could be. their full do me systems. And no, I am not staff (one, in my case, back then) it would be Does this fact make their shows bad or poor saying run Everest on your full dome system, pos sible to u se vide o as a tool to enhance quality? but perhaps you could. If our shows are now shows without needing a huge budget. Full dom e, li ke vide o, Dig is tar, 35mm approaching that level, then the issue isn ’t I understand the vendors’ arguments: they slid es, las ers, etc is just a too l. I have s een one of, Do we use the technology or not? (Or took the risks of dev eloping this new t ech- so me great sho ws that w ere just a star even, Do we like the technology or not?) It is nology, possibly at our insistence (as I said, I machine, a pointe r and the presenter and I more about fa cing our fear of the changing liked the concept) and feel justified in charg- have seen some real s tinkers that had every role of the planetarium show. Look at our ing sums to recover the costs of taking those b ell and w his tle im agin able . Full d om e shows as an industry. Ignoring the technolo- risks . Business is b usiness, and if a business imagery looks great, but if you don’t have a gy and j ust loo kin g at content and style, does not recoup the c ost of R&D, t he busi- good story all you have is a bunch o f nice have they changed all that much from what ness does not survive as such. And in a limit- video and a group of visit ors wo nderin g they were ten years ago? Have we stagnated ed supply-and-demand market, the folks that what the show was about. The key to any as an industry? Don’t see full dome technolo- get a system up and running first , even if good show is to tell a good story. gy as a threat, see it as an op portunity to band-aided together, stand to reap financial To those who don’t like full dome video I g r o w . After all, it’s just a tool. It is how we benefit s before com petit ion come s in and say: Don’t use it. You don’t need it. If your use that tool that is important. forces the costs to be more reasonable. script is so poor that it needs technology in Paul Trembly So, in response to the initial question of o rde r to get the p oin t acro ss, then yo u Technical Director, CineDome, how the gap mig ht b e b ridg ed between s h o u l d n ’ t bo ther p rod ucin g the s ho w. Planetarium, & Observatory those who favor all dome video systems and That’s not to say that the technology can’t Orlando Science Center (a non full dome those that resist them , reduction of cost enhance a script, but it should not have to facility) com es to min d. This might be achieved if carry it . I admit w e have s how idea s that 777 E. Princeton standards are ever adopted for v ideo -based would look great in full dome video, but we Orlando, Florida 32803 USA programs and systems. But, once adopted, it could produce them using slides just as well should be on the vendor to retrofit (or even and still get our message across. (Of course, * * * replace, if their system is that out of compat- without funding you can’t produce much of ibility) the facility in which their equipment anything, but that is off the subject :-). Here’s a slightly off-beat and non-contro- exists to bring it up to standard at little or no Wit h the de mis e of slides , I know that versial topic for the next Forum column, to cost. (If you anticipat ed w rong on the wa y there are many who feel that they will have counter the seriousness of the one you’ve the revolution was going, it should not be no choice but to embrace full dome technol- just read: my fault; I assumed when hirin g you that ogy o r shut dow n. One never likes to b e you knew w hat was going on). But, more f orced in to a m ak in g a cho ic e w it h no W hat are your f avorit e constella tio ns to important than that, make it simpler to cre- options , b ut we as an industry have faced point ou t during a live sky tour, and why? ate segments that can quickly be put togeth- this time and again. Records and LPs, reel to How do you describe them to your audience er to create new shows. We are, after all, not reel, laserdiscs - all have gone the way of the in a way that’s different from the norm? Hollywood. We will never have the budgets dinos aur. We weren’t given a choice about that those folks have to create new shows. If switchin g from reel to reel ove r to DA-88 You can send me your contribution s by it becomes almos t turnke y to create new but, as an industry, we adapted and moved email, snail mail or written on the back of a show s, I suspect a lot o f the resist ance to o n. Vendors will p la y a k ey roll in thi s, ticket for SpaceShipOne. The choice is yours. mov ing to vid eo, panoramic or all do me, through setting standards to ensure compati- (If I get the latter, then great, I’m outta here would be reduced. bility between systems, to finding low c ost ….) J. Scott Miller alternatives and “baby brother” versions of The deadline is December 9, and so you Program Coordinator their lar ger systems. Truth is, just as the CD can send me y our we ll- reasoned contribu- Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium spelled the end of the LP, full dome systems tions by email, s nail mail, or written on the University of Louisville spell the end to so called “traditional” plane- b ack of a tic ke t fo r S p aceShi pOne. The Louisville, Kentucky 40292 USA tariums. choice is all yours. (If I get the la tter, then Per haps the real issu e is that we need to great, I’m outta here). * * * redefine what a planetarium is; perhaps it is Oh, apparently I don’t. C no longer a chamber in w hich to just lear n

December 2004 Planetarian 45 46 Planetarian December 2004 firs t good pee k u nder Titan’s hydrocarbon American Museum of Natural Histor y, a nd What’s New covers as I write, if all goes well, with Huy- Ed Lantz of Visual Bandwidth, Inc. gens about to be set loose as you read), a nd The summit attracted some 100 delegates Mars Express (I’m still waiting for word a ny alto gether and a bake r’s do zen of p apers day of the discovery of a termite mound or ranging from t he need f or fulldome stan- small herd of flatulent Martian cattle to e x- dards ba sed on experiences in other simula- plain its fascinating discovery of methane in tion ind ustries to a standards propos al by the thin Martian atmosphere), a nd Stardust La ntz. The summit includ ed an in -do me (with its view of the meatball-like nucleus of vis ualizat ion session, a round-table discus- Comet Wild 2, shot as it gathered it treasure sion, and initial development of a standard of comet dust particles to bring home), and for full-dome mas tering and t he creation of the S pitz er in frared teles cop e (generating an ongoing standards committee . You can ple nty of heat wit h it s beautifu l in frared review the me eting’s agenda and paper ab- images) and even from the somewhat crum- stracts at http://research.amnh.org/~wyatt/ pled Genesis spacecraft whose wreckage may C o m m u n i t y / s u m m i t 2 0 0 4 _ d e s c r i p t i o n . h t m l still reveal bits and pieces of the solar wind ; a proceedin gs doc ument should fo llow composition it was designed to collect. shortly on the fulldome .org w ebsit e if it’s Taken together with the continuing re- not already there. turn o f o ngo in g mi ssi ons such as M ars This s trikes me as an e ntirely good idea . Jim Manning Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, the Hubble With fulldome systems seeming to prolifer- Space Telescope and many others, our stock- ate at a faster rate than programmin g can Taylor Planetarium ings our rather bulging with presents from keep up, the new fulldomers are predictably Museum of the Rockies the universe this year. I can hardly comp ete with that, but s till Montana State University attempt to offer herein a few little informa- Bozeman, Montana 59717 tional gifts of my own this December, in bits USA and pieces gleaned from the “solar wind” of news flowing past my nose. Enjoy. [email protected] Full-dome Standards Summitry At the IPS gathering in Valencia this pa st Finish the last c olumn yet? This season’s July, there was a conference going on within installment will be more bite-sized, t o give a conference, with many of the delegates in you plenty of time to do that holiday shop- attendance also attendin g the Full- do me ping. Standards S ummit s pecial session held o n We of the astronomica l ilk have already July 7-8. The summit was sponsored by a U.S. received presents aplenty this year thanks to Na tion al Science Foundation grant to the some remarkably successful space missions – Denver Museum of Science and Nature and from the redoubtable Mars rovers (still oper- Spitz, Inc. The co-chairs and primary organizational as of this writing, if complaining of a ers of the s ummit were Ryan Wy att of the Ry an Wy at t, co- chai r o f the Fu ll - few aches and pains, and still providing col- Ro se Ce nter f o r E arth and Space at the dome Standards Summit, manages a orful insight into Mars’ watery past), and the session, courtesy of Ed Lantz. Cassini/Huygens craft (about to give us ou r

Stellar nursery RCW 49, courtesy of the Spitz e r infra red tel esco pe and Valencia’ s Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, site of the firs t Fulldome Standards NASA. Summit, courtesy of Ed Lantz. December 2004 Planetarian 47 hungry fo r good content. By establish ing inexpensive solution for useful standards while the technology is still those w anting portable young, it should be possible to create a situa- full- do me cap abi lit y tion where content can be readily transfer- (costing $15,750 U.S.), yet able and runable on different systems. Every- maintains fu ll planetari- body benefits. um capab ilit i es alo ng Kud os to Ryan and Ed and Denver and with the ability to show Spitz for spearheading a wor thwhile e ffort. mos t any vide o via it s To lear n m ore f rom the instigators abou t DVD drive. The stars are progress in this new and exciting arena, you there, and the usual grids, can contact Ed at e-mail ed @vis ualba nd and p la nets that can width.com or Ryan at [email protected]. zoom in to show c lose - up im ages. Deep sk y Zeiss Coming Attractions obj ects c an like wise be Oop s. Once in a w hile (a great while, I targeted fo r cl oser i n- hope), something gets lost in translation, and spection, zooming in to a columnar boo-boo slips through. Such was show Hubble im ages of the case last in last season’s c olumn when I A concept drawing of the “Starglobe” system featuring a starball with full-dome video, courtesy of Laura Misajet the obj ects, for example. referred t o the tiny two-headed projector I of Seiler Instrument and Carl Zeiss Jena. There are constellat io n saw in Zeiss’ Valencia inflatable dome as the fig ures, in cludin g some ZKP4 projector. I must have misheard, for the ing star projector though fitte d with fibe r adapted from the 1801 U r a n o g r a p h i a , a n d little tyke has emerged since with the name optics stars, digital planet positions, and cus- Polynesian star patterns available as well. To “definiti T win” marketed by Sky-Skan, Inc. tomized options – and bright enough to be cap it off, I s aw a snippet of the fulldome in cooper ation wit h Zeiss, alo ng with the housed in a dome up to 14 meters (46 feet) in versio n of L och Ne ss P roduction ’ s new original “definiti PD” – the single-lens system diameter, according to Laura Misajet of Seiler Hubble program (mentioned last time). marketed by Sky-Skan in c ooperation with Instrument. You can contact La ura in the elumina ti, IIc. (There’s a third a nd o r i g i n a l U.S., for details, at Seiler Instrument, 23 Nar - origin al version handled by the Houston brook Park, Narbeth, Pennsylva nia 19 072, M useum of N atural S cien ce alt ernately teleph one +1-800-726-8805, cell phone +1- called the Disc overy Dome or the E-Plane- 610- 766-0673, fax +1-610- 664- 030 8, e -mail tarium – more definiti spin-offs than one can zeiss@seilerins t.com, website www.seilerinst shake a stick at!) .com, or Volkmar Schorcht at Carl Zeiss Jena In any case, the actual Z KP4 is another Gm b H, Carl Zeis s Grupp e, C arl- Zeis s- new Ze iss product: a more traditional-look- Pr omenade 10, 07 745 Jena, Germany, tele - phone 0-36-41-64-22-83, cell phone 01-7 0-3- 86- 62-44 , fax 0-36-4 1- 64 -30-2 3, e-mail [email protected]. In the contin uing marriage of the new fulldome systems with mo re tradit ion al capabilitie s, La ura als o announced at the Western Alliance Conference (WAC) in San Diego in September that Zeiss is developing a new combo system consisting of a traditional starball coupled with full-dome DLP video projection, scheduled to hit the m arket in 2006. The comb o concept, designed to ma rry systems and provide the best of both worlds (bright, sharp stars and gee-whiz f ull-dome video) continues to prolifer ate. Stay tuned on this one, a nd contact La ura f or m ore information as it becomes available.

Digitarium in the Flesh I’ve written about it from afar, ce rtainly, with infor mation at hand, but at the WAC in S an Dieg o this fall, I was at las t able to meet the new Digitalis full-dome system for p ortab le p lanetariu ms in p erson – and I enjoyed the encounter. I snuggled under the in flata ble dome of the Digitarium Alpha from D igitalis Educa- tion Solut io ns while Karrie Be rglun d and The tr ue Ze iss ZKP4 , co ur te sy of Laura Mis ajet of Seiler Instru ments Rob Spe arman ran the system t hrough its The D i gi ta ri um Alpha , co ur te sy and Carl Zeiss Jena. paces f or me. The “DA,” as I’ll call it, is an Digitalis Education Solutions.

48 Planetarian December 2004 One unusual bit I notic ed was that the GeoGraphics News stars “swam” with a bit of stellar Brownian Despite this year’s pounding of Florida by motion during the daily motion demonstra- far too many hurricanes, George Fleenor of tion – presumably a result of the fact that GeoGraphics Imag ing and Consulting keeps dome resolution is about 770 X 770 pixels – on keeping on, w ith fingers in a variety of relatively “lo-res,” but in keeping with the pies. Most recently at the WAC, he demon- low price of the system and a trade-off with strated a series of video clips he’s offering for affordability. A new le ns for the system is sale, fe aturing the love ly artwork of Jo e coming to reduce chromatic aberration and Tuccia rone. There’s an esthetic zoom-out to brighten and s harpen things. The system seque nce from t he Earth/Moon system to (compact and weighing under 16 kilograms) b eyond the galaxy , an asteroid impac ting comes with case, user manual, a dozen lesson Ea rth, assorted zooms o f spin ning plan ets plans, a two-year limited warranty, and tech- and asteroi ds, so la r and lu nar eclip ses, nical support – and a inflatable dome if you demonstrations of the double star Algol and need one, ranging in cost from $2,900 for a an extrasolar planet in orbit around its star, four-meter (13-foot) to $6,000 for a seven- the formation of a planetary nebula, a red meter (23-foot) version. giant star and a W olf-Rayet star expelling For the price, it’s a cute little system – and gas, and much more. The clips can come in an opportunity to bring the digital universe NS TC, PAL, HDTV, fulldome formats and anywhere at an affordable cost. So far, Karrie more. Berglund tells me that about two-thirds of DA sales have gone to schools and one-third to outreach programs – and it’s a useful sys - The Frie ndly Stars, c ourtesy of Bays tem in either case. Mo unt ai n Pl a ne ta ri um and G e o- Graphics Imaging and Consulting. For m ore in f ormation , c ontact ei ther Karrie or Rob at Digita lis E ducation Solu - heads back into the sky, t he stars come ou t tions, P.O. Box 2976, Bremerton, Washington and group of garrulous twinklers engage in a 98310, t elephone 360-616-8915, fax 360-616- lively conversation with the ope rator and 8917, e-mail ka rrie@DigitalisEduca tion.com the audien ce. There’s a pla ce to tell y our or rob @Digit alisEd ucation .com, web sit e favorite bear story before the show ends. www.DigitalisEducation.com. The show is cute and very w ell done – good voices, nice animations, beautiful art- Bowen – Now Technovating work, with lots of opportu nities for interac- One new thing about Bowen Productions tion w ith the audien ce. And it couldn ’ t is its new name: Bowen Technovations, cho- Composite image of Earth/Moon and the galaxy, courtesy of GeoG raphics come in much simpler form. The cost is $299 sen, according to Jeff Bowen, to better reflect Imaging and Consulting. U.S. according to the GeoGraphics website. the com pany’ s dir ection and d iver sit y of George is also wo rking with Jon Bell on products and services. If you look at George’s GeoGraphics web- the production of a show called The Whale’s One new product Jeff demonstrated in San sit e (at ww w.geographi csim agi ng.co m), Tale – a show set in the autumn and similar Diego is Bowen’s new low cost cove lighting you’ll see that he’s expanded his offering of in style to the Bear Tales show Jon produced system using LED technology. The AstroFX- p anoramas, al l- sk ie s and m is cella neo us some years ago – only this one with a ligh t Aurora LED SP, a s the system is c alled, fea- images, including much from Kitt Peak a nd emphasis on seafood. A family raking leaves tures fl exibl e and contin uous 360° LE D other observatories, t he Grand Canyon, a nd on an autumn evening sticks around outside bands of red, green and blue, which can be assorted cityscapes. (My favorite is the all-sky for family discussions of the cause of the sea- faded up or down to create any mix of the of the gas station canopy from t he perspec- sons, lunar eclip ses, and c onstellations and three colors (yellow is also an opt ion). The tive of being und erneath it at night.) He their stories – including the story of Perseu s system is controlled either by a console - offers comet images and a nice set of images and Andromeda (which includes Cetus) and mounted button p anel or through a show showing the problems of light pollution and the “w atery” region o f the autumn sk y. control system. the benefits of appropriate lighting fixtures. There are a couple of songs interspersed, Jeff says the use of LED technology mini- George is also marketing a c hildren’s pro- including one about whales at the end. The mizes power requirements and reduces heat gram called “The Frien dly Stars” for Bays show images I’ve seen are quite fetching, and generation and maintenance. Certainly the M ountai n Pl anetariu m and McSpadd en the soundtrack sounds good. You’ll find the colors are lovely; t he stretches of LED tube Animation Productions, taking the original script on page 13 in this issue. he de mo nstrated show ed fla w les s hues, Bays Mountain slide version and converting For more information on his various pro- resem bling nothin g so much as the lig ht it to an animated version on DVD. This is jects and p rod ucts, co ntact George at sabers f rom the Star W ars mo vie s. M ost designed to be a user-friendly program, using Geo Graphi cs, 780 3 25 th A venue W est, impressive. just the DVD and yo ur star p rojector; pro- Bradenton, Florida 34209, telephone +1-941- Look for additional information and price grammed stops in the DVD allow you to run 920-0246, fax +1-941-794-6877, e-mail George at www.bowentechnovation.com/planetari- through each segment of the show in turn at @geographicsimaging.com, or check out his um. You can also contact Jef f and c rew at your own pace. website as given above. Bowen Technovation, 3924 Pendleton Way, An animated sun (named Sol, of course), Indianapolis, Indiana 46226, +1-317-536-1283, explains his own importance and then takes Creations from the Carnegie fax +1- 317- 536-129 3, e -mail jeff b@bo wen the youngest stargazers (kindergartners and American children’s television icon Fred technovation.com a bout their wide variety f irst graders are the target audien ce) on a Rogers may be gone, but his enormous lega- of products and services. quick tour of his family of planets. When Sol cy lives on in part at the Carnegie Science December 2004 Planetarian 49 The Earth Space Simulator, courtesy of the MMI Corporation. The Sky Above Mi ster Rogers’ Neigh- bor hood , co urte sy of the Carne gie the com pany’ s catalog is the Ea rth S pace Scie nc e Ce nt er a nd F am il y Co m- Tissue Engineering for Life, courtesy Simulato r – a s mall celes tial sphere model munications, Inc. of the Carnegi e Science Center and the Pi ttsb urgh Ti ssue E ngine eri ng that can be used as a desktop tool for teach- Center in the form of The Sky Above Mister Initiative, Inc. ing why the sky works the way it does. Ro gers’ Ne ig hbo rho od , created b y the The 13-cm (5-inch) plastic sphere can be Carnegie’s Buhl Planetarium in conjunction calle d Regenerative Med icin e and Tis sue readily assembled with a small Earth ball and wit h Family Commu nicatio ns, Inc. and is Engineering – technologically-based sciences ecliptic b and inside a nd a horizon disk and still available to interested planetariums, a s that apply new techniqu es to the human “o-ring” meridian around the outside, with James Hughes inform ed us in San Diego at body to heal body parts (bad hearts, broken the sphere adj ustable f or lat it ude . Once the WAC. The 20-minute show uses charac- bones, etc.) in speedier fashion than the body assembled, you can then set off on assorted ters from the well-known TV show M i s t e r can heal them on its own. fiddling s that can help to teach basic con- Rogers’ Neighborhood to take a young audi- The video trailers I saw in San Diego were cep ts we all do in the pla netariu m – the ence on a tour of the sky above in Rogers’ reminiscent of F antastic V oyage, as we hur- effec t of lat itu de, seasonal c hanges of the inimitable and comforting style. tled through blood vessels, bone, and other sun’s path, and so on. The sphere has no stars, The show p ackage in clud es v ideo la ser bodily regions, following the body’s army of but there is an plotting exercise that allows disc or DVD computer animations of Neigh- helpful cells going about their work, and get- you to add them if you wish. borhood c haracters, a nicely-done teacher’s ting diagrammatic ideas about how modern The model comes with a guidebook that guid e, an d education al m erch and is in g technology can help as w ell. There are ani- contains assembly instructions as well as a opp ortunities f or your gift store (for who mated characters to move the story along for progression of lessons on basic astronomical doesn’t need a Henrietta Pussycat or Daniel the younger crowd which can be edited in or concepts in volving latitu de, time, the sea- Striped Tiger plush toy to hug on occasion?). out depending on the sophistication of your sons, and so on that can be conducted using The show provide s an excellent way fo r audience. the model as a prop. The cost of the device is planetariums to capitalize on a bit of popular For those of us looking for alternative pro- $59.95 U.S. – at which price it would be nice children’s culture that also happens to programming opportunities – and w ho isn’t in to have the s tars already plotte d. But it’s a vid e a fir st-rate and frien dly ed ucation al these days of strategic diversification – this is cute and eminently portable celestial sphere exp erie nce f or the yo ungest v ie wers. I f something you may want to check out. If model that can help to put the planetarium you’re interested, contact James Hughes at biology is part of your strategy, this program in perspective – and vice versa. the Buhl Pla netari um, Carnegie S cien ce offers some cutting edge content. For in form ation on assorted MMI prod - Center, One Alleg heny Avenue, Pitts burgh, To learn more about the program, contact ucts or a catalog, contact the compa ny as Pennsylvania 15212, teleph one +1- 412- 237- James Hughes once again as given above. given above. It’s a veritable treasure trove of 3348, fax +1-412-23 7-3395, e-mail hughesj@ useful things to help us in our work. csc. cl pgh .org, w eb sit e w ww .C arnegi e The Earth Space Simulator ScienceCenter.org or www.buhlplane tarium M MI C o rpo rati on, P .O. B ox 1 9907 , Astronomy Notes .org. Balt imore, Maryland 21211 USA, telephone Speaking of treasure troves: at the WAC in And s peaking of c ultures, we c an alway s +1-410-3 66-1222, fax +1- 410-366-6311, e-mail San Diego, I learned of Nick Strobel’s astrono- count on the Buhl to come up with new and mail@mmicor poration.com, we b site www my web resource called “Astronomy Notes” – diverse sorts of programs – the most recent of .mmicorporation.com is one of those eclectic essentially an on-line text for teaching intro- which involves tissue cultures. The program, companies offering all of the sorts of stuff we ductory astronomy. It encompasses all of the prod uced in conjunction wit h the P itt s- love – from plan etariums and obs ervatory traditional topics – history, solar system, cos- burgh Tissue Engineering Initiat ive, Inc. is domes and globes to books, slides, CD-ROMs, molog y, life b eyond Earth and so on w ith called Tissue Engineering for Life . The pro- las er discs , v id eos, and prints on all things concise writing and simple, useful graphics gram is most definitely biological in content, cosmic. and pict ures. The sit e grew out o f Nick ’s featuring the emerging branches of medicine One new ite m I came across recently in teaching at Bakersfield College in Bakersfield,

50 Planetarian December 2004 In San Diego, I picked up a cool little 1/18 everything from technical maintenance as a scale impactor model on heavy glossy paper; service representative of a number of plane- you cut it out and put it together and have a tarium manufacturers to design consulting), little model of t he thing that’s going to go Ash then donates $25 U.S. either to provide a boom into the comet in about s ix months. membership in the clients regional planetar- A s of this writin g, I haven’t been able to ium association or to make a don ation to a locat e a s ource to tell you how to get you r fund of the clie nt’s choic e – the IPS Spit z own if you don’t have one, but if I find out, Fund, the SEPA Scholarship Fund, or another. I’ll let y ou know next time. I wou ld n’t try What a wonderful idea! It’s a small enough banging the model into anything in particu- sum to be affordable to the vendor, and yet lar, but it will be a nice prop to pass around can go f ar in p rov idin g a p lanetarium a as you explain to people what it’s going to year’s worth of fellowship in a regional orga- do. nization or helping to build fu nds for wor- In the meantime, check out the following thy causes within the profession. John hoped w ebsite s to kee p track: ww w.dee pimp act that other vendors would follow suit, and I .jpl.nasa.gov or www.dee pimpact .umd.edu. hope so, too. It can help to strengthen our The JPL page, incidentally, has a great educa- community, wh ich can u ltimate ly serve to tio n page on which to pick up some good benefit ve ndors as we ll – a good deed that ideas relating to the mission – how to make come back around to reward the benefactor. Astr onomy No tes , courte sy of Nick (and eat) a comet and similar cool bits. And it seems a particularly fine sentiment at Strobel. this time of year. Gifts that can keep on giv- A Great Idea from Ash Enterprises ing are always at the top of my holiday list; Californ ia, and he offers it as a freely avail- Joh n Hare of Ash Enterprises mentioned won’t it be on yours as well? able site to access so long as basic copyright in San Diego a new policy of his company – courtesies are observed. namely, w hen s ervicing client s in the vari- Finally … It’s a good s ite and a d efin ite resource. o us w ays his c o mp any do es (p rovidi ng Maybe it’s the eggnog talking, but it seems Have a loo k a t www.astronomynotes.com, to m e that w e all prov id e and enjoy! gi fts that ke ep on giv in g, every time we e xcite or in- Deep Impact is Coming … spire someone about the uni- No, it’s not a new disaster film about ter- verse, or give somebody a lit- ror from outer space. It’s the latest NASA mis- tle pu sh toward cosmic per- sion getting ready to launch in a few weeks spective, or help others to do (December 30) – and unlike Genesis, this one these things in new and use- is s u p p o s e d to crash. Spe ci fic ally , Deep ful ways. So let me raise my Impact will send a one-meter by one-meter mug to you all and wish you (39-in ch b y 39-in ch) 372 -kilo gram (820 - a happy season, a safe and pound) copper projectile smashing int o t he pla ci d new year, and new nucleus of Comet Tempel 1 next July 4 to see and exciting paths to trod as how big a hole it can make. The “impactor” we begin the fifth year of the is expe cted to make a cavit y the siz e of a new millennium. foo tball stadium , which sho uld give the And most of a ll, pea ce. Of mother craft and all t he rest of us a good every sort. view of the insides of a comet, and will allow For now, best wishes, and the mother craft to sample the debris ejected. Deep Impact, courtesy of NASA. as always … what’s new? C Should be quite a show.

(Live Music continued from page 11) (Rainforest, continued from page 19) makes it all enjoyable. of the intensity of nature with its spectacular I have never regretted the effort required color s and memor able sounds. “Fascination because this project has always fulfilled and Rain forest” has also attracted nume rable enthused me anew – I always look forward to school groups, because many topics from t he the next delight ful a dventure, as happened fields of ecology and evolution are presented recently at the IPS Conference in Valencia, in within the framework of the show. The show the fabulous architecture of “L’Hemisfèric”; is als o bein g p resented in the Hamb urg it was a highlight for me and it was just won- Planetarium. It wou ld assuredly be an attrac- derful to have been present! tive enrichment for many planetariums’ pro- I w o ul d li ke to exp ress herewi th m y grams i f th e i ncreasin g techno log ic al frien dship/ kin dness/connection /being in advances were used to show the audience not touch/commitment (in Germany we have only the wonders of outer space, but also the the suitable word “Verbundenheit,” but we wonders of life on earth. C could not f ind a good translat ion ) to the great “family of plan etariums ” and to en- The unm istakab le r ed-ey ed l eaf fr og courage others to try live concerts. C op e ns h is ey e s a t ni g ht. Cou rt esy Hannes Petrischak December 2004 Planetarian 51

Liaison Enseignants-Astronomes (CLEA) pro- International News vidi ng a lot o f do cuments fo r teachers. A nale mi c anim ati ons f o r child ren are Grafton, Andreas Hänel, John Hare, D onna described, followed by a reflection about the Pierce, and Loris Ramponi for your contribu- relative absence of a stronomy in books for tions. Special thanks are due to Loris Rampo- children, and by a review of the importance ni, who contributes the Calendar of Events. o f pl anetariu ms in teachin g astronom y You are welcome back with new reports, and w it hin the of fi cia l schoo l p rograms. In I look forward to contributions from other What’s new, following Jim Manning in the Associations as well. Upcoming deadlines are Planetarian, Planetariums 2004 describes the 1 January 2005 for Planetarian 1/5 and 1 April technical performances of projectors, domes, for 2/5. ima ges, etc. A s pecial place is reserved for News from IPS. And finally Networked Plan- Association of French-Speaking etariums summarizes the report of the 2003 Planetariums APLF Conference in Ludiver, with thoughts Summ er 20 04 w as marke d b y the I PS about the j obs of p eople working in plane- Co nference in Valencia: 19 APLF m embers tariums. The Journal closed with a directory w ere happy to me et in the magic “Hem i- of APLF Planetariums. spheric” c enter, and time was too short to attend all educatio nal presentatio ns and technical demos, and to exchange with all Lars Broman IPS friends comin g from the whole plan et. W e returned home wit h a lo t of CDs and Dalarna University ideas and projects enriched by new collabo- SE 791 88 Falun, Sweden rations on an international level. The report of the Conference w ill appear in the next +46 2310 177 issue of our APLF-Journal. [email protected] The year 2004 is marked by the opening of the APLF web site, constructed by Lionel www.du.se/~lbr Ruiz (M arseille Pla netariu m) and o thers members of our Web-committee coordinat- Three years ago, IPS Council met at the ed by Je an-François Delor me . Ple ase vis it Vatic an Observatory in C astel Gando lfo, www.aplf-planetariums.org. Italy. Now the place has became known to a The year 2004 is also a great year because broader public, since in Dan Brown’s best- our P l a n e t a r i u m s journal ce lebrates its 10th seller The Da Vinci Code, Bishop Aringarosa b irt hday! Created in 1995 by Je an-Mich el from Opus Dei headquarters in Ne w York Faidit, the journal has appeared each year visited the Observatory, and received an im- w ith increasing qu alit y and in full- colo r portant message in the Astronomy Library, since 2002 - thanks to the faithful advertisers which the Council members also visited. RSA Cosmos, Evans & Su therland, Sky-Skan, and Zeiss. Since mu ch in formation is now available on the APLF web pages, the journal can devo te more space to astronomy and Cover of the APLF Journal 2004 Plane - education, a nd it become s cheaper. The X- t a r i u m s. Courtes y of L’Intranqu ille, press version of the papers and images com- Strasbourg. in g from France and beyo nd was done by Laurence Demond, in Strasbourg. Association of Mexican A s it does each year, Planetariums 2004 Planetariums presents highlights on astronomy: the pas- A s mall but w ell represented group o f sage of Venus in front of the sun is followed A MP AC P la netaria ns attend ed the 17 th by an overview of extrasolar p lanets, t hen Bie nnial IPS 2004 Co nference in Valencia on black matter, the hidden face of the uni- las t July, including Jorge Sánchez, AMPAC verse, and galac tic c annib alism. A second Pr eside nt, and M anuel Angel Vi lla gran, part is devoted to planetarium shows: Venus Director of Rehilete Science Center & Plane- and the planet-hunters, the mysteries of the tarium , as w ell as the enthusias tic group southern sky, tales of s pace. The P l a n e t a r i - from the Morelia Convention Center headed by its Director Dr. Genevevo Figueroa Silva Lars Broman studie s Cope rnic us in u m s reported on the history of t he first big the Vatican Observatory Astronomy p lanetarium in stalle d in the Pa la is de la and it s Pla netariu m d ire cted by Gabriel Librar y, 20 Oc tob er 2001 . Cour tes y Muñoz, and Gerardo Trujillo, who eagerly Lars Broman. D é c o u v e r t e in Paris in 1937, about the Ludi- ver Pla netariu m near the sea, about the p resented their bid to hold the 200 8 I PS The International News column is depen- p ortable p lanetarium in Kruth, about the Conference at Morelia, Me xico. A vote will dent o n contribu tion s from IP S Aff iliat e innovations in the Epinal Planetarium, a nd be cast on the 2008 site selection, when the Associations all over the world. Many thanks about new European collaborations across IPS Ex ecutive Co uncil m eets next year in to Agnès A ck er, B art Be njamin , I gnacio the Rhine. Beijing. The Morelia group asks all IPS plane- Castro, G ail Ch aid, Joh n Dickenson, Teresa Education is the first aim of the Comité de tarians to vote for Morelia, Mexico! December 2004 Planetarian 53 The IPS Vale ncia Confe rence was mos t touring the UK s om etime next year. For but this time f rom Edmont on’s Odyssium, useful to attend for Spa nish-speaking plane- more information go t o w ww.nesta.org.uk. came Max and Marjorie Scharfenberger. Max tarians, since it was the first time Spanish A s a d irect result of the Gla sgow S cie nce Scharfenberger was in Valencia primarily to was considered an official lan guage for the Centre’s successful Superstition Event in Feb- do further research on full dome v ideo sys- IPS Conference, having simultaneous trans- ruary, at least t w o other science centers are tems. The old Margaret Zeidler planet arium lations. hosting this event: Techniquest in Ca rdiff, in Ed mo nton , p art o f the outstand in g Recently two new po rtabl e in fla table W ale s and Scien ce Wo rld in Vancouver, Odyssium c omplex, is fin ally at the top of planetariums were inaugurated at Guaymas Canada. the list for refurbishment, and it looks as if and Hermos illo , State of So nora, Mex ico, Gla sgow ’s e vent c o nsis ted o f a S u p e r - Edmonton may be the first Canadian plane- probably the firs t in northwestern Me xico. stit ion C hallenge o bstacle course, the D o tarium to convert to full dome video, per- These add to the c ouple of exist ing perma- Y ou Feel Lu ck y? scie nce show ; and the haps as early as 2005. nent pl an etariu ms at C d. O bregon and W hat’s Your S ign? astrology plan etarium From B C cam e consult ant Robe rt B al- Magdalena de Kino, also in Sonora. Their 5- show. The hope is that this event’s populari- lantyne and IPS Council member John Dick- meter diamet er domes use f lameless fabric, ty will continue to grow amongst science enson. Dicke nson c hairs the IPS S trategic with a seating capacity of 20 to 35 depend- centers everyw here, t hereby prom oting Planning committee, and he and Ballantyne ing on the age of spectators, and a re equip- skeptical thinking and a healthy perception spent the two days immediately prior to the ped wit h Pl anetronix Pr oj ectors, lo cally of science. They have also continued to run Conference presenting and t alking with IPS made by Saul Grijalva. For more info contact a successful series of evenin g le ctures b y Council members about the planning report sgrijalva @planetronix.com.mx. sp eake rs li ke Ro bert B auval ( T he Orion w hic h co nsul tants I an M cL ennan and M ystery; Ke ep er o f Genesis , and Secret Robert Ballant yne had recently completed. British Associations of Planetar- Chamber). For this, the audience was taken This report which includes an analysis of the iums b ack in time to s ee the s ky as it appeared IP S Organiz atio n, Op erati ons and Me m- It has been a sociable year for BAP. Many abov e ancient Egypt 8500 years ago. The bership S ervices generated a great deal of members have alre ady met on three occa- series has als o f eatured Dr. Mario Liv io interest among Council members, and at this sions, f or the AGM, the IPS Conference in (Hubble Space Telescope senior astronomer) time it looks as if Coun cil may be consider- Vale nci a and m ost recently at Ev ans & w ho ma naged the dif ficu lt task of giving in g some changes i n IP S op erati ons and Sutherland’s Discover Digistar 3 e vening at mathematics a human face. Enterprises like direction. IPS Council has asked the Strategic the Lo ndon Planetarium. Over 100 p eople these continue to prove there is a lively mar- Pla nning comm itt ee and the consult ing attended, representing a variety of facilities k et out there f or ima ginative p ublic p ro- team t o do further pro bono work on their (not all of them planetaria) from the UK and gramming in the planetarium universe. proposals. This is now being undertaken and elsewhere in Eur ope. They we re able to see the new research will b e submitted t o IPS the 20 04 dem o that E &S w ere unable to Council about the time that this article goes show in Valen cia and some very excitin g to press. Basically, what the authors of t heir work in progress f rom B AP mem ber Julie report have done is firstly to provide s ome Thompson of Armagh Planetarium. Thomp- ex amp le s and som e real o pp o rtuni tie s son d emonstrated what can b e done after should IPS decide t o go with the pa id secre- two weeks of training in Salt Lake City and tariat s cenario o riginally propos ed to IPS just having a go. She and Tom Mason are cur- Council. Secondly a scaled down version of rently expe riencing what must be the ulti- “First Clas s” is suggested, wh ich if accepted mate frustration because they have no dome wou ld e nable a variety of new tasks to b e at present on which to see what they are cre- more efficiently done by Council and its var- ating. Armagh Planetarium was a trail-blazer, ious c ommittee s. The s caled down version the first anywhere to use video. Thankfully, wou ld probably in clude IPS Council mem- plans are in place to ensure that they once Ar magh Pl anet ari um. Photo : Tom bers, and the Chairs and Members of the var- again have a facility worth having. Mason. ious IPS committees. As some of you will h ave seen on Dome- While attending the Con ference, Dicken- L,Thinktank, Birming ham’s a ward winning Canadian Association of Science son chaired and Ballantyne presented during museum of science and discovery, is to get a Centres a s ession titled Partnership and Collabo ra - new 200-seat digital theatre, due to be com- The recent I PS Conference in Valencia, tion: A Model for Success. This session also pleted in 2005. This, together with associated Spain, saw a number of Canadians in atten- included presentations by Jim Manning and educational a nd corporate facilities and t he dance. Attendees all h ad strong in terests in Agnes Acker. existing museum, will provide an unrivalled the p lanetarium/science center fields, and One final piece of news about a show that scie nce education al facilit y fo r the West several were involved in presentations dur- is playin g at fo ur of the big five Canadian Midlands. For more information, have a look in g the C onfe rence. From the Mo ntreal plan etariums. O r i g i n s seems to be well-pro- at www.thinktank.ac. The Royal Observato- Planet arium came Director Pierre Lacombe. duced, a nd perhaps more importa nt a very ry at Greenwich is also planning a significant Pie rre is s till pla nning f or a new facilit y, well received (i.e. popular) show. It appears to expansion of facilities, in a £15million pro- de spite some recent political uncertainties, be doin g very well in Vancouver, Calgary, ject Tim e and Space which will in clu de a and he is hoping that a location near the old Win nipeg, a nd Montreal, a nd we look for- spectacular new plan etarium. Until this is Olympic stadium will be available. We cer- ward to m ore jo int funding oppo rtunities built (200 6/7) they will have a temporary tainly wish Pierre and his staff every success which can help in the production of future dome on site. as they plan for their new facility. joint programs. Congratulations to the team CosmicSky Production s (Francisco Diego From Alber ta came Calg ary-based archi- involved in the production of Origins. and Gill Russell) are busy putting together tect Bill Chomik, who has recently finished their award-winning project fusing science d esig n/build tasks at the new Eu genide s Council of German Planetariums and art. Their dome (cosmic space) will begin Plan etarium in At hens. Also from Albert a, After it became clear at the Valencia IPS

54 Planetarian December 2004 Conference that European planetariums will hold Observatory to join his farewell party. Indiana. Art Klinger and Chuck Bueter cel- have no chance to get the planetarium show The special surprise guest was Sigmund Jähn, ebrated the 2004 transit of Venus in Misha - R i n g w o r l d on the same condition s as their the fir st German c osmonaut, who spo ke waka. Highlights preceding 8 June included American c olleagues, t he planetarium t eam ab out his sp ace f lig ht o n b oard of the Art’s presentation of the Transit of Venus of Forum am Deutschen Museum in Munich Russian Salyut space station in 1978. plan etarium program; a display of historic decided to produce their own show on the transit of Venus artifacts; two teacher work- Cassin i/Huygens m iss ion . The script was Great Lakes Planetarium Asso- shops; a performance of Joh n Philip Sou sa’s written in collaboration with Andreas Hänel ciation Transit o f V enus March by the Penn High of Osnabrück, and has been distr ib uted t o I l l i n o i s. The Stric kl er Pla netariu m i n School Band; a multi-state art exhibit featur- some ten German planetariums at very rea- Bourbonnais has had some exciting events. in g N AS A’ s S un as Art di spla y and Do n sonable cost. The concept of the show allows As with many facilities, they teamed up with Tuttle’s Transit Time quilt; and the brewing a continuous supplementatio n with latest their lo cal astronomy club to host p ublic of Transit of Venus Sunrise Ale by the Misha- imagery from Cassini and Huygens. The pro- viewing of t he Venus transit. Many people w ak a B rewi ng Co mp any. For the 8 Ju ne duction and distribution could be made pos- were in attendance as student planetarium ob servin g celebr atio n, about twenty tele - sible with the help of NASA, ESA, DLR (Ger- w ork ers f rom their uni versit y (O liv et scopes and free eclipse shades helped a morn- man Space Agency) and others, and might be Nazarene) manned a Celestron-8 and digital in g audience of ove r 200 pe ople from five adapted to other languages too. For further video camera that displayed the transit on a states witness the transit under mostly clear infor mation on its availability , pleas e con- telev ision screen. The La kev iew Museum skies. Six monitors under a tent showed live tact M ark us Steble i, stebl ei @fo rumam Pla netariu m announced that in July , the we b c asts, CNN and local n ews broadcasts, deutschenmuseum.de, phone +49 89 21125 local Vintage Volkswagen Club s ponsored a an image from a video camera mounted on 252. trip to Pluto in Pe oria’s Commun ity So lar an H-alp ha tele scop e, excerp ts from the The nationwide Long Nig ht of the Stars, System mod el. The vin tage VWs traveled Transit of Venus p rogram, and w ebsit e initiated by the German magazine S t e r n o n seven times the speed of lig ht, making this images. 18 September, was one of the very successful the fastest trip to Pluto yet. In August, the M i c h i g a n. The Public M useum of Grand highlights in autumn. Abou t 170 plan etari- m useum sp onso red the Ten th A nnual Rapids hosted a fascinating exhibition this ums and public observatories in Germany, Interplanetary Bicycle Ride. fall entit led The Endurance - Shackleton’s Austria, and Switzerland welcomed a total of The W illiam M. Staerkel Plan etarium at Legendary Antarctic Expedition. To accom- some 100,000 participants on this day. Some Parkland Colleg e in Champaign “survived” pany it, producer Ethan Brown and the staff planetariums had thousands of visitors that through a drainage and r e-landscaping pro- produced a planetarium experience that tells night! People were eager to learn more about ject that bloc ked their front door s while a of exciting exploration stories from through- astronomy and related t opic s. Due to this college “walk of honor” is installed. The staff out history, including Shackleton’s inc redi- success, it has already been decided to repeat als o of fered a telesc ope buyer’s s emina r in ble survival story. The 40-minute audio-visu- the Long Night of the Stars in 2005. October, plus a f ive-week public workshop al presentation, entitled To Boldly Go, also In Septemb er, D ieter B. Herrmann retired on backyard astronomy. Storytellers from lo oks to the future, when the fir st space as director of the Zeiss Grossplanetarium in two local museums were also invited for two explorers set foot on the planet Mars. Berlin and Archenhold Observatory. Many storytelling night in September and Novem- Longway Planetarium in Flint presented a colle agues came to the hist oric al Archen- ber. wide variety of programs this autumn, along with Girl Scout merit badge workshops that started in September and the first telescope users’ workshop in October. After being shut down for the last two months, the Abrams Planetarium in East Lansing reopened with a brand new 12,000 watt, 5.1 surround s ound system and updated Spice equipment. The Cranbrook Institute of Science Plane- tarium in Bloomfield Hills featured their in- house production of The Sky Tonight: Our Invisible Universe in September. This show featured a live tour of the current night sky, a taped segment ex plor ing the cosmo s in types of lig ht human eyes c an not d etect, and a tutorial on how to use a star chart. In Septemb er, they als o off ered a Masters of Science Education astronomy course. In late- Octobe r, the Cranbrook Institute and the Dassault Systèmes Planetarium in Detroit co- hosted the GLPA Conference. The Ka lama zo o Valley M useum Plan e- tarium premier ed Abu elo’s S tories fo r the Seasons in late-September. The program was locally produced and fea tures the talents of the N ew Latino Vision s Theater, the Tex- Mex sounds of Los Bandits, artwork by local People waiting to enter at the Long Night of the Stars in the Nürnberg Planetarium, Mexican American artist Robert de los San- Germany. Photo: Uwe Lemmer. tos, and some amazing work contributed by

December 2004 Planetarian 55 students of Bangor High School. The pro- bein g built. Director Dave DeRemer reports tional sky domes. gram presents a series of seasonal stories with that the building’s foundation has been laid The list of the communications presented an e xpla natio n of how the seasons come and plans are to open by June of 2005. b y It ali an de leg ates d urin g the IP S Con- about. In Hibbin g, Minnesota, the s tars align ed ferences is de scribed in the Italian pages of O h i o plan etarians had good weather for f or d ire ctor M arc Roulea u as he recently the s ite ww w.ip s-plan etarium .org. Am ong the transit of Venus at sunrise on 8 June. Wes married on the summer solstice. His plane- the first Italian representatives during the IPS Orloff (Euclid Schools Planet arium, retired) tarium, t he Pa ulucc i Space Theatre, is also Co nferences we remem ber Guido Ca sadei and Gene Zajac (Shaker Heights Planetarium) b uild ing a new Sola r S ystem mo del. The (1929-1995) f rom Brescia, pa rticipan t in the reported good v iew ing and goo d crow ds scale will be 4000 miles to an inch (i.e. 2500 Salt Lake City and Cocoa Beach conferences, from sites in the Cleveland area. Roger Gros- km to a cm). The sun is represented by an 18- Luca Talamoni from Riviera del Brenta Plan- senbacher (Lancaster S chools Plan etarium, f oot (5.4 m ) pain ting on the p lanetarium etarium, Mira, V enezia, who since 19 94 fol- retire d) le d a transit -watch at a southeast lobby’s wall and the planets will be set out lows IPS Conferences, and Gianluca Ranzini Col umbus M etro park and an Otterbei n in to loca l s chools, attractio ns, and touris t and Fabio Pe ri from Hoe pli Plan etariu m, College/Weitkamp Observatory group did a areas. Pluto will be 12.5 miles (20 km) away Milan. similar program in northwest Columbus. At in the model. The It alian de legates attendin g the IPS the Bowling Green Planetarium, nearly 120 confe rence in Valen cia f or the fir st tim e people showed up for a 6 a.m. observing ses- Italian Planetaria’s Friends Asso- numbered more than 15: Paola Rodari, SISSA, sion from t he University’s rooftop observa- ciation Trieste; Attilio Ferrari, Turin University, who tory. With a laptop computer linked t o t he During the IPS Conference in Borlä nge, presented the project o f t he A stronomical transit’s web cast, a half -meter teles cope Sweden (1990), t he situation of the 55 e xist- Museum and Planetarium of Turin; Vittorio trained on the third-quarter moon, and three ing Italian planetaria was described. After fif- Mascellani, Modena Planetarium F. Martino; portable telescopes aimed at Venus, viewers teen years, the number of planetaria has dou- Luca Fini and Lara Albane se, F irenze Plane- had much to see. Many even stayed for a 7:30 bled, but the most frequently used planetaria tarium; Franco Pacini, As tronomica l Obser- a.m. showing of the Transit of Venus p l a n e- are always the small models, operating main- vatory, A rcetri, Flor ence, w ho p resented tarium program. ly for schools. Modern science centers, with 2009, Year of Ast ronomy; Walter Righi and Cleveland area plan etarians gathered on adjoin ing plan etaria, w ere not exist ing in M arin a Co sta, Rig hi Ob servatory and 27 Ju ne for their annual s umme r p icnic. 1990; now the Na ples C ity of Science and C assi op ea P roj ect, Genov a; Vin cenzo After several years of hosting this event, Bob M useo de l B alì (Pesa ro and Urbino; w ww Vomero, Gabriele Ca tanzaro, and Gianluc a and In grid Sledz passed the baton to Fran .museodelbali.org) are the only t hat include Ranzin i, who de scrib ed the new Ro m e and John Ratka, whose warm hospitality and a dome . In Rome , a new plan etarium has Pla netarium and Astronomic al M useum; grassy back yard provided a welcoming site opened, connected with a permanent astro- Fab io P eri , Ho ep li P la netariu m , M ila n; for the gathering. nomical exhibition. In 1990 only few cities Giamp aolo and Clau dio Gambato, Chiar a Alex Mak is happy to report that the Uni- had big or medium plan etaria which or ga- Frezza, and Ale ssandra Zanazzi, C it y o f versity of Toledo ’s Ritter Pla netarium has nized lectures addressed both to schools and Science, Naples who presented their plane- survive d its f irst year as a self- supporting to t he general public, while today many of tarium model together with the music show institution and that their fall programs will the existing domes are open not only to stu- of the American group Starball. includ e a numbe r o f pla netariu m show s dents. includin g the pe rennial M o o n w i t c h. Con- In the last years, the number of buildings Nordic Planetarium Association gratulations to recent UT grad student Lori specifically plan ned and devoted for plane- This last winter the Orion Planetarium in Schmetzer, who recei ved her Masters in taria has increased, while in 1990 the plane- Je ls, Denmark, had its Z eis s star p rojector Planetarium Science and has begun teaching tarium was well visible only in three cities. upgraded to ZKP3/ B. Planetarium dire ctor astronomy and physical science full-time at The in crease in the diffu sion of the It alian L ars Pe tersen p oi nts out that the new St. Francis Hig h Schoo l in Tole do . Rit ter domes is easier to connect also t o t he work Win dows-based software has proven to be alum Dawn Mulliss recently started working o f promot ion mad e by I talian P lanetaria much more user friendly and easier to pro- at the Boonshoft Museum of Disco very as Frie nds Associat ion through yearly me et- gram using the built-in time-line. In May the their Physical Science Coordinator. ings, courses, publications, papers, the Day of Orion Planetarium launched a new planetar- W i s c o n s i n / M i n n e s o t a. The Min nesota P l a n e t a r i a , a nd the census of Italian plane- ium show in collabor ation with the Steno state legis lature did not say “no” to a new taria that is available on the site www.plane- Museum Pla netarium in Århus, Denmark state-of-the-art plan etarium in Minneapolis, taritaliani.it. called Stjernemusik & Plane tdans (Music of nor did they say “yes”. The Planetarium bill Among the existing planetaria, 54 are built Stars and Dance of Planets). This show takes received bipartisan and statewide support in in It aly, 34 are the small Goto Ex-3 model the audience on a tour in time and space to 2004 session. Unfortunately, the legislatu re and 20 are produced abroad; among those, 10 visit current and future satellite -based re- adjourned without any bonding bill bein g are itin erants with infla table d omes. That search proj ects wit h e mp hasis o n stellar passed. Plans call for the Minneapolis Plane- means that in the past, the availability of an oscillations and the search for exoplanets. It tarium to go ba ck t o the state legislature in in exp ensive manual mo de l fo r nautic al includes many new compu ter sim ulation s 2005. If funding is obtained in the spring of schools and the production in the last years p roduced especia lly fo r this show . New s 2005 , t he new M innesota Pla netarium & o f com pe tit ive mo de ls made by It al ian about next year’s NPA Conference in Jels is Space Discovery Center would open in late craftsme n limit ed the m arke t to fo reign now available at www.orionplanetarium.dk. 2007. manufacturers to the field of big high cost M ore de tails on NPA -20 05 w ill b e adde d On more positive news, two planetaria in p rojects. Digit al pla netaria now b egin to from time to time to the web site. the Milwaukee area are receiving major in - appear also in Italy - Turin (www.plan etar Per Broman reports that Broman Planetari- vestments. In Wauwautosa, t he Gary Samp- ioditorino.it) is the first step in this field. The um recently has delivered two new Starlab son Planetarium is receiving an almost quar- plan etarium there is close to a professional pla netariums to No rdic customers, one to ter million dollar upgrade. And in Waukesha, astronomical observatory, which may open Vib org in Denm ark and one to Scie nce a brand new Charles Horwitz Planetarium is the in terest of ope rators also to non-tradi- Cir cus in Norwa y. Both projectors are the

56 Planetarian December 2004 fiber arc mod el. Finally, some news from to 1 October 2004. Vendors gave many pre- writer, Jon Bell, art/graphics, Edwin Faughn, Dalarna Univer sit y in Falun, Sw eden: The sentations and provided all kinds of support and s oundtrack artist, Jonn Serrie. Expec ted firs t eig ht students have complet ed their for the three-day conference. Vendors who completion is sometime in 2005. studies and will soon obtain their Ma ster’s presented papers were Ash Enterprises, Audio Carole Helper, Fort Myers, F lorida addres- degrees in Science Communication. The sec- Visua l Engineering, Bow en Technovatio n, sed new members at the recent SEPA/MAPS ond Master’s program s tarted this fall with Ev ans & S utherland, Geographics Ima ging C onfe rence i n Ric hmond, Vir ginia . This 27 students from Europe, Africa, Asia, and and Consultin g, Goto USA, Starlig ht Pro- event takes plac e at the beginning of each North and Central America. Prospective stu- d uction , Loc hNe ss Pro ductio ns, Kon ic a- year’s conference and furnishes newcomers de nts f or the 20 05/6 one-year program Min olta, Sky-Skan, S pitz Inc, and Seiler In- with helpful information to make their con- should apply befo re 1 M arch 2005 . More struments. The conference provided the 76 ference e xperience more rewarding. Helper inf ormation is availa ble at w ww.Scie nce attendees with a vital platform for network- was instrumental in organizing the first such Communication.se. ing, sharing and learning new things to take event a number of years ago and has contin- back to their planetarium communities. ued that effort ever since. Pacific Planetarium Association At the PPA meeting Alan Gould, president, New officers will assume office on 1 Janu- In S outhern C alif ornia at Los Angele s expertly guided the attendees through the ary 2005 : a s Pr eside nt Pa tsy Wilson , Salis- Valle y Colleg e, David Falk has receive d a business agenda. The bylaw revisions were bury, North Carolina; as Past President Mike NASA Curriculum Improvement Partnership approved and reports were made. At present Sandras, Kenner, Louisiana; as President Elect Grant. Funds will be used to replace an old there is no 2005 or 2006 conference site, but Adam Thanz, Kingsport, Tennessee; as Secre- Sp itz A-3p w it h a Sp it z Scid om e Dig it al Fairbanks, Alaska, has invited PPA members tary/Treasurer Duncan Teague, Me mphis, Projector. It is Macintosh-based so that cam- for September of 2007 (2 weeks on either side Tennessee; and as IPS Council Representative pus M edia A rts and C om me rci al Music of the equinox when there is a new moon). John Hare, Bradenton, Florida. departments c an pa rticip ate in c ross-dis ci- Regions will vote on the 2007 site next year. Atlanta’s Fernbank Planetarium will host pline content creation. A new sound system In the meantime, Alan Gould and Gail Chaid the next SEPA conference. Dates are 14-18 and cove lighting will a lso be upgraded. All are on the conference committ ee and they Ju ne 2005 .Further in formation regarding imp ro vem ent sho uld be com p le te b y w ill work wit h representative s from the SEP A is avail able at the w ebsit e- sep a February, 2005 . E arly in the fall, JPL and o ther region s to come up w ith a s it e fo r domes.org. Valley College sponsored a workshop called 2005, to be decided on b y the end of Nov- Teaching Introductory Astronomy. Later in ember. The 2006 site will also be chosen but Southwestern Association of the year a new co urse c alle d P la netary probably not until spring of 2005. A number Planetariums Science will be offered. of suggestions have been made. Jim Rusk, SWA P’s renowned S ecretary/ Mov in g north to San Jos e, Califo rnia, Treasurer, was elected Fellow at the IPS Con- teachers attending programs at Ind epen- Southeastern Planetarium Asso- ference last summer. Jim’s name was placed dence Plan etarium kep t tellin g Gail Chaid, ciation in to nom in atio n by SWA P IP S Rep re- Director, that Boa rds of Trustee me mbers P lanetariu ms in the SEPA regio n w ere sentative Donna Pier ce. Jim has been an needed a statement of purpose before they threatened b y a record numb er of hurri- active mem ber of SWA P and IPS for over would allow funds to transport students on a canes. Five named storms hit Florida as well twenty years and has served as SWAP Secre- field trip to the planetarium. Using the infor- as other regions nearby. It’s too soon to tell if tary/Treasurer since 1997. In 1978 Jim was co- mation on the Califor nia State S tandards any facility suffered major damage but sever- host for the SWAP Conference held in Dallas; websit e Chaid rewrote the p la netariu m al were affected to some extent. Ironica lly, in 2000 Jim was on the Planning Committee brochure to reflect the standards. Astronomy the B CC P la netariu m in Co coa, Flor ida , for The Western Alliance Conference TEXAS is only off icially taught in third, fifth , a nd served a s a shelter during Hurricane Frances 2000 in Dallas. Jim has published a number eighth grades in C alifor nia. Astronomy is as it wa s one of the most substantial struc- of articles, several of them in Plan etarian. connected to all scien ce, so Gail took the tures on camp us. Dir ector M ark How ard Rusk is presently the Director of t he Russell standards and a generic p rogram calle d reported no damage from that storm. Planetarium in Mesquite, Texas. Creatures of the Sky and wrote a description SEPA will produce a solar s ystem show Grand Prairie I. S.D. Board of D irectors has including the words from the standards for that will be distr ibuted to members f ree of announced the naming of Grand Prair ie each of the grade s 1- 10 . In this way, the charge. The prod uctio n team consis ts of Schoo ls Pla netarium for fo rmer d ire ctor teachers can use the description taken directly from the standards for their “purpose” on fie ld trip f orm s. The result s have been extremely positive. Grades levels that previously could n ot visit the plan etarium now have the j ustifica tion to t ake the fieldtr ip. Attendance has increased. Lawrence Hall of Scien ce in Be rkeley is working on an e xhibit f unded b y NSF to give visitors control of a telescope in Austra- lia. They will acquire astronomica l imag es and delv e in to those im ages with sim ple image processing software tools. LHS also has a new audience-interaction show on the sun funded by NASA. A b ouque t of thanks to Joh n You ng f or prepari ng and runni ng the San Die go Ca ro le He lpe r, F or t My er s, Fl or i da ad dre ssin g ne w m em ber s at th e r ece nt Western Alliance Conference 29 September SEPA/MAPS Conference in Richmond, Virginia. Photo by John Hare.

December 2004 Planetarian 57 tarium Operator. f erence (JPS ), Osaka Scie nce Museum, w w w . b r e s c i a Japan. s c i e n z a . i t / c i t y l i n e 16-18 Septembe r. Nor dic Planetarium Asso- /cult/photog.htm ciation Conference (NPA), Orion Planetar- Late A pril o r early ium , Je ls, Denmark. www.orion plan etar May. Mid dle A t- ium.dk la ntic Pla netar- 24-25 September. International Planetarium ium Society Con- Societ y Council Meeting, Beij ing Pla ne- fe rence (MA PS ), tarium, Beijing, China. Fels Plan etarium, 30 September. Yearly deadline for the appli- P h i l a d e l p h i a cants of A week in Italy for a Spanish and a (USA). French Planetarium Operator. www.colib- 6-8 May. Bri ti sh r i o n l i n e . i t / M G / i n t e r n a t i o n a l _ c o l l a b o Associa tio n o f ration.htm Planetaria (BAP) , 9 October. XX National Meeting of It alian Annual C onf er- Pl anetaria , Brescia, I taly . w ww .colib ri ence, Museum of online.it/MG/planetari_news.htm Scie nce and In - 17-23 October. A week in Italy for an Ameri- dustry, Manchest- can Planetarium Operator (each year since The John Carl Pogue Planetariu m in G rand Prairi e School er (Unite d Kin g- 1995). ww w.b rescia scie nza.it /cit ylin e/ District in Grand Prairie, Texas, USA. Photo: John Pogue. dom). It will be a cult/photog.htm John Carl Pogue. Pogue is a well known edu- joi nt m eeti ng 31 D ecemb er. Deadlin e of Eugenides Foun- cator in the planetarium field, having served with the AAE (Association for Astronomy dation Sc riptwriting Contest (contestants as SWAP President and IPS President, and was Education). can submit scripts f rom1 July 2005) . For a former member of the Grand Prairie School 6-8 May. III European Meeting of Itine rant more infor matio n: stidey @sabreshockey Board. Planetaria, Nantes (France) in conjunction .com with the yearly meeting of Association of Calendar of events French-Spe ak in g Pla netari ums (APL F). 2006 2005 www.aplf-planetariums.org and www.col- 8- 10 Ju ne. E urop ean Co ll abo rati ve fo r 1 March. Deadline for application for the pro- i b r i o n l i n e . i t / M G / i n t e r n a t i o n a l _ c o l l a b o r Science, Industry and Technology Exhibi- gram that starts 22 August 2005, Master of ation.htm tio ns (EC SITE ) A nnual C o nfe rence, Scie nce C om muni catio n at Dala rna 10 -12 J une. Eu ro pe an C ol la bo rativ e fo r Technopo lis, M echelen , Be lgiu m.w ww University, Sweden. www.ScienceCommu Science, In dustry and Technology Exhi- .ecsite.net nication.se b it ion s (EC SI TE) A nnual C onf erence, 24-27 July. Under the Southern S kies, XVIII 20 March. International Day of Plan etaria. Heureka , Vantaa (Hels in k i) , Fi nla nd. International Plan etarium S ociet y Con- www.planetaritaliani.it www.ecsite.net fe rence, C rown Prom enade, Melbo urne, 10-11 April. Conference of German S peaking 14-18 June. Southeastern Planetarium Associ- Australia. www.ips2006.com Planetaria (ADP), atio n Co nfe rence (SE PA ), Fernb ank For c orrections and new informat ion please Europlanetarium, Genk, Belgium. Scie nce C enter, Atlanta, Geo rgia , USA. send a m essage to Lo ris Ramp oni at 15 April. Yearly deadline for the applicants of www.sepadomes.org lo ris @coli brio nlin e.i t o r i nfo @serafi - A week in It aly fo r an America n Plan e- 12-14 July. Japa n Planetarium Soc iety Con- nozani.it. C

(Last Light, continued from page 64) From hydrogen burning There clustered tight Hold back the night To helium glow In the blue smoke’s bight At the end of a long hard day To carbon furnace’s roar New stars are beginning to spin, As they’re knockin’ ‘em down Till the flash of a knife And fathers’ worst fears In the parking lot Sends a bone-crushing light For their daughters dear In the back of an old Chevrolet. Bursting through the door. Play out in the dark once again.

Through a hissing and sputtering With a shock and a blow In the breaking dawn Red and green glow And a hot wind’s glow As the trucks roll home Flies a forbidden fluorescent refrain One life ebbs quickly away Scattered embers begin now to shine From blue stars’ light But they’re knockin’ ‘em up In dusky wombs In bubbles bright In the parking lot Formed from bright suns’ tombs Spun from dances of pleasure and pain. In the back of an old Chevrolet. And the waiting begins one more time.

In an organic haze And sparks are struck For that next steamy night Stirred by violet rays Past the pickup trucks “Neath the moon’s cool light Barkeeps ply their magic again Where the bayou wends it way At the bayou’s foggy fringe Mid the din and roar And the black water knows When babes in the arms Of the dark bar’s core Where the dancers go Of mothers wan And restart the cycle of sin. At the end of the long hard day. Can dream of their chance to join in. C

58 Planetarian December 2004

hand to f ield question s from hundreds of Gibbous Gazette school students visiting the Education Alley section o f the Co nf erence w as M a r g y request for a copy of the S pacekid s Work - Natalie, the Aerospace Educator in Residence b o o k on yo ur le tterhead and s end it to: from the Fairfax County Public Schools. You No rthrop Grumm an Space Technolo gy, mig ht be in terested in ob taining some of C om munit y Relat io ns, One Space Pa rk, their Aerospace 4 Educ ators CD ’s. For more E2/10062, Redondo Beach, California 90278. in fo rmation c ontact Doug at b ald win d@ They also offer reprints of their very infor - nasm.si.edu o r vis it them online at w ww mative Space Primer, a glossy 32-page book- .nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy. let updated in 2004! Over at the Western Allian ce of Pla ne- The are lots of great resources available all tarians Conference, I ran into another friend- about the closest star to us, The Sun. Check ly face. It was none other than Bill A. Gutsch, o ut the Liv in g W it h A Star Pr o gram a t Jr., Ph.D. Bill is now the President and CEO of http:// lws.gsfc.nasa.gov. There w as a la rge the Challen ger Ce nter f or Space Scie nce contingent of educators from Goddard Space Educ ation in Alexan dria, V irginia. You can Flight Center giving away lots of cool hand- drop Bill a note at his new em ail add ress, outs, posters, star shaped pencils and related [email protected]. I heard Bill deliver materials. Together with the great movies at one of the be st keynote addresses I’ve ev er the SOHO website, http://sohowww.nascom heard at the MA PS /SE PA co nfe rence i n James P. Hughes .nasa.gov, you can make an awesome show Richm ond, Vir ginia , back in June of this on the sun. A fast connection to the Internet year. It w as a talk about the top things to Planetarium Producer w ill all ow you easy access to the M PEG remember in order to make a great planetari- Henry Buhl, Jr. Planetarium movies at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov um show. When I asked Bill if he would consider letting me print a copy of it in this col- & Observatory /bestofsoho/Movies/movies2.html. Touting the slo gan “The M other Of All umn, he said t hat he thought he might be Carnegie Science Center Data Bases,” the Naval Research Laboratory able to get a few more free meals out it first. I’ll keep after him, so keep your eyes on this One Allegheny Avenue in Washington D.C. has a cool movie called “The Art of Orbital Debris.” it shows the myr- column for an update. In the me antim e, if Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania iad human-made objects that dance around you’ve got an interesting tip or enlightening 15212 USA the Earth. Contact Dr. Henry Dardy for infor- revelat ion to share, send it to me at the mation about the Large Data Visualiza tion address above and I’ll be happy to share it (1) 412-237-3348 voice program at [email protected]. with the readers of this journal! The Na tio nal Co alit io n fo r A via tio n (1) 412-237-3395 fax Planetariums On The Move Education has a website that links organiza- In a ceremony held in Dhaka and presided [email protected] tion s interested in Av iation and Ae rospace o ver by Pr ime M ini ster Kh ale da Z ia , the Education at www.aviationeducation.org Moulana Bhasani Novo Theatre was inaugu- Space, The Final Frontier … rated as the first planetarium in Bangladesh As a benefit of writing for this journal, I People on the Move on September 25th, 2004! An aggressive cam- recently us ed my press c redentials to gain a If you reside in Massachusetts, Vermont, paign to link rural schools via the Internet free pass to the American Institute of Aero- New Hampshire, or Maine, be on the lookout using the latest comp uter technology is an nautics and Astronautics Conference in San f or M ic hael (Mi ke ) A. M arks . M ik e w as in it iat ive o f the M in ist ry o f Scien ce and Diego, C alifor nia. It turned o ut that they recently appoint ed a s exclusive Starlab sys- Inform ation Commun icat ion Technology were having their conference at the same tems representative by Learning Technol- and the Min is try o f Housi ng and Pub lic time and place as the Digistar Users Group ogies, Inc. of Somerville, Massachusetts. Mike Works. Meeting/Western Alliance of Plane tariums is also the p reside nt and chief astronomer The Beijing Planetarium in Beijing, China Conference. In between sessions at the U.S. (COA???) of a complementary business, The will be the first p lanetarium to feature the Grant Hotel and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Sky Connection, which provides hands-on Z e i s s All Dom e L aser I mage Pr o jectio n Center, I made my way over to the San Diego astronomy expe riences for c amps, schools, System (ADLIP) driven by a Silicon Graphics Convention Center for a peek into the Ven- nature centers, and other organizations and Onyx v isualization c omputer. It should be dors Hall and the nearby Education Alley. gatherings. For more information about The open soon. Keep an eye out for more details. Af ter attendin g the las t fe w pla netariu m Sky Connectio n vis it http:/ /www .thesky And speaking of Zeiss, Carl Zeiss has been conferences as a vendor, it was refreshing to connection.com. comm issio ned by Asahika wa, t he second see some new faces and invigorating to s ee While attending the American Institute of l argest cit y o n the is la nd o f H ok ka i do the massive trade show boo ths of the b ig Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference in (Japan), for delivery of a Starmaster planetari- name vendo rs like Nor throp Grumm an, San Dieg o I spotted a frien dly- faced man um for a new science center currently being Loc kheed Martin , a nd Boe ing. These and with a familiar name sounding name printed built there. It is the first Zeiss planetarium in other compa nies and o rganiza tio ns mee t in crisp bo ld le tters on his nam e tag. I t 40 years to go to Japan. The p lanetarium is once a year to showcase their latest technol- turned o ut to be Doug Ba ldwin ( f o r m e r l y due to be delivere d a nd installed in spring ogy and projects. I knew that there would be with the Kelly SpaceVoyager Planetarium in 2005. plenty of contacts and resources for me to Charlo tte, N orth Carolina ). Doug is now find for you so here are just a few of them. w it h the Ed ucatio n Dep artm ent o f the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Cetner of the National Did you know … Northrop Grumman has a very nice color- … that you can view thousands of images ing book availab le f or the asking. Writ e a A ir and Space Museum, Sm it hsoni an Institution in Chantilly, Virginia . Also o n of Earth taken by students via a digital cam- 60 Planetarian December 2004 era aboard the ISS? Visit the website http:// Space Telescope Science In stitute, Simula - www.earthkam.ucsd.edu to lear n all about tion by Chris Mihos (Case Western Reserve this great program that your visitors and stu- Unive rsit y) and La rs Hernquis t (Harvard de nts are sure to enjoy. The I S S E a r t h K a m Univer sity); “Cos mic C ruisin g 2” Vis uali- program has been giving school students the zation by Frank Summers, STSCI, Simulation oppor tunity to control the camera via the b y M arti n W hit e and La rs H ernq uis t web since 1996! (Harvard University); Virtual Voyage – Flight … that Lance B ass the “certif ied cosmo- to the Milky Way Core, from the “Black Hole naut” and *N SYN C m em ber and Wo rld P r o j e c t ” – produced by Thomas Luc as Pr o- Space Week Youth Spokesman visited public ductions in c ollabor ation with the Denver schools in and a round Los A ngeles during M useum of N ature and Scie nce and the Wo rld Sp ace Week 2004 (Octobe r 4 - 10) , NCSA, Produ cer/Art Dir ector - Donna Cox, speaking w ith students about space exp lo- Choreo grapher/Art Dir ector - Robe rt Pat- ration and why science and math are critical terson, V isu alizat ion Pr ogrammer - Stuart keys to their fu ture. Launched on the same Lev y; “Space Librar y Trailer” and “Oasis In day Scaled Compos ites hopes to c linch the S p a c e ” – Produced by Spitz Creative Media, $10 millio n A nsari X Pr ize , Wo rld Space Producer - Mike Bruno, Animation Design & Week w ill lever age the excit ement of this Direction - Brad Thompson, Animators - Bill new space race to s po tlig ht the need fo r Carr, In na Leonov, Wes Thompson, Music - impr ove d math and s cie nce education in John Avarese. A variety of short trailers were our nation’s schools. also presented including, “ M a r s ” – Produced … t hat the historic hangar at the Y a n k e e b y the N ation al Space C enter, Pr od ucer/ Air Museum near Ypsilanti, Michigan, burn- The E sk y II i ns ide the Hack worth Director - Annette Sotheran, Lead Animator - ed to the ground! Their had been p la ns IMAX theater in San Jose, California, A ndy Gregory, Senio r A nima tor - Roger underway for a $55 million dollar expansion awaits the more than 200 visitors to Jones, Animator - Paul Mowbray, Production the firs t ever ASTC Full Dome Video project. No word on how it w ill effect the Showcase! Picture courtesy of SPITZ, Assistant - Helen Osbourn, Music & Sound expansion. Inc. Effects - sonicXploras, Surround Sound Mix – … that plan etarians Shane Horvatin a n d Geo rge B arn ett; “E arth’s Wi ld Ri de – Jennifer Easton were married in the chapel at pacsci.org/origins or by emailin g origins@ Canyon/Thunderstorm”- Produced by Home MSU and had the reception in the Abrams pacsci.org. Run Pictures, Director – Tom Casey, Anima- planetarium Sept 4th, 2004. They met at the tors – To m Ny paver and Gerry Wagner; IPS in Kansas. S he works at the Longway Look, it is a bird, it’s a plane, it’s “ D i n o s a u r ” – P rod uced b y Hom e Run Plan etarium in Flint Mic higan and he’s at another full dome video show- P ict ures, Pr od ucer/Dir ector Tom C asey, the Abrams. They honeymooned in Orlando case … Animators – Tom Nypaver, Desiree Roy and between Frances and Ivan. Spitz, Inc . sponsored first Fulldome Video Gerry Wa gner; S how Reel Including Trailer Pro duction Showcase at this year’s annual for Stars of the Ph araohs” – Evans & Suther- A S T C conference in San Jos e, C alifo rnia. A la nd Digita l Theater, Pr odu cer – Mic hael sampling of the work of the world’s best and Daut, Execu tive Pr oduc ers – Terence Mur- mos t interesting d igita l do me artists were tagh & Kirk Johnson; “Legends of t he Night presented at the Tech Museum of Innova- Sky : Orion ” – Pr od uced b y A udioV is ual tion ’s Hackworth IMAX Dom e Theater, on I magi neerin g & Spi tz Creativ e M edia , Mo nday, Septembe r 20, at 12:3 0 PM. The Director- Eddie Pittman, Technical Director – theater was fitted with a temporary ESky IId Joe Sandstrom, Screenplay by Derek Mackey fulldome video display system provided by and Eddie Pittman, Producer – Willie Castro, Spitz, Inc., with the generous support of JVC Ex ecutive Pr oduc er – Joanne You ng; “ T h e Americas Corporation, Elumens Corporation Search For Life : Are We Alone?” and “ P a s s - and Silicon Optix, Inc. The special one-hour p ort to the Unive rse” Develop ed by the dome video session launched Big Screen Day American Museum of Natural History in col- at ASTC, which features screenings of the lat- labora tion with the NASA; “Sonic Vision” – est lar ge-format f ilms . All Fulldome Video Develope d b y the Am erica n Museum of Shane Horvatin and Jenni fer Eas ton met at IPS 2002 in Wichita, Kansas! Showcase productions were produced us ing Natural History in collaboration with Moby a 1536 x 1536 pixel polar fisheye frame called and in association with MTV2. “SonicVision” a dome master. These frames are played back is ma de po ssible b y generous spo nsorship … that the Pac if ic Scie nce Center is dis- uncompressed from a hard drive player and and technolog y suppor t from Sun M icro- trib utin g c om plim entary scie nce center are fed to the high-resolution projection sys- system s; “Kat uok a’hin a, The Enchanted resources related to the NOVA Origins Four- tem. For the ASTC demonstration, dual pr o- Reef ” – Exec utive Pr odu cer – Sof tmachine part Television Series on PBS! The series host jectors are emp loy ed to achieve sufficien t Gmb H, Pro ducer/Dir ector/Writ er – Pe ter is po pula r astro physic ist Ne il d eGrasse brightness for the Tech M useum’s dome . A Po pp, Art Dir ector/Produ ction Designer – Tyson, who guides viewers on a cosmic jour- variety of s hows w ere fe atured in the pro- Daniel Ploch inger, Original Music – Florian ney from the beginning of time to the far gram in clu ding: in the Scien tific Vis uali- Ka p pl er & Danie l Req uard t, A dd it io nal reaches of the unive rse-in search o f the zation category; The Orion Nebula Sequence music – Les Dabacools; “DarkStar Adventure” recipes for life. To get your hands on the free- from “Passport to the Universe”, Developed – W o rk-i n-pro cess, p ro duced b y Sp it z bies go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ by the American Museum of Natural History C reativ e M ed ia, P roducer – M ike B runo, origin s for more informa tion. You can also in collaboration w ith NAS A; “Galaxy Col- Story Co ncep t- Jo hn S tok e, Ani matio n o btain the material s f rom http :/ /ww w. l i s i o n ”- Vis ualization by Frank S umm ers, Desig n & Dir ecti on – Brad Tho mp son,

December 2004 Planetarian 61 Animators – Bill Carr, Inna Leonow, Wes Teo. A Artz, Co-Dire ctors/Anima tors – Thompson, Voices – Liz Seymour, Marcus Max Callahan & Christopher P. Redmann, Stevens, Chris Chandle r, M usic - Joh n Student Anim ators – Joh n A. Wasong, Av arese. Works screened in the E xpe r- Jas per Ahin ong Zhang, David Abrams, imental and Art category included: “Card Music by John Avarese; “Optical Nervous G a m e ” – Produce d by R&M Productions, S y s t e m ” – Pr od uced by the elu me nati, Directed by Ryan Wyatt, An imation by Dire ction/Visua l Pr oduction and Mix – Mike G eorge and Ryan Wyatt, Mu sic by David McConvile, Music – Jason Holland, Jeff Oishi; “Wings of Memory” – Produced Voic e- o rig in al f rom the Ala n Watts by Hue Walker , Music excerpted f rom archives provide b y Ma rk Watts, Special “Gateway” by Mic hael Stearns, Sp ecial thanks to D’nardo Colu cci, e lume nati, thanks to David Benning of the LodeStar Steve M ann and C layton Hooker, Black Astronomy Center and Robert Stevick for Box Studio, Eric Krisley, Silent K Design geometric insp iration; “ R + J ” – A produc- and sigitation.com. tion of LivinGlobe/Carl Zeiss Planetarium Div ision/ Sky S kan Europe, Directed by What’s the Good Word? Harald Sing er, Director of Photography – Keep me in mind if you have any great Peter Mathes, Visual Design/Compositing, ideas or news to share. Your contributions Ke vi n B eaulie u, P rodu ced by Be ttina mak e a w orld of diff erence! Send you Pfander, Co-Produced by Wilfried La ng Sti ll f ro m an upco m in g Fu ll D om e comments, wedding photos and program and Gle nn Sm it h; “In a Pi g’s Ey e” – Pro ducti on by Hom e R un Pi ctur e s in news to the address at the top of this col- Pittsburgh, Pennsy lvani a. Image Courtesy umn. C Produced by Drexel University and amal- Home Run Pictures. gamation house, inc., Director/Animator –

62 Planetarian December 2004

Last Light

April S. Whitt Participants and p resenters at the Extreme Astronomy @ Adler short course gath- Fernbank Science Center ere d i n C hi cag o, Ill inoi s, USA at the end o f Sept emb er . Pho to cr edit: R andy 156 Heaton Park Drive NE Landsberg University of Chicago.

Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA “What should we send instead?” I asked. were driving back to the airport late at night, [email protected] “Monkeys!” was their answer. Not exactly and were stopped at a military police road- what I was expecting. block, probably set up to catch smugglers. Solstice season greetings. Whether y ou’re Tw o off ice rs que stion ed them . S he me n- sunning on a beach or skiing down a snowy * * * tion ed that they we re workin g wit h the hill, best wishes for a safe holiday season and Several dozen planetarians gathered at the Auger array, a response that is usually me t a prosperous new year. Adler Planetarium and S cience M useum a t with, “Oh, no problem. Move along.” the end of September for a s hort course in One of the officers replied that he had no * * * extreme astronomy. Professors from the Uni- idea what the array was, and directed them Steve Tidey opens this column with a con- versity of C hicago and Nor thwestern Uni- to get out of the car and open the trunk. tribution from the Valencia meeting: versity lect ured a bout X- and gamma-rays, The second officer turned to the first one A highly experienced Canadian planetari- ground- and space-based research in high in astonishment and asked, “You mea n you um archite ct, Bill Chomik, gave a knowl- energy astronomy, cosmic ray and neutrino never heard of high energy cosmic rays?” edgeable and fascinating presentation from de tection , bla ck holes and active galaxies. They were waved through the roadblock an outsider’s perspective, about the realities My b rain wa s nearing critical ( knowledge) with no further questions. of designing and building our weird theatres. m ass and narrow ly avoid ed go ing nov a. He was followed on stage by Balir Parkin, a (Perhaps this brain would have simply gone * * * Brit is h pl anetariu m de sig n consult ant, white dwarf?) Al Harper is another researcher at the Uni- whose first words were, “I don’t believe it; The presentations were full of excellen t versity of Chicago, w orkin g with infrared I’ve just met an architect who speaks fluent analog ies , u seful fo r answering qu estion s in strumentatio n. He wrote the follow ing dome!” from the general public. Computer generat- poem in the style of Robert Service. I remem- ed sim ul ati ons o f vari ous p henom ena ber hearing Service’s poetry as a c hild, and * * * showed us that an animation is defin itely the rhythms f it star formation as well as Garry T. Stasiuk’s contribution may be of worth a thousand words. they fit auroras. As the Hunter is visible for use during holiday programs: A nd there w ere de lig htful sto ri es. Dr. most of us this season, I hope you will enjoy Q: How does Santa deliver presents all over Angela Olinto related an e xperience on the this as much as I have. the world on Christmas Eve? Argentina/Chile border, where she and col- A: With Rudolf the red-shift reindeer. le agues are w orkin g o n the Pie rre A uger East Texas Epithalamion array. A 3000 square kilometer array of water (Friday Night at the Orion Café) * * * Cherenkov tanks is s pread over flat Pampa At Fernbank, we’ve been visited by classes A marilla de sert, wit h fo ur f luo rescence From deep in the night of fourth graders studying the solar system. detectors overlooking the array. Past the moon’s cool light During one o f t heir visit s, w e w ere talkin g The pe ople who liv e in nearby tow ns In a dark cloud’s smoky sway about the surface of Venus, and how a per- have taken an interest in the project. Scien- Comes a neon glow son without a spacesuit could step out of a tists have presented information sessions for And a backbeat slow spaceship on Venus’ surface and be smashed the lo cal pop ulat ion , and have spo ken to That marks the Orion Café flat, fried and poisoned all at once. school classes in the area. Student essay-con- “Is Venus a good p lac e to send human test winners have had tanks named for them. Where heat and light astronauts?” I aske d, ready to talk abou t Almost anyone can tell you what the project robot explorers. is and what data it will be collecting. (Please see Last Light on page 58) “NO!” came the chorus. As Dr. Olinto related, she and a colleague 64 Planetarian December 2004

66 Planetarian December 2004