Vol. 39, No. 1 March 2010

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Get Ready for 2012 Hysteria Page 13 And Get Ready for IPS 2010 Page 18

March 2010 Vol. 39 No. 1 Articles

Executive Editor 8 Making it Better Mike Shanahan Sharon Shanks 13 Planetariums and the 2012 Hysteria Ward Beecher Planetarium Kristine Larsen Youngstown State University 17 Under One Dome: Astronef-Planetarium One University Plaza de Saint-Etienne Jacques Guarinos Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 18 IPS 2010: Exploring the Cradle +1 330-941-3619 [email protected] of Astronomy in Egypt Dale Smith 21 This Time, it was a Ring of Fire Piyush Pandey Advertising Coordinator 24 Navegar Foundation “Reach(es)Out” Dr. Dale Smith, Interim Coordinator Beyond the Planetarium Lina Canas and others (See Publications Committee on page 3)

Membership Columns Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years 64 25 Years Ago...... Thomas Wm. Hamilton Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 61 Book Reviews...... April S. Whitt Library Subscriptions: $45 one year; $80 two years 65 Calendar of Events...... Loris Ramponi All amounts in US currency 29 Educational Horizons ...... Jack L. Northrup Direct membership requests and changes of 30 Forum...... Yaroslav Gubchenko address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman 6 Letters to the Editor ...... 37 General Counsel ...... Christopher S. Reed Back Issues of the Planetarian 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks IPS Back Publications Repository 38 IMERSA News...... Judith Rubin maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; 44 International News...... Lars Broman contact information is on next page 68 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt 56 Mobile News...... Susan Reynolds Button Index 59 Planetarium Show Reviews...... Steve Case A cumulative index of major articles that have 26 President’s Message ...... Tom Mason appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue 42 Waning Gibbous...... through the current issue is available online at 66 What’s New...... John Schroer www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/planetarian_ index.pdf

Final Deadlines March: January 21 Index of Advertisers June: April 21 Antares FullDome...... 64 September: July 21 Astro-Tec Mfg., Inc ...... 55 December: October 21 Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 20 Clark Planetarium ...... 47 Creasey Productions ...... 11 Associate Editors Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 15 Evans & Sutherland ...... inside back cover 25 Years Ago Forum Mobile News Thomas Hamilton Yaroslav Susan Button Global Immersion...... 5 Gubchenko GOTO INC ...... 63 Book Reviews NASA Space April S. Whitt General News ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center ...... 12 Counsel Anita Sohus Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 43 Calendar Christopher Reed Loris Ramponi Planetarium R.S.A. Cosmos ...... outside back cover IMERSANews Show Reviews Cartoons Judith Rubin Steve Case Rudinec & Associates ...... 60 Alexandre Ott Planetarium...... 67 Cherman International What’s New Lars Broman John A. Schroer Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 33, centerfold, 36 Editor-at-Large Softmachine...... 16, 28 Steve Tidey Last Light April S. Whitt Spitz, Inc...... 27, 50, 58 Education White Tower Media...... 23 Jack Northrup Zeiss, Inc...... 41, inside front cover

International Planetarium Society home page: www.ips-planetarium.org Planetarian home page: On the Cover: A is forming in the lobby of the main entrance of the Eu- www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian genides Foundation in Athens, Greece. Called Genesis, it was created by acclaimed art- ist Kostas Vartos. See more in International News, page 48. Photo by Yannis Panousis, Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: the Eugenides Foundation. www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ guidelines.html

March 2010 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Great Plains Planetarium Rocky Mountain Planetariums Association of Planetaria Association Planetarium Officers Alexandre Cherman Shaaron Leverment Jack Dunn Association Planetário do Rio de Janeiro Explorer Dome: Ralph Mueller Planetarium Rick Greenawald President R. Vice-Governador Hands-on Science Outreach University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faulkner Planetarium Dr. Tom Mason, Director Rubens Berardo, 100 Mailbox 42 210 Morrill Hall Herrett Center Armagh Planetarium Rio de Janeiro RJ 22451-070 179 Whiteladies Road Lincoln, Nebraska College of Southern Idaho College Hill +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG 68588-0375 USA P. O. Box 1238 Armagh BT61 9DB +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax England +1 402-472-2641 315 Falls Avenue Northern Ireland [email protected] United Kingdom +1 402-475-8899 fax Twin Falls, Idaho United Kingdom www.rio.rj.gov. +44 117 914 1526 [email protected] 83303-1238 USA +44 (0)2837 524725 br/planetario +44 793 035 0805 www.spacelaser.com/gppa +1 208-732-6659 +44 (0)2837 526187 fax shaaron@explor- Italian Association +1 208-736-4712 fax +44 (0)771 0013453 cell erdome.co.uk of Planetaria [email protected] [email protected] Association of Dutch- information@explor- Loris Ramponi herrett.csi.edu/ www.armaghplanet.com Speaking Planetariums erdome.co.uk National Archive of Planetaria faulkner_overview.asp Ad Los www.planetarium.org.uk c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Past-President Planetarium Ridderkerk Serafino Zani Russian Planetariums Susan Reynolds Button Museum Johannes Postschool via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 Association Quarks to Clusters Rijksstraatweg, 101 Canadian Association I 25066 Lumezzane Zinaida P. Sitkova 8793 Horseshoe Lane 2988 BB Ridderkerk-Rijsoord of Science Centres (Brescia) Italy Nizhny Novgorod Chittenango, New York The Netherlands Ian C. McLennan +39 30 872 164 Planetarium 13037 USA + 31 180 434441 or #404 - 1275 Haro Street +39 30 872 545 fax Revolutsionnja Street 20 +1 315-687-5371 + 31 180 437716 Vancouver, British Columbia [email protected] 603002 Nizhny +1 315-432-4523 fax [email protected] V6E 1G1 Canada [email protected] Novgorod [email protected] www.planetariumrotterdam.nl +1 604-681-4790 www.planetaritaliani.it +7 831 2 30 51 51 [email protected] phone + fax +7 831 2 30 51 66 fax +1 604-240-0938 cell [email protected] President-Elect Association of French- [email protected] Japan www.planet.nn.ru Dave Weinrich Speaking Planetariums [email protected] Planetarium Society www.apr-site.nnov.ru Planetarium Agnès Acker www.ianmclennan.com Kaoru Kimura Minnesota State Observatoire de Strasbourg Japan Science Foundation University-Moorhead 11, rue de l’université Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku Southeastern 1104 7th Avenue South 67000 Strasbourg France Council of German Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan Planetarium Moorhead +33 3 90 24 24 67 Planetariums [email protected] Association Minnesota 56563 USA +33 3 90 24 24 17 fax Thomas W. Kraupe www.shin-pla.info John Hare +1 218-477-2969 [email protected] IPS contact person Ash Enterprises +1 218-477-5864 fax [email protected] Planetarium Hamburg 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] www.aplf-planetariums.org Hindenburgstraße 1 b Middle Atlantic Bradenton, Florida D-22303 Hamburg Planetarium 34205 USA Deutschland Society +1 941-746-3522 Executive Secretary Association of Mexican +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 Steve Mitch [email protected] Lee Ann Hennig Planetariums +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax 258 Springdale Avenue www.sepadomes.org Planetarium, Thomas Ignacio Castro Pinal +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax Wheeling, WV 26003 USA Jefferson High School Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell +1 304-242-7614 for Science and Technology C.P. 01490, México City thomas.kraupe@ [email protected] Southwestern 6560 Braddock Road D.F. México planetarium-hamburg.de Association of Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA +52 (55) 5500 0562 www.rdp-planetrium.de Planetariums +1 703-750-8380 +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax Nordic Planetarium Linda Krouse, Director +1 703-750-5010 fax [email protected] Association Noble Planetarium [email protected] cosmos.astro.uson.mx/ European/ Prof. Lars Broman Fort Worth Museum of AMPAC/AMPACintro.htm Mediterranean Teknoland Science and History Treasurer and Planetarium Stångtjärnsv 132 1600 Gendy Street Membership Chair Association SE-791 74 Falun Fort Worth, Texas Shawn Laatsch Association of Spanish Manos Kitsonas Sweden 76107 USA ‘Imiloa Astronomy Planetariums Eugenides Planetarium +46 2310177 +1 817-255-9409 Center of Hawai’i Javier Armentia 387 Syngrou Avenue [email protected] +1 817-360-0082 cell 600 ‘Imiloa Place Planetario de Pamplona 17564 P. Faliro lars.broman@strom- [email protected] Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Sancho Ramirez, 2 Athens Greece stadakademi.se www.swapskies.org +1 808-969-9735 E-31008 Pamplona +30 210 946 9674 www.teknoland.se +1 808-969-9748 fax Navarra Spain +30 210 941 7372 fax www.planetarium.se/npa [email protected] +34 948 260 004 [email protected] Ukranian +34 948 260 056 Planetariums +34 948 261 919 fax Pacific Planetarium Association [email protected] Great Lakes Planetarium Association Churyumov Klim Ivanovich gestion@pamplonetario. Association Gail Chaid Scientific and infonego-cio.com Jeanne Bishop 1320 Glen Dell Drive Educational Centre Westlake Schools San Jose, California Kyiv Planetarium Planetarium 95125 USA Str. Velyka Vasylkivska 57/3 Australasian Planetarium Parkside Intermediate School +1 408-540-8879 cell Kyiv 04053 Ukraine Society 24525 Hilliard Road +1 408-288-8525 +380 44 287 27 81 Mark Rigby, Curator Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA [email protected] klim.churyumov@ob- Sir Thomas Bris- +1 440-899-3075 x2058 sites.csn.edu/plan- serv.univ.kiev.ua bane Planetarium +1 440-835-5572 fax etarium/PPA [email protected] Mt. Coot-tha Road, [email protected] www.planet.org.ug Toowong www.glpaweb.org Brisbane, Queensland Planetarium 4066 Society of India +61 7 3403 2578 Position currently vacant +61 7 3403 2575 fax mark.rigby@bris- bane.qld.gov.au

2 Planetarian March 2010 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Awards Committee +20 3 482 4988 fax Finance Committee Mailing Address Prof. Lars Broman [email protected] President, Past President, Presi- Teknoland www.biblaex.org dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary Stångtjärnsv 132 International Planetarium SE-791 74 Falun IPS Conference Host- 2012 Membership Committee Society Sweden Jon Elvert Shawn Laatsch, Chair +46 2310177 Irene W. Pennington Planetarium ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii c/o Shawn Laatsch [email protected] Louisiana Art & Science Museum 600 ‘Imiloa Place Treasurer/Membership www.teknoland.se 100 South River Road Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Chair Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA +1 808-969-9735 Conference Committee +1 225-344-5272 +1 808-969-9748 fax ‘Imiloa Astronomy Cen- Susan Reynolds Button +1 225-214-4027 fax [email protected] ter of Hawaii Quarks to Clusters [email protected] 600 ‘miloa Place 8793 Horseshoe Lane Publications Committee Chittenango, New York 13037 USA Elections Committee Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +1 315-687-5371 Martin George, Chair BGSU Planetarium +1 315-432-4523 fax Launceston Planetarium 104 Overman Hall [email protected] Queen Victoria Museum Physics &Astronomy Department IPS Web Site: [email protected] Wellington Street Bowling Green State University www.ips-planetarium.org Launceston Tasmania 7250 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA Conference Host-2010 Australia +1 419-372-8666 Dr. Omar Fikry +61 3 6323 3777 +1 419-372-9938 fax Please notify the Editor Head of Shows & Programs Unit +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] of any changes on these Planetarium Science Center [email protected] two pages. The Library of Alexandria PO Box 138 El Shatby, Alexandria 21526 Egypt Contact the Treasurer/ +20 3 483 9999 ext. 1881 Membership Chair for in- dividual member address Ad Hoc Committees changes and general cir- Armand Spitz Rochester, New York 14607 USA Script Contest Committee culation and billing ques- Planetarium Education Fund +1 585-271-4552 ext. 409 Thomas W. Kraupe tions. Finance Committee +1 585-271-7146 fax Planetarium Hamburg [email protected] Hindenburgstr.1b Education Committee D-22303 Hamburg Germany Jack L. Northrup IPS Publicity Coordinator +49(0)40-428 86 52-21 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium (Publications Committee) +49(0)40-428 86 52-99 fax King Science and Technology Jacques Guarinos +49(0)40-4279 24-850 e-fax Magnet Center Astronef–Planetarium +49(0)172-40 86 133 cell 3720 Florence Blvd. de Saint-Etienne thomas.kraupe@plane- Omaha, NE 68110 USA 28 rue Ponchardier tarium-hamburg.de +1 402-557-4494 F-42100 Saint-Etienne France www.rdp-planetarium.de [email protected] +33 (0)4 77 34 40 85 webmail.ops.org/~jack.northrup [email protected] Strategic Planning Committee The Planetarian (ISN 0090- Tom Mason, Chair 3213) is published quarterly Full-Dome Video Committee Outreach Committee Armagh Planetarium Ryan Wyatt, Chair Jon W. Elvert, Chair College Hill by the International Planetar- Director, Morrison Planetarium Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Armagh BT61 9DB ium Society. ©2010, Interna- California Academy of Sciences Louisiana Art & Science Museum Northern Ireland 55 Music Concourse Drive 100 South River Road United Kingdom tional Planetarium Society, Golden Gate Park Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA +44 (0)2837 524725 Inc., all rights reserved. Opin- San Francisco, California 94118 +1 225-344-5272 +44 (0)2837 526187 fax ions expressed by authors +1 415-321-8156 +1 225-214-4027 fax +44 (0)771 0013453 cell [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] are personal opinions and are [email protected] www.armaghplanet.com not necessarily the opinions Planetarium of the International Planetar- History Committee Development Group Technology Committee John Hare, IPS Historian Ken Wilson, Chair Karen Klamczynski , Chair ium Society, its officers, or Ash Enterprises 9346 Drawbridge Road Education & Training Specialist agents. Acceptance of adver- 3602 23rd Avenue West Mechanicsville, Virginia 23220 USA E&S Digital Theater Division Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA [email protected] 770 Komas Drive tisements, announcements, +1 941-746-3522 Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 USA or other material does not [email protected] Portable +1 801-588-7409 imply endorsement by the Planetarium Committee +1 801-588-4520 fax International Susan Reynolds Button, Chair [email protected] International Planetarium So- Relations Committee Quarks to Clusters www.es.com ciety, its officers or agents. Martin George, Chair 8793 Horseshoe Lane The Editor welcomes Letters Launceston Planetarium Chittenango, NY 13037 Queen Victoria Museum +1 315-687-5371 Web Committee to the Editor and items for Wellington Street [email protected] Alan Gould, Chair consideration for publica- Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia [email protected] Holt Planetarium +61 3 6323 3777 Lawrence Hall of Science tion. Please consult “Guide- +61 3 6323 3776 fax Professional University of California lines for Contributors” at [email protected] Services Committee Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA www.ips-planetarium.org/ Mike Murray, Chair +1 510-643-5082 Job Information Service Clark Planetarium +1 510-642-1055 fax planetarian/guidelines.html. Subcommittee 110 South 400 West [email protected] The Editor reserves the right (Professional Services Committee) Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA to edit any manuscript to Steve Fentress, Chair +1 801-456-4949 Strasenburgh Planetarium +1 801-456-4928 fax suit this publication’s needs. Rochester Museum & Science Center [email protected] 657 East Avenue

March 2010 Planetarian 3 In Front of the Console

Sharon Shanks Ward Beecher Planetarium Youngstown State University Youngstown, OH 44555 USA [email protected]

Thoughts on High Pressure Synthesis “Creation of a Star” by Joe Tucciarone. There are many ways to interpret this image, but I felt that it perfectly illustrated high pressure synthesis. Here’s a test for you. Pick a verb from the Used with permission. following list: •• ignite • excite have never been in a planetarium or been in- der “business plans” that cannot be applied to •• foster • kindle spired by the stars. They’re the people you education. •• arouse • provoke heard in the hall five years ago saying “why Squeezing from below are all the pressures •• awaken • stimulate do I have to learn ___ ? I’m a ___ major! I’ll on schools: from state and federal govern- Use your verb to fill in the blank below: never need it.” ments, from communities and families that You cannot teach passion. You can only ___ Laugh, agree, but also realize that it’s an ac- no longer function as that vital link in the ed- passion in a student. cepted phrase now on college campuses, in- ucation process, and from—you got it—the Now realize that whatever verb you pick, cluding the public traditional liberal arts cam- need to quantify results. you can’t quantify its results. pus. We’re watching core courses disappear No Child Left Behind, national standards, How do you assign a numerical value to and the onus for teaching the “intensive” state standards, school “report cards” pub- something you can’t see at the time because reading/understanding, writing, and arithme- lished in the local papers or online have di- the student doesn’t let you know how happy tic are being squeezed in to a “while you’re at luted the effectiveness of the school’s primary she is that you told her “great job” for an an- it, include and grade on these areas in your mission: to educate. swer to a difficult question? Later, however, major courses” mandate. Education requires one of those active verbs she decides to major in engineering. Are you Another thing that I’ve noticed is no matter I gave you before, and a vital single point of a responsible? Maybe, maybe not, but you did how much money you save or how good your person interacting with another person. ___ (pick your verb) it. results are, they’re never good enough. Nowa- Chemists call this a single point a high-pres- You can’t graph the effect of a high five on days it’s not enough that a well-run business sure synthesis point, and it works for me as a the fifth grader who, as a result of the recog- simply make a consistent (albeit unchanging) metaphor. High pressure from above and be- nition and feeling good about his experience, profit. Business plans—now unfortunately be- low, and a crucial point where the synthesis picks up a book of science fiction and becomes ing adopted by universities—require projec- either works or doesn’t work. In this case it’s hooked on the possibility of travel to another tions that it will increase profits; a year that not a new compound, but education. And it’s world. So passionate, in fact, that he invents repeats last year’s healthy profit is not a suc- so very fragile. faster than light travel 30 years from now. cess because it did not increase profit. I wish I knew what we can do to keep the Planetarians—in fact, anyone passionate That’s simplification, but you get my point. synthesis points from missing each other and about their careers—know that there’s a mo- We’re psyching ourselves into a no-win situ- having the whole mess collapse in on itself. ment when something seen, heard, or experi- ation in which we’re never good enough un- I do know it will take passion. I enced ___ (pick your verb) a passion. What we don’t know is how to quantify While nosing about As- those verbs. Not being able to do so is affect- tronef’s web site to ver- ing our lives, our careers, and our future—pos- ify a fact about their sibly everyone’s future. new program Galaktos: I know this sounds grand, but there such an A Tour of the , enomous push in education today to produce I came across and fell in love with this still image results that can be numerically analized that from their show. I guess I we’ve forgotten our mission: to educate stu- am still a country kid at dents. No education=no progress=no future. heart. I don’t think quick- Pressure from above is increasing the im- ly enough to have pulled this off, but when Jessie portance on quantifying results. Why? So that (daughter) saw it, she people who have no clue about how educa- wanted to know if it was tion is achieved can point to a bar graph or “galaktos intolerant.” So pie chart, examine the numbers, and say “we sorry, Jacques, especially have to find ways to improve performance if the pun works only in English! Image used with and cut costs.” permission. My guess is the people demanding results

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March 2010 Planetarian 5 EMEA+: +44 (0) 845 0 global (456225) | USA: +1 303 357 4760 | [email protected] | globalimmersion.com Letters to the Editor

Letter Written in Response to Steve Tidey’s Review of Chilling Stars

To the Editor, claim the moon landings were faked.) Caution scientific process at work. However given the I read with some consternation Steve is also warranted when studies show that few reviewer’s remarks about the “carbon lob- Tidey’s review of The Chilling Stars: A New in the anti- lobby have any ex- by” and flippant dismissal of climate models Theory of Climate Change by Henrik Svens- perience or background in climate science [3, because they don’t “do clouds well,” it is not mark and Nigel Calder in the December 2009 4], and the funding of organizations skeptical clear Tidey is letting science lead the debate. issue. The topic of climate change has been of climate change often come from suspect (As for his mistrust of computer models, has controversial politically, especially in the U.S. sources [4]. he tried to understand how well they track re- However what should not be controversial is Returning to the subject of the book re- ality? Why are clouds difficult to parameter- scientific support for anthropogenic climate view, Svensmark’s work is indeed intriguing, ize? How do different parameterizations af- change. The scientific evidence has been accu- and would be important if confirmed. How- fect the final model result?) The review seems mulating for decades, and as the last Intergov- ever his research has been the subject of con- to be written from the perspective of a mind ernmental Panel on Climate Change reported, siderable criticism. RealClimate.org, a collec- made up, not one open to the actual scientific “warming of the climate system is unequivo- tive blog commenting on the field by active evidence. That is not a mindset that serves our cal” with solid observational evidence from climate science researchers, has critiques of planetarium audiences well. “increases in global average air and ocean tem- Svensmark in refs. [5–7], as well as ref. [8] on Ka Chun Yu peratures, widespread melting of snow and ice the claim that ionizing radiation from cos- Denver Museum of Nature & Science and rising global average sea level” [1]. mic rays should lead to cloud condensation Scientific debates, normally confusing nuclei. If you find blog postings unconvinc- References enough, can appear downright baffling when ing because they are not refereed, then turn to [1] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate politics is thrown in the mix. In such cases, I the multiple peer-reviewed papers responding Change, Fourth Assessment Report (AR4): Climate Change 2007, Synthesis Report (2007) [2] “Scientific opinion on climate change,” Scientific debates, normally confusing enough, can appear down- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_ on_climate_change right baffling when politics is thrown in the mix. In such cases, [3] Center for Inquiry Office of Public Poli- I believe the best recourse for sorting out claims and counter- cy, “The Credibility Project: An Assessment claims is to look at what the scientists themselves are saying. of the ‘U.S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man Made Global Warming Claims,” www.centerforinquiry.net/OPP/Credibili- tyProject (July 2009). believe the best recourse for sorting out claims to aspects of Svensmark’s research. Peter Laut [4] Lippard, J., “Who are the climate change and counter-claims is to look at what the sci- has pointed out arithmetic errors in the pub- skeptics,” The Lippard Blog, lippard.blog- entists themselves are saying. For the vast ma- lished work showing a link between cloud spot.com/2009/12/who-are-climate- jority of climate researchers, the evidence is cover and cosmic rays [9]. Cosmic ray correla- change-skeptics.html (16 December 2009) clear: global warming is occurring and is due tion with cloud cover is also not seen in the [5] Benestad, R.E., “Recent warming but no primarily to man-made causes. There is no observational studies of refs. [10–13], nor was a trend in galactic cosmic rays,” www.realcli- national or international scientific organiza- link found between cosmic rays and aerosols mate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/re- tion—including the U.S. National Academy of [14]. A careful examination of the physics of cent-warming-but-no-trend-in-galactic-cos- Sciences and the UK Royal Society—that dis- aerosol-formation-by-cosmic rays shows it to mic-rays/ (6 December 2004) agrees with this consensus [2]. be too weak to adequately explain cloud for- [6] Benestad, R.E.., “‘Cosmoclimatology’ – tired In any scientific argument, there are bound mation [15]. The claim that Snowball ep- old arguments in new clothes,” www.real- to be naysayers who are also scientists. (Inter- isodes correspond to spiral arm crossings by climate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/ estingly enough, in the same issue is a review the falls apart when a more realistic Milky cosmoclimatology-tired-old-arguments-in- of a popular cosmology book written by J.V. Way arm model is used [16]. new-clothes/ (9 March 2007) Narlikar and Geoffrey Burbidge, two long-time Scientific ideas are not proven “true” by ei- [7] Benestad, R.E., “Still not convincing,” opponents of the Big Bang. However there is ther one or a hundred papers. Scientific con- www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar- only room in this letter to cover one debate.) clusions are by definition tentative, and chives/2009/08/still-not-convincing/ (1 Au- There are well-known instances in the histo- should always be subject to further scrutiny. gust 2009) ry of science where a contrarian going against Although the weight of the evidence is against [8] Schmidt, G.A., “Taking cosmic rays for a conventional wisdom is finally proven cor- Svensmark’s hypothesis, I fully support fol- spin,” www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar- rect. Thus one should always be open to coun- low-up studies, like CERN CLOUD, that can chives/2006/10/taking-cosmic-rays-for-a- ter-arguments. But when the consensus is so shed further light on the topic. In fact there spin/ (16 October 2006) universal, such disagreements should be ex- is already an unpublished report of prelimi- [9] Laut, P., “Solar activity and terrestrial cli- amined with care and skepticism. (As astrono- nary results from that experiment, along with mate: an analysis of some purported corre- my educators, we do the same with those who the referees’ comments [17], showing a healthy (Continues next column)

6 Planetarian March 2010 lations,” Journal of Atmospheric and Solar- Terrestrial Physics, 65, 801–812 (2003) Global Warming is a Well-founded and Established Scientific Fact [10] Laken, B., Wolfendale, A., & Kniveton, D., “Cosmic ray decreases and changes in To the Editor, Heads of states from all countries but one, Sau- the liquid water cloud fraction over the When first reading Steve Tidey’s article in di Arabia. It is most unfortunate that Mr. Barak oceans,” Geophysical Research Letters, 36, Planetarian December 2009, reviewing The Obama, president of the earth’s largest pollut- 23803 (2009) Chilling Stars, I was quite upset. The book pres- ing country, couldn’t give any firm promises. [11] Erlykin, A.D., Sloan, T., & Wolfendale, ents possible astronomic causes for changes But he has an enormous task in front of him, A.W., “The search for cosmic ray effects on in the global climate. But Tidey took the op- convincing every American about the grave- clouds,” Journal of Atmospheric and Solar- portunity to push forward his own view that ness of the situation. Incidentally, Saudi Ara- Terrestrial Physics, 71(8-9), 955–958 (2009) human activities don’t affect the climate. De- bia wasn’t quite alone: the last day of the con- [12] Erlykin, A.D., Gyalai, G., Kudela, K., Sloan, nying this extremely well-documented scien- ference, the U.S. Republican Party had a press T., & Wolfendale, A.W., “On the correlation tific fact shows that he is either cynical or stu- conference, expressing the same view. How between cosmic ray intensity and cloud pid, and in any case very unscientific. I almost many island nations shall disappear before cover,” Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Ter- sat down at once to write something really an- they change their minds? restrial Physics, 71(17-18), 1797–1806 (2009) [13] Calogovic, J., Albert, C., Arnold, F., Beer, J., Desorgher, L., & Flueckiger, E.O., “Sudden cosmic ray decreases: No change of global It is unscientific to disregard the conclusions of cloud cover,” Geophysical Research Letter, in thousands of scientific reports and instead build press (2010) an opinion on a handful of selected papers. [14] Kulmala, M. et al., “Atmospheric data over a solar cycle: no connection between ga- lactic cosmic rays and new particle forma- gry, but I figured it would be better if I calmed tion,” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Climate researchers all over the globe com- down first. Discussions, 9(5), 21525–21560 (2009) pletely agree that human activities are a ma- Denying human effects on the climate puts [15] Pierce, J.R., & Adams, P.J., “Can cosmic rays jor cause for global warming, affecting the cli- him in accord with holocaust deniers and cre- affect cloud condensation nuclei by alter- mate and causing the ocean surface to rise. A ationists opposing biological . But ing new particle formation rates?” Geophys- tiny fraction of them have another opinion. he is much more dangerous than these. Unfor- It is unscientific to disregard the conclusions ical Research Letters, 36, L09820 (2009) tunately, Tidey and the likes of him get much of thousands of scientific reports and instead [16] Overholt, A., Melott, A.L., & Pohl, M., “Test- space in media, who love to put forward differ- build an opinion on a handful of selected pa- ing the link between terrestrial climate ent views, scientific or not. One of my friends pers. I am not a climatologist but I am a scien- change and galactic spiral arm transit,” As- at US National Renewable Laboratory tist, and I trust a vast majority of my fellow sci- trophysical Journal, 705(2), L101–L103 (2009) sent me a worried email just before New Year. entists when they agree. Planetariums should [17] Duplissy, J. et al. 2009, “Results from the He told me that now 40% of US citizens don’t be devoted to science, and not advocate super- CERN pilot CLOUD experiment,” Atmo- believe in mankind causing global warming. stitious, religious, or other nonscientific views spheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion, 9, Those 40% don’t pay attention to IPCCs scien- of the physical world. 18235–18270 (2009); both the paper and ref- tifically based warnings, and they pick their Finally, I must write that I didn’t like the de- eree comments are available at www.at- information instead from people like Tidey cision of Planetarian Executive Editor Sharon mos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/18235/2009/ and the likes of him. Shanks to publish Tidey’s article as the first acpd-9-18235-2009-discussion.html I I spent some time in Copenhagen during one in Planetarian dealing with global warm- COP15 and got the chance to listen to over 100 ing. It is as if Planetarian first would publish an heads of state. They all took as bases for their article advocating , and only talks the threat of global warming and advo- after that published articles on the scientific Call for Nominations cated strong measures to lower emissions of world view. The IPS has announced the call for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. Lars Broman, Professor of Physics nominations for president elect, secre- Strömstad Academy tary and treasurer for 2011-2012. Mar- tin George, chair of the Elections Com- Welcome PARTYcles, the creation of Alex Cherman from the Planetário do Rio de Janeiro in . Alex mittee, is keen to receive nominations, generously offered to share his comics with Planetarian readers; I’m sure you’ll enjoy them as much as I which can be sent to him at martin@ do. -editor qvmag.tas.gov.au. Nominations will also be accepted PARTYcles Alex Cherman from the floor at the IPS Conference in This attraction Hello. I’m a Don’t get me Alexandria in June. is proportional to proton. wrong, but I feel our charges, and Martin points out that this is an op- terribly attracted inversely portunity for every IPS member to have to you. proportional to a say in how our society is run! The terms the square of of office for secretary and treasurer are our distance. two years each, while the president elect will be president in 2013-2014 and past I’m an Hey! I feel the Ouch! president in 2015-2016. I electron. same way! There goes the romance!

March 2010 Planetarian 7 Evaluation Form: Astronomy of Galileo

Date: Show Time:

Please rate the overall quality of the program:

1 (poor) 2 (fair) 3 (OK) 4 (good) 5 (great)

Rate the educational value of the program:

1 (poor) 2 (fair) 3 (OK) 4 (good) 5 (great) Mike Shanahan Rate the entertainment value of the program: Director of Education, Exhibits1 (poor) and2 Planetarium(fair) 3 (OK) 4 (good) 5 (great) Is the show: Bishop Museum ____Too long ____Too short ____Just the right length Honolulu, Hawaii Does the show have: www.bishopmuseum/planetarium/planetarium.org ___Too much content ___Too little content ___Just enough content

What did you like best?

What didn’t you like?

The Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii) re- my peers. Many of my colleagues in the field About Watumull Planetarium cently produced a planetarium show called like the idea of the planetarium, but don’t al- First, some general information on our plan- The Astronomy of Galileo, the first original ways enjoy the planetarium experience itself. etarium. Bishop Museum’s Watumull Planetar- product in six years. Our experience with Over the years, besides general praise for the ium is a 30-ft, 70-seat dome. We are a tradition- show production was intensive from 1998 planetarium experience, I’ve fielded occasion- al dome with a GOTO GS opto-mechanical to 2002, when we produced and distributed al comments about planetarium programs be- projector and Spice animation to control the three NASA-funded “Explorers” shows. These ing too long, having too much information, or standard three banks of slide projectors, a pan- were I: The Explorers (1998), II: Explorers of Mau- being too boring. I’ve also fielded comments orama, and a single inset video projector. Plan- na Kea (2000) and III: Explorers of the Inter- that planetarium shows sometimes seem to etarium attendance is about 90,000 a year, a national (2002). NASA funding be written with the questionable assumption substantial subset of Bishop Museum’s over- came to an end in 2003, and production work that the audience loves our topic as much we all annual attendance of 350,000. Planetarium went on hiatus. do. I had to watch out for this trap in particu- admission is first come first served, and is in- Now that we were working on a new show, lar with Astronomy of Galileo, since I had writ- cluded in the general museum ticket price. I wanted to use my experiences with the Ex- ten my master’s thesis on Galileo at the Uni- plorers shows and see how evaluation could versity of Washington in Seattle (1994). Starting With Basics be used to refine the new program at each step I felt that, if I could really get audience in- There were some basic assumptions about of development. Explorers I, in particular, had put at every step of the show development Astronomy of Galileo from the start: done some interested formative work, for ex- process, I could avoid the frustration of invest- •• The final version of the program would be ample, in discussing topics and storyboards ing a lot of time and money in a program and split 50-50 between automated segments with potential audiences. then realizing upon evaluation of the final and live segments. This has been a hallmark I had another motivation as well. As some- product that the program doesn’t really work of Bishop Museum planetarium programs one who has spent most of his career in gener- that well for its intended public. since the museum developed the first Ex- al science center and museum management, I That led us to 2009 and the decision to do a plorers show under Ken Miller’s direction in am aware of the mixed reputation that plan- planetarium show on Galileo as part of Inter- 1998. While I came out of the “all live all the etarium programming sometimes has among national Year of Astronomy. time” tradition of planetarium programs at Pacific Science Center in Seattle, I have found the mix of live/interactive and auto- Author’s Note: while there is not room here to provide all of the survey data discussed in this article, full results and raw data are available at the Bishop Museum planetarium website. This provides day-by- mated segments to be particularly effective day evaluation data and also provides summaries of the evaluations on each version of the Astronomy of for engaging our myriad audiences here at Galileo program: www.bishopmuseum/planetarium/planetarium.org Bishop Museum.

8 Planetarian March 2010 •• The live sections would be interactive in the “POP” (Participation-Oriented Plane- tarium) sense; i.e. the audience would be actively involved in making observations, predicting, etc. •• While the target of the show was 35 min- Bishop utes, we would use audience feedback to de- Museum’s termine the right length of the program. Watumull •• In addition to being 50-50 live vs. recorded, Planetarium. I wanted approximately half of the show to Photo by Mike be spent with the night sky (as opposed to Shanahan stills, video etc.). •• Along those lines: while there are many fascinating aspects of the Galileo story, we would concentrate on those parts of the story that are best illustrated by a planetar- ium. That being the case, we decided early on that the program would focus on the debate between the two chief world systems and “the ways in which the telescope helped Galileo show that Copernicus was right.” each audience’s data. (A lot of good work has an arbitrary target, but it was a way to get at The planetarium sky would then play a sig- been done recently in collecting and process- the Sally Fieldian question: “Do they like it? nificant role in telling this story. Daily motion ing evaluations electronically. This should be Do they really like it?” would demonstrate the fact that the sky does, a major step forward in overcoming the hur- As mentioned above, it takes the time and in fact, seem to spin around the earth. Plan- dle of compiling the data.) energy to revise a program based on input etary motion would introduce the concept from evaluations. To get past this roadblock, that it was hard to explain retrograde motion Analysis and Revision Process I did the program entirely live for the first neatly in a geocentric model. I wanted to create a show that rated high- month. By doing the show live I was able to We reassembled two key players from the ly in both educational and entertainment val- change content on a daily basis, cut or (more Explorers Project. Ken Miller, the founding ue, and that the audience felt was “just right” rarely) expand the content of a given section, manager of the project at Bishop Museum and in both length and content. Given these goals, and rewrite segments to make them more now a GOTO employee, agreed to donate his I did not attempt to assess content absorption concise or clearer. Content, length and flow time as the narrator. Davo Coria, a local com- and retention in this evaluation. That’s anoth- could be quickly adjusted between one offer- poser/musician who created original music er project for another time. ing and the next. for the three Explorers shows, gave me the In order to quantify the process I came up When we moved to the version of the show rights to a range of his excellent pre-existing with a simple guideline: on a scale of 1 (poor) that used recorded segments (mid-December music. to 5 (great), I wanted to end up with a show 2009), I used GarageBand from Apple so that The budget was very, very lean: my time that got at least an average 4.25 rating for over- I could make soundtrack changes quickly plus $3,000. all quality from all audiences. Perhaps that’s and get a new version of the program turned around within a day. About the Evaluation Format Interesting enough, in these final I developed a simple evaluation and Table I. Comments pertaining to days of the 35 mm slide, I found slide administered it at a number of perfor- planetarium night sky #: production to be easier than ever. Giv- en the historical nature of the pro- mances of Astronomy of Galileo from Stars 20 its debut on November 13 through gram, I found it easy to locate almost December 31, 2009. We collected 302 18 everything I needed, in high enough evaluations from 18 performances of Star motion 13 resolution, on Wiki Commons. Gam- the show during that period. ma Tech (based in Albuquerque New planet hunt activity/planet motion 12 I wanted to take the information, Mexico) provided reliable, fast service; summarize it quickly after each show, Hawaiian sky 10 one just uploads digital images to their and revise the planetarium show to Sky tonight (i.e. specifically the current sky) 5 web site and gets high-quality slides on address the concerns and comments a fast turnaround. If I needed new visu- outlines 5 raised in that day’s worth of com- als to fill in dead spots in the program, ments. Transit from Padua to Hawaii sky 2 it took only a few days to get them Historically we, like so many oth- Dark sky 2 into the carousels. er facilities, have sometimes had a Meteor shower overview 1 hard time putting the data from eval- First Draft of the Program uations into practice. I still have box- Venus 1 The show debuted in draft form on November 13. The evaluations from es of evaluations of our culture and Subtotal of all “planetarium night sky” comments 69 science outreach programming from the first day, November 13, were a good 2001 sitting in my office, unprocessed, start, despite the small sample from the It’s notable that the mere fact that we have outlines for the con- so I committed to taking 20 minutes stellations rates highly here; we sometimes forget how helpful show’s first audience. The overall qual- of my time after each show to input those are to the public. ity rating for the program came in at

March 2010 Planetarian 9 an average of 4.00 on our scale. of 4.76 in “overall quality” for the two shows ileo’s biography and on the historical context During this first week I made a number of at the end of this first evaluation cycle that in- of the divided Italy of his time. We addressed changes in the show, based on feedback from cluded that Hawaiian night sky coda. Galileo’s birth in Pisa, his move to Florence at this first day’s evaluations and from subse- an early age, the return to Pisa to study and quent evaluations. (We took evaluations on Streamlining Interactivity to teach, his move to Padua in 1582 and Pad- six of the shows during that first week’s run.) The first live segment combined an over- ua’s relationship with Venice, the return to In addition to the overall ratings, the writ- view of the skies from Padua in November Florence in 1610, etc. (Remember that master’s ten comments were important. While it’s 1609; a segment on daily motion; and the thesis?) hard to quantify comments in the same was “let’s try to tell the planets from the stars” ac- General feedback from the November per- as a rating, the comments were at least as help- tivity found in programs like Red Planet Mars formances of the show was that the histori- ful in guiding the show’s development as the (Lawrence Hall of Science) and Ringed Planets cal content, while interesting, was too much, ratings were. (Pacific Science Center). From the get-go this e.g. the comment “history of Pisa and Venice” segment worked well as the core “night sky” under “what didn’t you like” on an 11/17/09 I. Changes made to the show, based on audi- segment of the program and was modified evaluation. The historical context of his pre- ence feedback, in the first week: more night sky very little during all the show’s revisions. telescope life was gradually pared down to 1: and more again (see Table 1). For the other interactive segment, we adapt- Galileo was born and spent most of his early The survey results here are a good remind- ed the moons activity from the excel- life in Pisa; 2: in 1582 he got a job in Padua; and er that our audiences really come to the dome lent Lawrence Hall of Science program Moons 3: he stayed there till the telescope changed expecting to see the night sky (and especially of the Solar System. In this activity, the audi- his life in 1610. the local night sky) above anything else. The ence is divided into groups which track the The section near the end of the program original draft of the show featured the sky position of the four Galilean satellites over a dealing with the trial of Galileo was also pared from Galileo’s Padua but didn’t show the lo- period of 9 nights. down at one point. However, I cut it so much cal Hawaiian sky. Based on feedback that peo- We originally did this as a paper and pen- that one visitor said that show was “miss- ple “wanted to see the stars more” and want cil activity. A number of comments said that ing its third act.” This is one of the rare cases where the script was re-expanded, and cut ma- terial put back in. The various changes made during this first week did make a difference. In the category of “overall quality of the program” we moved from an average rating of 4.00 on opening day Watumull Planetarium’s to an average rating of 4.86 on the November Joanne Bogan giving 20 show. There had also been substantial im- the introduction to a show. Photo by provement in the rating for “educational val- Mike Shanahan ue” (from 4.38 to 4.86) and on “entertainment value” (from 4.13 to 4.86). This was a clear up- ward trend, albeit somewhat compromised by the smallness of the sample. That said, it seemed to be moving in the right direction, and we pressed onward.

Draft 2–Thanksgiving Weekend During Thanksgiving weekend 2009 the show was still being done in the all-live for- mat. Interestingly, there was a drop in the rat- ings during Thanksgiving weekend compared to the evaluations taken during the show’s “more Hawaii-centric discussion” (both com- this activity was good but that it went on for mid-November debut. ments from 11/18/09), we added a segment at too long: “the activity—Jupiter’s moons—was One possible reason: the museum, and the end of the show in which we move from too much.” therefore the planetarium, was packed on the Paduan sky to that evening’s Hawaiian In the interests of time and tree-saving, we Thanksgiving weekend with families with sky. shortened this activity. We divided the audi- very young children. There were more kids We tied this back to the show’s main theme ence into halves and had one segment watch with short attention spans and more adults by showing audience members where to look Io and the other Ganymede, with the directive unhappy with the noise from those children. for the same objects Galileo had studied from to clap when their moon completed an orbit. The average rating for “overall quali- Padua (Jupiter, , Venus). After this It drove home the point that Io speeds around ty of program” from the four days’ worth of change there were still occasional comments the planet (three claps to one for Ganymede) Thanksgiving weekend evaluations sank to that people wanted to see even more of the and provided a form of interaction (clapping) 4.33 and the rating for entertainment value night sky, but shooting for a 50-50 balance of that everyone seems comfortable participat- sank to 4.10. slide and video visuals vs. night sky seems to ing in. When we adopted this change, we no Comments culled from Thanksgiving satisfy most people. longer received any comments about this seg- weekend ranged from insightful to depress- A telling comparison: the average rating for ment being too long. ing. As someone who has had a great love of the program’s overall quality went from an live planetarium programming, I was sur- average of 4.26 for the first four performances, Paring Down Historical Content prised to get a (very small) set of comments when we had not yet included a closing sec- The version of the show that debuted on like “I would have preferred automated show” tion on the Hawaiian sky, to an average rating November 13 had a lot of information on Gal- (Continues on Page 31)

10 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 11 12 Planetarian March 2010

S9-a01-02 Planetariums and the 2012 Hysteria Kristine Larsen Professor of Physics and Astronomy Copernican Observatory and Planetarium Central Connecticut State University New Britain, Connecticut, USA ([email protected])

Abstract The astronomical community has increasingly taken notice of the ber 21, 2012. In short, barring some unexpect- ed outbreak of nuclear war, we can expect De- growing 2012 “end of the world” scenarios being propagated on the cember 22, 2012 to unfold like any other late and cable television programs. Planetari- December last-minute shopping day. ums can and should play an important and unique It would be too easy to collectively shake role in educating the public about this pseudosci- our heads at this madness and hope calmer and better-informed heads will prevail before ence. Examples of planetarium programming ad- long, but experience has shown us that un- dressing the 2012 hysteria include public lectures, less we as a community become actively in- planetarium website FAQ and blogs, magazine and volved, misinformation will increasingly re- place reason in the collective consciousness of Kristine Larsen newspaper articles, and planetarium shows. the general public. Thankfully, the astronomical community at large has, in recent months, begun to take up the charge and rally its forces against a By now everyone in the planetarium com- that Earth will not flip over in 2012, nor is vast army of , superstition, and munity has come face to face with the 2012 there any evidence for Planet X/Nibiru, and salesmen. phenomenon, whether in the form of ques- that the supposed alignment of the sun with For example, NASA Astrobiologist David tions about the end of the world from con- the is neither a true alignment, Morrison has published numerous articles and cerned members of the general public, in- nor of any scientific significance whatsoever. blog posts, and granted dozens of interviews, quiries from local news media, or personally The will turn a page (or rath- addressing the 2012 hysteria and its possible sitting through the film 2012 or one of count- er a ) with no more significance than a long-term deleterious effect on the public’s re- less scientifically inaccurate specials on cable car’s odometer momentarily hitting a visually lationship with astronomy (a fear of the uni- television with firmly gritted teeth. The 2012 pleasing number (unless that particular num- verse he terms “cosmophobia”).1 doomsday scenario was even parodied in an ber marks the expiration of your vehicle’s episode of . warranty), and there is no reason to expect 1 Morrison, David. “Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru, iStockphoto.com Those in the planetarium profession know Yellowstone to suddenly erupt on Decem- and Cosmophobia.” Astronomy Beat no. 32 (2009): 1-6. www.astrosociety.org/2012/ab2009-32.pdf

March 2010 Planetarian 13 Planetariums are in a unique and vitally im- it is only fitting that we use the internet as a lectures from outside experts on the subject, portant position to move to the forefront of tool in our battle against this insidious pseu- as in the case of a January 2010 public lecture this battle, given our long-standing dedica- doscience. Planetariums can easily include a by noted Mayan expert and archaeoastrono- tion to improving the astronomical educa- separate 2012 FAQ or “suggested links” page mer Dr. Anthony Aveni at South Florida Mu- tion of the general public.2 This essay will ex- on their websites, as in the case of Bakersfield seum’s Bishop Planetarium, highlighting the plore ways in which planetarium staffs across College Planetarium7 and the University of multicultural and multidisciplinary possibil- the United States (as have others across the Texas at Arlington Planetarium.8 ities of planetarium programming.15 world) have already begun to combat the Planetarium blogs can feature articles on Planetarium staff can also make themselves 2012 movement. various aspects of the 2012 phenomenon, as available to speak in schools, libraries, or other To begin, (a Maya expert himself) has been done by Casey Rawson of the More- public venues (as Ed Krupp has done), and can and his staff at Los Angeles’s Griffith Observa- head Planetarium at the University of North become actively involved in the debunking tory and Planetarium deserve special recogni- Carolina-Chapel Hill,9 Friends of the Austin process by becoming a member of the editori- tion in taking a leading role in debunking the Planetarium in Texas,10 and Seth Jarvis of Salt al, writing, or fact-checking staff for 2012hoax. 2012 phenomenon. Not only did Dr. Krupp Lake City’s Clark Planetarium.11 org, a wiki-style website which posts essays de- write a cover article for Sky & Telescope maga- bunking various aspects of the 2012 phenom- zine on this matter, but the entire text of that The Power of the Program enon and shed light on the colorful personali- article is posted for public distribution on the In addition to all this available technology, ties which promulgate this misinformation. Griffith website, along with a FAQ of common we should not discount the power of a basic As one can plainly see, there are myriad misconceptions concerning 2012 and a link to planetarium show to educate the general pub- ways that individual planetariums and plan- an hour-long video of one of Krupp’s public lic on any astronomical topic, including 2012. talks on the topic, entitled “Time’s Up.”3 Topics such as , the location of the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Plane- galactic center, the appearance of the Milky tarium at the American Museum of Natural Way in the sky, and supposed alignments can History in New York has likewise posted a vid- be vividly demonstrated for the general pub- eo of a CNN interview on the 2012 phenom- lic, allowing them to see it with their own enon, which is sufficiently brief to be con- eyes rather than reading it online (or relying veniently shown in classrooms or assigned on some History Channel program of dubious by teachers for outside viewing by their stu- scientific accuracy). dents.4 For example, the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Strasenburgh Planetarium re- Be Available for Interviews cently completed a run of Cosmic Disasters, a Planetarium directors can provide a valu- star show which discussed various doomsday able service to the community by offering scenarios—including those in the 2012 com- themselves or affiliated staff for interviews munity such as Planet X and Pole Shifts.12 etarium staff members can become involved with local television stations. For example, The Planetarium at the Cleveland Muse- with righting the wrong that is the 2012 South Carolina State University physics pro- um of Natural History is currently running movement. But the planetarium community fessor Don Walter conducted an interview a planetarium program titled 2012: Dooms- can also make a powerful impact by standing on the film 2012 for WOLO News 19 in the I.P. day, which debunks the “silliness … spreading united in its opposition to this growing intel- Stanback Planetarium.5 about a global cataclysm predicted to occur lectual menace. This essay ends by urging the Writing articles for local newspapers de- when a Mayan calendar ‘rolls over’ in Decem- International Planetarium Society to consider bunking the 2012 phenomenon is also a pro- ber 2012.”13 issuing an official statement against the prom- ductive use of planetarium staff time, as in The University of North Carolina–Chapel ulgation of astronomical misinformation sur- the case of Edelman Planetarium Director Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Cen- rounding 2012, in line with its official state- Keith Johnson’s July 12, 2009 column on 2012, ter will soon run an interactive digital show ti- ments on the Age of the Earth and which appeared in both the print and online tled Behind 2012 as part of their Sci- and Star Naming. versions of New Jersey’s The Gloucester Coun- ence 360 series.14 Planetariums can also host ty Times.6 We’ve Got the Time Since much of the misinformation con- 7 Bakersfield College Planetarium. “2012 Hype vs. We have nearly three years to prepare for cerning 2012 is being spread via the internet, the Truth.” www.bakersfieldcollege.net/ the arrival of the date in question, an army of planetarium/2012/2012hype.asp 8 The University of Texas at Arlington Planetari- talented and dedicated planetarians, engaging 2 Manning, James G. “The Role of Planetariums in um. “Doomsday 2012: Is the Earth Near the End” programming and technology, and a general Astronomy Education.” Planetarian 24, no. 4 (1995) www.uta.edu/planetarium/astronomy-101/articles/ public who hungers for information. We can, www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/ro- doomsday-2012.php therefore, take the king-sized lemon that is leOfPlan_educ.html 9 Rawson, Casey. “The Truth Behind 2012.” more- 3 Griffith Observatory. “The Truth About 2012 (The headplanetarium.org/blog/?cat=70 the 2012 movement and apply the sufficient End is NOT Near).” www.griffithobs.org/exhibits/ 10 Friends of the Austin Planetarium. “No, No, and pressure necessary to turn this pseudoscience special/2012.html No.” austinplanetarium.blogspot.com/2009/11/no- into an opportunity to reintroduce the gen- 4 Neil deGrasse Tyson. “2012.” www.haydenplan- no-and-no.html etarium.org/tyson/category/subjects/2012. This 11 Jarvis, Seth. “Doughnuts vs. The End of the World.” eral public to all that the planetarium com- website also includes several other audio and video www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/doughnuts-vs- munity has to offer. It’s time to roll up our files which touch on the 2012 subject. the-end-of-the-world sleeves and get to work. I 5 CRASH: Civil Rights, Art, Science & Humanities; 12 Strasenburgh Planetarium. “Star Shows.” www. I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium’s Blog about all rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium useaction=page&filename=overview_science360. things cultural. “Debunking 2012.” scsucrash.blog- 13 Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Planetari- html spot.com/2009/11/debunking-2012.html um Program: 2012: Doomsday? www.cmnh.org/site/ 15 New College of Florida. Lecture by Tony Aveni 6 Johnson, Keith. “South Jersey Skies: It’s the end AtTheMuseum/PlanetariumandObservatory/Class- at Bishop Planetarium, January 13. www.ncf.edu/ of the world again!” www.nj.com/gloucester/voic- esandPrograms.aspx news/?p=3359. Aveni has just published a new book, es/index.ssf/2009/07/south_jersey_skies_its_the_ 14 Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. “Sci- The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012. end.html ence 360.” moreheadplanetarium.org/index.cfm?f

14 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 15 16 Planetarian March 2010 Astronef-Planétarium de Saint-Etienne Espace Fauriel 28 rue Ponchardier F-42100 Saint-Etienne, France

destrians. Under it there is an underground car park. And in the middle of it, there is: the planetarium! When I arrived at Astronef, in February 2006, I had a background of several years of astronomical research, so working in a planetari- um was not a new experience for me. But I had a very special feel- ing about the planetarium, since I knew that Astronef is a very- well known planetarium in France, despite its rather small size. Standing in front of the Astronef-Planétarium are the people Its reputation mostly comes from its experience in producing behind it: (from left) Sabine Raymond, Eric Frappa, Jacques Gua- shows. These shows can be watched under our dome, of course, rinos, Cyril Fernandez, Solange Bonhomme, Laurent Asselin, and but also in many other planetariums in France, in Europe, and Jean-Michel Dionisio. Genevieve Bonnefois is not pictured. even outside of Europe. We are currently working on our 20th creation, a fulldome dig- ital show that will present the “new solar system,” as the astrono- Dr. Jacques Guarinos, Directeur mers and planet specialists now see it and imagine how it was born. [email protected] The show will be available in October 2010. Working closely with Astronef–Planétarium de Saint-Etienne is a 12-m planetarium professionals of synthetic images, music composers and sound en- located in the central part of France, in the City of Saint-Etienne. It gineers, we are making a film that will feature real images obtained was built in 1993, at a time when there were only a very few plan- from space probes as well as recent scientific simulations. etariums in our country. This program, which is still untitled (if anyone has an idea, please When the Saint-Etienne planetarium first opened to the public, let me know) will be a documentary whose script has been writ- it was not named Astronef, it had only 75 seats, and its astronomi- ten by Eric Frappa, one of my colleagues at Astronef cal simulator was a classical one, with a large central sphere full of and a well-known amateur astronomer. holes and lenses, made by RSA Cosmos. Our latest creation is titled Galaktos: A Tour In 2003, a 6-channel digital system was installed, made by the of the Milky Way, released in October same manufacturer. This was the opportunity for a second birth, 2008. It was written by a professional so that the planetarium was named Astronef, which means “space- author as a story for children and fam- ship” in French. Since the large central sphere had disappeared, we ilies. Using the classic structure of a road could add seats, which brought the seating capacity 82. movie, it presents the Milky Way not as Astronef was the first digital planetarium in France and the sec- any old galaxy, but our galaxy. The char- ond one in Europe. The closest other planetarium is in Lyon, 60 acters are two robots who take every km away from us. Astronef is an active member of APLF (Associa- opportunity to visit interesting plac- tion des Planétariums de Langue Française). In 2009, we had a pub- es in the Milky Way: a dust cloud, a lic attendance of about 35,000 people, out of which nearly 40% cluster of very young stars, a plane- came from schools or high schools. tary nebula, a remnant, Our team is made of 8 full-time persons. a globular cluster, and even the cen- Astronef was built in the middle of what used to be the facilities tral black hole. Of course, at Astronef, every perfor- of a very famous French company, ManuFrance, a large distributor Eugene “Milky” Milkman, of bicycles, rifles, hunting and household goods, and other items. mance includes a classic presentation of the star of Galaktos In the 1970’s, Saint-Etienne faced a severe economic crisis, whose the sky by the means of our real time as- consequences still have an impact on the present population. A lot tronomical simulator. We are opened sev- of mines and factories closed, leaving thousands of people unem- en days a week and we offer eight different one-hour performanc- ployed. ManuFrance was one of them. es for the general public, each of them having its own theme. One In the beginning of the 1990’s it was decided to transform and of these performances always has no film projection and uses only re-use the ManuFrance site. Now, between the building that used the real time simulator. The other performances are divided in 2 to host the ManuFrance offices and the one where the company’s parts: the fulldome show and the classic planetarium presenta- general store was, there is a large green esplanade reserved for pe- tion. (Continues on Page 32)

March 2010 Planetarian 17 IPS 2010: Exploring the cradle of astronomy in Egypt

Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair IPS Publications Committee BGSU Planetarium Physics &Astronomy Department Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA [email protected]

What says Egypt any better than a camel and the Pyramids at Giza? All photos by Dale Smith

Back to Alexandria! Two thousand years ago ern-day Bibliotheca Alexandrina is part of the Nearly all conference sessions will be held the world’s books came to Alexandria. The an- Million Books Project, an international con- in the spacious facilities of the Bibliotheca cient Library of Alexandria became the re- sortium digitizing more than one million Alexandrina. The Library contains spacious pository of the Mediterranean world’s works books from around the world, a resource that and spectacular meeting and exhibit space. of learning. When this Library was founded, will be available freely to all. The Conference Center includes the 1700-seat the Pyramids 200 km to the south were al- Besides the internet archive center, today’s great hall, three 300-seat halls, smaller break- ready two millennia old, as old to the Library’s Library includes physical space for millions of out rooms, and two 450 square meter exhib- founders as the ancient Library is to us today. books; museums for antiquities, manuscripts, it halls. The Library fostered a world-class research and the history of science; a children’s Explor- Plenary and parallel sessions will all be center. Here Hipparchus brought the stars to atorium; and seven research institutes. conducted in the Conference Center and, of Earth as he constructed his pioneering cata- Also befitting its heritage, the modern Li- course, the planetarium will host under-the- logue. Ptolemy worked here and brought the brary includes a planetarium that brings the dome demonstrations. geocentric model to near-perfection. Hypatia, stars to Earth in the 21st century. The 100-seat, Vendor exhibits will be readily accessible, the first recorded female astronomer, worked 14-m facility has recently been renovated and along with ample space for informal mixing here until a mob took her life. now features a Digistar 3 fulldome projection and conversation between sessions. At least 25 In a sense, then, we are traveling “Back to system. different vendors are expected to be present at Alexandria, the Cradle of Astronomy” for IPS It is here that planetarians from around the the conference, providing an opportunity for 2010, in celebration of the return of the Li- world will gather for the 20th biennial IPS all to see the latest products, and the tentative brary of Alexandria to its prominence as a conference on June 26-30, 2010. We will walk program includes a generous amount of dome place of learning and a bastion for the histo- where Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and Hypatia time for demonstrations. ry of astronomy. walked. Could they have dreamed of what we do? Could they have dreamed of such a gath- Program The host facility: ering? Could Hipparchus have imagined the The conference begins with a welcome re- Bibliotheca Alexandrina databases that reside in today’s full-dome sys- ception on the evening of Saturday, June 26 In 2002, the vision of the ancient Library tems or the exquisite skies of today’s opto-me- and concludes with a gala banquet on the eve- was revived in the 21st century with found- chanical projectors? ning of Wednesday, June 30. The days will be ing of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina as the na- The 2010 IPS conference not only connects filled with paper, panel, and workshop ses- tional library of Egypt. Anchored on Alexan- with our historical roots. It also looks to the sions in addition to the invited speakers, ven- dria’s waterfront and rooted in timeless Egypt, future. It is the first IPS conference in Africa dor demonstrations, and a tour of the diverse the new Library also looks out to the sea and and the first in an Arabic-speaking country. facilities of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. links the Middle East, Mediterranean, and the The conference will also look to the future as The agenda includes a distinguished roster rest of the world. vendors and exhibitors show us the technolo- of invited speakers, including Dr. Farouk El- Befitting its predecessor’s heritage, the mod- gy of our future in the planetarium. Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing

18 Planetarian March 2010 by delegates to pres- Now you can see these places for yourself on ent oral papers, panels, the pre- and post-conference tours. workshops, or posters. A half-day pre-conference tour on Thurs- Oral papers will be 10 day, June 24 will take you to the sights of Alex- minutes in length and andria, including the National Museum, Qait- panels and workshops bey Citadel (built on the site of the ancient may be up to 45 min- lighthouse), Roman Theater, and Pompey’s utes in length. Post- Pillar. Cost is $80 including lunch. ers will be displayed Two post-tours cover many of the iconic throughout the confer- sights that have made ancient Egypt a mag- ence and will be staffed net of the world’s imagination and wonder. for a one-hour period The first tour on July 1 and 2 covers the ma- to be announced. jor sights in and around Cairo, including the Titles and abstracts Pyramids and Sphinx, the Egyptian Museum, for any of these types Memphis and Saqqara, Salah al-Din Citadel, of presentation are due and the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar. Cost is $275 in- by April 30. Texts of cluding transportation from Alexandria, ac- The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at the entrance to Valley of the Kings near Luxor. all presentations will commodation, tours, and lunches. appear in the Confer- The second tour takes in several major sights at (USA), Dr. Zahi Hawass, ence Proceedings. Full texts of oral papers and along the Nile on July 3-7, traveling in the de- secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Coun- posters are due by May 14; summaries of pan- luxe comfort of a Nile River cruise ship. Sites cil of Antiquities, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, direc- el discussions and workshops are due by July and experiences include Luxor, Karnak, Val- tor of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Dr. 30. Other details and a call for papers form are ley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut’s temple, Ahmed Gjabbar. available on the web sites listed above. the Memnon Colossi, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, The meal plan follows the Middle East- Vendors who wish to arrange exhibit space the Aswan Dams, the Unfinished Obelisk, and ern tradition of having the major meal in or demonstration time and who have not al- a felucca ride. Cost is $600 including transpor- the middle of the day rather than in the eve- ready made arrangements should contact the tation from Alexandria via Cairo, the river ning. Lunch, the main meal of the day, will conference host. cruise from Luxor to Aswan, all tours, and re- be around 2 p.m. on most days, with coffee turn transportation to Alexandria via Cairo. breaks in late morning and late afternoon or Transportation and Hotels Delegates who wish to take both tours can early evening. The conference banquet on the The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has obtained stay in Cairo on the night of July 2 rather than last evening will feature classic Egyptian en- special conference rates at a selection of ho- return to Alexandria, and delegates whose in- tertainment. tels. These include the San Giovanni ($115 ternational air arrival and departure is in Cai- double, 20 minutes by car to the li- Registration brary), the Sofitel Cecil (about $145 All conference documents are posted in two double, 15 minutes walk), and the places: on the conference web site at www. Sheraton, (about $165 double, 35 bibalex.org/IPS2010/home/home.aspx and minutes by car). All these rates are on the IPS web site at www.ips-planetarium. in US dollars and include breakfast. org/events/conferences.html. You can register These hotels are all on or near the and submit paper requests on-line at the con- waterfront. ference web site. You also should have by now Delegates can fly direct- received a paper mailing from the conference ly to Alexandria or can fly host and can register by mail or fax. into Cairo and travel to Early registration is now in progress and con- Alexandria by air, bus, train, or tinues through March 31. The discounted ear- limo. Rental cars are available but ly rate, in US dollars, is $400 for IPS members are not recommended. Ramesseum outside Valley of the Kings near Luxor and includes all conference sessions, lunches, See the “travel tips” page on ei- coffee breaks, and the opening reception. A ther of the web sites listed above rate of $425 will apply to members who reg- for more detailed travel tips and for more in- ro can leave either tour in Cairo. Contact the ister during April 1-30 and a late registration formation on the hotels. conference host to make these special arrange- rate of $450 will apply to members who regis- Visitors from most countries can obtain a ments. ter during May 1-31. The conference banquet visa on arrival, but check the requirements for Expect high temperatures in Cairo of about is purchased separately and is only $50. Pay- your country to be sure. 36C (97F) with moderate humidity. Expect ment is in US dollars and can be made by cred- Alexandria has a Mediterranean climate. At high temperatures of about 41C (106F) in As- it card or bank check. Registration forms and the time of the conference, expect hot, humid wan with lower humidity. Clear skies are like- full details are on the web sites listed above. weather with a high of around 31C (89F). ly in both places.

Call for Papers Tours Contact points The conference’s overarching theme is Planetarians and pyramids! Have you ever For delegates: Dr. Omar Fikry, omar.fikry@ “History of Astronomy” with a strong empha- showed images of Egypt’s timeless pyramids bibalex.org sis on the role of planetariums in informal ed- or Sphinx? Have you gazed at pictures of For vendors: Nermine Toma nermine.toma@ ucation. The conference welcomes proposals Egypt’s historic temples, tombs, and obelisks? bibalex.org I

March 2010 Planetarian 19 20 Planetarian March 2010 Piyush Pandey, Director Nehru Planetarium Mumbai 400018 [email protected]

This time, it was a ring of fire

With memories of the 22 July 2009 total gan at 11:14 IST (Indian Standard Time=UT + we carried with the hope that if some major solar eclipse still fresh in minds, less than six 5:30 hrs), with annularity at 13:16 and annu- prominences showed up at the time of annu- months later we had another major eclipse larity, then it would conjure up with the resid- event in India: the annular solar eclipse of 15 ual ring to create a grand spectacle. This filter, January 2010. centred on 6563A0, had a pass band of 3A0. This came close on the heels of the partial Prominences did show up in the practice lunar eclipse on New Year’s Day, which also shots I took at Mumbai before the event, but was seen from India. It has been eclipses galore not during the eclipse. There were just small for India! wispy stubs. The filter was fixed at the objec- My colleagues Kiran Hedukar, Chandrakant tive end of a Zeiss 70-mm refractor having a Karambelkar (Chandu for short) and I visited focal length of 850 mm and had a Nikon D-70 Rameshwaram in south India to witness and DSLR at the business end. This system was op- capture the event as part of our planetarium’s erated by Chandu. official team. Two of our planetarium’s hon- Kiran minded the Sony Handycam that was orary guides, Jatin Rathod and Prabhu Velar, connected to a television so that the gathered came to the same destination on a self-fund- crowd could watch the proceedings. Prabhu ed private visit. They volunteered to join and took off a small finder scope from one of the help us. telescopes and attached an eyepiece adapt- The altitude of the scorching sun at Ramesh- larity and eclipse ending respectively at 13:26 er and took good pictures of the event. In the waram at the maximum phase was 56 degrees. and 15:09. It was almost a four hour event. end we had good pictures and a dark suntan It created a very awkward angle for shooting Many Indian and foreign amateurs and sci- as bonus. through the directly-attached DSLR cameras entists camped near the northern limit of the Another Nehru Planetarium team stayed that had no dockable view-panes. The stan- annularity. Eclipse duration was quite short in put in Mumbai to show the partial phase of dard diagonal that we had brought was focus- such locations, but these were ideal for longer the eclipse to the public, which came in large ing the image a little short of the reach of the recording of “edge” phenomena, like occur- numbers. The solar telescope (a coelostat) fixed camera, so the only option was to lie on a mat- rence of Bailey’s Beads. on the terrace of the planetarium was used to tress and then raise your head like a yogi in or- Unlike the solar eclipse in July, this time project a large image of the eclipsed sun. A vid- der to put your eye into the viewfinder. most of the eclipse locations had good sun- I readily gave this task to Jatin and I assumed shine. the responsibility of a town crier. My job now The “yellow” pictures were taken using an was to shout instructions and timings to my 80-mm aperture, 1000-mm focal length Bush- team, assembled viewers (both local and from nell refractor to which we attached a Sony England, Bangkok and Japan) and to the crew Alpha 100 DSLR. The f-ratio was 12.5 and the of the Zee News television channel, which exposures time was 1/160 second. An Inconel™- had somehow traced us here even though we coated filter capped the objective end of the had kept our location and plans quite secret. tube. This system was operated by Jatin. I began shouting. “Suno, Suno, Suno! (Oyez, An h-alpha filter was very kindly lent to us Oyez, Oyez!) The first contact just 30 seconds by Dr. Ram Sagar, director of the Nainital Ob- away! Shoot! Shoot! Begin shooting fast!” servatory (called ARIES, the Aryabhatta Re- The annularity lasted at Rameshwaram for search Institute of Observational Sciences; 10 minutes, 12 seconds. The partial eclipse be- you can learn more at www.aries.res.in). This

March 2010 Planetarian 21 Previous Page: Three stages of the annular eclipse, with maximum at top, second contact in the center, and the “bitten-off biscuit” at bottom.

This Page: The map above shows the portion of Indian Peninsula where the ASE took place; Map courtesy: eclipse.gsfc..gov/SEgoogle/SE- google2001/SE2010Jan15Agoogle2.html. At Right: (Top) The curious line up to see the eclipse back at the plan- etarium; (Center) News crews competed with the crowds to capture the event. (Bottom) A close-up of our location at Rameshwaram. Bottom: Piyush at the ready. All photos by Nehru Planetarium staff.

eo camera projected the event on a video screen in the planetar- ium lobby and showed the entire event in air-conditioned com- fort. Thousands of people and more than a dozen TV channels thronged the planetarium.

Our Viewing Location The word Rameshwaram means the Lord of Rama or Shi- va. The entire ethos of this small town revolves around the an- cient temple of Lord Shiva. It is a pilgrimage centre of Hindus. The legend (as per the great Hindu epic Ramayana) has it that prince Rama (born around 5114 B.C.) came here searching for his wife, Sita, who had been abducted by demon king Ravana, whose kingdom was in Lanka (modern Sri Lanka). Before launching his war on Lanka, Rama first worshipped lord Shiva and sought his blessings for success in war. A grand temple now stands at the spot of Rama’s worship. It was first erected in the 12th century and has been renovated repeat- edly over centuries. Rama’s army and engineers created a bridge out of rocks that could float in water and thus annexed Lanka, defeated Ravana and brought Sita back. Today, sev- eral petty trin- ket shops around R a m e s h w a r a m sell pumice stone, which can float in wa- ter, passing those off as the origi- nal bits from the bridge that Rama built. I

22 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 23 X Espinho

Navegar Foundation “Reach(es)Out” Beyond the Planetarium

Lina Canas, António Pedrosa, Pedro Borges, Nuno Carvalho, Bernardo Correia and Marco Silva Navegar Foundation Centro Multimeios Espinho Espinho, Portugal [email protected]

Committed to reach those who usually •• Allow people to experience entirely new during the second observation, but we still don’t attend science outreach activities for ways of getting in touch with astronomy had the amazing sky of the planetarium to planetariums, in the International Year of As- and science-based events; and play with. tronomy 2009 the Navegar Foundation Team •• Take an astronomy environment such as The evening included The Moon is Angry, and Espinho Planetarium developed “Rea- a planetarium and explore its use as media a planetarium show for the little ones, a mid- chOut,” a project composed of a set of events for broadening science education horizons. night snack, and a constellation hunt. When it in order to lead planetarium theatres into new was time to go to sleep (at 3 a.m.!), the sound- grounds. Camping in the Planetarium track specially designed for the event proved to For 100 HoursofAstronomy, an IYA corner- be a must. We synchronized the sound so that a The Project stone project that from 2-5 April 2009 brought distant church bell rang precisely at each hour. In order to promote culture, arts and sci- over 100 countries together in a planet-wide It was possible to listen to several “sounds of the ence, as well as to support educational activi- celebration of astronomy, Navegar Founda- wild” through the night: bears, frogs, bats, fox- ties, the work that has been developed by the tion shared the planetarium with the public es, crickets. The birds started to sing after 7 a.m. Navegar Foundation Team over the past years in different way: it turned it into a camping to welcome the sunrise and at 9 a.m. the rooster has paid special attention to schools, especial- site. sang, causing a general laugh. ly developing educational activities as a com- First, the planetarium chairs had to be re- plement to the official school programs. As a moved (it was interesting to see the plane- Immersive Film Festival result, we have established increasing regular tarium floor became totally open). Second, Next, trying to reach cinema enthusiasts, attendance from schools across the country as the idea of the event. We didn’t want to have we held Immersive Film Festival 09. In order well as from the general public. just a large group of people sleeping in a plan- to share this new experience, a technology For the International Year of Astronomy, etarium—we wanted to take those people non-existent to date in Portugal, Immersive we set a challenge for ourselves: to develop en- and make them feel as if they were actually Film Festival opened its doors especially for tirely new events aimed at those who had lit- sleeping under a perfect starry sky in the wil- schools to allow students to access this new tle or no contact with astronomy outreach ac- derness. This is why our team went into the media. We were not only able to captivate the tivities for planetariums. country to record the “sounds of the wild” for audience through a entertainment, but also Several objectives were established: an entire night in order to replay them in the show the planetarium’s true potential: that as- •• Capture general public awareness for as- planetarium. tronomy could share space with many scien- tronomy outreach activities; The “Camping in the Planetarium” drew ap- tific fields of expertise, such as biology, histo- •• Challenge ourselves in the search and de- proximately 40 people. The group was split in ry, geology, and more. velopment on new ways of captivating two, with one going to the rooftop to watch Approximately 30 different productions new audiences; the night sky in our observatory and the sec- were shown on projection equipment kindly •• Reach those who had never had any contact ond staying in the planetarium to watch a provided by Eveans & Sutherland, and the fes- with such astronomy outreach activities as planetarium show called Camping With the tival also featured competitive sections sent sky watching and planetarium shows; Stars. Unfortunately, the “real sky” got cloudy from all over the world, including Japan, Unit-

24 Planetarian March 2010 Facing Page: From the coziness of sleep- ing bags under the amazing sky of the planetarium, it was time to play “Con- stellation Hunt” during “Camping in the Planetarium.” At Right: We had to “think medieval,” so we disguised our portable dome with a medieval tent, disguised our telescopes and had sundial workshops and our “Ce- lestial Heralds” were ready to spread as- tronomy in medieval times. Photos by Espinho TV, used with permission.

ed States, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Australia, among others.

Celestial Heralds The Medieval Journey in the Land of Saint Mary is held annually during 10 consecutive days in the historical city of Santa Maria da Feira, attracting 50,000 people each day. It is his book The Restaurant at the end of the Uni- the number of attendees in several outreach one of the largest medieval fairs in Europe. verse). activities that were later organized in our own Navegar Foundation challenged the event’s With this project we would have an oppor- institution. For this event a conservative num- organisation to have a theme area dedicated tunity to reach other audiences and another ber of participants would be 6,500. entirely to astronomy for the 2009 festival. kind of public, those who normally wouldn’t The “Dinner on Mars” concept captivated They agreed and Celestial Heralds were born. come to a science outreach event. people who usually don’t go to science events. From the 30 July to 9 August, we had a porta- That goal was accomplished! A group of 65 The majority had never had been to a plane- ble planetarium with a theatrical play, sundi- dined under the planetarium stars on 24 Octo- tarium, but because it was a different kind of al workshops, and telescopes, all disguised for ber 2009. The event sold out completely and event they decided to join. We were gladly the occasion with a medieval look. The main had a waiting list of people wanting to join. surprised when, at the end, we heard that they goals were to give some insights on how me- For our solar system voyage, we had a “cap- wanted more scientific content and more in- dieval people saw Earth, a much different vi- itan’s log” announcing the main stops of our formation. sion of what we know today after the first use journey with a little explanation of what Our evaluation has to be more than simply of the telescope by Galileo. it was and its relation to Galileo’s findings. numbers. It was important to captivate peo- We built a medieval tent around the porta- Menu items included “Olympus Mons Duck” ple who never had any contact with plane- ble planetarium. A theatrical play was written or “Valles Marineris Monkfish,” and all tables tarium outreach events before. It was also re- around the medieval concept of universe and were named after moons in the solar system. warding to have people waiting to participate the new way of thinking after Galileo’s find- in the future, therefore establishing a solid set ings in a dialogue between an astronomer and Feedback and Conclusions of events sustainable and repeatable in years a friend, a cleric. A team of actors and actress- “Camping in the Planetarium” sold out to come. es gave life to this event. The celestial scenario weeks before and had a long waiting list. We Being able to use the planetarium for mul- was projected on the dome by a fulldome pro- still have people asking to repeat this event. tiple events apart from traditional show pre- jector kindly provided by The Eluminati. The The direct feedback was that the event was a sentation was also achieved, broadening the visual content gave special emphasis to Gal- very educational experience, innovative and horizons of our planetarium. Although “Rea- ileo’s drawings of craters on the moon, spots fun. chOut” was an IYA event, it has become an on the sun, rings around Saturn, and moon Each session of the Immersive Film Festival ongoing concept that will allow us to explore around Jupiter. was restricted to the 80 seats of the planetari- new ways of communicating science and ex- um. All 48 showings over the three days of the periences on planetarium theatres. Dinner on Mars festival sold out and we had approximately Have you ever wondered how it would be 4,000 attendees, including international par- Acknowledgments like to drink a nice cup of coffee on the moon? ticipants from UK, USA, China, France, Italy, All these activities would not have been Or perhaps to eat ice cream, while orbiting Sat- Russia and Spain. possible without sponsor support. We would urn and its rings? And how it would be like to The availability of fulldome technology, like to give a special thanks to “Feira Viva,” the dine on Mars? new to Portuguese audiences, maybe respon- organizational entity of the “Medieval Jour- This was our concept for the event “Din- sible for the sold-out showings. The references ney in the Land of Saint Mary”; to The Elume- ner on Mars,” held for Galilean Nights, an- and positive comments from the media, most- nati for kindly providing a fulldome projector other IYA2009 Cornerstone Project. With this ly newspapers, confirmed a high degree of sat- for our portable dome in “Celestial Heralds,” event we wanted to take our audience on a isfaction among the public. and to Evans&Sutherland for lending us the space trip to look at the bodies Galileo once Regarding “Celestial Heralds,” we had trou- Digistar projectors for the “Immersive Film saw through his telescope. Then, inspired by ble quantifying the number participants due Festival” and “Dinner on Mars.” Without their Douglas Adams, we thought it would be fun to the nature of the event. However, it was in- kindness and support none of these projects to have our own version of Milliways (from teresting to notice a substantial increase on could become true. I

March 2010 Planetarian 25 have the mental scars of earlier encounters with “easy to set up” wireless routers which President’s Message were anything but easy. My wireless devices are almost all Apples now and they work bril- liantly. I have also just broken one of the first rules of guys and gadgets by buying and reading a Dr. Tom Mason manual for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It’s amaz- Armagh Planetarium ing the stuff those programmes actually can College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DB do when you read the manual! Northern Ireland, United Kingdom I am actually dreading seeing the latest jew- +44 (0)2837 524725 el in the Apple empire’s crown. It looks like as +44 (0)2837 526187 fax, +44 (0)771 0013453 cell soon as I lay my hands on an iPad it will be sold, and I will be facing a life of outsize pock- [email protected], www.armaghplanet.com ets as it looks a mite bigger than my standard pants and shirt pockets. Will we see special Dear Fellow Planetarians: way in is by air, but I have also travelled from iPad vests? You read it here first. I hope that 2010 has started well for all of Cairo to Alexandria by taxi. It is a long jour- you, and hope that your plots and plans flour- ney across the flat delta of the Nile, so an air But They Can’t Beat … ish. conditioner will be an essential fitting in the I have to say that my all-time favourite as- The countdown to the IPS conference in vehicle. I would not recommend driving as tronomy gadget is the Hubble Space Tele- Egypt has now started. By the time you read the local driving customs are most kindly de- scope. I remember reading about what it was this, all of the details should be posted on the scribed as startling, so I would say that local going to be capable of before its launch in IPS website as well as the Bibliotheca Alexan- traffic knowledge is crucial. 1990. I also recall the huge disappointment drina web pages. The venue for the conference is the new Li- when the first blurry images came back and If you are wondering whether you should brary of Alexandria, rebuilt on the Corniche the optical fault was identified. I thought that go or not, I can provide some local colour for and named as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. NASA had blown it. you. The city is on the shores of the Mediterra- From the plaza in front of the space-age li- However, my gadget faith was renewed nean and is separated from the sea by the Cor- brary building, you can look across to the har- in spades when the December 1993 servicing niche, a multi-lane road which hugs the coast. bour to the ancient fort and the site where the mission flew to repair the Hubble’s short sight. The city was founded by Alexander the Great Pharos Lighthouse once stood as one of the As I am very short-sighted I was hugely sym- and was named after him so it has a long his- Wonders of the Ancient World. pathetic; I still can remember my astonish- tory. Alexandria has that characteristic bustle ment at the details revealed by my new specs of a great trading city. The traffic is constant, when I was 10. The Nile: Bigger than Alexander heavy, and noisy. You will know that you are The results that the Hubble Team released In fact, the history of the Nile River and on the African continent. The cafes and cof- following the optical corrections were just the delta is even more venerable than Alex- fee bars bordering the Corniche serve sweet mind blowing. I had grown up in the era of ander, as it is one of the places where humans espresso coffees, pastries and hookah water black and white and the Voyager flyby so- first settled along a reliable water course and pipes and it is very pleasant to join the locals lar system missions that yielded amazing de- started to farm their food. The river provid- at sundown and sit outside to watch the pass- tail and colour, but the HST’s new abilities sur- ed abundant fish and other wildlife for food, ing show. passed all that had gone before. and their grain crops were nurtured in the Now 19 years old and counting, Hubble’s dark-coloured silt that was brought down by Confessing an Obsession popularity was reinforced when the decision the reliable seasonal floods from the Ethio- I think that it is time for a confession: my to allow it to die was rescinded and it was giv- pian Highlands. All of this is documented in obsession with gadgets and new technology is en a further lease of life with the final May the wonderful carvings of everyday life in the all consuming. Mea culpa. I am actually a hi- 2009 servicing mission. I don’t know how you temples and tombs of the Pharaohs and their tech gadget freak. I just adore gadgets that do feel, but in my opinion I think that the joint people. precisely what they say on the box. NASA-ESA Hubble image releases have done The society which emerged along the Nile My current favourite is my iPhone. It just more than almost anything I can think of to valley was very hierarchical. The old supposi- works so well, and almost set itself up. Its only popularise our subject. Who is not awed by tions that the pyramids and other grand archi- failing is a regrettable fragility, discovered the spectacular M16 Eagle Nebula images cap- tecture were built by slaves has now been re- when my cat Felix decided to play with it and turing the birth pangs of juvenile stars, or by vised with the discovery of the towns where boxed it on to the tiled floor with a swift left the explosive remnants of Eta Carina? the construction crews lived, adjacent to the paw. The touch screen did not survive. For me, the most impressive HST image is massive buildings. It was probably all my fault as I had been the Hubble Ultra Deep Field with its popula- The conference has two excursions planned demonstrating the Koi Pond application to tion of 10,000 galaxies, each containing bil- at the end of the event, one to see Cairo and him a little while earlier, and he was mightily lions of stars. The most mind expanding part the pyramids at Giza and the other to the impressed by the e-fish swimming in the e-wa- of it is explaining to our young visitors that south to Luxor to see the temples of the up- ter and the splashy e-noises when he touched this image is just a teeny bit of the heavenly per Nile. During the conference there will be them with his paw. I am sure that he was try- sphere. It gives a perspective to us humans, a chance to see the well-preserved artifacts in ing to catch one. It was easy to fix the broken and allows us to appreciate the immensity of the city, including one of the world’s first uni- screen, and Felix’s allowance has been cut for the cosmos and the need for us to keep look- versities. the next year. ing for all of the other hidden secrets that re- The city is huge and sprawling. The easiest I assume that many of you, like me, still main to be discovered. I

26 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 27 28 Planetarian March 2010 content release forms and I give the student Educational Horizons an artist credit. Another partnership I have observed plan- etariums creating is with local television and radio stations for use of sound booths and Jack L. Northrup green screens. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium Try to remember that you are going into King Science and Technology Magnet Center the season that is full of professional opportu- 3720 Florence Blvd. nities. If you are not able to find a professional Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA development experience that fits your needs, then don’t be afraid to lead your own. +1 402-557-4494 [email protected] Planet Biographies The lesson plan for this article is for planet To start this article, I thought it would be your audience’s attention. biography cards; or, in student-speak, trading appropriate to give you an update on my Level of Participation: Are you going to cards for planets. New Year’s goal from the December Planetar- be a sage on the stage or guide on the side? The Lesson Idea: Planet Biography Cards ian: the resolution to learn in 2010. Working group’s level of participation covers a spec- After a presentation on the solar system, in- on that goal, I am taking a course on environ- trum from lecturing to the audience to facil- ner/outer planets, or (my favorite) planet vs. mental systems connections. itating the audience’s learning through expe- dwarf planet, the students, working in small rience. groups, make a trading card set for the so- Note 1: Professional Development I recently ran a PD event for a group of el- lar system. The cards use three literacy skills Astronomy programs are sometimes diffi- ementary teachers on the scientific meth- (graphical representation, summarizing, and to find, either geographically near you or od, focusing on inquiry and hypothesis. The fact filtering) to help the students transfer the at a level suitable for your experience. Often opportunity was lasted about 25 minutes at experience to long term memory. the first step to find useful development op- their monthly faculty meeting. Each group of Supplies: portunities is to join an astronomy list group, 4 teachers got two opaque film canisters, one •• Card stock (3 sheets of card stock per such as Dome-L, the Museum Alliance, or a re- a quarter filled with sand and the other con- group) gional information email list. taining a small bolt. The lids were sealed so •• Markers/crayons Another option is one we forget from time they could not sneak a peek inside. •• Astronomy textbooks to time: that we ourselves are very skilled in The teachers manipulated the canisters and •• Computers our area. We can lead the professional devel- made a list of possible contents. Then they •• Suggested web resources: opment opportunity. Most of the articles made a master list of possible contents, put- www.nineplanets.org and resources on professional development ting tally marks next to repeat items. They solarsystem.nasa.gov agree that there are four areas you need to were then asked to hypothesize a method of www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMF8WV- think about when preparing a PD opportuni- figuring out the contents without opening LWFE_OurUniverse_0.html ty: topic, audience, duration, and level of par- the containers. •• Object list, containing: sun, Mercury, Ve- ticipation. Another item that can be added is I then revealed the contents to the group nus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, asteroid belt, Jupiter, a post-experience survey, which is useful for and they placed check marks next to tests that Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. adapting for future presentations. would have worked and x’s next ones that Preparation: Topic: An important part of developing a would have failed. During the post experience As a time-saving method with younger PD opportunity is to choose a single topic or survey, many teachers noted that they started groups, I prepare the card stock for them by theme. The topic does not have to be on as- to think about different tests they would run cutting them into quarters (cut the paper in tronomy. For example, if you use audience on the sample while they were manipulating half along the vertical and then again along participation, then think about focusing your the canisters. the horizontal axis). Stack the cut cards into topic on how you accomplish it, such as on re- sets of twelve for each group. mote “clickers” or other devices you may use. Note 2: Planetarium Alliances Set up stations for the students to rotate This use of narrow focus ties back to your A couple of my students are working on through during the post-presentation expe- experiences as a planetarian. You know not to short presentations and wanted to know if rience; a good plan is to have three stations overwhelm the audience with information, they could collaborate with a student in an- per 9 students. Station 1 is coloring; Station nor would you start a presentation on Olym- other class. This is normally when someone 2 is textbooks, and Station 3 is web resources pus Mons and then jump to cosmology. makes a comment about no one being an is- (computer access). Audience: Understanding the information land and no planetarium is a single star. How- Procedures: your audience already has is important. If you ever, if you are reading this, then you are al- Group the students into sets of three and are the fourth presentation this group has in a ready a star within the IPS galaxy. With many give each group a stack of cards. Students who year on grouping strategies, then you need to planetariums operating with smaller budgets, start at Station 1 will be drawing pictures of be ready for some advanced questions. If you alliances and partnerships are beneficial to the planet/object (one per card); the opposite are the first, then be prepared to provide en- providing content to the public. side will contain text about the object. Sta- try-level, basic information. A partnership that my planetarium has tion 2 has textbooks for the students to write Duration: For your first time leading a PD maintained for the last few years is with our a three-sentence summary about the planet/ opportunity, an hour is long enough. Remem- Music Technology course, for which students object. Station 3 is where the students will use ber that an audience needs to be re-stimulated compose the music that is used for inciden- web resources to list 5 statistics about each every 20 minutes to remain engaged, so plan tal music during presentations. The teacher planet/object. Have the students rotate to for multiple activities or transitions to keep works with the students and parents for the the next station every 15 to 20 minutes. I

March 2010 Planetarian 29 domemirror/iDome. Forum As an example of volume visualisation for public viewing, see local.wasp.uwa.edu. au/~pbourke/exhibition/mv2009. These are datasets directly from current sci- ence research, presented in (hopefully) an en- gaging way. An older production is here: lo- cal.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/exhibition/ Yaroslav Gubchenko astc2008. Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium And finally, an illustration of the use of the Revolutsionnaya Street, 20 medium for displaying fractal mathematics: 603002 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/exhibition/ [email protected] astc2007. Paul Bourke Research Associate Professor University of Western Australia Last time I asked a question that I felt was cultural arts presentations over the years with [email protected] very important for the future development ballet, live concerts, pop music and more. Like of our industry, namely the enhancement of the Florentine Camerata of the Renaissance III dome usage. That’s why I decided to ask the era (that included Galileo’s father), modern opinions of well-known planetarium special- planetariums are pioneering new art forms It certainly is possible to expand the appli- ists who are pushing the envelope of fulldome that may one day reach the stature of opera or cation range of fulldome! I’ve seen numerous applications. The question was: other cultural arts. wonderful artistic and science visualization Is it possible to expand the sphere of ap- The digital dome sits at the crossroads of projects on the dome. plication of a planetarium’s digital dome, science, technology and the arts. And because Since going digital, we suddenly find that and what can help to do that? it is a powerful media delivery system, it can we can project anything we want onto our have a profound effect on our consciousness. domes. While astronomy still dominates the III We owe it to ourselves to explore this new field, a number of other subject areas are be- medium’s unique educational, inspirational ginning to be expressed on the dome. The future of our profession could well de- and transformative properties. At the Ott Planetarium we’ve explored ar- pend on us exploring new applications for the Ed Lantz, Founding Director chitectural visualization, molecular visualiza- digital dome, particularly real-time applica- IMERSA tions, geographic visualization, and abstract tions. Giant screen film theaters are soon go- [email protected] visualizations using 3D arrays. We’ve also ing digital, and will be capable of running lin- started working on fully interactive 3D full- ear planetarium programming. III dome applications using the new capabilities Digital planetariums, however, are unique of the Blender Game Engine. as pioneers of real-time visualization. What My use of a hemispherical dome (planetari- Ron Proctor, BIS if we begin to see digital domes as immer- um) is science visualisation that is, using com- Production Coordinator sive, interactive web portals into curated sci- puter graphics to convey datasets to research- Ott Planetarium entific simulations and visualizations? This ers and the public in informative and engaging Weber State University would require interconnectivity on a world- ways. Stereographics has long been used in vi- [email protected] wide photonic dome grid with massive serv- sualisation, the benefits of depth perception er nodes capable of streaming both fulldome are well understood to be advantageous. III imagery and dataset textures. Such a system Besides stereopsis, another characteristic would support “serious games” tournaments, of our visual system not utilised by flat pan- Let’s turn back to planetariums and astron- domecasting of live events, and immersive el displays is our wide field of view. A hemi- omy for the June issue. In January IYA2009 camera feeds allowing real-time telepresence spherical display is obviously one way to pres- was officially ended, but activities undertak- on space missions, for instance. ent a virtual world that fills our visual field, en in the past year, I hope, will continue to af- There will always be a place for linear immersing a viewer so they see none of the fect us now and in the future. shows. However, show topics can and should real world (there is no frame around the dis- Each planetarium, museum, and univer- broaden for facilities that are not express- play). Whereas stereoscopy can be problemat- sity sponsored many events that were dedi- ly limited to space and astronomy program- ic when a user wishes to be inside a dataset, an cated to IYA2009. Some of them were usual, ming. The idea that a planetarium is a de fac- immersive display like a dome is ideally suit- and some was really great and done for the to star theater is outmoded. Already we are ed for being inside something. first time. For example, the public advertising seeing science education programming rang- In addition to the immersive nature, when of IYA using large commercial billboards was ing from undersea explorations to environ- one wishes to be inside a dataset on a flat dis- done by my Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium. mental topics. The digital planetarium is a play one is continually rotating the camera in Such astronomical advertisement might have powerful (and expensive) immersive visual- order to look in different directions. A hemi- been done for the first time ever in Russia. So, ization delivery system. spherical fisheye view projects half the possi- my question now is: Limiting digital planetariums to present- ble field of view simultaneously. ing star lore, unless demanded by institution- The iDome is an extremely rotated dome, What was your greatest achievement al theme or charter, withholds a cornucopia 90 degrees to a traditional planetarium dome. during International Year of Astronomy of inspiring possibilities for audiences to ex- Some examples of its use at University of 2009, and why? perience. Western Australia can be found here: local. Finally, many planetariums have explored wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/miscellaneous/ Share your successes with us! I

30 Planetarian March 2010 (Evaluation, continued from Page 10) Table II: Other comments narrative soundtrack on a one-day turn and, more sharply, “live narrative made The second most highly-rated subset concerned the histori- around. presentation seem cheesy.” It was a lit- cal aspects of the show: III. Changes based on evaluations of the first “half recorded” version: more cuts to tle sobering to see that a subset of audi- History: astronomy content. ence members really would prefer an au- History (general) 15 The segment on Galileo’s blobby view tomated program. of Saturn was cut because it didn’t real- Those comments, however, were far History of Galileo 8 ly tie in to the “prove Copernicus right” outnumbered by comments about how History of astronomy 7 narrative. A segment on sun spots was the “human narrator with tons of enthu- Subtotal history: 22 also cut even though the discovery of siasm” and “expertise and love of the sub- sun spots did support the through-line to ject by the narrator” were highlights of a certain extent (in that a spotted sun is, the show. Still, I’d never heard live narra- The third most highly-rated subset had to do with having a at very least, anti-Aristotle). tion called “cheesy” before. I tried not to live narrator: The program originally discussed Bibli- take it too personally. Comments on live narrator: cal evidence for geocentric (the sun being II. Changes made to show based on eval- Live narrator 3 stopped for Joshua) and Aristotle’s views. While people could often relate to Josh- uations from Thanksgiving weekend: cut Narrator speaks well 1 the astronomy that didn’t fit the “through ua’s story, the Aristotle story was more im- line” of the story. Voice of presenter 1 portant for the through line of the pro- Ten percent of the Thanksgiving week- Knowledgeable instructor 2 gram and was kept’ Joshua was cut. end audience members said the show was Enthusiasm of instructor 1 “too long” and 5% said that the show had Final Version—New Year’s “too much content.” In addition, several re- Narrator 6 Over the last week of December, we sponders said that “the length” was spe- Narrator’s sense of humor 3 mixed the honed narrative with Davo cifically what they didn’t like about the Coria’s final music tracks, and fully auto- Speaker made it interesting 1 show. mated the visuals to the soundtrack. In the drive to get to a show were all Subtotal of all presenter comments 18 In this final version from the last days audience members said the length and of 2009, the overall quality rating for As- Finally, the 4th-highest rated segment concerned the live, content were “just right,” even the as- tronomy of Galileo was 4.43, higher than interactive elements of the show: tronomy that did not fit the story’s any other sampling except for that one through-line (“the ways in which Gali- Comments on interactive parts of show: set from 11/20/2009. Education value leo’s telescope helped Galileo prove that Jupiter moon activity 10 came in at 4.60 and entertainment val- Copernicus was right”) was cut. Thus, ue at 4.38. It is interesting that 8% of the planet finding activity 1 while we kept the segment about Galileo responders on that New Year’s weekend finding dozens of hidden stars in the Ple- audience participation 6 said that the show was “too long” and iades, we cut the section about him find- Subtotal: 17 that 8% said the show had “too much ing additional stars in Orion’s Belt, be- content.” (In the latter case, this is bal- cause it was redundant. Note: the planet-finding activity looks lowly-rated, due to anced out by the 8% who said the show Small cuts were made again on the his- the fact that most comments about that are included under had “too little content.”) torical background, and since the shows the “Comments on planetarium night sky” in Table 1. The program had reached my goal of that ran 35-40 minutes had a significant beating a 4.25 average rating on “overall subset of audience members saying the quality,” after starting with an average program was “too long,” I made a conscious down slightly, even compared to the infant- rating of 4.00 in the category on opening day effort to bring the program down to about heavy “all live” programs of Thanksgiving and then sinking below that level (to 4.21) in 32 minutes. I hit this target by the last day weekend. the first run of the half-automated show. of Thanksgiving weekend. From this point, Overall quality rating for the half-recorded In terms of audience comments, people the comments about the program being “too program came in at 4.21, compared to 4.33 for liked the “mixture of video and discussion” long” evaporated. the all-live shows over Thanksgiving. Eight and “when we got to participate.” Since most percent of audience members said the part-re- of the slides and video was now automated, The Automated Show corded show was “too long” and 7% said it had transitions between the live and recorded seg- By the end of Thanksgiving weekend I felt “too much content.” This was despite the fact ments went more smoothly than in rough- that we had enough data to create the auto- that the show had been cut down from the draft earlier versions. mated segments of the show. Ken Miller re- Thanksgiving weekend version. corded the narrative and Brad Evans on our Why? One possibility is that audience IV. Information gleaned from audience com- staff edited the first version. members might be able to absorb somewhat ments: while audience comments are not as neat- Because I wanted to maintain the flexibil- more content from a live presenter than from ly summarized and quantified as the ratings are, ity in testing and cutting, we played Ken’s a recording, even if the content and even the they can sometimes provide even more valuable information. narrative from a CD for the next two weeks, wording is almost identical in each case. To get a handle on the comments (both bringing music up from a secondary source That said, people also commented on the “what did you like most” and “what didn’t to leaven the program with music. The Spice appeal of the mix of live and recorded ele- you like”), I broke the comments down into program was manually advanced by the pre- ments. From 12/11/09: “shift from recorded to categories. Of the 164 comments under the senter during the rough-cut version of the re- specific (live) explanation was excellent.” header “what did you like best,” 69 pertained corded show. To keep the ability to change the program- specifically to the night sky. Again, a reflec- Interestingly, when we debuted this “half ming quickly I used GarageBand to edit Ken recorded” format, the average ratings went Miller’s narrative, making new versions of the (Continues on next page)

March 2010 Planetarian 31 tion of what the public wants to see (Under One Dome, continued from Page 17) in the dome! (Table 1) Table III. In terms of negatives, by far the biggest num- The performances we give to the school pu- Beyond the “night sky” category, ber of comments had to do with comfort issues. “history” received the second-highest pils have a different duration (90 minutes), number of positive comments, at 22 I. Comfort and viewing issues: # and we try to adapt their content to the teach- (under “history” I include comments Crying/noisy children 7 ers’ wishes as much as we can. Every month, about the Italian history of Galileo’s we offer a Tuesday night lecture, taking this Hard to see all slides/projector in way 5 time; biographical information on opportunity to invite experts who can share Galileo; and history of astronomy). Planetarium hard on neck 4 their passion with the public and explain the Comments related to the live narra- Looking at back of room 3 latest discoveries in their research field. tor came in at 18, and 17 responders I like very much working at Astronef. My Head turning 2 said that they liked the interactive el- colleagues became dear friends and we have ements of the show best. Chairs smell 2 strong partnerships with local cultural and As with the cliché that museum au- Front row seats 1 scientific institutions. Most importantly, our diences will never give you their full public tells us that it likes what we do. Seats don’t recline enough 1 attention if they really have to go to I know how lucky I am to do this job. I have the bathroom, comfort issues were Total comfort/view issues: 25 always loved astronomy, physics and space an issue for these 25 responders. The sciences, and working in an institution whose issue of crying/noisy children is a primary purpose is to expand the public un- thorny one. We do not restrict young derstanding of these fields is so exciting. When children from our dome for several reasons: part of the program, and 17 listed the interac- I was young, I was afraid of failing to get a job Hawaii’s a particularly family-oriented place, tive elements of the show being their favor- where I would always be learning something; it’s relatively easy to leave during the show, ite parts. I can say that all my wishes were fulfilled with and most of our audience members are con- Programming that combines both live and this job! siderate about doing so if their child is restless. automated segments gets ratings are in the I also have found that having so many We started providing a stronger version of same ballpark with the ratings for programs friends in the scientific and planetarium com- our standard “if you have a crying or restless that are 100% live; customers commented in munities is something special that gives you child, please duck out through either exit, out the final evaluations that the finished show strength and confidence. This is why I do not of courtesy to all” and this seems to have mol- had a good smooth mix of live and recorded doubt that Astronef will be given the means lified the situation. segments. to carry on its activities in 2011 and the fol- Beyond these comfort issues, no other cate- I urge us all to find ways, as we create shows, lowing years. gory of complaint gets more than a few com- to adapt our programs quickly based on audi- Why do I say this? It is because our present ments. There are many items that get one or ence feedback. So often we either don’t ask status is going to be re-examined by the new two comments, from my talking too fast to for feedback, or get feedback and then let the administration at the City Hall of Saint-Eti- the child who didn’t like it when “Galileo evaluations sit in that ol’ box in the office be- enne. We have been told that the city has to went to jail”; but, unlike the positive com- cause no one has made time to assess and react wonder whether there is a part for Astronef ments, there are not any pronounced patterns to the evaluations. in its cultural policy that Astronef is expen- among the other negative comments. Avoid that trap, even if you as the producer sive (yet we are the cheapest of all the cultural have to go back after each show and spend 20 equipments in Saint-Etienne after a music the- Conclusion minutes reviewing the ratings and comments ater!), that we will have to open the planetari- The data here are also a good reminder: our and thinking about appropriate changes. um to “other activities,” and that the staff will audiences come into the dome expecting to If you really use evaluation as a tool to refine be reduced. This explains why we had to with- see the night sky. That is the one thing that a planetarium program and give yourself the draw our bid for an IPS conference. the planetarium does better than any other flexibility and structure to change your show The future for Astronef is still unsettled. medium ever invented. Give them that, while based on that feedback, you will come up with But my colleagues and I are still convinced making sure it ties back into the key points of a better show than the one you started with. It that we will succeed in getting Astronef out your program. really helps to ask the audience what they en- of the field of political rivalries and that good- Live interpretation is something the visitors joy and don’t enjoy, what works for them and will and rational reasoning will defeat all the overall rate very highly. Eighteen responders what does not work for them. In the end, I hope a prioris and misconceptions about who we listed some aspect of live narration as the best you’ll find it works for you too. I are and what we do. I

PARTYcles Alex Cherman

I’m a proton. OK… take it Err… Do you easy, Tiger. He think it is going is smiling at you. to rain?

Oh no! You only get one Small talk! chance at making I’m an a good first electron impression… Subatomic, actually…

32 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 33 34 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 35 Coming Soon to 2D and 3D Theaters

From Earth, the Sun cannot be looked at with human eyes. Solar Storms gives the audience the opportunity to see the Sun up close. Stand above the arctic circle and witness the most brilliant auroras on Earth; take a ride on a solar blast from Sun’s surface to Earth Magnetosphere, and come to a deeper understanding of what this vast sea of re means to life here on Earth. For Sky-Skan’s exclusive fulldome version, the original 3D animation les have been accessed, adding spherical stereo cameras and re-rendering each scene to take full advantage of the fulldome environment. Solar Storms for fulldome is no mere spherical transform but a completely custom scene-by-scene reproduction.

Fulldome Version Produced and Distributed Exclusively By Sky-Skan A Melrae Pictures production in association with K2 Communications. Contact [email protected] Developed with the assistance of NASA and the Smithsonian National Air +1 603-880-8500 and36 Space Museum. Planetarian SkySkan.com/shows March 2010 S10-a01-01 oping curriculum materials is actually part of a teacher’s job requirements. That may sound General Counsel a little odd, since it would seem that develop- ing teaching materials is a prerequisite to actu- ally teaching, but I’d imagine that most teach- Christopher S. Reed ers could, if they were so inclined, by using CSR Media, LLC standardized, district-provided materials, or 1600 South Eads Street #830N materials created by third parties. Arlington, Virginia 22202 USA I concede that I have no significant teach- +1 720-236-3007 ing experience myself, but I was a student for [email protected] a long time, and had my share of teachers that I’d bet hadn’t created an original lesson plan since they were required to as part of their ed- we consider the hiring party’s right to control the Lesson Plans and Copyright ucation courses in college. Nobody has fired manner and means by which the product is ac- Back in November, them yet, which suggests to me that just show- complished. Among the other factors relevant ran an article about the growing number of ing up and teaching the same old stuff year af- to this inquiry are the skill required; the source teachers who sell their lesson plans and oth- ter year is sufficient to meet the basal require- of the instrumentalities and tools; the location er curriculum materials through online por- ments of being a teacher. tals like TeachersPayTeachers.com (Winnie of the work; the duration of the relationship be- Hu, Selling Lesson Plans Online, Teachers Raise tween the parties; whether the hiring party has Where Does Material Wind Up? the right to assign additional projects to the hired Cash and Questions, Nov. 15, 2009). The arti- So, what does this all mean for copyright party; the extent of the hired party’s discretion cle quoted Robert N. Lowry, deputy director ownership of teacher-created curriculum ma- over when and how long to work; the method of of the New York State Council of School Su- terials? payment; the hired party’s role in hiring and pay- perintendents, who suggested that if school Like most things in law, the answer is: it de- ing assistants; whether the work is part of the reg- district resources were used in the creation of pends. Absent a specific agreement dealing ular business of the hiring party; whether the hir- materials that are subsequently sold for profit, with copyright ownership issues, the answer ing party is in business; the provision of employee the district should get a share of the proceeds. depends on the facts and circumstances sur- benefits; and the tax treatment of the hired par- I have written about works-made-for-hire rounding the creation of particular curricu- ty. No one of these factors is determinative. and the basic rules relating to when an em- lum resources on a case-by-case basis. 490 U.S. at 752-53 (citations ployee or his/her employer owns a particu- A more interesting question for me, as a pol- and footnotes omitted) lar copyrighted work. In this column, I revis- icy matter, is how should school districts treat it the concept, but with specific application to the copyright interest in teacher-created cur- So, determining whether certain teach- those who teach in schools, colleges, and uni- riculum materials? As the New York Times ar- er-created materials are copyrighted by the versities, as many planetarians do. ticle notes, “[t]he marketplace for education school district requires an analysis of the cir- I performed a very cursory review of about tips and tricks is too new to have generated cumstances around which they were created. a dozen major school districts’ teacher em- policies or guidelines in most places.” So, I of- At first blush, it seems as if the copyright ployment agreements (the ones negotiated fer a few thoughts that I hope school districts is clearly owned by the school or school dis- with the large teachers’ unions) that I found will keep in mind as they set out, as many will trict. Teachers are generally not in business online, and found none that contained any- do in the future, to create such policies. for themselves, but rather are employees of thing about copyright ownership. Absent a Most institutions of higher learning—both the district in which they teach and for which written agreement to the contrary, it seems as public and private—have explicit intellectual they created the curriculum materials. To my though the “default rules” of copyright would property policies that govern the ownership mind, where the analysis becomes a bit murky likely apply to teacher-written instructional of intellectual assets created in the course of a is in considering factors like the “source of the materials. professor’s employment. Typically, although instrumentalities and tools,” “the location On its face, the copyright law as it relates not uniformly, most such policies allow pro- of the work,” and “the hiring party’s right to to employees and employers seems pretty fessors to retain the copyright to teaching and control the manner and means by which the straightforward: if the work in question was curriculum materials as well as other scholarly product is accomplished.” created within the scope of employment, pursuits, such as books, articles, and the like. While some curriculum materials are prob- the employer is deemed the author for copy- Here’s the relevant portion of the policy ably created at school, using school resourc- right purposes, and thus, the copyright own- from my alma mater, Lehigh University (avail- es, teachers do a substantial amount of work er. In Community for Creative Non Violence v. able in full at www.lehigh.edu/~policy/uni- outside of regular working hours, often using Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989), the Supreme Court in- versity/ip.htm): their own resources and spending their own structed that to determine whether the cre- Traditional Academic Rights: In keeping money. To the extent a teacher creates mate- ation of a certain copyrighted work falls with- with academic traditions at the University, the rials outside of regular school hours, without in the scope of employment, we must look to creator shall retain ownership to the following using any district resources—e.g., on their own widely-recognized common law agency prin- types of Intellectual Property, without limitation computer at home—the balance tends to tip ciples. The court explained: unless part of an agreement under the above prin- in favor of the teacher owning the copyright. In determining whether a hired party is an em- ciples of ownership: books (fiction, nonfiction, po- Moreover, it’s unclear to what extent devel- ployee under the general common law of agency, etry, textbooks etc.), articles, poems, published standardized tests, student papers (themes, term papers, reports, exams, etc.) musical works, dra- General Counsel is intended to serve as a source of general information on legal issues matic works including any accompanying music, of interest to the planetarium community. Planetarians seeking information on how the principles discussed in a General Counsel column apply to their own circumstances pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, should seek the advice of their own attorneys. (Continues on Page 62)

March 2010 Planetarian 37 With Giant Screen and Digital Domes Converging, a New Community is Emerging

38 Planetarian March 2010 Forty-minute educational documentaries digital file, then stretch and warp it to refor- previously seen chiefly in Imax 70mm (aka mat it for a dome master,” notes Fraser. “There IMERSA News 1570) film theaters can now also be leased in are post-production companies capable of fulldome digital video. The title Africa: The providing this service, but it is a lot of work, Serengeti now in the E&S fulldome library, and expensive. Another expense is the slicing produced by Graphic Films and distribut- and encoding for each individual theater, al- ed by K2 Communications, began as a giant- though this is not necessarily an expense for screen film. the distributor, as theaters often do it them- Ditto for Forces of Nature, a production of selves. And of course, 3D costs more.” Graphic Films and National Geographic, a 3D rendering is already used in dome pro- Judith Rubin new addition to the E&S and the Sky-Skan li- ductions, but Fraser is referring to stereoscop- IMERSA.org braries (E&S and Sky-Skan each did their own ic 3D, with separate right- and left-eye images rubin.judith@gmail. conversions of the title for fulldome). Addi- viewed through 3D glasses. “Right now, there com tionally, National Geographic has repurposed are very few stereo-equipped fulldome 3D the- for fulldome the popular Sea Monsters, which aters, [the ’Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii was enthusiastically received at a recent is one] but it could snowball,” he says. “If a dis- In the eyes of special venue media produc- screening for planetarium operators (E&S did tributor already has the 3D film asset, they are ers and distributors, a significant new market the conversion). way ahead of the game—they just need the is emerging—a network that includes 2D and A title familiar to one sector has a good money to do the scan.” 3D giant-screen theaters as well as fulldome, chance of being new to the other, and format- Sea Monsters was a logical candidate for a and connects the interests of planetariums ting or repurposing can go in either direction. 3D fulldome treatment. “Even though there and science centers. In March 2009, at the Giant Screen Cinema aren’t many 3D fulldome theaters right now, The two types of institutions already have a Association (GSCA) Film Expo, SK Films intro- we know it plays very well in 2D and our re- lot in common—such as similar missions and duced Molecules to the Max!, a 1570 film ver- search with planetarium directors confirmed audiences and a tilting toward the latest inter- sion of the fulldome Molecularium, and the strong interest in this title,” Fraser explained. active and immersive exhibition technolo- first fulldome production to be repurposed for “And the fulldome system vendors thought gies—but the sharing of content, facilitated by giant-screen film exhibition. the high-quality of the production and pro- digital processes, is really just getting started. vocative title, with its combination of CGI It’s a marker of the “convergence” of giant Conversions and Versions and live action, would help drive interest in screen cinema—which in educational institu- As the digital dome network becomes an in- 3D upgrades and new 3D system sales, and tions is still mostly film-based—and fulldome creasingly valuable target for media producers therefore, 3D licenses of the show will follow, digital video. and distributors, they begin to plan their pro- eventually.” Two major producer/distributors contrib- ductions with multiple formats in mind. Con- How many theaters does a distributor need uting to the convergence by investing in this sultant Paul Fraser reports that his client, Na- to make it worth the expense of conversion? combined market are nWave Pictures and tional Geographic, is developing an original “It depends on your assumption of the aver- National Geographic Cinema Ventures. Both new fulldome production. age license fee,” says Fraser. “For 2D, it is some- now offer fulldome titles. nWave’s fulldome Fraser, who heads Blaze Digital Cinema where in the area of six to eight theaters licens- library includes Fly Me to the Moon and Tur- Works, is a specialist in out-of-home digital ing the show. For 3D, almost double that.” tleVision and, coming soon, The Little Prince motion picture presentation and sits on the (based on the classic children’s book by An- IMERSA board of directors. He negotiated the What’s Ripe for Conversion? toine de Saint-Exupéry). Sea Monsters and Forces of Nature fulldome dis- Not every title is ripe for conversion, and Janine Baker, nWave vice president of dis- tribution terms with the fulldome vendors on planning a piece of media to originate in mul- tribution and development, has expressed the behalf of National Geographic. tiple formats is not as simple as it may sound. company’s desire to make more titles avail- “To turn a 1570 film into digital fulldome, It seems reasonable that, for new productions, able to the planetarium market in future. you have to first scan it to a high resolution one might design in a fulldome configuration so that a flat screen version could readily be extracted and then a second eye rendered for 3D, thereby maximizing the show’s poten- Facing Page: A mo- tial reach. We asked some experienced special saic of repurposed large-screen pro- venue media producers to comment on the grams. All show feasibility of such a model. poster images “You start by asking, ‘where is this movie courtesy their re- going to end up?’ and then you produce your spective distribu- animation for the highest resolution first,” tors/producers. Below, two stills said Mindi Lipschultz, a digital production pi- from Fly Me To the oneer who is now in the final stages of a bleed- Moon, the sec- ing-edge project for the 2010 world expo in ond in stereo- Shanghai, which opens in April 2010. “You scopic 3-D. Cour- tesy nWave. can plan for this and think in multiple out- At right: imagine puts. In some situations it might be more prac- this guy jumping tical to produce in two streams with an over- at your audience. lap of certain content.” Coutesy Nation- Sean MacLeod Phillips, a prolific cinema- al Geographic. tographer and director with many giant

March 2010 Planetarian 39 Filming for large-screen format takes the videographers (and the audience) above and below. Images from Ad- ventures in Wild California (left) and Coral Reef Adven- ture (right). Courtesy MacGillivray Freeman Films

screen titles to his credit, including Sea Mon- before. I’ve spoken to quite a few planetarium and they will be designed for domes. The plan- sters, pointed out some inherent conflicts be- directors who begin to wonder how rigid they etarium groups have kept this criterion intact, tween the formats. really need to be. Some non-astronomy topics showing the way to the future for those of us “When shooting 3D you don’t want ex- may resonate very well if they are good docu- like myself who cut our teeth on Imax domes tremely high contrast. When shooting for mentaries grounded in good science.” and Omnimax type films. We need high con- the dome, you do. The thing to do is consid- Distributors must also consider show length. trast in domes and it is not favored for many er your primary market first, make your pro- Some operators can’t accept a 40-minute run- 3D shots.” duction work the best there, and work back- ning time, which is the standard length of a gi- A past president of GSCA, Kirsch has been wards from that. The best you can do is to ant-screen documentary, because it won’t fit working to organize extract from a 1570 film capture. It would be their throughput needs in the smaller dome film dome theaters, different if we had 16k cameras or 8k camer- theaters, or with school groups that have to particularly the as” Phillips said. keep to a schedule. larger ones most in These issues are most pronounced for live One of the most compelling drivers of the need of compelling action, he noted. “In the case of animation or convergence is the need for dome-specific content. The Giant compositing, you have more flexibility: Pure content, especially on the part of the existing Dome Theater Con- animation lets you re-render.” film domes. sortium meets un- Producing original 3D immersive program- If we put aside idiosyncrasies for a moment der the umbrella of ming for the dome comes with its own unique and visualize a single community of dome GSCA and sees dig- set of technical issues. Don Pierce of Micoy ex- theaters encompassing all digital domes over ital technology as a plains, “Dual-lens cameras with spherical op- 20 feet in diameter as well as all giant screen potential tool of re- tics create ‘sweet-spot stereo,’ that is, stereo im- film domes, we can perceive a community vitalization that can Jeffrey Kirsch ages which are correct at the front of the dome with considerable group purchasing power— not only improve with the stereo effect dissipating towards the a power that includes the ability to control the supply of content left and right side of the dome,” said Pierce. content as a primary market. but also restore the place of dome theaters in Micoy has developed a patented rendering For film dome operators, a larger, unified the public eye as destinations for unique out- shader and a live-action camera design that dome network would bring new viability and of-home experiences. provides correct stereo separation throughout a brighter future to a situation that has for Producers wanting to serve this market can the entire dome surface. Micoy is currently some years frustrated them: a dwindling of take cues from some of the older giant screen working with E&S as a display partner in the available content, exacerbated by the growth films which, says Kirsch, “are better composed planetarium and science center market. of flat screen 3D. for the dome as a rule.” He named a few spe- “Filmmakers haven’t been creatively plan- cific titles: MacGillivray Freeman Films’ Ad- Crossing over ning their films with fulldome in mind, espe- ventures in Wild California (2000), Coral Reef The developing fulldome/giant-screen mar- cially when producing for flat screen 3D,” says Adventure (2003), and To the Limit (1989), and ket is far from homogeneous. A number of Fraser. “But I expect this will change.” Howard Hall’s underwater films (Into the Deep, planetariums with fulldome theaters prefer to Deep Sea 3D and others), as “excellent exam- produce their own material, or opt for live pre- It’s Inevitable ples of visually engaging the audience and sentations over syndicated or “canned” shows. “Convergence is not only possible, but in- getting them involved in the action on the It would be naïve for a distributor to automat- evitable, for giant domes,” says Jeffrey Kirsch, screen.” ically count every single digital dome as part PhD, executive director of the Reuben H. Fleet of their territory. Science Center, which houses the first perma- Next steps in the convergence “These are space theaters and they are mis- nent 1570 film dome theater. “I don’t think “The big problem I see right now,” says sion-driven,” says Fraser. “What they book has the content needs to be homogenized. There Kirsch, “is convincing my colleagues and their to fit the expectations of their visitors. That will be a continued call for astronomy con- museum boards that they have got to be pro- said, they haven’t had these kinds of options tent as well as science oriented productions, (Continues on Page 57)

40 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 41

FDF2010_Letter-4c.indd 1 28.01.2010 19:51:46 About People • Robin Symonds announced recent- Waning Gibbous ly that he is leaving his job as director of the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Muse- um of Science in Boston, Massachusetts, effec- What follows is a collection of interesting in astronomy and space science and provide tive January 27. information and news about planetarians I links to related resources and activities. It is He wrote “It may seem like a strange time have collected over the past three months. particularly designed for the staff of science for me to leave, since, as many of you know, Normally this would appear in Gibbous Ga- museums, planetariums, and nature centers, we just closed down for a big one-year ren- zette, ably written by James Hughes for a but can be enjoyed by educators in all settings ovation, and we’re finally getting full- number of years. and everyone who follows astronomy. dome. However, I’m a tad burnt out and James, however, has joined the list of for- To listen to the latest episode, which takes decided that the beginning of the renova- mer planetarians, after a look at the black hole at the center of the tion was a good time for both me and the being let go by the Car- Milky Way, to access related resources and/or museum to make a transition.” negie Science Center in to subscribe via iTunes or XML, go to www.as- • Adam Thanz at Bays Mountain Plane- Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- trosociety.org/abh. tarium in Kingsport, Tennessee, shared that nia. Show producer for an Emmy has been awarded for the work by the Buhl Planetarium for New editor for AER Woodrow Grizzle III and others relating to many years, he was most The Astronomy Education Review (AER), video broadcasts about four topics in science. recently involved with the journal of astronomy and space science The Emmy was awarded from The Suncoast Shawn Laatsch in the education and outreach, has a new editor-in- Chapter of the National Academy of Televi- planetarium program chief: Dr. Thomas Hockey, professor of As- sion Arts & Sciences. Grizzle started his plan- Two Small Pieces of Glass. tronomy in the Department of Earth Science etarium career at Bays Mountain Plane- It would be remiss of James Hughes at the University of Northern Iowa. tarium, moving later to be the planetarium me not to include the Hockey, who has been managing edi- director at the South Florida Science Muse- fact that Joe DeRocher, tor of the journal , takes um. a 28-year employee of the Cleveland (Ohio) over from Sidney Wolff, former direc- • Arthur W. Gielow, 40-year director of Museum of Natural History, also lost his job tor of the National Optical Astronomy Ob- the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium at recently. He and Roy Kaelin, who had recent- servatory, who founded the journal to- Buffalo State College (State University of New ly moved to Cleveland from the Adler Plane- gether with Andrew Fraknoi of Foothill York), ended a long battle with brain cancer tarium in Chicago, were both the victims of College, Los Altos, California. Wolff is retir- on January 30, 2010. He was 62. budget cuts at the museum. ing; Fraknoi will remain as the senior editorial Memorials can be made to Gilda’s Club of The list of contributions to the planetar- advisor. WNY, 1140 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, New York ium field and to IPS, MAPS, and GLPA from The on-line journal, now hosted by the 14209 or the Art Gielow Memorial Fund at these three gentlemen would take much more American Astronomical Society, can be Buffalo State College Foundation, c/o Earth space than this page has to mention. We feel read at aer.aip.org and will remain free for Science Department, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buf- for their loss personally and professionally. contributors and subscribers. falo, New York 14222 If anyone would like to volunteer to con- Hockey is the author of The Book of the tinue compiling interesting bits of news of Moon (1986, Prentice Hall) and Galileo’s Plan- Take part in a national event and about domes and the people under them, et (1999, Institute of Physics), as well as the The USA Science & Engineering Festival please contact me. - Sharon Shanks, editor editor-in-chief of The Biographical Encyclope- will be the country’s first national science fes- dia of Astronomers (2007, Reidel), among oth- tival when it descends on the National Mall in Lectures on the go er works. You can find the AER at aer.aip.org. Washington, DC October 23-24. The web site of the Astronomical Society The festival is billing itself as the “ultimate of the Pacific now provides two different se- Speaking of the AAS: multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi- ries of podcasts involving interviews with and The society has recently created a new disciplinary celebration of science in the Unit- talks by leading astronomers. membership category, Education Affiliate, ed States.” They expect more than 500 science Now you can listen to planet-hunter Geoff which is open to persons professionally en- and engineering organizations to take part. Marcy’s lecture while on the way to work, gaged in astronomy-related education and You can sign up to host an expo exhibit in have lunch with Frank Drake, the father of public outreach and whose principal employ- Washington, or you can host a satellite event the experimental search for extra-terrestri- ment is at community colleges, elementary in your own area and tie it to the national al intelligence, and learn about astrobiologist and secondary schools, science centers, muse- event . More information is available at usa- Lynn Rothschild’s search for Earthly extremo- ums, planetariums, or agencies (e.g. National sciencefestival.org. philes on the way home, all in the same day Park Service, Girl Scouts of America). (and all free). The Education Affiliate category provides Rumors? Or Reality? First is the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lec- reduced membership dues and conference Surfing the web, I came across an item say- tures, which features complete talks by not- registrations, an opportunity to present pa- ing that the government has an- ed astronomers. You can find the audio pod- pers at AAS meetings, access to results of cur- nounced that the Moscow Planetarium casts, and instructions for getting to the video rent scientific research, and subscription to would be open for to public again in Decem- versions at www.astrosociety.org/education/ AAS Newsletter and Spark: The Education ber 2010, undergoing renovations that would podcast. Newslaler. make it “the largest facility of the kind in the The second is “Astronomy Behind the Dues are $69. More details and an applica- world.” It will be interesting to receive more Headlines,” which features short interviews tion can be found at www.aas.org/member- news from our colleagues in Moscow about that give you a look at the latest discoveries ship/classes.php. these plans. I

42 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 43 expedition to the island of Principe, in the International News West coast of Africa, because it was led by Ar- thur Eddington himself, but the data acquired in Sobral were much more accurate and reli- able. Lars Broman Teknoland and Strömstad Academy Association of Dutch-Speaking Stångtjärnsv 132 Planetariums SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden On 29 November, the Europlanetarium in Genk, Belgium, had the “Last Light” from the +46 2310 177 Zeiss RFP III opto-mechanical planetarium [email protected], [email protected] projector. Some 19 years after its inauguration www.teknoland.se, www.stromstadakademi.se the projector was given an honorable place in one of the exhibition rooms. On 1 December, the demolition of the projection dome and In spite of global warming, there have been functional, but not for the general public. everything inside it started. Once all was re- three very cold January weeks in mid-Sweden. Now, March 2010, this number has dou- moved the new installation could start. But it is important to distinguish between bled, with four digital domes. Opened in the It is strange to stand in an empty planetari- weather and climate, so I don’t believe a new last year are Florianópolis, a Digistar3, and um dome and at the same time it is nice to see suddenly is on its way. Hopefully the Aracaju, with a Sky- Gulf Stream hasn’t changed its pattern and Skan system. And the anyway, the last few days have been rather numbers will keep go- mild, just a few centigrade degrees below zero. ing up, since the Belo The International News column relies on Horizonte Planetar- contributions from IPS Affiliate Associations ium and the Sabina all over the world. Many thanks to Agnès Ack- Center Planetarium, er, Vadim Belov, Bart Benjamin, Ignacio Cas- in Santo André, a sub- tro, Pierre Chastenay, Alexandre Cherman, urb of São Paulo, will Kevin Conod, Alex Delivorias, Jack Dunn, open soon. Martin George, Chris Janssen, Loris Ramponi, There is also the and Alexander Serber for your contributions very special case of to this column. Ceará, a beautiful Upcoming deadlines are 1 April for Planetar- state in the northeast ian 2/2010 and 1 July for 3/2010. Anyone who region of Brazil. The wants to contribute news from parts of the capital of Ceará For- world where IPS has no association (see page taleza (“fortress” in 3) is welcome to send it to Martin George, mar- Portuguese) has one [email protected]. of the busiest plane- tariums in Brazil, the Association of Brazilian Rubens de Azevedo ADP:Workers remove the projection dome of Europlanetarium. Courtesy of Planetariums Planetarium, part of Europlanetarium, Genk, Belgium. The digital wave keeps sweeping Brazil! In the Centro Dragão March, 2009, there were only two digital plan- do Mar de Arte e Cul- etariums available to the public (Rio de Janei- tura (Sea Dragon Center for Arts and Culture). that it all works out according to plan. Starting ro and Feira de Santana), with another one in- And for its great services to the community, 4 January, Spitz installed a Nanoseam dome. stalled, but not yet opened, and the special the state government has rewarded the Sea By 25 January, Evans & Sutherland installed case of the Navy Academy, which was fully Dragon with brand new equipment: a Carl a Digistar 4 SP2HD system under the dome. Zeiss ZKP4 with SpaceGate Jezet Seating installed 110 new seats (two bus- Quinto, running Power- loads of audience) with different inclinations Dome and the Uniview for the best view possible. software! The firm Bis and Play has installed a new The current projector, a sound system so that the audience can enjoy Carl Zeiss ZKP3, will be up- the 5.1 sound from the Digistar 4 the way it graded with the SpaceGate should be. The Europlanetarium staff has also Quinto hardware and will implemented a multilanguage system that al- be relocated to the city of lows showing a film in four different languag- Sobral, in the countryside. es simultaneously. An automation system Sobral is not unfamiliar takes care of all the tasks like closing doors, for those who love the his- dimming the lights and so on. The dome is tory of science. It was one lit by lights from Bowen Technovation, who of the two sites that hosted has installed an LED light system around the expeditions, back in 1919, dome, a huge change from the previous cen- to confirm Einstein’s gen- ter lights with the Zeiss RFP III. eral relativity. Starting in February 2010 staff implement- ABP: The Fortaleza Planetarium, Ceará, Brazil. Photo by Dermeval Carneiro Most people quote the ed the “school” planetarium shows that are

44 Planetarian March 2010 AFP: (Top) Eugene Milkman, also known as “Milky,” is an old robot who knows every nook and cranny of the galaxy. In Galaktos, he acts as a guide for a visit of the Milky Way. Courtesy of Astronef–Planétarium de Saint-Etienne. (Right): The 3th meeting for small planetariums. All the meeting, the group photo was taken in fisheye mode under the Historical 80cm glass mirror tele- scope of Leon Foucault. Photo by Lionel Ruiz. written with the curriculum in mind. With all A new project is emerging in Saint-Omer. the business reality of everyday life through a this new technology and the extended man- A former limestone quarry was turned into a parallel between stars and constellations and date as one of the gateways to the Nationaal V-2 rocket launch site by the Germans during people within organizations. The program Park Hoge Kempen in mind, a new name for the second world war and called La Coupole. was conducted by Simonetta Ercoli, coordi- the Planetarium Dome is looked for. Nearly 120,000 visitors see the underground nator of activities for the planetarium and a The new planetarium dome was opened on complex of La Coupole and the nearby block- member of the National Association of Teach- 5 March with an open house weekend, so that house at Éperlecques each year. A digital plan- ers of Natural Science; and Paolo Vergnani, everybody could see what happened during etarium will be created as a scientific com- an actor and psychologist specializing in the the months that the planetarium was closed. plement to lead visitors to understand the search for new modes of formation. importance of research in astronomy for the The performance was divided into four Association of French-Speaking development and preservation of our society. parts: the sun, our star for orienting the day Planetariums The 3rd meeting for small planetariums was with its diurnal path; the leader in organiza- The 26th AFP Conference will be host- held in Marseille on 21 December 2009. Orga- tions and the evolution of theories of leader- ed 13-16 May 2010 in Dijon, main city of the nized because of the strong demand of those beautiful Bourgogne region with its legend- who attended the December 2008 and May ary wines. A rich program is proposed by the 2009 meetings, it allowed watching, in world Jardin des Sciences (www.dijon.fr/fiche/le-jar- exclusivity, the Nightshade project for plane- din-des-sciences-museum-planetarium-jardin- tariums (www.nightshadesoftware.org). botanique.dos.33.php). You may find more Nightshade is based on Stellarium and information by contacting Lydie Jobert at adapted to the needs of planetarians by Rob [email protected] or Laurence Demond at Spearman from Digitalis Education, Lionel [email protected]. Ruiz from LSS Project, and mathematics and Galaktos: A Tour of the Milky Way is the 19th cybernetics faculty from Nizhny Novgorod production of Astronef, Planétarium de Saint- State University. The meeting was a breathless Etienne. This planetarium show deals with one-day long race to show new techniques, the Milky Way as a galaxy, describing its main script course, video-making, and fulldome characteristics and its content of stars and in- shows (Earth’s Run, Two Small Pieces of Glass, terstellar matter, as well as the central black ALMA show) and previews. hole. Released in late 2008, it is aimed at all the Association of Italian Planetaria members of the family with a special atten- The “Ignazio Danti” Planetarium in Perugia, tion to the children. This is why the screen- annexed to the Istituto Tecnico Industriale A. play is based on an entertaining story that fea- Volta, organized a special event on December tures robots travelling within the galaxy. 21. The AIDP (Italian Association of Directors Galaktos is presently the most successful of Personnel) Umbria Associates requested a show at Astronef, which has convinced oth- performance, a Christmas event titled “We er planetariums, such as those in Cappelle-la- Are Children of the Stars,” to recognize “new AIP: Observatory Don Paolo Chiavacci of Cre- Grande and Montpellier in France, and Barlad stars” in the company. spano del Grappa, Italy. Courtesy of Crespano in Romania, to buy a license to show it. The initiative resulted in a real “star trip” of del Grappa Planetarium.

March 2010 Planetarian 45 were given by Dr. Isaura Fuentes on Astron- omy Recreational Workshops in France and Germany, and by Sergio Viñals Padilla, on In- ternet II CUDI system, proposing collabora- tion on planetarium diffusion as part of the Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet (University Corporation for the Development of Internet) Network. A few vendors participated as well: Ecosystemas, Ko- smos, Victorinox, Uniview, and the web page Cosmowiki, the astronomical link. The election of officers took place for the period 2010-2012: President Eduardo Hernán- dez, Planetario Torreon; President Elect Jorge Sanchez, Planetario Pachuca; Secretary Juan Jose Fernandez, Planetario SNTE San Luis Po- tosi; and Treasurer Juan Jose Duran, Planetar- io Merida. The AMP 2010 meeting will coincide with the AMP 30-year anniversary and will be at the San Luis Potosi Planetarium, which is cel- ebrating its 25th anniversary. Dates are still to be scheduled, but probably will be October or December. It is worth mentioning that this planetarium was created through AMP lob- AMP: XXXVIII AMP Meeting at the (IPN) Luis E. Erro Planetarium, in , 27-28 November, 2009. bying in 1994, when an annular solar eclipse Courtesy of Juan Jose Fernandez, San Luis Potosi SNTE Planetarium. crossed the San Luis Potosi State.

Canadian Association of ship; the night sky with stars and constella- their kind hospitality and willingness to or- Science Centres tions for orienting the night; and guidance, ganize the AMP Meeting after a last-minute The TELUS World of Science in Calgary had change and culture. change of venue. The change was made less a great year for astronomy programming, all The Planetarium and Observatory Don than two months after former AMP President under the International Year of Astronomy Paolo Chiavacci of Crespano del Grappa is Antonio Sanchez Ibarra passed away and it be- banner. By the end of 2009, about 110,000 peo- a few kilometers from Padua, Possagno and came impossible to hold the meeting in Sono- ple had taken in astronomy programs, includ- Asolo. In 2009, the planetarium received vis- ra, as originally planned. ing planetarium shows such as Galileo Live! its from approximately 6000 first and second IPN’s Educational Services Secretary Dr. (which made up just a portion of the sched- grade students and almost 1000 persons in pro- Héctor Leoncio Martinez Castuera offered the ule in the Discovery Dome theater), travel- grams open to the public free of charge. They welcoming remarks. There were 18 planetar- ing astronomy exhibits, and a busy calendar have held three exhibitions of sundials and as- iums represented from all over Mexico with of some 200 outreach events such as science tronomy, including one in the prestigious Vil- portable, intermediate and large domes. Many cafés, lectures, public star nights, and activity la in Maser by Andrea Palladio. These events relevant papers were presented. booths at many local festivals. were attended by more than 6000 visitors. There has recent- Twenty-five events and at least one exhibi- ly been an increase tion are planned for the public in 2010. A new in the number of astronomical observatory will be added, locat- digital projectors ed on a large terrace near the dome with a 500 used in Mexico, set- mm (20 inch) reflector, which will allow the ting a new phase for view of the entire horizon. They will add three exchange of ideas, telescopes, including a 236mm (9 in) refractor original program connected to the planetarium. For more infor- contents, and col- mation, see www.specolachiavacci.it. laboration among planetariums, such Association of Mexican as the fulldome dig- Planetariums ital show Tales of On November 27-28, the XXXVIII Associa- the Maya Skies. This tion of Mexican Planetariums Meeting took program, produced place at the Luis E. Erro Planetarium and Edu- by the Chabot cation facilities, part of the National Polytech- Space Science Cen- nic Institute (IPN) in México City. ter & Planetarium AMP Meeting delegates thank their most in Oakland, Califor- CASC: Science Cafés were one of many Year of Astronomy highlights in Cal- diligent host, Jésus Mendoza Álvarez, planetar- nia, USA, is being gary, Canada. Here, sharing the stage with a replica of Galileo’s first telescope, ium sub-director, Sergio Viñals Padilla, direc- shown at the Luis E. is Dr. Phil Langill (left) from the University of Calgary and Dr. Chris Pritchet tor of the science center, and dedicated staff Erro Planetarium. from the University of Victoria, discussing dark energy before a packed pub. who made them feel right at home through Main lectures Courtesy of Alan Dyer.

46 Planetarian March 2010 THEY DON’T WANT THE HIGH SEAS. THEY WANT THE UNIVERSE.

A family adventure that puts you into the action. Available March 2010. Contact Mike Murray at [email protected] March 2010 Planetarian801-456-4949 • clarkplanetarium.org/distribution 47

2245_Clark_SpacePirates_7x10.indd 1 1/21/10 9:20:48 AM The science centre partnered with the Roy- the celebrations of the International Year of November was a part of the nation-wide un- al Astronomical Society of Canada, Calgary Astronomy 2009. veiling of a mural-sized image of the Milky Centre, and with the University of Calgary’s The Eugenides Planetarium, in order to Way imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, Rothney Astrophysical Observatory to pres- honor Varotsos and his work, produced Uto- Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-Ray ent many of the year’s events. pia, a special 7-minute planetarium show di- Observatory. The partners set up a common website rected by Panagiotis Simopoulos, which pre- The Evansville Museum’s Koch Planetar- (www.astronomycalgary.com) to promote sented a colorful animation of some of the ium recently completed the third year of its all public astronomy programs in the city, a most important works of the artist. The show National Science Foundation-funded proj- site which will continue in 2010 as a legacy was received enthusiastically by the 278 invit- ect Outreach to Space. The four-year project, of IYA09. A Facebook group, a Flickr site, and ed guests. which takes hands-on space and astronomy a Twitter feed also helped promote local IYA Kostas Varotsos has participated in the Sao exhibits to fairs, festivals, and service organi- events. Paolo (1987) and Venice (1993, 1995, and 1999) zations, was delivered to 7,620 mainly rural Meanwhile, construction has begun on a Biennales, and has made many exhibitions guests in 2009. new science center that will feature, among and works in public spaces in Europe and the The E.C. Schouweiler Memorial Planetari- other attractions, a new tilt-dome theater for United States. um at the University of Saint Francis in Fort immersive digital presentations of all kinds. Wayne welcomed the arrival of a new CRT Contact: Alan Dyer, alandyer@telusplanet. Great Lakes Planetarium video projector and Bowen Technovation’s net. Association AstroFx Media Manager video system. The During IYA09, the Montreal Planetarium Illinois. The Strickler Planetarium at Ol- planetarium’s foyer is now equipped with a was very busy with show production, star ivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais has 52-inch flat panel screen for the Space Tele- parties, lectures, exhibits, etc. All in all, they entered an agreement with the campus’ art de- scope Science Institute’s ViewSpace astrono- reached out to over 400,000 people through- partment, thereby taking another step to inte- my news service. out Québec, with the help of other science grate planetarium usage into non-astronomy . The Kingman Museum in Bat- museums and numerous amateur astrono- departments. tle Creek is well on its way to becoming the mers in all corners of the province. New Kingman Museum. Planetar- The presentation of Moi, Galilée, ium construction was completed the French version of the national- last fall and construction on the ly-produced show Galileo Live! was upper level of the museum is cur- very well received by several thou- rently underway. sand spectators. A survey of the au- The Dassault Systèmes Planetari- dience showed that people were um in Detroit concluded IYA with thrilled by the theatrical aspect several events. The first was the pre- of having a live comedian portray sentation “Why Does The Vatican Galileo. Need An Astronomer” by Brother In parallel with all their out- Guy Consolmagno, curator of the reach efforts, work on the de- Vatican Meteorite Collection and sign of the new Montreal Plane- member of the Jesuit Brotherhood. tarium continues on schedule. In They also offered a workshop for 2010, final touches will be made families named Build Your Own to the building’s architectur- Holiday Telescope, which featured al design and, come the fall, con- EMPA: The sculpture Genesis by artist Costas Varotsos adorns the main en- the IYA’s Galileoscope refractor struction will begin at the site of trance of the Eugenides Foundation Planetarium, Athens, Greece. Photo by kit. Montreal’s Olympic park, near Yannis Panousis, the Eugenides Foundation. Another picture appears on the The Roger B. Chaffee Planetari- cover of this issue. the Montréal Biodome, Botani- um in Grand Rapids recently pre- cal Garden, and Insectarium. Con- miered a new original production, tact: Pierre Chastenay, chastenay@astro. The William M. Staerkel Planetarium at Discover Your Universe, which accompanied umontreal.ca. Parkland College in Champaign as closed in the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s exhibit January for renovation and re-opened in Feb- Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion. With European/Mediterranean ruary. In early 2010, they will host a World of help from the local astronomy club and uni- Planetarium Association Science Lecture Series featuring the Large Had- versities, their Harvest Moon Watch event On 7 December 2009, the Eugenides Foun- ron Collider and decoding the genome of the gave roughly 3,000 people the opportunity dation presented to the Athenian public the cow. to view the moon and Jupiter through side- abstract sculpture Genesis, created by interna- The Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences walk telescopes scattered throughout Grand tionally-acclaimed artist Kostas Varotsos. The Planetarium in Peoria has just started an after- Rapids. sculpture, consisting of numerous glass stones school program at Harrison School in Peoria. Ohio. Scott Oldfield reports that in Oc- hanging from the high ceiling of the Foun- The 100 students involved will come to the tober, the Smith Middle School Planetari- dation’s main entrance, depicts the last stag- planetarium for six hours of activities. um in Vandalia hosted Vandalia’s other mid- es of formation of a planetary system, when Using funds received through an Institute dle school for a review of fifth grade universe clumps of matter in the protoplanetary disk of Museum and Library Services grant, the standards. They also hosted a special show for around the protostar become steadily larg- Cernan Earth and Space Center at Triton Col- faculty and staff. er and powerful jets of gas emanate from the lege will soon begin the long process of con- Marietta College’s Anderson Hancock Plan- young star within. verting its slide-based programs to digital, etarium welcomed over 5,500 visitors in the Genesis was especially created for the Eu- three-screen versions. six months since its dedication and opening. genides Foundation and is a fitting close to Indiana. Pike High School Planetarium in This number is particularly impressive when

48 Planetarian March 2010 coupled with the fact that the Great Plains city of Marietta only has 15,000 Planetarium residents and is located in a ru- Association ral area. There is a new planetarium At Bowling Green State Uni- now open in the Great Plains versity, the BGSU Planetarium region. The University of Ne- has been running Hubble Fest braska at Kearney has recently 2009, which features encore opened their 9 m (30 ft) theater. runs of the four space telescope The new planetarium replaces shows it has run over the years. an 8 m (24 ft) planetarium with These were followed by BGSU’s a Spitz A3P, which had served Christmas show Secret of the the campus since 1967. Star, which made its twentieth The new theater features a annual seasonal run this year. Zeiss ZKP4 opto-mechanical Wisconsin/Minnesota. projector and sound system and The Soref Planetarium at the cove lighting by Bowen Tech- Milwaukee Public Museum had novations. There is no digital a very successful opening with full-dome system, but there will its new Galileo: The Power of the be power-point from a comput- Telescope show. They are also er projector. working on Houston’s Secrets of Coming home to Illinois GLPA: Hal Getzelman works for NASA as an International Space Station Capcom. Programs started in the dem- the Dead Sea planetarium show Once a student in Illinois School District U-46, Hal has fond memories of mak- onstration phase in Novem- for a companion exhibit. ing his first telescope with Don Tuttle, former director of the Elgin Observato- ber and the first public presen- On 7 October, the Minneso- ry/Planetarium. In September, Getzelman hosted a webcast at their local library tations took place in January and entertained questions from middle school students who attended. This pho- ta Planetarium Society was one 2010. Director Jose Mena-Werth tograph, provided by current Director Peggy Hernandez, shows Hal Getzelman of the partners in a domecast (far right) with the past three directors of the Elgin Observatory/Planetarium. said “The UNK Planetarium with their companion NASA L-R: Don Tuttle, Peggy Hernandez, and Gary Kutina (rear). turned out better than I expect- GeoDome from the front lawn ed thanks to the dedication and of the White House, which was commitment on the part of our held as part of the White House Star Party IYA tensive renovations, with new carpet, chairs, architect, contractor, and school administra- Celebration. The audience was 150 primari- sound system, and refurbishment of its Spitz tors. It was a cooperative project.” ly middle school children from the Washing- 512, Elumenati/Uniview, and Skylase systems. The web pages for the new planetarium are ton DC area. The Obama First Family toured The Mankato (Minnesota) East High School at www.unk.edu/nss/physics.aspx?id=48114. the various demonstrations and the Secret Ser- Planetarium was invited by NASA to be one of GPPA adds a new “classic” planetarium; vice even directed them into one of the two three planetariums to attend the White House others are exploring the options of digital pro- domes. Star Party. The planetarium was also recently jection. At his old alma mater Midland Col- The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s involved in a presentation in Ghana, West Af- lege in Fremont, Nebraska, Jack Dunn made a L.E. Phillips Planetarium has stopped present- rica. small donation and a spherical mirror projec- ing shows for community groups and school The UW-Milwaukee’s Manfred Olson Plan- tion system was installed. The original Spitz field trips for the year due to reduced fund- etarium celebrated the winter with a A3P star projector is still used for classroom in- ing from the Wisconsin legislature. Their di- special program focusing on winter constella- struction along with the digital system. rector now presents public shows on Tuesday tions. Another special show, titled Astronomy The Great Plains is a region of small and me- evenings and Saturday mornings, but with no Beyond 2009, wrapped up their celebration of dium-sized facilities, most with primarily edu- show development or group shows. IYA in January. cational missions. What now is seen is a com- Under the direction of Ken Murphy, the The Minnesota State-Moorhead Planetari- bination of both opto-mechanical and digital planetarium at Southwest Minnesota State um hosted a successful IYA 2009 event in Oc- projection in these theaters. University in Marshall has undergone ex- tober titled If Galileo Could See Jupiter Today. This year GPPA has seen lots of Internation- al Year of Astronomy activities and events. A strong supporter of Nebraska IYA activities was the NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consor- tium. Former planetarian Michael Sibberns- en is the outreach coordinator for Nebraska; he established the website www.iyanebraska. org with information and a calendar of events across the state. IYA in Nebraska was kicked off by bring- ing in Astronomical Society of the Pacific Di- rector (and former planetarian) Jim Manning to speak on “How Galileo Democratized Sci- ence.” In April, Mueller Planetarium was asked to do the videos for a concert with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra called The Final Frontier.

GPPA: The new University of Nebraska-Kearney Planetarium. Courtesy of UNK. Dunn also worked to bring in Nebraska-born

March 2010 Planetarian 49 AD_REV2.pdf 1/29/2010 4:42:33 PM

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50 Planetarian March 2010 tion will take office after the business meeting at the annual MAPS Conference. MAPS has established a MAPS Fellow Award. The purpose of the award is to recog- nize those members of the organization who maintain an active membership status of a minimum of 7 consecutive years and at least one of the following criteria: held an elective office or served on the MAPS Board; served as a conference host; provided significant service to MAPS; and/or made a significant contribu- tion to planetarium methodology, technolo- gy, or education. A MAPS member can nominate another NPA: Telescope built by Galilei on display in member or herself/himself for the award by Stockholm. Photo by Lars Broman completing the MAPS Fellow Award Nomi- nation Form and submitting it to the MAPS that were built by Galilei. Awards Committee Chair. After review by the Lars Broman got the chance to visit the mu- GPPA: Jim Manning, Director of the Astronom- MAPS Board, those nominees completing the seum and take a photo of this rare piece. He ical Society of the Pacifick, and Cassie Etmund requirements will be given the award at the of the Prairie Astronomy Club. Photo by Jack found it more interesting than the exhibit Dunn. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society Annual containing one of Galiei’s fingers that he took Conference. Details and an application form a photo of in the Museum of Natural History Clayton Anderson to be the host for are available on the MAPS website. in Florence two years ago. the concert and spent eight months working In recognition of the 400th anniversary of The exhibition also included Sidereus Nun- on video to accompany each of the pieces of Galileo’s first celestial observations and IYA cius (Sidereal Messenger) as well as realistic fac- music in the concert. 2009, NASA’s Great Observatories—the Hub- similes of the sheets of papers with Galilei’s Also during IYA, Space Grant helped sup- ble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, original drawings of Jupiter with moons and port the speakers for the Nebraska Star Party and Chandra X-Ray Observatory—collaborat- our own moon with craters. and Dunn was awarded a mini-grant to devel- ed to produce another spectacular multiwave- op a traveling display of astrophotography by length view of our universe. Many planetar- Russian Planetarium Association amateurs. iums in the MAPS region participated in the In addition to lectures and shows, Russian Space Grant also allowed Jet Propulsion Lab- national unveiling and display. planetariums delivered a lot of other events oratory Engineer Nagin Cox to speak at both dedicated to the International Year of Astron- King Planetarium and University of Nebraska- Nordic Planetarium Association omy, such as conferences, scientific lectures, Lincoln, hosted by Mueller Planetarium. A major event of the International Astron- meetings with leading Russian astrophysicists, Nagin also spoke at Creighton University in omy Year in Sweden was the temporary Gal- public astronomical observations, and astro- Omaha. At UNL, Nagin’s visit was also spon- ileo Galilei exhibition at the Nobel Museum nomical contests, schoolchildren Olympiads, sored by the Society of Women in Engineer- in Stockholm, 9 October 2009 to 17 January competitions, and even exhibitions of chil- ing. 2010. The single most exciting exhibit con- dren paintings, rhymes, and design art works This fall several planetariums participat- tained one of the two surviving telescopes on astronomical topics. ed in the unveiling of new im- Marina Kazantseva, direc- ages from Hubble, Spitzer and tor of Lytkarino Planetarium Chandra of the center of the (Moscow Region), arranged an Milky Way galaxy. Mueller excursion to the Lytkarino Op- Planetarium in Lincoln, Lu- tical Glass Plant for children eninghoener Planetarium at from the Amateur Astronomer Midland College, Fremont, Ne- Club. Young astronomers ex- braska, and King Planetarium pressed great interest with the in Omaha all held unveiling Large Mirror Production Facili- events. ty. At present, a 4-m (12-ft) mir- ror is being processed. It will be Middle Atlantic mounted in the largest Asian Planetarium Society telescope to be put into opera- Elections for the MAPS tion in India. Board are currently under- It was also interesting to see way. It should be a lively elec- the process of shaping the 6-m tion as there are several can- duplicate mirror for the Rus- didates running for the three sian BTA telescope located at spots open on the Board. Can- the North Caucasus. This mir- didates include Lee Ann Hen- ror is being upgraded at the nig, Steve Innes, Paul Krupin- Lytkarino Plant. ski, Mike Smith, Steven L.J. Anatoly Denisov, director Russo and Theodore T. Wil- MAPS: Visitors looking at the newly unveiled Hubble images at the Suits-Bueche Planetarium at the Schenectady Museum in Schenectady, New York. Photo by Steve of Ufa Planetarium (Bashko- liams. The winners of this elec- Russo. rtostan), delivered an astron-

March 2010 Planetarian 51 RPA: (Above) Director of the St.Petersburg Planetarium Mikhail Belov (at center) prepares to shoot the gun that announces noon for St Petersburg. (At right, top) Near the Big Refractor at the Pulkovo Observatory. (At right, bottom) The mobil planetarium from the St Petersburg firm Planeta. All photos by Vadom Belov.

omy and cosmonautics news block within cosmonaut Sergey Treschev, the framework of the local radio digest “Light and S.A.Levshakov, a leading from Remote Planets,” broadcasted Monday scientist from the Ioffe Phys- to Friday in February-March 2009. ico-Technical Institute in St Employees of the Ufa Planetarium partici- Petersburg, told amateur as- pated in many local TV programs, newspaper tronomers and the public interviews, and internet sites, offering informa- about his work at the Euro- tion on the planetarium activities and astron- pean Southern Observatory. omy news. The Scientific and Practi- The planetarium and Bashkortostan resi- cal Conference Planetariums dents participated in the 23 March event or- in the XXI century was held ganized by the International Dark Sky Asso- 28-29 October 2009 at the St Petersburg Plane- Zinaida Sitkova and Vadim Belov also vis- ciation aimed at estimating light pollution, tarium and was devoted to the planetarium’s ited the Tranzas group of companies at St Pe- and on 26 March, joined the Day of the Earth 50th anniversary. tersburg. The Tranzas group has great expe- event. A special feature was a visit to the Petropav- rience in professional simulator production. An All-Russia Conference New Astrono- lovsk fortress, where, in a century-old tradi- Over 4800 simulator systems produced by my Teaching Techniques was organized by tion, a gunshot announces noon for the city. this group were purchased and put into opera- research institutes, universities, and the Ni- Mikhail Belov, director of the St Petersburg tion at training centers in 73 countries world- zhny Novgorod Planetarium, held 23-25 No- Planetarium, at one time performed the role wide. vember 2009 at the Nizhny Novgorod Peda- of the gunman. The Tranzas group expressed interest in gogical University. A report on Russian digital A visit to the Pulkovo Observatory was producing fulldome digital shows for plane- planetariums in Russia and worldwide was de- scheduled in the evening. Its main building is tariums. livered by Zinaida Sitkova. a museum now. It hosts a bronze sign through The first Russian mobile digital planetari- A public lecture, “The Radio Sky,” was de- which the Pulkovo Meridian passes. The me- um opened on 22 July 2009 at school No. 29 in livered at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium ridian point marks the origin of the Russian Podol’sk (Moscow Region). The opening was by Prof. Anatoly Zasov from the Sternberg As- geodetic and geographic system. coincided with the solar eclipse. It was dem- tronomical Institute of the Moscow State Uni- Visitors from Nizhny Novgorod were wel- onstrated how this solar eclipse looked at var- versity. comed at the Planet company. This is the first ious cities of the Earth and even from the lu- The assembly concluding IYA2009 events Russian company to produce and supply mo- nar surface. in Nizhny Novgorod was held 18-19 Decem- bile digital planetariums to customers in Rus- The president of the Russian Planetarium ber at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium and sia and CIS countries. The company has al- Association was elected in June 2009. All the united all who made the IYA in the city and ready delivered such facilities to a few Russian votes were given to Anatoly Cherepaschuk, region substantial, interesting, and memora- regions, as well as to Almaty in Kazakhstan director of the Sternberg Astronomical Insti- ble. Winners of the astronomical contest de- and Lugansk in Ukraine. tute of the Moscow State University, Laureate voted to the 100th anniversary of the famous The Planet company was accepted to the of the 2009 Russian State Prize. Former pilot- Soviet astronomer Boris Kukarkin, who was Russian Planetarium Association as a mem- cosmonaut Georgy Grechko remains emeri- born in Nizhny Novgorod, were honored. ber responsible for establishing cooperation tus president. I The assembly was attended by the Russian among Russian mobile digital planetariums.

52 Planetarian March 2010 International Relations Committee

Martin George [email protected]

Firstly, I am pleased to report on a visit that I made to Hong Kong and Macau in November to take at look at the new system in Hong Kong and the progress toward the opening of the new planetarium at the Macao Science Centre. Arriving at the Hong Kong Space Museum, I was delighted to meet up once again with Mr. Chan Ki-hung, who was pleased to be able to show me the new 8K digital system there. As so often happens on my travels, I had been there only a few minutes when Steve Savage of Sky-Skan emerged from the cove to say hello! It’s quite remarkable how often we meet in different parts of the world. The 8K Sky-Skan system was most impressive, and the planetari- um has clearly come a long way since my previous visit there in late 2007. It’s always great to see our Hong Kong planetarium colleagues and, of course, to see a planetarium that is doing so well. My visit to the planetarium, however, was not all! After our time there, Ki-hung drove me to two special locations of great astronom- ical interest run by the Hong Kong Space Museum in the New Ter- ritories. First, a little geography. The New Territories are in the northern part of Hong Kong, and are called “new” because they were the sub- ject of the famous agreement that leased that part of the Chinese mainland to Britain—which much earlier had been ceded Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in perpetuity by the Chi- nese—for 99 years, starting in 1898. When the lease ended in 1997, all of Hong Kong, including the parts originally ceded, was returned to China. Back to astronomy! We first visited a site called Astronomy Park at Sai Kung, which was in preparation and due to formally open on 2010 January 30. It is a wonderful facility with an open-air planetar- ium, several replicas of ancient astronomical instruments, and even some beautifully-designed tilted (and quite comfortable) observing benches on which visitors can relax and learn about the sights of the night sky overhead. The planetarium, with its 7-m dome, is a great idea. It will be used with a Homestar projector and on clear nights, the “real thing” is only a few steps away, so that the planetarium sky can be compared with the actual night sky quite easily. Our other stop that day was at the Lady Maclehose Holiday Vil- lage near Sai Kung, where the Hong Kong Space Museum runs an ob- servatory with a 24-inch Cassegrain telescope. This, too, is a wonder- ful educational facility and includes areas for presentations.

Great Progress in Macao Next I traveled on to Macao, where I paid a memorable visit to the Planetarium and Science Centre and was delighted to see the great progress since my previous visit. IRC: (Top) Mr Prince Chan, Mr Sam Kwok, Mr Wong Yiu-wah, Martin George The Macao Science Centre and Planetarium has been a major proj- and Mr Chan Ki-Hung at the console of the Hong Kong Planetarium. Photo by ect for Macau, and the imposing facility is visible for quite some dis- Nicole Wong. (Center) Mr Patrick Lau, Mr Samuel Chui and Mr Chan Ki-hung at tance around. It occupies an area of land adjacent to the water but the “outside” planetarium at Astronomy Park, Hong Kong, and (Bottom) exte- not far from the central hub of Macao activity. rior of the outside planetarium and some replica astronomical instruments at I was met by Mr. Chee-Kuen Yip, Joei Leong and Steven Ngai, and Astronomy Park. Both photos by Martin George. it was great to see them all again. Steven led me on a tour of the com- plex, starting, of course, with the planetarium. At the time of my vis- The Science Centre is a large complex with many rooms for science ex- it, the planetarium, with its 3D system, 15-m dome and 135 seats, was hibits. Although the exhibits were not completed when I made my visit nearly complete. Once again, there was Steve Savage, working hard in November, I was impressed with the progress. in preparation for the opening. I found him in a side room meticu- I am delighted to report that the Science Centre and Planetarium were lously adjusting one of the Sony SRX-T110 projectors that will be in formally opened on Saturday, 19 December, by President Hu Jintao. The use in the facility. significance of that date was that it was the eve of the tenth anniversa-

March 2010 Planetarian 53 IRC: (Left) The 24-inch Cassegrain telescope at the Lady Maclehose Holiday Village near Sai Kung, Hong Kong. (Right) The Macao Science Centre and Planetarium. Photos by Martin George ry of the return of Macao to China on 20 De- “Dubai is a fast growing city of over two bring together the planetariums of the UAE, cember 1999. At the time of writing, the offi- million people. It is well known for its great and potentially, of all the Arabic speaking cial opening date for the public had not yet engineering projects: the Burj Dubai (the tall- countries. From the IPS world-wide directo- been announced, but I am sure that this will est building/structure ever constructed on ry there are around 35 planetariums in these have taken place by the time you read this is- Earth), the Burj Al Arab (that’s the sailboat- countries, though some of the listings may be sue of the Planetarian. shaped hotel), the Palm Islands and World Is- for facilities that no longer operate.” lands (build from scratch out of the sea), and As you can see, Marc is full of enthusiasm. Planetariums in the Middle East even Ski Dubai (an indoor ski hill at one of the The International Relations Committee looks Now, to other news. I have continued my malls). forward to working with him! discussions with both Chris Philips and Marc “Planetariums in Dubai are relatively new, Rouleau regarding the planetarium situation but there are three of them. The planetarium Preparing for India in the middle east. You may recall that Chris at Children’s City was installed in 2001 with As I write this, I am preparing for a trip to In- is very keen on the idea of setting up a plan- a Spitz 1024, but was updated in 2008 with a dia to visit some of our planetarium colleagues etarium in Gaza, and has been in touch with Global Immersion fulldome system. An SP2 there. I’ll be stopping off in Delhi, where I shall me recently with regard to the possibility of HD from Evans and Sutherland anchors the be meeting up with Rathnasree Nandivada, a planetarium becoming established in north- planetarium at the GEMS World Academy in and in Mumbai, where I shall meet with Piy- ern Iraq. These are exciting possibilities! Dubai (2007). A Digistar 3 system is listed for ush Pandey. Chris and I are still discussing the funding the planetarium at the Dubai Mall in the mid- I’m looking forward to discussing with situation, as we all do when attempting to es- dle of the Gold Souk, but no programs are cur- them, at length, the planetarium situation in tablish a new facility. While, of course, the IPS rently running there. India, and seeing their facilities. is not in a position to provide this kind of fi- “In nearby Sharjah there are also three plan- While in India, I shall be visiting the Giant nancial support, I am keen to support Chris in etariums. The oldest planetarium in the coun- Metrewave Radio Telescope (the GMRT) near whatever way I can. try (which itself is only 38 years old) is a 7.3-m Pune, outside Mumbai. I look forward to re- Marc Rouleau has taken a good deal of in- (24-ft) dome with a Minolta MS-8, installed in porting on my visit in the next issue of the terest in planetariums in the Arab-speaking 1982, in the Al Khan neighbourhood in Shar- Planetarian. I world, especially because the next IPS Con- jah. At the Sharjah Science Muse- ference, of course, will be held in Egypt. Marc um a similarly sized dome (1996) has been wondering about the possibility of holds a Spitz A3P. My planetarium working toward setting up an Arabic-speak- (2008) at the Sharjah Women’s Col- ing affiliate group and I have been working lege campus of the Higher Colleges with him in these initial discussions. I am hop- of Technology is a 40-ft dome with ing that several representatives from planetar- a Spitz SciDome system. iums within the region are present in Alexan- “I have also learned of the ex- dria. istence of a portable planetari- Marc writes: um system run by the Arab Youth “In the In Front of the Console section of the Venture Foundation, based in Ras December 2009 Planetarian, Sharon Shanks al-Khaimah, and another porta- asked “Did you know there was a planetarium ble planetarium out of Abu Dha- in Dubai?” I know there are several planetari- bi, making a total of eight planetar- ums in Dubai and nearby Sharjah—I live and iums in the country. IRC: Steve Savage of Sky-Skan and Steven Nagi with a Sony work there now. “One of my goals this year is to Projector in Macao. Photo by Martin George

54 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 55 GeoDome in Copenhagen Mobile News Sweden’s Norrkoping Visualisation Centre brought their GeoDome to the Arctic, Decem- ber 12-14, for interactive presentations of glob- al climate data designed to support decision- making and public dialogue. The global climate activist organization Susan Reynolds Button 350.org was at KlimaForum, December 15-18, Quarks to Clusters using the GeoDome to explore human inter- 8793 Horseshoe Lane action with the environment and facilitate di- alogue on solutions for a sustainable future. Chittenango, New York 13037 USA The events are part of COP15, the 15th meet- +1 315-687-5371 ing of environment ministers who meet an- [email protected] nually under the United Nations Framework [email protected] Convention on Climate Change. The objec- tive of this conference was to set the terms 7th European Meeting of Small “Planetarium programs include traditional and targets for greenhouse gases in the atmo- and Portable Planetaria star shows, fulldome movies and music shows. sphere over the next several years. In my last column I told you that Ilpo Kuu- The latest novelty is combining the stars, the “We’re excited and honored that the Geo- sela enjoyed the 6th European conference so cave paintings and Kalevala, the national epic Dome enables our partners to communicate much that he and Arto Oksanen of the Kal- of Finland, into a theatrical performance un- the big-picture context of these important is- lioplanetaario in Finland will host the next der the dome. Another special feature is the as- sues,” said David McConville, co-founder of meeting. Well, here is their official invitation. tronomical activities for school children. The Elumenati. “By illustrating the relation- I hope to see you “The rock saunas bring an exotic spice to ships between climate change and other in- there! the cave, which offer a relaxing bath for guests terconnected global issues, both Norrkoping Ilpo and Arto will and meeting attendees. A cafeteria and a res- Visualization Centre and 350.org show the be setting up a web- taurant are also available. pressing need for visionary solutions that are site with more infor- “The success story of Kallioplanetaario be- comprehensive, systems-oriented, and inter- mation and instruc- gan in 1997, when the astronomical associa- disciplinary.” tions for registration tion Jyväskylän Siriusry built an observatory Press Agent Hilary McVicker explained: at the end of March. in the small village of Nyrölä. Active observ- “The GeoDome immersive learning environ- You can contact ing did bring good results, for example the ment is a uniquely effective tool for creating them directly and first discovery of an asteroid by Finnish am- focused, inquiry-based learning experiences. indicate your inter- ateur astronomers. The asteroid was later Using the Uniview software platform from est. In April you can named Nyrölä by the village. The dream of a SCISS AB, participants are able to interactive- Google “7th Europe- planetarium was realized ten years later, after ly explore dramatic scientific visualizations an Meeting of Small and Portable Planetaria” many interesting twists and turns. from NASA, NOAA, and the American Muse- to find the website. “Welcome to visit Kallioplanetaario, enjoy um of Natural History that demonstrate eco- the meeting program and spend time togeth- logical principles at local, global, and cosmic Your Invitation: er with fellow planetarians!” scales. Information is presented in a systems- “The world’s first planetarium built into Best regards, Arto Oksanen (arto.oksanen@ based context that makes complex concepts the rock, Kallioplanetaario, invites all of you kallioplanetaario.fi) and Ilpo Kuusela (ilpo. easy to understand while instilling a sense of to the 7th European Meeting of Small and Por- [email protected]) Website: www. wonder.” table Planetaria on the 17th-20th of July 2010 kallioplanetaario.fi For more information, visit www.geodome. in Finland. “Kallioplanetaario is located in Jyväsky- lä, in the middle of Central Finland’s beauti- ful nature, lakes and forests. The planetarium opened its doors in spring 2008 and immedi- ately became a blockbuster success. The sheer scale of the excavation of the cave and the in- stallment of modern presentation technol- ogies into its depths was a slight miracle, but 60,000 visitors in the first year of operation, exceeded all expectations. “The most thrilling place in the cave is the planetarium with E&S’s Digistar 3 SP2 and 50 comfortable seats under the 10-m negative- pressure dome. The dome is designed by Ant- ti Jännes and it is a Finnish innovation, which in itself is worth a visit for anyone interested in planetariums. Inclined seating and the low Our hosts explain, “The surrounding nature with lakes and forests is in itself very beautiful to experience hanging dome closes the viewer intimately to and the clear seasonal variation brings its own spice to external activities.” Photo provided by Arto Ok- the immersive presentations. sanen and Ilpo Kuusela.

56 Planetarian March 2010 (IMERSA, continued from page 40)

active in leading this transformation. That ef- fort will ensure the future of their facilities. Now is the time for capital improvements, however scary in this economy. The business model will be what we work on as a commu- nity to make it work for us. That is how the gi- ant screen business really started: we worked to make it work for the museum audience.” While the industry conditions aren’t ex- actly the same as when Imax had its genesis in the 1960s and 1970s, the fulldome commu- nity stands to benefit from the experienc- es of Kirsch—whose giant screen theater dou- bles as a planetarium—and others who have spent years building the giant screen indus- The Elumenati’s GeoDome Theater helped two organizations tell their stories at December’s global cli- mate summit in Copenhagen. Photo by Jack Lenk try. There is wisdom that can carry over about standards, for instance. “Giant screen film domes have historical- info and www.elumenati.com, or contact Hi- tunity has been offered since 1995 and we are ly had consistent technical standards and lary McVicker at [email protected], grateful to all the planetarians in Italy who en- embraced them very well,” says Fraser. “Ev- phone +1 612-605-0826, extension 715. able us to continue to provide such a life alter- eryone in the value chain knew there was a ing experience to some very gifted educators. spec for these theaters and that tracked pretty American in Italy Winner well through production. Digital fulldome is Congratulations go to Michele Wistisen Application Procedure: younger and fast growing and has already seen from the Casper Planetarium in Wyoming. Participants must send an application that several generations of systems come through. She is the winner of the 2010 trip to Italy! We includes your full name, complete address, It would benefit from a consistent standard in received several excellent applications. Mi- year of birth and your curriculum vitae. Send terms of size, tilt, and so forth.” chele’s application, unique lesson and activ- this information along with a cover letter ex- And then there are marketing and branding ities, resume and extensive experience as a plaining why you wish to be considered for opportunities. “As an industry, as a group, as planetarium educator made her the strongest this experience. You must also include the an idea, this is a business that could really ben- candidate for the program. text of a 60-minute lesson plan, with activities efit by pooling resources and building a brand Michele will receive money for air travel up and stories that you would like to present for around the concept that the dome equals max- to $1000. Her room and board and train travel the students. imum immersive experience,” Fraser said. will be paid for the entire stay. Send your application to: “The planetarium community has much Michele will arrive in Perugia on 16 April Loris Ramponi, Osservatorio Serafino Zani, Via in common with giant screen film cinemas, 2010 and present lessons there on the 17th. On Bosca 24, 25066 Lumezzane, Italy; email info@ but there are very strong differences as well in the 18th she will attend the Italian national serafinozani.it or [email protected]. I business models, culture, missions and in the planetarium conference and range of theater experiences,” says Ed Lantz, then travel to Milan, where founding director of IMERSA. she will visit the Milan Plan- Lantz is a member of GSCA’s Tech Task etario Ulrico Hoepli before Force, assisting in the development of digital traveling to Brescia. There specifications for giant screen domes and flat she will present planetarium screen theaters, and sharing fulldome infor- lessons during the mornings mation with film dome operators. of the 20th to the 23rd and He points out that fulldome theaters are then travel to Farra d’Isonzo scalable, from small portable domes to giant (www.ccaf.it). screen theaters, while the most recent version She will spend two days as of GSCA’s definition of “giant screen” set a a tourist around Farra (Goriz- lower limit of 60’ diameter for dome screens. ia, Trieste, Aquileia, Cividale) Nevertheless, Lantz indicates that many be- and then teach planetari- lieve in the value of harmonizing specifica- um lessons there from the tions for larger fulldome theaters and giant 26th to the 28th. She will fly screen cinemas, in order to further facilitate home on the 29th. I look for- the distribution of giant-screen films into dig- ward to her report of all she ital domes and the distribution of fulldome experienced and learned on Michele told me that she once had a University professor ask her if experiences into giant screen digital cinemas. this fantastic adventure. students should be required to understand the process of the phas- Said distribution could include real-time ex- September 15 is the yearly es of the moon since the concepts are so complicated. This prompt- periences as well as playback shows. deadline for the applicants ed her to do her master’s thesis on applying Gestalt principles of vi- sual perception to lessons about the phases of the moon. An activity “Planetarians have always been innovators, of “A Week in Italy for an she designed allows students to use a “frog’s eye view” to see the and could well end up driving future develop- American Planetarium Op- phases by viewing along the frog’s back. Photo taken by Susan But- ments in giant screen cinemas in addition to erator.” This exciting oppor- ton at the 2007 Western Alliance conference. their own digital dome theaters.” I

March 2010 Planetarian 57 58 Planetarian March 2010 ums simply to scientifically-inaccurately in- dicate ominous planets lumbering into view? Planetarium Show Reviews Couldn’t we at least try a show that in some way reflects the profound silence of space?) Rene Auberjonois (whose voice you might recognize as Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space 9) Steve Case provides great narration. Assistant Professor/Planetarium Director In all, this is a truly excellent show. Exo- Department of Physical Sciences planets are perhaps one of the most excit- Olivet Nazarene University ing areas of active astronomy research, and One University Avenue Extreme Planets provides a way to take audi- Bourbonnais, Illinois 60914 USA ences there and show them how exciting this +1 815-939-5681 field truly is. It’s one thing for a planetarium show to open our eyes to the wonders of the [email protected] planets of our own solar system. (Our audienc- es have probably all seen a few of those.) It’s Extreme Planets the possibility of planets in binary systems. another to adequately articulate the wonder •• Clark Planetarium Productions The show concludes with a discussion of the of those new worlds we’re discovering in all •• Fulldome Kepler mission and the feasibility and meth- directions around us. Extreme Planets does this •• Running time: 31 minutes ods that might be used in the future to detect admirably. •• Audience: General audiences, middle school evidence of life on Earth-like exoplanets. to adult Though I’m not an expert in exoplanetary •• www.clarkplanetarium.org/distribution/ geology, the science of the show seems sound. index2.php?page=extremeplanets The physical traits of the different planets are Realm of Light: •• [email protected]; +1 801-456-4949 outlined in a realistic and compelling man- A Brief History of Life ner. However, as the show transitions from •• Softmachine The danger with any planetarium show explaining the traits of various discovered ex- •• Fulldome that attempts to tackle such a contemporary oplanets to theorizing on exotic worlds that •• Running time: 22 minutes and burgeoning field as exoplanets is that might exist, it may be unclear to audience •• Audience: General audiences anything produced would be quickly outdat- members what is fact and what is specula- •• www.softmachine.de ed as new dis- tion. •• [email protected]; +49 (0) 89 coveries are In addition, the very brief visualization il- 1890 826912 made. Lucki- lustrating the different methods of detecting ly for us, Clark exoplanets was done so well that it seemed a Realm of Light, a show produced and dis- Planetarium shame more time was not spent explaining tributed by the Munich-based Softmachine, Productions the mechanics behind these processes. Indeed, has made quite an impression in the fulldome has addressed with the exception of the Kepler mission dis- community. this challenge cussion, the show seemed to gloss over how According to by updating currently-known exoplanets have actually Softmachine’s their show, Ex- been discovered. website, the treme Planets, Visually, the show is very well done. It has show won a with informa- an episodic nature with music and scene tran- 2007 DomeF- tion on the Ke- sitions between discussions of different plan- est Award in pler space mission and recently photographed ets that help move the show along and keep the U.S. as well exoplanets. it from dragging. The visuals are very well ren- as Best Immer- These revisions and the quality of the origi- dered (I was specifically impressed by the pul- sive Award at nal show itself make Extreme Planets an excel- sar-orbiting exoplanet) and do a wonderful the 2009 Eu- lent choice for anyone interested in a show job of transporting the viewer to these exot- ropean Im- that accurately and engagingly explores this ic locales. You walk away with a sense of the mersive Film Festival in Portugal. topic. richness and diversity already found in our What does this mean for a planetarian look- Extreme Planets begins with a brief series of own small corner of the galaxy. ing for a potential new show? For one thing, it visualizations and descriptions of different My only complaint with the visualization means a gorgeous, well-executed production exotic planetary environments that will be is that obviously liberty had to be taken in that takes fulldome to new levels in (as the returned to later in the show. It then launch- rendering the features of actual exoplanets. above awards illustrate) immersion. es into an explanation of what exoplanets are While this is certainly fine, I’m not sure the Put simply, Realm of Light is a beautiful and focuses on a few specific examples, in- brief discussion on photographing exoplanets show. The fulldome video sequences are stun- cluding 51 Pegasi, Upsilon Andromedae, Epsi- is enough for some audience members to real- ning, and the accompanying sound track is lon Eridani, and 55 Cancri. ize that the displayed surface features of the just as lovely. If you’re looking for visual ap- Along the way the show details concepts planets shown are fictional. peal on your dome, Realm of Light has a great such as “hot ,” formation of planetary The music for the show struck me as espe- deal to offer: fly-through of a nebula, death of systems, and methods of detecting exoplan- cially nice: upbeat and somehow wonder-in- a star, and a climactic solar eclipse that is possi- ets. It continues with visuals and descriptions ducing. I still believe though that the sub- bly on par with seeing one in real life (because of planetary systems that may exist, such as woofer manufacturers are in cahoots with in real life you might neither have the sound- a in a globular cluster, a carbon- planetarium producers. (Seriously: are sub- track nor be on a space station). based planet, a water-dominated world, and woofers specifically installed in planetari- In addition, Realm of Light is subtitled “A

March 2010 Planetarian 59 Brief History of Life,” so besides the astro- I think few would disagree with the epi- adoxically peaceful sight of a night sky, the nomical goodies listed above, the show con- taph displayed after the close of the final cred- show outlines things like galaxy collisions tains visualizations of conditions on the early its (“the essence of existence is love”), but po- and galactic cannibalism, galactic dust clouds, Earth, depictions of selected organisms from tential purchasers should at least be aware supernovae, meteor storms, asteroid and com- single cells up to whales, various landscapes that there is a message, and that the message et impacts, and gamma-ray bursts. apparently rendered to reflect an ambiance is overt. And that the message is not necessar- As each of these astronomical catastro- of “the dawn of life” (which do an excellent ily “scientific.” phes is explored, the show outlines what ef- job), and a final sequence of an astronaut and This is not a bad thing. Realm of Light pro- fects such occurrences might have for life on space station. Each one of these scenes does vides an excellent example the fertile possibil- Earth. what fulldome can do so well: create an im- ities in cross-disciplinary work that the plane- Lest the audience leaves the show too un- mersive, breathtaking sense of actually being tarium provides. Art, philosophy, science, and easy, at the conclusion of the show the nar- there. The scenes are powerful and effective in music are all melded in this show. rator reiterates that all of these potentiali- evoking feelings of awe. If one is looking for a (purely) scientific ap- ties—though very real in the universe—at the But is this enough? What sort of scientific proach to theories about the origins of life, current time don’t seem to pose much danger content can a viewer expect from the show? this is not the show to select. However, if one for life on our planet. Softmachine provides an indication on their wants an immersive experience that could Violent Universe uses its catastrophic theme own website, where they state that the show perhaps compliment an exhibit on the origins to discuss the science behind these different is a “philosophical approach to the origins of of life or stand alone as an artistic expression events. Still images are shown to explain how space and our life.” on the dome, I would highly recommend it. multiple wavelengths of electromagnetic ra- The show does begin with visualizations of diation give information about the violence the big bang and touches on the fact that stars Violent Universe of various processes pictured. Historic records are born in nebulae, but minimal explanation •• Evans & Sutherland of observed catastrophes, such as the superno- is given. It shows the death of a star and men- •• Running time: 25 minutes va of 1054 that formed the Crab Nebula and tions stellar death seeding the universe for life, •• Audience: General audiences, middle school the , are discussed. though the accompanying visualization (star- and up There’s an extensive discussion on various dust raining down on the Earth) leaves quite a •• www.es.com/products/digital_theater/ impact craters found around the world with bit to the imagination. shows/ViolentUniverse excellent maps and aerial imagery. The ex- The subsequent scenes of the landscape •• +1 801-588-7500 planation behind the mechanics of gamma- of the early Earth, cells, jellyfish, nautiloids, ray burst, however, seemed to skip over a key whales, and finally don’t spend Kudos to whoever first had the idea of ask- point. The show explains that as very mas- any time fleshing out the theory behind this ing science-fiction favorites to narrate plane- sive stars collapse into a black hole, they emit progression. In fact, the science provides little tarium shows. beams of energy. However, there’s no explana- role at all beyond scope for imagining beauti- When I told tion of why a collapsing star should focus re- ful scenes and philosophical musings. my wife that I leased energy into beams at all. And what sort of philosophy can a viewer was reviewing Perhaps an explanation of what’s involved draw from the show? It appears, both in the a show narrat- would have been beyond the scope of the show’s description and upon viewing, that ed by Patrick brief discussion, but it’s a question operators sharing this philosophy was a primary goal in Stewart, she might want to be ready to field from astute the minds of the producers. That philosophy was convinced audience members. is much what you would expect from a plan- I should pur- Visually, Violent Universe does a good job etarium show, though in this case the creators chase the show of illustrating what a smooth transition from have used the context of evolution to high- sight-unseen “traditional” to “fulldome” productions might light humanity as something profoundly dif- on that merit look like. For example, portions of the show ferent, having as we do the freedom to choose alone. Though seemed like they would have been right at between “hate and love” or “darkness and I might not home in a traditional dome: star field comple- light,” and to touch on evolution (perhaps par- have her par- mented with static horizon images and still adoxically) as “nature’s miracle” having “infi- ticular enthu- shots faded in and out. nite power” (though again, the mechanics be- siasm for Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Other portions of the show—such as the ex- hind natural selection are not outlined at all). as far as narration goes you pretty much cellent fly-through sequence of a galactic dust can’t go wrong cloud—were effective as fulldome video se- with a (recent- quences. For those who have gone fulldome ly knighted) but are still looking for some of the understat- Shakespearean ed effects reminiscent of slide imagery might actor. find this a good place to start. Stewart nar- Another unique trait of this show was its rates a show use of time-lapse photography for sequences that highlights like the stunning rise of the Milky Way along some of the the horizon. potential dan- In conclusion, Violent Universe was an effec- gers to life the tive general astronomy show with a theme cosmos might likely to be engaging to audience members. harbor. After Portions of the show visually seemed more reflecting brief- like the days of slide projection than fulldome ly on the par- video, but that is not necessarily a weakness. I

60 Planetarian March 2010 The authors trace the telescope from its Meteor Showers and Their Book Reviews apparent beginnings, a 1608 patent applica- tion by Hans Lippershey for a “tube to see Parent Comets Peter Jenniskens, Cambridge University April S. Whitt far.” They also mention the possibility that ri- Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge val Zacharias Janssen actually made the first Fernbank CB2 8RU, UK, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-07635-7, working instrument, and possibly it could Science Center US $90. have been around for decades before them. 156 Heaton Reviewed by Warren Hart, Mayborn Plane- Of course, we all celebrate the use of this in- Park Drive NE tarium and Space Theater, Central Texas Col- vention by Galileo as an increase in his “natu- Atlanta lege, Killeen, Texas. ral vision” as he looked upward. This resulted Georgia 30307 in his discoveries of such wonders as the 3-di- At 790 pages, some people may think this USA mensionality of the moon, the spottiness of book will be too overwhelming to consider april.whitt@ the sun, the weirdness of Saturn, and the fam- adding to their library. fernbank.edu ily of Jupiter, which caused him untold prob- Au contraire, mon amie! lems in his later years. At the very outset in the preface, Dr. Jenni- A remembrance of the IYA, the latest in- Since the telescope’s introduction, the de- skens sets the tone of the book in an informal formation for your public audiences, and an sire for even more ability to observe the un- and conversational format. He writes, “It was excellent resource comprise this edition’s Re- seeable overhead has resulted in instruments a warm summer evening in June in the light views, gentle readers. from Herschel’s enormous creations, which polluted Dutch city of Leiden in 1981 when I We’re still looking for readers who want “needed four servants to operate the wheels, first sat down and gazed at the sky, waiting. free books or software in exchange for shar- ropes and pulleys,” to Lord Rosse’s “Leviathan A meteor appeared and I made a wish: ‘One ing your opinions. Contact me at the email of Parsonstown,” up to our own present levi- more, please!’ After 90 minutes, I had plotted address above. athans, telescopes with mirrors larger than four arrows on a chart of stars. That record still Thanks to our reviewers for this column: most contemporary houses. exists and has played a small role in the on- first time contributor Warren Hart and veter- And then we go “Beyond Earth,” to above going exploration of meteor showers. A very an Francine Jackson. the atmosphere, where we find the Hubble modest beginning to what has become a life- Space Telescope and those instruments meant long adventure.” to show us the parts of the electromagnetic Eyes on the Skies: 400 Years of He continues later in the preface to lay out spectrum invisible to our narrow range of see- the book’s purpose in the same conversational Telescopic Discovery ing. We don’t stop there—we also venture into format: “In this book you will find much prac- Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Chris- the future, with Earth-based telescopes that tical information about when to see meteor tensen, published by WILEY-VCH, Verlag make today’s look like backyard equipment, outbursts in the next 50 years and how they GmbH & Co., KgAA, Weinheim, 2009, ISBN and, perhaps, the next step: moon-based tele- might manifest… While writing this book, I 978-3-527-40865-8, US $29.95. scopes, especially on the far side. found that many of our main meteor show- Reviewed by Francine Jackson, University The DVD is not just a repetition of the ers are the product of comet fragmentation… of Rhode Island Planetarium, Rhode Island. book. Although it does encompass basically If you are a professional astronomer, you will the same information, it does so with enough find in this book an overview of your work The outside of this book has the imprint of variance that it could stand alone. In fact, I en- and that of colleagues who have helped illu- the International Year of Astronomy, and it joyed watching this 55-minute presentation minate the evolution of meteoroid streams, includes the “Official International Year of As- as much as I enjoyed reading the book, with- the physical properties of their parent bodies, tronomy 2009 DVD.” When you pick up this out feeling I had gone through the identical their influx on Earth’s atmosphere, their dan- book, the cover is so striking, with its ethere- material twice. ger to satellites in orbit, and their role in the al artwork of all the major Earth observatories, Eyes on the Skies is relatively short, only 130 origin of life.” present and future, and the Hubble Space Tele- pages, but the images are fantastic, the art- As I continued to read, I felt as though the scope poised over them all, you have to see the work is beautiful, and this book and the DVD author had invited me to sit down with him inside. And that’s rather impressive also. are well worth your time. in his study so he could share his passion, joy, and excitement of what he and others have learned about meteors and comets. In Chapter 1, “How meteor showers were linked to comets,” he gives the history of mankind’s evolutional understanding of “shooting stars.” As a minister I was intrigued by his comments on page 4: “…meteor show- ers were either a good or a bad omen. The pe- riodic meteor storm of April 3, 1095, for exam- ple, was mistaken by the Council at Clermont, France, for a celestial monition that the Chris- tians must precipitate themselves in like man- ner on the East, when Pope Urban II called for the first crusades in November, 1095.” Dr. Jenniskens continues with “The Leonid storm of 1833 changed all that and made me- teor showers part of astronomy. It came at a time when Isaac Newton’s law of had

March 2010 Planetarian 61 just been established… Meteor showers were best public astronomy voices ever (regardless sembles one of those 20-pound tomes from now understood as being the result of streams of what other polls say). Read this book. You the other classes. of meteoroids, most no bigger than a grain of will find yourself listening and capturing in- Once again, Dr. Kaler has done his job, and sand, approaching from one direction, before formation from the mind of someone who done it well. He has written Heaven’s Touch to colliding with our atmosphere.” treats science as more of an ethereal topic; not bring the joy of science to anyone wanting to The book’s 34 chapters are divided into six as a bunch of formulas, but as a thing of beau- collate everything in the universe. I sections: (I) Introduction, (II) Parent bodies, ty. (III) Young streams from water vapor drag, (IV) Anyone can read Heaven’s Touch, from the (General Counsel, continued from Page 62) Young streams from comet fragmentation, (V) hardcore scientist to the newly-introduced Old streams and sporadic meteoroids, and (VI) amateur, and come out with a better under- graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures, Impact and relevance of meteor showers. standing of the subject. For the newcomer, video recordings, and sound recordings. This pro- Do not think that this book lacks in-depth it is a comprehensive learning tool, an intro- vision does not automatically include computer scientific information for the professional as- duction to the subject. For the old-timer, it is software, databases, and other electronic media tronomer. It does. Parts II–V (Chapters 6–31) a chance to open our eyes and see this science because no academic tradition exists for them. go into great detail describing and explain- we love so much in a different perspective, as Teaching Materials: Creators of reusable ing specific types of comets (Long-period, Hal- a universe of the beautifully unique. teaching and classroom materials for Lehigh ley-type, Jupiter-family, et cetera) and meteor For example, his section on aurorae begins courses, such as curriculum guides, problem sets, streams (Leonids, Ursids, Perseids, Quadran- “We left the sun with a CME pounding down exercise solutions, laboratory manuals etc., shall tids, Geminids, Toroidal, et cetera). the solar wind and aiming at Earth.” own these materials unless they are subject to a When I came to Chapter 33, “Meteor show- How was Pluto discovered? “Even with prior agreement governing their ownership. In ers on other planets,” I thought that would Neptune in the equation, Uranus still refused all cases the University shall have a non-exclu- be interesting. But I found an unexpected re- to behave itself.” Well, of course! sive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, display, source: on pages 561-564 is information about And, “…the discovery of Pluto…was, howev- copy, distribute, and prepare derivative works of “Meteor showers on the Moon.” He writes, er, a tiny thing in a such materials for internal University use. “Each year, 83 boulders larger than 1kg hit the wacky orbit that face of the Moon, and about six larger than could not possibly Put simply, in most cases, Lehigh profes- 5kg. Good opportunities for viewing are sum- have enough mass sors get to keep the copyright to their own marized in Table 10c.” to affect Uranus. work, but the university gets to use it as much I did not realize that impacts on the moon Instead, Pluto’s dis- as they want, for as long as they want, with- could be visible here on Earth! So, I looked at covery had been out having to pay more for it. That seems like Table 10c, “Good opportunities to watch for ‘accidental,’ except a reasonable quid pro quo. School districts Moon impacts from Earth.” In 2010 there are that years of work should adopt similar policies. seven meteor streams listed, with two of them by Tombaugh had To my mind, there is no reason for schools to be “favorable geometries.” As a result of my hardly made it an or school districts to take copyright own- reading, our planetarium presentations and accident.” ership in teachers’ own curriculum materi- our newsletter will include announcements Starting in the als to fulfill their educational mission. Public and encouragements for people to look for preface, Kaler reminds us that “Most books schools are in the business of educating stu- possible impacts. are about ‘something,’” although, “[T]his one dents, not selling curriculum materials. The appendix has seven addenda and 11 ta- seems to be about ‘everything,’ everything I Under a liberal licensing arrangement, a dis- bles, a comprehensive 23-page index, and a fi- know that would be relevant to how we are trict could enjoy unfettered access to its own nal one-page list of mathematical units and directly connected to the heavens…to the en- teachers’ materials, thereby ensuring that stu- constants. tire Universe.” In this book is literally any- dents would benefit from the fruits of teach- Particularly helpful were Table 7: “Working thing you would want to know about some ers’ labors well into the future, while still pre- list of annual (cometary) showers” Its 56 pag- of the major mysteries of our universe, from serving the teachers’ exclusive right under es lays out in great detail the “Recently active tides to black holes, from asteroid attacks to copyright law to commercialize his or her meteor showers and their parent comets.” hyperstars. There was just one thing I noticed work. A win-win. Table 11: “Calendar of exceptional meteor missing in this book: Questions. Allowing teachers to retain their copyrights showers (2005-2052) lists notification of the Many of you, probably like me, teach as- might also serve as an added incentive to cre- probability of some coming “biggies.” He has tronomy to either the general public or to ate new material, which is, after all, the central five listings for 2010, so get ready! the unenthusiastic underclassmen trying to purpose of copyright law. I heartily recommend Dr. Jenniskens book slog through any science discipline they feel Those teachers who are already motivated for either your personal or your institution’s they can pass. But, what if the text, instead of to develop innovative new materials will, un- library. It will provide much helpful informa- mainly disseminating facts, also expressed the doubtedly, continue to do so; allowing them tion for many years to come. world around us as a thing of beauty, a part to subsequently sell their wares can only fur- of everything, willing to show its interrela- ther encourage them to continue creating Heaven’s Touch tionships? Could we list Heaven’s Touch as re- high-quality, academically-sound curriculum James B. Kaler, published by Princeton Uni- quired reading for Astronomy 101? Add a few materials. Those who don’t may see new val- versity Press, 41 Williams Street, Princeton, related assignments to each chapter, and we ue in doing so if they have the opportunity to New Jersey, 2009, ISBN 978-0-691-12946-4, US have a book worthy of classroom use. The sci- make some extra cash off their work. $24.95. ence lovers will appreciate the information, It’s a pretty sad state of affairs in educa- Reviewed by Francine Jackson. the humanities students will love the way it’s tion if the promise of generating from lesson written (and just might read it, more than they plans is the motivator for bad teachers to be- Jim Kaler missed his calling. Oh yes, he’s a would a typical text), and the total school hat- come better ones, but if it lifts just one teacher great astronomer and all that, and one of the ers might not complain; after all, it hardly re- up, it’s hard to see a downside. I

62 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 63 planetariums (56%) in the USA. Directors’ tariums, large and small, in many nations. The backgrounds, education, pay, length of ser- first IPS council meeting outside the United What’s25 Years New Ago vice, and how they entered the field were cov- States was to be in Armagh, Northern Ireland. ered. John Wharton’s “Gibbous Gazette” de- Thomas Wm. Michael Zeilik (University of New Mexi- scribed the plans and procedures for the Hamilton co) wrote about Native American archeoas- “teacher in space” program. Sky-Skan had HOSS tronomy of the Southwestern United States bought out Talent, and Fred Schaaf was head- Planetarium and using a planetarium to demonstrate how ing a “dark skies for Halley” campaign. 153 Arlo Road the were predicted for important cer- The Planetary Society had more on “the case emonies. Audience reactions were positive. for Mars,” still unfulfilled. NASA was distribut- Staten Island, Carl Wenning (Illinois State University) in- ing tomato seeds that had been in space. New York 10301 corporated a supernatural explanation for the Two other deaths in the field were an- tham153@ Star of Bethlehem in his Christmas shows (the nounced: Henry Blake, whose AZP firm pro- hotmail.com Shekinah, using the somewhat disputable in- duced amazing zoom lenses for regular slide terpretation of this term as “the glory,” al- projectors, and William Sharp of the New Jer- This issue led off with a letter from Jay Pasa- though not mentioning this is not the only sey State Museum Planetarium. choff (Williams College, Massachusetts) dis- proposed meaning of the term). Audience sur- Jack Dunn did the Regional Roundup for puting John Mosley’s comments on mention veys found that Star of Bethlehem audienc- the last time, listing only four. of in a Christmas show in the pri- es were far less likely to attend other plane- Mark Sonntag’s Focus on Education col- or issue. Mosley’s reply pointed out a need for tarium shows throughout the year than were umn looked at what young adults (defined as brevity and no need for excessive technical general audiences at other shows. 26 to 35 years of age) knew about science. As- detail. Jack Spoehr wrote a remembrance of Her- sessments were from 1972/73 (2000 subjects) K. C. Leung (Hong Kong Space Museum) bert N. Williams, who over the years had and 1976/77 (1300 subjects). All groups got few- described use of an all sky system to depict a worked with Armand Spitz, at Cranbrook Sci- er than 50% of questions correct (examples in- space colony, and how artists accomplished ence Center (Michigan), and at Spitz Space Sys- cluded what direction are you looking for the this. tems. sun if a full moon is rising), but women did The paper by Dave Menke (Copernican Incoming IPS President Alan Friedman gave worse than men and ethnic minorities worse Space Center, Central Connecticut State Uni- his first message. The first all-Europe plane- than whites. There was a small decline from versity) from the 1984 IPS conference was re- tarium meeting had been held in Strasbourg, 1972/73 to 1976/77. A retest today might be printed. It described a survey returned by 519 with more than 100 representatives of plane- even more depressing. I

64 Planetarian March 2010 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events

2010 15-19, March. Conference “Communicating Astron- quired. See weber.edu/planetarium/training for omy with the Public 2010,” Cape Town, South more information. Africa, www.communicatingastronomy.org/ 4-7 August. Western Alliance Planetarium Confer- cap2010/index.html121, [email protected], ence (GPPA, SWAP, RMPA, PPA) will be hosted in [email protected] Omaha, Nebraska, USA, by the King Middle Mag- 21 March. International Day of Planetaria, www. net School Planetarium. Contact: Jack Northrup, MAPS Conference: dayofplanetaria.org [email protected]; www.spacelaser.com/gppa May 19-22, 2010 31 March. Deadline for application for scholarship 17-20 August. 7th European Meeting for Small and funds (IPS support Alexandria Conference atten- Portable Planetariums. Ilpo Kuusela and Arto The Annual Middle At- dance by individuals). Oksanen of the Kallio Planetaario will host this lantic Planetarium Society 17-18 April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PLAN- conference in Finland. Contact Information: Conference will take place IT), XXV National Conference, Perugia, Italy, [email protected]; www.kallio- 19-22 May 2010 at the Uni- www.planetaritaliani.it. Contact: osservatorio@ planetaario.fi. versity of Southern Maine- serafinozani.it 2-5 October. Association of Science-Technology Southworth Planetarium 5-7 May. Canadian Association of Science Centres Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference, Bishop Mu- in Portland, Maine. Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, seum, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. www.astc.org The conference hosts www.canadiansciencecentres.ca/main.htm 20-23 October. Great Lakes Planetarium Associa- will be Jerry LaSala, direc- 7-8 May. Annual Conference of the British Associ- tion Conference, University of Notre Dame, In- tor, and Steve Innes. ation of Planetaria (BAP), Intech Planetarium, diana. Host will be Dr. Keith Davis at keith.davis. The conference hotel Winchester, Great Britain. [email protected]. www.glpaweb.org/conference.htm will be the Eastland Park 13-16, May. Association of French Speaking Plane- Hotel, 157 High Street, Port- tariums, Yearly Meeting, Dijon, France. 2011 land, Maine. They have ex- 19-22 May. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Soci- May. Association of French Speaking Planetariums, tended a very generous ety (MAPS) Conference, University of South- Yearly Meeting, Saint-Etienne, France. room rate of $99.00 per ern Maine-Southworth Planetarium in Portland, 4-8 September. 6th Science Centre World Congress, night. The hotel has ample Maine, USA. See details at left. Cape Town, South Africa. www.astc.org meeting space for the gen- 29-31 May. German Planetarium Association Annu- 15-18 October. Association of Science-Technology eral sessions as well as for al Conference, Bochum, Germany. Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference, Maryland vendor exhibits. June. Japan Planetarium Society, JPA Conference Science Center, Baltimore, USA. www.astc.org The hotel is located in 2010. www.shin-pla.info/index.html the heart of downtown 3-5 June. ECSITE Conference (European Network 2012 Portland, just four blocks of Science Centres and Museums), DASA, Dort- 31 March. Deadline for application for scholarship from Historic Old Town mund, Germany. Grant opportunity for attend- funds (IPS support Baton Rouge Conference at- Portland and Portland Har- ing Pre Conference and main Conference. www. tendance by individuals). www.ips-planetarium. bor. The hotel is just min- ecsite.net org utes from the Portland Air- 8-12 June. Novice Blender Workshop at Ott Plane- 22-26 July. 21st International Planetarium Society port and has shuttle service tarium, Ogden, Utah, USA. June 15-19, 2010 - Ad- Conference, Irene W. Pennington Planetarium, to and from the airport. vanced Blender Workshop. Registration is re- Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, Additional conference in- quired. See weber.edu/planetarium/training for Louisiana, USA, [email protected] formation and registration more information. materials will be forthcom- 8-12 June. Southeastern Planetarium Association Yearly Deadlines for “A Week in Italy” ing. More information is (SEPA), Annual Conference, Kingsport, Tennes- 31 August. Deadline for “A week in Italy for a French- available from lasala@usm. see, USA. sepadomes.org. speaking Planetarium Operator.” maine.edu and egleason@ 24-25 June. International Planetarium Society 15 September 2009. “A week in Italy for an Ameri- usm.maine.edu, or www. Council Meeting, Alexandria, Egypt. can Planetarium Operator”. maps-planetarium.org. I June 26-30: 20th International Planetarium Society For more information on the “Week in Italy,” go Conference, Alexandria, Egypt. Contact: Omar to: www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_in_ Fikry, Head of Shows & Programs Unit, Plane- Italy/-Week_Italy.htm tarium Science Center, Library of Alexandria, El Shatby, Alexandria 21526, Egypt, + 203-4839999 For corrections and new information for the Calen- (Ext.1881), [email protected], www.bibalex. dar of Events, please send a message to Loris Rampo- org/ips2010. ni at [email protected]. 2-7 July. EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), Turin, It- More details about several of these upcoming events aly, www.euroscience.org is included in the International News column. 11 July. Total solar eclipse The most up-to-date information also is available 20-24 July. Novice Blender Workshop at Ott Plane- online at the International Planetarian’s Calendar of tarium, Ogden, Utah, USA. July 27-31 2010 - Ad- Events at www.ips-planetarium.org/events/confer- vanced Blender Workshop. Registration is re- ences.html I

March 2010 Planetarian 65 What’s New

John Schroer Dassault Systèmes Planetarium The New Detroit Science Center 5020 John R Street Detroit, Michigan 48202 USA [email protected] +1 313-577-8400, Ext. 435

Sky-Skan’s new Manual Control Boards for definiti Digital Theater System Sky-Skan has developed a new set of manual panels for their definiti full- dome projector system. The pictures here are of a set of custom panels developed specifically for the California Academy of Science’s Morrison Planetarium. Complete control of the various functions of system is avail- able, and computer screens add more information for the theater opera- tor’s convenience. Above: An overview of the manual panels for the definiti full dome system at the Morrison Planetarium. Below: Closeup of one of the manual panels produced for the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences For more information, contact Sky-Skan at 51 Lake Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060 USA; +1 603-880-8500; e-mail: [email protected]; web site: ww.skyskan.com.

Astro-Tec Builds the World’s Largest Planetarium Dome: 35 Meters Canal Fulton is a small historic town in rural Ohio, but in addition to its an- nual Olde Canal Days Festival, it can now claim fame as the place where the world’s largest planetarium dome was constructed. Astro-Tech is in the process of building a 35-m (114-ft) dome for the Nagoya City Science Museum’s planetarium in Japan. Astro-Tec is scheduled to start the dome installation in March 2010. Also in- cluded in the Nagoya City project is Konica Minolta, Zeiss, and Sky- Skan. For more information, contact: Astro-Tec Manufacturing, Inc. 550 Elm Ridge Avenue, P.O. Box 608, Canal Fulton, Ohio 44614-0608 USA; +1 330-854-2209.

66 Planetarian March 2010 March 2010 Planetarian 67 there’s a discussion of light pollution and how in 2012, but I guess I overlooked the obvious Last Light “regular people” can help combat it. Ideas in- one! Dave clude turning off lights and installing full cut- off light fixtures, relatively simple acts that His list, gleaned mostly from the Internet, is April S. Whitt save energy. truly impressive. For those preparing planetar- Fernbank Science Sarah McDonald reports that one patron ium programs about the end of the world, aka Center “left the show in disgust, saying, ‘That’s just an 21-12-12 (or 12-21-12), here are a few: Ways the 156 Heaton Park advertisement. You guys are just trying to sell sun will kill us: light bulbs!’” •• Solar storms will wipe us out because of the Drive NE When Pat McQuillan was at Brest, he re- sudden loss of our . Atlanta, Georgia ported a third grader entering the planetar- •• The sun will die. 30307 USA ium for the first time and exclaiming, “This •• The sun will blow up. april.whitt@ place is cool as hell!” •• The sun will rise from the west on Decem- fernbank.edu ber 21, 2012, wreaking havoc. Getting Us There •• The sun will temporarily expand, then col- Alan Gould shared a message from a Kepler lapse back to its original size, wreaking hav- The creativity of humans never ceases to teacher workshop participant, Richard Dierk- oc. amaze me. Listening to students working out ing: •• The sun will go out of alignment, causing a problem, working with colleagues to devel- A couple of months ago, I did a Kepler pre- major earthquakes and chaos. op new programs, guiding telephone ques- sentation with groups of GATE (gifted and tal- •• The sun will have a radioactive reaction, tioners through the best way to observe a me- ented) students at an elementary school. At wreaking havoc. teor shower from wherever they’re calling: the end of these presentations, I always like •• When the sun aligns with the great central the list is endless. to ask, “So, let’s say we do discover Earth-like galaxy, it will receive a spark of light that One of my favorites is teachers’ names for planets. What then?” will cause the sun to shine more intensely, our planetarium programs. During the intro- As usual, one of the kids answered, “Well, producing solar flares. This will also cause duction to each program, we tell the audi- we go there.” changes in the earth’s magnetic field, which ence the name of the program they’ll be see- “But it’s SO far away,” I replied. During the will cause catastrophic changes in Earth’s ing, and give a short summary of the learning presentation, I describe a light year and how rotation. This will surely wreak havoc. objectives. far away even the closest stars are. However, •• The sun will block the black part of the uni- At the end of each school show, as I’m bring- this time, another kid that was intently fol- verse. When that occurs, bad things hap- ing the lights up, I ask the teachers and group lowing the whole presentation, answered, pen. leaders to take about 30 seconds to complete “Well, Mr. Richard, don’t worry about that! Let’s have a contest. What’s the best the evaluation form they received at the be- You just show us where they are, and we’ll fig- “end of the world” scenario you’ve heard? ginning of the program. I indicate where the ure out a way to get there.” Send your entry to me at the email address extra forms and pencils are located, gesture to Wow, I enjoy sharing information with above. Maybe we can find a 2013 calen- the box for dropping off the evaluation, and these kids. dar for the winner. I point out the other box with post-visit activ- ity sheets. Reading through the collected forms after Did I Forget a recent Constellation Coloring Book presenta- Wreaking tion was interesting. It’s a program we devel- Havoc? oped for second graders that emphasizes star An e-mail message color, size, brightness and constellation pat- from fellow South- terns. Students pretend to paint the day sky eastern Planetarium blue, color the sun into the day sky with imag- Association colleague inary crayons, connect stars into patterns, and Dave Hostetter: star-hop among winter constellations, ending Hi, April: with an edited version of the “Androcles and I received a list the Lion” fable of Aesop fame. from Adam Thanz A number of teachers had seen Constellation of SEPA presidents Coloring Book. Others apparently saw “Color- since I am on the new ing Book Constellations,” “Coloring Book,” Nominating Com- “Constellation Cloring (sic) Book,” “Constel- mittee. I just realized lation,” “Crayon Constellations.,” or (my fa- you will be president vorite) “Winter Star.” Maybe there’s a way to from January 2011 harness this talent - inventing names for new through the end of programs? 2012. Has anyone else noticed that we elect- Just Selling Light Bulbs ed you president and The Brest Planetarium in Jacksonville, Flor- the world’s coming ida was running Saving the Night, a program to an end? Hmmmm. produced by the Southeastern Planetarium I’ve compiled a Association. The audience is shown the night list of over 100 ways sky from city and country environments to I have heard that the world will end demonstrate the difference in sky glow, and Illustration by Jessie Shanks

68 Planetarian March 2010 www.es.com [email protected]