Planetarian-March 2015

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Vol. 44, No. 1 March 2015

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Supercomputers translate data into “wow” Page 12

Articles March 2015 Vol. 44 No. 1 10 “Sweet Sixteen” is fast approaching Executive Editor Staff, Copernicus Science Centre Sharon Shanks 12 Visualizing the Data Judith Rubin Ward Beecher Planetarium 18 The Logic of SETI: 20 Years later Michael Chauvin Youngstown State University 22 Passages, spirals and embody movements in the digital One University Plaza revolution under the dome Isabella Beyer Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 39 Under One Dome: Noble Planetarium Scott Sumner +1 330-941-3619 60 The amare of springtime in Italy Dave Weinrich [email protected] 68 Tributes: Chris A. Highlen Webmaster Alan Gould Holt Planetarium Columns 32 Bard Spiral ...... Chuck Rau Lawrence Hall of Science 66 Book Reviews ...... April S. Whitt University of California 70 Calendar of Events...... Loris Ramponi Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA 32 Data to Dome ...... Mark SubbaRao +1 510-643-5082 34 Digital Dome and Beyond ...... Carolyn Collins Petersen +1 510-642-1055 fax 30 From the Classdome ...... Jack L. Northrup [email protected] Advertising Coordinator 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks 42 International News...... Lars Petersen Dr. Dale Smith 72 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt (See Publications Committee on page 3) 58 Mobile News ...... Susan Reynolds Button Membership 66 Partycles...... Alex Cherman Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years 8 Past President’s Message ...... Dave Weinrich Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 6 President’s Message ...... Joanne Young Library Subscriptions: $50 one year; $90 two years 54 Seeking What Works...... Jeanne Bishop All amounts in US currency 64 Sound Advice ...... Jeff Bowen Direct membership requests and changes of 68 Waxing New ...... Sharon Shanks address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman Printed Back Issues of Planetarian IPS Back Publications Repository maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; contact information is on next page Index of Advertisers Final Deadlines 3DUNO...... 45 March: January 21 Astro-Tec ...... 49 June: April 21 Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 25 September: July 21 California Academy of Sciences ...... 17 December: October 21 ChromaCove ...... 67 Clark Planetarium/Hansen Dome ...... 21 Associate Editors Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 9 Evans & Sutherland ...... 7, 65, outside back cover Book Reviews Digital Dome International April S. Whitt and Beyond Lars Petersen Elumenati ...... 51 Carolyn GOTO Inc...... inside front cover Calendar Collins Petersen Last Light Loris Ramponi April S. Whitt Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 63 Classroom Magna-Tech Electronic Company...... 69 Cartoons Education Mobile News Alexandre Jack Northrup Susan Button Mirage3d...... 53, 57 Cherman, R.S.A. Cosmos ...... 56, inside back cover Chuck Rau Education Sound Advice Committee News Jeff Bowen SCISS ...... 5 Data to Dome Jeanne Bishop Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 35, centerfold, 38 Mark SubbaRoa Softmachine...... 33 Spitz, Inc...... 11,59 Spitz Creative Media ...... 31, 41, 55, 71 From the new fulldome show Solar Superstorms”: The visualization of a scientific numerical model reveals You Can Do Astronomy...... 8 a turbulent front generated by a solar wind interacting Zeiss, Inc ...... 27 with Earth’s magnetic field during a powerful solar storm. Large disturbances, including high velocity jets, can pene- trate deep inside the Earth’s magnetosphere and result in International Planetarium Society home page: space weather effects such as loss of communications satellites and widespread blackouts. Numerical simulation by www.ips-planetarium.org Homa Karimabadi, Mahidhar Tatineni and Vadim Royter- shteyn, University of California, San Diego. Visualization by Planetarian home page: the Advanced Visualization Lab (Donna Cox, Robert Patter- www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn son, Stuart Levy, AJ Christensen, Kalina Borkiewicz, Jeff Car- penter) at the National Center for Supercomputing Appli- cations, University of Illinois. Funded in part by the National www.facebook.com/InternationalPlanetariumSociety Science Foundation.

March 2015 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Association Italian Association Russian Planetariums Planetariums of Planetaria of Planetaria Association Officers Representative to Mark Watson Loris Ramponi Zinaida P. Sitkova be determined Techniquest Glyndŵr, National Archive of Planetaria Nizhny Novgorod President planetarios.org.br Glyndŵr University Campus c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Planetarium Joanne Young www.planetariodorio. Mold Road Serafino Zani Revolutsionnja Street 20 Audio Visual Imagineering com.br Wrexham, LL11 2AW via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 603002 Nizhny 6565 Hazeltine National United Kingdom I 25066 Lumezzane Novgorod, Russia Drive, Suite 2 Association of +44 (0)1978 293400 (Brescia) Italy +7 831 246-78-80 Orlando, Florida 32822 USA Dutch-Speaking [email protected] +39 30 872 164 +7 831 246-77-89 fax +1 407-859-8166 Planetariums/PLANed www.planetarium.org.uk +39 30 872 545 fax [email protected] [email protected] Jaap Vreeling [email protected] www.apr.planetariums.ru Nova informatie centrum Canadian Association [email protected] Past President Science Park 904 of Science Centres www.planetari.org Society of the German- 1098 XH Amsterdam Ian C. McLennan Speaking Planetariums Thomas W. Kraupe Tel: +31 0 20 525 7480 #404 - 1275 Haro Street Japan Christian Theis Planetarium Hamburg fax: +31 0 20 525 7484 Vancouver, British Columbia Planetarium Society Planetarium Mannheim Otto-Wels-Str.1 [email protected] V6E 1G1 Canada Kaoru Kimura Wilhelm-Varnholt-Allee 1 D-22303 Hamburg www.astronomie.nl +1 604-681-4790 Japan Science Foundation D-68165 Mannheim Deutschland phone + fax Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku Germany +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-50 Association of French- [email protected] Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan +49 621 419 4220 (phone); +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Speaking Planetariums [email protected] [email protected] +49 621 412 411 (fax); +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax Marc Moutin www.ianmclennan.com www.shin-pla.info ct@planetarium- +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Cité de l’espace mannheim.de thomas.kraupe@ Avenue Jean Gonord Chinese Planetarium Middle Atlantic www.gdp-planetarium.org planetarium-hamburg.de BP 25855 Society Planetarium 31506 Toulouse Cedex 5 Jin Zhu Society Southeastern President-Elect +33 (0)5 62 71 56 03 Beijing Planetarium Jerry Vinski Planetarium Shawn Laatsch +33 (0)5 62 71 56 29 fax No. 138 Xizhimenwait Street 110 E Union Street Association Infoversum [email protected] Beijing, 1000044 Hillsborough, North John Hare Vrydemalaan 2 www.cite-espace.com P.R. China Carolina 27278 USA Ash Enterprises 9713 WS Groningen www.aplf-planetariums.org +86 10-5158-3311 +1 919-241-4548 3602 23rd Avenue West Netherland +86 10-5158-3312 fax [email protected] Bradenton, Florida +31 (0) 50 820 0500 Association of Mexican [email protected] 34205 USA [email protected] Planetariums Nordic Planetarium +1 941-746-3522 [email protected] Ignacio Castro Pinal European/ Association [email protected] Ave. San Bernabe, 23 , Casa 7 Mediterranean Aase Roland Jacobsen www.sepadomes.org San Jerónimo Lídice, Planetarium Steno Museum Planetarium Executive Secretary C.P. 10200 Association C.F. Moellers Alle 2 Southwestern Lee Ann Hennig México City, D.F. México Manos Kitsonas University of Aarhus Association of Planetarium, Thomas +52 (55) 5500 0562 Eugenides Planetarium DK-8000 Aarhus C Planetariums Jefferson High School +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax 387 Syngrou Avenue DENMARK Rachel Thompson for Science and Technology [email protected] 17564 P. Faliro +45 87 15 54 15 Perot Museum of Nature 6560 Braddock Road Athens, Greece [email protected] and Science Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA Association of Spanish +30 210 946 9674 2201 North Field Street +1 703-750-8380 Planetariums +30 210 941 7372 fax Pacific Planetarium Dallas, Texas 75202 USA +1 703-750-5010 fax Javier Armentia [email protected] Association +1 214-756-5830 [email protected] Planetario de Pamplona Benjamin Mendelsohn rachel.thompson@ Sancho Ramirez, 2 Great Lakes Planetarium West Valley perotmuseum.org Treasurer and E-31008 Pamplona Association Community College www.swapskies.org Membership Chair Navarra Spain Jeanne Bishop 14000 Fruitvale Avenue Ann Bragg +34 948 260 004 Westlake Schools Saratoga, California Anderson Hancock Planetarium +34 948 260 056 Planetarium 95070-5698 USA Marietta College +34 948 261 919 fax Parkside Intermediate School +1 408-741-4018 215 Fifth Street [email protected] 24525 Hilliard Road +1 408-741-4072 fax Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA www.planetarios.org Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA Benjamin.Mendelsohn@ +1 740-376-4589 +1 440-899-3075 x2058 wvm.edu [email protected] Australasian Planetarium +1 440-835-5572 fax sites.csn.edu/ Society jeanneebishop@ planetarium/PPA Payments of membership Warik Lawrance wowway.com fees and advertising invoices Melbourne Planetarium www.glpaweb.org Rocky Mountain should be made to Ann Bragg Scienceworks/Museum Planetarium Victoria Great Plains Planetarium Association Membership fees also can be 2 Booker Street Association Michele Wistisen paid online on the IPS website Spotswood (Melbourne) Jack L. Northrup Casper Planetarium Victoria Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 904 North Poplar Street 3015 Australia Planetarium Casper, Wyoming +61 3 9392 4503 3720 Florence Boulevard 82601 USA +61 3 9391 0100 fax Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA +1 307-577-0310 wlawrance@museum. [email protected] michele_wistisen@ vic.gov.au natronaschools.org www.aps-planetarium.org

2 Planetarian March 2015 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Awards Committee Conference Host-2016 Finance Committee Manos Kitsonas Robert Firmhofer, Director President, Past President, Mailing Address Eugenides Planetarium Monika Malinowska, Head of President Elect, Treasurer, 387 Syngrou Avenue Conference & Events Secretary International Planetarium Society 17564 P. Faliro Management Athens, Greece Weronika Sliwa, Planetarium Membership Committee c/o Ann Bragg, Treasurer +30 210 946 9674 Director Ann Bragg, Treasurer Marietta College +30 210 941 7372 fax Maciej Ligowski, Program Marietta College 215 Fifth Street [email protected] Coordinator 215 Fifth Street Copernicus Science Centre Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA Conference Committee Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie +1 740-376-4589 Thomas W. Kraupe 20, 00-390 Warsaw, Poland [email protected] Planetarium Hamburg [email protected] IPS Web Site: Otto-Wels-Str.1 +48 22 596 4275 Publications Committee www.ips-planetarium.org (formerly Hindenburgstr.1b) +48 22 596 4113 fax Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair D-22303 Hamburg BGSU Planetarium Deutschland Elections Committee 104 Overman Hall +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 Martin George, Chair Physics &Astronomy Department +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Launceston Planetarium Bowling Green State University +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax Queen Victoria Museum Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Wellington Street +1 419-372-8666 thomas.kraupe@ Launceston Tasmania 7250 +1 419-372-9938 fax planetarium-hamburg.de Australia [email protected] +61 3 6323 3777 +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] Please notify the Editor and Secretary of any changes on these two pages.

Ad Hoc Committees Contact the Treasurer/Member- Armand Spitz International Presenting Live Under ship Chair for individual mem- Planetarium Education Fund Relations Committee the Dome Committee ber address changes and general Finance Committee Martin George, Chair Mark Webb, Chair circulation and billing questions. Launceston Planetarium Grainger Sky Theater Immersive Audio Queen Victoria Museum Adler Planetarium Addresses also may be changed Committee Wellington Street 1300 South Lake Shore Drive online on the IPS Web Site. Rene Rodigast, Chair Launceston, Tasma- Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA Fraunhofer IDMT (Institute for nia 7250 Australia +1 312-322-0826 Digital Media Technology) +61 3 6323 3777 [email protected] +61 3 6323 3776 fax Ehrenbergstraße 31 [email protected] Science & Data D-98693 llmenau, Germany Visualization Task Force +49 (0) 3677 467 390 Planetarium Design and Dr. Mark SubbaRao Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is published +49 (0) 3677 467 467 fax Operations Committee Adler Planetarium quarterly by the International Plan- [email protected] Ian McLennan 1300 South Lake Shore Drive etarium Society. ©2015 International #404-1275 Haro Street Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA Education Committee Vancouver, British Columbia +1 312-294-0348 Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights re- Jeanne E. Bishop V6E 1G1 Canada [email protected] served. Opinions expressed by authors Planetarium Director +1 604-681-4790 phone + fax Parkside Intermediate School [email protected] Vision 2020 Initiative are personal opinions and are not neces- 24525 Hilliard Road [email protected] John Elvert, Chair sarily the opinions of the International Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA www.ianmclennan.com Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Planetarium Society, its officers, or +1 440-871-5293 Louisiana Arts & Science Museum +1 440-835-5572 fax Portable 100 South River Road agents. Acceptance of advertisements, [email protected] Planetarium Committee Baton Rouge, Louisiana announcements, or other material does www.glpaweb.org Susan Reynolds Button, Chair 70802 USA not imply endorsement by the Interna- Mail address: Quarks to Clusters +1 225-344-5272 x 141 3180 Oakwood Lane 8793 Horseshoe Lane [email protected] tional Planetarium Society, its officers Westlake, OH 44145 USA Chittenango, NY 13037 or agents. The editor welcomes Letters +1 315-687-5371 History Committee [email protected] to the Editor and items for consideration John Hare, IPS Historian [email protected] for publication.The Editor reserves the Ash Enterprises right to edit any manuscript to suit this 3602 23rd Avenue West Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA publication’s needs. +1 941-746-3522 [email protected]

Guidelines for contributors will be refereed if applicable and requested. (but not before the printed version has been received • Contributors agree that their submission is their own by members), contributors may post the submission on • Planetarian welcomes submissions of interest to the plan- original work and has not appeared elsewhere in print or a personal website, blog, or a website of general inter- etarium community. Preference is given to articles that electronically, nor is not being submitted simultaneously est as long as the following appears: Copyright 2013 (or closely relate to the philosophy, management, technical elsewhere in print or electronically. If the submission has appropriate year) International Planetarium Society; aspects, educational aspects, or history of planetariums, appeared elsewhere in print or electronically, permission used with permission and provide a link to the IPS. If in and to ideas that can readily be incorporated into plan- to re-print must be obtained and a copy of this permis- doubt, contact the editor with questions. etarium shows. Authors are responsible for obtaining all sion emailed to the Editor with the article. • The Guidelines for Contributors on the IPS website necessary copyright clearances, especially for illustra- • Once accepted for publication, the contributor also should be consulted before submitting an article. tions and photographs. agrees that the copyright for original works not appear- • Potential advertisers are invited to check the Advertis- • Research articles dealing with educational aspects of the ing elsewhere is held by the International Planetarium ing Guidelines and Rate Sheet on the IPS website: . planetarium and other topics are highly desirable and Society. Once a submission has appeared in Planetarian www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn

March 2015 Planetarian 3 In Front of the Console thevisualization procees needed based toon get data it there.from a black hole Breaking news: New venue for 2018 Conference is needed hasWhen been tried.) audience members would ask me I want to make you aware of an important issue regarding the status of the IPS 2018 Con- whatWhen the data audience looked members like, I was would content ask to say me ference. The Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah informed us that for reasons be- “numbers.what the data All numbers.”looked like, I’m I was not contentcontent to with say yond their control, theySharon must Shanks withdraw their bid to host the IPS 2018 Conference. that“numbers. answer All anymore, numbers.” and I’m I notmean content to bring with a Of course, this is veryWard sad Beechernews since Planetarium they were the only bidder to host that conference. betterthat answer answer anymore, to Planetarian and I readersmean to as bringwell. a The good news is Youngstownthat we have the State opportunity University to open the bid process once again. In betterIsabella answer Beyer, to Planetarianin her article readers starting as on well. page 2014 our conferenceYoungstown, was held in Asia andOH in 44555 2016 we USA will be in Europe. Where on our love- 22,Isabella points Beyer,out that in herpeople article can starting still think on pagethat ly blue planet shall we+1 meet 330-941-3619 in 2018? we22, showpoints them out thatreal starspeople on canour stilldomes, think and that we The IPS Council [email protected] working on securing bids for a new conference site. mustwe show take them care realto guide stars onthem our into domes, the andproper we Watch the website for further developments and information about potential sites. A intellectualmust take care mindset to guide when them producing into the our proper pro- decision will be made by IPS Council in August of this year. grams.intellectual mindset when producing our pro- What a stunning cover for this issue! That The images, along with JudithJoanne Rubin’s Young sto- grams.Along with the problem of fake vs real image led to a flurry of last-minute activity ry about how numerical data IPSwound President up in a stars,Along how with many the people problem in our of audiences fake vs also real when I asked if another image be produced new fulldome program, also led to the deci- thinkstars, how that manythe beautiful people imagesin our audiencesfrom the Hub also- that showed what the raw data looks like be- sion to follow up on scientific visualization in ble,think Chandra, that the and beautiful Spitzer images telescopes from are the taken Hub- Infore itFront becomes ofeye candythe in Console our domes. the June Planetarian . theble, sameChandra, way and they Spitzer click atelescopes selfie? My are guess taken is Many thanks to Donna Cox from the Na- I don’t know how many of you reading this “many.”the same way they click a selfie? My guess is tional Center for Supercomputing Applica- are like me, in thatSharon I know Shanks,that rather Editor boring “many.”Mark SubbaRao and his Science & Data Vi- tionsWhat at a the stunning University cover of for Illinois this issue! for mak- The astronomicalone cooler than data the is last. being visualized at plac- sualizationMark SubbaRao Task Force and havehis Science been working & Data Vi-on featureding this request image led possible, to a flurry and ofalso last-minute to Kalina es The like theimages, NCSA along and with incorporated Judith Rubin’s into full-sto- educatingsualization us, Task but Force I’ve always have been felt a working disconnect on activityBorkiewicz, when who I asked sent imageif another after image image, could each domery about programs. how numerical (Most notably, data wound Black up Holes: in a betweeneducating what us, but he’s I’ve been always writing felt in a disconnecthis Data to beone produced cooler than that the showed last. what the raw data Thenew Other fulldome Side of program, Infinity is also the ledfirst to time the that deci a- Domebetween column what he’sand been my dailywriting job, in and his Datait’s my to looks like before it becomes eye candy in our sion to follow up on scientific visualization in fault:Dome I columnnever thought and my about daily the job, transition and it’s mybe- Lettersdomes. to the Editor the June Planetarian . tweenfault: I thenever data thought and the about images. the transition be- Many thanks to Donna Cox from the Na- I don’t know how many of you reading this tweenI was the stuck data in and the the same images. rut as most of our Responsestional Center to for review Supercomputing of Impact Applica Craters- are of like Earth me, in that I know that rather boring audienceI was stuck members: in the that same astronomers rut as most are of likeour tions at the University of Illinois for mak- numerical astronomical data is being visual- theaudience iconic members: picture ofthat Edwin astronomers Hubble are sitting like Much of the review of my newest book, Im- and colleagues on Azuara (1985, 1990, 1992, ing this request possible, and also to Kalina ized at places like the NCSA and incorporated alonethe iconic at the pictureeyepiece of of Edwin a giant Hubbletelescope. sitting pact Craters of Earth, (Planetarian, Vol. 43, 2001, 2002) reporting studies of these cra- aloneIn reality,at the eyepiece astronomy of a isgiant done telescope. by teams of No.Borkiewicz, 4, page 42)who seems sent imageto miss after the image,point. each The ters,into andfulldome describing programs, suevite but and have other no geology idea of peopleIn reality, spread astronomy across the is done country by teams and the of comment that referring to NiFe meteorites unique to craters. globepeople who spread probably across never the country see the telescope and the as siderolites is obsolete terminology is du- The review fails to mention that the book doingglobe the who observing/data probably never collection see the for telescope them. Lettersbious. A Google to search the taking Editor just 0.33 sec- gives directions on how to visit every acces- doingTheir the data observing/data is no longer collection on photograph for them.- ond turns up 19,200 entries for siderolites, sible crater, towns located in craters, and a ta- Response to review of Impact Craters of Earth ic Theirplates, databut buried is no in longer numbers, on photograph- arranged in so if I’m obsolete, I have plenty of company. ble showing a comparison of the number of thousandsic plates, but of buried rows acrossin numbers, hundreds arranged of col in- MuchBut, the of the book review is about of my craters, newest notbook, types Im- cratersand colleagues per million on square Azuara miles (1985, for 1990,each conti- 1992, umnsthousands on a ofspread rows sheet. across The hundreds trick is to of mine col- pactof meteorites. Craters of To Earth harp,( onPlanetarian a brief mention, Vol. 43, is nent2001, and 2002) for the reporting moon. That studies last of is to these the best cra- theumns data on for a spreadinformation sheet. andThe then trick output is to mine it in muchNo. 4, page like the42) seemsNew York to miss Times the denouncing point. The ofters, my and knowledge describing a uniquesuevite offering.and other geology anthe understandable data for information format. and then output it in Robertcomment Goddard‘s that referring 69-page to pamphlet NiFe meteorites on us- uniqueEarth to does craters. offer a number of vaguely cir- anTo understandable be effective educators format. and purveyors of ingas siderolites rockets to isstudy obsolete high altitude terminology meteorolo- is du- cularThe or review arcuate fails features to mention which that at onethe book time astronomyTo be effective to the educatorsgeneral public, and purveyors we need toof gybious. for a A brief Google six lines search on page taking 68 regarding just 0.33 secthe- orgives another directions have onbeen how suggested to visit as every craters. acces In- knowastronomy the entire to the process general and public, make we sense need of toit. possibilityond turns of up sending 19,200 rockets entries to for the siderolites, Moon.1 Northsible crater, America towns alone located we in have craters, Hudson and a Bay, ta- “Dataknow tothe dome” entire isprocess something and make that mostsense planof it.- so Asif I’mfor theobsolete, Azuara I haveand Robielos plenty of de company. la Cerida theble showingGulf of Mexico a comparison and the of coast the linesnumber of the of etarians“Data to are dome” ignoring, is something and they that should most not plan- be. craters, But, such the bookstandard is about sources craters, as Jarmo not Moil- types Carolinas.craters per However,million square there miles is absolutely for each noconti ev-- etariansThe data are inignoring, the dome and is theyimmersive should and not 3 be. di- anen’sof meteorites. Impact Structures To harp on of the a brief World mention and Rus- is idencenent and even for the hinting moon. at That an impact last is to origin the best for mensional,The data andin the if domeplanetariums is immersive don’t andappreci 3 di- sia‘smuch Expert like the Database New York on Earth Times Impact denouncing Struc- these,of my soknowledge they are not a unique included. offering. mensional,ate the visuals and that if planetariums come out of don’tthe data, appreci- then turesRobert2 both Goddard‘s list these 69-page as craters. pamphlet One on might us- Earth does offer a numberThomas Wm. of vaguely Hamilton cir- atehow the can visuals they that share come its importance out of the data, with then the alsoing rockets look at to the study several high articles altitude by meteorolo Ernstson3- cular or arcuateHOSS features Planetarium, which at New one York time gy for a brief six lines on page 68 regarding the or another have been suggested as craters. In howpublic? can they share its importance with the 1 public? possibility of sending rockets to the Moon. NorthIn the America summer alone of 2012we have I used Hudson my sum- Bay, 1 New York Times, January 19, 1920, unsigned editorial Welcome As for the Azuara and Robielos de la Ceri- merthe Gulf vacation of Mexico to tour and Portugal the coast and lines Spain. of the In 2 Both of these publications, including an English lan- WelcomePlease welcome several new faces to the guageda craters, version such of the standard Russian database, sources are as available Jarmo SpainCarolinas. Istopped However, for a nightthere isat absolutely a bed and nobreak- ev- PlanetarianPlease welcome pages starting several this new issue. faces to the Moilanen’son line Impact Structures of the World and fastidence run even by an hinting elderly atEnglish an impact woman origin named for PlanetarianCarolyn Collins pages starting Petersen this has issue. taken over the Russia‘s3 Ernstson, Expert Hammann, Database Fiebag, on Graup, Earth 1985, Impact “Evidence Struc- Dulceythese, so in they the are town not of included. Rubielos de la Cerida. of an 2Impact Origin for the Azuara Structure,” Earth jobCarolyn of keeping Collins us informed Petersen hasabout taken the over immer the- tures both list these as craters. One might She told me the townThomas was in aWm. crater, Hamilton which and Planetary Science Letters, 74:361-370; Ernstson and3 jobsive of media keeping world. us informed about the immer- also look at the several articles by Ernstson interested me enoughHOSS Planetarium, to extend my New stay York for Claudin, 1990, “Ejecta of the Azuara Impact Struc- siveLars media Petersen world. has done a great job transi- Nachrichten der Jahrbuch von Geol. Palaeontol- ture,” aogie second, 581-589; night. Ernstson Using and my Fiebag, badly 1992, rusty “Azuara high ogieNew York Times tioningLars Petersen into compiling (no relation) the has International done a great 1 , 581-589; Ernstson, January 19,and 1920, Fiebag, unsigned 1992, editorial“Azuara schoolImpact Structure: Spanish I New learned Insights coesite from was geophysical found 2Impact Both of Structure: these publications, New Insights including from an geophysical English lan- jobNews, transitioning taking over into from compiling Lars Broman. the Interna- there,and geological and actually investigations,” saw some shatterInternational cones. Jour - International Jour- andguage geological version of investigations,”the Russian database, are available nal of Earth Science 81 (2), 403-427; Ernstson, Rampi- tionalAnd News. Chuck Rau from Seiler Instruments’ nal of Earth Science Your book reviewer would be well advised on line 81 (2), 403-427; Ernstson, Rampi- no and Hiltl, 2001, “Cratered Cobbles in Triassic PlanetariumAnd Chuck Division Rau from is sharing Seiler Instruments’ his talents no3 Ernstson, and Hiltl, Hammann, 2001, “Cratered Fiebag, Graup, Cobbles 1985, in “Evidence Triassic not to accuse others of being obsolete, when Northeast Spain,” Geology 29, 11-14; Ernstson, Clau- Planetariumwith a new planetarium-related Division is sharing comic his called tal- Geology Earth Northeastof an Impact Spain,” Origin for the 29, Azuara 11-14; Structure,” Ernstson, Clau- hedin, himself Schuessler, is. Hradil, 2002, “Azuara and Rubielos: and Planetary Science Letters ents“Bard with Spiral.” a new planetarium-related comic din, Schuessler, Hradil, 2002,, 74:361-370; “Azuara and Ernstson Rubielos: and Paired Impact Structures,”Name Museum withheld of Geology by request, Barce- PairedClaudin, Impact 1990, Structures,” “Ejecta of the Museum Azuara of Geology Impact, Barce Struc - calledWe’re “Bard glad Spiral.” you’ve joined the family. I lona, 11, 5-65 New York lona,ture,” 11, Nachrichten 5-65 der Jahrbuch von Geol. Palaeontol-

4 Planetarian March 2015 Planetarian SCISS_March 2015.indd 1 2015-01-21 14:32:53 Although the survey is no longer active on President’s Message the IPS web site, it is still possible for more of our international colleagues to make their views heard, especially those who do not have Joanne Young reliable internet access. Audio Visual Imagineering Please complete the survey and return it to 6565 Hazeltine National us by mail, or send it to your affiliate represen- Drive, Suite 2 tative to pass along to IPS Vision 2020 committee. Orlando, Florida 32822 USA The following is a summary of the most re- +1 (407) 859-8166 current themes from each SWOT category: [email protected] Strengths: • IPS is a global community of diverse cul- Dear Fellow IPS Members, or Council, run for office, assist in a project, tures It gives me great delight to be working with host a conference. Our success will be the re- • Regional affiliate representation you and for you as your new president. What sult of exciting collaboration among dedicat- • History of organization a great honor it is to take an active role in the ed and knowledgeable planetarians. • Inclusive of fixed and portable planetari- transformation of IPS to meet the challenges We’re in this together! I ums of the future. • Provides educational resources; web site Our challenge as planetarians is to develop and journal the planetarium to take a leading role in sci- • Beneficial conferences entific and educational communities. Imag- Weaknesses: ine a future when planetarium theaters are • Bureaucratic organization; outdated gov- required and are always funded and never erning documents closed except to build a new one. • Council and officer Term limits; volunteer- Our challenge as IPS is to equip you to do ism vs. paid position your job successfully. • Concern for costs–membership and confer- The vehicle to fulfill our role is through Vi- Vision 2020 Initiative update ences sion 2020. The direction of Vision 2020 was By Jon Elvert, Chair • Slow in attracting next generation of plan- developed by and for you through the IPS Vision 2020 Initiative etarians SWOT survey, which many of you complet- A final strategic planning document that • General apathy of membership, council ed. We are grateful for your participation. provides guidance and opportunity to meet • Discrepancies between small and large You pointed out our weaknesses, and changing needs and challenges, as well as pro- planetariums strengths, with suggestions for a globally-providing better support to its membership in Opportunities: ductive future for our organization. The Vi- every region around the world, has been ap- • Develop strategies for sustainable growth– sion 2020 Team, the officers and committees proved by IPS Officers and posted on our web attendance, revenue, value, influence, are operating at a rapid pace to provide the es- site. membership sential programs, papers, research and confer- This IPS Vision 2020 Strategic Planning doc- • Establish connections with other dome-re- ences that will give you the tools, knowledge ument was translated into five lan- lated professional organizations and profes- and skills to perform your jobs exceedingly guages: Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, sional partnerships well. Russian, and Korean, and posted • Become more professional; grow up; hire By the time you read this message, my fel- in their entirety at www.ips-plan- full-time organizer; re-image IPS; define a low awesome officers, Thomas Kraupe, Lee etarium.org/?page=vision2020. future Ann Hennig, Shawn Laatsch, Ann Bragg, and These translations were sent to their respec- • Equalize planetarium technologies and our fearless Vision 2020 leader, Jon Elvert, will tive IPS representative with the intention of planetarium/astronomy education have met at my house on Florida’s Space Coast being further distributed to regional planetar- • Recruit or foster new members; provide to work out the details of our ongoing proj- ians (the Korean document was sent directly professional development in-services; share ects. I will report the results of that meeting in to all known planetariums in South Korea). resources the next issue of Planetarian. The English version was sent to all other rep- • Implement social media more effectively; In the meantime, you can get an idea of the resentatives. web site under utilized issues we are facing in Jon’s update that fol- This was done to gather additional input, • Make council more accountable to its lows on this page. especially from our international representa- members, redefine responsibilities for coun- Additionally, the officers and I are working tives. cil members with Maciej Ligowski and Monika Malinows- Vision 2020 SWOT Survey Update: The IPS Threats: ka of the Copernicus Science Centre on IPS web site hosted a survey to gather your re- • Other competing fulldome organizations 2016 in Warsaw, Poland. We are thrilled with sponses to questions relating to the Strengths, • IPS’ stagnant organization; failure to act; Maciej’s and Monica’s plans for an extraordi- Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) becoming irrelevant nary and enriching conference. of IPS. The web site survey was active for five • Two class membership (“haves and have I think you will agree, after reading their re- months before ending on 31 December. nots”); membership dues too expensive port in this issue, that IPS 2016 will be an es- In addition to the survey, SWOT analy- • Apathy–both within IPS (little interest in sential conference for your development as a sis presentations were given at several affili- candidates for council) and without (at- planetarian. You won’t want to miss it. ate conferences. To date, nearly 600 respons- tracting new members) If you feel the call to contribute your skills, es from the survey have been recorded, taken • Failure to see future and implement chang- ideas, and time to our great cause, we wel- by 274 participants representing 20 countries es come you with open arms. Join a committee (not including conference participants). (Continues on page 29)

6 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 7 at a local karaoke restaurant. We all sang to- Past President’s Message gether and it truly didn’t matter what our na- tionalities were or whether we could speak each other’s languages. We were all planetarians with the goal of communicating our love of the universe to our audiences. At that mo- Dave Weinrich ment, I felt connected to the entire planetari- Retired um community around the world. Planetarium, Minnesota State University-Moorhead Another highlight was the 2012 conference Moorhead, Minnesota 56563 USA that I presided over in Baton Rouge, Louisi- [email protected] ana. While it was the largest conference ever, it ran so smoothly, thanks to the tremendous work of Jon Elvert, the staff of the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, and the wonderful Presented to the IPS Council at 2014 Beijing the Council recognizes the number of hours team that they assembled. Although my du- Conference that the officers serve IPS. Most of this work ties as president prevented me from attend- This year marks not only my retirement as goes on behind the scenes, week after week, ing as many paper sessions as I might have an IPS officer, but also my retirement as the month after month, and year after year. All of wished, I did derive great pleasure from seeing planetarium director at Minnesota State Uni- it is voluntary. Let’s all recognize my fellow the joy of the conference attendees. versity Moorhead (Minnesota). As one chap- officers with a round of applause. ter of my life draws to a close, another opens. I We have so many good ideas have many new and exciting projects and pos- A privilege to serve One thing that I have observed, over my sibilities to look forward to, thanks in large It has been a privilege to serve you all. past six years as an officer, is the incredible measure to the opportunities that being an of- When I was nominated to stand for election number and variety of good ideas that plan- ficer of this organization has provided me. as president elect, I reflected on the fact that etarians share with each other. I especially ap- But first I must digress, back to the begin- I had been a member of IPS for 25 years. I had preciate younger planetarians with their ener- ning of my involvement in a leadership role received many benefits and now might have gy and enthusiasm and their great new ideas. in our society, when I was elected in 2005 to an opportunity to give something back. Our We older planetarians (I’ll let you determine the position of Great Lakes Planetarium Asso- organization has many members, and some of which group you fall into) can regain, if nec- ciation (GLPA) representative to the IPS Coun- us must take on the work that is necessary to essary, some of that enthusiasm which we cil. run it or the society cannot not continue. may have lost by visiting with and listening The International Planetarium Society is I was willing to stand for election, know- to younger colleagues. a federation of 22 member affiliates. Our or- ing that it would only be for six years and that All of us, whether young or old, can men- ganization is governed by the IPS Council, there would be many people to help with the tor newer members of our profession. There which consists of the 22 affiliate representa- task. That has been true and I sincerely thank are opportunities for us to work together to tives and five officers. I hope that all of you all of you that have encouraged and assisted improve our profession and the presentations realize the importance of your affiliate repre- me in so many ways. that we offer our audiences. sentative and the service that they provide to There are two events that especially stand I am making some final edits on this report both your member society and to IPS. out during our (the Council and my) journey in Hong Kong, where I am going to be visiting When I was elected as the GLPA representa- together over the last five years. some local planetariums and astronomy-relat- tive, I had no idea where the role would lead In 2011, Council met in Nizhny Novgorod, ed facilities. me or of the possibilities that it would present. Russia. I wanted to strengthen our relation- Even though my service as an officer of I did know that I strongly believed in the im- ship with the Russian affiliate and to let them IPS has finished, I will still continue to be in- portance of my local affiliate and of IPS. know that they are a valued part of our Soci- volved in the Society and to visit some of you ety. I worked with Alexander Serber at the Ni- during my travels. Found warmth and acceptance zhny Novgorod Planetarium and my fellow Being an officer of the Society is a lot of At my first Council meeting in Melbourne, IPS officers to plan the meeting. work, but don’t imagine that I haven’t re- Australia in July 2006, I was struck by the Finally, the date of the Council meeting ar- ceived benefits as well. I have and I will al- warmth and acceptance of the entire Coun- rived and after months of preparation, I was ways value the privilege that it has been to cil, and most particularly by the officers— waiting at the hotel for the last Council mem- serve all of you. I President Martin George, Past President Jon El- bers to arrive. When the vert, President Elect Susan Button, Secretary bus from the airport ar- Lee Ann Hennig, and Treasurer and Member- rived late that night, I ship Chair Shawn Laatsch. I must make spe- was so happy. Now, I Share the sky cial mention of Lee Ann’s personal warmth could relax. Our Coun- and how she totally made me feel at ease and cil family had safely with new visitors! a part of the Council family. gathered together once It has been a privilege to serve with a vari- again. We had a very ety of officers over the years, but Shawn and productive meeting. Lee Ann are like the rocks and we presidents I don’t think that any are the stream passing by. They have been a of the Council mem- Everyone’s Universe solid backbone for the Society for almost two bers who were in atten- by Noreen Grice decades. I thank my fellow officers, and don’t dance will forget the fi- think that the general membership or even nal evening’s sendoff www.YouCanDoAstronomy.com

8 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 9 fore, we know we have quite a challenge on our hands in preparing for the IPS2016 conference, and we are doing our utmost to prove ourselves up to the task! Because we like a good challenge, we are pleased that expectations for the event are so high. Based on the responses and comments gathered, we have formulated the following priorities for the IPS2016 conference programme: • Devoting a portion of the talks to all the myriad aspects of live shows, including, for instance, production, presentation, storytelling, personal skills. • Maximizing the time participants spend “Sweet Sixteen” is fast approaching under the dome and presenting as many of the conference materials as possible on the dome itself. By the Staff of the • Creating a conference program that reflects Copernicus Science Centre the internal diversity of the planetarium Warsaw, Poland community and also the diverse range of [email protected] challenges and issues that need to be tack- led by planetariums (including STEAM education, data to dome transfer, and interna- IPS2016 is coming upon us fast! Even though In addition to the standard repertoire, most 2015 is a year without an IPS conference, for us of you (93%) also engage in other types of ac- tional collaboration). IPS2016 is already a topic that figures promi- tivity under your domes: public telescope • Ensuring that the programme events are of nently in our day-to-day work. And because viewing (31%), night sky observations (23%), a highly substantive nature, by focusing on we are preparing this whole conference with workshops (20%), and VIP lectures (19%). problem-solving, satisfying concrete needs, you in mind, we have decided to share a cou- As to the conference itself, your survey re- and looking at specific issues from various ple of pieces of recent news. sponses indicate that the aspects you find perspectives. As you will recall, right after the end of most important are opportunities for net- • Introducing interactive elements and net- IPS2014 we launched a questionnaire-based working (with 542 points out of 670 possible) working during all the component parts of survey among planetarium representatives. and the chance to take part in nonstandard the conference—not only coffee breaks and We wanted to get to know the specifics of events and activities (493/670). lunches, but also at talks (in the form of dis- how you work and what expectations you cussions, group work, group games). have with respect to the conference. Wanted: workshops, live shows We also want to prepare a handful of sur- Before presenting the results, we would like You expect the talks to be high-calibre and prises and additional attractions. ;) to take the opportunity to thank all of those substantive. Based on experiences from previ- Of course, we will still continue to need who shared their opinions with us. They are ous conferences, we can conclude that you are your help and collaboration! Without your serving us as a foundation to build the confer- most impressed by the workshops (490/670) knowledge and experience, without you tak- ence programme, and they have turned out and live shows (489/670). ing active part in shaping the conference pro- to be a real treasure-trove of ideas for how to Lower on the list are exhibitors and the gramme and then being present at the confer- make the conference more attractive. Have a dome village (429/670) and the vendors’ pre- ence, the above priorities will never become look for yourself! sentations (422/670). a reality. Your responses to the open question about Please share with us any remarks, thoughts, Live shows still prominent topics you would like to see addressed at additional ideas you may have, by writing to Your responses to the question about the IPS2016 indicate that they concern the broad- the address [email protected]. typical show scheme indicate that despite est possible spectrum of planetarium activity, We also want to encourage you to think further advancements in fulldome technol- including show content, show creation and about the topics and format of the talks, be- ogy and the increasing numbers of fulldome delivery techniques, personal development, cause we will be gathering your proposals to- shows on offer, a clear majority of you do still operations and management, accessibility, gether already in autumn 2015. have live shows among your repertoires. and data access. That will ensure we have more time to put The largest share of planetariums surveyed You have also called attention to diversi- together an attractive programme and to pub- (42%) harness the whole potential of mod- ty and the differing profiles of planetariums, lish a preliminary version of it prior to regis- ern systems, presenting a mixture of both live based on size, target group, and form of activ- tration in 2016. shows and fulldome shows. ity. If you want to stay abreast of all conference Smaller percentages of planetariums main- Some respondents also mentioned the need news, have a look at the website www.ips2016. ly present typical starball shows (27%), lec- to initiate and foster cooperation between org. We will be gradually posting all the cru- tures (18%), or live shows (9%). planetarian communities and top-notch as- cial information there, which will be succes- Interestingly, just 4% of the institutions sur- tronomy-related institutions like the ESA, sively supplemented and updated. Pay the site veyed exclusively present fulldome shows. ESO, NASA, etc. There were also positive com- a visit, and don’t forget to add it to your fa- As far as show themes are concerned, as- ments about the IPS satellite fulldome festival vourites! tronomy is clearly dominant (53%) over pop- (held in Macao prior to the 2014 Conference We hope you’ll join us in Warsaw and will ular-science themed (30%) and entertainment in Beijing). help us make IPS2016 an unforgettable event. shows (17%). As you yourselves have expressed it, there- See you in Warsaw in 15 months! I

10 Planetarian March 2015 Starry Night Dome 7 teach even bigger with:

• Exoplanets modeled as 3D bodies wllh proper location, size, orbit and planetary textures

• Enhanced high resolution surface textures ol moons and planets, Including 3D surfaces. and custom maps for chemical composition, topo data, temperature, density, etc.

• Stars rendered as 3D bodies with correct classification C{)lor and relative radii

• Exclusive extra-galactic database, to over 1 billion light years

Available for Spitz SciDome s I dome stan~ i~ ~t TEAC March 2015 ,....,. .. nPlanetarian 11 www.spltzlnc.com Visualizing the Data

12 Planetarian March 2015 It’s all a part of the process: It takes billions of data points to produce a single still image or a single frame of video. For the stunning graphic of the solar superstorm particle interaction on the cover, the numerical data is transformed through supercomputers into something the human eye can understand.

In this issue, Judith Rubin looks at how producers are using supercomputing visualizations to explain the science in their programs. In the next issue, we’ll look at the process of research astronomy and how those billions of data points become data on our domes.

Solar Superstorms: How big data feeds a big movie

By Judith Rubin creasing volumes of numbers that reveal the hind Solar Superstorms, it adds up to the abil- hidden laws of the universe. The goal of our ity to take audiences on a glorious, immersive “From our vantage point, the sun is calm group is to transform this massive data into cinematic tour inside the workings of the sun. and unchanging. But in fact, its surface is tur- a cinematic experience that conveys the sci- Cox described “visualizations of scientific bulent and chaotic, with giant waves of hot ence,” Cox said. data never seen before by the public—places plasma and towering thunderstorm-like fea- The growing complexity of scientific data invisible to telescopes, made beautiful and vis- tures,” said Donna Cox, director of the Ad- sets is complemented by better rendering ceral; the dynamics of the interior of the sun, vanced Visualization Lab at the National Cen- tools and the heightened display capability plasma, and giant coronal mass ejections. ter for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) of top-line 8K fulldome systems, now accept- “A lot of this cutting-edge supercomputer in Champaign, Illinois USA. ed among the industry as good enough even science will be new to the general public, in Cox was discussing the new fulldome show to fill the place of 15/70 film. (See also Digital particular the story of plasma, how the sun Solar Superstorms, a collaboration with Spitz Dome and Beyond on page 34. -ed) erupts in violent storms and how they can Creative Media and Thomas Lucas Produc- For the experienced production team be- (Continues on next page) tions in association with Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The project has been made possible with support from the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania and the Pennsylvania Film Office and funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). For their part, the supercomputers now being used to analyze the sun are increasingly busy. “As supercomputer speeds have increased 100+ fold, teams of scientists generate in-

Judith Rubin is a freelance journalist and publi- cist specializing in large format cinema. www. judithrubin.blogspot.com

March 2015 Planetarian 13 affect earth’s communications and power grids,” she said. “The Spitz team has also generated cutting-edge animations that contextual- ize and amplify the scientific data.” “We were able to deliver many great moments and sequences,” said Solar Superstorms director Thomas Lucas. “For instance, taking us onto the surface of the sun, getting close to the towering, bubbling, thunderstorm-like clouds that roil up from the surface and then slip back down, flying in among them, looking at jets of plasma shooting up from the surface…”

A sharable moment In addition to never-before-seen solar visualizations, Solar Superstorms shares a story that all viewers can relate to personally. Remem- ber the events and chain reactions that took a chunk out of Earth’s communications in the feature film Gravity1? Solar Superstorms shows how the natural activity of our sun could lead to an equally disruptive, real-world result, us- Three views of the sun’s ing the example of a solar eruption that pene- violence: A coronal mass trated Earth’s atmosphere some 150 years ago. ejection in the making The Carrington Event2 was named after (top), a tangle of magnetic fields rising from a Richard Carrington, a British astronomer who suspont region (center), observed and documented it. Even in a much and a blast of electric cur- simpler world, connectivity was affected. rent, magnetic field, and “The great solar storm of 1859 produced an hot plasma rising from the solar surface. For all auroral light show not to be believed, but it images: CME simulation also knocked out telegraph systems,” said Lu- by Yuhong Fan, solar sur- cas. “We have much more to lose today.” So- face simulation by Mat- lar Superstorms illustrates the event and doc- thias Rempel, both from uments how scientists are studying ways to National Center for Atmo- spheric Research. Visual- understand and detect a similar event. ization by NCSA. Live action and special effects are part of the cinematic mix and facilitate the storytelling. The Spitz team, interested in experi- menting with and developing techniques for live-action gigapixel photography, went on location to the Rocky Mountains, where the Carrington Event had been witnessed by a Denver newspaper reporter. “The live action sequences lead audiences to a more direct experience of the subject matter,” said Lucas. “We knew we could get a lot of vertical dimension to imagery that would work well on the dome: the sky, characters in the foreground, amazing vistas, trees. We worked out scenes, then reconvened in Phil- adelphia in a green-screen studio to shoot the

1 Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film directed and produced by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts, and sees them stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle and their subsequent at- tempt to return to Earth. Source: en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Gravity_%28film%29.

On Page 12, background and Page 13, forground: Stages in the visualization of the cover image. Numer- 2 You can learn more about the Carrington event at ical simulation by Homa Karimabadi, Mahidhar Tatineni and Vadim Roytershteyn, University of Califor- news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110302- nia, San Diego. Visualization by the Advanced Visualization Lab (Donna Cox, Robert Patterson, Stuart solar-flares-sun-storms-earth-danger-carrington- Levy, AJ Christensen, Kalina Borkiewicz, Jeff Carpenter) at the National Center for Supercomputing Ap- event-science, and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_ plications, University of Illinois. Funded in part by the National Science Foundation. storm_of_1859.

14 Planetarian March 2015 live action characters. It is this kind of intensive collaboration that I find to be the most re- warding about dome production,” said Lucas. In collaborating with NCSA, “We explore the conditions within the sun needed to trig- ger these really massive blasts that lead to something like the Carrington Event,” said Lucas. “In all that huge complexity of data, we must pull out some simplicity to tell the story while giving a sense of how complex it really is.”

The NSF grant and CADENS Using supercomputers to simulate natural events is rapidly changing the way science is being done, and behind the visualizations are some of the best peer-reviewed scientific discoveries being shared today. One of the goals of NCSA and the Solar Su- perstorms team is to help create greater awareness among viewers about the growing role of computational science. “The huge supercomputers are our new di- Top: Astronauts on- saster forecasters,” said Cox, “and data is the board the Internation- new digital fuel for visualization studies of al Space Station look down on spectacular au- natural phenomena. But in testing fulldome roras. Next: A journalist audiences—which we did when we devel- reported auroras in the oped one of our previous shows, Black Holes: wake of the 1859 solar The Other Side of Infinity—it became very clear storm were “so bright most general audiences do not understand sci- you could read com- mon print.” Next: Solar entific visualization, nor how computation- plasma envelops Earth al science affects their everyday lives in such in the wake of a pow- things.” erful coronal mass ejec- Very few places beyond NASA Goddard tion. B o t t o m : Tens of thousands of air- and NCSA have the resources available to line flights fill the skies transform big data into cinematic expression. each day, part of the “When you’re talking about multiple tera- vast power and commu- bytes per science project and more than five nications network that of these data-driven scenes used in Solar Su- is vulnerable to a solar superstorm. All imag- perstorms alone, that is a big challenge that es from Spitz Creative almost no production house or museum can Media. handle,” said Cox. “And very few big data visualization teams are focused on public outreach.” In a notable step forward, NSF recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to CADENS (Cen- trality of Advanced Digitally ENabled Sci- ence), an NCSA-led initiative led by Cox to develop and widely distribute a series of science documentaries highlighting visualizations of computational and digitally-enabled science. Solar Superstorms is the first production to receive funding from the grant, but the CA- DENS award, which assembles producers, technologists, artists, and educators to collab- orate with scientists and researchers, is significant for the entire fulldome community. “There is definitely an increase on the part of operators, producers and distributors to include this kind of high-level computational science in fulldome shows,” said Cox, “and part of the mission of the CADENS award is to raise awareness and facilitate computation- (Continues on next page)

March 2015 Planetarian 15 scientists. More than once, these art-science collaborations have influenced new directions in the research.” The process also underscores how fulldome cinema can become a tool of scientists, and could point to sources of additional funding. “Many of these domes, smaller and larger, are used for science visualizations during off hours,” said Cox. “Some domes are being ex- plored as telescopes into scientific data.”

Science journalism “Fulldome is a natural way to view this very large big data because it is immersive, and we can bring the audiences on a virtual tour through this phenomena,” says Cox. “It’s a unique way of telling the story, and it supports a variety of approaches. It’s just wonderful to work with people like Tom Lucas, Mike Bruno and the team at Spitz—we’re a very complementary and synergis- tic. Lucas is not only able to bring together the story from al science reaching the public through the scientific point of view, fulldome shows and documentaries.” but also support it with graph- Art-science collaboration ics and animation so that it un- From data to cinema is basically a folds for the audience in a nat- two-step process. During step one, the ural, interesting way.” generation of data, the science team sets “One thing we find with up experiments in supercomputers to Top: Scientists are intensively monitoring the sun with high resolution dome audiences is that they calculate all the physics in a 3D virtual imaging from satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA. really want to know. They are Below: Loops of magnetic field rise into the hellish region just below the world and generate all that data. prepared to watch and listen solar surface. Simulation by Robert Stein, Michigan State University. Mag- For step two, the generation of pic- netic field line tracing by Patrick Moran, NASA Ames Research Center. closely, with singular, focused tures, the production team transforms, Solar surface simulation by Matthias Rempel, National Center for Atmo- attention,” said Lucas. “Their designs and choreographs the data us- spheric Research. Visualization by NCSA. expectations for the experi- ing custom software and animation ence are high. The unique as- software for rendering. universe. But we remain true to the data and pects of dome production allow us to really “Transforming billions and trillions of gather scientists’ feedback when we take artis- deliver it, and to do so with increasingly high- numbers into digital pictures involves artistic tic license.” er production values. We have the means to selectivity,” said Cox. “We have lots of choice create a high-quality, educational show that on rendering, timing, pacing, camera choreog- How do the scientists react? is about the world people live in, conveys un- raphy, and how we treat data, just as other art- “They love to see their stuff on the big derstanding, and gives a thrill ride. It’s become ists make aesthetic decisions with composi- screen,” said Cox. “Most of them want very our formula for success. It’s a bit journalistic— tion and color in a variety of media.” much to see the work get outside of their not fantasy or narrative, but topical—explor- Walking the line between science and art specialized community to a broader audi- ing something people are curious about, and to achieve authentic results involves close, ex- ence, and they understand that to do so, some telling the stories behind the stories.” tended dialog with scientists. things need to be explained or slowed down. The team and scientists at UC Boulder have On the one hand: “We discuss issues of data And they learn about storytelling from us. taken an active role in the production of Solar and representation to maintain accuracy,” Working with scientists has been positive for Superstorms, being involved in script review, said Cox. us.” fact-checking, and other aspects, as well as On the other: “We work with Tom Lucas Does this process affect the scientists’ ap- hosting rough cut screenings, performing au- and others who bring artistry and storytelling proach? “Yes,” said Cox. “They often see new dience evaluations to feed back into the final sensibility, to make sure it captivates while things in the visualizations and gain new per- product, and creating educational outreach communicating. Tom and the scientific team spectives of their science. The process of ren- materials to support the show. have frequent conference calls to achieve a dering an animation will sometimes bring The 24-minute show is scheduled for re- balance between being accurate while also be- new things to light and prompt them to release in spring 2015 and will be available in 4K ing dramatic and memorable. There may be search in a new area. For example, in one proj- 2D, with 5.1 or stereo soundtrack. For licensing gaps to fill in—for instance, it is necessary to ect the visualization revealed the existence of information, contact Mike Bruno at mbru- scale time or space in order to travel across the a secondary tornado in the data not seen by [email protected], or +1 610-459-5200. I

16 Planetarian March 2015

The Logic of SETI: 20 years later “Where do we go from here?”

Dr. Michael Chauvin Honolulu, Hawaii USA

STRANGERS1 Witness the following episodes, all of recent • the more recent discovery by the Kepler vintage: space telescope of a multitude of exoplan- “I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. • the establishment, in 1980, of the Planetary ets, some of them possessing “Goldilocks” “I only wish I had such eyes,” the King Society by SETI advocate Carl Sagan; attributes; remarked...“To be able to see Nobody! And at that • the acclaim garnered by Sagan’s Emmy • the coming-of-age of the new scientific hy- distance too!” Award-winning Cosmos television series brid called astrobiology; and, since 1999, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and its re-make by Neil Tyson in 2014; • the ever-widening public participation, via (1871) • the box-office success of the Star Wars mov- personal computers, in SETI efforts.4 All are ie trilogy; testament to the abiding lure of the pros- Human interest in the possible existence of • the publication, by the oldest printing pects of alien life.5 extraterrestrial intelligence must be as aged and publishing house in the world, of four It is when such an interest in extraterrestri- and inveterate as terrestrial intelligence itself. scholarly books on the history of the extra- als—real or imagined—by scientists, theater- Metrodorus of Chios, the Greek philosopher terrestrial life debate;2 goers, politicians, and the general public be- and disciple of Democritus, thought it ab- • the investment in SETI programs of large comes feverish that an antidote is needed and surd to consider the Earth the only populat- sums from both private and public purses that some sobering thoughts for the considered world, and Lucretius, the Roman poet-phi- (the NASA purse contributing millions of ation of both believers and skeptics are most losopher, argued that because nothing in the dollars during the 1980s alone); in order. Universe is the only one of its kind, it seems • the establishment, in 1994, of the SETI reasonable to suppose that there are other, League; The Logic of SETI Earth-like worlds elsewhere, inhabited by a • the public hullabaloo caused by the bold In the astronomer’s search for extraterres- varied assortment of men and beasts. proclamation, in 1996, that the planet Mars The infamous death-at-the-stake of Gior- might have a fossil record;3 fossils. The true nature of these alleged fossils–and the related issue regarding the presence of a fossil dano Bruno terminated but one man’s spec- record of any kind on Mars–proved to be of con- ulations on the plurality of worlds, and sev- 2 Steven J. Dick, Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Ex- siderable interest both inside and outside scientif- eral centuries after his fiery immolation at traterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant (Cam- ic circles. Kathy Sawyer, The Rock from Mars (Random the hands of the Inquisition in the year 1600, bridge University Press, 1982); Michael J. Crowe, The House, 2006), reviewed in Sky & Telescope, Decem- conjecture upon those worlds—and upon the Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900 (Cambridge ber 2006, 100-101. University Press, 1986); Steven J. Dick, The Biological 4 The University of California at Berkeley has thrown alien life forms that might inhabit them— Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life De- its support behind these efforts in a project called continues with unabated passion. bate and the Limits of Science (Cambridge University SETI@home–a project, begun in 1999, that allows The spying upon those worlds by Earthly Press, 1996); Steven J. Dick, Life on Other Worlds: The anyone with a computer and an internet connection telescopes has only added to the excitement, 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate (Cambridge to analyze radio SETI data by using a screensaver. For more information, go to: seti.berkeley.edu. and even as the 20th century drew to a close University Press, 1998). 3 In August 1996 came the announcement that a me- 5 For an overview of the world’s SETI projects–what and the 21st began, the clamor had not sub- teorite, found in Antarctica in 1984 and later identi- they do, how they work, etc.–see: Sky&Telescope. sided. fied as Martian in origin, contained possible micro- com/seti.

1 Part 1, Chapter 2, of Michael Chauvin’s The Learn’d Astron- Internationally educated at the universities of Michigan, Hawaii, Harvard, and Cambridge, Dr. Michael omer (Honolulu: Mauna Kea Chauvin has taught astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, been a Lecturer at the Bishop Muse- Books, 2014); reprinted here um Planetarium in Honolulu, served as assistant director of the Program in Applied Philosophy at the with the kind permission of University of Hawaii at Manoa, and been a resident scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in Washing- the author. An earlier version ton, DC. Now an internationally-recognized scholar of the history of astronomy in Hawaii and the re- of this essay–bearing the ti- cipient, through the American Astronomical Society, of two NASA-funded research awards, he is the tle “The Logic of SETI”–ap- author of the critically acclaimed Hokuloa: The British 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Hawaii (Honolulu: peared in Planetarian, Vol. 13, Bishop Museum Press, 2004). No. 2, 1984.

18 Planetarian March 2015 It is helpful, when considering this question incapable of being enumerated—be it cows and before making any empirical attempts to or people, stars or atoms, machines or intelli- resolve it, to first examine its logical nature, gences—then the proposition cannot be veri- and to discover, in doing so, that such an ex- fied by empirical observation. amination is significant epistemologically in- Such a proposition can, however, be easily asmuch as it helps to delimit human knowl- falsified by a single observation—one observa- edge. tion of, for example, a carnivorous cow. If such epistemic limits can be understood The proposition “All intelligent beings are a priori, the scientific enterprise as an intel- terrestrial beings” is similarly falsifiable. lectual enterprise will assuredly profit; it will This is what is meant when a logician in- profit from the self-imposed restraints that are sists that universal propositions are not con- among the best rewards of sober philosophi- clusively verifiable, they are only conclusive- cal thinking, just as it stands to be misguided ly falsifiable9—a statement that is true of both without such thinking. universal affirmative and universal negative First, a few words about the nature of logic. propositions. The classical Aristotelian study of the log- Consider the universal negative proposi- All cows are herbivores. ic of deduction involves propositions—called tion: “No extraterrestrial intelligence exists.” categorical propositions—of four standard This may be restated, in the logical form No forms.8 These are illustrated by the following S is P, as: “The universe contains no intelligent four examples: thing (or being) that is at the same time an extraterrestrial thing (or being).” All cows are herbivores. Here again is a proposition that is not veri- No cows are herbivores. fiable; it is only falsifiable. It can be shown to Some cows are herbivores. be false by the discovery of a single counter- Some cows are not herbivores. example, i.e., by the discovery of a single instance of extraterrestrial intelligence. But it These may be written schematically as: cannot be conclusively verified because the No cows are herbivores. things (beings) that the universe10 contains— All S is P. (universal affirmative proposition) let alone the spaces and times that might con- No S is P. (universal negative proposition) ceivably contain them—are so numerically Some S is P. (particular affirmative proposi- large as to be indefinitely large, hence innu- tion) merable.11 Some S is not P. (particular negative proposi- Now consider the particular affirmative tion) proposition: “Some extraterrestrial intelligence exists.” In the logical form Some S is P, where the letters S and P represent the subject this is rewritten: “Some intelligent thing (or and predicate terms, respectively. (The kind/ being) is an extraterrestrial thing (or being).” Some cows are herbivores. class of proposition is indicated in parenthe- In logical parlance, this type of categorical ses.) proposition is the contradictory of a univer- Now take the universal affirmative propo- 9 J. O. Urmson, Philosophical Analysis (Oxford Universi- sition “All cows are herbivores” and ask: Is it ty Press, 1967), 113. true or false? If we are empiricists and of the 10 Even if the universe possesses both observable opinion that our decision must rest upon ob- and unobservable features (e.g., historical prop- servation, we proceed by observing the culi- erties), as well as both observable and unobserv- nary preferences of all cows. able things/beings, the falsifiability method can be the only practical method of investigating universal But (we should ask) how many is “all”? The propositions about it. word “all” is ambiguous. 11 Some might say not innumerable but infinite. I do The problem would be simplified if we not go that far because empirical observation of could say “All cows presently living on the anything infinite is problematic. See, e.g., Bertrand Russell, “The Problem of Infinity Considered Histori- Some cows are not herbivores. Parker Ranch are herbivores because by cally,” in J. J. C. Smart, Problems of Space and Time (New counting heads—i.e., by simple enumeration— York: Macmillan, 1964), 145-159. The mathematical- we could discover how many all specifies, say ly infinite is, happily, a more tractable idea than ei- trial intelligence (the acronym for which is 5,001.” ther the spatially infinite or the temporally infinite. SETI), the fundamental question is: Is there in- But if by all, in any proposition of the form Take, for example, the mathematical idea of an “infi- telligent life6 elsewhere in the universe, or are nite set”–i.e., a set containing an infinite number of All S is P, is meant a set whose members are ei- members. That the number of such sets is itself in- 7 we, the denizens of Earth, alone? ther (1) infinite, or (2) indefinitely large and finite can be easily shown by considering the set of whole numbers, {1, 2, 3, …}: Just as this set has an infi- 6 The term intelligent life may be interpreted in ei- nite number of members, so too does any subset of ther the singular or the plural, may be taken as mean- Dover, 1979)], one reads this: “How far and how hard it that begins with a different first member–e.g., {2, ing conscious aliens, humanoids, or gods–if gods are we will need to look before we find a signal [of ex- 3, 4, …} or {3, 4, 5, …}. Thus, not only can a mathema- thought to be observable–or any single member of traterrestrial intelligence], or before we become at tician prove that some infinities are larger than oth- any of these classes of beings. The logical founda- last convinced that our nature is rare in the Universe, ers; he can also show–abracadabra!–that there are tion of the argument presented here is class neutral. we cannot now know.” It is my purpose to demon- an infinite number of them! For a more elaborate dis- 7 On page 4 of The Search for Extraterrestrial Intel- strate here what we can now know, and what we cussion of these matters, see: John D. Barrow, The In- ligence [prepared by the National Aeronautics and should never expect to know. finite Book (New York: Vintage, 2006). Space Administration (NASA) and edited by Philip 8 Irving M. Copi and Carl Cohen, Introduction to Logic, Morrison, John Billingham, and John Wolfe (New York: 8th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), 161-190. (Continues on next page)

March 2015 Planetarian 19 sal negative proposition and, as such, can be conclusively verified but not conclusively falsified. In order to falsify it, we would have to verify its contradictory, No S is P, which, as we have seen, can’t be done due to the impossibil- ity of knowing how many members are con- A Parable tained in the set specified by the phrase “All A man awakens to find himself in a prison cell. Why he is there, how he arrived, and, most par- things/beings in the universe.” (If an enumer- ticularly, what it might be like on the other side of his cell wall: none of these can he fathom in the slightest. But surmising that Somebody must know these things, he wishes to make inquiries of ation of this set’s members were possible, it Somebody at the earliest opportunity. would perhaps then be possible to examine its He peers into the crack of light coming under his cell door. A lengthy hallway seems to lead members to try to determine which, if any, fit away, but to where he cannot tell. He quietly presses his ear to the door and holds his breath. the descriptor extraterrestrial intelligence.12) Distant, but not so distant as to escape detection, he listens for, and hears, what he thinks might Bertrand Russell has nicely summarized be Somebody’s murmurs, but discerns no articulate sound that he is able to comprehend or even to suspect as emanating from a mouth like his own. In desperation he calls out—and hears, in re- 13 these ideas as follows: ply, only echoes. Propositions containing ‘all’ or ‘none’ can be Can I truly be, he wonders to himself, the only occupant of such a vast and extensive prison- disproved by empirical data, but not proved ex- house? cept in logic and mathematics. We can prove One day, quite by accident, he finds a key that unlocks the door of his cell, allowing him to visit the cell immediately adjacent to his own. Its door is unlocked and open, but no one is there. And ‘all primes except 2 are odd,’ because this fol- because his leg chains do not allow more distant explorations, he returns dejectedly to his own cell lows from definitions; but we cannot prove ‘all and stares at the wall. men are mortal,’ because we cannot prove that Time passes. we have overlooked no one … Since we cannot One night, he rouses himself from his dreams, excitedly grabs his key, and re-visits the adjacent cell where he notices, to his delight, some evidence that the cell is occupied: a footprint, examine everything, we cannot know general a scrap of paper, a cloth fragment. Yet, so propositions empirically. much time has now passed since his first vis- Empirical evidence can prove propositions it—precisely how much he does not know— containing ‘a’ or ‘some,’ and can disprove prop- that he cannot be certain that these things ositions containing … ‘all, or ‘none.’ It cannot are not his own, carelessly left behind on a previous occasion. disprove propositions containing ‘a’ or ‘some,’ Again he calls out. Again there is silence. and cannot prove propositions containing … Again he yanks at his chains. They break! ‘all’ or ‘none.’ He now looks anxiously down the long, beckoning corridor. It stretches into the dis- For those who think about SETI programs, tance as far as the eye can see. He sees, or thinks he sees in the half-light, the figure of the empirical (observational) limits suggested a childlike Hope fluttering before him, lur- here by the words “all” and “none” must con- ing him onward; but he stops at the mere stitute immoveable barriers—immoveable a thought. For he realizes that even if he had priori barriers—and barriers that become all the strength to wander the corridor’s entire length as far as its visible terminus, he may but insurmountable when considering not find yet another corridor, or even a set of simply the (here assumed) indeterminable corridors, awaiting him along the way—cor- number of things in the universe, but also its ridors very like the one before him now; uncounted corridors branching off in unknown directions; gargantuan size and the available means of ex- even corridors within corridors, and each corridor containing its own maze of secret passages and ploring it. dim caves and dark hiding places and locked doors—in sum, a labyrinthine network of cell-studded pathways, each cell begging for exploration! But (our prisoner thinks to himself) what if all those cells are empty? What if they have always been empty? What if they always will be empty? Using the parable, inserting doubt Hit hard by this new barrage of despair-inflicting notions, he stiffens himself to ruminate upon Consider the parable on this page. each of them until, having bitten his nails to the quick, he begins to stagger, bleeding and forlorn, Now, mindful of this parable and its mes- back to his cell, dragging his chains. Collapsing onto the bed, he again stares at the imperturbable wall. But as he stares, so does his sage, we can now ask this of SETI advocates: agitation increase; for he soon begins to understand, even amidst the dreadful silence, the wall’s Suppose we could give a man as long as he de- naked message: that even if, by another yet-to-be-discovered key, he could extricate himself not sires to personally explore his entire known only from his individual cell but from the larger prison of which that cell appears to be but a small universe in search of beings similar to him- part, he might discover, when he steps outside, that he nevertheless remains inside—not inside an self. When he finishes his task, supposing that individual cell, it is true, nor even inside a single prison, but inside a walled city! And whether any of the prison cells anywhere in that larger city, or indeed any of the cell-like places where Some- his search is futile, can we then correctly con- body could hide, might actually be the dwelling place, however temporary, of one such as himself, clude that he is really alone in the universe? he may never know! Does he really know that he has searched ev- He now realizes the precise nature of his condition: Given the logical truth that he is either alone erywhere? That he has overlooked nothing? or not alone, it is only the latter that he can ever possibly come to know—and only if the latter is, in fact, the correct description of his circumstances.1 For even though the ambit of a city’s wall may That he has examined and enumerated ev- be larger than that of a cell’s, and even though reaching that wall would enable him to lengthen his erything? Perhaps he should go around a sec- leash, enlarge his explorable space, increase his knowledge, and push back his horizons, it would ond time, and then a third? Perhaps those for be, nevertheless, a wall. whom he searches are purposely hiding? Per- And what is a wall if not a barrier? And what is a barrier if not a limit? For although his teth- haps they are constantly mobile and move er would then be longer – and although it might extend as far as the city gates and beyond—he would remain, as before, a prisoner: a man whose spatial range is as confining as his time within that range is finite. In short: a quickening fetus beating its head against the wall of the womb, des- 12 I am ignoring the problems of such a description. perate to get out. Alas! Is there a consensus regarding the nature of ter- 1 This realization – that there are some things that a man not only does not know but cannot know restrial intelligence? – is the essence of negative epistemology. 13 Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Dennon, eds., The Ba- sic Writings of Bertrand Russell (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961), 130. Grass graphic: ©Yaweko, Dreamstime.com (Continues on page 29)

20 Planetarian March 2015

Passages, spirals and embody movements in the digital revolution under the Dome

Isabella Beyer tic, vibrant Fulldome UK Festival in Novem- Production Manager ber 2014. IB Creations Studio Some questions are just popping up straight Auf der Halle 15 into our face, and one is: in 20 years, when most people will have their own immersive 75045 Wössingen, Germany cinema in their living rooms, or will be able to [email protected] take rides through the universe through their Oculus Rift1 glasses or by using Magic Leap2, or whatever the technology will be until then, In this article I reflect on the usage of geo- Further I argue that experiences in immer- will there still be anybody who wants to go to graphical visualization tools, which are nat- sive environments like the fulldome planetar- a planetarium or a dome display? urally embedded in our daily media experi- ium with its inherent spatial taxonomy can It is wonderful to see all the new art forms ence while using mobile devices, navigational correct and fill in the gaps of incomplete or in the dome, from realtime visual perfor- tools, and other applications. With reference limited Earth/universe model imaginations, to well-known media scientists and philoso- while offering a concept of spatial passages 1 Oculus Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head- phers, I illustrate the fact that this usage of dig- and transitions. mounted display, being developed by Oculus VR. It ital geographical tools changes our mind con- At the end I reflect on the usage of the dome provides a 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees cept of local environments, Earth, and spatial space under the umbrella of Digital Revolu- vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective. The Devel- opment Kit 2 released in 2014 has a resolution of knowledge. tion, which I experienced at the enthusias- 1920x1080 pixels, 960x1080 pixel per eye. The experience is quite intense, since it enables the user Isabella Beyer (born Buczek) is a fulldome producer, lecturer, researcher and PhD candidate at the Plane- through the motion tracking system to turn around tary Collegium (CAiiA), Plymouth University. She teaches next to Immersive Production, Reception, and and see the environment all around him, as in a full Didactic of Media. For the past 10 years she has been working as a film director and head of production sphere. A bit bizarre is the fact that your own body as well as 360° production consultant on various films, such as Touching the Edge of the Universe, Dream to is being dematerialized, you look basically through Fly, and CuveWaters-Water for Namibia. your own body downwards. In her work she specialized in science communication and science visualization, especially for 360° pro- 2 David Gelles and Michael J. de la Merced (October jection systems. Her research is based in the aesthetics of immersion, aesthetics of space, cognition, 21, 2014). “Google Invests Heavily in Magic Leap’s Ef- and knowledge through immersive visuals. fort to Blend Illusion and Reality.” New York Times.

22 Planetarian March 2015 Facing page: The spiral staircase from Dream To Fly by the Heavens of Copernicus Planetarium; used of different satellite images, which overlay with permission. Below: testing the Oculus Rift at the iii-Conference 2014 in Kiel, Germany. All images on the virtual Earth surface in a straight an- provided by the author. gle directly to the chosen place. For large parts fulldome theaters do believe of the surface of the Earth only 2D images are they are seeing the real night available, from almost vertical photography. sky and, therefore, the real From approximately 9 to 8 km above the sur- world environment. Some- face the buildings start slowly to gain three-di- how their intellectual con- mensional, rudimentary shapes. At a level of 1 cept of Earth, the night sky, km, a decent three-dimensional orientation is and its surrounding melds possible. with the Digital Universe At- Additionally, there is the option to see dif- las model, which we show ferent photos which provide fragments of them in the dome, into some- the particular city from unknown users, ac- thing new—hopefully a best cessed from a tour guide panel. After choos- case scenario of a new, wider ing one of these photos, the viewer is zoomed concept in reference to their in a chunky movement to the photographed own location on Earth. place or building and ends sharply in the pla- But how coexistent and nar view. The photos have no information complete can this new model on the viewed angle, perspective, time, or dis- in their mind become? tance from where the picture was taken. Just We, the fulldome designers, the author of the image is mentioned and a mances (VJs), game concepts, and artistic ex- producers, and creators, are responsible for ex- description appears giving some details on the periences to fresh student works. But should actly this: establishing a “new” world model chosen object. we really put anything in the dome just be- in the minds of our audiences. But this mind The whole motion experience is fragment- cause it is possible? Should we really treat the concept is hard to grasp and is in a continuous ed and chunky, with no connecting passag- dome just as another cinema screen, a digital fluid state due to the changing media land- es made between the different locations and flat wallpaper canvas on which everything scape and the use of different media devices. no more spatial information given. Satellite can be stretched around? The frequent use of navigational tools, for images are aligned to a virtual sphere floating The real question for me, therefore, is how example driving a car, inside a virtual emp- do we prevent the medium from triviality looking up the next des- ty space. It is a space and how do we keep and grow our knowledge tination, or planning built of many gaps of the spatial experiences, while expanding our next holiday us- and voids; or, as Ji- and opening for new media forms and art un- ing Google Earth View, hoon and Munster der the dome? for example, does shape state: our imagination of dis- “Despite the A conversation, new research tant places and strength- heightened visibility My research started in 2010 with a very in- ens our conceptualiza- Google Earth facili- nocent and random personal story, one which tion of virtual maps and tates, it nonetheless many of you may have experienced as well. I landscapes. does not offer us an was on the ICE (the German fast train) when I But more important- image of the world. met this very nice and well-educated couple, ly, all these tools have Or, rather, its cover- both older and both with medical doctors. an inherent guiding age of the world by It happened, of course, that out of the con- technique of a “zoom” imaging data should versation they asked me what I do profession- leading the user towards not be understood ally. I thought to keep it simple and short and the surface of the loca- in terms of greater told them I work for planetariums. Then they tion. This zoom effect, indexicality … Un- asked if I was an astrophysicist. I said no, I am or experience, or pass- evenness of vision is a visualization person, bringing images, film ing, however we want to call it, enables the part of its aesthetics … The GE visual experi- material to the dome surface, but I do work chance for additional details: landscapes, re- ence is far from experientially seamless … It is with astrophysicists very closely. gions, cities, streets, houses, people, objects, a stretch of the image—the image’s deforma- So then the woman responded, “oh so then or as Stewart (p. 283)3 summarizes, “as when tion to provide coverage. Google Earth is the you are a star and sky creator?” Well, that left plummeting from satellite-range to a facial image as purely visible data, at the cost of any me a little bit speechless, but I said yes, in some close-up, or lifting back out again.” claims to representational purity on the part 4 sense I am able to create stars and bring them This scalable transition is a technology- of the (digital) image.“ (highlighted by the au- to the dome ceiling, and we can even take you driven effect. It is not a real passage through thor Jihoon in his article). on a journey to the next galaxy. Both looked space or time. There is no time and space con- puzzled, and said: “but the stars are already straint; we are somehow swooshed to the oth- 4 Munster A (2008) “Welcome to Google Earth.” In: Kroker AM (eds) Critical Digital Studies: A Reader. To- there at the night sky, so you are not showing er point in space, which we chose to be navi- ronto: University of Toronto Press, 397–416 and Ji- the real stars then?” gated to. hoon, K. (2014) “Remediating Panorama on the Small This little story showed me that, obvious- In Google Earth, once you type in your lo- Screen: Scale, Movement and Spectatorship in Soft- ly, there is an important misunderstanding cation (let’s use Rome for example), the auto- ware-Driven Panoramic Photography.” Animation between the simulation of the skies in a full- matic zoom location is a hard and fast passing Journal. Chung-ang University, Seoul, South Korea, retrieved from: anm.sagepub.com/content/9/2/159. dome theater and the real sky. 3 Stewart G (2007) Framed Time: Toward a Postfilmic Accessed 10 January 2014. Some of the audiences coming into our Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Continues on next page)

March 2015 Planetarian 23 The problem is that these zooming experiences are structuring and forming the mind’s concept of our real environment in a specific manner by technical interpretations and the picking of destinations by unknown users in a virtual coordinate system. These visualizations, or “maps,” as stated by Mersch (p.55)5, are instruments of domina- tion; they do not represent, but construct, the space in which we live. GPS-mappings transform the space into an available, mathematical territory, a territory that is available for everybody at any time. One positive aspect is that, in some way, it democratizes spatial knowledge, which was thus far only available to privileged groups (scientific or political groups, for instance). It enables users to make discoveries on their own, like, for example, the Kamil Crater in Egypt by Vincento De Michele in 2009. He discovered it using Google Earth. Screenshots from Google Earth, zooming down to street view. Also quite clever is to use a philosophy similar to Wikipedia’s that lets the users add Detachment from the observed etarium theatre. Therefore, I have been ask- their own 3d models using SketchUp, a 3D Now let’s go back to the mind concept ing myself what should be taken into account modeling program software, or their own data shaped by the usage of, for example, Google while designing, in this environment, a model models of earthquakes, 3d forests, etc., into the Maps on a mobile device: the zooming effect of a passage, which I call “Le Passage.” Earth gallery. also results in contradictional experiences. If we take, for example, a journey to a far Although it loses contextual and spatial There is full detachment from the observed galaxy, passing through thousands of light knowledge, it does one thing very well: it de- object and also the immobility of the view- years while simultaneously moving back into livers straight and as fast as possible all avail- er. “This immobility is counteracted by the time, we realize that it is a very strong experi- able visual information on your chosen lo- viewers’ mobile and haptic gaze on the ob- ence. It also is being undertaken daily in ev- cation, even when that means plummeting ject.. (Kim, p. 170)6. ery planetarium that has access to the scale- through different satellite images on the way. The operator using a device, for example, able universe. This is just the beginning regarding the flu- to zoom down on a specific territory develops But through that experience of a passage, ency of movement; there is a lot more to come a form of a remote virtual gaze. This new un- so much can happen. First, it can distort to- from Google with flight simulator, Google derstanding of seeing through the virtual gaze tally the concept of the world and provide a Maps, Google Earth Plus and Pro, Google Sky blends, hopefully, with the known overview chance for a new orientation. It can annihi- (!), Earth View, Google Ocean with seafloor of the satellite landscape perspective. In order late the concept of time and make void any topography, Street View, etc. Google also has to process these inputs to a coherent model of new concept. It can neutralize, free the mind, covered most of the Earth’s topography with a place, quite complex memory and abstrac- and make space for a new model of our envi- three-dimensional buildings and landscapes. tion skills are required. ronment. It can influence the state of being Maybe one day there will be one big three- Thus a necessity arises to design for the re- and transfer it to something else. It can sensi- dimensional Google world model similar to mote viewer, whom we also can call the “im- tize and raise awareness. Digital Universe. Let’s impose further, that mobile mobile user,” embodied experienc- Therefore, this transition is a very impor- this Google world model will be available es, which would offer visible context and tant visualization tool, “a knowledge instru- to everybody at any time and will allow us- connect the viewer with the environment ment“ in scientific communication, especial- ers to take virtual rides to whatever location around him, moving him through it. ly when used in the fulldome theatre. in the universe they want to go, enable users It should be an environment that would The dome has an important inherent tax- to make bookmarks, and create custom image enable connections and relations between onomy, which is positive for the creation of overlays for planning trips for their next shut- different spaces or objects in space, one which passages and unique experiences. This taxon- tle ride. would ensure an overview and logical transi- omy influences the way we are telling stories Why should then, anybody still go to a tion or passage from a space A to space B, even in this specific environment. It forces us nat- planetarium? Well, I think there will be rea- if A and B are on different scales or ecosystems, urally to slow down camera movements and sons to do so, which I explain in the conclu- from micro to macro levels. And, most impor- abandon any sudden cuts or chopped mo- sion of this article. tantly, a space that would correct the miscon- tions. We are constrained to design smooth ceptions provided by commercially-based transitions from one environment into the media or geo-visualization tools. other. At the Illusion Immersion Involvement 5 Mersch, D. (2011). “Fraktale Räume und multiple Ak- This environment can be the IDE (immer- 7 tionen. Überlegungen zur Orientierung in komplexen sive dome environment) of a fulldome plan- Conference in Kiel in November 2014, a gam- medialen Umgebungen” (“Fractal Spaces and Multi- ing professor from Flensburg University was ple Actions. Observations for Orientation in complex 6 Jihoon, K. (2014) Remediating Panorama on the negatively claiming that the fulldome the- media Environments”). In G. Lehnert (Eds.), Raum und Small Screen: Scale, Movement and Spectatorship in Gefühl: Der Spatial Turn und die neue Emotionsforschung Software-Driven Panoramic Photography. Animation (Space and Feeling: The Spatial Turn and the New Emotion Journal. Chung-ang University, Seoul, South Korea, 7 Illusion Immersion Involvement Conference in Kiel, Research). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. retrieved from: anm.sagepub.com/content/9/2/159. Germany, www.immersive-medien.de/konferenziii Accessed 10 January 2014 (Continues on page 26)

24 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 25 atre would be dogmatic per se, having the in- Since slow movement through space seems locations and then flies to the next destina- herent slow motion constraint, which I found so natural, one can think how to expand on it, tion, rather than jumping from one environ- quite interesting. creating most intensive knowledge-forming ment to another. I think we, as the fulldome designers and experiences, or, as Ryan Wyatt told me in our This way the navigational component content creators, are more than aware of the interview 2012 at the IPS Conference, creating helps to keep orientation, because transitions challenges in this medium, like, for example, aesthetically-sensible guided tours through are being established between specific loca- keeping the audience orientation. As a result, the universe. tions and the Earths topography, which can we do produce transitions in various ways, At the conference in Baton Rouge, I was also appear very complex in that scale and be hard often trying to avoid hard cuts. But one can able to discuss these aspects with such full- to orient oneself. break with that “dogma” very easily, and it dome practitioners as Dan Neafus and Dr. Ka So from a philosophical point of view, this does not answer the question of which val- Chun Yu. They could give some important in- usage of the Digital Earth model enables a rec- ues the medium can offer. Neglecting the me- sights into the creation of unique experiences reation of passages and connection that might dium per se shows a missing understanding of under the dome. have disappeared in the mind concepts. The its capabilities. For Yu, for example, it was very clear how Digital Universe Atlas and Digital Earth nested Uniview, a product by SCISS which includes in Uniview or in other applications have an Linear concepts are being broken the Digital Universe Atlas, changes the way a inherent navigational component, which di- One can break with the concept of linear narrative is being developed. He uses Uniview rectly influences our storytelling. passages and experience with new art forms, to create realtime voyages around the earth as it is already being done. VJ events show- for the planetarium audiences in Denver. Fol- Inspiration from Powers of Ten case realtime visualization to support music lowing the concept of Worldviews Network11, This is no wonder if one looks back to the expression, even if that means fast cuts or fast Yu uses the dome to illustrate home planet development history of Uniview by Cart- movements. It is a unique pulsating and ener- problems. er Emmart, Hayden’s director of astrovisual- getic group experience, in which you wish the The medium, in combination with Dig- ization, and the SCISS founders, who were in- seats would disappear and one could dance ital Universe Atlas, invites us, the fulldome spired by the continuous zoom of Charles and and participate with one’s own body under designers, to create seamless moving flights Ray Eames’ 1968 classic short film Powers of the dome.8 through different parts of the Earth. He de- Ten. There are quite professional artistic ex- scribes how a journey is created with a linear In this film, the viewer is being guided pressions, like RFID-Fragments9, in which the arc, and thus the navigation becomes the nar- through a long zoom out from a viewpoint of space is being rebuilt through fragments with rative in a chosen context. one square meter, seeing a man and a woman on a picnic blanket in Chicago, to outer space at a rate of one power of ten per 10 seconds. It then zooms back in to the starting scene and enters the man’s body, zooming to the size level of quarks. Of course this idea could be only rudimen- tarily visualized in the year 1968 with still images and little squares. But the concept behind the film was brilliant. The aim was to realize the concept of a zoom into the knowable universe, which is now in the “real” virtual space of the Digital Universe Atlas, which takes us from a small flat screen to a changing environment around the viewer as the travel goes on. RFID-Fragments, www.fulldome.org.uk/events/fragments-rfid The goal is to enable “real size and scale relationships of the universe with visual depth cuing and continuity between locations by nice depth of field effects. Unique is that “their Yu tries to include all movements in a con- motion with the added abilities to highlight, work is created synergetically throughout the text of a constant journey with smooth transi- threshold, group, delineate, and demonstrate use of interlinked processes and performance tions. The audience flies in and out of chosen across time in ways that were not available parameters of the visuals are tied to sonic pro- before.”12 or, as Carter explains further, “to cesses and vice versa, often in feedback loops. 11 The Worldviews Network: “Taking advantage of show humanity a view of itself, alone, afloat the unique capabilities of digital dome theaters, the Their work grows out of this interaction creat- in space around one dim star in a vastness that Denver Museum of Nature & Science; the California 10 ing a truly audio visual performance.” Academy of Sciences in San Francisco; NOVA/WGBH shrinks before us as we fly away from it, span- In another piece shown at the Fulldome UK in Boston; design/engineering frm the Elumenati in ning the knowledge worked out by our fellow Festival, one is being flown into a sphere and Asheville, North Carolina; and the U.S. National Oce- human beings.” (p. 26) experiences a manifold of fractures all around anic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Pro- The zoom backwards into the micro cos- gram office in Silver Spring, Maryland, have joined to us, broken into similar glass pieces giving mul- form the Worldviews Network (www.worldviews. mos of the cell was impressively elaborated tiple perspectives of the space we are in. net) through a three-year Environmental Literacy Grant from NOAA’s Office of Education. The net- 12 Emmart, C. (2005). “The Powers of Ten with 8 I am referring to the last event by United VJs at the work’s mission: Place Earth within its cosmic context a Steering Wheel on the Global Visualization Su- Fulldome UK 2014 and connect audiences with ecological and biodiver- perhighway.” Planetarian. Vol. 34, No. 4, p. 19– 9 Recursive Function Immersive Dome, an audio- sity issues in their backyards.” The Worldviews Net- 26, retrieved from: c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ips- vidual entertainment environment that features work: Planetariums for Ecological Literacy, by Dr. Ka planetarium.org/resource/resmgr/pdf-articles/ 360-degree projection and surround sound. Chun Yu, Healy Hamilton, Rachel Connolly, David Mc- special_focus2.pdf. Accessed 4 January 2014. 10 www.fulldome.org.uk/events/fragments-rfid Conville, and Ned Gardiner, In Dimensions June 2012 (Continues on page 28)

26 Planetarian March 2015 The moment of insp iration when he decides to fly to Mars one day. This is the moment we work for.

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WW\\'.~e i ss .delp l a neta ri ums in US/Canada contact Chuck Rau: Crau@ seilerinst.{om We make it visible. March 2015 Planetarian 27 Left: Still from All We Are; above, illustrations from Kees Boeke’s 1957 Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps, an inspiration for the Eameses’ film. for the dome in All We Are13 by Carter and the ative director, and some very talented Polish spatial passages and transitions. This can be Visualization Center C in Norrköping Sweden 3D artists, the show flourished and became an seen as a way to prevent the medium from in May 2010. I viewed the movie in 2011 and award-winning and unique piece of art, one of triviality, while expanding and opening up was impressed by the camera work, a contin- its kind. The image is illustrating a wonderful for new media forms. uous spiraling in, which opened different per- transition in a spiral movement to the labora- A library of visual and written resources has spectives and scale relations while keeping tory of Leonardo Da Vinci. been already established through the efforts the context of our size in the overall environ- One further mentally enriching experience of IMERSA and can be found under the fol- ment. in the immersive dome environment to point lowing links: http://imersa.org/resources/ma- Dan Neafus had a nice description for it: out is the embodied movement, which has a terials; https://vimeo.com/imersa. a “spiral camera movement” in which the long history as well. 360-degree space under the dome is perfect- The planetarium concept was strongly in- We answer the question ly used. The immersive effect reaches a great fluenced by Walther Bauersfield, whose goal To answer also the question, whether any- intensity, as one is pulled deeper and deep- was to create a new spatial view. He wanted body will want to go to a planetarium in 20 er down into the “smallest component parts to create a new learning environment, which years time with a sophisticated future uni- known to humanity—a journey in scale, but would make multifariousness of natural phe- verse model available on any private holo- also in time and space.”14 At the same time, it nomena accessible to human perception (Bau- graphic projection, a far more critical view on reveals comparative scales we can see: a cof- ersfeld 2006: 7, 1929). Google is needed. fee cup, coffee bean, salt, corn, and the human Already with a star projector of that time, a Google is still commercially driven, so de- egg, all inside the fulldome theatre, in which very important knowledge experience could spite their efforts in appearing publicly as we are situated. be realized, one which I would like to call the open, their private interests still must be re- “embodied movement”—a dynamic relation alized. Other interests, which might present Copernicus Planetarium between observer and image. very important knowledge, will be dropped Another spiral movement which has an im- It is a moment in which the observer real- because of a lack of commercial demand. mersive pull function can be found in Dream izes that the celestial bodies are not moving The Google model might miss a neutral To Fly, a wonderfully poetic and creative show around him, but it is himself who moves on view and understanding. In my opinion, only produced at The Heavens of Copernicus Plan- Earth around the sun. Perception and under- an educational institution with no commer- etarium. I had the chance to conceptualize standing change dramatically. It results in cial interest can provide an accurate model. and realize the Persia Scene and did the full- an embodied movement, or the illusion of a The company’s thinking is algorithm based, dome production consultation from script to space beyond the cupola roof. and so are their products. This thinking does final movie. In conclusion, the medium has high value not oversee many centuries or millennia from Thanks to Maciej Ligowski, project man- capabilities to offer. I would like to invite you the Big Bang to now, as we do in the planetari- ager, and especially to Paulina Majda, the cre- to think further on that experience and how um; they seem to see only the now of “today” you as the fulldome creators could achieve and possibly future user demands. This obvi- 13 Comment from Carter Emmart, 11 November 2014 more of such moments. ously also will influence their outcome. Thus, on Facebook: “Trailer for my dome movie, All We Through the above-mentioned usage there will be still the necessity for neutral ed- Are, made five years ago in Norkoping, Sweden. This forms, fulldome can transform knowledge ucational views. dome show features the AMNH Digital Universe 3D into experienced knowledge and offer new Secondly, simply because you can fly into Atlas, and attempts to address the same content of the classic film Powers of Ten, but updated with the perspectives on relations. It can embed infor- the locations, for instance, of the Holy Ro- latest data. Executive producer, Linkoping Universi- mation into meaningful context and expand man Empire, on the internet, it doesn’t mean ty professor, Anders Ynnerman. Producer, Anna Öst. the mind concept. you do it every day, and if there is an exhibi- Technical Director, Andreas Wetteborn. Modeller, Further, the IDE, because of its inherent spa- tion close to you on your favorite topic, you Kristofer Jansson. Composer, Björn Carlsson. Produc- tion software, SCISS Uniview, Maya, Adobe After Ef- tial taxonomy, can correct and fill in the gaps would still go, because you can grab the new fects.” of incomplete or limited Earth/universe mod- topic more easily through a prepared exhibi- 14 www.fddb.org/shows/all-we-are, retrieved 11 el imaginations, while offering a concept of tion for you. November 2014

28 Planetarian March 2015 Another factor can be seen at the speed of Surely one main aspect that will survie in Thus a certain percentage of future plane- scrolling through Facebook or going daily the future is the social component and the sci- tarium audiences that also could be lost, but through the news on online sites or in your entific authority. Live actors, lecturers, artists, the numbers depend on how planetariums in- personalized news feed. The amount of news and hosts will be needed to differentiate what tegrate and connect themselves to the new is growing and the attention span needed per we do and guides, and who will be able to media possibilities. There is potential to learn news item is shrinking. moderate and fly the audience around Earth from the global players in developing trans- Who will be willing to dive alone on their and out into the universe15—the new genera- medial concepts, where the focus is not only device through virtual space for 5 to 30 min- tion of space pilots.16 on producing shows, but also creating a story utes? It is a different experience when you can Media usage continues to change dra- universe told through fulldome shows, games, individually touch and experience the Earth matically. If we consider the development Oculus Rift experiences, exhibitions, online model on your own, but for how long would of online and mobile media with regards presentations, second screen applications, and you do that without any authentic guidance, to commercial television, for example, new more. despite how scientific or entertaining it is? generations may prefer to watch television Think about Dream To Fly and wonder: And will there not still be the need for a through online services and on demand. The wouldn’t it be nice to have also the possibility physical experience of a space outside the television format already is dying out. to experience flying inside the Oculus Rift En- home, one that is safe and protected from the vironment? The future of our medium stays constant attention-seeking commercial me- 15 Dan Neafus, IMERSA co-founder and manager at interesting; we just need to adapt it for future dia? It is an environment that will allow one Gates Planetarium, in our ideas exchange in January audiences. I 2015 to connect with other people in a physical 16 A metaphor by Eduard Thomas, director of the group experience, in contrast to a growing so- Kiel Planetarium, Mediendom, in Germany in our dis- cial isolation. cussion December 2014

(The Logic of SSTI, continued from page 29) when he does, always maintaining a pre- pirically verifiable but not falsifiable. is—or at least that is the way it is believed to scribed distance? After all, must not the hunt- Alternatively, the statement (B) “No extra- be. ed be where the hunter looks when he looks terrestrial intelligence exists” is such that, if And all science rests upon that metascien- in order to be found? false, it can, logically, be shown to be false. But tific belief—the belief that the universe is ra- Such doubts will only be put to rest if Oth- if true, it cannot be shown to be true. That is, tional and can be understood by what is ers truly exist and if they are found. There is in principle, it is empirically falsifiable but not called logical thinking. a large and unbridgeable chasm between the verifiable.15 This is at least a happy beginning. The ques- statement They haven’t been found and the Simply expressed: If ETs exist, we may some tion is: Where do we go from here? I statement They don’t exist. We might, it is day know that. If they don’t, we shall never true, empirically (observationally) confirm know that. And it is the combined force of The Learn’d Astronomer, softcover. 183 + the existence of X. But because something these two logical truths that provides the lure, ix pages. Price: US $18. From: Mauna Kea that doesn’t exist cannot be observed, its non- and the rub, of all SETI programs. Books, P. O. Box 10272, Honolulu, Hawaii existence cannot be empirically (observation- It is important to point out that none 96816. ally) established.14 of what has been said here tells us anything about which statement, A or B, is in fact true. True or false? Nor does it tell us what procedure(s) to follow (Strategic Plan, continued from page 6) The conclusion to be drawn here is this: in order to find out which statement is, in fact, • Lack of professional develpment, lack of The statement (A) “Some extraterrestrial intel- true. But it does, importantly, tell us what to professional working partnerships, lack of ligence exists” is such that, if true, it can, logi- expect and not expect. And it tells us this be- interest in young tech/social media/anima- cally, be shown to be true. If false, it cannot be fore we begin our scientific investigations—i. tor professionals shown to be false. That is, in principle, it is em- e., a priori. The task ahead for the V2020 Planning If, then, our SETI efforts are poorly con- Team and IPS Officers is to draft our mission, ceived and fail, we might at least be able to un- 14 There is no act of sense perception that can prove vision, and value statements based directly an absolute absence except insofar as that absence, derstand why they have failed, surely a profit- from the SWOT survey results. During this like the perception of it, is both temporally and spa- able lesson. summer’s IPS Council meeting in Montreal, tially restricted. Thus it is possible, within a domain Nor is this our only consolation. We can Canada, a strategic planning facilitator will thus restricted, to confirm something’s non-exis- find yet another in the logician’s Law of the tence by the lack of observational data–to agree- assist in finalizing the draft documents to be Excluded Middle: For if this law is correct, ably demonstrate, for example, the non-existence at presented to Council for review and further this time of an island in the Kaiwi (Molokai) Channel then one of the above statements, either A or input. at latitude 21°20’ North, longitude 157°30’ West–or, B, either the Particular Affirmative or the Uni- Our ultimate goal is to present an articulat- more apropos astronomically, the non-existence of versal Negative, must be true, the other false. ed, vetted road map for where IPS is headed at a planet, Vulcan, within the orbit of Mercury. In such They cannot both be true. Neither can they cases the observation of nothing is, ipso facto, also the 2016 conference in Warsaw. the observation of something, viz., lack of empirical both be false. That is just the way the Universe If you are interested in participating in IPS’ data (the paradox is spurious); and one can reason- future, please take a moment to review the ably assert that absence of evidence is evidence of 15 The fact that statement A is not falsifiable while strategic planning document on the web page absence, and can mathematically represent that ab- statement B is falsifiable will pose a challenge to dis- sence with the null set. If, however, the domain of ciples of Karl Popper: On which side of his famous listed above. SETI programs is unrestricted–which it may or may line of demarcation between science and non-sci- John Elvert, Irene W. Pennington Planetari- not be in, for example, the multiverse imagined by ence (the latter of which includes “pseudoscience” um, Louisiana Arts & Science Museum British cosmologist Martin Rees – then the non-exis- and “metaphysics”) would he place SETI? Karl R. Pop- 100 South River Road, Baton Rouge 70802 USA tence of ETs could not be confirmed by beings who per, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1968), Chap- +1 (225) 344-5272 x 141; [email protected] I have no access to such indescribable places. ter 1, Part 4; Appendix 1.

March 2015 Planetarian 29 what happens to the gravity? From the Classdome • As gravity increases, what happens to your jump height? Jack L. Northrup Older students have access to a data table Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium with the mass and radius for each planet in King Science and Technology Magnet Center the solar system measured in terms of “Earth.” 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA We then experiment with some of the data +1 402-557-4494 from exoplanet discoveries to find the possi- [email protected] ble surface gravity. Unlike many of my lessons, I do not have the students make a graph; it is easier to have Updating classroom lessons of the computers will miss an update and the them just look at the relationships between We are deep in the “testing season” at our simulator will not load. mass and radius. Not only the inverse, but also school, where it is almost as wild and crazy So, for a couple of the labs, I have had to rec- the inverse-squared relationship between ra- as football season. It also provides me with a reate them in JavaScript without the graph- dius and gravity, is one of those ah-ha mo- 3-week window to update and edit presenta- ics portion (the little simulated person getting ments that the students will have. tions before the end-of-school-year push. squished by a planet’s high gravity) or visu- The AJJAR simulation that taps into my stu- I have observed this school year that a cou- alization of the eccentricity of a planet’s or- dents’ inner 2-year-old is called Craters (www. ple of my presentations have some dated in- bit. While these visuals did not provide essen- uni.edu/morgans/ajjar/Gravity/craters.html). formation or use techniques that are not as tial information for the lab, they were nice to If you do it correctly, eventually you create engaging as it should be for the students. help engage the students. an impact so large that it destroys the Earth. One of my presentations getting a lot of my The gravity lesson I am rewriting deals with For this lesson, to try to rein in the destruc- time this break is my lesson on meteors, aster- tion, I have them fill out Table 2. oids, meteorites, meteoroids, and comets. The Table 1 While none of these will get to the information hasn’t really changed and there Planet Mass Radius Gravity Jump magic planet killer, it is good for them isn’t a new definition for asteroid. Height to look at the relationships between the The issue is that it doesn’t mention recent Inky 1 1 different values. I didn’t just rewrite old presentations events, like how to say Chelyabinsk, and I felt Stinky 1 2 the use of the word bolide for 6-8 grade stu- during this season; I also am preparing a dents was a bit extreme. I don’t have to re- Blinky 2 1 new lesson on ancient explorers, starting with how to use the sun and Polaris write the entire presentation; I just need to Bob 2 2 adapt the sections with the problems and re- to navigate and taking it all the way up render them. to how to use a sextant. jumping on different planets. I did not want When the social studies teacher first ap- Working on gravity the students in sixth grade to have to calcu- proached me about bringing his classes to the One of the other lessons that is getting some late gravity for our simulated planets that planetarium he was thinking about sundials. time from me is the one on gravity. I have were already based on Earth mass and radius When he showed me the text that went with worked with Dr. Siobahn Morgan at the Uni- and I could quickly simulate using G=m/r^2 the unit, we decided that learning how to use versity of Northern Iowa’s AJJAR resources to calculate the ratio. a sextant would be a better application in the (www.uni.edu/morgans/ajjar) for many years, The first step is for them to measure their planetarium. Navigating with the stars was a I even got to be one of the field testers of a cou- standing jump height in centimeters, and use nice bridge to the next unit they will be cov- ple of the Kepler’s Law simulators. this number in the simulator webmail.ops. ering, which is tools and inventions. The simulators are simple enough for my org/~jack.northrup/JumpingLab1.html. My original plan was to just use the star pro- younger students to use without an issue, yet The simulator’s output includes the plan- jector to simulate the pristine sky you would give enough accurate information for reliable et’s gravity and jump height without the see without light pollution. In my initial tests, simulation. orginal AJJAR simulator’s animated jumping however, I felt that starting the lesson imme- The issue has been that they are Java-based character. For the reflection question, they diately in the dark would make it difficult for and periodically need updates and permis- have to answer these statements describing the audience to see me use the meridian mark- sions to function. If you are running it as a ki- the relationship of mass and radius to gravity: ers, so I am going to use the fulldome system osk the changes in plugins and addons aren’t • If mass increases and radius stays the same, to have them learn the process of using a sex- that bad, but I am running a lab with 30 com- what happens to the gravity? tant and then switch them to the star projec- puters that at any moment it would seem one • If radius increases and mass stays the same, tor to apply the skills. I

Table 2 Test Composition Diameter (m) Velocity (km/s) Angle (degrees) Crater Radius 1 Rock 1 20 45 2 Rock 1 20 60 3 Rock 1 20 90 4 Rock 2 20 90 5 Rock 4 20 90 6 Rock 8 20 90 7 Rock 16 20 90 8 Rock 16 40 90 9 Rock 16 60 90 10 Rock 8 80 90 11 Rock 4 100 90 12 Ice 1 20 45 13 Metal 1 20 45

30 Planetarian March 2015 DynamicEarth_8_5x11_WithAwards_Option01.pdf 1 10/21/2013 11:07:46 AM

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March 2015 Planetarian 31 books. We’ll continue to release a new tutori- Data to Dome al with each issue, but will no longer bother to The Science & Data Visualization Task Force print the python code in this column. All of the tutorials can be found in a GitHub repository (github.com/IPSScienceVisualization) Mark SubbaRao managed by the Science and Data Visualiza- Adler Planetarium tion Task Force. 1300 South Lake Shore Drive This month’s tutorial describes how to pull Chicago, Illinois 60091 USA a set of Milky Way datasets (globular clusters, [email protected] planetary nebulae, supernova remnants and many others) from the VizieR (vizier.u-stras- bg.fr) Catalogue Service and create data mod- Open WWT ules for various planetarium software packag- Last issue’s column was titled “Worldwide es. Many of us regularly present similar data to Telescope: Past, present and future.” Unfor- our visitors. tunately, given the uncertainty regarding The idea behind this tutorial is to demon- WWT’s future at the time the column was strate the power of including the code with written it, wound up being more about the the data module. As soon a new paper comes past and present. In the last couple of months out with a newer, larger or better catalog of a lot has happened. Here is a quick update. one of these classes of objects, a new data mod- installing software in schools. During the January American Astronom- ule can easily be generated using the code in In the open source era, the Windows ap- ical Society meeting in Seattle, Washington, this tutorial. plication may not receive the same develop- the Open WWT initiative was announced. We hope that the tutorials will promote a ment pressure as the web application. In fact, WWT is in the process of transitioning to a to way of working with astronomical data effi- the planetarium community may very well a community-based open source project. Mi- cient, powerful and open in our communi- be the group most interested in the continued crosoft Research is to supporting a small team, ty. To further these goals we will be holding development of the Windows application. If led by Doug Roberts, for the first half of this hands-on workshops, with the first scheduled the planetarium features of WWT are to con- year to help manage this transition. for the 2015 IMMERSA summit. While much tinue to improve, people from our communi- Jonathan Fay, although currently working of what we are trying to accomplish is system ty will need to step up and contribute to its de- at Microsoft in another capacity, is currently agnostic, representatives from most of the ma- velopment. assisting the team in preparing the code and jor vendors will be present to assist workshop documentation so that it will be ready to re- participants. Working with data lease on GitHub in the coming months. A longer multi-day stand alone “Data to The past couple of issues have included The open sourcing of WWT has been well Dome” workshop is in the works for later in the data tutorials in the form of a iPython note- received by the astronomical community. In year—stay tuned for details. I the future, WWT will likely play a large role, not only as a data exploration tool but also as an academic publishing resource. There is revolution going on in how ac- Bard SpiralTales of life, the universe and a few other things. By Chuck Rau ademic articles are written, presented, and shared. A really great overview of what the future could/should look like is presented by HOW TO CATCH A PLANETARIAN: Goodman et. al in “The ‘Paper’ of the Future” (www.authorea.com/users/23/articles/8762/_ show_article). The paper of the future won’t just contain a description of the results, but will also contain the data and analysis code used to generate those results. WWT can play an important role in the era of interactive scholarly publishing. We can do more than just include a picture of an astronomical image in a printed article or a PDF file; a tool like WWT can be used to place that image in context on the sky, allowing the reader to manipulate it and overlay other datasets and imagery. WWT exists both as a Windows application and an html5 web application. One concern is that the applications like academic publishing and other uses by the professional astronomy are more likely to involve the web application. The same is true of the K-12 education community, where there are often challenges to www.bardspiral.com ©2015 C.Rau

32 Planetarian March 2015 SOFTMACH I NE www.softmachine.de

March 2015 Planetarian 33 um fulldome production called Habitat Earth Digital Dome and Beyond in January. The show takes visitors on a trip All about Fulldome & Immersive Media through varied ecosystems in a unique way, using visualizations created by teams of ani- mators in and out of the Academy. Carolyn Collins Petersen According to Ryan Wyatt, director of Mor- Loch Ness Productions rison Planetarium and Science Visualization, Post Office Box 924 the show advances the boundaries of tradi- Nederland, Colorado 80466-0924 USA tional planetarium content, which focuses +1 303-642-7250 primarily on astronomy and space. “Instead of [email protected] looking solely to the stars, the Morrison team is using advanced digital tools and scientific An 8K-15/70 shootout The show was produced by Loch Ness Pro- data to tell stories that are uniquely Earth-focused,” he said. The Dome theater at the Science Muse- ductions for the International Dark-Sky As- The show, narrated by Actress Frances Mc- um of Virginia (in Richmond) hosted a Giant sociation, and teaches audiences about the Dormand, incorporates stunning visualiza- Screen Cinema Association Digital Dome Day causes and effects of light pollution and some tions into a story of how human and biolog- on the heels of the October 2014 Association simple solutions individuals can take to help ical worlds intersect across the globe. of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) meet- mitigate it. Attendees at the Morrison Open House ing. The event showcased The Dome’s newly The International Year of Light is a series of (for fulldome producers) in early February installed Evans & Sutherland 8K system, pit- events sponsored by UNESCO that kicked off were treated to a presentation of the show, as ted against a 15/70 film system, in a first-ever on January 1, 2015 and features activities cen- well as discussions with the production team “shoot-out” between the two different projec- tered on understanding light and its effects about how the scenes and animations origi- tion systems. and uses around the world. Light pollution is nated and evolved. Attendees noted striking differences be- part of IYL’s message about the uses of light. A full-length preview of the show is avail- tween the two methods, including a lack of Explore their IYL Videos page at www. able on the Academy’s distribution site, and jitter, dust, and film yellowing in the digital light2015.org/Home/About/Resources/Vid- you can also download the soundtrack on projectors. A number of those in attendance eos.html iTunes! Read more about Habitat Earth at: felt the Digistar 5 to be a viable alternative to The video, sponsored by a seed grant from www.calacademy.org/habitat-earth. film projection on a dome. the International Tina Ratterman of Big & Planetarium Soci- Big Data paints the dome Digital commented “The col- ety and with major We live in an era of big datasets constant- ors on the digital projection funding from Star- ly streaming from the world’s observatories were much more vivid and Map.fr, the Fred and space missions. vibrant than film and the im- Perhaps you’ve seen age quality was excellent in stories about the 8K. This is a really good solu- Sloan Digital Sky Sur- tion for 15/70 dome theaters vey, Hubble’s Deep considering converting to Field observations, digital or laser that will pro- and others, and won- vide new opportunities for dered if you could programming giant screen use them in your full- content and astronomy dem- dome system. onstrations.” It turns out much The shoot-out amply dis- Still from Losing the Dark, courtesy Loch Ness of that information can be adapted to the played that 8K systems can offer a route for Productions dome and used in a variety of presentations. A producers willing to “converge” with full- growing army of science visualizers in the scidome to bring their productions to wider au- Maytag Family Foundation, and IDA mem- ence and fulldome communities are explor- diences. You can read more details about the bers, is available free for download in both ing ways bring big data to fulldome systems. shootout and attendee reactions in an exclu- fulldome and flatscreen formats (or via USB Adler Planetarium’s Mark SubbaRao and sive article at imersa.org/item/cinema-shoot- for a small fee for theaters needing dome mas- director of Adler’s Space Visualization Labo- out-in-virginia-8k-fulldome-takes-on-1570- ters). ratory chairs the IPS Science and Data Visu- film. More information is available at www. alization Task Force. Their job is to bring plan- lochnessproductions.com/losingthedark and etarians into contact with these big data sets Teaching dark skies for the IYL www.darksky.org/losingthedark; a link also for their own use. Recognizing the usefulness of fulldome the- can be found on the IPS website at www.ips- Mark organized an IPS-sponsored visualiza- aters for public outreach, the organizers of the planetarium.org/?page=fulldomemasters. tion workshop for the recent IMERSA Summit International Year of Light selected the short in Denver, designed to focus on bringing big fulldome video Losing the Dark as a featured Habitat Earth opens at Morrison data sets to the digital dome. The event pro- resource for public education about light pol- The California Academy of Sciences (San vided an understanding of how to acquire, lution. Francisco) opened its new Morrison Planetari- manipulate, and visualize astronomical data sets, with an eye toward developing some Carolyn Collins Petersen is CEO of Loch Ness Productions, producers and distributors of fulldome vid- “best practices” for the data visualization in eos, music, and providers of fulldome- and science outreach-related services. She is an IPS Fellow and the dome. formerly served as IPS Publications Chair. (Continues on page 40)

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For more information or to request a quote: skyskan.com/shows March 2015 Planetarian visit35 us on Facebook! 36 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 37 38 Planetarian March 2015 Charlie Mary Noble Planetarium Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Ft. Worth, Texas 76107 USA

Charlie Mary Noble and a young visitor. Photos courtesy of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

By Scott Sumner Adler Planetarium in Chicago, sharing opinions on articles Assistant Planetarium Manager and teaching methods. During World War II, she helped Charlie Mary Noble was a dedicated Fort Worth high train soldiers in math, astronomy, and celestial navigation school math teacher with an abiding passion for astrono- at Texas Christian University. The university recognized her my. Her dreams of a planetarium, where she could intro- achievement with an honorary doctorate in 1950. duce students to the stars, started to take shape in the 1940s Charlie Mary Noble died in 1959 at the age of 82. But her in- in a humble tent behind what was then the new Fort Worth fluence lives on in the lives she touched, and her work con- Children’s Museum. It was the very first planetarium at a tinues at the Museum. children’s museum. To learn more about the 60th anniversary plans, visit the When the museum moved to a new location, the planetar- museum’s website at www.fwmsh.org ium was integrated into the new building and dedicated to The 90-seat Noble Planetarium brought the first Zeiss- Miss Noble in 1955. manufactured hybrid planetarium system to the Southwest This May, in what is now known as the Fort Worth Mu- United States. The planetarium also features an exhibit area seum of Science and History, we will celebrate the 60th an- that provides large screens with up-to-the-minute views of niversary of the Charlie Mary Noble Planetarium. To celebrate the anniversary, the planetarium has produced a fulldome documentary on her life that will be shown throughout the year. It is a fitting tribute to a woman who literally in- spired generations of students. In 1947, for instance, she created the Junior Astron- omy Club through the museum. It was one of the first science-based clubs for children in Fort Worth. The program spread around Texas and as far as New Mexico, where excited students wrote letters telling her that they had passed her certification test. Notably, the club was asked to participate in the Moon Watch program created by the Smithsonian’s Astrophysi- The Zeiss under the Noble dome. cal Observatory. This group of citizen-scientists helped track Sputnik when it launched in the sun, as well as downlinks offering the latest information 1957. Club members also sent birthday wishes to noted scien- from the Hubble Telescope. tists, and they received responses from many, including Al- The Zeiss SKYMASTER ZKP-4 star projector works with the bert Einstein. planetarium’s Sciss Univeiw system. Miss Noble was recognized locally and nationally for her In addition, it operates a mobile planetarium to take the work. She corresponded regularly with the director of the stars to area schools, called the Mobile Noble Planetarium. I

March 2015 Planetarian 39 Mark said the aim of the Task Force is to Ed Lantz, president and CTO of Vortex Im- grow and evolve, we see a lot of news about help planetarians become more data savvy as mersion Media, stepped down from his po- developments in programming, equipment, they incorporate new information into their sition as IMERSA Director after serving as standards, and producers. As space permits, I presentations and productions. founder and supporter since 2008. He is in- want to expand this column to include time- “We are trying to promote some modern creasing his focus on the pioneering busi- ly notes about such topics as new show pro- ways of working with data in the planetari- ness models aimed at the financial success of ductions and show openings, acquisitions and um community,” he said. “The goal is to both domed theaters aimed at arts and entertain- upgrades to fulldome systems, new theaters, to expand the number, types, and quality of ment programming and the continued pro- advances in technology in hardware and soft- data sets visualized in the dome but also make motion of excellence in related fulldome con- ware for fulldome and immersive theaters, it easier to share work among planetarians tent creation. and other events occurring in the fulldome (even those with different systems).” Mark has posted some tutorials on data ac- Honoring Ian McLennan quisition for fulldomers. You can find them at: Long-time museum and planetarium consultant Ian github.com/IPSScienceVisualization/python- McLennan was honored with IMERSA’s 2015 Lifetime tutorials. (See also the Data to Dome Column Achievement Award during the IMERSA Summit ban- on page 32 in this issue of Planetarian.) quet, held February 27, 2015. “Ian is one of the statesmen of our profession,” said Dan IMERSA News: Summit 2015 Neafus, IMERSA host and manager of the Gates Planetar- The annual Immersive Media Entertain- ium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. “The ment, Research, Science and Arts (IMERSA) fulldome community as a whole, and IMERSA particular- group Summit, held February 25-March 1, ly, owes a great deal to his foresight—and his sense of fun 2015, provided an array of workshops, dem- and humor. It’s only fitting that we give him our acco- os, and shows for the producers, artists, writ- lades and our highest honor.” ers, equipment experts, and visualizers in at- McLennan’s IMERSA honors salute a body of work and tendance. service to the museum, science center, planetarium, and Participants heard from panelists on top- attractions community going back to the 1960s and his ics ranging from how the fulldome medium first job as director of the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium is defined and how we produce for it, types of Ian McLennan in Edmonton, Alberta. Through his company, Ian McLen- content and business practices (and failures) nan Consulting (www.ianmclennan.com), he continues to fill an important niche in public for both independent and institutional pro- project planning and administration, working through all phases of a project’s life. I ductions (accompanied by case studies). They also experienced demonstrations of audio production, watched new shows, and heard In leaving IMERSA, he commented on the world. Drop your notes to me at: Carolyn@ about new spaces, visualizations, and educa- group’s growth. “Consider that it was 10 years lochnessproductions.com. tion research. ago that Ryan, Dan and I produced the first Attendees also saluted Ian McLennan as this Fulldome Standards Summit at IPS 2004 in Va- Save the dates year’s honoree of the Lifetime Achievement lencia, Spain,” he said. “This seed has sprouted Central European Fulldome Festival Brno, award (see box), visited Fiske Planetarium into an impressive organization that will con- April 13-14, 2015, a festival focusing purely to see shows on its newly installed Sky-Skan tinue to serve the fulldome community for on showing fulldome content, held in con- Definiti 8K system, and spent time brain- years to come.” junction with the Academia Film Olomouc storming new ways to use fulldome for a va- Through Ed’s work, IMERSA grew to em- Festival, the biggest European festival of riety of outreach projects. You can read more brace a wide variety of venues, and most re- popular science documentary films. starry- about the Summit at IMERSA.org. cently became a founding member of Inter- lab.org/festival national Fulldome Arts Alliance. This group is FullDome Festival, May 28-30, 2015, the Changes at IMERSA working to open a touring circuit for arts and ninth annual gathering in Jena, Germany, The new year brought personnel chang- entertainment programming. will take the theme “romantic circles.” full- es to IMERSA. First, Judith Rubin, known to “Judy and Ed are both founding pillars of dome-festival.de many readers as the former author and edi- this movement we now call IMERSA,” said Reflections of the Universe, June 16, tor of this column, has resigned her position Neafus. “On behalf of the board of directors, 2015, Valentina Tereshkova Cultural as IMERSA’s director of communications and we are grateful for their hard work and pas- and Educational Center, Yaroslavl, Rus- development after faithfully serving the orga- sionate support of our vision and look for- sian Federation. Created to spur pub- nization since its inauguration in 2008. ward to their participation as advisers on fu- lic interest in fulldome and the plane- In her work for IMERSA, she worked tireless- ture projects.” tarium, and its impact in cultural and ly to evangelize the possibility of fulldome. In Carolyn Collins Petersen, CEO of Loch Ness scientificfields. www.festival.planetariums.ru. addition to Planetarian, her articles have ap- Productions (a founding member of IMERSA) SIGGRAPH, August 9-13, 2015, Los Angeles, peared in dozens of media outlets, including takes over the column with this issue. She has California. The annual SIGGRAPH confer- InPark Magazine, Funworld, Lighting&Sound extensive experience in the planetarium and ence is a five-day interdisciplinary educa- America, Sound and Communications, Live fulldome community, and worked with Judy tional experience in the latest computer Design, and LF Examiner. Judy was instru- on public relations for previous annual sum- graphics and interactive techniques. mental in forming ties between IMERSA and mits. She also now serves as IMERSA’s new Fiske Fulldome Festival, August 6-15, 2015, a GSCA, TEA, PGA and SIGGRAPH. Communications Coordinator. new festival that will include a public show- (And Judy continues her writings about case for fulldome films as well as a three-day fulldome in “Visualizing the Data,” starting Future Directions for this Column showcase for filmmakers and professional on page 12. –ed.) As the immersive and fulldome worlds judges. fiskefest.com I

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March 2015 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION41 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 Hernández, the first Mexican-American astro- International News naut, Torreon´s Planetarium Director Eduar- do Hernandez and governmental authorities. Lars Petersen José recalled some principles he pursued since Planetarieleder his childhood to attain his goal in life, to be- Orion Planetarium come an astronaut, and left a great impression Søvej 36, Jels on students attending as a role model to fol- 6630 Rødding, Denmark low. +45 8715 7370 Lucía Sedon, director of the Galileo Galilei [email protected] Planetarium, Argentina, and current president www.orionplanetarium.dk of APAS, the South American Planetarium As- sociation, talked about their transition from Dear fellow planetarians: Theis, Aase Roland Jacobsen, Loris Ramponi, optical mechanic to digital projection, not It is with some anxiety, but also with ea- and Agnès Acker. only technically but also financially. He also gerness, that I write this, my first Internation- This tour around the globe will start in the gave examples of developing special dome al News column, after the baton has been Americas. programs for the blind and audibly impaired. passed on to me from Lars Broman. I will like An agreement of collaboration was signed to thank Lars for his almost two decades of Association of Mexican between APAS and AMPAC. dedicated work for IPS in being responsible Planetariums Jesús Mendoza Alvarez from Mexico´s Na- for this section in Planetarian, and also for all The Planetarium Torreon, in the State of tional Science and Technology Council spoke the good advice he has relayed to me. I know Coahuila, Mexico was host to the 1st Interna- about the many facets facing public policy in those are big shoes to fill, but I’ll try to do my tional Planetarium Festival on 3-7 December science and technology communication to best to serve our society in this new task of 2014, coinciding with AMPAC´s XLII meet- different audiences. mine in the coming years. ing, becoming one of, if not the best and larg- Alex Zwissler, director of the Chabot Space It is very inspiring to learn of all the excit- est, AMPAC meetings. There were represen- & Science Center Planetarium, Oakland, Cali- ing activities and the development of new tatives from at least 20 planetariums from 15 fornia, described how they made the produc- ways of communicating astronomy that are states in Mexico and planetariums and insti- tion of the Mayan Universe program. taking place all around the Earth, and I can tutions from the United States, Europe and Marc Moutin, exhibitions director from only admire the brave work done by Irena South America. Cité de Espace, Toulouse, France described Filippova, when she is running her planetari- Please note, that a few last-minute changes their vast and varied public facilities, exhibi- um while missiles are falling around her. were made to the program as described in the tions, and planetarium programs as well as the For this section I am indebted to contribu- news report in the December issue. center’s educational programs. tions from Ignacio Castro Pinal, John Hare, Ra- The Festival´s inaugural ceremony was Michael Daut from Evans & Sutherland chel Thompson, Bart Benjamin, Michele Wis- presided by Torreón Mayor Miguel Angel spoke about developing a planetarium show tisen, Alex Delivorias, Vadim Belov, Christian Riquelme Solís, and by invited guest star José and considerations to be undertaken, including such topics like establishing concept, making decisions, identifying the audience, refining the concept, working through production and post production, recording sound tracks, evalu- ating, and reviewing lessons learned. He provided very valuable tips for all in the program production: to never give up, to make the next show even better, and to never stop creating. José Franco, director of Sci- ence and Technology Con- sulting Forum, Mexico, presented a brief history of the Night of Stars, with its origin in France, to show how it was implemented in Mex- ico with an annual participation of more than 53 sites throughout the country and 150,000 attendees. Digitalis and Meade telescopes representative José AMPAC: Members and international planetarium representatives attending the 1st International Planetarium Festival, coin- García asked attending Dig- ciding with AMPAC´s XLII meeting at Planetarium Torreón, Coahuila, México. Courtesy of Fernanda Plascencia Leyva, Plan- italis planetariums to share etarium Torreón.

42 Planetarian March 2015 their experiences with their equipment oper- New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science ation and public programs. E&S’s Mexico representative, Enrique Fon- te, lectured on “The Creation of a Planetar- ium.” presenting all the physical, financial, technical, and human resources considerations and planning aspects to be taken into account before, during, and after building a planetarium. Enrique was responsible for bringing E&S instructors Nathan Hanson, Marty Sisam, and A mid-conference tour to the Very Large Michael Daut together with Mexican instruc- Southwestern Association of Array radio observatory is planned with a tors Wilder Chicana, Jorge Satré, and Javier Planetariums boxed lunch and guided tour of the dish- Minchaca from Planetarios Digitales to give a The year’s holiday season at Noble Plane- es and maintenance shop. The day includes three-day workshop to 21 planetarians. Topics tarium was a success, thanks to the donation transportation to the facility, approximately covered included fulldome production and of the script Search for the Star from John Cot- 1.5 hours away from the museum, with expert construction of 3D models to be processed by ton of the former Dallas Planetarium in Fair commentary on the geology of New Mex- planetarium software and be reproduced in Park. Since the Fair Park Planetarium closed, ico along the way. A quick look at the Long the dome, employing 3dsMax, Photoshop, Af- many resources like Search for the Star have Wavelength Array and Magdalena Ridge Ob- terEffects and Digistar 5. gone unused. servatory will also be scheduled. Dinner and Robin Sip from Mirage 3D, the Netherlands, The revived show, a classic “star of Bethle- optical observing in a dark sky location near presented the making of programs such as hem” program, was reworked for the Noble Socorro, New Mexico may also be included. Natural Selection and Dinosaurs at Dusk, ex- Planetarium system and opened within two Planning is underway for a pre-conference plaining the many facets a show producer has weeks of receiving the script. Each day the trip to see the newly-opened Los Alamos Na- to undergo to make a great scene and repro- program ran brought sold out shows. Audi- ture Center Planetarium, along with a tour of duce reality. ence members shared glowing reviews of the a linear particle accelerator and possibly the Estelle Pacalon, planetarium designer from program. Bradbury Museum. RSA Cosmos, presented their programs. The Noble staff is also bringing back a show from its own collection of past programs, Star After the conference, there may be a two- Southeastern Planetarium Crossed Lovers. The program ran from 1-15 Feb- day trip to southern New Mexico, based out Association ruary for Valentine’s Day. A brand new, in- of Alamogordo, with stops at the New Mexico Space History Museum and Clyde Tombaugh Mark your calendars for 23 June thru 27 house production is planned for May when Planetarium, Apache Point Observatory, and June 2015! SEPA will hold its annual confer- the Noble will celebrate its 60th anniversary. White Sands Missile Range Museum. ence at the Tellus Science Museum in Carters- The New Mexico Museum of Natural His- ville, Georgia. The official conference hotel is tory & Science Planetarium invites you to the the Holiday Inn of Western Alliance Conference in Albuquer- Great Lakes Planetarium Cartersville. Men- que, New Mexico. The conference is 29 July to Association Illinois. The Peoria Riverfront Museum’s tion “SEPA” when 2 August, but there are also exciting pre- and Wine and Cheese under the Stars series con- registering to secure post-conference activities you won’t want to tinues to be a success. The staff created a live the reduced confer- miss! show called Interstellar Voyagers to accompa- ence rate. Register online at www.wacdomes.org. ny the showing of Interstellar on the muse- Nestled in the Albuquerque’s 55-ft dome seats 150 and fea- um’s Giant Screen Theater, and completed a mountains of north tures a newly-installed 4K digital projection holiday show titled Season of Light. Following Georgia, the confer- system from Sky-Skan. The adjacent observa- the example of the Abrams Planetarium, the ence site is about a tory and deck will be used for evening activi- staff has started a “Relax Under the Stars” pro- 1-hour drive north ties. Most paper sessions, workshops, and ven- gram once a month during the lunch hour. from Atlanta’s dor displays will be hosted in the museum’s The William M. Staerkel Planetarium at Hartsfield airport. renovated education wing. Two floors of ex- Parkland College in Champaign reopened A special treat is in store for delegates. Fri- hibits highlight the incredibly rich natural for public programming on the 16-17 January day, during conference week, marks the day history of New Mexico. weekend. Their “World of Science” lecture se- that the New Horizons spacecraft will begin For further information visit www.nmnat- ries continues with talks on climbing Mount to stream data from its mission to Pluto. The uralhistory.org. St. Helens and genetically-modified organ- spacecraft was designed and built by the Johns Several notable individuals living near cen- isms. On Valentine’s Day weekend, the plane- Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab. tral New Mexico may deliver talks during tarium welcomed harpist Ann McLaughlin to Mark Kochte from Johns Hopkins will speak meals and workshop sessions, including for- the dome for a special live concert. at the luncheon on Friday. mer astronauts, geologists on the Mars Op- The Cernan Earth & Space Center in River Kochte was a mission specialist on the Mer- portunity Rover team, archaeoastronomy Grove will be receiving a new fulldome pro- cury Messenger team and will be taking a mis- researchers, and experts on the sun and mete- jection system in the first half of 2015, this sion specialist position for New Horizons- orites. the result of Triton College’s decision to sell Pluto encounter. He works for the Applied The conference hotel, Hotel Albuquerque, bonds to finance a wide range of campus up- Physics Lab as a contractor through NASA. is two blocks from the museum and is offering grades and improvements. In September, the On-line registration opened on 1 January. a conference rate of $108. Additional accom- Cernan Center welcomed paleontologist and Registration and additional conference infor- modations are a short distance beyond. Op- dinosaur researcher Scott Williams for a spe- mation is available at: sepadomes.org. portunities for shopping and dining are available in Old Town, also only two blocks away. cial members’ event.

March 2015 Planetarian 43 GLPA welcomed new members during its Oc- Dr. James Webb, Florida International Univer- ognition. Right, bottom: Debbie Schroer and tober conference at Ball State University, Mun- sity; Jeffrey Stark, Longway Planetarium; Sarah husband Ron Schroer hold the Life Membership cie, Indiana. From left: Adam Thanz, Bays Moun- Komperud, Bell Museum, Minneapolis, Minneso- award and the Service Award posthumously tain Planetarium; Anthony Dinch and Saundra ta; Katy Accetta, Lake Erie Nature and Science awarded to John Schroer, who passed away on Simpson, Edinboro University; Sara Schultz, Center; and Fred Huebener, Michigan Science July 14, 2014. Ron is John’s brother. To the right Minnesota State University; Shannon Schmoll, Center. Right, top, Barbara and Gregg Williams is Waylena McCully, William M. Staerkel Plane- Abrams Planetarium; Krista Thompson, Adler (along with Dale Smith, not pictured) received tarium, who received GLPA’s Service Award. All Planetarium; Benjamin Cabot, RSA Cosmos, the first-ever Mentor Award, a new GLPA rec- photos by Dan Goins.

Indiana. The Merrillville Community will reopen in late April of 2015. Planetarium sold solar viewers and held an ob- The Vollbrecht Planetarium in Southfield serving session for the partial solar eclipse on offered a winter series of eight public shows 23 October. Although it was mostly cloudy, a presented by Cliff Jones. This year, guest few glimpses of the eclipse were seen. speaker Robert Trembley presented NASA’s In August, Evansville Museum’s Koch Im- plans for planetary and space exploration. mersive Theater had a conversation with an The Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State astronaut when a dozen students chatted via University is celebrating its 50th anniversary amateur radio as the ISS passed overhead. Stu- with exciting changes. First, it has welcomed dents from a local school participated, both in Shannon Schmoll as its new director. Abrams the planetarium and via Skype. has also retired its Digistar II projector after 20 The Edwin Clark Schouweiler Memorial years of faithful service. In its place, they have Planetarium, University of Saint Francis, Fort installed a Digistar 5 and a new ChromaCove Wayne managed and hosted a Celebration LED light system. of the Life of Chris Highlen on Sunday after- The U-M Museum of Natural History has noon 16 November. Chris Highlen, the plan- installed a fulldome version of NASA’s Eyes etarium’s Technician and Co-Producer since on Earth. Also completed was the installation 2000, died suddenly on 16 October. (See page of DomeView Pro, which allows the staff to xx.) bring multiple inputs to the dome without Michigan. The Roger B. Chaffee Planetari- diminishing computer performance. Several um at the Grand Rapids Public Museum wel- more NSF-funded fulldome clips have been comed a new full-time staff member in late completed and a few more are underway. Fi- summer when Emily Hromi assumed her role nally, the staff is saddened by the recent pass- as planetarium production technician. Ken ing of Suzanne Goodrich, who made many of Cott and his staff are also participating in ac- their planetarium upgrades and museum pro- tivities surrounding the 20th anniversary of grams possible. the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s relocation Ohio. A new exoplanets exhibit is open at to its current building and the 50th anniversa- the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Day- ry GLPA Conference in October. ton. Cheri Adams and team have put a lot of At the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Eric effort into the design and funding of the ex- Schreur presented “Photographing the Night hibit and are excited to have it open. Sky” on Sunday 1 March. Jeanne Bishop of the Westlake Schools Plan- Longway Planetarium welcomed Buddy etarium attended the Starmus Conference in Stark as their new planetarium manager. Rich- the Canary Islands in late September. The fes- ard Walker, the previous astronomy special- tival featured presentations by scientists and omy Club held a successful eclipse party on ist, has retired from full-time duties, but is still astronauts that celebrated spaceflight and the the baseball field at the end of the afternoon assisting on a part-time basis. In addition, Ex- exploration of the cosmos. A highlight for of Thursday 23 October, with about 150 peo- ecutive Director Todd Slisher is excited to an- Jeanne was to meet Stephen Hawking! ple in attendance. nounce that Longway will finally be joining Sue Batson reports from the Pittsburgh area The Bowling Green State University Plane- the fulldome community. It presented its last that the North Hills High School Planetari- tarium also ran an eclipse watch. The sky was traditional shows on 31 December 2014 and um and the North Hills High School Astron- 90-95% clear, but the 5-10% cloud cover per-

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AN ADVENTURE WHERE A NEW FRIENDSHIP TURNS INTO TO AN AMAZING ..JOURNEY INSIDE THE HUMAN BODY. ~ For further information about li cen sing please contact: Reef Dis.tribution • Eda Karaatli-Rents.ch • [email protected] tUna www.reef-dis.tribution.com :& DUNO. COM ~March 2015EEF Planetarian 45 versely lined up with the sun beginning a few ment in and out of the minutes into the eclipse, so only early arrivers dome, but, more impor- got to see the event. tantly, everybody can see Wisconsin/Minnesota. At the Minneso- the presenter, the stars ta State University Moorhead Planetarium in and the rest of the audi- Moorhead, Minnesota, Dave Weinrich retired ence. after more than three decades as planetarium After experimentation director. Sara Schultz stepped in to serve as the with different presenta- planetarium coordinator for the next year as tion models, they now she and the Department of Physics and As- use two skilled presenters tronomy work to justify keeping the plane- for each show. One spe- tarium open as a result of recent budget cuts cialist remains at the con- across campus. sole to fly SCISS Uniview The Charles Horwitz Planetarium in software in real time, Waukesha, Wisconsin presented a new home- while the other interacts produced program to the public, titled Au- with the audience. They tumn Sky Legends. set the stage with a sim- RMPA: David Romero running Laserium at the Gates Planetarium. Cour- The Daniel M. Soref Planetarium at the Mil- ple premise: where do tesy of Dan Neafus. waukee Public Museum opened a new origi- you want to go? Predict- nal show titled Space Aliens: Looking for Life ably, the kids all yell out their favorite place. in the Universe to accompany a new exhib- The return of Laserium to the Gates dur- European/Mediterranean it. It is creating another new show called Cos- ing the summer of 2014 was a highlight. They Planetarium Association mic Crossroads: A Journey Connecting Ancient went retro, blasting classic Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Eugenides Planetarium in Athens, & Modern Skies, which supported the muse- and Led Zep while blazing classic Laserium Greece, celebrated the December Solstice with um’s new exhibit on the start of human civ- imagery from their sophisticated projector. four free-of-charge screenings of E&S’s digi- ilization. They also brought in a classic Laserist Dan- tal show Experiencing the Aurora, an amazing The Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium in ny Nielson, who installed a brilliant solid- tour to some of the coldest places on Earth Duluth, Minnesota just completed several state beamer in front of the audience. The col- to witness what is arguably one of the most successful live music events, as well as some ors and forms from the beamer and mirrors beautiful natural phenomena on Earth. school outreach events in collaboration with surrounded the audience and added a tangi- On 2 February, the planetarium inaugu- the Society of Physics Students at UMD. ble 3D framework, enhancing the lumia pat- rated the astrophotography exhibition of The University of Wisconsin-Milwau- terns on the dome. Theophanis Matsopoulos. Called Between kee Planetarium completed a series of Friday The planetarium hosted 26 nights of near- Earth and the Sky, it is a stunning display of night shows, Constellations of the Zodiac, and capacity shows, attended by the laser enthusi- 50 photographs showing the star trails and the will begin a program on Terrific Telescopes to asts of the seventies, now with their kids and Milky Way over some of the most famous of celebrate the new huge telescopes being com- grandkids. Greek monuments, a selection of deep sky ob- missioned and the fascinating questions they A key to the Laserium success was billing jects, as well as photographs of some of the as- help us develop and answer. this as a seasonal community event. The short tronomy instruments of the National Obser- run made access special and desirable, like vatory of Athens. Rocky Mountain Planetarium the short run for a traveling Broadway show. The same event also included the first pub- Association The live performances created a concert at- lic screening of Matsopoulos’s digital full- It has been a busy year at the Denver Mu- mosphere, complete with the black-lighted dome show, A Voyage to the Universe, which seum of Nature and Science, keeping up with posters and hazer smoke billowing out of the describes the structure of the Universe. 175,000 visitors to its 125-seat digital dome. doors of the planetarium. The Astronomical Centre Rijeka in Croatia Fortunately they have a large visitor services (Rijeka Sport Ltd.) started staff and top-notch technical support to help its new program for 2015 keep up with 14 shows per day. with the film Planets in They are most excited about a couple of Sight, screened during the trial programs, specifically one called Cosmic school holidays. In the Cruisin’ and the other, the return of Laserium. end of January and as part Cosmic Cruisin’ is a 25-minute live show of- of the national Night of fered free of charge every day at noon. They Museums events, the cen- have implemented some non-traditional tre prepared the special practices for this program that have enhanced program Inventions and its success and opened the planetarium to Discoveries–Nikola Tes- broader audiences. la’s Universal Mind. The For starters, the show is free of charge. The program, which lasted planetarium doors are open and museum for 7 hours, concluded af- guests may walk in and out as the program ter midnight and proved continues. It is currently their most popular very successful, as more offering, averaging 80% capacity audiences, than 1,000 visitors partic- with few walking out. ipated. The unique theatrical room lighting re- In February, to cele- EMPA: Birthday parties in Rijeka’s planetarium have become very popu- mains bright enough to allow for safe move- brate Valentine’s Day, the lar. Courtesy of Rijeka sport Ltd.

46 Planetarian March 2015 tory. It worked every day during WWII, and only once closed for two months for training of military pilots, navigators, and secret service agents. Schoolchildren also studied in the astronomical group, the Stratospheric Com- mittee sat a few years here, and future cosmonauts were trained in astronavigation for 15 years, starting in 1960. The cosmonauts Elena Serova and Alexan- der Samokutyaev gave their congratulations from on board the International Space Sta- RPA: Top—Valentin Fe- tion, and the anniversary celebration was at- din, a retired engineer- tended by many colleagues, including staff lieutenant colonel and a veteran of space troops members of planetariums from Russia, Ka- and cosmodrom “Ple- zakhstan, and Ukraine. setsk” from 1959 and a Representatives of the scientific communi- participant of 347 starts ty were also present, and Boris Shustov, direc- of rocket carriers, shared tor of the Institute of Astronomy of the Rus- his memories in the Perm planetarium (Ural). Cour- sian Academy of Sciences, shared his thoughts tesy of Anna Kolesnik. about the future of Russian astronomy. Nizhny Novgorod. Radio Russia report- Center—Young refu- ed on 4 September that a missile had hit the gees from Donetsk and Donetsk Planetarium. Its director, Irina Filip- Lugansk in the Nizhny Novgorod planetarium. pova, answered that the shell hit the old plan- Director Alexandr Serber etarium, which had already been closed for is seen in the back. Cour- a few years, and expressed her hopes for a tesy of Vadim Belov. speedy end of the war and the resumption of normal operation. She added that the plane- Bottom—Boris Kom- berg reads his poetry tarium continued the creation of new pro- in the small hall. Cour- grams. tesy of Vadim Belov. Surprisingly, the program developed by the “besieged” Donetsk planetarium, Journey through the Solar System, was a great success at the Novosibirsk International Multidome Fes- tival on 26-28 September. Filippova visited Nizhny Novgorod on 5 December, where she showed this program and shared her experiences. The premiere of Space Alphabet, a new year fulldome program of the Nizhny Novgorod planetarium, was presented on 23 December. Its first audience was a group of refugee chil- digital planetarium produced the Romance Russian Planetariums Association dren from Donetsk and Lugansk. Under the Stars live show, dedicated to the World Space Week was celebrated in differ- Professor Boris Komberg, doctor of Phys- night sky above Rijeka for that period of the ent Russian planetariums, from Baltic Kalin- ics and Mathematics, head of astrophysics of year. Meanwhile, thanks to the variety of the ingrad to Siberian Tomsk and Barnaul. A spe- compact objects laboratory at Lebedev Phys- planetarium programs on offer, birthday par- cial new year 29th issue of the bulletin Vestnik ical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sci- ties at the Rijeka Planetarium are becoming of RPA and Eurasian Concord of Planetariums ences (Moscow), also visited the anniversary ever more popular. covering 15 pages was devoted to these events. of Moscow planetarium. In March, due to the partial solar eclipse They reflected the theme of the Week, which On 10 December he visited the Nizhny visible from Rijeka, a new live show was be- was 2014: Space Guiding Your Way. Novgorod Planetarium by a special invita- ing prepared for visitors older than 10 years Ufa. One of the most successful programs tion. His research interests are active galactic old which focused on eclipses. The show illus- was developed by Ufa Planetarium, which in- nuclei and the mysterious gamma-ray bursts. trates how eclipses occur, the different types cluded, in particular, the launch of a strato- He gave the lecture “Galaxies and Their Ac- of eclipses and their frequency, and what are spheric balloon using satellite navigation to tive Nuclei” at the “oral journal,” the month- the best and safest ways to observe them. shoot panoramas of the city of Ufa and the ly Wednesday presentations titled We and the Also in March, the center was set to cele- atmosphere with subsequent demonstration Universe. brate the International Day of Planetaria with of the obtained photo panoramas. There also Afterwards Komberg shared his memories a selection of pre-rendered and real-time plan- were lectures about satellite navigation and of his famous teachers, Academicians Yakov etarium shows for all tastes and premiere its quiz contests on space and satellite navigation Zeldovich, Andrei Sakharov, and others, and new live show, News in Astronautics. The before each session and a retro festival of sci- recited his poems. In 1999 he published the show is an interactive live presentation intro- ence-fiction films. collected volume of his poems, I Came to Life ducing the latest achievements regarding the Moscow. The large planetarium of Mos- Armed with a Stock of Kindness. His lines were exploration of the objects in the solar system cow celebrated on 7 November its 85th anni- set to music and have become the anthem of in 2015 using spacecraft. versary. This planetarium has a glorious his- Russian astronomers:

March 2015 Planetarian 47 We are the only ones who watch the universes fall and rise, We are the only ones who know how stars end their ways. This everlasting knowledge makes us wise And able to save our planet on troubled days…

Society of the German-Speaking Planetariums Vienna. Opening in 1889, the Natural His- tory Museum Vienna is one of the most important natural science museums in the world. It is home to about 30 million collection items and, in 2014, welcomed about 650,000 visitors. Although the building itself was not opened until 1889, the collections actually dates back to the year 1750, when Holy Roman Emperor Francis I Stephan of Lorraine purchased what was at the time the world’s largest and most famous natural history collection from the Florentine renaissance scholar Johann von Baillou, thereby providing the foundations GDP: Above—The new planetarium in the state- for the Imperial and Royal Court Cabinet of ly and beautiful Natural History Museum, Vien- Natural Objects. na. Courtesy of K. Kracher, NHM Vienna. Right, The museum is home to world-famous and top—Puppets being filmed while acting in front of the blue screen, and below—the puppets in unique objects, including the world’s largest the final scene after chroma keying. Courtesy and oldest public collection of meteorites. of G. Thiele, Planetarium Cottbus. On the occasion of the museum’s 125th anniversary, a new digital planetarium has been opened, featuring fulldome projection tech- GOTO synchronized with the fulldome sys- nology that will give visitors the chance to tem InSpaceSystem from RSA Cosmos. embark on fascinating virtual journeys in Producing planetarium programs has a 40- stunning scientific detail to the edge of the year tradition in Cottbus. But the new tech- Milky Way galaxy or Saturn’s rings. nology confronted the Cottbus team with Following the redesign of the meteorite and new challenges, i.e. the production of full- anthropology halls, the opening of the Digi- dome videos by themselves lacking power tal Planetarium is a further step along the path and experience for sophisticated computer towards modernizing the museum. animations. The Digital Planetarium, which seats 60 For the production of classical planetarium persons, comprises an 8.5-m inner dome (Spitz programs, the Cottbus team has already exper- Nanoseam) and a larger sound-proof outer imented with combinations of all-sky images dome, set within one of the museum’s histor- (slides) and videos, with the videos directed by ic halls. Two high-definition 4k video projec- a programmable XY-mirror onto many points tors located at the edges of the dome can be of the dome. These experiences are now used controlled from a console equipped with infor the production of fulldome shows. teractive systems or using a tablet computer. With the help of programmers from RSA The system uses the newest version of E&S Cosmos, the software was extended for the Digistar 5 for all performances and Bowen option of setting panoramic images at several Technovation audio and light systems. Over- levels in a short time. These drawn panoramic all coordination of the installation was done images serve as a background. by Skypoint Planetariums, Italy. The acting characters of the show are re- In addition to live shows, a wide range of corded by video in front of a blue wall. They fulldome films on topics such as astronomy, are represented either by puppets or real ac- biology, pre-history, paleontology, the deep tors. Later, the blue background of the video sea, and more, in public shows and special is removed using keying techniques. This al- school shows, are given several times a day. lows the video to be fitted into the scenes. Fi- For information see: www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en. nally, the action can be combined with stars Contacts are: Christian Koeberl (director gen- and other astronomical illustrations, which eral, NHM Vienna), Gabriel Stoeckle (planetar- are included as 2D and 3D objects in the data- ium manager, NHM Vienna). base of RSA Cosmos software. Cottbus. Since June 2013, the planetarium Potsdam. The annual GDP conference of Cottbus has used a new, modern projection takes place in the marvellous city of Potsdam, technology: the star projector Cronos II from the capital of the state of Brandenburg 2-4 May 2015. Potsdam itself is located in a short

48 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 49 Infini.to will host the 30th Italian Plane- tarium Conference promoted by Planit. The meeting is open to everyone from 11-12 April 2015. The program also contains a fulldome festival on Saturday. Infini.to is located in Pino Torinese just outside Torino and can be reached by car or public transportation. All the details of the National Conference are described at www.planetari.org. During the meeting, the winners of the Pla- nit prizes will be awarded. For the “To tell to the stars” competition, the contest rules en- courages applicants to write a story that will be told under a planetarium dome. The “Tell your experience” is a prize that honours communications presented at the national conference. The Planit prize is for the main contest (500 NPA: Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen meets children in Copenhagen. Cour- euro), also open to foreign colleagues, that is tesy Tariq Mikkel Khan. devoted to a video about any astronomical or astrophysical subject. A duplicate of the win- distance from Berlin and can be reached by and program were sent out in February, so if ner’s product will be shared with PlanIt mem- train (S-Bahn) within less than an hour. The you are interested in receiving an invitation, bers. conference sites are the Fachhochschule Pots- please contact [email protected] or In the spring there are three other impor- dam (University of Applied Sciences) and the [email protected]. tant astronomical events in Italy: Urania Planetarium Potsdam. • 19-25 April 2015, Astronomy Week, promot- The Urania Planetarium has a dome of 8 m, Italian Association of Planetaria ed by the Ministry of Public Education and with 46 seats and a hybrid projection system, Infini.to is an interactive museum of astron- Italian Astronomical Society; containing a ZEISS ZKP2 and a ZEISS Space omy and space with a modern digital plane- • 8-10 May 2015, Maddaloni (Caserta), Na- Gate Quinto fulldome system. tarium, one of the most advanced in Europe. It tional Conference of Italian Amateur As- The planetarium was established in 1968, is also a science centre with many interactive tronomers Union, more information at and since 2007 has been located in the famous installations that allow visitors to experience www.uai.it; and Dutch Quarter in the city center of Potsdam. and explore astronomical themes. • May 2015, Catania, National Conference The main focus of the meeting is the ex- of Italian Astronomical Society, change of experience and knowledge among more information at www.sait.it. planetarians, vendors, and all persons in- But the main Italian event will terested in planetarium work. For more in- be the World Exposition in Mi- formation, please visit www.gdp-potsdam. lan, May–October. Two astronom- de or www.urania-planetarium.de. You might ical organizations have prepared a also want to contact the planetarium directly special itinerary among two cities at [email protected]. called Astronomical Trails in Bres- cia and Perugia. Nordic Planetarium Association In Denmark, focus will in 2015 be on space science because the first Danish astronaut will be launched on 1 September on a 10-day trip to the ISS. A large variety of events will take place both at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen, the Steno Museum Planetarium in Aarhus, and the Orion Planetarium in Jels, including activities both for the general public and school groups and giving young and old a great chance to meet Andreas. Many other science centres in Denmark also will take part in the project, which is supported by Lundbeckfonden and Nordea-fon- den. For more information on Andreas Mo- gensen’s mission and activities in Denmark IAP: Left—Comet Lovejoy with the visit www.rumrejsen.dk. Pleiades. Courtesy of Luigi Cocca. The next Nordic Planetarium Association Above—Comet Lovejoy through Conference will be held at Heureka in Helsin- the telescope of the Serafino Zani ki, Finland (see www.heureka.fi) Friday 4 Sep- Astronomical Oservatory. Courte- sy of Gianpaolo Pizzetti and Tarci- tember-Sunday 6 September and is open to sio Zani. all IPS members. Host Kai Santavuori can be contacted for more information. Invitations

50 Planetarian March 2015 THE ELUMENATI GEODOMETM EVOLVER

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<)&&00.&60-6&23934&.'20.-5.&/"4**34)&5-4*."4&3934&.'024)& 34 $&/45291-"/&4"2*5.)&$0.#*/"4*0/0'4010'4)&-*/&120+&$4*0/"/%30'47"2& (*6&34)&1-"/&4"2*"/"1-&4)02"0'2&3052$&340$5340.*:&"/%*..&23&4)&*2 "5%*&/$&*/40"425-90540'4)*3702-%&81&2*&/$&!057*--/04#&%*31-&"3&%!" – Derek Demeter, Director, Seminole State College Planetarium, Sanford, FL

500 SERIES GEODOME EVOLVER AT SEMINOLE STATE COLLEGE PLANETARIUM

THE ELUMENATI [email protected] March 2015IMMERSIVE PROJECTION DESIGN Planetarian www.elumenati.com - www.geodome.info 51 Brescia is only APLF: North America nebula, NGC 7000. Courtesy of AIP president, Nicolas Outters. ies, stellar clusters, and one hour from Milan, more. Their images will be and Perugia is located be- put inside a new AIP-Planetari- tween Florence and Rome. More infor- ums database with a precise identifica- mation is available from Starlight Association Seneca, Tasso, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Pas- tion for each object. The constantly expand- ([email protected]) or Centro Studi e Ri- coli; and three musicians, flautist Jana There- ing database, open to every APLF planetarium, cerche Serafino Zani (osservatorio@serafino- sa Hildebrandt, violinist Luca Maiolo, and cel- allows planetarians to use the photographs to zani.it). list John Meshreky, accompanied the readings illustrate planetarium shows and seasonal sky The new year started with the wonderful and slides with notes from Beethoven’s Pasto- presentations. Comet Lovejoy, which drew a large audience rale Symphony. The historical Observatory of Marseille, in the public Italian observatories, like Speco- which receives about 20,000 people every la Cidnea in Brescia, which is the first in Italy Association of French-Speaking year in its planetarium and exhibitions, has (established in 1953). Many photos have been Planetariums been equipped with new 3D projection equip- collected. One of these, including the Pleiades A new collaboration is set up between the ment to accompany and diversify its offering cluster, suggest to us a planetarium vision. APLF and the AIP (Astro Images Processing, see of activities. For information contact: marie- In the last part of 2014 the StarLight Asso- www.astro-images-processing.fr/galerie.html). [email protected]. ciation ran workshops on the birth of con- These French amateur astrophotographers In the region of Loire (Nantes, Laval, Le stellations and their myths in collaboration produce wonderful images of nebulae, galax- Mans, Angers, La Roche-sur-Yon, Fontenay- with humanities teachers at the G. Pascoli le-Comte), astronomical events were orga- middle school in Perugia. Each workshop last- nized in 2013 and 2014 inside seven prisons. ed for about two hours. First the students had The preparation was long, but very construc- to work alone on a mute star map, and draw tive, thanks to the collaboration of the pris- an imaginary constellation. Then they had to on wardens with the planetarium moderator. organize their drawings in groups of four and Together they dreamt and used their imagi- write a group story about their collections. nations and they will do it all again in 2015. After that the StarLight staff explained the For information contact: jerome.galard@fal53. birth of constellations and showed those of asso.fr. today using the Mitaka program. At the end From 19-21 December, the 8th LSS Work- the students drew each real constellation near shop mixed with a mini conference for small their imaginary ones on the star map. planetariums was held in Marseille, joining Just before Christmas, StarLight also or- together 31 people from the four corners of ganized a performance for the general pub- France and also from Belgium, Switzerland, lic titled “And a Light Appeared,” dedicat- Italy, and Spain, in order to reveal the lated to the Christmas star. The StarLight staff est planetarium shows, latest innovations in traced a chronological scientific path deal- terms of display of fulldome in real-time and ing with the principal hypotheses on the na- best numerical software of data processing APLF: 8th Workshop session for small digital ture of that light; an actor, Claudio Massimo for the domes. Contact: [email protected] for planetaria, December 2014. Courtesy of Lio- Paternò, read several passages from works by nel Ruiz. more information. I

52 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 53 construct of education that can be applied Seeking What Works to school planetarium programs. Education The IPS Education Committee takes place in almost all planetarium programs, but in this project we will focus on programs for student groups.

Jeanne E. Bishop Planetarium education Westlake Schools Planetarium We hope to identify the information and 24525 Hilliard Road methods used to reach positive outcomes Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA with students in planetariums worldwide, 440-871-5293 and we hope to learn the astronomy and re- [email protected] lated subject information required, especially those requirements that impact the prepara- The Education Committee has been prepar- tion of planetarium programs. ing questions to learn about student planetar- With my own experience as both a plane- ium programs and astronomy teaching at dif- tarium teacher (a school planetarium direc- ferent levels in different countries. Soon we tor) and a classroom teacher, I conclude that will have a survey online to be completed by there are several aspects of the educational someone at each planetarium and also guides process that are very important in any setting. for gathering information. An archive of plan- First is the transfer of knowledge. Second etarium education practices and school re- is the development of skills. Third is the in- quirements is our goal. crease in enthusiasm for a subject—enthusiasm that will result in the student wanting What is education? everything learned.” Unknown author to learn more on his or her own. Planetarium At the suggestion of committee member • “Education should consist of a series of en- programs for students can and should do all Tomas Graf of Planetarium Ostrava of the chantments, each raising the individual to of these well. Czech Republic, we realized the necessity a higher level of awareness, understand- Excellent visual spatial experiences possible of identifying what we mean by education, ing, and kinship with the universe.” Un- in a planetarium help students learn concepts and then, specifically, need a working defini- known author difficult to learn in a classroom, with books, tion of planetarium education in student pro- • “I am still learning. I am always learning.” or with a flat screen. If discovery, role-playing, grams. Michelangelo modeling, movement, and questioning are in- There are many definitions and discus- The best discussions of education and cluded in a planetarium lesson, skills of criti- sions of education and learning. Every teach- learning I have seen appear in the book Visi- cal thinking and creativity can be developed. er-training textbook has a definition or a ble Learning and the Science of How We Learn I have been doing participatory programs perspective. A survey of quotations about ed- by John Hattie and Gregory Yates (Routledge, for many years, and I know that many oth- ucation shows that the terms have been inter- London and New York, 2014). Educators Hat- ers, particularly those with portable planetari- preted in widely different ways throughout tie and Yates are from Melbourne, Australia, ums, have also been giving such programs. history, in different cultures, and by different and take an in-depth journey through the lit- Perhaps the third aspect, the one of moti- prominent individuals. erature of social and cognitive psychology to vating and inspiring the student, engendering Often a statement is a philosophical pro- bring understanding to what goes on in the enthusiasm that will transcend the mechanics nouncement. Sometimes the importance to process of education. Some main principles or of learning information or skills, is the most society is emphasized, or the words indicate conclusions they reach are: important of all. Planetariums, with their experience and/or suggest action. Here are • We naturally learn from exposure to infor- novel spatial environments, have the poten- a few brief statements from notable sources mation detected by our senses. But to in- tial of motivating, inspiring, and imparting that sample the variety of interpretations of crease our knowledge base, this information enthusiasm in wonderful ways. “education”: has to possess a level of organization which So we come to a working definition or de- • “Education is more than a luxury; it is a re- matches how our minds are structured and scription of planetarium education: the topics sponsibility that Society owes to itself.” organized—and our minds change in how and methods included in student programs to Robin Cook we structure and organize as we age. develop knowledge, skills, and motivation to • “Learning is the only thing the mind nev- • When our mind’s limitations are reached, learn more and the resulting understandings, er exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” deep and meaningful processing becomes skills, and enthusiasm for the topics. Leonardo da Vinci impossible, and only shallow learning will • “Education is the best provision for old occur from this point. Influences by other experiences age.” Aristotle • Human learners benefit enormously from Since a planetarium program in a museum • “You can teach a student a lesson for a day, social examples, from directed instruction, or science center often is combined with oth- but if you can teach him to learn by creat- and from corrective feedback. er experiences, we will want to know about ing curiosity, he will continue the learning • Within both public and professional do- these experiences as well. Multidiscipline pro- process as long as he lives.” Clay P. Bedford mains, fallacious ideas of human learning grams for students that emphasize history, • “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I continue to be promoted despite being con- physics, biology, chemistry, geography, math- may remember. Involve me and I’ll under- tradicted by available scientific evidence ematics, language, or art are offered by some stand.” Chinese Proverb and opinion. planetariums. Information about programs or • “Education costs money, but then so does I want to share more of what Hattie and special preparations for students who are deaf, ignorance.” Claus Moser Gregory have to say in a future issue of Plan- blind, mentally handicapped, or disabled in • “Education is what is left after one forgets etarian, but now let us turn attention to a other ways also will be helpful. (Continues on page 56)

54 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 55 Special training or in-service programs “One area that I have wondered about is the signed to engage visitors socially, such as for planetarium personnel and experienc- extent to which the planetarium programs through conversation, group problem-solv- es for groups like astronauts or historians (all produced (or delivered live) attend to what re- ing, or shared connections to prior experienc- “students” in the planetarium) should be de- search has shown to be effective in multime- es. In programs that are using social engage- scribed. Additionally, the archive will be dia learning. For example, Mayer and Moreno ment, how does this support learning? Are helpful if planetariums can supply informa- (2003) point to the challenge that cognitive there methods we can investigate that would tion about school-planetarium interactions, load places on multimedia learning and offer impact learning by emphasizing social as- such as teacher participation in program de- suggestions for ways to reduce cognitive load pects? Do families reflect and engage further sign. Look for information soon on how to in multimedia learning. about the content of a program after they complete the survey. “It would be interesting to evaluate current leave the planetarium? planetarium offerings in terms of how well or “I have found that engaging children in More planetarium research ideas poorly they consider issues of cognitive load using gestures that mimic the motion of the Planetarium research is another main in- when engaging audiences. This topic tran- sun, moon, and stars helps them learn this ap- terest for the IPS Education Committee. In scends the size of the planetarium or wheth- parent motion in the planetarium. Can oth- the last “Seeking What Works,” committee er it uses optical-mechanical or fulldome tech- er types of directed gestures or motions in the members Ka Chun Yu, Shannon Schmoll, and nology. planetarium also support learning? I shared some possible topics for learning in “Another idea that has interested me is how “In the Framework for K-12 Science Education2 planetariums. planetariums can engage audiences social- (the Next Generation Science Standards in the Below are coments from Julia Plummer, ly. In the National Research Council Report US), three-dimensional learning is described. I associate professor of Science Education at Learning Science in Informal Environments,1 am wondering if students can engage mean- Pennsylvania State University and also an Ed- you see a strong emphasis on the social aspects ingfully in a fusion of a core disciplinary idea, ucation Committee member and a star planof informal science learning. We now under- a science practice, and a cross-cutting concept etarium researcher, who offers further plane- stand that learning is a social process. in a single planetarium program.” I tarium research ideas. “But planetariums are not necessarily de- 2 A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, (See, for example, “A Longitudinal Study Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, was published 1 Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Plac- of Early Elementary Students’ Understand- by NAP in 2012. This work also can be downloaded at es, and Pursuits, published in 2009 by the National www.nap.edu/catalog/13165/a-framework-for-k-12- ing of Lunar Phenomena after Planetarium Academies Press. You can download a free pdf of science-education-practices-crosscutting-concepts. and Classroom Instruction” which she co-au- the book from the NAP website: www.nap.edu/cat- thored with Kim Small in the December 2014 alog/12190/learning-science-in-informal-environ- issue of Planetarian. -ed.) ments-people-places-and-pursuits.

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Polaris is a story about a traveling penguin and a funny bear wondering why the night is so long at the South and North poles. Addressing astronomical concepts such as the tilt of the Earth’ s axis, planetary types and ice in the Solar System, the show also introduces key elements of the scientific DISTRIBUTED BY FOR MORE56 INFORMATION OR TO WATCH THE TRAILER method -Planetarian 29 minutes rsa cosmos March 2015 WWW.PLANETARIUM-ST-ETIENNE.FR/PRO [email protected] March 2015 Planetarian 57 out there, I find it difficult to imagine a real Mobile News profit could be found in marketing materials to portables, unless the price point was very, very low ($30-50 a clip). So many portables Susan Reynolds Button are in schools…and they have zero budgets for Quarks to Clusters new program material. The price would either have to be free (woohoo!) or very small so 8793 Horseshoe Lane that an individual could purchase something Chittenango, New York 13037 USA they wanted for their dome. If there was a +1 315-687-5371 great clip that I could find that I could pay 20 [email protected], [email protected] bucks for…I’d create a wishlist! quarkstoclusters.wordpress.com “I haven’t asked around much. But I did check with the staff here at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science (a few of whom have and if you have had any experiences with African struggle to join the been involved in the planetarium world out- vendors that specifically target this group.” planetarium community side of here). We seemed to share similar opin- I replied that her institution could, of Anthony Kuria ([email protected]), ions…We’re fortunate to have a really great from Uganda, is still looking for help. As I course, sell shows to portables if the price staff!” wrote in December, he wants to start an edu- were right for small budgets. As far as I know If you are of the same mindset—that inter- cational outreach program for schools within all the show producers have something priced activity is best in portable domes—and are the East African region with a portable plane- for portables, but the prices are still quite high. looking for some free materials to create your tarium, a telescope, and binoculars. The one most targeted to interactivity under own interactive portable planetarium lesson/ He has searched and compared the pric- the dome is Joanne Young with Kim Small’s show, remember to visit the Resources sec- ing from major planetarium manufacturers input. tion of the IPS’s website (www.ips-planetari- and he thinks STARLAB suits his purposes. He (www.av-imagineering.com/the-moon-a- um.org/?page=resources), where you can find writes that the major challenge is the pricing, module-planetarium-program). links to free media, the Portable Planetarium since no educational cooperatives exist and I do not like most movies in portables be- Committee, and the Yahoo Group for small no corporations support or fund science and cause seeing things moving fast and furious in planetariums. technology there in Africa. He is enquiring af- such a small venue can make you sick and dis- You also can go to Resources>Live In- ter a second-hand planetarium or an old one tract from the content! teractive Shows (www.ips-planetarium. that can be refurbished. He is also seeking the I do not think movies are the best use of the org/?page=lips) for even more resources. possibility of a donation from a museum or a venue. Some people try to promote interactivity by breaking shows into modules (Kim planetarium organization and advice on how Pages of Stars to pursue that. Small has done some research on the effec- This year began a call for planetarian col- In his latest note, he exclaimed “To me this tiveness of modular shows and thus far it look leagues from around the world to prepare a now appears more than just a dream, I look at good; see [email protected].) Some try interac- short recording and text, in English, that can this project with a lot of enthusiasm and am tivity by just stopping the show one or more used under a planetarium dome. The text can writing a curriculum based on notes from times and having a discussion or an activity. be: your handbook (IPS Portable Planetarium Either way, I think is better than sticking • an astronomical and scientific commen- Handbook, published in 2002) and STARLAB kids in front of a movie, especially in a porta- tary, and other internet sources. I have started to ble. That’s my two cents! • a classical Greek (or another culture’s) sky prepare a budget. I believe that this will bring Oh, and of course, STARLAB has created les- story or the greatest exposure with hands-on activi- sons using the digital projector and the soft- • an original story or a poem (any kind of top- ties for kids and others who have never had ware Starry Night. I like that idea, too. ic) with some astronomical details or with the experience of a planetarium. I thank you Rachael responded, “I completely agree an event that happens under the night sky once again for making it a step closer to real- with your two cents—the one movie we (including the name of some stars or con- ization.” show is good, but…it’s not nearly the experi- stellations or other sky objects visible with Please contact him with any thoughts you ence the same-age students have when they the naked eye may have to assist in making this dream come request a live show. I am really interested in This year we received only two sub- true! Meanwhile I am keeping my eyes peeled Kim Small’s work… And I’ll check out STAR- for used planetariums and writing inquiries. I LAB’s site. missions and will post them online in know there are many portable planetariums “It is a great topic to explore. My own the Free Media space on the IPS website. unused and sitting forgotten in closets. ‘strong feelings’ are that the portable plane- (Resources>Free Media, www.ips-planetarium. tarium is much more an interactive lab than org/?page=freemedia). Portable planetarium productions a bigger dome is. The content presented in “The Rabbit in the Moon” by Andy Kreyche This month Rachel Thompson (rachel. both can be the same (the visuals can even be ([email protected]) in the United States; [email protected]) contacted me. similar…though different speeds!). But the ap- Andy adapted this story from several versions She wrote, “I have a question regarding porta- proach is going to be different. A portable is a of a Japanese folktale. ble planetariums and would love your advice much more intimate setting—one that speaks “Introduction to the Planetarium” by Oded (if you’re okay with sharing it). At work I was to interactivity and student involvement in E. Kindermann from Argentina; Oded’s script recently asked if planetarium productions the show. Having the kids just sit there is…. is part of an introduction that he uses for his might be something we could sell outside of weird. shows when he works with children from 4- our institution to other portable planetarium “In regards to selling shows, I believe there to 6-years old. His goal is to calm the students users. I have a few really strong opinions on is a lot of free content that works very well in while they are waiting in front of the plane- this, but would like to know what you think the portable planetarium. With this content (Continues on page 66)

58 Planetarian March 2015 introducing smaller, affordable resolution*

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!L•YERED ...... , starr~ ni~ ~t· I!!! TEAC March 2015 Planetarian .. Mo~W. spltzlnc.com59 American in Italy Report The amare of springtime in Italy

By Dave Weinrich Recently retired planetarium director Minnesota State University Moorehead, Minnesota 56563 USA [email protected]

Italy in the springtime. Ah, what’s not to love! In the spring of 2014 I was privileged to participate in the annual “Astronomical Experience in Ita- ly for an American Planetarium Operator.” Transported from the wintery landscape of northern Minnesota to an amazing Italian adventure, I truly did experience “la dolce vita!” Although I had been to Italy before as a tour- ist, this time I was welcomed into a warm fellowship of Italian families and friends. When visiting another country, one must be prepared to leave their cultural baggage at home. There will be different ways of doing things, different foods, and perhaps a different concept of time. A sense of adventure is required and one must be prepared to go with the flow and to adapt as necessary. It is important to fully participate in the experience and, as they say, “when in Rome do as the Romans do.” My itinerary took me to three cities: Gorizia, Brescia and Assisi. I had the opportunity to deliver lessons and planetarium shows to students, lead a teacher workshop, and present public lectures. I attended the annual meeting of the Italian Association of Planetaria in Modena. Some of my new Ital- ian friends took me sightseeing and I visited Venice, a city which had long been on my “bucket list.” I developed three presentations—one for students, one for the public, and one for a teacher workshop. The theme was “Your Personal Connection to the Universe.” Photons of light, created by nuclear reactions inside stars, travel through space for many years to reach the Earth. When you see a star, some of those photons end their long journey on your retina, and are con- verted into electrical impulses that travel to your brain. Hence, there is a connection between you and the stars that you see in the night sky. The presentations for all three audiences started the same. Loris Rampo- ni, the originator of the Italian Experience, had suggested that I bring a dozen images that told something about me, my local area, and my planetarium facility. This added a personal touch to each talk and, judging by some of the student comments, was of great interest to the audience. The student lesson varied somewhat depending on the facilities available at each site, but in general included the following: building and learning to Top: The author in Assisi, Italy; photo by Simonetta Ercoli. Above: The use a simple planisphere, a planetarium night sky tour, a constellation myth “Luna Piena/Full Moon” sculpture in Venice; photo by author. Below: Food, wine, and good fellowship with members of Circolo Culturale about Ursa Major, and a demonstration of parallax with a discussion of how Astronomico Farra d’Isonzo. Luciano Bittesini, at far end of the right it can be used to determine the distance to stars. The lesson concluded with side of the table, is the local organizer for the Italian Experience. From a video from the American Museum of Natural History depicting a journey left, around the table: Enrico Pettarin, secretary; Franco Piani, vice from the Earth to the limits of the observable universe. president; Ottavia, Franco’s wife; Bittesini; Dave Weinrich; and Fran- co Bressan. Photo by a passing volunteer.

60 Planetarian March 2015 The public presentation was simi- ly morning experience in my presenta- lar, but since Italy has many famous tions during the next two weeks as an art museums, it started by comparing illustration of how far away the stars re- an original work of art to a copy. Ob- ally are and reminding audiences that viously, there is a reason why people Arcturus is one of the closest stars to us. want to see the original masterpiec- The next morning, Luciano picked es. Likewise, everyone can go outside me up and we drove several kilometers and look at the real sky. There you can to the Circolo Culturale Astronomico see the actual light from celestial ob- Farra d’Isonzo (Astronomical Cultural jects. Even in a large city, you can still Club of Farra d’Isonzo). I think that its see the moon and the brighter planets. observatory and associated planetar- The public lecture concluded with the ium probably hold the distinction of Voyager picture of the Earth as a “pale being the only such facility located in blue dot” and the words Carl Sagan the middle of a vineyard! The sounds of wrote about it. tractors and other agricultural equip- The teacher workshop asked the ment could be heard at times during question “How do we know what we my presentations. know?” People may know the distance Amateur astronomy appears to be to the sun, or at least they can look it flourishing in Italy. In each of the three up, but how is it measured? It all start- cities I visited observatories operated ed with Eratosthenes measuring the by local clubs or associations. I was im- size of the Earth. Teachers were given pressed by the skill and dedication of a simple method for their students to the astronomers, many of whom had measure the Earth’s radius using noth- built the telescopes and written the ing more than a stopwatch and a me- software that controlled them. The fa- ter stick. Once one knows the size of cilities, which were used for both sci- the Earth, one can ascend the “cosmic entific research and public outreach, distance ladder,” out to the limits of the often included a planetarium or an au- observable universe. ditorium, which enhanced the pro- And so, at the end of March, my Ital- grams that they could present to their ian Experience began. I arrived at the visitors. regional airport near Gorizia, after a magnificent sunset flight over the Alps A flurry of presentations and was enthusiastically greeted by my During the next four days, I gave pre- local host, Luciano Bittesini. Arrange- sentations to high school classes and de- ments had been made for me to stay livered a public astronomy lecture. One at the home of a local astronomy club of the school groups, as well as the pub- member, so dinner was waiting and lic lecture, started at 9 p.m., consider- they were eager to practice their Eng- ably later than the time that I would lish with me. begin a program at home. No problem! After all, adaptability is one of the keys Early-morning musings to having an enjoyable cross-cultural The next morning I awoke early. It experience. was still dark so I, as any good planetar- There were several opportunities for ian would do, stepped outside to look sightseeing. One day, one of the local as- at the sky. Here’s what I wrote in my tronomy club members, a retired math- journal that Tuesday morning: ematics teacher, took me to Aiello del “Here I am in Italy! I was just outside, Friuli, the “village of the sundials.” As a listening to the birds sing and getting teacher, he had been looking for a way my connection to the cosmos. It’s in- to teach his students about conic sec- credible to see Mars in the land where tions. He decided that an ideal method the name originated, also on the day of would be to use sundials. the week named after it [Italian Mart- With the aid of the school custodi- edi … There is the big dipper and “arc an, the first sundial was made about 40 to Arcturus and spike to Spica.” Even years ago. The idea caught on and soon though I am thousands of miles from other village residents started building home, I see the same stars and feel con- their own solar timepieces. Current- nected to the universe. Just imagine, (Continues on next page) Arcturus is 37 light years away!” Top: The observatory (left) and planetarium (right) at the Circolo Culturale Astronomico Farra d’Isonzo. Center: I did some quick calculations and re- This is one of the first sundials built in the village of Aiello del Friuli. On the right is Franco Bressan, a retired math- alized that the light I was seeing at that ematics teacher. Both photos by author. Next: There are many excellent telescopes used by amateur astronomers moment had left during the summer of in observatories across Italy. This one is at Osservatorio Serafino Zani near Brescia. Bottom: The Mount Subasio 1977, which coincidentally was the first Amateur Astronomers Society has constructed several telescopes at their observatory near Assisi. Left to Right: time I visited Italy. I referred to that ear- Luca di Bitonto, Abdelhalim El Hilali, Dave Weinrich and Daniele Capezzali, a researcher at Monte Porziano Ob- servatory. Photo by Simonetta Ercoli.

March 2015 Planetarian 61 ly, there are some 200 sundials in the town Top: Eager students, with planispheres in hand, are all able to gather in a small local restau- and every summer they have a special festi- ready for a lesson in the portable planetarium in Bres- rant to have a meal together. It was like val. There is a competition to judge the best cia; Below, Students in Assisi construct planispheres. Photos by the author. being part of an Italian family reunion! sundial built during the pre- On Sunday afternoon there was time for ceding year and a band leads some of us to do some sightseeing in the people through the streets to central part of Modena. view the new sundials. This endeavor is a wonderful ex- Assisi: The final stop ample of getting the local After the Italian meeting, I traveled community involved in the with my next host, Simonetta Ercoli, to educational activities of its Assisi, the last stop of my Italian Experi- schools and, in the process, ence. It was a spectacular trip of several popularizing astronomy! hundred kilometers, via an expressway, After Gorizia, it was time to driving past Bologna and then through move on to Brescia, but since the Apennine Mountains to Assisi, a not- there was a school break, I ed pilgrimage site. Here I did my teach- was able to spend several days ing at a boarding school, Principe di Na- in Venice, the famed “Queen poli Assisi. The headmaster was on leave of the Adriatic.” The easiest so I stayed in her apartment and took my way to get around Venice is meals in the school’s by vaporetto, or “waterbus” cafeteria. We did not These boats carry several doz- have access to a plane- en people and stop at prede- tarium, so I taught the termined points around the island. lessons using the planispheres that the stu- The moon in blue dents constructed in On my first night in Venice, at the vaporet- class, also using an as- to stop next to the Piazza San Marco, I had tronomy application another astronomical experience. I noticed a on my iPad and a Pow- stunning glass sculpture, a large sphere with erPoint presentation. It smaller spheres within it, and lit by a pure was interesting to walk blue light. It was named “Luna Piena” (Full among the students as Moon). The sphere duplicates the phases of they assembled the pla- the moon. Its creator, sculptor Judi Harvest, nispheres and to ask describes it as follows: them questions. “Luna Piena embodies the magic of the uni- There were ample verse and is a warning to be more aware and opportunities for sight- loving with our environment. The universe seeing in Assisi and Pe- continues to inspire and surprise us—art may experience inspiring. rugia as well as a nighttime visit to the Porzia- imitate life, and occasionally transcend it.” “I’ve never really been interested in look- no Observatory. How can I forget the night It was a fast train ride from Venice to Bres- ing at the real sky, but after this experience, I that we were at the observatory? A beauti- cia. Waiting at the train station, Loris Ram- think that I’ll watch it sometimes.” ful full moon was rising over the mountains poni welcomed me to his city, my next stop “I have no words to explain how interesting and lighting up the Italian countryside. There on my Italian Experience. I had some time at the experience was. Beautiful! were also many other attractions in both cit- my hotel to unpack and freshen up, before ies and I won’t soon forget walking up and he and his daughter Anna, a university stu- Meeting with Planit down the hills! dent in Verona, came back to collect me. Now Now it was time for the annual meeting of All too soon it was time to head back to it was time to experience an Italian grocery the Italian Association of Planetaria, which northeastern Italy and prepare to return store and to buy the ingredients for the eve- this year was held in Modena, “the capital of home. A six-hour train ride through Florence, ning meal. It was enjoyable to observe the ev- engines,” noted for being the home of the Fer- Bologna, Padua, and Venice brought me to eryday aspects of Italian life. rari supercar, the birthplace of Luciano Pava- the small town of Monfalcone, where I would In Brescia, I worked in a STARLAB portable rotti, and the production of the highest quali- catch my flight back home the next day. Luci- planetarium in a noted school at Liceo Scien- ty balsamic vinegar. ano stopped by to chat and we went to a small tifico di Stato A. Calini. The portable was set The meeting lasted for a day and a half and pizzeria, a fitting end to my adventures in It- up in the school library and more than one was similar to other affiliate meetings that aly. student was surprised when they saw this I have attended. There were papers, sessions If you have a sense of adventure and want “strange” device in their familiar library. I in the planetarium, and vendor demonstra- to have a great experience in a rich culture, gave several presentations to a variety of Eng- tions. I had the opportunity to give a short re- where you will be warmly received by fel- lish classes over the next three days. After port about myself and my experience in Italy. low planetarians, I would encourage you to each lesson, Loris recorded student’s reactions. A special treat was a presentation at a near- apply to this program or to take advantage They had to make their comments in English. by villa by a portable planetarium vendor, of visiting our colleagues in other parts of the I found the comments helped me to gauge complete with an alfresco lunch in the court- world. We all have much to learn from each the effectiveness of my presentations and was yard. The Italian planetarium group is small other and together we can continue to reach gratified that some of the students found the enough so that on Saturday evening we were for the stars! I

62 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 63 round sound; the audio is stereo in four speak- Sound Advice ers. Your front and rear speakers might be on the same amplifier channels, which makes the volume level the same in all four speakers. Jeff Bowen It helps to have the rear speakers on a sep- Bowen Technovation arate amplifier so you can reduce the rear 7999 East 88th Street sound level. This keeps the audience focus to Indianapolis, Indiana 46256 USA the front of the dome. And you might have a subwoofer with “crossover” and a separate +1 317-863-0525 amplifier (or this subwoofer might be a self- [email protected] powered unit with a built in crossover). But now let’s take those four speakers and work a little magic. “Help Me…I’m Surrounded, Part 1” CD version of Dark Side of the Moon and then Adding 5.1. Lets add a “center channel” Stereo. 4-channel. 5.1. Dolby Pro Logic. 10.2. the 5.1 SACD of the same songs. Stunning. speaker and a subwoofer. Then add enough Spatial Sound. 7.1. Atmos. The systems seem amplifier channels to have each speaker on to go on forever, and I have had opportuni- Localization its own amplifier channel. Then add an audio ties since 1985 to either design most types (for- With all-dome video you can place (lo- processor with at least 6 outputs (L-R-C-Sub- mats) of planetarium and exhibit audio sys- calize) the voices of on-screen characters to Ls-Rs) and at least 6 inputs (see my Sound Ad- tems or to compose and design soundtracks match where the characters appear on the vice from Spring 2014 for details). If the show for these systems. screen, rather than having all the voices com- audio is in 5.1, you’ve got it! If not, you can There is some confusion as to what these ing from one or two speakers. Let’s face it… program your audio processor to route stereo systems really are, what they sound like, and when you hear three voices in conversation, audio channels to all the speakers. This at least how you produce for them. they don’t all come from the same point in fills the room with sound. the room. 7.1. Time to bust a myth. I have designed Why use surround sound? Michael Daut (E&S show producer) states, many 7.1 systems. 7.1 is not a better format Say “surround sound,” and the image it “when used dramatically, musical instru- that 5.1, it is just a different format. If the show evokes is sound all around you, of course. But ments or voices can pan through the 360° has been produced in 7.1, you will benefit to fly sounds around the room? No. The “sur- space to track objects on screen, and sound from the extra two channels. If not, you prob- round” part is most important to create space effects in the soundtrack can enhance the ably won’t. However, with the proper audio between audio objects. The more sound ele- “off-screen” space behind the audience to in- processor you might be able to route some of ments you jam into two stereo channels, the tensify earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, se- the Ls and Rs audio from a 5.1 soundtrack to more confused the overall sound becomes vere weather, or even the business of a city the side speakers just for “fill.” and the less separated and/or distinct. at work. Surround sound is a vital tool that You need to be careful, however, that you A nice side effect of this “spatialization” is can powerfully orient the audience inside do not ruin the stereo and rear imaging the that you can also place sounds in spatial lo- of the experience, completing the illusion of show producer created in their mix. If you cations in the room that mimic where they immersion. After all, the sense of immersion are producing your own soundtracks you can would be heard from in the real world. This is is the uniqueness and power of fulldome.” create some great effects with the 7.1 channels, known as “imaging.” What do I need for surround sound? but most of the shows you purchase won’t So, rather than hearing evening crickets The table shows that the necessary parts of have 7.1 audio. or crowd conversation from only two speak- the audio “chain” for the most popular sur- 3D Audio. In recent years two object-based ers, in surround you would hear these spread round sound arrangements. There are basical- 3D immersive formats have surfaced. One is out from all direction, more like they would ly four sections in an audio system. from Fraunhofer Institute (licensed by Bar- be heard in the real world. By spreading these Stereo. First, a look at stereo 2-channel au- co and Shure as well), and the other is Dolby out, you create space or “air” between the dio in a dome with unidirectional seating. If Atmos. These formats have many advantages sounds and they become more clearly heard. your show audio is stereo, this is what you over 5.1 and 7.1 In music, a cool surround sound hi-def au- have. Of course, you have two main speakers Atmos is already installed in over 700 cin- dio format is SACD. Many SACD discs are now in the front of the audience, and you might emas as an international standard and is Dol- coming out and these often feature 5.1 remix- have two more in the rear. This helps fill the by’s new-generation surround sound. The es of the studio recordings. Listen to the stereo seating area with sound, but isn’t really sur- consumer version is being built into home theater receivers at the time of this writing Audio Channels Processor Amplifier Speakers Channel Names and most films are now (tape, hard drive, Inputs and Channels mixed in Atmos. I am computer file, Outputs* (Minimum)** video server, etc) sure there is a theater near you where you can Stereo 2 2-4 2 2-4 L-R front, L-R rear experience Atmos. 5.1 6 6-8 6 5+ Subwoofer(s) L-R-C-Sub- Ls-Rs New Blu-ray movies have Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, and 7.1 8 8-10 8 7+ Subwoofer(s) L-R-C-Sub-Ls-Rs- stereo mixes all on one Lss-Rss disc. * The number of processor inputs varies with the exact system design, such as whether there are ALS chanels, aux devices, etc., The Fraunhofer 3D and if the system is bi-amplified. sound format (Spatial ** The number of amplifier channels varies dependent on whether the system is bi-amlified, for example (Continues on page 67)

64 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 65 lators, and hopefully getting a sympathetic Book Reviews ear. Barring that, he does mention that using binoculars or smaller telescopes, although not what many of us hope for, are fairly good for April S. Whitt high-it regions. Fernbank Science Center He also takes weather into consideration, as 156 Heaton Park Drive NE well as living in high-rise apartments; in fact, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA Scagell shows that a balcony can be useful for [email protected] city skygazing. But, of course, the normal observing problems are still there, so he puts in a few pointers: A Student’s Guide to the much time for. Despite the fact that we couldn’t readily • Leave. Find an island paradise, one that isn’t Mathematics of Astronomy check our work, it was very nice to have these already swarming with tourists; Daniel Fleisch and Julia Kregenow, Cambridge topics, and questions, in a small, easy-to-read • Drive. Determine fairly dark areas within University Press, 2013 book, one that can be easily carried. The un- driving distance; Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- der-200 pages were perfect for a quick refer- • Remote. Become part of the network of re- ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, ence for anyone wishing to have relevant as- mote observatories being offered. Although Rhode Island, USA. tronomical topics at our fingertips, even if we the actual set-up-and take-down fun is lost, Because we normally spend so much time are trying to read them in the dark. many of these observatories are worth- in the dark teaching our favorite subject, we while for frustrated, citybound observers; often tend to forget that much of astronomy • Filters. Buy filters that can block out at least is mathematical. This is why it was good to see Urban Astronomy: Stargazing some of the unwanted effects of neighbor- Daniel Fleisch and Julia Kregenow remind us from Towns and Suburbs ing light. of this in their small, but packed, book. A Stu- Robin Scagell, Firefly Books, Ltd., Buffalo, New Scagell geared this book for the newer am- dent’s Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy York, 2014 ateur, a person who is just being introduced brings us back to class with relevant informa- Reviewed by Francine Jackson to the wonders of the night, and the inherent tion on gravity, light, stellar motion and mag- Unless we’re fortunate to be living in an problems now facing the serious observer. nitude, and cosmology. area relatively comparable to a plan- It appears to be written so that anyone who For someone like me, etarium sky, our city environment picks it up and looks at it will be both amazed who hasn’t had to think isn’t very conducive to enjoying the at what can be done in a city sky, and given a of astronomy as a math- true beauty of primer on what could possibly be done to aid in ematical subject in a long the night. Rob- changing a city sky. It was worth the read. I time, this book was real- in Scagell, in his ly interesting. The con- fairly short book (Mobile, continued from page 58) cepts were a good review, Urban Astrono- especially as the book it- my, reminds us tarium and also to present the word and con- self is aimed for the non- that we don’t cept of “constellations.” science major (read “no have to tru- We hope to see even more submissions in calculus”). Each chapter ly despair, that 2015 please! Participants must send materials, introduced the topic at there is enough before December 31. For rules see: www.ips- hand, then went through to view even in planetarium.org/?page=portablecom sample questions step by a light-polluted step. Also, for anyone in- area. Share astronomy in Italy terested, if the material should prove a bit Scagell does September 15 is the yearly deadline for the tricky, there are helpful podcasts to supple- give a lot of time applicants of “An Astronomical Experience in ment the written material. to the problem of lighting, including the pro- Italy for an American Planetarium Operator.” My only real criticism of this book is that gression of streetlights from mercury, to sodi- Application Procedure: Send an application the answers to the questions at the end of each um, to metal-halide, with, of course, many pic- that includes your full name, complete ad- chapter aren’t at the end, in an appendix; in- tures of both good and horrendous examples dress, year of birth, and your curriculum vi- stead, we have to go to a related website to of city streets. He also gives us advice on pos- tae, along with a cover letter explaining why check our work, something that I don’t have itive action, such as going to city/town legis- you wish to be considered for this experience. You must also include the text of three lessons (or variations of the same lesson), with a full description of the activities and copies of PARTYcles #021 - March'15 Alex Cherman the stories, which you would like to present: The photons are coming for me Welcome to this atom! (1) for students, (2) for teachers and (3) for because I am a free electron! Do you think this could work? Thanks! But what the public. Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack! happened to your Please include a list of specialized vocabu- original electron? Attack! Attack! lary or any other relevant materials that you So don't be! Yes! Yes! feel would strengthen your application. Join us!!! Join us! Oh... that? I guess he Attack! Attack! had to change his spin... Send your application to:

Attack! Attack! Loris Ramponi, Osservatorio Serafino Zani,

Attack! Attack! Principle!

Attack! Attack!

Pauli Exclusion Exclusion Pauli

Via Bosca 24, 25066, Lumezzane, Italy, or Hey! Let's think this through... Yes... join us... I guess... the hate I email the material to osservatorio@serafino- zani.it or [email protected]. I

66 Planetarian March 2015 (Sound, continued from page 64) Sound Wave, based on wave field syntheses) Immersive Theater Expo brings vendors, users together deals with sound objects on individual locations in the dome and a enlarged sweet spot Bowen Technovation of Indianapolis (In- could remedy a display case problem that area. With this format, this sound object are diana) hosted its first Exhibit and Immer- our planetarium is wrestling with. I also free to be placed and moved through the sive Theater Expo in October, featuring a learned some valuable tips from a workshop dome with an open interface to digital au- dozen different workshops and interaction on “power protection and conditioning” for dio workstation (DAW) and external hard and with representatives from nearly 40 compa- electronic gear. software. nies that manufacture equipment used by I found a vendor and affordable solu- In my next column I’ll discuss more sur- exhibit designers, museums, entertainment tion for an audio display problem. Perhaps round sound formats, including 3D audio, and venues, domed theaters and planetariums, my conversations with that vendor caused interview producers as to how they use the and more. him to think: “I wonder if I should be con- formats. We will answer questions like “How This was an expo of component and sidering how my product could be used do I create a surround sound track” and “How equipment companies that make the small- in the dome world.” I do I convert my old shows with stereo audio er systems that all work together to bring - Alan Parise, Schouweiler Planetarium to surround.” alive a museum, or educational exhibit ex- Videos of the workshop sessions are available perience. at www.bowentechnovation.com/expo2014. Reader question While not specifically Q: What is peak power? A: Meaningless. for those of us who are in Peak is a number made up by speaker man- classic planetarium and ufacturers who just multiply their RMS rat- domed theaters, a few of ing x4 to get this number, which is only used the vendors were names for marketing. Audio professionals never use you would recognize as “peak power” ratings as they are not a measur- planetarium vendors, able number. who, like Bowen, have a What matters is matching the RMS power large portion of their cli- a speaker can handle with the RMS power an ent base from exhibit, amplifier can deliver. The amplifier should be museum, stage and other rated at 1.5 or 2 times what is needed to gen- non-dome facilities. erate the SPL (loudness) you want. Why? See For example, I discov- my earlier articles about this in the Autumn ered an affordable prod- Jeff Bowen (right) being interviewed by the Indianapolis CBS Affil- 2014 issue. I uct and its vendor who iate WISH-TV8 during the Expo. Photo courtesy Bowen Technova- tion.

March 2015 Planetarian 67 capable of displaying actual three-dimension- Waxing New al biological data in a dome-format film. The An eclectic collection about SCISS team liked the idea of expanding their planetariums, products and people presentation sets to a scientific field beyond Compiled by Sharon Shanks astronomy, and have therefore mutually helped the development of Neurodome. In the beginning of 2015, the team will launch a first interactive live-presentation in Left: Fiber tracts, myelin-insulated bundles of Uniview called “Neurotours.” axons, are shown here as computationally ex- tracted from diffusion tensor imaging data. Right, A view of the surface of the brain, de- ESA names new Director General rived from anatomical MRI images. Photos by The Council of the European Space Agen- Neurodome. cy announced in December the appointment of Johann-Dietrich Neuroscience under the dome Wöerner, current chair The planetarium dome can take audienc- of the Executive Board es by their imaginations to galaxies far, far of the DLR, the German away—and now can take them inside their Aerospace Center, as brains as well. the next Director Gen- After six years of development, neuroscien- eral of ESA, for a period tist Jonathan Fisher and his Neurodome team of four years starting on have partnered with the Swedish fulldome 1 July 2015. He will suc- theater company SCISS and can now offer the ceed Jean-Jacques Dor- Wöerner dome market an environment for real and dain, whose term of of- mind-blowing neuroimaging in the Uniview fice ends on 30 June 2015. Andy Bowers with his paper plate project fulldome software. Mr. Wöerner is currently Chairman of the Fisher is a neuroscientist at New York Med- Executive Board of the DLR, German Aero- It all started with the letter M ical College in Valhalla, New York, who has a space Center. background in astrophysics. By Andy Bowers Wörner, who has been chair of DLR since 1 The inspiration for the project sprung from [email protected] March 2007, studied civil engineering at the an interest in the human drive to explore, and I work as an aide in a preschool class with Technische Universität Berlin and the Tech- also telling the story about the neuroscience 4- and 5-year olds, as well as being a student nische Hochschule Darmstadt. As part of his underlying this drive. at Northeast State Community College in studies, he spent two years in Japan investi- Because of the proven educational merit of Blountville, Tennessee. gating earthquake safety. Until 1990 Wörn- immersive display projection, the idea finally We were learning about the letter M that er worked for the consulting civil engineers crystallized into developing dome-format ex- week and some of the kids saw me working on König und Heunisch. periences that allow audiences to explore the a class project, so I told them about Neil Arm- In 1990 he returned to Darmstadt Univer- brain, utilizing entirely real scientific data. strong being the first man on the moon and sity, where he was appointed to a professor- “Neuroimaging is our spaceship to explore they recognized the “M” sound. ship in Civil Engineering and took over as the brain. We can now give presentations and Because it caught their interest and I need- head of the Testing and Research Institute. live tours where you travel from intergalactic ed something to add to my project, I came up Before being elected President of the space, to the solar system, down to Earth, and with the paper plate man on the moon. Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1995, then end up inside the structures of the brain.” I allowed a couple of the students help me, he held the position of dean of the Civil To make Neurodome possible, Fisher’s team I and we painted one side of each paper plate Engineering Faculty. joined forces with SCISS to develop a program gray (could also color with markers or cray- ons). I printed off pictures of an American flag and an astronaut to complete it. (Having them draw the flag and person would have Chris A. Highlen, 1961-2014 been preferable, but to save time I just print- Chris Alan Highlen, 53, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, passed away unexpectedly on October ed them.) 16, 2014. He was born in Bluffton in 1961, the son of the late James and Joyce Highlen. Then we glued each to a wooden stick (the In addition to serving as the technician astronaut being a longer stick or on two put at the E. C. Schouweiler Planetarium at the together), and glued the flag on its stick to one University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, he plate. was the observatory director for the Fort Next we stapled the plates together, and I Wayne Astronomical Society for 25 years, left a little slot where I could slide the astro- and also a founder of TekVenture and Sci- naut stick through while be able to move ence Central. him up and down, as if he was walking on the He introduced thousands of adults and moon. children to the glories of the heavens as he In addition to recognizing the letter “M,” guided their veiwing through telescopes. the education aspects for the little kids in- A Celebration of Life Service was held cludes color recognition (the grey moon, col- in November in the Achatz Hall of Science at the University of St. Francis. I ors on the flag) and fine motor skills (painting Chris Highlen and coloring).

68 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 69 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Internationa_Calendar.htm Compiled by Loris Ramponi - [email protected]

2 0 1 5 7-8 August. International Planetarium Society Council meeting at International Year of Light the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan/Espace pour la vie in Montré- 15 March. International Day of Planetaria. www.dayofplanetaria. al, Québec, Canada. org 9-13 August, 42nd International conference and exhibition on 19-21 March. Themed Entertainment Association, TEA 2015 Sum- computer graphics and interactive techniques, SIGGRAPH 2015, mit, Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California, USA. www.teacon- Los Angeles, California, USA. www.siggraph.org nect.org 12-14 August. Digistar Users Group, DUG 2015 Meeting, Salt Lake 28 - 30 March. Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC), An- City, Utah, USA. Contact: [email protected] nual Conference, TELUS World of Science, Edmonton, Alberta, 4-6 September. Nordic Planetarium Association Biennial Confer- Canada. Contact: Ian McLennan, [email protected], www. ence, AHHAA Science Center, Heureka, The Finnish Science Cen- canadiansciencecentres.ca/main.htm tre, Helsinki, Finland. www.heureka.fi Contact: Kai Santavuo- 10-12 April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PlanIt), XXX National ri, [email protected] Conference, Infini.To Planetarium, Turin, Italy. www.planetari. 16-18 September. Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS), org Contact: [email protected] California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, 13-14 April. Central European Fulldome Festival Brno 2015, Brno USA. Contact: Karrie Berglund, [email protected]; Observatory and Planetarium, Kravi hora 1, Brno, Czech Repub- LIPSymposium.org lic. Contact: Jiri Dusek, [email protected], starrylab.cz/festi- 25-26 September. British Association of Planetaria (BAP), annual val meeting, Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium, United 1 May–31 October. Expo 2015, “Feeding the planet, energy for life,” Kingdom. Contact: BAP President, Mark Watson, m.watson.bap@ World Exposition, Milan, Italy. en.expo2015.org gmail.com; www.planetaria.org.uk; bapconference.org.uk 1-4 May. Gesellschaft Deutschsprachiger Planetarien e.V.,GDP 2015, 14-17 October. Great Lakes Planetarium Association Conference, Annual meeting of Society of German-Speaking Planetariums, the 50th anniversary of GLPA, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Potsdam, Berlin. Contact: Karin Flegel: k.flegel@urania-potsdam. www.glpaweb.org de; www.gdp-planetarium.org 17-20 October. Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) 7-10 May. Association of French Speaking Planetariums (APLF), Annual Conference, Montreal Science Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Yearly Meeting, Planétarium de Reims, France. Contact: philippe. Canada. www.astc.org [email protected]; www.aplf-planetariums.org 11 December. Deadline of the Stratoscript Compendium Ring 2014, 13-16 May. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS), Annu- a scripting competition open to everybody by LSS-Planetarium. al Conference, Cradle of Aviation Museum/Nassau Communi- Contact: [email protected]; www.lss-planetariums.info/index.ph ty College, Garden City, New York (USA). Contact: Patty Seaton, p?lang=en&menu=compendium&page=compendium2013 [email protected]; www.mapsplanetarium.org 31 December. Deadline of the prize “Page of Stars” organized by IPS 18 May. International Museums Day, icom.museum Portable Planetarium Committee in collaboration with Serafino 27-30 May. 9th FullDome Festival, Jena Zeiss-Planetarium, Jena, Ger- Zani Astronomical Observatory. The prize rules are available at many. Contact: [email protected] or Volkmar Schorcht, the IPS Mobile Planetarium Committee web page. Contact: Su- [email protected], www.fulldome-festival.de san Reynolds Button, [email protected] 11-13 June. European Network of Science Centres and Museums (ECSITE), Annual Conference, “Food for curious minds,” MUSE, 2 0 1 6 Trento, Italy. www.ecsite.eu 26-28 May. 10th FullDome Festival in the Jena Zeiss-Planetarium, 23-27 June. Southeastern Planetarium Association, SEPA 2015 An- “Frameless Frenzy,” Jena Zeiss-Planetarium, Germany. Grand nual Conference, Tellus Science Museum, Cartersville, Georgia, opening 25 May (in the evening). Contact: info@fulldome-festi- USA.www.sepadomes.org val.de or Schorcht Volkmar, [email protected], www.fulldome- 21-24 July and 27-30 July. Spitz Summer Institute 2015, Chadds festival.de Ford (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, USA. Planetarium educa- 17-18 June. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, tors’ development and training (Beginner/Intermediate and In- Warsaw, Poland. termediate/Advanced sessions) for SciDome/Starry Night Dome 19-25 June. 23rd International Planetarium Society Conference, users, held at Spitz, Inc. facility near Philadelphia. Curriculum, Heavens of Copernicus Planetarium, Copernicus Science Center, program creation, and presentation for the digital planetari- Warsaw, Poland. Contact: [email protected] um. www.spitzinc.com/Institute or contact: jtowne@spitzinc. 24-27 September. Association of Science-Technology Centers com (ASTC) Annual Conference, MOSI, Museum of Science and In- 29 July–2 August. Western Alliance Conference, New Mexico Mu- dustry, Tampa, Florida, USA. www.astc.org seum of Natural History & Science, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Contact: Jim Greenhouse, [email protected] For corrections and new information for the Calendar of Events, please send a message to Loris Ramponi at [email protected] More 3-14 August. International Astronomical Union, XXIX General As- details about several of these upcoming events is included in the Inter- sembly, Hawai’i Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. as- national News column in this issue. tronomy2015.org The most up-to-date information also is available online at the IPS Cal- endar of Events at www.ips-planetarium.org 6-15 August. Fiske Fulldome Film Festival, Boulder, Colorado, USA. www.fiskefest.com

70 Planetarian March 2015 March 2015 Planetarian 71 ray commented, “It’s Jaws in space!” Last Light Amy Gallagher shared her planetarium’s foray into guided meditation. It’s offered for April S. Whitt the college campus staff and students, and Fernbank Science Center provides a quieting experience to frazzled at- 156 Heaton Park Drive NE tendees. The woman who does the guiding is, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA as Amy puts it, “the one who makes sure ev- [email protected] eryone gets back into their bodies.” Voices from above Remembrances From Beijing 2014, and a dome in New York speaks Carter Emmert delivered the Margaret No- ble address for the conference banquet. He’s a And the Golden Shaver Award goes to (en- in August of that year, and invited her to view great story teller. velope, please): Scott Niskach, for an encoun- the Andromeda galaxy through the telescope. Carter described sharing virtual space with ter during the 2014 Beijing conference. When she asked about the bright dot, he colleagues. He was in the dome in New York A gentleman entered Scott’s car on the ho- recognized the significance of the supernova and they were in Illinois. With the connec- tel elevator, removed an electric razor from and sent out notification, by telegram, letter tion they were using, each person had an “av- his bag, faced the mirrored back wall of the and postcard. The letter was stolen from the atar” that appeared on the dome in the oth- elevator car, and proceeded to shave his face post box on the steamer ship delivering the er location. Carter could talk with Donna Cox and part of his head, oblivious of the other mail, and never arrived. (director of the Advanced Visualization Lab people who entered the car at different floors. In 1941, he said, a team of astronomers at the National Center for Supercomputing I remember hearing a buzzing sound when from Leningrad and Moscow traveled to Ka- Applications in Champaign; see page x), and entering the elevator, and wondering what zakhstan to observe a solar eclipse. The war their avatars could “see” each other. brand of elevator made that sound. Then I blocked them from returning home, so they Dave was one of the guards at the planetar- spotted the shaver. stayed and founded the Alta-Ama Astronom- ium. He was really interested in astronomy, As we exited at the ground floor, Scott said, ical Institute. When the universe gives you and Carter had taught him to “fly through the “Did anything about that strike you as odd? lemons… stars” with the star projector and console con- I’m so glad you were in that elevator. No one Describing his institute’s masters program: trols. The two of them had many long conver- would have believed me.” “Training a master of science in astronomy sations about heaven and the universe. Overheard during that conference: leaves one a couple of years to make an astron- A few months after the virtual space project At lunch at the Nikko: “This tastes like or- omer from a physicist. Not enough.” was underway, Carter was in the dome work- ange Fanta. Maybe it’s Tang.” Ian McLennan served as moderator for one ing one evening, and Dave came in. In the planetarium during the IPS-MSCL of the paper sessions, which included Fran- “Who’s in the dome?” he asked. Awards: “Oh. Fulldome. I thought they said cine Jackson’s paper “The Train Wreck that “Dave, it’s Carter.” Fooddome.” Changed Time.” He observed, “I’ve always “Yeah, but who else is in here? I hear voices.” Dr. Nikolay N. Samus described the dis- wanted to introduce a train wreck.” At this point, Donna’s avatar on the dome covery of the 1885 supernova in M31. Ernst During the MAPS meeting last Septem- turns toward Dave, waves, and says, “Hi, Hartwig of the Dorpat Observatory in Estonia ber, our hosts at the Maryland Science Cen- Dave!” was showing a visitor around the observatory ter were demonstrating some effects they’ve The door slammed behind Dave as he developed with the Davis Planetarium’s full- sprinted from the theater. dome system. The entire dome was covered Concerned, Carter followed, to find Dave with numbers, specifically the first ten thou- huddled in the hallway muttering to himself. sand digits for pi. Einstein’s birthday is March When Carter explained he was working on a 14 (3/14 for us North Americans) and the Sci- project, Dave exclaimed, “I know you’re work- ence Center usually has a big celebration. Rec- ing, and we’ve talked about heaven and stuff, itations of pi, pi tee shirts, even pie. but now you’re talking to people up there.” That was followed by one of their custom- What is your earliest memory? Many of izable offers. If you’d like to propose marriage us have memory “snapshots” from our child- to your sweetheart under the stars, their clev- hoods, some event that we remember: a par- er staff has developed a moving field of stars ticular birthday celebration, the first day of that resolves itself into the words, “Will you school perhaps, or someone pointing out marry me?” something in the sky. I think I was about 4 At that point in the demonstration, a tear- years old when my father pointed out Venus ful voice from the back of the theater called in the evening sky, and told me it was a planet. out, “Yes!” to which Wendy Ackerman re- A phone caller to the science center de- plied, “Finally!” scribed seeing Sputnik in 1957. His father had Frank Summers began his “Exploding Uni- taken him and his brother, ages 7 and 9 at the verse: From Destruction Comes New Cre- time, into the backyard. ation” presentation with a check of the sound “People were afraid when Sputnik was system. Gesturing to Steve Burr toward the launched,” the caller said. “The satellite was The launch of Orion EFT-1 (Exploration Flight back of the theater, he asked, “Is this micro- visible before dawn and after sunset. My fa- Test) aboard a Delta IV Heavy from the NASA phone on? Steve?” To which Steve replied, ther said, ‘See that? That’s what happens when Causeway Press Viewing Site, December 5, 2014. “EEEEEEEE!!!” (imitating feedback, presum- really smart people work together really hard This was the first test flight of NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Photo by: George ably). for a long time.’” Fleenor, GeoGraphics Imaging After hearing about the project, Mike Mur- Rather like planetarium work, isn’t it? I

72 Planetarian March 2015