Vol. 36, No. 4 December 2007

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

The Sky Disc of Nebra…Page 6

Articles 6 The Enigma of the Sky Disk of Nebra: A Unique Opportunity for Planetariums December 2007 Vol. 36 No. 4 Thomas W. Kraupe 12 Defining the Dome Emil Khalisi Executive Editor 14 Check out the stars on this dome David Schlom Sharon Shanks 17 Two guys—and a really big mission Ward Beecher Planetarium Lionel Ruiz and Daniel Audeon Youngstown State University 18 Explore the Edge at IPS 2008 One University Plaza Larry Ciupik Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 19 IPS Fellow: Recognize Good Service with a Nomination (1) 330-941-3619 daytime phone 34 Wanted: Your Astronomy Demonstrations [email protected] Astronomy Education Review 55 The Full Northern Exposure at WAC 2007 Advertising Coordinator Gail Chaid Chuck Bueter 15893 Ashville Lane Columns Granger, Indiana 46530 USA 5 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks (1) 574-271-3150 21 President’s Message ...... Susan Reynolds Button [email protected] 21 Past President’s Message ...... Martin George www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ 27 Digital Frontiers ...... Ed Lantz ratesheet.htm 32 Educational Horizons ...... Steve Tidey 36 General Counsel: ...... Christopher S. Reed Membership 39 International News ...... Lars Broman Individual: $50 one year; $90 two years 48 Mobile News ...... Susan Reynolds Button Institutional: $200 first year; 53 Reviews ...... April S. Whitt $100 annual renewal 56 Planetarian’s Calendar of Events ...... Loris Ramponi Library Subscriptions: $36 one year 58 Gibbous Gazette ...... James P. Hughes Direct membership requests and changes of 60 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman Index of Advertisers Back Issues of the Planetarian allsky.de ...... 37 IPS Back Publications Repository Astro-Tec Mfg., Inc ...... 29 maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Calgary Science Centre ...... 47 Chair; contact information is on next page Clark Planetarium ...... 11 Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 41 Index Evans & Sutherland ...... outside back cover A cumulative index of major articles that have Global Immersion ...... 5 appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue GOTO INC ...... 38 through the current issue is available online at Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 20 www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ Learning Technologies, Inc ...... 52 planetarian_index.pdf R.S.A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover Rudinec & Associates ...... 56 Final Deadlines Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 16, centerfold, 57 Spitz, Inc...... 35 March: January 21 Zeiss, Inc ...... inside front cover June: April 21 September: July 21 December: October 21 Associate Editors Calendar Forum Last Light NASA Space News Loris Ramponi Gary Lazich April S. Whitt Anita Sohus

Digital Frontiers General Counsel International Reviews Ed Lantz Christopher Reed Lars Broman April S. Whitt

Education Gibbous Gazette Mobile News What’s New International Planetarium Society home page: Steve Tidey James Hughes Susan Button John A. Schroer www.ips-planetarium.org Planetarian journal home page: http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian On the Cover: The Nebra Sky Disc © J. Liptak, Landesamt fuer Archaeologie Sachsen- Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: Anhalt, Germany http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ guidelines.html

December 2007 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of British Italian Rocky Mountain Brazilian Association of Planetaria’s Friends Planetarium Officers Planetariums (ABP) Planetaria Association Association Alexandre Cherman Tom Mason Loris Ramponi Kevin Scott President Planetário do Rio de Janeiro Armagh Planetarium National Archive of Planetaria Evans & Sutherland Susan Reynolds Button R. Vice-Governador College Hill c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche 600 Komas Drive Quarks to Clusters Rubens Berardo, 100 Armagh BT61 9DB Serafino Zani Salt Lake City, Utah USA 8793 Horseshoe Lane Rio de Janeiro RJ 22451-070 Northern Ireland via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 +1 801-588-7416 Chittenango, New York +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 United Kingdom I 25066 Lumezzane [email protected] 13037 USA +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax +44 (0)2837 524725 (Brescia) Italy www.rmpadomes.org +1 315-687-5371 [email protected] +44 (0)2837 526187 fax +39 30 872 164 +1 315-432-4523 fax www.planetarios.org.br +44 (0)771 0013453 cell +39 30 872 545 fax Russian Planetariums [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Association www.armaghplanet.com [email protected] Zinaida P. Sitkova Past-President www.planetaritaliani.it Nizhny Novgorod Martin George Association of Canadian Association Planetarium Launceston Planetarium Dutch-Speaking of Science Centres Revolutsionnja Street Queen Victoria Museum Planetariums Ian C. McLennan Japan 20 603002 Nizhny Wellington Street André Milis #404 - 1275 Haro Street Planetarium Society Novgorod Russia Launceston Planetarium of the Royal Vancouver, British Columbia Shoichi Itoh +7 831 2 30 51 51 Tasmania 7250 Australia Observatory of Belgium V6E 1G1 Canada Chief of Physics +7 831 2 30 51 66 fax +61 3 6323 3777 Boechoutlaan 10 +1 604-681-4790 and Astronomy [email protected] +61 3 6323 3776 fax 1020 Brussels, Belgium phone + fax Instruction [email protected] Martin.George@ +32 (2) 474 70 60 +1 604-240-0938 cell Suginami Science www.planet.nn.ru qvmag.tas.gov.au +32 (2) 478 30 26 fax [email protected] Education Center [email protected] [email protected] 3-3-13 Shimizu, Suginami-ku Southeastern www.ianmclennan.com Tokyo 167-0033 Japan Planetarium President-Elect +81 3-3396-4391 Association Dr. Tom Mason, Director Council of German +81 3-3396-4393 fax John Hare Armagh Planetarium Association of Planetariums [email protected] Ash Enterprises College Hill French-Speaking Thomas W. Kraupe [email protected] 3602 23rd Avenue West Armagh BT61 9D Planetariums Planetarium Hamburg [email protected] Bradenton, Florida Northern Ireland Agnès Acker Hindenburgstraße 1 b 34205 USA United Kingdom Observatoire de Strasbourg D-22303 Hamburg Middle Atlantic +1 941-746-3522 +44 (0)2837 524725 11, rue de l’université Deutschland Planetarium +1 941-750-9497 fax +44 (0)2837 526187 fax 67000 Strasbourg France +49 (40) 428 86 52-21 Society [email protected] +44 (0)771 0013453 cell +03 (90) 24 24 67 +49 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Patty Seaton www.sepadomes.org [email protected] +03 (90) 24 24 17 fax +49 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax H. B. Owens Science Center www.armaghplanet.com [email protected] +49 (40) 172-40 86 133 9601 Greenbelt Road Southwestern [email protected] thomas.kraupe@ Lanham-Seabrook, Maryland Association of Executive Secretary planetarium-hamburg.de 20706 USA Planetariums Lee Ann Hennig www.rdp-planetrium.de +1 301-918-8750 Tony Butterfield Planetarium, Thomas +1 301-918-8753 fax Houston Museum of Jefferson High School Association of Mexican European/ [email protected] Natural Science for Science and Technology Planetariums Mediterranean www.maps-planetarium.org One Hermann Circle 6560 Braddock Road Ignacio Castro Pinal Planetarium Houston, Texas 77581 USA Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 Association +1 713 639-4637 +1 703-750-8380 C.P. 01490, México Dennis Simopoulos Nordic Planetarium +1 713 639-4681 fax +1 703-750-5010 fax D.F. México Eugenides Planetarium Association [email protected] [email protected] +52 (55) 55 24 51 50 Syngrou Avenue-Amfithea Lars Broman +52 (55) 55 24 01 40 fax Athens Greece Teknoland Ukranian Treasurer and [email protected] +30 (1) 941 1181 Stångtjärnsv 132 Planetariums +30 (1) 941 7372 fax SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden Association Membership Chair [email protected] +46 2310 177 Klim Churyumov Shawn Laatsch [email protected] [email protected] Kiev Republican Planetarium ‘Imiloa Astronomy Association of Spanish www.teknoland.se 57/3 Velyka Center of Hawai’i Planetariums Great Lakes Vasyikivska Street 600 Imiloa Place Javier Armentia Planetarium Pacific Planetarium 03150 Kiev Ukraine Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Planetario de Pamplona Association Association +380 442 87 27 81 fax +1 808-969-9735 Sancho Ramirez, 2 Dave Weinrich Gail Chaid +1 808-969-9748 fax E-31008 Pamplona Minnesota State Independence Planetarium [email protected] Navarra Spain University-Moorhead 1776 Educational Park Drive +34 948 260 004 1104 7th Avenue South San Jose +34 948 260 056 Moorhead California 95133 USA +34 948 261 919 fax Minnesota 56563 USA +1 408-928-9604 [email protected] +1 218-477-2969 +1 408-926-9515 fax gestion@pamplonetario. [email protected] [email protected] infonego-cio.com [email protected] Great Plains Planetarium Planetarium Association Society of India Australasian Jack Dunn Gopinath Subramanian Planetarium Ralph Mueller Planetarium Director-Astronomer Society University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Science Martin Bush 210 Morrill Hall Ratchaborikanukroh School Melbourne Planetarium Lincoln, Nebraska Amper Muang, 2 Booker Street 68588-0375 USA Ratchaburi- 70000 Thailand Spotswood 3015 +1 402-472-2641 +66 32 326156 Victoria, Australia +1 402-475-8899 fax +66 90 131081 +61 (3) 93924503 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.spacelaser.com/gppa [email protected]

2 Planetarian December 2007 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Mailing Address Awards Committee Conference Host-2008 Membership Committee Lars Broman Dr. Paul Knappenberger, President Shawn Laatsch, Chair Teknoland Adler Planetarium & As- Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii International Planetarium Stångtjärnsv 132 tronomy Museum 600 Imiloa Place Society SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden 1300 South Lake Shore Drive Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +46 2310 177 Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA +1 808-969-9735 c/o Shawn Laatsch [email protected] +1 312-922-7827 reception +1 808-969-9748 fax Treasurer/Membership www.teknoland.se +1 312-322-2257 fax [email protected] Chair [email protected] Conference Committee www.adlerplanetarium.org Publications Committee Imiloa Astronomy Center Susan Reynolds Button Dr. Dale W. Smith, chair of Hawaii Quarks to Clusters Elections Committee BGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman Hall 600 Imiloa Place 8793 Horseshoe Lane Steve Mitch, Chair Physics &Astronomy Dept. Chittenango, New York 13037 USA Benedum Planetarium Bowling Green State University Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +1 315-687-5371 Oglebay Park Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA +1 315-432-4523 fax Wheeling, West Virginia 26003 USA +1 419-372-8666 [email protected] +1 304-243-4034 +1 419-372-9938 fax IPS Web Site: +1 304-243-4110 fax [email protected] www.ips-planetarium. Finance Committee [email protected] org President, Past President, Presi- dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary Please notify the Editor of any changes on these Ad Hoc Committees two pages. Contact the Treasurer/ Armand Spitz Media Distribution Committee Script Contest Committee Planetarium Education Thomas W. Kraupe, IPS contact person Steve Tidey, Coordinator Membership Chair for in- Fund Planetarium Hamburg 58 Prince Avenue dividual member address Finance Committee Hindenburgstraße 1 b Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN England changes and general cir- D-22303 Hamburg United Kingdom Education Committee Deutschland [email protected] culation and billing ques- Dr. Brock Schroeder, Chair +49 40 - 428 86 52-21 tions. Strickler Planetarium and Observatory +49 40 - 428 86 52-99 fax Strategic Planning Committee Olivet Nazarene University +49 40 - 4279 24-850 e-fax British Association of Planetaria One University Avenue +49 40 - 172-40 86 133 Tom Mason, Chair Bourbonnais, Illinois 60914 USA thomas.kraupe@plan- Armagh Planetarium +1 815-939-5361 etarium-hamburg.de College Hill +1 815-939-5071 fax Armagh BT61 9DB Northern Ireland [email protected] United Kingdom Outreach Committee +44 (0)2837 524725 Full-Dome Video Committee Jon W. Elvert, Chair +44 (0)2837 526187 fax Ryan Wyatt, Chair Irene W. Pennington Planetarium +44 (0)771 0013453 cell California Academy of Sciences Louisiana Art & Science Museum [email protected] 875 Howard Street 100 South River Road www.armaghplanet.com San Francisco, CA 94103 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA The Planetarian (ISN 0090- (10 415-321-8156 +1 225-344-5272 3213) is published quarterly [email protected] +1 225-214-4027 fax Technology Committee [email protected] [email protected] Karen Klamczynski by the International Planetar- Evans & Sutherland ium Society. ©2007, Interna- History Committee Planetarium Digital Theater Division tional Planetarium Society, John Hare, IPS Historian Development Group 770 Komas Drive Ash Enterprises Ken Wilson, Chair Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 USA Inc., all rights reserved. Opin- 3602 23rd Avenue West Ethyl Universe Planetarium +1 801-588-7409 ions expressed by authors Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA Science Museum of Virginia +1 801-588-4520 fax +1 941-746-3522 2500 West Broad Street [email protected] are personal opinions and are +1 941-750-9497 fax Richmond, Virginia 23220 USA www.es.com not necessarily the opinions [email protected] +1 804-864-1429 of the International Plan- +1 804-864-1560 fax International [email protected] Web Committee etarium Society, its officers, Relations Committee [email protected] Alan Gould, Chair or agents. Acceptance of Martin George, Chair Holt Planetarium advertisements, announce- Launceston Planetarium Lawrence Hall of Science Queen Victoria Museum Portable University of California ments, or other material Wellington Street Planetarium Committee Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA does not imply endorsement Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Susan Reynolds Button, Chair +1 510-643-5082 +61 3 6323 3777 Quarks to Clusters +1 510-642-1055 fax by the International Planetar- +61 3 6323 3776 fax 8793 Horseshoe Lane [email protected] ium Society, its officers or [email protected] Chittenango, NY 13037 agents. The Editor welcomes +1 315-687-5371 Job Information Service [email protected] items for consideration for Subcommittee publication. Please consult (Professional Services Committee) Professional “Guidelines for Contributors” Steve Fentress, Chair Services Committee Strasenburgh Planetarium Mike Murray, Chair at www.ips-planetarium.org/ Rochester Museum & Science Center Clark Planetarium planetarian/guidelines.html. 657 East Avenue 110 South 400 West Rochester, New York 14607 USA Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA The Editor reserves the right +1 585-271-4552 ext. 409 +1 801-456-4949 to edit any manuscript to (1 )585-271-7146 fax +1 801-456-4928 fax suit this publication’s needs. [email protected] [email protected]

December 2007 Planetarian 3 In Front of the Console Call for IPS Officer

burg. His book on the history of modern plan- Nominations etariums is also featured in Reviews (page 54), and he’s the IPS contact person for the Media The time has come to begin the process of selecting candidates to run for the offic- Distribution Committee. es of the International Planetarium Soci- Associate Editor Lars Broman, represent- ety. These offices are president-elect, trea- ing the Nordic Planetarium Association, not surer/membership chair, and executive only takes care of compiling the International secretary. The terms of office are 2009- News, but also is chair of the IPS Awards Com- 2010. Remember, the successful candidate mittee. Lars, by the way, has new mail and for president-elect will serve a six-year email addresses following his retirement from commitment: as president-elect for 2009- Dalarna University. 2010, as president for 2011-2012; and then Steve Tidey debuts in his new role as edu- as past-president for 2013-2014. cation columnist with this issue. Anita Sohus The IPS Elections Committee has been activated and is ready to officially begin and John Schroer were given time off for good accepting nominations for these offices behavior and to keep them in the good graces from any current IPS member. We would of their employers, who actually expect them like to have more than one person nomi- to work. Imagine that. nated for each office. Please remember, all Also missing from this issue is the Forum nominees for the IPS offices must be cur- column. I agreed to step in as temporary re- rent IPS members. placement until a new editor was found, but I The deadline for accepting nomina- made an executive decision and decided to let tions is Friday, May 9, 2008. Sharon Shanks the topic generate more responses now that The Elections Committee will review the very large Triple Conjunction Conference the nominees and verify that they are eli- gible, and then send the list of nominees to Ward Beecher Planetarium is over. Our new Forum editor, Gary Lazich the IPS Executive Council. The Elections from the Russell C. Davis Planetarium in Jack- Youngstown State University Committee will formally submit them to Youngstown, OH 44555 USA son, Mississippi, will be happy to receive your the IPS membership during the business responses at [email protected]. meeting of the IPS conference in Chicago, [email protected] Because it is so important, I urge you to seri- Illinois. At that time, additional nomina- ously think about the topic and respond: tions will be accepted from the floor. I’ve had a whirlwind couple of months: Ballots and candidate biographies and conferences in September (WAC) and October The number of people attending some statements will be mailed in mid-Septem- (Triple Conjunction), two new shows to pro- planetarium conferences has, compara- ber, 2008. The returned ballots will be duce, and the Planetarian deadline, ever-loom- tively speaking, hit a few troughs in recent counted and audited and the results will be announced in December. ing (and then arriving and sliding by). I’ll have years. Notable, but nothing terribly seri- Please think carefully about this very to admit that this column is always the last ous. What should be done to reverse this important process as it directly shapes the to be written. That does not, and I stress the trend? Or do you want it reversed? Is this a future of your organization. Please submit not, give other writers permission to be late as sign from a growing percentage of the pro- the name of your nominee (and office) to well! fession that they don’t necessarily feel the any of the following members of the IPS I like to have a feeling for the material in need to go to conferences anymore? After Elections Committee no later than May 9, a particular issue before I step in front of my all, the profession is gradually bringing 2008. console. One thing I learned from this issue is in a new generation of planetarians, and Steven Mitch, chair, Benedum Planetar- that being a volunteer and working for some- perhaps they’re not the conference type. ium, Oglebay Resort, Wheeling, West thing we’re passionate about seems to infect What do you think? Virginia, 26003 USA, fax +1 304-243- people in the International Planetarium So- 4110, [email protected] Tatsuyuki Ari, Planetarium, Katsushika ciety. Both President Susan Button and Past I’m happy to report that the “25 Years Ago” City Museum, 3-25-1, Shiratori, Katsu- President Martin George are amazing in their column will be back next issue under the edi- shika-ku, Tokyo 125-0063, Japan, fax +81 travels and, as a result, reaching out to people torship of Thomas W. Hamilton, now retired. 3 5680 0849, [email protected] all over the world. Susan reports about her vis- You can learn more about Tom’s fascinating Tony Fairall, Planetarium, South African it to Slovakia in Mobile News starting on page life at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wil- Museum, PO Box 61, 8000 Capetown, 48; be sure to check the picture of Joaquin liam_Hamilton. South Africa, fax +27 21 650 3352, fai- Guixa reading the Planetarian. Martin, mean- Miles Allen wins the prize for most men- [email protected] while, was in Russia. I’m sure his camera never tioned and pictured in this issue. I’ll allow you Jon Bell, Hallstrom Planetarium, Indian had a chance to cool down. See his report and the joy of discovering all the times he appears. River Community College, 3209 Vir- ginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida, 34981 pictures starting on page 24. Miles, from CosmoDome, has been described USA, fax +1 561-462-4796; [email protected]. While (quite happily) adding the Associ- as the “master of mirth,” and his stories from us ation of Brazilian Planetariums to the list of Australia, delivered with perfect comedic tim- Wayne Wyrick, Kirkpatrick Planetarium, Affiliate Representatives, I also noted that ing and that great (to my American ears) ac- Omniplex Science Museum, 2100 N. many representatives wear more than one IPS cent, were one of the highlights for me of the 52nd Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, hat. Our cover story this issue was written by Western Alliance Conference in Alaska. What 73111 USA, fax +1 405-602-3768; wizard- Council of German Planetariums Representa- a way to warm oneself after freezing your feet [email protected] tive Thomas Kraupe from Planetarium Ham- while watching incredible aurora.

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December 2007 Planetarian 5 The Enigma of the Sky Disk of Nebra: A Unique Opportunity for Planetariums

Thomas W. Kraupe Planetarium Hamburg Hindenburgstr. 1b D-22303 Hamburg, Germany [email protected]

Abstract: It was a world-wide sensation when it was brought to the at- tention of the public in 2002. It was featured in National Geographic in 2004, became the focus of a museum exhibit in several Eu- ropean cities, and is now rated as one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last century. “It” is the Sky Disc of Nebra, and its purpose, when it was crafted more than 3,600 years ago, seems to have been a means kept the sun, moon, and stars in synch—suggesting a level of astronomical

knowledge in the Central European Bronze Age matching that Thomas Kraupe of contemporary Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. From a crime scene in Switzerland to long buried evidence of astronomy knowledge on the hilltops near Nebra… what a storyline for planetariums!

6 Planetarian December 2007 The development of the Sky Disc of Nebra was in five stages:. Phase 1: The Disc has 32 small round gold dots, a large circular plate and a large crescent-shaped plate attached. Phase 2: Two bands each spanning an angle of 82 degrees were added, made of gold from a dif- ferent origin. Phase 3: Another golden arc was added at the bottom, the “solar barge,” again made of gold from a different origin. Phase 4: 39 holes were punched out around its perimeter, each approximately 3 mm in diameter. The Sky Disc was found in Phase 5: The Eastern band was lost 1999 by two (now convicted) treasure looters ©LDA Sachsen-Anhalt, Zeichnung Karol Schauer; used with permission near Nebra in the German federal state Sax- ony-Anhalt, about 180 kilometers southwest of Berlin. It was seized in 2002, along with oth- er Bronze Age objects, by Harald Meller, chief archaeologist of that federal state, in a dramat- ic police operation in Basel, Switzerland. Because its provenance has been clouded The “Hamburg-Halle Connection” tarium Hamburg and expert in ancient astron- by being looted, initial controversy centered In early 2004, Harald Meller, director of the omy, became a member of the team of scien- on its authenticity. The original looters were Landesmuseum fuer Vorgeschichte Sachsen- tists trying to puzzle out the disc’s function. tracked down and convinced to show archae- Anhalt (the State Museum for Prehistory) in Using the recently expanded rendering and ologists where they had found the disc and Halle and keeper of the Nebra Sky Disc, pre- modeling capacities of the planetarium, the other metal objects, such as swords, jewelry, sented one of his awe-inspiring talks at Plan- digital visualization group began their first and tools, on the summit of the Mittelberg etarium Hamburg. That evening, it struck tests on how they could communicate these Hill near Nebra. Since then, dating has shown both him and the author of this article that results via immersive media. that the objects had been deposited 3,600 the digital planetarium dome would be a per- years ago.1 This date makes it the oldest visual fect tool for communicating these emerging Recalling Bronze Age Skies representation of the cosmos known to date.2 archaeoastronomical findings to the public. The 30-cm (12-inch) bronze disc weighs 2 But even more, thanks to an interdisciplin- Right away and with a handshake, both Ba- kilograms has a blue-green patina and is in- ary team of German scientists that includes varians came to terms and agreed to bring to- laid with several golden objects. However, astronomers from Planetarium Hamburg, the gether their teams—archaeologists and muse- the real sensation is that these golden deco- purpose of the Sky Disc of Nebra is no longer um specialists in Halle plus astronomers and rations form a picture—something complete- a matter of speculation: this unique bronze- planetarium specialists in Hamburg—to create ly unheard of from the Bronze Age. One could age object had been used as an advanced astro- planetarium shows about the mysteries of the imagine such a find in Egypt or Mesopotamia, nomical clock for the harmonization of solar Sky Disc. A formal cooperation agreement was but not in Central Europe, Central Germany. and lunar calendars. drafted and signed later. With this agreement, The question to answer became what does Planetarium Hamburg was granted the exclu- each element of the picture mean, and what sive rights to create a planetarium show that is, if any, their combined meaning? 1 Saxony-Anhalt State Archaeochemist Christian displays the Nebra Sky Disc.3 The large circular golden object on the disc Wunderlich: “I know a few people will never believe is easily interpreted as either the sun or the full that the Disc is real. It will be like the people who Rahlf Hansen, astronomer on staff at Plane- think the moon landing was a fake. It’s impossible to moon; the crescent as the crescent moon; and change everyone’s mind.” 3 It is important to know, that in order to limit the the 32 golden dots as stars. But Professor Wolf- 2 Although an impression of the cosmos dating from flood of mainly non-scientific commercial and pri- hard Schlosser, archaeoastronomer at the Uni- 2,400 BC has been found in Egypt, it was the inven- vate businesses using the Nebra Sky Disc and to en- versity Bochum and leading astronomer in tion of an artist and not an accurate depiction of the sure quality control on all “products,” the state of the research team, could not match the distri- sky. The painting was found in the burial chamber in Saxony-Anhalt has registered thedisc as a trademark the pyramid of the Egyptian pharaoh Unas, which is and is sueing those who show unauthorized depic- bution of these stars with any of the familiar decorated with stars. tions of the disc. constellations. They seem to form just a dec-

December 2007 Planetarian 7 ed the “Mul-Apin” collection purities. To make space for these bands, one of Babylonian documents star was moved from the left side to the center from the 7th and 6th cen- and two stars on the right were covered over, turies B.C. These cuneiform so that 30 remain visible. The two bands span writings represent a compen- an angle of 82°, correctly indicating the an- dium of astronomical knowl- gle between the positions of sunrise along the edge from the earliest times. eastern and sunset along the western horizons A calculation rule which at summer and winter solstice at the latitude operates with a lunar crescent of the Mittelberg (51° N). for synchronizing the solar By identifying the slight north-south asym- year with the 11-day shorter metry in these bands caused by refraction, the lunar year caught his atten- research team felt sure enough to have an ad- tion: “If the First Crescent ap- ditional proof for the correct orientation of pears by the Seven Sisters star the disc: north is up and west is to the right. cluster, the Pleiades, during With the two golden bands, the sky disc turns the spring month, in which into a “wrap around” hemispheric depiction the year begins, then this is a of the sky and hence happens to be probably normal year. If, however, dur- the first ever “dome original” on this planet! ing this month the Moon does You cannot imagine how impressive it is to not appear in the Pleiades un- project the circular image of the sky disc as til the third day, it forms a a high-resolution “all sky” on a planetarium wider crescent—a signal that dome. The golden bands are easily positioned a leap month must be add- along the eastern and western horizons and, ed.” Indeed, this very leap rule accompanied with the corresponding daily seems to be encoded on the paths of the sun, are almost self-explaining. disc in the form of a remark- It is important to note that if the golden ho- ably simple memogram: the rizon bands mark the solstices, then the sky width of the lunar crescent disc really could have been made in Europe, on the Star Disc corresponds right at the place where it was found. Indeed, to the Babylonian leap sig- detailed chemical analysis revealed that the nal, which determined when metal for the disc did not come from the Med- a 13th month should be add- iterranean area, but from a Bronze Age copper ed to the lunar year. It hence mine in the Austrian Alps. This is an indica- Dr. Harald Meller with the master copy of the Nebra Sky Disc dur- appears that the Bronze Age tion that the disc itself was made here in Cen- ing a press conference at Planetarium Hamburg. Image courtesy of sky gazers had a sophisticat- tral Europe, along with the observations. Planetarium Hamburg. ed sense of time; they already Yet another golden element was added lat- knew what the Babylonians er to the disc, again made of gold from a differ- orative background—except for an outstand- would describe only a thousand years later! ent origin. It is a bow-shaped element at the ing group of seven dots. Could this be the Ple- The Bronze Age stargazers would hold the bottom, hence at the southern side of the Ne- iades? Schlosser turned to the oldest images of “Nebra clock” against the sky and observe the bra sky. With its detailed structure it reveals it- the Pleiades that he could find on tablets and phases and position of the moon and the Ple- self as a “solar barge.” Representations of such scrolls from the east. They looked strikingly iades. The intercalary month was inserted a ship are common in Bronze Age Egypt and similar to this Rosetta-like group of seven dots when what they saw in the sky corresponded Scandinavia and express the belief that a ship on the disc! to the depiction on the disc they were hold- carries the sun across the sky. The Nebra Disc ing in their hands. This happened every two is the first representation of this concept in Marking Time with the Pleiades to three years. central Europe. European Bronze Age people In many cultures, this star cluster locat- Following these findings, the 3,600-year- really may have been as sophisticated as the ed near the ecliptic was an important mark- old Sky Disc of Nebra appears to be one of the civilizations of Egypt and the East. Support for er for the seasons. Dating back 3,600 years world’s first “astronomical clocks”—a time- that argument also comes from another spec- ago, the full moon stood next to the Pleiades keeper that told Bronze Age people when to tacular discovery made nearby. at the time of harvest in fall, while the cres- plant seeds and when to make trades. But the cent moon met them at the beginning of power of this knowledge and understanding The Link to Goseck their agricultural year in spring. According to of the disc was probably restricted to only a Just 25 km away from where the 3,600-year- Schlosser´s quite convincing interpretation, very small group of people. old bronze Nebra Disc had been discovered, the large circular object should hence be the The research team also discovered that in air camera prospecting in 1991 revealed a near- full moon next to the Pleiades. the approximately 400 years that the disc was ly circular ditch of about 71 m in diameter Based on Schlosser´s findings, Hansen went in use, its status had evolved and the knowl- with three gaps in the north, southeast, and a step further. He wanted to explain the thick- edge about the lunar calendar’s shortage of southwest. Following the excavation and re- ness of the crescent on the sky disc of Nebra. days was lost along the way. construction of the site, located near the vil- He wondered why it is not identical with the lage named Goseck, it became clear that this very thin moon when first sighted as new The First Dome Original is one of the oldest holy sites, and one of the moon. In his quest to explain why sky watch- Two golden bands were added at opposite earliest sites for systematic observations of the ers in Nebra created a sky map which did show edges of the disc, constructed from gold of a sky, discovered in Europe. Through carbon a four- or five-day-old moon, Hansen consult- different origin, as shown by its chemical im- dating of two arrow heads and animal bones

8 Planetarian December 2007 found within the site’s circular compounds, archaeologists from Halle have been able to determine the date of the site’s origins. They say that, with all likelihood, it can be traced back to the period between 5000 and 4800 B.C. This would make the Goseck site the old- est astronomical observatory in Europe,4 be- cause archaeologists and astronomers could prove that the two southern gates of the circle ditch construction exactly mark the points of sunrise and sunset on the day of the winter solstice at the beginning of the 5th millenni- um before Christ. In addition, sunrise and sun- set for the summer solstice are also marked in this grand circle. At the winter solstice in December 2006, the reconstructed Goseck site opened to the public as part of “Himmelswege,” an extensive system of pathways connecting archaeoastro- nomical highlights in Saxony-Anhalt. Now everybody can prove for themselves that as- tronomical observations were indeed made in the very region where the sky disc was found— and even 3,000 years before it was created. Nearby excavations of wood-and-clay hous- es have turned up a variety of grains and ev- idence of domesticated goats, sheep, pigs, and cows. Farmers reached this part of the world some 500 years before they built the solar ob- servatory. The natural riches of this region— copper, salt and fertile soils—later formed the power basis for the resident Early Bronze Age princes, who exchanged goods from all re- gions of Europe and probably even beyond.5 Their status symbols—extensive bronze trea- sures, gold jewelry and weapons—were found nearby in mighty tombs. By the time the Sky Disc was buried, it also had 39 holes punched out around its perim- eter, each approximately 3 mm in diameter. These perforations on the edge were probably used to fix and carry the disc like a symbol or flag in front of its owner. It hence seems that, in the end, the disc became a mere cult object before it was deliberately buried near Nebra. Throughout all this, the Sky Disc still re- veals that knowledge about the cycles of the sky seems to have reached a surprising climax in the Bronze Age.

The Time Machine: Arche Nebra 2007 Top: Sunrise over Goseck, a scene from the fulldome show for Arche Nebra; courtesy of and © Plane- It took three years, until June 2007, for the tarium Hamburg. Bottom: Previewing a scene within the dome; © Juraj Lipták, Landesamt für Denkmalp- idea of a planetarium show about the myster- flege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle ies of the Nebra Sky Disc to finally become re- itor center is located only a few hundred me- the discovery and the story behind the disc. ality, and it did so with the inauguration of ters away from the top of the Mittelberg Hill, The clever design of the exhibits, ranging “Arche Nebra.” This wonderful futuristic vis- where the disc had been excavated. Like a from puppet plays to virtual reality, appeals to modern tribute to the symbols represented a wide range of audiences, from families with 4 Some 3,000 years before the last construction on the Sky Disc, this breathtaking building children to scientists. phase of the megaliths of Stonehenge in Great Brit- seems to hover over a beautiful scenic loca- The highlight exhibit is the immersive ain. tion at the banks of the river Unstrut, bringing “time travel-planetarium experience” de- to mind a solar barge or a crescent moon. De- 5 If there had been a knowledge transfer with the veloped in cooperation with Planetarium Mediterranean or the Far East, it remains to be dis- signed by Swiss architects Holzer-Kobler, this Hamburg. Following a European-wide com- covered. “Nebra Ark” is a unique place to learn about petition, Sky-Skan was selected as prime con-

December 2007 Planetarian 9 tractor for equipping this perience: the visit of the actual site where the new immersive theatre. A disc was found, located just a few minutes up- set of twin-DLP projectors hill to the top of the Mittelberg. This site ap- (a joint development by pears to have had deep spiritual significance Sky-Skan and Carl Zeiss in the Bronze Age and the special aura of the Jena) projects the stream site can now be directly experienced. A 31-me- of digital images with a ter observation tower has been erected and of- resolution of 1280x1280 fers visitors a bird’s eye view on the plateau pixels onto a 7-meter, 28- and enables them to look over the treetops degree-tilt Spitz dome. towards the mountain chain of the Harz, es- With a pixel size of 8 mm, pecially towards the Brocken and Kyffhäuser, the perceived resolution as well as to the Petersberg near Halle. All of is surprisingly good. these peaks seem to have been used by Bronze The 23-minute show Age sky watchers, in a time when there were takes the visitors back to no trees on the Mittelberg, as markers for sig- the time when the Sky nificant sunrise- and sunset-directions. For ex- Disc was created. Under ample, at every equinox the sun sets behind the starry sky long ago, the Brocken, the highest mountain peak of it visualizes the links be- the Harz range. Key solar alignments are now tween the different sym- marked by lines on the ground and can be eas- bols encoded on the disc ily identified from the top of the tower. and objects in the sky ob- In the years to come, Meller and his team served by Bronze Age peo- of archaeologists will continue to dig on this ple. Tim Florian Horn and fascinating Mittelberg hill; there are about his digital production 1,000 barrows, burial grounds for warriors and team at Planetarium Ham- princes, in the nearby forests. We cannot even burg have taken great care guess what discoveries may lie ahead. to accurately recreate en- vironments and locations The Past and the Future: Equally from the past, including a Exciting flyover of the Goseck So- The original Nebra Sky Disc is currently not lar Observatory at sunrise. on display; it is safely stored at the Landes- Quite impressive is also museum in Halle. But its presentation to the the music composed by public will come on May 23, 2008, when, af- Alexander van Buben- ter extensive renovations, this great museum heim (maid music, Los will reopen and present the Sky Disc as a per- Angeles) for this show. Al- manent highlight in their new Bronze Age ex- exander focused on basic hibition. This exhibition is very likely to draw instruments, like drums enormous crowds from around the world to and flutes, which have the largely unknown but wonderful city of been in use since ancient Halle, and hopefully also along the Himmels- times, thus creating a wege to Arche Nebra and Goseck. very special atmosphere Also in 2008, the still ongoing partnership in this 5.1 surround sound between Meller’s team in Halle and the plan- setting. Audience reac- etarium team in Hamburg will lead to an ex- tions and reviews by the tended 45-minute digital fulldome show, press give the show high which will make use of breathtaking high-res- marks; sound and imag- olution, three-dimensional scans of the Ne- es blend together and cre- bra Disc and include other new findings and ate an almost authentic dramatic elements. The show will premiere in experience, seeming as if Hamburg in September 2008 and will be made you were in an immersive available to other planetariums worldwide. time machine. There is great potential to tie the story of However, Arche Ne- the Nebra Disc with other world-class sites in bra is not just an exciting archeoastronomy (pyramids, temples, stone- museum with a planetari- circles) and to create further content for plan- um; it is the starting point etariums, which is meaningful for cultures for an almost spiritual ex- (Please see Sky Disc on page 23)

Top: Visitor Center Nebra Ark near Mittelberg where the Sky Disc was found. The center explains the background to the disc and gives an immersive journey into ist secrets with its own planetarium. Center: Exhibits at Arche Nebra and Bottom: the observation tower on top of Mittelberg with line towards sunset on May 1. © Ju- raj Lipták, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landes- museum für Vorgeschichte Halle

10 Planetarian December 2007 BIZARRE HAS A LOCATION.

STRANGE HAS A PLACE.

WEIRD HAS A HOME.

An immersive 3D tour of extrasolar planets. Now available: clarkplanetarium.org/distribution December 2007 801-456-4949 Planetarian 11 Defining the Dome

Emil Khalisi Mildred-Harnack-Weg 3 Giessen, D-35396, Germany

The distinctive features of what a plane- tarium is meant to be were defined by Keller Abstract: One stable parameter for characterizing the size of a (1984) through three “cardinal elements”: planetarium is the diameter of the dome, though there exist more alternatives. We present an accurate defini- 1. a horizontal, hemispheric projection dome; tion of the three common classes “large,” “middle,” 2. the projection of a geocentric and/or and “small,” and give a clear boundary for their mean- topocentric view of the starry sky at ings. Our definition is based on the statistical analysis any latitude; and of the French, German, and Italian planetarium lists, 3. the simulated motions of celestial bod- Emil Khalisi ies back and forth in time. which are assumed to be complete down to the very small institutions. We hope to avoid misunderstandings when es- The realization of these properties comes in timating their local impact or displaying them on a map. many shapes and sizes, ranging from a small, umbrella-like facility of hardly 3 meters to huge domes providing space for several hun- only two of them are stable against arbitrari- there is also the facility at Zeiss-Grossplane- dred visitors. Such a planetarium may shelter ness: the diameter of the dome (D) and the tarium Berlin & Archenholdsternwarte with a an opto-mechanical star projector (now being type of the projector, particularly, its power dome of 23 meters and 295 seats, the same as called the classical style), as well as a number output. The number of seats (P), often men- Jena. But Berlin, however, has concentric seat- of projectors for a digital presentation (virtu- tioned in the planetarium’s description, turns ing and no stage, making it dissimilar enough al style). out to be of little significance, as the following that it cannot be compared with the two oth- Difficulties arise when evaluating a plan- discussion illustrates. er large domes. etarium’s prominence, especially when seen We analyzed the data of the planetariums At the lower side, the different values of through the eyes of the public, who are accus- in Germany, where we have a complete list of seats for the 6- and 8- meter domes are strik- tomed classifying them to large-, middle-, and 99 installations, even down to the very small ing. The reason is that the nominal capacity small-sized buildings. But the size of the build- devices. Five inflatable and six domes that are of a planetarium might have been extended ing does not always matter, since you can also not in use were removed from consideration, by additional chairs for enlarging the audi- classify size based on dome sizes, the number allowing us to deal with 88 fixed and operat- ence. In some cases there are benches instead of seats and seatings, the areas of the facility, ing planetaria. of seats, such that just an approximate capac- or anything else. Fig. 1 shows the correlation of the dome ity can be provided. Such kind of unreliabili- Presently, there are at least five different sizes with their corre- criteria in use to sort planetariums into class- sponding number of es. Hagar (1980) lists famous Zeiss planetari- seats. Ideally, one ex- ums around the world with a dome diameter pects a quadratic func- of at least 15 m. A survey of Japanese plane- tion, for the ground tariums by Yamada (1991) provides four class- area is proportional es in equal 5-m intervals. In his booklet, Wil- to D2. This is roughly son (1994) confines a medium-size dome from achieved; however, de- 30 to 50 feet (10 to 16 meters). The Carl Zeiss viations occur at the company makes use of both dome size and upper and the lower number of seats, while Goto Inc. ties its projec- end of the curve. tor models with the approximate dome size. As for the upper side, Inferences within the ranges are a common the two largest plane- practice. tariums, Jena (23 me- Thus, we must ask: What does the term ters and 295 seats) and “small planetarium” actually mean? Is there Hamburg (21 meters, a particular size for an institution in order to 254 seats), have unidi- get a certain level of attention? The lacking of rectional alignment of a uniform convention urges us to find a basis the seats, leaving some for an impartial classification. space for a small stage. Fig. 1: The correlation of the number of seats with the dome size for 88 That reduces the num- German planetaria. The function is roughly proportional to the surface Parameters for the Size ber of seats, of course. area. Deviations are due to improper usage (see text for details). All fig- ures by the author. A closer look at the parameters reveals that For completeness,

12 Planetarian December 2007 ty gives rise to using other parameters than the number of seats for comparing planetariums.

Determination of the Classes The distribution of dome sizes in Germany is shown in Fig. 2. Two regions are conspicuous: around the value of 20 meters and the two peaks beneath 9 meters. The medium-sized buildings are supposed to fill the range in between. We compared this histogram with the analogues of the French and Italian planetariums. The listings are available from the web pag- es of the Association des Planétariums de Langue Francaise (APLF) and Associazione Amici die Planetari (AAP), respectively. Again, mo- bile planetariums were removed. Some statistics from our three data sets are given in Table 1. The individual distribution of domes in each country appears very similar to the German histogram, except for a little shift of the maximum in the regime of the small planetarium. Thus, we com- bined all three lists and present a total of 242 planetariums in Fig. 3. Fig. 2: Distribution of dome sizes for planetaria in Germany. They represent almost half of the European sample as known to us. The different classes become more obvious now. The shape of the histogram pilots us to three categories with ranges as given in Ta- ble 2. Optionally, a subcategory of the small planetariums can be introduced for portable and inflatable devices. Their sizes may dif- fer between approximately 3 and approximately 5 m. We call them “school planetariums,” however. We cross-checked this result with the second parameter, the pro- jector performance. Naturally, it is an indirect measure for the di- mensions of the dome, for it would not make sense to construct a great building and place a small device inside, and vice versa. But how reliable is this parameter for obtaining a class? A graphic of the projector types against dome siz- es is shown in Fig. 4. We constrained to the German instal- lations and excluded digital projectors as well as self-made equipment from the database, such that 77 classical star projectors remained. It is visible in the graphic that projector mod- el reflects the category of the planetarium dome surprisingly well. For example, the most powerful Zeiss models (Universarium, Cos- Fig. 3: Accumulated distribution of dome sizes for French, German, and morama and the older Mark versions) are all installed in domes Italian planetariums. Three classes are suggested: a large type (blue colour, above 18 meters. Only in the regime between 10 and 12 meters, the _D_<= 18 m), middle-sized (green, 10 m <= _D_<18 m), and small planetar- situation seems a bit tricky: these domes can house an M-1015, ZKP- iums (orange, _D_< 10 m). 3, ZKP-4, or a Spitz-512 (one case). So, if we face the power of the projector as a parameter of choice, then we will get the same arrangement of planetariums into catego- ries as in Table 2 with almost the same members. Just three objects (three lowest green dots) would have to be downgraded, because the projector would indicate a building of a “small” type, although it is not. Although the star projector does not offer a unique relation, it gives a clue to the category. Since there are several planetariums in the 10-meter category possessing a medium-type projector, we con- sider choosing this as the lower border for the intermediate catego- ry. If we shifted this border to 12 meters, more exceptions of the rule would be necessary.

Summary We surveyed the planetariums in France, Germany, and Italy to find a new definition of the terms “large,” “medium,” and “small” planetariums. The diameter of the dome turns out as the most stable parameter in making a definition. The number of seats is not suit- able for the estimation of the size. The separating borders between the three categories are placed at 10 m and 18 m, respectively. A gen- Fig. 4: Projector installations against dome sizes for 77 German planetari- ums. The colours indicate the category determined by the dome size ac- eral agreement on the classification will make quantitative compar- cording to Table 2. isons between planetariums easier. (Please see Defining on page 23 )

December 2007 Planetarian 13 Docent Anita Berkow stands in the central pit where “star masters” conduct sky tours. Note the celestial symbols inlaid in the tops of the walls. All photos by Anita Schlom; used with permission.

Combining the comfort of a planetarium and the original all dome sky Check out the stars on this dome

David Schlom Science Writer Northern California

For astronomy educator Kris Koenig, ne- ter with its raised rim — surrounding a central using a simple infrared clicker. cessity was literally the mother of invention. area where the docents (called “star masters”) Famed comet hunter Carolyn Spellman Koenig directs the small but well-equipped Ki- conduct their stellar programs. Shoemaker, widow of the great planetary sci- wanis Chico Community Observatory north What makes this unique facility especially entist Eugene Shoemaker, hails from the Chi- of Sacramento, California. On some nights vis- noteworthy is the interaction between the real co area. She was on hand to dedicate the Shoe- itors swamp the place, especially when there’s sky and 21st-century information technology. maker Open Sky Planetarium last November a bright comet or meteor shower in the sky. Each participant gets a small, hand-held moni- 17th. “We get 100 guests at a time during our nor- tor that displays an image from a Celestron 14- “I think this is a wonderful idea, and I am re- mal operating hours and more than 500 dur- inch telescope in the adjacent observatory. The ally honored,” said Shoemaker. “Gene would ing special events,” says Koenig. “So we started scope is coupled to a Starizona HyperStar lens have been thrilled as well. This is a great way doing constellation tours outside with green and Astrovid StellaCam II digital video camera, of getting people to appreciate the beauty of laser pointers to reduce the crowds around the creating a fast f/2 imaging system that captures the night sky, which is something that we telescopes. These are extremely popular, but I bright images of all the most popular deep-sky both shared.” thought we could do better than standing by objects. Kiwanis Chico Community Observatory the porta-potty and pointing out the Big Dip- The monitors offer more than live feeds is located in Bidwell Park, a stunning natural per and the Summer Triangle.” from the telescope. Preprogrammed graphics setting at the interface between the northern Koenig came up with a simple but elegant and animations can also be displayed, using Sacramento Valley and the canyons of volca- solution: an open-air “planetarium” in the software from Scala Broadcast Multimedia. nic mud and lava that abut the Sierra Nevada shape of a bowl, with comfortable, reclined Koenig, an Emmy-winning producer of as- and Cascade mountain ranges. Chico, a bus- seating for 60. Observatory docents conduct tronomy films, scripts complete planetarium tling college town, is one of California’s most sky tours there, freeing up space in the obser- shows. These combine real-time views from livable places, and the observatory consistent- vatory for another 60 guests to enjoy a tele- the telescope with educational video clips ly draws large crowds of individuals and fami- scopic observing experience. that convey complex ideas such as stellar evo- lies looking to strengthen their connection to The $50,000 project took four years of plan- lution and the expansion of the universe. science and nature. ning, public review, and construction. Koenig While the system currently requires coordi- “Bidwell Park has many wonderful trails, so raised money from businesses and individu- nation between two people — one operating we like to think of the observatory as just an- al donors in the community, and a local con- the telescope and another directing the pro- other of its trailheads,” says Koenig. “But this tractor offered his construction services at a gram — eventually the software will be con- one leads to the universe.” discount. The result is a concrete bowl 32 feet figured to allow one docent to pace the pro- 3 (9 /4 meters) in diameter — it resembles a cra- gram and control the telescope remotely Science writer Dave Schlom hosts the Northern Cal- ifornia Natural History Museum’s “Blue Dot Report” on National Public Radio affiliate KCHO 91.7 FM in Adapted from Sky & Telescope, August 2007; © 2007 New Track Media LLC. Reprinted with permission. Chico.

14 Planetarian December 2007 The observatory houses twin Celestron 14-inch Schmidt- Cassegrain telescopes on As- tro-Physics comput-erized mounts. The setup on the right is configured to broad- cast digital video images to small displays held by visitors to the outdoor planetarium nearby.

Observatory director Kris Koenig applauds comet hunter Carolyn Shoemaker, who grew up near Chico, at the dedication of the out- door planetarium in her honor last Novem- ber. Shoemaker is a research scientist at Low- ell Observatory.

The Shoemaker Open Sky Planetarium seats up to 60 people in concentric circles and is wheel- chair accessible. Visitors familiarize themselves with wireless hand-held devices that will display images from a nearby telescope after dark.

December 2007 Planetarian 15 16 Planetarian December 2007 Two guys— and a really big mission Lionel Ruiz and Daniel Audeon Association of French-Speaking Planetariums www.aplf-planetariums.info

The first guy, Lionel Ruiz, wanted to repro- position. It also inherits a lot of duce for the Association of French-Speaking information from the database, Planetariums (APLF) an accurate map of the such as the website’s direct link, planetariums of France. The other guy, Daniel size, and other important specifi- Audeon, wanted to go further and gather all cations. information on all planetariums worldwide. Individual “pins” to mark the As both guys were in charge of the APLF web- sites are differentiated by size (di- site, they got their heads together and pro- ameter of planetarium) and color duced a MySQL database maintained with the (static or mobile) to give quick-to- general scripting language PHP now contain- interpret global information. ing more than 1120 entries. It was a huge and crazy project The Planetariums in the World site can be but with a really amazing result! found at www.aplf-planetariums.info/index.p Have fun trying it and enjoy it as hp?onglet=planetariums&menu=world. The much as we enjoyed making it. For a free download of Google fields include longitude and latitude to gen- Earth™ to try for yourself, go to erate the French planetariums map and more earth.google.com. than 30 additional facts, such as orientation, number of seats, diameter, pictures, weblinks, emails, phones, and more.

Google Earth™ is fun. After this blatant ob- Top and center: Europe and servation, who among us has not tried to lo- North American planetariums; cate their own planetarium on this huge the sizes of the pins indicate size. Bottom: Google Earth™ earth-mapping program? And why not search screenshot showing the plane- for others worldwide? That’s what Audeon tariums in Japan. All images cour- wanted to do and tried to incorporate accu- tesy of the authors. rate geophysical data through the APLF data- base on the website. More than 965 have been filled to date. The actual problem is to collect information on Japanese and Russian struc- tures, as reading hiraganas and cyrilic are a lit- tle bit tricky. It takes a lot of time to locate some plane- tariums if the address is incomplete or if there is no online town map to locate it easily. This has been particularly difficult with some Afri- can countries. One planetarium in China took more than an hour to locate; not because of an address problem, but because the Google map wasn’t recent enough and the planetar- ium was still in construction—as revealed the image. Information on each location is output in a kml file, which is just an output of the data- base that is generated automatically by a pro- gram made for this purpose. It generates indi- vidual kml files for each element of the base and a complete file grouping each entry, for example, by continent, countries, and regions. But the kml doesn’t include just the name and

December 2007 Planetarian 17 The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum at night; coutesy of the Adler

Explore the Edge at IPS 2008 June 27-July 2, 2008 Chicago, Illinois USA Larry Ciupik, IPS2008 Project Manager Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum

We warmly extend this invitation for you ence highlight—an Indigenous Peoples Panel. venue showcases the magnificent Chicago to participate in the International Planetari- Native experts will discuss issues surrounding skyline viewed from the ideal vantage point um Society 2008 conference in Chicago. The indigenous sky knowledge, including how it is of Lake Michigan, along with good food and conference takes place at the Hyatt Regen- recovered and preserved and how they would conversation. cy McCormick Place and at the Adler Plane- like it to be displayed. tarium & Astronomy Museum and has some- Most papers, panels, and workshops will Optional Tours thing special for you, whether you think come from you, the IPS2008 delegates, so send IPS2008 will offer several optional tours to “Explore the Edge” refers to the “edge of the your paper submissions to papers@ips2008. enhance your trip to Chicago. universe,” “edge-u-tainment,” or “edge-u-cat- org when you register. Although many ses- On Monday, June 30, to Fermilab: On your ion” (with apologies to purists). sions may appeal to planetarians working in a free afternoon during the conference, take a The opening reception at the Adler features fixed-dome environment, others will feature behind-the-scenes tour of Fermi National Ac- behind-the-scenes tours of our exhibits and innovations in education and technology ex- celerator Laboratory—one of the largest facil- history of astronomy artifacts, shows, and our pressly for portable domes. ities of its kind in the world. (Transportation observatory, together with food and drink. Education in planetariums of all sizes will and a box lunch are included.) be a major conference thread with two foci: On Thursday, July 3, the day following the Speakers conference, we offer two tours. Keynote Speaker Dr. Edward (Rocky) Kolb 1. Public Education and Public Outreach Notre Dame and Amish Region: This of Fermilab and the University of Chicago in the Planetarium World. This strand ex- tour leaves the hotel in the morning and ven- launches the conference into orbit by exam- plores new and innovative educational tures east to South Bend, Indiana and Notre ining “Cosmology Through the Ages,” while practices. Potential topics include: custom- Dame University, home of a recently complet- focusing on the current view of the universe. ized sky shows for educational audiences, ed fulldome theater featuring Digital Sky. The Equally impressive and inspirational speak- working with teachers, and targeting and tour then proceeds to Indiana’s Amish region ers will join the lineup later. An optional mid- programming for community audiences. to see a culture that still functions primarily conference public talk will bring together by horse and people power. (Transportation, Chicago-area science attentive public and IPS 2. Ensuring Quality: Evaluation, Research, all meals, and an overnight stay are included.) delegates. and Professional Development for Plane- Milwaukee Public Museum and Yer- The Vendor Showcase, using the Adler’s tarians. How do we assess and improve our kes Observatory: This tour leaves the hotel three theaters and exhibits at the Hyatt, will work as planetarium professionals? Dele- in the early afternoon on July 3 and proceeds stimulate you to dream of the tools and tech- gates who have existing practices or re- to the Milwaukee Public Museum for a visit to nologies you may need to enhance your the- sults that they would like to share are es- the newly installed Digistar 3 system. Follow- ater or programming. pecially welcome to submit papers. ing dinner, you’ll be whisked away to historic Yerkes Observatory, home of the world’s larg- Papers, Panels, Workshops IPS2008 concludes with a banquet-cruise est refractor. Weather permitting, you’ll ob- All planetarians will enjoy another confer- aboard the “Spirit of Chicago.” This unique serve the heavens using several of their large

18 Planetarian December 2007 Favour, Donna Oliverez, José Feldman, Charles Pabon, Tony IPS Fellow Fentress, Stephen Panek, Jeri Fleenor, George Pasachoff, Jay Recognize Good Service Fletcher, Jack (R) Pedas, Ted Friedman, Alan J. Peery, Richard A. Friedman, Francis Perkins, Ken (R) with a Nomination Gallant, Roy (R) Peters, William T. Gan, Hiromichi Petersen, Carolyn C. International Planetarium Society mem- organizations and groups, which bring atten- George, Martin Petersen, Mark C. Gijsenbergs, Johan Peterson, John bers who have done good service to IPS can be tion to the importance of planetariums’ exis- Gielow, Arthur Pettersen, Franck (D) named Fellow of the International Planetari- tence. Grafton, Teresa (R) Pierce, Donna um Society. Normally a nomination should 4. The development of new methods in the Grice, Noreen Pitluga, Phyllis (R) be done no later than the spring of an odd planetarium field. Goering, Keith Pogue, John C. (R) year, to make it possible for the Awards Com- The Awards Committee welcomes your Gonzales, Val Pohl, Scott Gould, Alan Puriton, Gary mittee to give their recommendations to the nominations up to 1 March 2008! You can Groce, Philip R. Rådbo, Marie odd year IPS Council meeting for decision. send nominations to the IPS Awards Commit- Gutsch, William Rahunen, Timo Then, the new Fellows can be recognized dur- tee in care of Lars Broman, Awards Committee Hagar, Charles F. (R) Ramponi, Loris ing the following IPS Conference. chair, and obtain more information from him Hall, Donald S. (R) Ratcliffe, Martin Hamilton, George (R) Reed, George (R) This year, after discussion with IPS Presi- at [email protected]. For information by mail, Harber, Hubert Reede, Roger J. (R) dent Susan Button, a quicker procedure has write to him care of Teknoland, Stångtjärns- Hare, John Reilly, Robert been decided. Nominations for Fellow can be vägen 132, SE 79174 Falun, Sweden. Hart, James Roehrs,Volker sent as late as 1 March 2008 for consideration Hastings, Jane- Rusk, Jim (R) by Council in time for the new Fellows to be IPS Fellows Through 2006 Geoghegan (R) Russo, Steven Hemann, Charles Ryan, Michael presented at the June IPS Conference in Chi- Hennig, Lee Ann Sampson, Gary (R) cago. R=retired; D=Deceased Carlson, Gary A. Holmberg, Carol Helper Savage, Steven Thus, IPS members are encouraged to nom- Carr, Claire (D) Hostetter, David Sasaki, Kosuke (D) Abraham, James H. inate other members whom they think de- Carr, Everett Q. (D) Hicks, John Schafer, Sheldon Adams, Kenneth Castro, Ignacio Hocking, Thomas (R) Scott, Kevin serve becoming IPS Fellows. Today there are Allen, Robert (R) Chamberlain, Joe (R) Hoffman, David (D) Schindler, Lawrence (R) 213 IPS Fellows; the current list is given below. Amaral, Bess Chamberlain, Von Del Holmes, Charles (R) Seltzer, Allen The nomination should include your name Arai, Tatsuyuki Chapman, Stu Hooks, James T. (R) Serrie, Jon Baber, Barbara (R) and address, as well as the nominee’s name, Chastenay, Pierre Horn, James Shapiro, Lee Back, Mariana Chronister, William affiliation, and address. You should also in- Hughes, James Sharrah, Paul C. Baker, Lonny Clamann, York Hutton, Michael Schmidt, Mickey clude the reason why you think the nominee Ballantyne, Robert J. Clarke, Thomas (R) Irby, Linda (R) Shuey, Ronald is qualified. Bassett, Irvin Concannon, Undine (R) Itoh, Shoichi Shupla, Christine To help you decide, this is what the IPS Bassett, Nello (R) Conners, Peter (R) Jackson, Francine Simopoulos, Dionysios Batch, David Standing Rules say about Fellows: Cotton, John Jameson, Edward Sitkova, Zinaida Becker, Gary Davenport, Alan Johnson, Keith Smith, Charles In order to be named as a Fellow of the In- Becker, Katherine Davis, Darryl Keller, Hans-Ulrich 2004 Smith, Dale ternational Planetarium Society, a member Bell, Jon U. DeRocher, Joseph Kraupe, Thomas Smith, Daniel D. (R) must have continuous active membership in Biddy, Fran (D) DeVore, Edna King, Henry C. (R) Smith, Jeffery Bishop, Jeanne E. good standing in IPS for at least five years, and Dickenson, John (D) Kinsella, William Smolders, Piet (R) Blain, Auray (R) Dietrich, Bruce L. substantial contributions in at least two of the Knapp, Donald Snow, Bryan Bowen, Jeff Doyle, Robert J. Knapp, Richard Sonntag, Mark following respects: Broman, Lars Dumas, Jacques A. (D) Knappenberger, Paul Sperling, Norman 1. Serving IPS in elective office, diligent and/ Broman, Per Dundee, David A. Knudsen, Ole Starr, Eileen (R) or devoted committee work, and the organi- Buchalter, Terry Dunn, Jack A. Koonce, Eloise Stec, Thomas Button, Susan Reynolds zation of conferences and meetings. Elvert, Jon Laatsch, Shawn Stoke, John Calvird, H. Rich (R) Engle, Paul R. (D) Luzader, William Storch, Samuel 2. Relevant and significant publications Callen, Thomas Etheridge, Dale Lazich, Gary Stutz, Fred (D) and/or conference presentations. Campbell, Paul B. (D) Fairall, Anthony Lemmer, Uwe Sumners, Carolyn 3. Cooperation with professional societies, Canter, Rosy (R) Fairman, Rita Levine, Mark J. (R) Takacs, Charles Lieb, H. Stephen Tenschert, Walter (R) Lowry, William H. Tidey, Steve Explore the Edge, continued Mallon, Gerald L. (D) Tomlinson, Gary Manning, James Towne-Huggins, Joyce telescopes. (Transportation, all meals, and an by telephoning them at +1 (312) 567-1234 and Marché II , Jordan D. Toy, Larry overnight stay are included.) mentioning IPS. McCall, Kris Tuttle, Donald E. (R) McColman, Richard Trbovich, Sheri

McGregor, Ian Van Schaik, Harold Conference Hotel Airline Partner Meader, John Vinski, Jerome The primary conference site is the Hyatt Re- United Airlines is our official airline part- Melenbrink, Eric Wasiluk, Elizabeth gency McCormick Place about two miles from ner for the conference. Discounts are available Menke, David Webster, Dennis Adler. We have negotiated a special IPS2008 through united.com. Simply enter the code Mitch, Steven Wharton, John Monda, Richard (R) Whitt, April discounted rate of $159/night for single and 576 IE or call the United Meeting Reservations Moore, Glen Wieser, Sig $179/night for double occupancy. Please be Center at +1 (800) 521-4041. Morris, Tony Williams, John sure to mention IPS to receive the reduced IPS2008 registration forms are included Mosley, John E. Wilson, Kenneth room rate when registering with the confer- with this issue of the Planetarian, but we en- Moutin, Marc Winslow, Thomas Muñoz, Gabriel (D) Wollman, Robert ence hotel. You may book a room using the courage you to use our secure website, ips2008. Murtagh, Terence Wyrick, Wayne website (mccormickplace.hyatt.com/hyatt/ org, to register electronically. We hope to see Negley, Scott Young, Warren (R) hotels) and using Group Code# G-FADL, or you for IPS2008: Explore the Edge! O’Leary, James Zimmermann, R. Erik (D)

December 2007 Planetarian 19 20 Planetarian December 2007 about this pilot project and hope that this will President’s Message be the first of many such initiatives. Contact Information: David Weinrich at “The IYA-AAS committees will focus entire- [email protected]; Project Coordinator ly on educational outcomes, and it appears Jacob Ashong at [email protected], planetariums, both large and small and porta- Ghana Science Center. ble, will benefit.” Jon is doing a fantastic job of keeping his Technology Committee committee’s web page updated with all the I am delighted to announce that Karen latest results of this committee’s efforts. Please Klamczynski has agreed to serve as the new go to the Outreach Committee Archives to see chair of the IPS Technology Committee. This updates and information about topics that in- chair has been vacant for some time and I am clude the International Polar Year and Inter- grateful that Karen is eager to take on this job. national Heliophysical Year, planetariums in The first project to be initiated by this com- developing countries, NASA brokers/facilita- mittee is a glossary of technical terms on the tors, and ESA and NASA multimedia galleries. committee’s web page; under consideration The url is www.ips-planetarium.org/or/com- is a Frequently Asked Questions about plane- ms/outreachcom.html. tarium technology. I look forward to working As part of the Outreach Committee’s efforts with this revitalized committee. to assist planetariums in developing countries, Contact information: Karan Klamczynski, David Weinrich reports “We have been talk- Evans & Sutherland, Education & Training ing about ways of helping astronomy educa- Specialist, Digital Theater Division, 770 Komas Susan Reynolds Button tors in developing countries for the past two Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 USA; phone: Quarks to Clusters years. Now we are ready for a pilot project that (1) 801-588-7409; fax: (1) 801-588-4520; email: we hope will lead to future astronomical out- [email protected]; website: www.es.com. 8793 Horseshoe Lane reach to many developing countries.” Chittenango, NY 13037 USA As part of this pilot project, a refurbished Awards Committee Mediaglobe digital projector will be donated Jon Bell has stepped down, after many years (1) 315-687-5371 by Joanne Young of Audio Visual Imagineer- service, as chair of this committee. Thank you (1) 315-263-1985 (cell) ing to the Ghana Science Center in Africa. The Jon for all of your hard work, and I am pleased science center will provide funding for ship- to see that you will remain as a member of this [email protected] ping it from Orlando, Florida to Ghana. They committee. Lars Broman ([email protected]) will also provide a dome for the projector, has volunteered to fill this position and you It is difficult for me to believe that the identify local science teachers or astronomy will see his call for nominations for awards first year of my presidency is almost over! So enthusiasts who can be trained to operate the to be given at IPS 2008 on page x of this issue. much to do and so little time! The officers and system, and give shows and provide funding Thank you Lars for volunteering for yet an- I have accomplished a great deal and continue for the training. other vital service to IPS! to prepare for further improvements in mem- Dave explains, “We felt that it is especially ber services and adjustments in the Stand- important that there be active involvement Affiliates ing Rules that will assure that the business of of personnel and resources from Ghana. They One representative for mobile planetariums the International Planetarium Society runs have to be involved in the planning, the im- is needed in each regional organization. Some smoothly. plementation, and the future oper- IPS Committees are serving us well and you ation of the planetarium. will be able to read their updated reports in “We believe that it is especially the March 2008 Planetarian. We’ll also pub- important that local personnel be lish their photographs so that you can be sure trained to run the planetarium and to thank them for their hard work at the IPS that there is adequate documenta- 2008 Conference in Chicago. In this column, tion of the project for media presen- I am pleased to make several announcements tations and for reports to the Inter- involving three of those committees. national Planetarium Society.” Congratulations to David and Outreach Committee Joanne for getting this project off Jon Elvert, chair of the Outreach Commit- the ground. Thank you Joanne for tee, has been selected to serve as the IPS sin- your generosity, as well, because gle point of contact for communication this could not happen without you. with the International Astronomical Union Congratulations also to the Ghana (IAU) on the International Year of Astrono- Science Center as the recipient of my (IYA) 2009. Jon wrote to tell me “I attend- this gift and for Jacob Ashlong’s ef- ed the American Astronomical Society (AAS)- forts to make this happen. I eager- IYA meeting last week at the Astronomical ly look forward to progress reports Society of the Pacific (ASP) meeting in Chica- go. There are several committees within this group that are working on some pretty excit- David Weinrich initiated a pilot project with Joanne ing initiatives and the IPS will be able to dis- Young and the Ghana Science Center in Africa. Photo by Susan Button tribute much of what will be produced…

December 2007 Planetarian 21 affiliate organizations already have some- one doing this job. The work of this represen- tative is to collect and communicate news to the directors of portable planetariums in your region via any means they prefer, such as newsletter, listserve, email, etc. and to com- municate with me about what is happening in the region. This person also needs to solic- it pictures, articles, and lesson plans for the IPS website, the Mobile News Network column, and the Planetarian. Proactive communication is the key! This representative needs to find out who is oper- ating a mobile dome in their region and en- tice them to come to conferences by making sure there are workshops and papers of inter- est to them. These people are a valuable re- source. If the stationary domes at conferenc- es are utilized exclusively for highly technical demonstrations and movies, then workshops need to be held in portable domes. Education- al and technical workshops can be presented by and are valuable for planetarians working These planetarians are both stationary dome and portable dome planetarium educators. Six analog and in stationary as well as in mobile domes. two digital planetarium workshops were presented in portable domes at the recent Triple Conjunc- tion Conference in October at Oglebay Resort and Conference Center in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA. Seeing in the Dark The workshop presenters were, from left to right, back row: Susan Button, Paul Krupkinski, Gene Za- jac, Jeanne Bishop, Dayle Brown; front row: Reed Varian, John Meader, Chuck Bueter. Missing: Karrie Ber- Gail Rubin asked me to spread the word glund. Photo by Elizabeth Wasiluck about the PBS special Seeing in the Dark, a film by Timothy Ferris that was shown on 19 Sep- back—it’d sure be nice to have a planetarium meeting with this group is another network- tember 2007. The film was advertised through show wiki to help keep track of new and exist- ing opportunity. I recently received the fol- IPS News and Dome-L. Gail reported that since ing shows for ‘conventional’ theaters. lowing message from Ruth A. Kneale, systems the show, “More than 700 requests have been “So I started one on wikispaces… I’ve nev- librarian for the Advanced Technology Solar submitted by students for stellar images from er started a wiki before, so this is very basic. Telescope, who wrote “A fellow librarian and the Seeing in the Dark Internet Telescope Check it out at planetariumshows.wikispac- friend, Liz Bryson, dropped me an email about (SIDIT) in the first week!” As a result, she told es.com.” meeting you and hearing about the Interna- me that the web site at www.pbs.org/seeingin- Contact information: Kevin Conod, plane- tional Planetarium Society. I’ve visited your thedark will be available in perpetuity. In ad- tarium manager/astronomer, the Newark Mu- website, and it’s fascinating! I’m moderating dition to the SIDIT, the site also features valu- seum’s Dreyfuss Planetarium, 49 Washington the Astronomy Roundtable for the Physics- able information to get newcomers started in Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102 USA; email: Astronomy-Math (PAM) division of the Spe- stargazing. [email protected]; phone (1) 973- cial Libraries Association (SLA) at the annual She is very excited about the potential inspi- 596-6529; www.newarkmuseum.org/planetar- conference next June, and I was wondering— ration that this program can provide for stu- ium. might you or one of your representatives be dents, teachers, and the public. So she wrote, willing to come to Seattle and give us a brief “I wanted to let the members of the Interna- NASA Science News presentation about the IPS? (Our website is at tional Planetarium Society know that as part I am sure that all of you have been having units.sla.org/division/dpam/ for more infor- of our educational outreach on behalf of See- special shows and/or events to mark the 50th mation about our division, and SLA in gener- ing in the Dark, we are offering a free DVD of anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. I am of al.) Either way, I appreciate your time and con- the program to those planetarium managers the generation who actually remembers this sideration! Cheers, Ruth” who would like to hold a screening of the pro- auspicious occasion! There’s a great Science@ I immediately replied that IPS was very in- gram at their facilities. It makes a wonderful NASA story about a new spacecraft that may terested in making a presentation during this complement to an evening of stargazing. The provide a way for you discuss how blending roundtable event. Then I went to the SLA web- only stipulation is that they cannot charge old technology with the new helps keep the site to discover more about this group. people to see the program, and we would like momentum of space exploration. It’s titled I found out that “The Special Libraries Asso- to be kept apprised of any screening events “Tones from Deep Space” and can be found at ciation (SLA) was founded in 1909 in the state that take place.” Her offer, available to plane- science.nasa.gov. of New York and is now the international as- tariums across the world, was published in IPS sociation representing the interests of thou- News and through Dome-L and I repeat it here Special Libraries Association: sands of information professionals in over for anyone who might have missed it. Gail Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics eighty countries worldwide.” Check it out for Rubin’s email and phone number are: email Division yourself www.sla.org/content/SLA/AssnPro- [email protected]; phone (1) 505-265-7215. During the IPS officers meeting in Hawaii file/index.cfm. last June, we introduced ourselves to the Mau- I also went to the PAM website and learned Planetarium Show Wiki na Kea Observatories Outreach Committee that “The scope of the PAM Division includes Kevin Conod sent the following note to and discussed how we might benefit from col- all aspects of librarianship in the fields of Dome-L: “As I mentioned on Dome-L a while laborating with each other. One of the fruits of physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Par-

22 Planetarian December 2007 ticular emphasis is given to the control, dis- ciation of planetarium professionals.” What (Sky Disc, continued from page 10) semination, and retrieval of knowledge and it does not say is that you professionals (di- information in these areas.” (units.sla.org/divi- rectors, teachers, technicians, writers, artists, around the world: looking up to the sky is sion/dpam/governingdocs/index.html) media specialists, presenters, vendors, scien- what everyone on Earth has in common. Intuitively, I felt that IPS and the Special Li- tists, students) are the cream of the industry. Looking back at this heritage that we all braries Association PAM division could work You folks are special and dedicated to lifelong share, we will help unite people on our planet. well together, and my resolve strengthened learning; you believe in expanding your hori- That is what we should do for the Internation- after researching the missions of this orga- zons beyond your own regional organizations. al Year of Astronomy 2009 and for our joint nization. As a result, I chose an ambassador I know that many IPS members pay their IPS future in this inspiring environment. from IPS to make a 10- to 15-minute presenta- dues and travel expenses out-of-pocket and tion during the Astronomy roundtable on the some attend conferences on vacation time be- Acknowledgements morning of 18 June 2008. Karrie Berglund, who cause they believe so strongly in networking My sincere thanks for all the support with- not only is an IPS member but also an educa- with the “sages,” young and old, in the global out which this cooperative effort and this ar- tor and vendor, lives one hour away from the planetarium community, and they value the ticle would not have been possible; to the meeting location and volunteered to intro- international perspective. Even if members outstanding team of Dr. Harald Meller at Lan- duce the librarians to IPS, to discuss our com- cannot attend IPS conferences, they cherish desmuseum fuer Vorgeschichte in Halle; to mon goals, and suggest some ways in which gaining inspiration from reading the Confer- Bettina Pfaff at Arche Nebra; to Professor W. we can collaborate to enhance our research ence Proceedings and the Planetarian because Schlosser at Bochum University; and last, but and outreach efforts. I look forward to work- of the international flavor and high level of not least, to my wonderful colleagues and co- ing with Karrie on this presentation; I am sure expertise in these papers and articles. workers on staff here in Hamburg, Astrono- that this is an effective first step toward devel- As I explained to one of my colleagues, mer Rahlf Hansen, Head of Production Tim oping a strong relationship with a resource there are many reasons why some people Florian Horn and his teammates Isabella Buc- that has previously been untapped. chose to join international organizations. My zek, Lisa Barchasch, and Kenan Broman. parents instilled in me that the people of the What is and Why Join IPS- Revisited world are like flowers in one big garden with Information, background sources: While attending the Triple Conjunction many views, tastes, colors, varieties, and sur- Arche Nebra at www.himmelsscheibe-er- Conference in Wheeling this October, I had prises. They told me to go out and explore this leben.de/en/arche_nebra_place_of_the_ several conversations where I was amazed by garden and always be open to learning some- sky_disc/ the perception some people have about IPS. thing new. Some people’s parents may have Hansen, Rahlf. “Sonne oder Mond?”, Archaeol- Some feel that IPS is just an organization for taught them to be afraid and instilled in them ogie in Sachsen Anhalt, 4/2006, 289ff. large planetariums, and others feel that IPS the need to stay safely “at home.” IPS mem- Himmelswege at www.himmelswege.de conferences are just “trade shows.” Some peo- bers typically do not fit in that category; they Landesmuseum fuer Vorgeschichte in Halle ple even said, “Why join IPS? What’s in it for are an asset to their home institutions and re- at www.archlsa.de me and my institution?” It is obvious that gional organizations because they network Meller, H. Star Search: Sky Disk of Nebra. Na- these people do not attend IPS conferences with recognized international experts in their tional Geographic, January 2004, 77-87. and have not read either the Conference Pro- profession. So spread the word and encourage Planetarium Hamburg at www.planetarium- ceedings or the Planetarian, where they would other talented colleagues to join us. hamburg.de discover that IPS is so much more and has so much to offer. (Defining, continued from page 13) Obviously IPS is not just for large planetar- References iums; I am from an educational outreach pro- Hagar, C., 1980, Window to the Universe, Wilson, K.,1994, “So You Want to Build a Plan- gram with a small portable planetarium and Oberkochen, Germany, Zeiss, pp. 161-183. etarium,” Special Publication, International other officers also are working in or have re- Keller, H.U., 1984, in “Report on the VIII. In- Planetarium Society. cently worked in small fixed domes in educa- ternational Programme for the Develop- Yamada, Y., 1991, “Planetariums of Japan-An tional institutions. Members in IPS respect and ment of Communication,” UNESCO, 26-32. Overview,” in Planetarian, 20-4, 14, 17. provide the means to learn from the directors of small domes. And, yes, we do have excit- Table 1: Statistical data from the lists of French, German and Italian planetaria. The second column gives the total number of planetariums; the third and forth is the number of the large and medium domes according ing and innovative vendors who demonstrate to our classification; the fifth is the average diameter of the domes; the sixth is the average seat number; their products so that members can educate and the seventh column presents the number density of planetariums per million inhabitants. themselves about the advances in planetari- um technology. Equally important, howev- Total Large Middle

pl/(10^6 ) er, are opportunities for networking and shar- France 69 3 10 6,29 m 45,77 1,137 ing with fascinating international colleagues German 88 9 11 8,45 m 71,56 1,069 through workshops, paper sessions and social events. Italy 85 1 5 5,69 m 43,40 1,443 You IPS members already know these Table 2: Planetariums are suggested to be classified into three categories, depending on the size of their things, but it behooves all of us to keep stat- dome. ing clearly what IPS represents and the ben- efits we receive from being a member of this Diameter of dome valuable organization. Some benefits are obvi- Large 18 m <= _D_ ous and are even listed on our website (www. Middle 10 m <= _D_ < 18 m ips-planetarium.org/or/aboutips.html). You can point people there to read “The Interna- Small _D_ < 10 m tional Planetarium Society is the global asso- School < 5 m

December 2007 Planetarian 23 li Poroschin. The two observatory domes con- Past President’s Message tain a 15-cm reflector and a 13-cm refractor. Our colleague Alexander Serber, a member of the IPS International Relations Committee vatory on the roof, which will house a 20-cm who had assisted me so much in organising Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope for public view- my visit, had been delayed in returning from ing. a conference in Paris. On Sunday, Vadim Be- It was interesting to learn more about the lov kindly made himself available in Alexan- planetarium history in Nizhny Novgorod. Al- der’s place. Although our conversations could though the current structure is quite new, a not be conducted in English, Vadim’s impres- planetarium was established in the city as ear- sive command of French ensured a wonder- ly as 1948. It was constructed within the Alex- ful day. is Church, on the opposite side of the Oka Riv- er, and operated there until 2005. This is not The Third Planetarium the only case of a Russian planetarium hav- On Monday, I was taken to the city’s third ing been built within a church. Times have planetarium—in the Academy of Water Trans- changed in Russia, however, and the building port. This planetarium has a Zeiss ZKP1 in a 6-m has now returned to its former function as a dome, and is used for navigational instruction. church. A great deal of redecoration work is We were greeted by its very enthusiastic direc- being done inside the structure, and churchgo- tor, Alexander S. Poliakov, who also played a ers will undoubtedly be proud of the changes. major role in the construction of the planetar- In Nizhny Novgorod, it was good news all ium building itself as a student project in 1970. around. Zinaida Sitkova, the director of the Alexander must surely be a contender for the Martin George, Curator planetarium, worked very hard to ensure that longest period working in a planetarium with Nizhny Novgorod would continue to have a which he is so intimately associated! Launceston Planetarium planetarium. Her untiring efforts, including I was delighted to listen to several of the Queen Victoria Museum obtaining strong local government support, conference talks, including a most interest- came to fruition. ing discussion of planetarium history in Rus- Wellington Street I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod on Septem- sia and presentations from many individu- Launceston, Tasmania ber 28, and was warmly greeted by several al planetariums. I presented two myself: one of the planetarium staff. On Friday and the about the IPS and another titled “Planetar- Australia weekend, I was shown around the city, visit- iums of the World.” It was good to see that +61 (3) 63233777 ing several museums and Nizhny Novgorod’s there were many discussions about the de- Kremlin. Friday’s schedule included a visit to sirability of “live night sky” segments in the +61 (3) 63233776 fax the Pedagogical Institute, which contains one shows, with strong support for their inclusion. [email protected] of the other two planetariums in the city. It I was also very pleased to meet up with three has a 4.4-m dome with a Zeiss ZKP1 projector. planetarians from the Ukraine at the confer- I recently had the great pleasure of meeting While there, I had the pleasure of meeting up ence, and had extensive discussions about the up with many of our planetarium colleagues with Dr. Albert Shutov, director of the plane- planetarium situation in that country. There in Russia, when I attended the 2007 Russian tarium, and staff member Olga Podkovyrina. are currently five active planetariums in the Planetarium Association meeting in Nizh- An added bonus was a visit to the institute’s Ukraine, and as a result of our meeting I shall ny Novgorod. Between 1932 and 1990, Nizh- rooftop observatory, which is run by Anato- be now working more closely with them in ny Novgorod, Russia’s fourth largest city, was named Gorky after the famous Russian author Maxim Gorky, who was born there. It was a very special time in Russia. The con- ference was held over the week of October 1- 5, which, of course, included the 50th anniver- sary of the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. Fifty planetarians from all over Russia were in at- tendance, and the event attracted a good deal of local media interest. For Nizhny Novgorod, however, it was dou- bly special: it was the week of the opening of their new planetarium. The attractive struc- ture is located not far from the bank of the river Oka, which joins with the Volga at Ni- zhny Novgorod. The planetarium includes a small dome with a Zeiss ZKP2 projector, and the main dome is an impressive environment using digital projection with SX30+ projectors and a software system largely developed by a local company. The Zeiss Projector in the St Petersburg Planetarium. From left: Mikhail Belov, Galena Michailova, Martin The building is well thought out, with size- George, Mikhail Propokenko. Photo by Yulia Propokenko. (Unless otherwise stated, all additional pho- able exhibit and entrance areas and an obser- tos by Martin George)

24 Planetarian December 2007 Left: The Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium; Right: Interior of the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium. From left to right: Uljana Avdeenko, Zinaida Sitkova, Vadim Below, Roman Troitsky.

Left: The group photograph of many of the attendees—seated under a bust of Yuri Gagarin—at the Russian Planetarium Association Conference in Nizhny Novgorod. Photo courtesy of Nizhny Norgorod Planetarium. Right: Zinaida Sitkova and Uljana Avdeenko with entries contributed for an art competition at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium.

Left: Alexis Church, which housed the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium from 1948 to 2005. Right: The Planetarium at the Academy of Water Transport in Nizhny Novgorod. From left: Alexander Poliakov, Martin George, Alexei Belenov. Photo by Roman Troitsky. order to maintain their affiliate status. Grote Reber Medal to Professor Govind Swa- their seats. Sadly, I could not stay for the “big day”—Oc- rup of India. I had several engaging conversations with tober 4, of course, which was the official open- Before attending the Nizhny Novgorod Director Mikhail Belov, and with Mikhail Pro- ing date of the new planetarium—but was able conference, I had a very pleasant visit to St. pokenko whose wife, Yulia, kindly gave up to attend until the evening of October 2. Al- Petersburg, to visit the planetarium there and her time to be a valuable interpreter through- exander Serber then kindly accompanied me meet up with several of our planetarium col- out my visit. on the overnight train to Moscow and to Mos- leagues. The St. Petersburg Planetarium houses Several other staff work at the institution, cow airport, where I departed for England in a Zeiss projector in a 23-m dome, under which including Galena Michailova, who specialises order to speak at the presentation of this year's I watched several excited school groups take in earth sciences and also attended the confer-

December 2007 Planetarian 25 Left: Olga Podkovyrina and Dr. Albert Shutov, director, in the planetarium at the Pedagogical Institute in Nizhny Novgorod. Right: Mikhail Propokenko with the Meade Telescope in the St Petersburg Planetarium Observatory.

ence in Nizhny Novgorod; and Igor Toporov, who runs a “hands-on” science section which contains a delightful collection of old instru- ments, including the first televisions used in Russia. There is also an associated animated di- nosaur exhibit. The staff at St. Petersburg also took me on a special visit to the offices of the society known as Znanie, meaning “knowledge.” This is a St. Petersburg-based society with branches in other parts of Russia, and which is an um- brella organisation for many of the Russian planetariums. It has more than 16,000 mem- bers. Znanie was founded in 1947 by prominent writers, scientists, and artists. It moved into full swing in the 1950s, running lectures on not only science subjects but also architec- ture, painting, Russian history, and many oth- er subjects. It was through Znanie that the St. The observatory at the Pedagogical Institute; from left: Alexei Belenov, Anatoli Poroschin, Vadim Be- Petersburg Planetarium was established. We lov, Olga Podkovyrina. met with Sergey Klimov, vice president of Znanie, and had detailed discussions about the IPS. I was honoured that he had very kind- ly delayed his departure to a conference in an- other part of Russia in order to accommodate my visit. I would like to record my thanks to all of our Russian and Ukranian colleagues with whom I met and who assisted me during my visit to Russia! Very special thanks go to Mikhail and Yulia Propokenko in St. Petersburg, and Zinai- da Sitkova, Vadim Belov, Alexander Serber, Roman Troitsky, Uljana Avdeenko, and Anas- tasiya Evsyukova in Nizhny Novgorod. While in St Petersburg, I was also taken on a most interesting visit to the Pulkovo Obser- vatory, and I shall say more about that in the next issue. Also to be covered in my next arti- cle is my attendance, after my trip to Russia, at the “Communicating Astronomy to the Pub- lic” Conference in Greece, which was a pre- lude to the 2009 International Year of Astron- omy. Left: The St Petersburg Planetarium. Right: At the Znanie Office in St Petersburg. From Left to right: Meanwhile, I wish you all a very happy Mikhail Belov, Martin George, Sergey Klimov. Photo by Mikhail Propokenko. Christmas, and all the very best for 2007!

26 Planetarian December 2007 imagery projected behind visitor’s heads adds Digital Frontiers to unwanted cross-dome scattering, which de- grades contrast while adding only peripher- with 1024x1024 pixel projections over a hemi- al imagery for most seats in the theater. Still, sphere, most agree that cinematic quality im- planetarians pay a lot for a fully hemispher- agery (sufficient to satisfy a ticket-paying, ic theater and want to see the entire dome uti- movie going-savvy public) requires far higher lized. The audience may feel a little cheated as resolution—many millions of pixels. Just how well if an entire program only used the front many pixels is a matter of debate, but few pro- half of the dome. ducers would want to work with fisheye im- There is an important issue to be resolved ages having less than 2kx2k pixels, and most as well when shooting truncated hemispher- would prefer to capture live-action at 4kx4k ic live-action using commodity components: pixels or even greater, allowing monetization lens offset. A fisheye lens will typically create of the planetarium program across all digital an “on-axis” image that is centered on the im- domes regardless of resolution, and enabling age sensor. Selecting a focal length that fills scanning to IMAX Dome film as well as re- the frame horizontally results in approxi- mapping to lower resolution flat-screen for- mately equal truncation at both the top and mats such as HDTV. bottom of the frame. The second factor driving the technical This translates to truncation in the front challenge for fulldome live-action is field- and back of the dome theater, with the image of-view: the need to cover a complete hemi- covering a swath that passes through the ze- sphere. Hemispheric live-action demands a 1:1 nith (Fig. 1). It is only by offsetting the lens ver- aspect ratio image sensor. While there is noth- tically that the truncation can be shifted to the top of the frame only. Unfortunately, cre- Ed Lantz ing to prevent the development of 1:1 aspect sensors, commodity live-action image sensors ating a mechanical lens shift is not as easy as Visual Bandwidth, Inc. are typically closer to a 2:1 aspect ratio. So the it sounds, ranging from a custom lens mount 1290 Baltimore Pike, new generation of 4k digital cinema cameras to the design of a custom lens altogether, de- have a native resolution of around 4kx2k, not pending on the camera and available lenses. Suite 111 4kx4k. One can use such a camera to capture a There are ways to remap a truncated im- Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania 2kx2k fisheye image, but use of the full 4k im- age, such as tilting it spherically to bring it age sensor width results in a severe truncation down to the bottom of the dome in the front. 19317 USA of the fisheye image—directly through the ze- This results in additional truncations in an at- [email protected] nith in the case of a 2:1 aspect ratio sensor (a tempt to bring the image down to the spring half-hemispheric image). line (Fig. 2). Only by distorting the truncat- ed frame—resulting in an imperfect spherical Focus on Live-Action Video mapping—can an on-axis truncated image be To date, live-action hemispheric program- Commodity Compromises rotated to an off-axis truncation and still fill ming has largely been shot using film or dig- This is not to say that 4k cameras have no the dome to the spring line around the active itally with a still camera, which is limited to utility in fulldome imaging. While of mar- image area. time-lapse frame rates. With the digital revo- ginal quality, a 2kx2k fisheye image can pro- Some have suggested that the fisheye frame lution in the film industry in full swing, one vide enough resolution for some applications, might be anamorphically “squeezed” into a might assume that many options exist for and a truncated fisheye is acceptable for cer- rectangular aspect ratio frame. Film and dig- fulldome live action. Not so. The simultane- tain programming as well. Indeed, live-action ous need for wide field-of-view and high resolution conspire to force fulldome image capture into an underserved technolog- ical niche. Recent advances in image capture—coupled with the increasing popularity of full- dome theaters—promise to final- ly overcome these current limi- tations and open the door to the exciting potential of fulldome imaging.

Technology Challenges Two factors combine to make live-action hemispheric image capture with commodity com- ponents a technical challenge. The first is the need for high res- olution. While smaller educa- Fig. 1 (left): Dome coverage with 180-degree diagonal on-axis video frame, 2:1 aspect ratio. Fig. 2 (right): Same 2:1 aspect tional fulldome theaters get by ratio video frame digitally rotated to front of dome. All images provided by author unless otherwise noted.

December 2007 Planetarian 27 ital cinema projectors routinely use anamor- uses virtual cameras within a phic (cylindrical lens) optics to change aspect mathematical universe, the opti- ratio by providing a different magnifica- cal nodal points of real-world com- tion on the vertical axis than the horizontal modity lenses cannot be exactly axis. Unfortunately, the wide field-of-view of overlapped. The resulting images a fisheye lens prevents the use of cylindrical can only be perfectly stitched for lens attachments. scenery at optical infinity—long Another method for filling a hemispheric distances from the lens pair. As ob- field-of-view is to use multiple cameras. For jects approach the near-field of the instance, the Dodeca® camera by Immersive lens pair, parallax begins to domi- Media (Fig. 3) provides an almost full spheri- nate, revealing the fact that each cal field using 11 separate standard-resolution lens captures a slightly different camera heads in a compact dodecahedral con- perspective. The result is a shearing figuration (the camera’s mounting post occu- of near-field objects with respect pies the 12th dodecahedral polygon)1. Google to the background scenery. This Maps uses “geoim- parallax shearing effect may not mersive” imagery be significant for all but the most from this camera for closeup shots; however, it is, nev- its Street View fea- ertheless, a compromise resulting ture. Similarly, two from the use of commodity cam- offset fisheye camer- era components.

Paul Bourke’s HD Camera Fig. 3: Immersive Me- Tests dia’s Dodeca® Se- University of Western Aus- ries 11-head camera (Photo courtesy of tralia’s Paul Bourke recently per- Immersive Media) formed tests4 with the new Can- on HV20 video camera fitted with as with slightly less than 2:1 aspect ratio can a Nikon FC-E9 fisheye lens (Fig. 4) cover a hemisphere with enough overlap for and kindly agreed to share his re- stitching or edge-blending. sults. The camera provides a 1080p This is somewhat analogous to dual fish- output—that is, 1920x1080 progres- eye projection from dome center with a single sive frames. As shown in Fig. 5, the 180-degree edge blend. Other multi-camera so- lens produces an image that is off- lutions include the Ladybug 2 by Point Grey axis by about 11.5 degrees with re- Research2, and the Spherecam developed by spect to dome coordinates. the iCinema Centre at the University of New This image can be digitally ro- South Wales3. tated, but the resulting image lifts The challenge with multi-camera systems is off the dome in the rear, as shown optical parallax. Unlike 3D rendering, which in Fig. 6. Paul corrects this by in- troducing a slight distortion, as shown in Fig. 7. 1 Immersive Media at www.imersivemedia.com 2 Point Grey at www.ptgrey.com 3 Spherecam at www.icinema.unsw.edu.au/projects/ New Solutions infra_sppherecam_1.html New solutions are on their way for fulldome live-action. The new RED digital cinema camera—now shipping after initial delays—has a 4520 x 2540 pixel image sensor and will be used in fulldome video tests this year. Zeiss demonstrated 3kx3k live-action at DomeFest this year in cooperation with Arri, and announced that 6kx6k was possi- ble with this proprietary solution. With nearly 320 fulldome systems now in use—more than IMAX- branded theaters—the fulldome market should soon have enough pull to demand a range of live-ac- tion camera solutions. Fig. 5 (top): Native output of Canon HV20 with Nikon FC- E9 lens with position on fisheye gridFig. 6 (center): Image af- Fig. 4: Paul Bourke’s Canon HV20 video camera ter digital spherical rotation. Fig. 7 (bottom): Spherically ro- tated image with added distortion to stretch image down fitted with a Nikon FC-E9 fisheye lens. Image 4 See his article at local.wasp.uwa.edu. to spring line. courtesy Paul Bourke au/~pbourke/projection/canonhv20

28 Planetarian December 2007 December 2007 Planetarian 29 30 Planetarian December 2007 December 2007 Planetarian 31 swering correctly as little as 15% of the exami- Educational Horizons nation questions! What planet are these people on? (And no, that’s not one of the exam ques- tions.) Apart from it making my head want have the opportunity from now on of bring- to explode, stuff like this devalues education ing you ideas, notes, and resources that should and therefore fails to let kids revel enough in help you educate the masses about our glori- the sheer pleasure of discovering knowledge. ous universe. But the fun, excitement, and learning experi- For this first column, I’ve decided to lay ence of a visit to planetarium, or attending an down a few thoughts that set the background astronomy-based classroom workshop, goes against which our education efforts are made. some way to balancing out this wrong. In the process, I’d like to give you an idea of An increasing number of kids these days where I’m coming from as an educator so you don’t see the point in learning much of what can get a hint of what’s to come in future col- they need to at school. That astounds me, as I umns. Some of what I write may seem obvi- was an information sink at school and couldn’t ous, but I feel it’s useful to take some of the understand why everybody else wasn’t one, things we take for granted and string them to- too. Fortunately for us space educators, people gether. The end result can be that you may re- of all ages have an inherent interest in the sky mind yourself of some education principles and so, largely speaking, ennui doesn’t extend you’ve forgotten, and generally get a better to learning about astronomy. I’m not trying appreciation of the importance of your work. to place any extra pressure on what is already Steve Tidey In 1997, when Tony Blair got his mitts on a pressurised job, but I do feel, to a certain ex- the keys to 10 Downing Street, he said his three Freelance Astronomy tent, that we have a responsibility to show main priorities as prime minister would be kids the value in the attainment of knowl- Educator “education, education, education.” It sounded edge, the need for scepticism in our informa- good to our nation and to me, because that’s 58 Prince Avenue, tion overload society, the simple joys of ask- pretty much the guiding principle behind the ing questions about our natural surroundings, Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN planetarium shows and other presentations and so on. we do for the public, with elements of enter- England On BBC radio the other day I heard about a tainment sprinkled in there, too. study which has revealed that a high percent- [email protected] Although the unofficial title of “plane- age of boys in UK schools want to grow up to tarian” covers a variety of skills, we think of be football (soccer) players, and a high per- Ha! You thought you’d seen the last of me, ourselves primarily as educators who hap- centage of girls want to be either a model or didn’t you? But I got my trusty teaspoon out pen to have access to a terrific, sophisticat- a “celebrity.” I have no idea what that means and dug a passageway around the back of ed “classroom” in the form of a planetarium in this era of irritating micro-celebrities made this esteemed journal (yep, I’ve been watch- dome filled with spiffy equipment. We love “famous” simply by appearing on those insid- ing way too much Prison Break on TV), leav- to pass on to others our love and knowledge ious reality TV shows. And, apart from any- ing the Forum column in my wake. Just when of the universe, a task that can often be deep- thing else, it’s hardly a career, as celebrity is so I thought all was lost, I saw a chink of light ly satisfying. I have the education bug in my fleeting; the voracious media spit you out in that led me to this column as its new author, blood, and I’ve come to the conclusion over favour of the next person to come along five so you’ll have to put up with me for anoth- the years that pretty much everybody else in minutes later. er who knows how many more years. That’s the IPS does, too. It also seems to me that, for the price of IPS membership, I’m afraid. Didn’t reasons I go into below, education in general you read the small print? is still having to fight an uphill battle to make What Do You Do With Your Life? Then what do you do with your life? As nei- Let’s see, now. In the next issue, if I take the marks it should be making, both here in ther of the above “professions” is deemed to over the responsibility of writing another col- the United Kingdom and internationally. So, require good schooling, many kids don’t feel umn in addition to this one, and then I have I’m looking forward to doing my little bit much incentive to pay attention in class or three in the one after, and four in the one af- with this column each issue to stem what at value the information they should be learn- ter that…then hey, by 2009 I’ll be writing the times appears to be an inexorable slide down ing. So whenever I leave a room of kids smiling whole of the Planetarian myself! World domi- a honey-covered pole. nation will be mine! after a planetarium show or a classroom pre- Er, well, not quite. What’s Happened to Standards? sentation about space, I feel I’ve done my little bit to stem the flow of apathy. Pat yourself on Enough, already! Welcome to the first out- As I inch through my forties kicking and the back, because that applies to you, too. This ing for the revised, revamped and re-discom- screaming, for all the good it does me, I find isn’t just a bit of ego stroking; it’s a remind- bobulated Education Column. My apologies myself becoming a bit of an old fogy when er of those wonderful moments when we see for the absence of this column in the last is- it comes to education standards. Sometimes I the great possibilities in every kid if they en- sue; the fault was entirely mine, so I’ll get back click my tongue and roll my eyes when I look thused about many other subjects they way to you once the date for the public flogging at some aspects of how kids are taught these many of them do about astronomy. has been set… days and at the decreasing level of real knowl- As you can tell from the above, we live in In my first few years of being an IPS mem- edge attainment the system puts on them, at challenging times. But that’s the great thing ber, I have fond memories of settling down least here in the UK. Year by year, pass grades about astronomy education these days, be- on many occasions to read the Focus On Ed- are achieved with a gradually decreasing per- cause people like you and I have never had ucation column that lit up the pages of Plan- centage of correct answers allowed. In one as many tools at our disposal to assist us, and etarian back in the day. (All praise to Jeanne subject (math) with one particular examining there’s never been such an attentive world Bishop for those columns). So, I’m delighted to board, the lowest pass grade can be had by an-

32 Planetarian December 2007 A receptive au- education experience, it’s as well to know the dience, eh? Heaven principles of good education, otherwise you, forbid. Many peo- as the teacher, won’t see the potential grow in ple in other walks of your charges. On this point, I’d like to men- life would cut their tion in passing a fine recent publication that I hand off for that, shall cover in greater detail in a later column. so every time you It’s called How Students Learn: Science In The stand up in front Classroom (M. Suzanne Donovan and John D. of people to edu- Bransford editors, Committee On How Peo- cate them about the ple Learn: A Targeted Report for Teachers, Na- night sky always re- tional Research Council, ISBN 0-309-54805- member that half 5, 264 pages). National Academies Press, 500 your work has al- Fifth Street N.W., Washington, DC, 20001. The ready been done for pdf version is available through their web site, you. You just have www.nap.edu/catalog/1112.html to complete the In those pages, the authors remind us that other half in an en- as we stand up to address an audience, we gaging, informative should bear in mind these points as guides to manner that has good education: them walking out • If we really want to know what students afterwards knowing are thinking, we need to ask them and then they’ve been enter- listen respectfully. If we are genuinely inter- tained and educated ested and don’t act too judgmental, we can at the same time. learn from our students. As for the tools we • Learning is an active process. We need use, I love the new to acknowledge students’ attempts to make digital stuff and the sense of their experiences and help them con- extra educational front inconsistencies in their sense making. possibilities it offers. • Teachers’ questions can model the types of But I’m enough of questions students may ask themselves when a traditionalist still conducting personal enquiry. to also love the pre- • Teachers need to unconditionally respect digital simple things students’ ability to learn complex ideas, and that have proven to students have to learn to respect the teacher be very effective af- as an instructional leader. Teachers will need ter decades of use by to earn their respect through their actions as a hundreds of educa- respectful guide to learning. wide audience out there keen to take in our tors across the world. So I intend for this col- These guidelines were developed to cover pearls of wisdom. So there’s never been a bet- umn to consistently reflect the old and the education in general, but you can see as well ter time to do what we do. I see it as a privilege, new. There’s a large constituency of planetari- as I the relevance they have to astronomy ed- and I hope you do, too. ans out there who either can’t afford, or don’t ucation. The recent 50th anniversary of Sputnik’s want to have, digital technology under the launch gave me pause for thought about the dome, and so I want them to get as much from Web Sites to Check degree to which space-related stuff has be- this column as everybody else. I’ll finish off by encouraging you to visit a come an accepted part of our everyday lives. couple of other web sites that I’m sure you’ll I don’t know about other countries, but here Super Tools find of value. The first is the home of the Eu- in the UK the anniversary was marked on a We all know the value and popularity ropean Association for Astronomy Education, pretty low level in the media. I heard a few ra- of simple astronomy demonstrations using at www.eaae-astro.org. dio programmes, and read a magazine article household items. Sometimes the cheap, tried, Another site is that of the International As- or two, but for a significant anniversary the and tested things really are the best. One of tronomical Union’s Commission 46 on As- whole thing didn’t exactly make a big splash. my all-time favourites for the younger kids tronomy Education, found at iau46.obspm. On one level that was a little frustrating is paper plate astronomy activities. The full fr. Apart from lots of other goodies, you’ll find for me, but on another level it made me re- range can be found at analyzer.depaul.edu/ there contact details for local IAU education alise that space happenings and our reliance paperplate. You’ve probably already heard of representatives in dozens of countries. Each on space-related technology have become so this educational tool, but if you haven’t got rep will have reams of educational ideas that ingrained in society that the media perhaps round to visiting Chuck Bueter’s site recently they’ll be happy to share with you. didn’t see it as something that was in need of or haven’t had time to try any of the activi- Finally, go to www.astronomy2009.org/ big coverage. Over the last 50 years our pub- ties, I encourage you to do so as soon as possi- component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ lic have become receptive to the message we ble because they really are terrific. They have to keep abreast of planned activities for In- send out with every planetarium show and given me some of my favourite educational ternational Year of Astronomy 2009. You can general presentation. They are sitting there moments with kids. also post details on that site of your own activ- in the audience keen to hear what we have to ities, and find contact information for the of- say, so it’s no wonder astronomy is the most Words to the Wise ficial IYA 2009 regional representative in your popular of the sciences world wide. Before we engage students in any type of country.

December 2007 Planetarian 33 From the

Wanted: Your Astronomy Demonstrations

The Astronomy Education Review is creating a special section or issue • Use of new educational technology in connection with demos devoted to astronomy education demonstrations (demos). It will focus • Each contribution should address such issues as educational ob- on strategies to engage astronomy learners and impact their conceptu- jectives, materials needed, methods, proper settings, safety consid- al understanding through demos in both formal and informal educa- erations, setup time, qualitative versus quantitative results, what tional settings. can go wrong, cost, variations, and simplicity. Photographs and di- We want to include physical classroom demos, hands-on models, agrams are encouraged. astronomical observations, kinesthetic activities, and other efforts to teach astronomy concepts through more than just description. Demos Papers on Educational Theory and Research Results Involving Dem- can be conducted in any setting and do not necessarily have to be per- os (no length limits; requirements are the same as for all AER papers. See formed by the instructor. At this time, we are not interested in contri- guidelines at aer.noao.edu/submit.html) butions that are primarily computer based. • Research on demos and their effectiveness in a given education- We especially encourage papers on the creative use of demos in dif- al setting ferent educational settings, for unusual audiences, or for addressing • General techniques for integrating demos into various education- cutting-edge astronomical research (or the technology behind it). We al contexts, with particular attention to their impact on student strongly encourage authors to describe how to integrate demos with learning effective educational teaching strategies (e.g., peer instruction, just-in- • Comprehensive guides to demo resources or annotated lists of time teaching). high-quality demos Two specific categories of papers are being solicited. Contributions should be submitted by January 2, 2008, for consider- Short Papers Describing Specific Demonstrations (under 1,500 words ation for our first installment on demonstrations. in length): Questions and manuscripts should be sent to the coeditors for this • Concise description of a specific astronomy demonstration that area: you have found to be particularly useful in teaching an astrono- John Keller (Department of Physics, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) at jm- my concept [email protected] and Stephen Pompea (Manager of Science Educa- • Suggestions for improving or extending a “classic” demo that is al- tion, National Optical Astronomy Observatory) [email protected]. ready written up in the literature (in an accessible place) If possible, please send all e-mails to both section editors at the same • Innovative use of demos in both formal and informal environ- time. ments for learners of all ages

Reprinted with permission from Astronomy Education Review, Issue 2, Volume 6, 2007; Copyright as- signed to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.

The latest issue of Astronomy Education Review, the web-based journal/magazine for everyone involved in astronomy education and outreach, can be found at aer.noao.edu. AER actively solicits interesting pa- pers and articles on all aspects of space science education and outreach. AER is particularly interested in increasing the number of papers relating to education outside the formal classroom. The site gets be- tween 150,000 and 200,000 hits per month from 91 different countries. Editors are Sidney Wolff and Andrew Fraknoi.

34 Planetarian December 2007 December 2007 Planetarian 35 The Act’s Basic Requirements Once you determine that a particular email General Counsel message is considered “commercial” in na- to regulate the manner in which such email ture, the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act is sent, rather than attempting to prohibit or are surprisingly straightforward. For starters, otherwise regulate the use of the medium it- the email must not contain any false or mis- self. leading information, which includes both the While the CAN-SPAM Act has little effect body of the message as well as the header and on the day-to-day lives of most planetarians, subject line. Spammers often “spoof” the “to” with more and more museums and planetari- and “from” fields to make their messages ap- ums relying on the Internet to communicate pear as if they were sent by a legitimate party; with their visitors and communities, I thought such conduct is prohibited by the CAN-SPAM that in this quarter’s installment of General Act. Similarly, many spammers use deceptive Counsel, I would provide a brief introduction subject lines to entice the recipient to read to the law and some factors to keep in mind their messages, which are generally unrelated to help you decide if your email communica- to the content of the subject line. This, too, is tion is in compliance with the relevant legal prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act. requirements. Another key provision requires emailers to offer an Internet-based mechanism to al- What’s Covered low recipients to opt out of future commer- As an initial matter, the CAN-SPAM Act ap- cial email. The sender must keep the opt-out plies only to commercial email. The designa- mechanism active for 30 days following each Christopher S. Reed tion comes from the primary purpose of the email message sent, and after a recipient asks email in question and not the nature of the to be removed from the sender’s list, the ad- CSR Media, LLC sender. So, even email from noncommercial dress must be removed within 10 days. The 1600 South Eads Street institutions, like most museums and plane- CAN-SPAM Act renders it unlawful for a send- tariums, might be designated as commercial er to sell the list of recipients who have opt- #830N email if the primary purpose of the message is ed out, or to engage a third-party to send com- Arlington, Virginia 22202 designed to advertise or promote a product or mercial email on its behalf, to recipients who service, or engage the recipient in a business have opted out. USA transaction. The sender must also include a “clear and (1) 720-236-3007 Exempt from the definition of commer- conspicuous notice that the message is an ad- cial email, and thus exempt from the provi- vertisement” along with a valid, physical post- [email protected] sions of the CAN-SPAM Act, are “transactional al address and a clear notice that the recipient or relationship messages” designed to facil- may opt out of future commercial email in Perhaps one of the most unfortunate side ef- itate a transaction in an existing business re- each message that it sends. fects of the Internet age is having to deal with lationship. For example, an order or shipping The Act also contains rules regarding the the daily deluge of spam—the annoying mes- confirmation from a vendor would not need acquisition and use of email addresses, pro- sages peddling virtually everything from por- to conform to the requirements of the CAN- viding additional penalties for “harvesting” of nography to counterfeit prescription drugs. SPAM Act because it relates to a specific trans- email addresses from web-based services that While most of us view spam as a relatively mi- action arising out of an existing relationship explicitly state that the email addresses will nor annoyance, to system administrators and with the customer. not be used for such purposes. In other words, Internet service providers, spam represents an It’s worth noting that requiring recipients if a web site states, in a privacy policy or else- expensive problem, as the floods of messag- to opt-in to receive certain email communica- where, that it does not use or will not sell the es put undue strain on their systems and net- tions, although good practice, does not excuse email addresses it collects for commercial pur- work infrastructure. compliance with the Act. An email which is poses, it is unlawful to then use those address- In 2003, in an effort to curb the rapidly primarily commercial in nature must comply es commercially. Put simply, you can’t say growing spam problem, U.S. lawmakers passed with the Act’s requirements even if it is sent one thing, and then do another. the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicit- to someone who has previously requested Additionally, it is unlawful to generate ed Pornography and Marketing Act (better such communications. It’s also interesting to email address lists by engaging in “dictionary known by its catchier nickname, the CAN- note that while the CAN-SPAM Act is aimed attacks,” which the Federal Trade Commis- SPAM Act), which became effective on Jan- primarily at reducing unwanted bulk email, sion describes as “combining names, letters, or uary 1, 2004. The law, enforced by the Feder- its terms are not limited to bulk or mass dis- numbers into multiple permutations,” to use al Trade Commission and the Department of tributions. The CAN-SPAM Act requirements scripts or other automatic methods to regis- Justice, aims to reduce the volume of unwant- apply to a single email sent to a single recipi- ter multiple email accounts for the purpose of ed spam by requiring emailers to comply with ent just as they do to mass email distributions. sending commercial email, and to rely email certain rules regarding the messages they send The sole determining factor for applicability through another computer or computer net- and the way they acquire email addresses. In of the CAN-SPAM Act is the primary purpose work without permission of the owner. recognizing that not all bulk email is necessar- of the email: if it’s commercial, you must com- ily sent for nefarious purposes, the Act aims ply. Penalties for Violations The CAN-SPAM Act’s penalty structure pro- General Counsel is intended to serve as a source of general information on legal issues vides for fines of up to $11,000 per violation, of interest to the planetarium community. Planetarians seeking information on how with enhanced fines for engaging in untow- the principles discussed in a General Counsel column apply to their own circumstances should seek the advice of their own attorneys. ard methods of email address generation, ac-

36 Planetarian December 2007 count registration, and network re- tional mailers will run afoul of the law. laying. Particularly egregious conduct Many institutions also have a specific may be investigated by the Depart- person or department responsible for ment of Justice and could result in ensuring compliance with the CAN- criminal prosecution. The Act does SPAM Act. I encourage you to seek out not provide a private right of action – these resources or contact your own that is, private parties, like consumers counsel to learn more about the law or internet service providers, cannot and local policies that may apply to sue spammers to enforce provisions of you. Like all laws, the CAN-SPAM Act the CAN-SPAM Act. merely set forth minimum standards Note that the $11,000 figure is a max- – it is quite possible that your institu- imum; one would assume that the tion has established more stringent Federal Trade Commission, or a court, guidelines about which you should would take into account the facts make yourself aware. Photo by Chris Reed and circumstances surrounding an al- As with all of my columns, this dis- leged violation and impose a fine commensu- states have enacted their own regulations that cussion merely scratches the surface of a rel- rate with the degree of conduct. Put different- govern email as well. While a state-by-state atively complex area of law. The fact-specific ly, one could expect lower fines in situations discussion is beyond the scope of this column, nature of the CAN-SPAM Act necessarily re- where the violation was innocent and/or rela- you should take the time to identify and fa- quires that senders consider each and every tively few recipients were affected, and higher miliarize yourself with such rules and regula- email in terms of (1) whether the message’s fines in cases where the violation was know- tions, which are typically administered and primary purpose is commercial; and (2) the ing, willful, and/or affected large numbers of enforced by each state’s attorney general. measures necessary to comply with the Act. recipients. As I mentioned earlier, the CAN-SPAM Act In view of the relatively simple requirements has been law since January 2004, and since of the Act, it seems that the benefits of com- Other Considerations and Seeking bulk email has become such a ubiquitous plying, even if not legally required in a partic- More Information form of communication, many institutions ular instance, would far outweigh the poten- Although the CAN-SPAM Act is the prima- have developed readily accessible compliance tial costs associated with failing to comply ry anti-spam law at the national level, many guides to help reduce the chances that institu- when necessary.

December 2007 Planetarian 37 38 Planetarian December 2007 only with music and sound effects composed by Peter Stinissen, in-house audio buff. The International News show itself was written and programmed by Eddy Pirotte, [email protected]. al gathering of Brazilian planetarians, a formal The Planetarium of the Royal Observato- Association of Brazilian Planetariums (ABP) ry of Belgium in Brussels has dedicated its new was formed only in 1995 (after a brief attempt temporary exhibition, Our Sun, inspired, of to form a larger, Latin American Association, course, by the International Heliophysical in 1994, in the wake of the total solar eclipse Year that started on 19 February 2007 in Vi- that was seen from the South of Brazil). ABP enna. Fifty years after the IGY (International was founded in 1995, in Campinas. Geophysical Year), the world’s science com- Every year since then planetarians meet in munity comes together again for an interna- a pre-selected city to interact and exchange tional program of scientific collaboration on knowledge, experiences, and anecdotes. ABP the theme of advancing our understanding of met in 2006 in the city of Vitória, and in 2007 the heliophysical processes that govern the in São Paulo. This year’s annual meeting took Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. place 15-18 November in São Paulo. It current- The exhibition is divided in four parts, each ly has 15 institutional members and a lot more of which describes a specific part of the Sun. individual members. Individual members do “The Sun, a Star in Our Galaxy,” is the first part, not pay any fee, but must attend a meeting to and explains what kind of star the Sun is and join. Brazil has 30 active fixed-dome planetar- gives an overview of the different sorts of stars iums. that exists, the place of our Sun in the Milky The biggest news from ABP is, of course, its way, and how the Sun produces its enormous affiliation to IPS. As of 2007, four members amounts of energy. In the second part, the em- of ABP have become members of IPS as well: phasis is put on “The Solar Wind.” Everyone Lars Broman Rio de Janeiro Planetarium, Pará Planetarium, knows that the Sun’s influence is felt here on Porto Alegre Planetarium, and OmnisLux, the Teknoland Earth, but most of the public doesn’t know Zeiss representative to Brazil. The affiliation how big this influence can be. The nature of Stångtjärnsv 132 was accepted, in a very happy coincidence, solar wind is explained, as is how the Earth is SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden during the IPS Council Meeting, in Rio de Ja- protected by its magnetic shield—with the au- neiro in August. rora as a beautiful result of it. +46 2310 177 On another note, Londrina, south of Brazil, The Sun shines in more than just the visual [email protected] opened a new planetarium. It is an 8-m dome, part of the electromagnetic spectrum. In the 44 seats, with a Gambato projector. And last, third part is given an overview of the different www.teknoland.se but not least, the Ibirapuera Planetarium, in components of the electromagnetic spectrum São Paulo, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. in the radiation of the Sun. The consequences It was the first planetarium in Latin America! The International News column is depen- of each component of this sort of radiation on dent on contributions from IPS Affiliate As- the Earth and on mankind are specified; there- Association of Dutch-Speaking fore, this part is named “The Sun: Our Friend, sociations all over the world. Many thanks to Planetariums Agnès Acker, Bart Benjamin, Ignacio Castro, Our Enemy?” Beisbroek Planetarium in Bruges had the Gail Chaid, Alex Delivorias, Jack Dunn, Alan The last part talks more in general, of “The première of its newest show on 27 October. Dyer, Shoichi Itoh, Tom Mason, André Milis, Life and Death of a Star.” It gives four different Children of the Sun is a traditional show about Donna Pierce, Loris Ramponi, and Gerd Thiele life cycles, for stars that are about .5, 10, and 30 the solar system. As much use as possible is for your contributions. Special thanks are due made of the to Alexandre Cherman for the first news from ZKP3/B Zeiss the new IPS affiliate: the Association of Bra- opto-me- zilian Planetariums. Upcoming deadlines are chanical star 1 January 2008 for the Planetarian of March projector. Of 2008 and 1 April for June 2008. Please note course, for my new email address when submitting your a show on contribution! planets, one can’t avoid Association of Brazilian extensive Planetariums use of slides, The Brazilian Planetarium community is for which relatively small if you keep in mind that Bra- we have a zil is the fourth largest country in the world double All (larger than the continental USA). Most of the sky projector planetariums were installed in the 1970’s by set, automat- Zeiss, as part of a commercial agreement be- ed with Sky- tween Brazil and East Germany. It is natural, Skan’s Spice therefore, that members of this community Automation. have always been close to each other. IPS Past President Martin George photographing IPS President Susan Button, ABP pres- The show is Even though there had been the occasion- ident Michel Sauma, and Rio de Janeiro Planetarium director Alexandre Cherman. Pho- in Flemish to by Filipe Pereira.

December 2007 Planetarian 39 of the Space Age, created and produced by Rob- AMPAC has established, thanks to space in Sip of Mirage3D, who said “As far as I know, provided by and in collaboration with the the APLF is the first planetarium association University of Sonora, an Open Forum for which has arranged to purchase a fulldome members and non members, for planetariums video shows en mass. This is only thanks to and astronomy related institutions, with the the fact that the members of the APLF are purpose of identifying problems, exchanging working together well, and realize the collec- ideas, proposals, and experiences that enrich tive advantages of their APLF organization.” the planetarium community. The url is cos- This has many advantages: it has enabled mos.astro.uson.mx/AMPAC/AMPACforum. the production of a special French version of htm. Contributions in Spanish should be ad- the show, a shorter version, and a special price dressed to [email protected]. for every theater. With so many theaters in- terested in the French version through the British Associations of APLF, the price has been lowered significant- Planetariums ly. This formula works well and can, in the fu- Armagh Planetarium’s monthly publica- ture, be applied again to many shows of other tion Astronotes is written by the planetarium production companies. staff on topics of their choice, usually with a little editorial prodding. Astronotes editor Co- Association of Mexican lin Johnston keeps his eye on news items that Planetariums he thinks will interest the readers, who range On 21 August 2007, the Luis Enrique Erro from amateurs and school groups to friends of Planetarium celebrated its 40th Anniversa- the planetarium and other professional col-

Queen plakat Genk. Photo by Chris Janssen, Eu- ry, with the Digistar 3DLP Digital Projector leagues. The print run is now exceeding 400 roplanetarium. installed late last year (see AMPAC in the In- per month, which is not bad, considering that ternational News in March 2007 for more de- this publication started life as a short photo- times the mass of our Sun. tails). copied newssheet. Articles are a mixture of The masterpiece of the exhibition is a hand- The celebration agenda included lectures, light reading plus some more detailed expla- made model of the Sun, where the different comments, and anecdotes from founding au- nations of astronomy topics that have been layers are visualized and explained. The ex- thorities and planetarium directors. Several asked about by Armagh Planetarium visitors hibition is not intended to be exhaustive; its distinguished Mexican research astronomers or through email enquiries. intent is to give basic information to our dai- from the Astronomy Institute and the Radio The staff is continually adding to the dis- ly public; people who have no specific back- Astronomy and Astrophysics Center, like Dr. tribution list, and has now put a PDF version ground information in science and/or astron- Luis Felipe Rodríguez, lectured on the new as- of Astronotes on the website, which means omy. It is on display until May 2008, and it is tronomy research frontiers. As a novelty, the that the addicts will have their copies sooner. produced by Planetarium Brussels and SIDC, National Polytechnic Institute transmitted Electronic distribution is the way forward, al- Department of Solar Physics of the Royal Ob- live via the internet the anniversary lectures, though they will continue to make hard cop- servatory of Belgium. For information, con- enabling other planetarians to remote access. ies for readers who do not have easy access tact: André Milis, [email protected]. Dr. Francisco Sánchez Martinez, director of the to computers. International News editor Lars One of the traditions of the Europlanetar- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canaries, Spain, lec- Broman has suggested that Armagh Planetari- ium is mixing Science with culture, and the tured on the Great Canary Islands Telescope um might want to increase Astronotes reader- cooperation with Sternsprung GMBH has and educational and research projects in collaboration with provided the chance to show Queen Heaven, a spectacular journey trough time and space México. A panel session was dedi- in a new dimension, a unique combination cated to the present challeng- of music, laser, panorama, all sky, video clips, es encountered by Mexican and the planetarium projector on the dome. Planetariums. Participants This planetarium laser show is for the first were Antonio Sanchez, cur- time being shown outside the German-speak- rent president of AMPAC; ing countries and the Europlanetarium staff Fernando Oviedo, AMPAC is proud to be able to show the Belgian audi- founder and Planetarium En- ence a different way to use the planetarium rique Erro; Jesus Mendoza Al- dome. The laser show runs side by side with varez, current director of Plan- the regular planetarium shows and draws a etarium Enrique Enrique Erro; Juan Jose Duran, director of new kind of potential planetarium visitors to Planetarium Arcadio Proveda Europlanetarium. Information can be found and AMPAC president-elect; at www.europlanetarium.com, www.queen- Joel Vega, representing Plane- lasershow.com or from Chris Janssen, chris@ tarium Felipe Rivera from Mo- europlanetarium.com. relia; and Jorge Sanchez from Planetarium El Rehilete. Top- Association of French-Speaking ics varied from classifying Planetariums types of planetariums in exis- Up to seven APLF member theaters have to- tence and operation capabili- ties to fostering environment gether and at the same time expressed an in- The French version of the show Dawn of the Space Age. Courtesy of conservation, with interesting terest in the latest fulldome video show Dawn Robin Sip, Mirage 3D. contributions.

40 Planetarian December 2007 ship, and so this short article is to draw your at- gy. With funding still pending and technol- tion and deep sky objects, followed by the tention to the PDF version, but the staff would ogy evolving amazingly fast, the Montreal origin of these wonders in a “History of the like to know who you are and where you are, Planetarium is in an excellent position to up- Universe” presentation. The presentation af- so if you send your email details to Tom Ma- grade to a state-of-the-art digital theater in the ter lunch is the tools of astronomers, a Pow- son, [email protected], you will get coming years. Contact and information: Pierre erPoint presentation accompanied by demon- an emailed PDF copy as part of the normal dis- Chastenay at [email protected]. strations of optical systems. The experience tribution list. The Doran Planetarium in Sudbury, Ontar- concludes with the formation of the solar sys- io was founded in 1968, on the campus of Lau- tem and a basic introduction to comparative Canadian Association of Science rentian University. Under its 10-m (33 ft) dome planetology. Centres sits an A3P Prime sky projector. The auxiliary During the coming year, the Doran Plane- The Montreal Planetarium recently com- projectors consist of three banks of two slide tarium hopes to replace some of the slide pro- pleted production of The Quest for Galactium, projectors each. Ancient technology, but it is jectors by computer projections so that they its new multimedia show that focuses on the effective for live presentations. Students in- can make use of computer animations. If pos- content of the Milky Way galaxy. The pro- teract with the narrator for a complete educa- sible, they would like to open their doors to gram is aimed at kids 8-10 years old and was tional experience. For more than 35 years the the public in a regular fashion, even if it would produced in connection with some of the ob- planetarium has been presenting programs be on a limited basis. They also planned a spe- jectives of the Programme de formation de dedicated to primary and secondary schools. cial presentation for the 50th anniversary of l’école québécoise, the new provincial cur- Presentations are done in either French or Sputnik this past October. Contact and infor- riculum introduced recently that promotes English, depending on the group. The plane- mation: Paul-Émile Legault at plegault@nick- learning of basic astronomy concepts by pri- tarium is also used as a teaching aid for uni- el.laurentian.ca. mary and secondary school students. They in- versity astronomy courses. It has been home The Planetarium at the Manitoba Museum tend to review all of their school shows to up- to the Sudbury Astronomy Club for nearly 30 has produced The People vs. Pluto, a solar sys- date them, an ongoing process that will take years. There are two small observatories on tem survey that uses Pluto’s “demotion” as a several months to complete. campus housing 15 cm and 20 cm telescopes. hook to explore the solar system. The plan- In parallel, they are also producing new On occasion, visitors use these for viewing if etarium staff has also completed 50 Years, a shows for the general public, next in line be- they have requested a late evening show. mini-show that explores the five decades of ing Wonders of the Milky Way, which should The planetarium’s pride is a high school spaceflight since the launching of Sputnik 1 open in February 2008. Some members of the program based on the Ontario Curriculum for in 1957. Made up of segments from previous staff have also been traveling to planetariums grade nine. The presentation is divided into programs and focusing on the Grade 9 science that have recently been upgraded to fulldome two parts with a lunch break in between. Part curriculum, the show accompanies a small ex- video theatres in an effort to assess technolo- one starts with observations of celestial mo- hibit on the history of spaceflight. A full-scale

December 2007 Planetarian 41 model of Sputnik 1 is the centerpiece of the exhibit, which includes Canadian Black Brant sounding rockets, a model of Canada’s first sat- ellite Alouette, and models of every spacecraft to take humans into orbit. Next on the proj- ect list is a new family show to open in March 2008, and planning for the future of the sci- ence gallery and planetarium. Contact and in- formation: Scott Young at scyoung@manito- bamuseum.ca. In June, the TELUS World of Science-Cal- gary hosted a small gathering of planetari- um producers from across Canada involved in the last two national consortium shows. The main goal was a “post-mortem” on their last production, Is Anybody Out There? Technical and production management issues with the show were itemized, and solutions discussed for making future cross-Canada productions Press conference at the Eugenides Foundation for the presentation of the new planetarium show From run even more smoothly. To that end, con- Earth to the Moon and in celebration of the 50th Anniversary from the launch into space of Sputnik 1. cepts were floated for the next joint produc- From left to right: Prof. Thanasis Economou, senior research associate, Laboratory for Astrophysics and tion, likely a show to help celebrate the 2009 Space Research, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago; General Charles M. Duke, lunar module pi- International Year of Astronomy and the lot of Apollo 16 and the 10th man to walk on the Moon; David Malin, astrophotographer, from the Anglo- 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the Australian Observatory; Dionysios Simopoulos, director of the Eugenides Planetarium; and John Stoke, manager of the Informal Science Education branch of the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of telescope. This is a program all Canadian facil- Public Outreach. Photo courtesy Eugenides Planetarium ities would want, and so they are pursuing a concept of a nationally-funded show featur- ing Galileo live on stage as a host. Moon to commemorate the first chapter one The script and visuals would be flexible Council of German Planetariums of mankind’s great adventure in space. enough to adapt to different theater configu- Fifty teachers of physics and/or astronomy, The show was introduced by Charles M. rations, perhaps even to non-planetarium flat- members of planetariums and observatories, Duke, lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 and the screen venues. Rather than being a biography producers, and others met 21- 23 September in 10th man to walk on the surface of the Moon, of Galileo and his trials and tribulations, the Fulda for Planetaria 2007, the important event to an invited audience of distinguished guests. show would emphasize backyard astronomy for planetariums in Germany. The memorable occasion was complement- and how we can all see the same things Gal- Planetaria is a meeting especially for small ed with the opening of three special exhibits: ileo saw—the sights that changed the world. planetariums. They often exist in connection Space Photography 1957-2007 by David Ma- The show would serve to complement 2009’s with a school, which is why, for them, educa- lin, renowned astrophotographer from the stepped-up campaigns of “sidewalk astrono- tion is an important task. An important dis- Anglo-Australian Observatory; the Voyage of my” designed to provide everyone with wide- cussion centered on the fact that people can Man in Space through the Greek Press, from spread opportunities to look through tele- also see on the computer or through the in- the collection of philatelist Kleon Dionysatos; scopes. Contact and information: Alan Dyer at ternet the same material that we can show in and 17 years of explorations by the Hubble [email protected]. a planetarium, but planetarians must know Telescope by John Stoke, manager of the in- A Planetarium presentation on the Earth’s that we can show it better. formal science education branch of the Space crust was the focus of recent show production Volkmar Schorcht from Carl Zeiss in Jena Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public activity at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in introduced solutions of his enterprise for a Outreach. Vancouver. In response to a new section in the digital planetarium which will be interesting The series of events to celebrate the 50th local school curriculum on the Earth’s crust, also for small planetariums. Anniversary of the launch into space of Sput- they developed a planetarium show that nik 1 continued the next day with a panel dis- looks at the Earth as member of the geologi- cussion on the subject of “The Future of Man cal family that is the solar system. The geolog- European/Mediterranean in Space,” moderated by Dionysios Simopou- ical forces that shape the surface of our planet Planetarium Association los, Eugenides Planetarium director, with the are presented along with the geological forc- The Eugenides Planetarium upgrade plans participation of Charles Duke, John Stoke, es that shape the surfaces of the other mem- for 2007 are finally complete. All of its Sky- David Malin, Thanasis Economou (senior re- bers of the solar system. The opportunity to Skan digital equipment has been upgraded search associate, Laboratory for Astrophys- examine volcanic activity, erosion, and cra- and new computers were installed (two com- ics and Space Research, Enrico Fermi Institute, tering on other worlds provides students with plete sets) in order to run the latest versions of University of Chicago), and Antonis Kontara- a more informed appreciation of the forces of Digital Sky 2 and Digital Universe software. A tos (professor emeritus, University of Patras nature and how they impact our world. The new computer that controls the interactive and ex-NASA adviser during the 1960s). This program concludes with a virtual field trip buttons on the planetarium seats also has been event was jointly organised by the Eugenides hosted by a local geologist, who appears on installed, a feature that is being introduced at Foundation and the Athens Concert Hall. video, during an all-sky tour of the geologi- the Eugenides Planetarium for the first time The international conference Communi- cal highlights in and around Vancouver. Con- this season. On 4 October, 50 years after the cating Astronomy with the Public 2007 fol- tact and information: Erik Koelemeyer at eko- launch of the first artificial satellite “Sputnik lowed next, from 8-11 October, co-organized [email protected]. 1,” the Eugenides Planetarium premiered its by the International Astronomical Union, the new planetarium show From the Earth to the National Observatory of Athens, and the Eu-

42 Planetarian December 2007 genides Planetarium. Sutherland’s The Future Finally, the audiovisu- is Wild, began the slow al show Searching for… process of updating their Space-time, an abstract in-house, full-dome en- planetarium show di- tertainment show Christ- rected by Panagiotis Si- mas Lights!, and contin- mopoulos, had its pre- ued production of Bad miere at the Eugenides Astronomy—Myths and Planetarium the first Misconceptions with their Saturday of November. colleagues at the Detroit The program is based Science Center. on the recorded concert The Peter F. Hurst Plan- of composer Dimitris etarium in Jackson had Maragopoulos and was a busy summer imple- performed by the Cam- menting several projects erata Chamber Orches- relating to a generous gift tra of Athens, Greece. made by an anonymous In the meantime, donor. This has allowed in Northern Greece, their facility to install the Planetarium of the badly needed custom- Technical Museum of made storage cabinets, Thessaloniki celebrated Clayton C. Anderson’s shadow is seen on one of the solar panels during spacewalk. Photo by An- display counters, and a Sputnik’s 50th Anniver- derson. demonstration desk, as sary with the premiere well as revamp their web- of the fulldome program Astronaut and with for the 2009 International Year of Astrono- site, install signage, and improve their all-sky special lectures by two Greek professors of as- my, the U.S. Working Group is planning coor- system. tronomy. dinated events for six themes, including “Dark Ohio. Joe Marencik and Gene Zajac ran Skies are a Universal Resource.” Chuck is now their space camp this summer as the school Great Lakes Planetarium soliciting ideas for planetarium program seg- year ended at the Shaker Heights Planetarium. Association ments and supporting activities for small and Though there were cuts in the school bud- Illinois. The William M. Staerkel Plane- portable domes, as well as any other possible get, parent interest in enrichment activities tarium at Parkland College in Champaign cel- dark sky ideas or events. helped save space camp. Gene’s public pro- ebrated its 20th anniversary in October. Cel- The Allen Memorial Planetarium in Terre grams were centered on STS 118 and the flight ebratory events included a visit by shuttle Haute reports that it presented a seasonal star of Barbara Morgan. The fall program at the astronaut and University of Illinois alumni Jo- program on the weekend of the Autumnal Bowling Green State University Planetarium seph Tanner, a talk by Smithsonian astrophys- Equinox and Firstlight Laser Production’s La- was Loch Ness’ Oceans in Space. icist Lynn Carter, a talk about dark energy by ser Halloween show in late October. Cheri Adams reports that Dayton’s Boon- UI astronomer Brian Fields, and a presentation Michigan. The year 2007 marks the 10th shoft Museum of Discovery featured the OMSI on “The Legacy of Sputnik” by education pro- anniversary of the Delta College Planetari- exhibit Eyes on Earth beginning in October. fessor Dr. Barbara Hug. The planetarium also um in Bay City. October saw the opening of This exhibit examines the Earth Observing premiered a new original show on 20 years of a new season of shows that includes a hybrid System, how satellite observations are made, astronomical discoveries, titled Universary. laser show for Halloween and new shows for and what can be learned about the Earth from On 3 November, the Cernan Earth and the holidays. The staff at the Dassault Sys- this space technology. The planetarium show, Space Center of Triton College in River Grove tèmes Planetarium in Detroit was very busy coordinated with the timing of the exhibit, hosted University of Illinois anthropologist this summer with many summer day camp emphasizes how EOS and other space technol- and archeologist Dr. Stanley Ambrose, who groups and visitors checking out New Views ogy can be utilized to learn about other plan- presented a program about the Toba Catastro- of the Universe and their sky tour show Star- ets in our Milky Way galaxy as they orbit oth- phe Theory, which describes a super volcanic lit Summer Nights. They have also been spon- er stars. eruption 73,000 years ago that may have com- soring a monthly star party called “Beginner’s Wisconsin/Minnesota. Larry Mascotti pletely altered the genetic evolution of hu- Night,” held at a local park. at Mayo High School in Rochester reports that mankind. Grand Rapids’ Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium their renovation project, which includes new Indiana. At the E.C. Schouweiler Memori- offered a variety of planetarium-related class- seats, a new cove LED lighting system, and a al Planetarium at the University of St. Francis, es during this past summer’s Camp Curiosity digital all-sky projector, is on schedule. One Technician Chris Highlen and Director Alan at the Public Museum. These included an ex- unique aspect of their upgrade is the acquisi- Pareis have begun receiving, unpacking, and ercise in which a group of youngsters wrote, tion of a 3-ft Global Imagination Magic Plan- doing preliminary installation layout of their developed a soundtrack for, and presented for et digital video globe, which allows viewers to new 12-projector, 180-degree dissolve pan sys- parents their own unique planetarium show see a stunning video display of the Earth, its tem. The Koch Planetarium has been making about the dwarf planet Pluto. New this year global systems and views of other planets. good use of equipment donated by the Sude- was a “Build Your Own Telescope” four-day Dave Williams at St. Cloud State University kum Planetarium, including some great dis- workshop in which participants constructed reports on another major renovation project, play cases and a large, three CRT video projec- their own 4-inch Dobsonian telescopes. which includes a new GOTO Chronos projec- tor, which projects three-meter images on the The Cranbrook Institute of Science Plane- tor and a new dome, sound system, LED cove 10-meter dome. tarium in Bloomfield Hills successfully ran a lighting, and an ATM-4 system. At Hibbing’s Chuck Bueter reports that, in preparation sold-out astronomy camp, debuted Evans & Paulucci Space Theatre, Director Joel Carlson

December 2007 Planetarian 43 ditions 15 and 16) have been all over the news in Nebraska. He did a great public service an- nouncement for one of the Omaha television stations that has been running quite often, promoting kids to go into math and science and generally get a good education. At Muel- ler, Dunn has also worked with the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which just opened a new Clay Anderson exhibit. Anderson has been sending down lots of cool photographs taken from the station. Of course, recently they had visitors from shuttle Endeavor with the crew of STS-118, including educator Barbara Morgan. Anderson has al- ready done several spacewalks, one of which was the equivalent of taking out the trash. He has been assured there will be jobs for him when he comes back to Earth. Jack Northrup at King Middle School Plan- etarium in Omaha continues to do extensive educational programming and the University of Nebraska at Kearney is getting a new plan- etarium to replace its old facility in the base- ment of the science building. Then they won’t be in a basement any more.

Italian Planetaria’s Friends Association Aldo Abate, designer, builder, and last direc- tor of the Planetarium of Lido of Venice, sud- denly died on 16 July 2007 at the age of 72. The planetarium structure, in front of the sea, was entirely realized and recently renovated thanks to his great passion and capacities. During the last National Meeting of Italian Planetaria in Milan in October 2007, the state- ment of the new national association of Ital- ian planetaria (www.planetaritaliani.it) was presented. Albert Pla from Spain and Chris- tophe Bertier (RSA Cosmos, St. Etienne, France) were among the participants. Top: The new Mira Planetarium, near Venice. Courtesy of Luca Talamoni. Bottom: The October National A new planetarium was opened in Italy Meeting at Milan Planetarium, Italy. Courtesy of Italian Planetaria’s Friends Association on 23 February 2007. Its director, Luca Tala- moni, is member of IPS since 1994. The struc- has replaced Marc Rouleau, who has moved tion and a sky observing platform on the Na- ture, dome, and projector designed and built south to take GLPA President Bob Bonadurer’s ture Center and planetarium grounds. And fi- by Gianpaolo Gambato has been financed former position at the University of Texas at nally, Todd DeZeeuw at the Gary E. Sampson by the municipality of Mira, a town situated Arlington. Planetarium in Wauwatosa reported that the between Venice and Padova, named a “town Dave Weinrich at Minnesota State Uni- four Milwaukee area planetariums hosted lu- of culture” some years ago. The director of versity’s Moorhead Planetarium represented nar eclipse viewing events on 28 August. the Science Museum and of the Planetarium GLPA at the IPS Council meeting this summer of Rome, Vincenzo Vomero, opened it along in Rio de Janeiro. He reports that Moorhead is Great Plains Planetarium with the mayor of Mira. It has seen a great suc- also planning renovations that will include Association cess of attendance of people of every age since the replacement of planetarium seats, a ma- The big news in the plains that has been the very first days of its activities. The plane- jor floor renovation, the addition of a new en- keeping us occupied is that Nebraska, for the tarium has a 6-m (20-ft) dome and it can host trance, and a relocation of the console. Randy first time, has an astronaut in space. Clayton 35 people. Several other side activities, such Olson at the Allen F. Blocher planetarium in C. Anderson grew up in Ashland, Nebraska. as lectures and lessons, take place every week, Stevens Point recently ran Into the Universe, Anderson and his family are wonderful repre- either for regular visitors or school groups. which was written by the planetarium’s own sentatives for Nebraska and for NASA. For more information, go to luca.talamoni@ Amy Wilder. Jack Dunn, Mueller Planetarium in Lincoln, shineline.it. Dave DeRemer at the Charles Horwitz Plan- Nebraska, and his wife Liz were invited by An- Another new planetarium will be open in etarium in Waukesha reports that the plane- derson to his launch and on 6 June the shut- the end of December in Italy. It will become tarium and the Retzer Nature Center received tle Discovery took off for space on time with the first Spitz model installed and located in a $10,000 grant from Cooper Industries, which a perfect launch. Anderson’s activities on the a small town with 7,000 inhabitants, near Ber- will be used for building a new weather sta- shuttle and during his stay on the ISS (expe- gamo in the north of Italy, called Brembate

44 Planetarian December 2007 di Sopra. Under a dome of 8 m barrier-free astronomy educa- (30 ft) with 50 seats, the digital tion for handicapped people, Spitz SciDome will be installed. and about 40 planetarians, ed- The Italian version of the show ucators, astronomers, and oth- Oasis in Space is ready (the trail- ers participated there. Discus- er is available on the web site). sions with blind people were The project is called “The Tow- held, and also some reports, er of the Sun” and includes an programs, and collaborations astronomical and solar obser- based on actual experiences at vatory and a conference room planetariums, at schools, and at with 120 seats. For more infor- hospitals were presented. mation, go to www.latorredel- The annual meeting of new sole.it. Japan Planetarium Association “Don’t throw the light to the (JPA) was held at Hitachi Civ- sky” is a national contest pro- ic Center, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki, moted by Serafino Zani astro- 20-22 June 2007. Dr. Kenichi nomical observatory with the Kato at Osaka Science Museum support of the main associa- was elected the first chair of tions involved in the campaign JPA. JPA consists of 142 institu- about light pollution (IDA’s Ital- tion members, 37 vendors, and ian Section, Italian Amateurs 35 individuals. In the meeting, The Vilnius Planetariumas building. To the right behind of the dome is the Europa Astronomers Union, Cielo Buio, building that is filled with shops, and to the right of the Europa building (not visible) 217 persons participated and 12 etc.). Students have been invit- is the Vilnius city municipality building. Photo by Anders Bodin vendors exhibited their work. ed to create a leaflet with orig- The third workshop for Pop- inal drawings, devoted to the ularizing Astronomy at the problem of light pollution. The leaflet, also gest to indicate that 16 March 2008 is the an- Cutting Edge: The Sun, was held at Hida Ob- handmade, is to be distributed at least among nual Day of Planetaria and that it is celebrated servatory, the University of Kyoto, 8-10 Sep- classroom families during the yearly Nation- in different countries. To join the celebration tember. Thirty-one astronomy educators and al Day against light pollution (this year on 25 of the day does not take big effort. eight research astronomers at the front of so- October), the “National Week of Astronomy— 3) In the leaflet that describes your own lar physics, including Prof. Kazunari Shibata, Let the student see the stars,” and in every pe- planetarium program or in a special leaflet the observatory director, participated. A train- riod of the year. A selection of the works re- printed for the day, planetariums are invited ing seminar for planetarium staffs will be held ceived will be published on the internet. to reproduce the logo of the Day of Planetar- by JPA at Munakata YURIX Planetarium, Fu- The Italian initiative, the International ia (available in the already mentioned inter- kuoka, 19-21 February 2008. Day of Planetaria, was started in Italy in 1991 net site). and has been held in different countries year- 4) During the day the entrance to some Nordic Planetarium Association ly since 1995. The next occasion will be on planetariums is free. Unfortunately, the NPA Conference sched- 16 March 2008. Planetariums usually open 5) All planetariums, not only the European uled for 7-9 September had to be cancelled due on Sunday are invited to communicate their ones, are invited to take part in and to support to too few registrations. Maybe the Forum col- collaboration to www.dayofplanetaria.org. the day, for example celebrating a planetari- It is an important opportunity for an inter- um date (anniversaries of planetarium build- national collaboration that aims to promote ings, or openings, or past directors and lectur- the knowledge of planetariums to the public. ers, etc.). These are some suggestions to the institutions 6) The initiative provides a good chance of that can take part in the Day: diffusing the knowledge of planetariums to 1. In the science web pages of the site www. the public. The simultaneity in different cit- dayofplanetaria.org, the links with planetari- ies attracts mass media attention to this event. ums that collaborate with the day are indicat- Obviously, each planetarium is invited to in- ed. Planetariums that usually are open on Sun- dicate in their press releases that 16 March days are invited to collaborate with the day by 2008 is the Day of Planetaria. sending to the Italian Planetaria’s Friends As- It is hoped that in the future also other coun- sociation their agreement and the address of tries will join in this initiative. For further in- their home pages. In this way we can create a formation or suggestions, you can contact the permanent link between these sites and www. Italian organizers at Associazione Amici dei dayofplanetaria.org. We also suggest planetar- Planetari, c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Serafi- iums to create a permanent link with their no Zani, via Bosca 24, 25066 Lumezzane, Italy, own web sites and the day. Programs could be email: [email protected]. also collected in each country by Day of Plan- etaria collaborators. Japan Planetarium Association 2) During the day, planetariums offer their On 15 June, the meeting titled Astrono- ordinary program or organize special events my Education in Universal Designs was host- freely, such as lessons, shows, exhibitions, ed by Mariko Takahashi and her colleagues and practical sky viewing. Obviously in the at the planetarium of Yamanashi Prefectural Kenichi Kato, the first Chairman of new JPA. monthly, weekly, or daily program we sug- Science Center. It was the meeting for seeking Courtesy of the Japan Planetarium Association.

December 2007 Planetarian 45 The planetarium is a state budgetary insti- tution and is dependent to the Vilnius Uni- versity’s Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy. The dome of the planetarium is 12.5 m (42 ft) and it has 150 seats. The equip- ment consists of a 1976 Zeiss star projector RP- DP that was not installed here until 1990. The projector shows 5200 stars on the dome. Also installed is an all sky system from 1995 with six Kodak Ektagraphic III projectors. In the back is a panoramic projector, also a Kodak Ektagraphic III. A Sony VPH-G70Q projector from 1995 shows video films on the dome. There are also some extra effects, like a supernova explo- sion, a binary star, an expanding universe, and a falling star. In the building of the planetari- um is also a 130-seat amphitheatre, with a pro- jector room that has two cinema 35 mm film projectors. SWAP Members at WAC 2007. Back row left to right: Dr. Kent Montgomery, Judi James, Frank Irby, Tor- Vilnius Planetariumas has about 50,000 vis- vald Hessel, Joe Eakin, Susan Eakin. Front row: Donna Favour, Lynn Moroney, Linda Irby, Donna Pierce, itors per year, mostly school children and stu- Patsy Patten. Photo by John Gallagher dents. Yearly, an average of 1,000 different events takes place: science popularization ses- umn in the next issue of Planetarian will give scription on the Lithuanian planetarium sions, lessons, meetings, discussions, etc. Visi- some clues to why this happened. One rea- scene: Vilnius Planetariumas is the only still tors were invited for free shows on each day son was probably that dates and place for the working specialized astronomy center not of the anniversary commemoration. event were changed only two months in ad- only in Lithuania, but also in all three Baltic vance. The next NPA Conference will be an- states. It has been active for 45 years, and on 17- Pacific Planetarium Association nounced well in time! 21 September 2007 celebrated its anniversary. The Pacific Planetarium Association, the During 2007, two university professors, The new planetarium is part of the center and University of Alaska Space Grant Consor- both well known to planetarians in many was built 1989 according a project of architect tium, and the University of Alaska Museum countries, have reached emeritus status: Aadu Robertas Stasėnas. Vilnius Planetariumas is sit- of the North co-hosted the 2007 Western Al- Ott on 1 April and Lars Broman on 1 October. uated in a new commercial center of Vilnius, liance Conference of Planetariums 19-22 Sep- Broman will, however, continue to be active just a few hundred meters from Vilnius city tember in Fairbanks, Alaska. Many thanks go in the planetarium field, but from now on as- municipality building, and is surrounded by to the team of conference organizers: Dr. Neal sociated with the consultant company Tekno- shops, casinos, nightclubs, and hotels within Brown, chairman; Susan Kramer, events co- land, www.teknoland.se. easy walking distance. ordinator; Shelley McCool, Westmark Ho- The Science Communication activities at Dalarna University have been closed down by the University’s rector. This applies to both re- search and education. She wrote on 15 Octo- ber a letter to the contractor of the large EU- financed research and development program COSMOS, stating that the University with- draws its participation (and thereby loosing 130,000 €). No more courses or programs will start in science communication, in spite of very large interest expressed by potential stu- dents. Professors Ernst van Groningen, Han- nu Salmi, and Lars Broman have all left or will leave within the next few months, van Gron- ingen for a leading position in a joint Uppsa- la University-developing country universities program, Salmi for a professorship at Helsinki University, and Broman for retirement. They will, during the coming year, assist remaining part-time master students in completing their studies on a consultant bases. The program that started in 2003 has been unique in Swe- den and quite successful; close to 40 masters have to date have been graduated from the Planetarians from around the globe at the Arctic Circle: From top left clockwise: Miles Allen (Australia), program. Robin Sip (The Netherlands), Mike Snail (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Torvald Hessel (Austin, Texas), Lau- ra Misajet (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Mark Mathews (Great Britain), Ann Wagner (Germany), and Wil- Anders Bodin has provided an update de- fried Lang (Germany). Photo by Torvald Hessel

46 Planetarian December 2007 tel marketing manager; Donna Pierce, SWAP the PPA business meeting there. There will be As president of SWAP, Donna Pierce has president and manager for vendor participa- no other 2008 meeting for PPA. been polling vendors these last few years tion; Amy Geiger and the staff at the Museum over the dissatisfaction of WAC not pulling of the North; and Heather Leavenworth and Southwestern Association of in the attendees necessary to make the con- the staff and volunteers of the Fairbanks Con- Planetariums ference workable for them. As a suggestion vention Center and Visitors Bureau. The Southwestern Association of Planetari- at the SWAP Affiliate meeting in Fairbanks, Thanks also to Martin Gutoski and the Fair- ums congratulates Gail Chaid for not only do- SWAP voted to hold their affiliate meeting at banks Amateur Astronomers for a fabulous ing an awesome job with managing the West- the IPS Conference in Chicago in July 2008 to evening stargazing and aurora watching. Fri- ern Alliance Conference 2007, but also in see if having WAC every second year on off- day night viewing of a spectacular aurora doing the write-up (above and page 54). IPS conference years might be a solution for went on for hours with the aurora moving Some SWAP members attended not only all. Many vendors expressed this idea of WAC overhead horizon-to-horizon. The conference the pre-conference trip to Anchorage and being every other year, and it makes sense to also extends thanks to sponsors Astro-Tec, Denali National Park, but also SWAPer Tor- hold the affiliate meetings at the IPS Confer- AVI/Konica Minolta Planetarium Co., E&S vald Hessel (Friends of the Austin Planetari- ence to facilitate more attending and becom- Spitz Inc., Global Immersion, CosmoDome, um) drove with others to the Artic Circle and ing a member of IPS. Seiler/Zeiss, and Sky-Skan. Billie Chandler of back! SWAP approved attending the conference the David Chandler Co. did a workshop about Hessel has, finally, good news on the fund- Jon Elvert is proposing for all US affiliates in “The Night Sky” planispheres from her com- ing for the planetarium in Austin. The an- Baton Rouge in 2009, so the University of Tex- pany. nouncement should be forthcoming, but suf- as at Arlington pulled their proposal for WAC For more about the conference, see page 54 fice it to say that Austin has one of the leading in 2008 and changed it to 2011. UTA’s 9-m (30- in this issue. astronomy departments at the University of ft) and 18-m (60-ft) domes would offer unlim- In 2008, PPA will meet again in at Adler Texas, but the city has no fixed dome facili- ited possibilities for a spectrum of programs Planetarium in Chicago at the IPS meeting. ty. Hessel has given untold hours making this for all planetarians. PPA attendees at that meeting will meet for planetarium a reality!

December 2007 Planetarian 47 colleagues. More than 60 people worked and ning these activities were oriented toward co- Mobile News discussed techniques and lessons, reviewed operation with other astronomical observato- computer software, and learned from ven- ries and organizing programs for the public. dors about some of the latest developments in I added to the mix by presenting a paper on equipment and programming. Plans are now IPS membership, of course, and several work- being made to hold annual meetings for plan- shops in STARLAB using interactive tech- etarians in Central Europe with the goal of niques to teach various topics. forming a regional organization. Our wonderful time together was capped The papers and workshops were varied and off by a fascinating visit to the astronomical, enlightening: geophysical and meteorological university Tomasz Kisiel, from the Jan Dlugosz Acade- observatory in Modra. my in Poland, shared his “First impressions of I would also like to extend a big thank you Digistar 3 in a small dome.” to the vendors who attended and supported Marian Vidovenec, from the Slovak Cen- this meeting and amazed participants with tral Observatory, told us about “Astronomical their technologies: R.S.A. Cosmos, Gambato Contests in Slovakia—how to attract people to Costruzioni per Astronomia, Learning Tech- public observatories and planetariums.” nologies, Cosmodome Portable Digital The- Torbjorn Urke presented a paper called atre, and Quim Guixà S.L. More about the con- “The Cultural Rucksack of Norway with As- ference can be found at www.suh.sk/ips2007. tronomy Teaching: Interesting and Important A 5th European Meeting of Small and Por- Experiences with a Mobile Planetarium 2007.” table Planetaria is being considered for 2009 He explained that present day students suf- in either Poland or Portugal. More informa- fer from being disconnected with the real sky tion will be published if this meeting comes Susan Reynolds Button and everyday observations of celestial events. to fruition. Quarks to Clusters He emphasized how difficult it is, in today’s Marian Vidovenec’s contact information: world, to help students draw on basic every- Slovak Central Observatory, Komarnans- 8793 Horseshoe Lane day experiences in order to grasp what we are ka 134, 947 01 Hurbanovo, Slovak republic; Chittenango, New York presenting in the planetarium. phone: +421-35-760-2485; email: suhmet@suh. Ivan Dorotovič, also from the Slovak Cen- sk 13037 USA tral Observatory, explained his research in (1) 315-687-5371 “Solar Activity as a Driver of the Space Weath- “Dark Skies Are a Universal (1) 315-432-4523 (fax) er.” Resource” Johannes Gajdosik, one of the Stellarium I received this email from Chuck Bueter, [email protected] developers, discussed the evolution of this who is looking for important feedback. Please software in his talk called “USING Stellarium in self made planetariums.” 4th European Meeting of Portable Sergey Kudryavtsev, from Moskow, pre- and Small Planetaria sented a paper on “Realistic Visualization of Once again interested planetarians and peo- the Sky by RedShift 6 Desktop Planetarium.” ple just seeking more information about por- Sergey is one of the developers of RedShift. table and small planetariums met in Europe. In his presentation, Marian Lorenc reviewed This time the conference was held at the Co- with us “50 years of space research and its con- menius University in Bratislava 6-8 Septem- tribution for planetaria.” ber, 2007. Our hosts were the Slovak Central Antonio Pedrosa and Marco Silva from Por- Observatory in Hurbanovo, the Astronomi- tugal helped us further explore new digital cal Observatory in Levice, and the Comenius technologies and tools in their paper “Plane- University Faculty of Mathematics, Physics tariums—New tools for a greater impact.” and Informatics. Stanislav Kanansky told us about one of the The conference initiator and organizer, largest planetariums in Slovakia, the Maximil- Marian Vidovenec, can be proud of the excel- ian Hell Astronomical Observatory and Plan- lent work he did to provide this exciting and etarium, and their efforts aimed at populariz- informative event. This area of Europe is ac- ing astronomy. tively deciding which planetariums they will Karol Petrik, from Hlohovec, talked about invest in and seeking examples of techniques an entertaining outreach multi-media astro- and programming for use in planetariums. nomical performance that he presents in Slo- There is a heavy concentration of observato- vak, Czech, or English, “Virtual Pleasure-trip ries in this area and their staff members are Around the Universe—multimedia entertain- looking at planetariums as an avenue for pro- ment and education for scholars.” This pro- moting their research and spreading knowl- gram seems to engage older students and helps edge of astronomy and space science. As in all make them interested in science. nations of the world, another major goal is to Renata Kolivošková explained that, since inspire young people to study the hard scienc- 1984, international projects have been coor- Jaoquin Guixa read a sample of the Planetarian es, technology, and mathematics. dinated from the Astronomical Observatory and experimented with the three-D glasses. Un- By attending this conference, participants and Planetarium in Prešov. From the begin- less otherwise noted, all photos by Susan But- enjoyed becoming part of a larger network of ton

48 Planetarian December 2007 read his request and contact him with your feelings and suggestions. Chuck wrote, “For the 2009 International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), one of the US working groups is addressing the theme “Dark Skies Are a Universal Resource.” One possi- ble component for IYA2009 is a planetarium package tailored to small domes, about which I seek your input. First, I invite users of small planetariums to forward their ideas for objec- tives, storylines, demos, activities, and sound bites for a program that emphasizes lighting issues. “Second, please suggest the format you prefer for a small-dome, low-budget production. For example, would you like a DVD broken down into stand-alone chapters, in which the DVD has some introductory video segments that you can play and then follow up with in- dome activities? Would you just prefer a col- lection of video snippets, still images, back- ground music, and sample narration? Are slide sets even welcome? I appreciate the prompt input of users in the field as we pur- Crew from Hurbanovo: Marian recruited all his hardworking and fun-loving colleagues to assist with this sue funding to support mobile planetariums.” conference. Here are some of his helpers: (left to right) Drahoslava Vybochova, Marian Lorenc, Jozef Contact Information for Chuck: email: buet- Hamran, Matej Vidovenec, Marian Vidovenec [email protected]; website: www.nightwise.org; phone: 1- 574-271-3150 (UT-5). ple who have gotten a license from the muse- my intuition that we need to keep answering um. Of course, we have a training program for the basic questions and never forget that there Portable Planetarium Activity in usage and how to give a lecture in the plane- are newcomers in our field all the time. Japan tarium. “Dear Ms. Button: My name is Martha Wad- Watanabe Yoshiya, the chief planetarium “The service was picked up by some TV and sworth, and I’m a parent of two elementary director at the Osaka Science Museum, wrote newspaper publicity. The mass media says ‘It’s school children. I am looking for information to share some information about their mo- a Revolution of the Planetarium’ or ‘New Era on the Starlab systems as they relate to stu- bile planetarium program. It is wonderful to of the Planetarium Has Come.’ We have had dents at the elementary school level. Would hear the success of their new program. Thank many inquiries and requests to the museum. you be interested in sharing some of your ex- you so much for sharing your exciting expe- We have provided five days of delivery, two tensive experience with me? rience! days of rental, and two training programs in “My first question is whether or not it is “Our Osaka Science Museum has the old- only two months. Last year we had test servic- beneficial for a school to purchase the Starlab est planetarium in Japan; it opened in 1937. es at city hall during six days. There were 1,200 products or to have someone come to school Now the museum has a big planetarium (26.5- people who attended altogether. on a limited basis to bring the program to us. m diameter dome). Every year, over 200,000 “Our portable planetarium is manufactured Have you found it to be the case that districts attendees have come. (The whole museum by Astronomia Educativa S.R.L., Argentina, are purchasing the equipment to use in k-12? attendance is 700,000.) The staff at the plane- a Model CUBEX A20. The 7-m dome holds Is the equipment “teacher friendly” or is ex- tarium is only five people; it is one of the bus- about 50 adults or 80 children. Our impres- tensive training needed to bring the faculty iest planetariums in Japan. sion of the hardware is mostly good; it is easy and staff up to speed on how to use the prod- “We started mobile planetarium services in to use and transfer. uct?” June of 2007. We deliver a 7-m dome portable The other good points include: large dome I wrote back the following: “Dear Martha: planetarium and lecturers for any group who is impressive; big audience; stable and hard Thank you for your inquiry. Your questions requests us. The lecturers for this service are se- to squish; smoothly enter and exit (non- have long answers. I am going to paste below lected from our planetarium staff, from other tube); variable speed of diurnal motion; and some paragraphs from a paper written by Phil museums, or from our former instructors. sturdy and smooth package. The problems Sadler, the man who developed Starlab, be- “The service areas are within 2 hours, by we have noticed: restriction of setting place cause what he says is true—there are many train, from the museum. The population in (trade-off to large dome); heavy (trade-off to ways that Starlab can be used and what you our service area is about 20 million. We need large dome); the stars are a bit dark (trade-off chose to do should be based on your local ex- to charge for delivery. The charges within to large dome); some stars disappear because isting resources and your goals for providing 20 kilometers from our museum are about they are opaqued by the cube’s edge; and it is this very special experience to your students. 130,000 yen (about $1,130 US) per day. And for not popular for some Japanese people because You need to investigate what (if anything) is more distant places we charge about 160,000 there is no Milky Way in the sky.” already available in your area and you need to yen (about $1,400 US) per day. The numbers of Watanabe Yoshiya can be contacted at yo- determine your goals for using Starlab. lecture times are three to ten per day. [email protected]. “To answer another of your questions: The “The other services provided with the por- training is simple and it is extremely easy to table planetarium are to deliver lectures only Basic Questions use by the average teacher so that should not and to loan the portable planetarium for peo- I recently received a letter that reinforced be a stumbling block. Please feel free to con-

December 2007 Planetarian 49 Left: Johannes Gajdosik had worked on Stellarium, the freeware program, as a hobby for many years. Right: Torbjorn Urke asked us, “How can we help students discover directions in the sky?”

Left: Susan Button and Marian Lorenc renew an acquaintance from many years ago. (Photo by Miles Allen). Right: Karol Petrik poses some astronomical questions during a demonstration of his unique way of interacting with students. tact me for further information; my phone is and Activity Sampler. He writes “This book is a owy backyard or the planetarium’s artificial 1-315-687-5371.” brief but highly practical guide to astronomy night. Each activity shows the intended age I then went to the IPS Handbook for Porta- and the night sky. Although anyone can en- range and syllabus topics that apply. If a trip ble Planetariums and lifted out the paragraphs joy it, it has been especially written for teach- to the planetarium is planned, some of these from one of Phil’s articles and pasted it into ers and users of portable planetariums. activities can be useful resources either as the email. That handbook has some outdated “The guide covers basic principles of naviga- preparation or follow up. information, but a lot of basic information it tion by the stars, how to observe common ce- “Pedro Saizar, the author, holds a PhD in contains is extremely useful to us and for us to lestial phenomena (such as eclipses and phas- astronomy and lives in Argentina’s Patago- help others—revisit that CD! es of the moon) and a tour of the solar system nia, where he works as a teacher and a science and the universe beyond. If you are consid- writer. He is the author of three other astrono- Guide, Activity Sampler ering opening a school observatory, you will my books (in the Spanish language).” Ralph Levy, MMI Corporation, wrote to tell find sound advice on choosing a telescope. Ralph sent me a copy of the book and it is me about a new book on the market called “Each chapter is accompanied by practical suitable for all astronomy educators, especial- CUBEX Portable Planetarium Teacher’s Guide activities suitable for the classroom, a shad- ly for educators working with middle school

50 Planetarian December 2007 Left: Antonio Pedrosa and Marco Silva of Portugal are a great resource for planetarians wishing to write their own digital shows. Right: We were able to exam- ine all the various instruments and learn about the work done at the Observatory in Modra.

Left: At the University Observatory, Torbjorn Urke and Adrian Gala’d, our guide, examine the Zeiss telescope that was made in Jena. Right: Miles Allen, Cosmo- Dome Australasia, toasts with Sergey Kudryavtsev at the end of this wonderful conference. students (12 years old) and older. teaching opportunities in Italy. Not one per- 15 April. Deadline for American Planetari- Contact: Ralph C. Levy, president, MMI Cor- son applied for the American in Italy trip in um Operator. poration, 2950 Wyman Parkway, Baltimore, 2007! I not only encourage you to apply, but 31 August. Deadline for a French Planetari- MD 21211 USA; phone: 1-410-366-1222; email: also to send your application well in advance um Operator. [email protected]; www.mmicor- of the deadline. For more information, go to 30 September. Deadline for a Spanish Plane- poration.com. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_ tarium Operator. in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm. Keep in touch, and let me know what is 2008 deadlines to keep in mind Please note the deadlines for “A Week in It- happening in your part of the world. Now is the time to plan to take advantage of aly”:

December 2007 Planetarian 51 52 Planetarian December 2007 atlas. A good choice might be this new one by dex in the back, where the stars and deep sky Reviews Sky & Tel’s Roger Sinnott. objects are listed by their chart location, a very First of all, it’s smaller than most. Complete- handy tool. Also, in addition to their Messier, ly open, it’s just slightly larger than a sheet of IC, or Caldwell designation, many of the ob- paper. Its spiral binding allows the book to ei- jects are referred to by their common names, ther open flat, so you’re not fighting with a such as Kemble’s Cascade, a favorite in Camel- book that refuses to stay put, or folded in half, opardalis; Hydra’s Ghost of Jupiter; or the Blue so it’s easy to hold in just one hand. There are Planetary in Centaurus. This is great informa- 80 charts showing over 30,000 stars, down to tion if you find yourself doing a night watch magnitude 7.6. For most of us city dwellers with the public who really don’t want to be this might be considered a kind of overkill, confused by the myriad of number designa- but the serious telescope user will surely find tions. I was disappointed, however, that Cr these charts very helpful in their star-hopping 399 (charts 64 and 65) wasn’t listed as the Coat across the sky. Hanger. The book is divided according to right as- cension. Each section then contains 10 charts, Vom Himmelsglobus zum starting at the north celestial pole and travel- Sternentheater (Caelum 1: From ing down toward the south celestial region. At the beginning of each section you’re remind- the Celestial Globe to the Star ed of when these sky slivers are highest in the Theatre: The Prehistory of the night sky. Each chart is reminiscent of a street Planetariums) map because all sides have those handy little Ehrenfied Kluckert, 2005, Publikation Plan- arrows directing you to the next part of the etarium Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, ISBN sky in the adjoining charts. 3-933284-14-7, 12.00 €. April S. Whitt Like most atlases, each type of celestial ob- Reviewed by Ariel Firebaugh, Dunwoody, ject is a different symbol. Galaxies, for exam- Georgia, USA. Fernbank Science Center ple, are red ovals; planetary nebulae are green 156 Heaton Park Drive NE circles with hash marks; double stars are the Does it seem strange that a field founded edge-on Saturn shape, etc. on the wholesome mythologies of migrant Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA I have to say that this atlas reminds me that shepherds is now the sole terrain of dim satel- [email protected] planetarium domes really aren’t the real sky. lites and scientists? As astronomical discovery I found a great example in charts 38 and 39, shifted from the star-lit fields of Mesopotamia which take us down approximately -60 de- to the sterile halls of NASA, the celestial bodies We offer a selection of books with an inter- grees declination to the Centaurus-Crux-Ca- lost something of their sheen as their secrets national flair this quarter, dear readers. Sever- rina region. There we not only find the blu- were uncovered. Perhaps we, too, have forgot- al lucky winners received a copy of the Pock- ish tinges of our own Milky Way, but also so ten something of their magic, worn with con- et Sky Atlas at the Triple Conjunction regional much deep sky stuff that it’s almost impossi- stant academic controversy. Ehrenfied Kluck- planetarium meeting in West Virginia in Oc- ble to take it all in. Likewise for chart 62 for ert offers an antidote to widespread apathy tober, and author Thomas Kraupe has an ex- northerners, where the Cygnus region is jam- in this multi-volume history of the lore and citing article elsewhere in this journal. To packed with telescopic objects. technologies surrounding planetariums. round out the offering, we have a book that What I found most useful is the General In- The greatest strength of Vom Himmelsglobus looks at the precious commodity and abstract concept of time. Many thanks to our first time reviewers Ar- iel Firebaugh and Matthew Conway, and to Francine Jackson, reviewer extraordinaire.

Sky & Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas Roger Sinnott, 2006, Sky Publishing Cor- poration, Cambridge, Massachusetts, ISBN 1- 931559-31-7, US $19.95; ww.shopatsky.com Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

For so many of us in the planetarium pro- fession, the night sky is a finite dome, climate- controlled, with a bunch of seats scattered under it. But, occasionally, the temptation to view the real, outside world calls. When it does, you might like to take out with you, per- haps along with a pair of binoculars or a tele- scope and a red flashlight, some form of sky

December 2007 Planetarian 53 omy. Tracing a comfortable path Chronos between intimidating techni- Etienne Klein (translated by Glenn Burney), cality and insipid summary, the 2005, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 245 West 17th piece inspires readers to renew a Street, 11th floor, New York, New York10011- fundamental fascination with 5300, ISBN 1-56025-708-3, US $24.00 the cosmos that has linked the Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- spectrum of humanity through- ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, out the centuries. Kluckert illu- Rhode Island, USA. minates heavens for the mass- es in response to the question I love time. I love reading about time, teach- concluding the first volume: ing about time, doing experiments with kids “Warum wollen Sie denn eine so to show the changing determinations of time. kommplizierte Mechanik bauen So, when I saw this book lying on the shelf at (Why do you want to build such the library, it all but jumped into my arms. a complicated mechanism)?” And then I brought it home. The galaxies reveal themselves Even though the book was placed right in most truly to the mind recep- the middle of the new astronomy section, it tive to every conceivable won- is more about the philosophy of time than as- der. tronomy. Granted, we do venture through the millennium attempting to define the term, zum Sternentheater lies in its blend of technical from Aristotle’s “time is the number of mo- concepts with the humanities. The first chap- “Denn was innen, das ist tion in respect to before and after,” to “a riv- ter puts a face on the isolated Mesopotamian draushen,” Die Genschichte des er of events” from Marcus Aurelius, and to farmers who first formed figures amongst the modernen Planetariums author Klein’s contribution that time is “… stars before delving into a discussion of ear- nothing more than the redundancy of unfurl- ly mythology and observatories. Verse from (Caelum 2: “Because which ing reality.” Dante is later employed to express the extent inside, that is outside,” The And, because “physical time is often pre- of medieval meteorological horizons and the History of the Modern sented as an abstraction,” we find ourselves emerging conflict between scientific discov- Planetariums) experiencing its metaphysical experience, ery and church doctrine. Indeed, the sheer va- which Klein defines as boredom. I had never riety of historical, literary, and philosophical Thomas Kraupe, 2005, Publikation Plane- previously thought that anyone could write topics woven into this work should rouse the tarium Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, ISBN a chapter dedicated to the art of something interest of all who have regarded the heavens 3-933284-15-5, 14.00 €. most of us probably find ourselves rarely ex- with wonder. Kluckert is discerning in his use Reviewed by Matthew Conway, Dun- periencing, but it apparently is very impor- of detail, neither over-dressing his subjects nor woody, Georgia, USA. tant to our “eternullness (italics, Klein),” and leaving them unattractively bare. As a result, as a way for us to back off and learn about our- the book demonstrates excellence in both en- This book, published in German, as was the selves. Therefore, boredom is miraculous. tertainment and edification. first volume in this series (reviewed above), To me, the best part of the book was the Kluckert’s diction serves general audiences describes the evolution of the planetarium introductory quotations to each chapter, al- well, and is fairly engaging. The introduction from ancient astrolabes through the “Won- though I often couldn’t determine their rele- is especially poetic in its comparison of plan- der of Jena” and the digital domes of today. vance. For example, “I had lost the sense of his- etary movements with a play directed upon The preface, “Die Himmel in uns” (“the skies tory, as happens in a lot of diseases” begins the the great celestial stage by priests and sages. in us”), traces the beginnings and formation chapter on “’Time Travels’ and Other Uchro- Sentence structure is varied and alliteration of the universe, our solar system, and us, tiny nias,” an introduction to time travel in litera- lends the work enough of a lilt to transcend spectators in the vast expanse of space. ture. “He was a faithful man. The problem was the stodgy rhetoric of technical writing. Kraupe’s description and imagery provide he had too many wives,” begins the chapter The work’s crisp format also contributes to the reader with a solid understanding of early on “Dance of the Superstrings and the Sever- attempts to model the universe. Diagrams and its appeal. Generous margins and glossy pa- al-Steps Waltz.” pictures of planetarium mechanisms, plane- per defy the standard stuffiness of most ref- Although I did catch the meaning of time tarium theater seating charts, and architec- erence works to impart the lucid quality of a (I think), this book, interesting as it is, real- tural details support the text. Side-bars accom- cool night sky. Diagrams are employed effec- ly should be catalogued in the philosophy pany the text as well, providing explanations tively throughout the work to illustrate more shelves, with a pathway to science. If you and additional facts. We learn how architec- involved concepts, such as the early planetary want to delve into the realm of the time/con- ture and interior arrangement are crucial in models and the architectural progression of sciousness awareness, this one’s for you. And, the design of a perfect planetarium. We learn observatories. Portraits of notable individuals, yes, you will close it up at the end knowing the importance of excellent seating and how instruments, and institutions may also stimu- more about the scientific part of time, but it projectors can be used to emphasize the small- late interest among the visually-inclined. Ad- just seemed I had to wade through too much est details. before getting where I thought I was. For af- ditionally, sidebars may refresh long-dormant This excellent history of the planetarium is ter all, as The Cat1 says, “In the past there was memories of the likes of Copernicus and Ke- packed into a handy-sized volume, and pro- much more future than there is now.” Excuse pler for those seasoned alumni of Astronomy vides a good resource, particularly to those me? 101. skilled in the German language. The reader An engaging style and design designate gains understanding and a feeling of accom- Kluckert’s work as the perfect introductory plishment, and is inspired to learn more about 1 (The Cat, or Le Chat, was a crime-fighting comic read for those new to or reticent about astron- the universe around us. book character in France.-ed)

54 Planetarian December 2007 The big dipper seems to scoop up the aurora. Photo by Denis James

The Full Northern Exposure at WAC 2007

Gail Chaid of Alaska. ing, recently spoke in California and his talk Another highlight was the visit to Poker Flat included updates from recent climate change Independence Planetarium Research Range, which is run by the Geophys- research we heard about in Alaska. 1776 Educational Park Drive ical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fair- Neal Brown, conference co-host and retired San Jose, CA 95133 banks. PFRR is the largest land-based rocket director of Poker Flat, gave a talk about how research range in the world and the only high- Sputnik was first seen from Fairbanks on Oc- latitude rocket range in the United States. The tober 4, 1957, soon after it was launched. We The Western Alliance Conference of Plane- facility launches scientific sounding rock- also heard from: John Stoke from the Space tariums, held in Fairbanks, Alaska, September ets and performs satellite tracking. Sounding Telescope Science Institute, who talked about 20-22, 2007, opened up a world of tundra, sled rockets are used to study the ionosphere, au- Viewspace for educators and the James Webb dogs, aurora, geophysics, and climate change rora, and the polar middle-upper atmosphere. Space Telescope; Edna DeVore from SETI, who to planetarians from around the globe. Instrumentation monitors magnetic storms, spoke about the Kepler Project; and Dr. Scott The pre-conference (September 15-18) to ionospheric variations, and other space dis- Sandford from NASA-Ames, who gave the Anchorage and Denali National Park provid- turbances in real time. banquet talk about the Stardust Comet Proj- ed an inspiring journey to beautiful parts of We listened to knowledgeable Universi- ect. Alaska. We were all treated to the knowledge ty of Alaska researchers about global climate A last-minute treat was a bus trip to the Old of our wonderful bus drivers, who provided change. Former Vice President Al Gore, the Firehouse “Aurorium” Theatre in Historic Es- numerous exciting stories about the history highly-visible cautionary about global warm- ter Gold Camp. We were able to enjoy LeRoy

Left: Dr. Scott Sand- ford from NASA- Ames prepares to distribute 3-D glass- es for his talk at the Western Alliance Conference; Right: Miles Alen (with arms raised) from CosmoDome and other conference participants make use of the glasses. Photos by Donna Pierce

December 2007 Planetarian 55 Zimmerman’s Northern Lights Photo Sym- phony, which was a true symphony of aurora panoramas mastered by LeRoy. It was poetic. Planetarians’ Calendar of Events He is hopeful planetariums will be able to con- tarium, Lafayette, Louisianna, USA. Contact: tinue, digitally, what he has created in his the- 2007 31 December. Deadline for entries for the [email protected]. atre. For information about his creative proj- 2007 IPS/Eugenides Foundation Scriptwrit- 1 August, total solar eclipse ect, go to www.photosymphony.com. ing Competition. 18-21 October. Association of Science- Many thanks must be extended to people Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Confer- who worked behind the scenes, but particular ence, The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, thanks go to John Gallagher, who worked to 2008 8-12 January. Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania, USA. www.astc.org help attendees as well as students, parents, and American Astronomical Society (AAS), Aus- 29 October–1 November. Great Lakes the public enjoy the education in one of sev- tin, Texas, USA, www.aas.org. Planetarium Association (GLPA) Confer- eral portable domes; and also to vendors who 19-21 February, Japan Planetariaum Asso- ence, Milwaukee Public Museum Planetar- also collaborated with students, teachers, and ciation Seminar at Munakata YURIX Plan- ium, the Gary Sampson Planetarium, and the public during the conference. etarium, Munakata, Fukuoka. Contact: the Charles Horwitz Planetarium. Contact: Photos from the conference can be found Osamu Kato [email protected] Gary Sampson, 11400 West Center Street, on the conference website wap-con.org. 16 March. International Day of Planetar- Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 53222-4213 at +1 The conference provided us with many ed- ia; www.dayofplanetaria.org (414) 773-3183 or David DeRemer, +1 (262) ucational opportunities and resources, and we 6 April. XXIII National Meeting of Italian 970-1090, [email protected]. are happy to share them: Planetaria, Modena, Italy; www.planetari- taliani.it. Contact: osservatorio@serafino- 2009 Lawrence Hall of Science PASS Volumes— zani.it International Year of Astronomy Northern Lights at www.lawrencehallof- 8-11 May. Annual Conference of the Brit- 22 July, total solar eclipse science.org/pass/AST213&313.html ish Association of Planetaria (BAP), Centre Lawrence Hall of Science-Best Planetarium in for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Brit- ain. Contact: Tom Mason tom@armagh- 2010 the World (and one of the smallest) at www. planet.com 20th International Planetarium Society lawrencehallofscience.org/pass/bestplane- 9 May. Deadline for IPS officer nomina- Conference, Alexandria, Egypt tarium.html tions. 11 July, total solar eclipse Lawrence Hall of Science Gems Guides at May. Association of French Speaking www.lawrencehallofscience.org/gems/ Planetariums, Yearly Meeting, Planetarium Deadlines for “A Week in Italy” gemspubs.html of Epinal, France. Contact: planetarium.epi- 15 April 2008, planetarians from America Starlab-Learning Technologies at www.star- [email protected] 31 August 2008, planetarians from France lab.com/slcommlinks.html 29-31 May. ECSITE Annual Conference, 30 September, planetarians from Spain Aurora Alive at www.auroraalive.com Budapest, Hungary. Contact: Aliki Gianna- For more information on the “Week in It- Poker Flat Research Range, 65 degrees 07 N; In- kopoulou at [email protected] aly,” go to: www.astrofilibresciani.it/Plane- formation Office phone: +1 (907) 474-7558; 12-14 June, Canadian Association of Sci- tari/Week_in_Italy/-Week_Italy.htm pfr.alaska.edu ence Centres Annual Conference, Lon- Dr. Larry Hinzman, global climate change don Regional Children’s Museum, Ontario, For corrections and new information for at www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/hinzman/ Canada, www.canadiansciencecentres.ca/ the Calendar of Events, please send a message hinzman.html main.htm to Loris Ramponi at [email protected]. Dr. Michelle Thaller from Spitzer Space Tele- 15-19 June. 5th Science Centre World Con- More details about several of these up- scope/Caltech; Michelle was unable to at- gress, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. coming events is included in the Interna- tend WAC-Alaska but information about 27 June - 2 July. 19th International Plane- tional News column. seeing in the infrared is on the website tarium Society Conference, Adler Planetari- The most up-to-date information also is “Cool Cosmos” at coolcosmos.ipac.caltech. um, Chicago (USA). www.ips2008.org available online at the International Plane- edu//about_us.html; more can be found at 22-26 July, Southeastern Planetarium As- tarian’s Calendar of Events at www.astrofili- wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/AAS_pdf/08-Spitzer. sociation (SEPA) annual conference, The La- bresciani.it/Planetari/Internationa_Calen- pdf fayette Natural History Museum & Plane- dar.htm Dr. John Walsh, Global Climate Change, at www.iarc.uaf.edu/people/indiv/iarc_all_ staff.php?photo=jwalsh Geologic Time Table at www.uaf.edu/geolo- gy/reference/geo_time.html Geophysical Institute Information (webcam and weather) at www.gi.alaska.edu and cli- mate.gi.alaska.edu International Polar Year at www.alaska.edu/ ipy “Deadliest Catch” (crab fishing in Alaskan wa- ters) on the Discovery Channel at dsc.dis- covery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/facts/ facts.html

56 Planetarian December 2007 December 2007 Planetarian 57 Marco Polo’s journey to China and pivotal Gibbous Gazette moments in animation, the Civil War, and the history of modern fashion. Let me know With Science” Thomas Dolby at the Insti- if you have any personal or professional an- tute of Contemporary Arts in London, niversaries you’d like to share with the rest of UK. Dolby, along with his Radio Science the planetarium community and I’ll feature Orchestra, performed the original musical them here in a future column. Until then, score for a Sputnik-related documentary film that was projected onto the wall behind the Did you know… stage. This one-time concert must have been a …that the St. Cloud University Plane- real treat to those in attendance! tarium recently upgraded their facility with a new Chronos projector from GOTO? You Planetarians In Town can see their online photo album of the reno- You could tell that the Triple Conjunc- vation at www.stcloudstate.edu/physics/plan- tion Conference was in town when driv- etarium.asp. Located along the Mississippi Riv- ing by the Wilson Lodge at the Oglebay Re- er in central Minnesota, the planetarium has sort in Wheeling, West Virginia during the been open since 1973. The upgrades were com- second week of October, 2007. Placed high pleted on September 17, 2007. atop a vehicle parked near the entrance was …that the Staerkel Planetarium at a unique basketball-sized orange sphere with Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois held four silver rods attached. You also could tell a fundraising party on the 50th anniversary of the planetarian from the ordinary citizen: the Sputnik to kick off future plans for an upgrade? planetarians knew instantly what this pump- The event raised a quarter of a million dollars kin-inspired orb was supposed to represent towards a $1.2 million goal, thanks to the con- and burst into laughter. I found out that this tributions by Supervalu, the Linda Mills homage to Sputnik was created by none oth- and Lois Dixon estates, and Mary Lou James P. Hughes er than Planetarian Chuck Bueter of Paper Staerkel, widow of the William Staerkel, af- Planetarium Producer Plate Astronomy fame (analyzer.depaul.edu/ ter whom the planetarium is named. paperplate). Buhl Digital Dome …that Carl Zeiss has recently been award- More than 300 attendees participated in ed a contract to modernize the planetarium Carnegie Science Center marathon sessions, both in Wheeling and on a of the Science Club in Kuwait City, Kuwait? One Allegheny Avenue side trip to our facilities in Pittsburgh for five In addition to a new SKYMASTER ZKP 4, Zeiss days of conference activities. I’d like to thank will also install a SPACEGATE Quinto, their Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania all of you who attended, and especially thank state-of-the-art digital planetarium technolo- 15212 USA Steve Mitch and his staff at the Benedum gy. Both systems will be linked by powerdo- Planetarium for making the Triple Con- me®, providing synchronous control of both (1) 412-237-3348 junction Conference so phenomenal. systems and a wealth of digital capabilities. (1) 412-237-3359 fax With the 50th Anniversary of Sputnik be- Similar systems will also be installed in the US hind us, I started to think about what other at two different facilities, the planetariums of hughesj@ defining moments in history might be cele- the Lakeview Museum in Peoria, Illinois carnegiesciencecenter.org brated by others. History is full of defining and the Noble Planetarium at the Muse- moments: the discovery of fire; the use of lan- um of Science and History in Fort Worth, Tex- guage; the formation of nation states; the in- as. At the end of 2007, the powerdome sys- ventions of gunpow- Happy Anniversaries! der, the printing press, Anniversaries are usually celebrated as a re- electricity, penicillin, membrance of a special occasion or of a loved pasteurization, the air- one. This year seemed to be full of big space plane and every oth- anniversaries: 10 years since the Pathfinder er modern miracle. If Rover landed on Mars, 30 years since Voyag- you search the net for er 2 set off to the outer planets, 50 years since “defining moments in Sputnik launched the Space Age, 125 years history,” you’ll get a lot since the birth of Robert Goddard. of links to the histories Sputnik anniversary celebrations and me- of individual organiza- dia coverage abounded around the globe. One tions and universities, of my favorites was the website Interna- as well as NASCAR’s de- tional Sputnik Day 2007 at internation- fining moments and alsputnikday2007.blogspot.com. I really liked defining moments for the fact that this site featured links to activ- a lot of other sports dy- ities in a variety of different countries. They nasties, not to mention were even ready with an official-looking logo rock n’ roll’s defining and e-commerce for their logo t-shirts. An- moments. “Pivotal mo- other Sputnik-related activity I wished that I ments in history” yield- A strange orange orb seen recently at the Triple Conjunction Conference would have been able to attend was a special ed better results, includ- in Wheeling, West Virginia. “Sputkin” was created by Chuck Bueter. Pho- to by Susan Button concert performed by Mr. “She Blinded Me ing women’s rights,

58 Planetarian December 2007 tem for Peoria will be installed in the existing planetarium dome before being transferred to its final location in a new science center. The powerdome planetarium in Fort Worth will also be installed in a new facility. …that the home of the original Hanson Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah will be sold to the jewelry firm the O.C. Tan- ner Company? The building was vacant since the Clark Planetarium moved to the Gateway complex in 2003. The original building was constructed in 1904 and housed the city’s public library; it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. With a sale price of $1.2 million, plans for the building at 15 South State Street will require additional review by the city’s Historic Land- mark Commission. The new owners have of- fered to donate the planetarium’s dome to Zi- on’s Gateway to the Stars, a planetarium planned for Orderville, Utah. The world’s first high definition image of Earth from deep space. The KAGUYA spacecraft was 110,000 …that Boeing recently donated $10 mil- km (68,350 miles) from Earth. The moving image was taken by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting lion to science education programs at two (eight minutes is converged to one minute) on September 29, 2007, then received at the JAXA Usuda Chicago, Illinois museums? Boeing Senior Deep Space Center on September 30, 2007. Part of the acquired moving image data was processed for Vice President Rick Stephens and Chi- this still image. Photo courtesy of and © JAXA/NHK cago Mayor Richard M. Daley made science, art, and educational communities. Hawai’i in Hilo, on their recent award be- the announcement of the gift to the Adler The series was designed to take full advan- stowed by the Hawaii Tourism Authority Planetarium and the Museum of Sci- tage of the multi-sensory environment of the (HTA)! The Kahili Award was presented to Im- ence and Industry, both located along planetarium by combining scientific imagery iloa at the 2007 Keep It Hawaii Recognition Lake Michigan. The announcement of the gift and the textural, experiential nature of music. Awards at a ceremony held August 28 at the was made at the launch event for the program More performances were being scheduled for Hawai’i Convention Center. Imiloa was rec- titled “Science in the City,” a city-wide initia- the fall. To find out more about the series or ognized for its commitment to the Hawaiian tive designed to invite residents to experience to contact Carlson, visit his website at www. language–using it as the primary medium for various fields of science and raise awareness of areacmusic.com and click on Shows + News learning, with English as a secondary resource, its importance to Chicago’s past, present, and links. throughout its exhibits. Imiloa Center opened future. The donation will be split equally be- in February 2006 and features exhibits on Ha- tween the two museums and it will be used to Congratulations … waiian culture and astronomy in both Ha- create educational exhibits and programming …to Evans & Sutherland on the oc- waiian and English text, as well providing as that will inspire area youth to pursue careers casion of the signing of the 100th Digistar 3 a full-dome planetarium show presented in in the fields of science and technology. contract! With the addition of sales agree- both English and Hawaiian. …that the Brazosport Planetarium at ments signed by Oneonta State Univer- the Center for the Arts and Sciences in Clute, sity, GEMS World School in Dubai, and We’re Go For The Moon… Texas, streams NASA-TV on their website? the Arizona Science Center, this mile- And, in keeping with the space race theme They have three different feeds and by click- stone was reached in less than five years and it of this edition of the Gibbous Gazette, I can’t ing on each feed you can activate the controls brings the number of Digistar planetariums to close without mention of the launch of the and play the feed in a full screen viewer with over 170 around the globe. latest moon probe sent by the China Na- Internet Explorer! Check it out for yourself at …to the Japanese Aerospace Explo- tional Space Administration. The www.bcfas.org/planetarium/tv.html. ration Agency (JAXA) on the successful Chang’e-1 satellite lifted off from the Sich- launch of the KAGUYA (Selene) moon probe uan Province launch site on October 24, 2007. Music To Your Ears on September 17, 2007! Hailed as one of the Named for a Chinese goddess who flew to the I was recently contacted by a gentleman most sophisticated exploration probes, KA- moon, the probe is the first step in China’s from Cranston, Rhode Island who is interest- GUYA sent back the furthest image ever tak- goal of a human moon landing by 2020. See- ed in presenting a unique musical experience en by high definition television (HDTV). On ing the pictures of Chinese citizens watching in our dome. His name is Erik Carlson (he October 1, 2007, JAXA and NHK (Japan Broad- large screen displays in public places featur- also performs under the name Area C) and this casting Corporation) released a high-def im- ing images of their rocket blasting off remind- past spring he presented a series of live per- age of the Earth to demonstrate the capabil- ed me of the national pride that followed my formances of experimental music at the Cor- ity of the probe’s on-board HDTV camera nation’s space triumphs. For more informa- mack Planetarium in Providence, Rhode developed by NHK for space use. Sent from tion on the Chinese space program, visit eng- Island called alt-Space. This series was fund- over 110,000 km (68,350 miles), the image fea- lish.people.com.cn/90002/91752/index.html. ed by the Rhode Island State Council tures a clear view of the western edge of South Many historical forecasters say that the world for the Arts and featured original, commis- America. To learn more about the status of the will be a much different place by 2020; hope- sioned compositions by Area C in collabora- probe, visit the website www.selene.jaxa.jp/in- fully we international planetarians can help tion with four other nationally-recognized dex_e.htm (for the English version). ensure that it is a different, but better, place by artists and successfully brought together the …to the Imiloa Astronomy Center of then.

December 2007 Planetarian 59 What they mean: “Until we improve it by in Fallon maybe you can build some kind of Last Light calling it ‘Super!’” planetarium here. Maybe a big one. Maybe a What they say: “Lightweight and sturdy tri- small one who knows.” pod!” What they mean: “It’s great for detect- When a scary alien was shown in Search for ing earth tremors thousands of miles away.” Life in the Universe: “That looks like my grand- What they say: “World’s largest portable mother!” telescope!” What they mean: “World’s small- “I felt like I was in space. I still haven’t come est non-portable telescope.” back to earth yet.” What they say: “Jewel-like quality!” What “I didn’t get to go to the planetarium but I they mean: “Has the light grasp of a diamond was having a good time in Calaforna.” ring for about the same price.” “Thank you for having us come. I’m sure it What they say: “The color contrast is strik- was fun.” ing!” What they mean: “One star is white. The “Have you explored Mars? I am gowing to.” other star is white.” “The 3rd thing I learned that the sun is a What they say: “The site offers clear skies star. Not even my Mom knew that!” year round!” What they mean: “It is 200 miles “I think I want to go 3,663,700,000 more from the nearest civilization.” times because it is so cool...” What they say: “A person with average eye- After seeing the computer simulation of the sight can split this pair.” What they mean: Mars Exploration Rover landing and deploy- “Over half of the world is blind.” ment: “Seeing that movie makes me want to go to Mars!” April S. Whitt And Truth from Kids “Can I work at the planeteream now. Tell Fernbank Science Center On the other hand, children usually mean me if I can gota go.” what the say, as evidenced in more student “It was awesome with the star thing.” (No, 156 Heaton Park Drive NE “Thank You” notes, courtesy of Keith John- this was not [U.S. President] George Bush’s Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA son. kid...) “I like how it looked like you were in the “Thank you for letting us come to the plan- [email protected] sky. I just wanted to get up and tuch the sky etarium and showing us what you get to see and see how it fels.” every day.” “When your not doing schools what is it “The next time I go thier I am taking my Isn’t technology wonderful? How many of like? Is it much like the other? I’ll bet it isn’t.” mom to by me what I want.” us received telephone calls from the general “I learned that the big dipper sometimes is “...next time I’m going to bring way more public this past August, frantic to know where conected to the little dipper but also some- money for the Gravity Well.” in the sky they could observe Mars as big as times not conected to the little dipper.” “I especally like the gift shop but we the full moon on August 27? They were con- “I learned that orion was a person not a cat.” couldn’t buy anything.” fused by a recycled press release from 2003. (A reference to the film Men In Black.) “Next time I’m braning [bringing?] my And how many of us remember that same “I like your magnificent planetarium.” mom and buying you out.” 2003 press release, which ended with the no- “I wish I could come back today but I live “That place was educated.” torious line “No one alive today will ever see this again?” I guess that is true—except that no one alive then saw Mars as big as the full moon, either, unless observing with some huge telescope.

Truth in Advertising… Years ago, Clive Gibbons collected some statements about telescopes and published them under the heading “Truth in Advertis- ing.” He wrote “To help clarify this problem, I’ve done a little “reading between the lines” with regard to what advertisers say, and what they really mean.” With his permission, here are some of his tongue-in-cheek statements: What they say: “Guaranteed 1/16 wave sur- face accuracy.” What they mean: “Misprint: ‘wave’ should read ‘inch.’” What they say: “Null-figured optics!” What they mean: “We didn’t test them.” What they say: “In stock for immediate de- livery!” What they mean: “Our warehouse is on Mars.” What they say: “In business for 62 years!” What they mean: “And we still don’t know A group of high school students works with third through sixth graders in Fernbank’s Science Night Out program. The Friday evening program is popular with parents and children. In celebration of the 50th how to ship to Canada.” anniversary of Sputnik’s launch, students worked with activities inspired by Heinlein’s classic book Have What they say: “The ultimate eyepiece!” Space Suit, Will Travel.

60 Planetarian December 2007

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