Vol. 44, No. 4 December 2015 Special Focus: Use Martian Excitement To

Home , Alder (crater), Andreas Mogensen, Auzout (crater), Bernard (crater), Centered in the Universe, Clark Planetarium

Online PDF: ISSN 2333-9063

Vol. 44, No. 4 December 2015

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Special Focus: Use Martian excitement to reach and teach The moment Heaven and Earth are set in motion by the simple tap of a ﬁ nger. This is the moment we work for.

// PRESENTATIONS MADE BY ZEISS

The third powerdome generation facilitates operation considerably. All functions can be controlled in real time, no matter what kind of browser-supporting terminal devices you use. Call up shows from anywhere under the planetarium dome. Present your skies wirelessly in interaction with your audience.

www.zeiss.com/planetariums Articles

December 2015 Vol. 44 No. 4 8 Guest Editorial: The next 20 years of planetariums Staffan Klashed Executive Editor 12 Minutes of the 2015 IPS Council Meeting Lee Ann Henning Sharon Shanks 14 Welcome to France, Welcome to Toulouse Marc Moutin 484 Canterbury Ln SPECIAL FOCUS: MARS Boardman, Ohio 44512 USA 16 Catch a ride to Mars +1 330-783-9341 18 Real Human Exploration of Mars Christine Shupla [email protected] 22 Navigating Mars in The Martian Jeff Bryant Webmaster 24 Confessions of a Martian Planetarian Haritina Mogosanu Alan Gould 30 Teaching Mars: Red planet road trip Bob Riddle Lawrence Hall of Science Planetarium 38 Coloring the Universe University of California Travis Rector, Kim Arcand, Megan Watzke Berkeley CA 94720-5200 USA 44 Updates to Griffith’s Samuel Oschin Planetarium [email protected] Carolyn Collins Petersen Advertising Coordinator 46 Digital renovation of the Space Theater Chi-Long Lin Dale Smith 53 Under One Dome: The Museum of Flight Rich Lienesch (See Publications Committee on page 3) 56 Brief history of the telescope Jean-Michel Faidit Membership 64 Preserving and sharing the wealth of the Vatican Observatory Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years Alessandro Omizzolo Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 92 Wilfried Lang: A personal tribute Thomas Kraupe Library Subscriptions: $50 one year; $90 two years 94 Tributes: Harold Van Schaik, Barbara Baber All amounts in US currency 96 New Dome opens in New Zealand Direct membership requests and changes of address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman Columns 62 Bard Spiral Chuck Rau 88 Book Reviews April S. Whitt Printed Back Issues of Planetarian 98 Calendar of Events Loris Ramponi IPS Back Publications Repository 78 Data to Dome Mark SubbaRao maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair 66 Fulldome Matters Carolyn Collins Petersen (See contact information on next page) 90 From the Classdome Jack L. Northrup Final Deadlines 4 In Front of the Console Sharon Shanks March: January 21 68 International News Lars Petersen June: April 21 100 Last Light April S. Whitt September: July 21 80 Mobile News Susan Reynolds Button December: October 21 87 Partycles Alex Cherman 6 President’s Message Joanne Young 84 Seeking What Works Jeanne Bishop Associate Editors 86 Sound Advice Jeff Bowen 94 Waxing New Sharon Shanks Book Reviews Fulldome International April S. Whitt Matters Lars Petersen Carolyn Calendar Collins Petersen Last Light Index of Advertisers Loris Ramponi April S. Whitt Astro-Tec...... 27 Classroom Cartoons Education Mobile News Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 91 Alexandre Jack Northrup Susan Button Cherman, California Academy of Sciences...... 36, 61 Chuck Rau Education Sound Advice ChromaCove...... 81 Committee News Jeff Bowen Data to Dome Jeanne Bishop Clark Planetarium/Hansen Dome ...... 99 Mark SubbaRoa Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 37 Evans & Sutherland ...... 63, 89, Outside back cover GeoGraphics Imaging...... 97 On the Cover: Matt Damon is an astronaut who finds him- self stranded and alone on a hostile planet. Use his plight GOTO Inc...... 73 and the appeal of the movie and book to teach. Special fo- Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Lt...... 31 cus starts on page 16. Photo Credit: Courtesy 20th Century Loch Ness Productions...... 59 Fox. TM & © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Magna-Tech Electronic Company...... 97 All rights reserved. Metaspace ...... 33 Mirage3d...... 35, 77 International Planetarium Society home page: NSC Creative...... 11 www.ips-planetarium.org R.S.A. Cosmos ...... 85, Inside back cover SCISS...... 5 Planetarian home page: Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 49-52 www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn Softmachine...... 75, 83 Spitz, Inc...... 29, 95 Spitz Creative Media...... 21, 43, 55, 79 You Can Do Astronomy...... 10 www.facebook.com/InternationalPlanetariumSociety Zeiss, Inc...... Inside front cover

December 2015 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Association Italian Association Russian Planetariums Planetariums of Planetaria of Planetaria Association Officers Antonio Augusto Rabello Mark Watson Loris Ramponi Zinaida P. Sitkova Foundation CEU Techniquest Glyndŵr, National Archive of Planetaria Nizhny Novgorod President Universe Study Center Glyndŵr University Campus c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Planetarium Joanne Young Rua Emílio Dalla Déa Mold Road Serafino Zani Revolutsionnja Street 20 Audio Visual Imagineering Filho, s/n. Portão 4 Wrexham, LL11 2AW via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 603002 Nizhny 6565 Hazeltine National Campos Elíseos United Kingdom I 25066 Lumezzane Novgorod, Russia Drive, Suite 2 Brotas, SP, Brazil +44 (0)1978 293400 (Brescia) Italy +7 831 246-78-80 Orlando, Florida 32822 USA + 55 14 3653-4466 [email protected] +39 30 872 164 +7 831 246-77-89 fax +1 407-859-8166 + 55 11 3812-2112 www.planetarium.org.uk +39 30 872 545 fax [email protected] [email protected] www.fundacaceo.org.br [email protected] www.apr.planetariums.ru [email protected] Canadian Association [email protected] Past President www.planetarios.org.br of Science Centres www.planetari.org Society of the German- www.planetariodorio. Ian C. McLennan Speaking Planetariums Thomas W. Kraupe com.br #404-1275 Haro Street Japan Planetarium Hamburg Björn Voss Vancouver, British Columbia Planetarium Association Otto-Wels-Str.1 LWL-Museum für Association of V6E 1G1 Canada Kaoru Kimura D-22303 Hamburg Naturkunde Dutch-Speaking +1 604-681-4790 Japan Science Foundation Deutschland Westphalian State Museum Planetariums/PLANed phone + fax Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-50 of Natural History Jaap Vreeling [email protected] Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Sentruper Str. 285 [email protected] [email protected] +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax Nova informatie centrum 48161 Münster GERMANY www.ianmclennan.com www.shin-pla.info +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Science Park 904 +49-251-591-6026 thomas.kraupe@ 1098 XH Amsterdam +49-251-591-6098 fax Chinese Planetarium Middle Atlantic planetarium-hamburg.de +31 0 20 525 7480 [email protected] +31 0 20 525 7484 fax Society Planetarium www. gdp- [email protected] Jin Zhu Society planetarium.org President-Elect www.astronomie.nl Beijing Planetarium Jerry Vinski Shawn Laatsch No. 138 Xizhimenwait Street 110 E Union Street Southeastern Infoversum Association of French- Beijing, 1000044 Hillsborough, North Planetarium Vrydemalaan 2 Speaking Planetariums P.R. China Carolina 27278 USA Association 9713 WS Groningen Marc Moutin +86 10-5158-3311 +1 919-241-4548 John Hare Netherland Cité de l’espace +86 10-5158-3312 fax [email protected] Ash Enterprises +31 (0) 50 820 0500 Avenue Jean Gonord [email protected] 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] BP 25855 Nordic Planetarium Bradenton, Florida [email protected] 31506 Toulouse Cedex 5 European/ Association 34205 USA +33 (0)5 62 71 56 03 Mediterranean Aase Roland Jacobsen +1 941-746-3522 +33 (0)5 62 71 56 29 fax Planetarium Steno Museum Planetarium [email protected] Executive Secretary [email protected] Association www.sepadomes.org Lee Ann Hennig C.F. Moellers Alle 2 www.cite-espace.com Manos Kitsonas Planetarium, Thomas University of Aarhus www.aplf-planetariums.org Eugenides Planetarium Southwestern Jefferson High School DK-8000 Aarhus C 387 Syngrou Avenue Association of for Science and Technology DENMARK Association of Mexican 17564 P. Faliro Planetariums 6560 Braddock Road +45 87 15 54 15 Planetariums Athens, Greece Rachel Thompson Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA [email protected] Ignacio Castro Pinal +30 210 946 9674 Perot Museum of Nature +1 703-750-8380 Ave. San Bernabé, 723, +30 210 941 7372 fax and Science +1 703-750-5010 fax Pacific Planetarium Casa 7 [email protected] 2201 North Field Street [email protected] Association San Jerónimo Lídice, Benjamin Mendelsohn Dallas, Texas 75202 USA C.P. 10200 Great Lakes Planetarium West Valley +1 214-756-5830 Treasurer and México City, D.F. México Association Community College rachel.thompson@ Membership Chair +52 (55) 5500 0562 Jeanne Bishop 14000 Fruitvale Avenue perotmuseum.org Ann Bragg +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax Westlake Schools Saratoga, California www.swapskies.org Anderson Hancock Planetarium [email protected] Planetarium 95070-5698 USA Marietta College Parkside Intermediate School +1 408-741-4018 215 Fifth Street Association of Spanish 24525 Hilliard Road +1 408-741-4072 fax Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA Planetariums Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA Benjamin.Mendelsohn@ +1 740-376-4589 Javier Armentia +1 440-899-3075 x2058 wvm.edu [email protected] Planetario de Pamplona +1 440-835-5572 fax sites.csn.edu/ Sancho Ramirez, 2 jeanneebishop@ planetarium/PPA Payments of membership E-31008 Pamplona wowway.com fees and advertising invoices Navarra Spain www.glpaweb.org Rocky Mountain should be made to Ann Bragg +34 948 260 004 Planetarium +34 948 260 056 Great Plains Planetarium Association Membership fees also can be +34 948 261 919 fax Association Michele Wistisen paid online on the IPS website [email protected] Jack L. Northrup Casper Planetarium www.planetarios.org Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 904 North Poplar Street Planetarium Casper, Wyoming Australasian Planetarium 3720 Florence Boulevard 82601 USA Society Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA +1 307-577-0310 Warik Lawrance [email protected] michele_wistisen@ Melbourne Planetarium natronaschools.org Scienceworks/Museum Victoria 2 Booker Street Spotswood (Melbourne) Victoria 3015 Australia +61 3 9392 4503 +61 3 9391 0100 fax wlawrance@museum. vic.gov.au www.aps-planetarium.org

2 Planetarian December 2015 Standing Committees Awards Committee Conference Host-2016 Membership Committee IPS Permanent Manos Kitsonas Robert Firmhofer, Monika Ann Bragg, Treasurer Eugenides Planetarium Malinowska, Weronika Marietta College Mailing Address 387 Syngrou Avenue Sliwa, Maciej Ligowski 215 Fifth Street 17564 P. Faliro Copernicus Science Centre Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA International Planetarium Society Athens, Greece Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie +1 740-376-4589 +30 210 946 9674 20, 00-390 Warsaw, Poland [email protected] c/o Ann Bragg, Treasurer +30 210 941 7372 fax [email protected] Marietta College [email protected] +48 22 596 4275 Publications Committee +48 22 596 4113 fax Dale W. Smith, Chair 215 Fifth Street Conference Committee BGSU Planetarium Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA Joanne Young Elections Committee 104 Overman Hall Audio Visual Imagineering Martin George, Chair Physics &Astronomy Department 6565 Hazeltine National Launceston Planetarium Bowling Green State University IPS Web Site: Drive, Suite 2 Queen Victoria Museum Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA www.ips-planetarium.org Orlando, Florida 32822 USA Wellington Street +1 419-372-8666 +1 407-859-8166 Launceston Tasmania 7250 +1 419-372-9938 fax [email protected] Australia [email protected] +61 3 6323 3777 +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] Please notify the Editor and Finance Committee Secretary of any changes President, Past President, Presi- dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary on these two pages.

Contact the Treasurer/Membership Ad Hoc Committees Chair for individual member address Armand Spitz International Presenting Live Under changes and general circulation Planetarium Education Fund Relations Committee the Dome Committee Finance Committee Martin George, Chair Mark Webb, Chair and billing questions. Addresses Launceston Planetarium Grainger Sky Theater also may be changed online on the Immersive Audio Queen Victoria Museum Adler Planetarium IPS Web Site. Committee Wellington Street 1300 South Lake Shore Drive Charles Morrow Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA 1961 Roaring Brook Road Australia +1 312-322-0826 Barton, Vermont 05822 USA +61 3 6323 3777 [email protected] Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is published +61 3 6323 3776 fax Phone: +1-212-989-2400 quarterly by the International Plan- Fax: +1.206.222.2125 [email protected] Science & Data [email protected] Visualization Task Force etarium Society. ©2015 International Planetarium Design and Mark SubbaRao Operations Committee Adler Planetarium Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights re- Education Committee Ian McLennan 1300 South Lake Shore Drive served. Opinions expressed by authors Jeanne E. Bishop #404-1275 Haro Street Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA Planetarium Director are personal opinions and are not neces- Vancouver, British Columbia +1 312-294-0348 Parkside Intermediate School V6E 1G1 Canada [email protected] sarily the opinions of the International 24525 Hilliard Road +1 604-681-4790 phone + fax Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA Planetarium Society, its officers, or [email protected] Vision 2020 Initiative +1 440-871-5293 agents. Acceptance of advertisements, [email protected] Jon Elvert, Chair +1 440-835-5572 fax www.ianmclennan.com Baton Rouge, Louisiana announcements, or other material does [email protected] 70802 USA www.glpaweb.org not imply endorsement by the Interna- Portable [email protected] Mail address: Planetarium Committee tional Planetarium Society, its officers 3180 Oakwood Lane Susan Reynolds Button, Chair or agents. The editor welcomes Letters Westlake, OH 44145 USA Quarks to Clusters to the Editor and items for consideration 8793 Horseshoe Lane History Committee Chittenango, NY 13037 for publication.The Editor reserves the John Hare, IPS Historian +1 315-687-5371 Ash Enterprises right to edit any manuscript to suit this [email protected] 3602 23rd Avenue West publication’s needs. [email protected] Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA +1 941-746-3522 [email protected] Planetarian is part of the EBSCO research database.

Guidelines for contributors original work and has not appeared elsewhere in print site of general interest as long as the following ap- or electronically, nor is not being submitted simulta- pears: Copyright 2013 (or appropriate year) Interna- •• Planetarian welcomes submissions of interest to the neously elsewhere in print or electronically. If the tional Planetarium Society; used with permission planetarium community. Preference is given to arti- submission has appeared elsewhere in print or elec- and provide a link to the IPS. If in doubt, contact the cles that closely relate to the philosophy, manage- tronically, permission to re-print must be obtained editor with questions. ment, technical aspects, educational aspects, or his- and a copy of this permission emailed to the Editor •• The Guidelines for Contributors on the IPS website tory of planetariums, and to ideas that can readily be with the article. should be consulted before submitting an article. incorporated into planetarium shows. Authors are re- •• Once accepted for publication, the contributor also •• Potential advertisers are invited to check the Adver- sponsible for obtaining all necessary copyright clear- agrees that the copyright for original works not ap- tising Guidelines and Rate Sheet on the IPS website: . ances, especially for illustrations and photographs. pearing elsewhere is held by the International Plan- www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn •• Research articles dealing with educational aspects of etarium Society. Once a submission has appeared in the planetarium and other topics are highly desirable Planetarian (but not before the printed version has and will be refereed if applicable and requested. been received by members), contributors may post •• Contributors agree that their submission is their own the submission on a personal website, blog, or a web-

December 2015 Planetarian 3 mendously busy time for constructing plane- In Front of the Console tariums, a response to the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the desire to boost science, math, engineering, and technology education. There are two other anniversaries being Sharon Shanks marked this year: 484 Canterbury Lane Bowen Technovation is celebrating its 30th Boardman, Ohio 44512 USA anniversary. Jeff Bowen writes that the com- +1 330-783-9341 pany started on September 10, 1985. Their first [email protected] GLPA conference was in Indianapolis in 1990, and the very first IPS conference was Salt Lake City ‘92. Another record falls with this issue: 100 pag- kind of person to be a good mentor: one with Seiler Instrument celebrates its 70th anni- es. There’s so much great information to read passion for the field, an ability to communi- versary this year (page 94). It’s a fourth gener- in this issue, thanks to The Martian (both the cate on a meaningful level, and the dedication ation family business that traces its lineage to book and the movie) and our continuing fo- to “stick with it,” even if results aren’t immedi- Zeiss in Germany. cus on data visualization. ately apparent. Maybe it’s the water in the Great Lakes, but It has become obvious to me that IPS mem- A final note bers like special focus issues, so here’s a heads- mentoring within GLPA just happened and it Another highlight of the GLPA Confer- up for upcoming deadlines: thrived. ence was the annual Spitz Lecture, presented In March 2016, the focus will be on virtu- I was mentored myself by Warren Young, this year by Susan Reynolds Button. Susan, in al reality. See Carolyn Collins Petersen’s col- retired director of the Ward Beecher Planetar- her column on page 80, mentions the confer- umn on page 66 for an overview of VR experi- ium at Youngstown State University, and by ence and her joy in seeing Von Del Chamber- mentation and research going on now. In that Dale Smith at Bowling Green State University, lain, but didn’t mention that she was the ban- issue you also will see a research paper titled who has mentoring in his blood. quet speaker. “How Can Simulations Promote Learning in The Spitz Lecture, named for the planetari- Science? An Exploratory Study to Examine Anniversaries are happening um pioneer Armand Spitz, is delivered by in- Two Simulation Tools,” which looks at full- It is not surprising that many facilities in vitation only, and it was done justice this year dome video and virtual reality headsets. the United States are celebrating 50th anni- by Susan. I The June issue is open, but the September versaries this year. The mid-60s were a tre- Planetarian will focus on early-childhood education. What do you do with the pre-school aged children under your dome? What works? What doesn’t work? I will be looking for articles concerning pre-school, kindergarten, and grades 1-2 (the first two public school grades). I heard several excellent papers on best practices under the dome at the 50th annual conference of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, held in October in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you have a great paper that you’ve presented at a regional conference, then share it with your colleagues around the world by sending to Planetarian. I accept a wide range of submissions. If English is not your forte, then don’t worry: the translation software now available does a great job, and it’s my job to make it read smoothly. Now you really have no excuse not to sub- mit. President Joanne Young talks about GLPA in her column (page 6), and describes the mentoring that goes on within the GLPA region. GLPA did not set out to sponsor a mentoring program; it simply arose on its own. Mem- bers started bringing student employees from A special kind of sharing their science centers and universities, and en- Have you ever leafed through a magazine and spotted a familiar face? Readers of Time’s special report couraged participation through paper presen- Exodus (cover date October 19, 2015) spotted that face; in fact, they saw his whole family and that of a tations and posters. refugee family from Syria. Tim Florian Hall (to the right of the tree, holding his son), director of the Ber- lin Planetarium, appeared in an image with his family and that of Marya Sharifi, who fled her homeland This was noticed and copied because of the when the Taliban began to threaten her son. The Time special report looked at the refugee crisis in Eu- great idea that it was, and it evolved by itself. rope; an extimated 60 million migrants are on the move worldwide. Germany has been acceptuing ref- It was a clear case of teaching by example. ugees, and when Tim’s wife, Kathi Tennstedt-Horn, heard there were refugee families camping in the The people doing the most mentoring with- street outside the closed registration center, she drove there and brought back the family. The family found a shelter five days later. Photo ©Joakim Eskildsen, used with kind permission. in GLPA are natural teachers. It takes a special

4 Planetarian December 2015 Shaping the future of immersive theaters, together.

Professional dome theater & system design

Innovative, integrated & automated

Long-term & creative partnerships

High-end Uniview fulldome software

Real-time astronomy, earth sciences & neuroscience

High-quality fulldome media playback

Easy-to-use education & presentation tools.

The Colorspace dome theater by Sciss is a carefully composed package of display system, theater control system, interior, and the award-winning Uniview fulldome software. Designed, delivered, and built by our specialist team. With over 150 installations all over the world we have a widely spread global presence. To find out more about our solutions, please contact any of our offices:

Sciss International (HQ) +46 (0) 855 119 100 | Middle East +971 4 256 6695 | North America +1 978 270 5835

Your universe. www.sciss.se | [email protected] December 2015 Planetarian 5

Sciss_page5.indd 1 2015-10-21 09:18:45 and Tom Strickwerda, Johns Hopkins Univer- President’s Message sity Applied Physics Laboratory, who worked on the guidance system for the New Horizons mission. Days later I phoned Dave to speak with Joanne Young him about this momentous event. In conver- Audio Visual Imagineering sation he recalled those that mentored him 6565 Hazeltine National Drive, Suite 2 and many of the great professionals men- Orlando, Florida 32822 USA tored during his career. Dave stated that if he hadn’t been so moved emotionally, he would +1 (407) 859-8166 have said to all those on stage, “I love every [email protected] one of you and appreciate the fact that you walked through my life and, in doing so, you enriched it.” Dear Fellow Planetarians, seum’s auditorium theater for speeches and DeBruyn was nominated for this award by It is reasonable to assert that the future of awards. It was then that I discovered the se- Dan Tell. Within his letter of recommenda- planetariums depends upon the nurturing cret of this thriving planetarium association, tion he wrote, and training of the next generation of young, when Garry Beckstrom, GLPA president, an- Dave and I would work together for over motivated planetarium professionals and nounced the winners of the second annual eight years. In that time, he truly was a men- space scientists. How do we identify them? Mentor Awards. tor. He shaped and inspired me, put trust in How do we attract and develop these people? me, encouraged me, chastised me when nec- This past October I attended the Great Mentor Awards at GLPA essary, and ultimately, made me into the Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) annu- That night, three mentors were called for- professional I have become today. I have al conference. (Many of you may not realize ward, along with all those they had mentored been privileged to at once follow in his foot- this, but GLPA is the founder of the Interna- who were present in the audience. The first steps and, through his encouragement, also tional Planetarium Society.) A thriving asso- award was given to David BeBruyn, retired strike out my own path in my career. He in- ciation, GLPA continues growing in members planetarium director of the host Chaffee Plan- spired me not only in my work as a planetar- annually. etarium. When the mentees were called for- ian, nor merely to become deeply involved in GLPA celebrated its golden anniversary this ward, they lined up across the entire stage. GLPA itself, but also to take on a mentoring year, meeting once again in Grand Rapids, Dave gazed upon them all. This normally role myself when presented the opportuni- Michigan, the site 50 years ago where a group loquacious man was so moved by the sight of ty. Emulating my mentor, I too have had the of planetarium professionals met to form an so many, all he could say was, “I’m gonna cry.” privilege of helping to encourage and shape official association. The Grand Rapids Public That was it! The standing ovation was tu- young lives, and hope to continue to do so for Museum and the Roger B. Chaffee Planetari- multuous. A life lived to mentor and train as long and with the impeccable quality of um were hosts again this year. such great planetarium professionals and Dave DeBruyn. space scientists as Dan Tell, senior planetar- Dave and I share a vocation. Our lives The students are coming ium systems support engineer, California shaped by each other’s —as has been the The good news is the growing numbers are Academy of Sciences and GLPA secretary; case with many others that have enjoyed made up of middle school, high school, uni- Kenneth Cott, now the Roger B. Chaffee Plan- the privilege of his mentoring. It is my hope versity students and interns invited to investi- etarium manager; Jim Ashley, Jet Propulsion the organization will see fit to grant this gate the planetarium field and meet planetar- Laboratory, currently working on the 2020 award to one of its founding fathers, and ium professionals. These students, young and Mars rover; Jacob Bourjaily, theoretical physi- give my mentor a small, tangible token, of impressionable, have been taken under the cist at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen; trusted wings of planetarium directors dedicated to developing their students who demonstrate interest in astronomy and the planetarium. Each night after the long day of conference events, we gathered in the hospitality suite. There I found many young brilliant students and planetarium professionals fully engaged with one another. The balance of age groups and the relationships among all were much like one would find at a family reunion, mi- nus small children. Young and old alike were engaged with live music, games, and interesting conversations ranging from catching up on each other’s lives and discussing The Martian, to talking about the future of planetariums. I took to this strong family atmosphere like a duck to water. Why did I feel like I was in the middle of a real family? I was about to find out. From left: Alan Pareis, Mark Reed, Dayna Thomson, Jeff Bryant, Deb Lawson, Todd DeZeeuw, Joe At the end of the conference banquet, we Childers, Jean Creighton, and Ken Murphy. Dr. Ron Kaitchuck of the Charles W. Brown Planetarium in all moved from our dining tables into the mu- Muncie, Indiana, stands at front. Photo by Dan Goins.

6 Planetarian December 2015 Greg and Barbara Williams and IPS Past Pres- ident Dale Smith. Greg Williams, planetarium director of the Merrillville Community School (Indiana) and his wife Barb have been working directly with 700-800 students over the past 34 years through a planetarium club Greg founded. For the past 34 years, Greg has been encouraging students in their formative years, bringing them to GLPA to experience a professional conference and to be influenced by inspiring speakers. Dale Smith has been a mentor to so many, including Nick Anderson of the Lake Erie Na- ture and Science Center Planetarium (Cleve- land, Ohio); Adam Leis, who has been using his computer skills for the GLPA website and will be working with Dale on the first searchable IPS directory; and Bill Buckingham, outreach manager at Kitt Peak National Observa- From left: Garry Beckstrom, GLPA president; education specialist; Brooke Bacigal (behind tory, Tucson, Arizona. Dave DeBruyn, Mentor Award 2015 recipient; Pat), Chaffee Planetarium program presenter; Mentoring is more than training how to Ethan Brown, former Chaffee Planetarium pro- John Foerch, Chaffee Planetarium Production give presentations or operate the planetarium duction assistant; Dan Tell, GLPA secretary and and AV Specialist; Nick Schuck, Chaffee Plan- former Chaffee Planetarium production techni- etarium program presenter; Dr. Thomas Strik- projector. It is investing one’s life in the life of cian, now with California Academy of Sciences, werda (behind), former Chaffee Planetarium another. GLPA is an association of mentors San Francisco; Emily Hromi, Chaffee Planetari- program presenter (1970's), now at Applied and mentees turned mentors. It’s a revolving um production technician; Jim Foerch, Chaffee Physics Laboratory, John's Hopkins University, and evolving cycle of birthing and develop- Planetarium education specialist; Kenny Cott, where he managed the Development and Guid- ing planetarium professionals, continuing to Chaffee Planetarium manager; Jeff Kozarski, ance Team, New Horizons to Pluto; Fred Quillin, Chaffee Planetarium program presenter; Da- Chaffee Planetarium program presenter; David “be there” for one another always. vid Staskiewicz, former Chaffee Planetarium Deremo (mostly hidden), former Chaffee Plan- Mentoring is the source of the “strong fam- production assistant; Dr. Jacob Bourjaily, for- etarium program producer (1980's); and Rob- ily atmosphere” I experienced in the hospi- mer Chaffee Planetarium production assis- ert Victor, (retired) Michigan State University tality suite. Mentoring is an important key to tant, nowprofessor of Physics, Neils Bohr Insti- Abrams Planetarium, originator of the Abrams tute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Pat Sky Calendar. Photos by Dan Goins. developing the next great generation of plan- Latus, (partially hidden), Chaffee Planetarium etarians. These mentors’ lives and the lives and ca- the incredible service he has done as GLPA Among many others, Ron has mentored reers of those they have mentored are too im- celebrates its 50th anniversary at the plane- such notables as Dayna Thompson, assistant portant to the entire planetarium community tarium where it first convened: Dave’s own planetarium director at Ball State Universi- to simply list them briefly in this message. We Chaffee Planetarium.” ty and GLPA technology chair; Keith Turner, can look forward to future issues of Planetari- planetarium director at Carmel High School an featuring the mentor/mentee relationships Honoring even more Planetarium in Carmel, Indiana; and Kim which have paved the way and continue to There were two others who were given the Small, planetarium director at Upper Dublin forge the future of space science and planetar- Mentor Award that night: Dr. Ron Kaitchuck School District in Pennsylvania. iums worldwide. of the Charles W. Brown Planetarium at Ball Sheldon Schafer was nominated for the Please share with me or Sharon Shanks, State University, Muncie, Indiana, and Shel- Mentor Award by his grateful mentee and suc- Planetarian editor, the stories of the mentors don Schafer, retired planetarium curator of cessor, Renae Kerrigan. who have made an impact on your life. the Peoria Riverfront Museum, Illinois. Last year, the Mentor Award was given to We’re making IPS greater together! I

Be sure to turn to page 14 and read about the site of the 2018 IPS Conference in Toulouse, France. ©Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées

December 2015 Planetarian 7 Guest Editorial

The next 20 years of planetariums: What challenges and opportunities are we facing?

visual experiences, whether under the dome, online, or in gaming, or in the virtual reality headsets of the very near future, that everything else will be compared against. A market study4 that Alan Caskey presented at the IMERSA (Immersive Media Enter- tainment, Research, Science & Arts) Summit in 2013 listed user interfaces and real-time Staffan Klashed, CEO and founder of Sciss system functionality as the two most impor- Telefonvägen 30, 5tr tant features of a planetarium (from a survey 126 26 Hägersten of 139 responding planetariums). The ability Sweden to encourage repeat visits and availability of [email protected] new content were the two top concerns. All of these points are directly related to advanced software and content development, work If someone had asked the thinkers and lead- Planetariums in the 21st century,” and this is a that will be carried out by some of those 18.5 ers of the planetarium industry anno 1995 compact article version of the paper. million professionals for whom we are com- what 2015 will be like for planetariums, what peting with every other IT industry on the would their answer have been? This was a The competition for talent planet. world where most people did not know what Whether we like it or not, planetariums Public perception of astronomy and the Internet was, 0.8% of the world’s popula- are just as involved as any other industry in planetariums: The world’s population is just tion was connected1. Smartphones only exist- the competition for talent. The Internation- as interested in astronomy now as they have ed in labs and the digital planetarium ever been. Data from the United States was still using almost exclusively an- (which, admittedly, is not ”the world”) alog slides and stars, sometimes cou- General Social Survey from 2012 (see pled with digital monochrome vector graph on facing page) says that ap- graphics2. Watching and extending proximately two thirds of the Ameri- the major tendencies in technology at can public thinks government spend- the time, we could probably have said ing on space exploration is too small with some confidence that the devel- or just about right.5 European numbers opment of computers is likely to drive are similar; data from other parts of the the development of planetariums. world would be most welcome and I’ve spent a lot of time this year an- paint an even more complete picture. alyzing and researching the potential There is surprisingly little data that future of planetariums. My findings addresses the public’s perception of and thoughts made me want to try to planetariums as places to pursue this identify where the winds are blowing interest. A qualitative study from for the next 20 years. By understand- the Field Museum in Chicago6 (not ing where we stand today and what a planetarium) discussed what visi- the major tendencies are, those ten- tors expect from a museum. One of Source: Presentation by Alan Caskey at the IMERSA Summit, 2013. dencies that are bigger than any single their findings is that visitors come to innovation, company or institution, the museum with a mental model of planetariums can shape a strategy to grow and al Data Corporation (IDC)3 estimated in 2014 knowledge as infinite, rather than finite. Since remain increasingly relevant. And by relevan- that there were approximately 11 million pro- there is no way they could know everything cy, I mean maintaining current, growing and fessional software developers in the world, about a topic anyway, visitors are not looking recurring audiences, and providing to them 18.5 million with hobbyists included. The best 4 www.imersa.org/resources-2/materials/category/ an experience that feels meaningful and inspi- ones will choose a career in those industries summit-2014 rational. Sciss published my work recently in that reward them best, financially, creatively 5 gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/181/vshow a white paper, “The next 20 years: A vision for and, perhaps most important of them all, so- 6 www.slaudienceresearch.com/files/publications/ cially. The best ones will create those audio- E x e cutive%20summary%20-%20Field%20 1 www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users; viewed Museum%20visitor%20experience%20and%20 2015-06-22 9:39pm GMT technology%20research%20-%20Slover%20Linett. 2 GOTO Virtuarium and Evans & Sutherland Digistar 3 www.idc.com pdf

8 Planetarian December 2015 Marketing in the era of big data Every now and then the discussion about brand name pops up in our industry. Plane- tariums, dome theatres or visualization theatres? I don’t want to linger on this discussion, as each institution will find its own name and it’s not the most significant success factor for the industry. Increased focus on marketing, and understanding our identity and value proposition, is more relevant. Dr. Jim Sweitzer illustrates, in his SPECTACLE model,8 the effects of the many factors at play during the early months and years of a new planetarium. In the model we can see the long-term importance of having a balance between good marketing, innovation, high quality of the programming, and the ability to attract new markets. Marketing today can be much more refined than it used to be. We can pinpoint target Space Exploration Program Spending. Approximately two thirds of the American public thinks govern- groups online. We can give them compelling ment spending on space exploration is too small or just about right. Source: The United States Gener- reasons to go. Many of the most successful al Social Survey, 2012. planetariums are already refining their offerings in a good way. Planetarium after dark, sci- to fill in gaps in their knowledge, but rather to just no way around the fact that it takes mon- ence cafés, special events, and guest lectures. have their sense of the world reshaped and ex- ey to sustain the positive virtuous circle that The key, besides spending money and effort panded. This single point is worthy of signif- is gradually being set in motion in our indus- on marketing, is to make sure that the overall icant consideration when we debate how to try today. We don’t have to choose between content and marketing message aligns with use our planetariums. science and economic sustainability, in fact I the overall identity of planetariums. For quantitative data, we conducted our will set out to prove that the opposite is true. own survey by analyzing reviews on the trav- Planetariums vs. giant screen el website TripAdvisor. Visitor satisfaction The next 5 years: Big data cinema: An identity crisis? appears to come from four primary factors; Transforming the public’s perception to re- There is an argument to be made that the things to do outside the dome (24%), good gard planetariums as a primary place to follow digital planetarium technology is converging shows (23.5%), location, view and the building events in astronomy and space exploration with giant screen cinema. While this is argu- itself (16%), and good live-presenters (15.5%). appears to have great potential to grow audi- ably true for technology, I would say there is Disappointment appears to come primarily ences and repeat visitations. These audiences very little such convergence in terms of pur- from worn down or poorly maintained facil- will expect planetariums to maintain scientif- pose and use of the technology. ities, alongside bad or low quality program- ic integrity. Planetariums have a value proposition that ming (14%), technical issues or lack of quality Fortunately, the planetarium industry is in- they are centres of excellence for astronomy (8.5%), lack of things to do outside the dome creasingly successful in the competition for and space exploration. We have already prov- (6.0%), and cost of admission (3.5%). talent. As an industry, we are increasingly in- en that this is an attractive proposition to the vesting in research and development of prod- public, especially if we keep it real and main- So how are we doing? ucts that are technically stimulating, consid- tain our scientific integrity. This is a sustain- According to the annual Dome The- ered relevant by a majority of the public, and able value proposition, and if planetariums atre Compendium survey from Loch Ness socially much cooler than the conventional don’t fill it, something else will. The formats Productions,7 approximately 107 million planetarium technology. will vary: fulldome shows, live presenter-led people visited a planetarium last year. That The next 5 years inevitably will be about discussion formats, audience-driven experi- sounds like an amazing number and I think “big data,” the vastly increased amount of ences, and more. But don’t mistake format for we can be proud of our industry. As a compar- meaningful data accessible to the public. value proposition. ison, the documentary giant screen industry Space exploration will produce an ever-in- Giant screen cinema, on the other hand, attracts a total of 36 million people per year, creasing amount of data and make it available have a completely different value propo- and that’s including their flat screens. How to the public. Private initiatives in air- and sat- sition. They are documentary screens, not many of those 107 million are school groups, ellite-based imaging, remote sensing, and la- necessarily about astronomy and space ex- and how many would go away if you charged ser scanning will help accelerate what the In- ploration. Giant screen cinemas show doc- an extra 50 cents per ticket? ternational Planetarium Society’s Science and umentaries about butterflies, artificial intel- Anecdotally, on a recent vacation trip to Data Visualization Task Force calls the data ligence, dinosaurs, and aviation. They don’t a city in Europe that boasts a big planetari- tsunami. have deep knowledge about all these topics, um, I paid more for an ice cream for my son Big data is relevant and interesting to the they have an amazing cinema format and than I did for his admission to the planetari- public. It is socially cool and attracts talent, people visit giant screens to pursue their inter- um. And it was a very normal ice cream, just and thus the virtuous circle can accelerate and est in documentaries and film, not the partic- two scopes, vanilla and strawberry. There is turn planetariums into what they need to be, ular subject matter. places where people go to pursue their interest 7 www.lochnessproductions.com/reference/2014st in astronomy and space exploration. 8 c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ips-planetarium.org/ ate/2014stateofthedome.html resource/resmgr/pdf-articles/spectacle_JSS.pdf

December 2015 Planetarian 9 The next 10 years: New platforms This theme is everywhere already today. or will have from software companies servic- The data visualization explosion will ob- But it will take two decades to transform the ing our industry. viously happen foremost on other platforms world’s education system. What we are talk- We need to face the data explosion and than under the dome. With this, the sense of ing about is redefining the purpose of educa- the fact that two thirds of the public are in- identity in the industry will change. At the tion. Sugata Mitra,10 an educational research- terested in the astronomy and space explora- moment, most planetarians think of their er and TED Prize winner, has shown that in tion stories contained in this data. How we re- planetarium as a building and everything un- the absence of formal teaching, children can spond will decide how audiences and talent der the dome. However, increased visualiza- teach themselves and each other, if they are will respond to planetariums. Adjusting mar- tion capabilities online are already starting to motivated by curiosity and peer interest. keting to change old perceptions of what the change this. And pretty soon, virtual and aug- And with planetariums now having attract- planetarium can offer will be a key success fac- mented reality glasses will change the percep- ed a large pool of talent, expanded to multi- tor. The multiplatform aspect of planetariums tion and value of immersion. In 10 years’ time, to think of the planetarium as only the dome, will be a conservative standpoint. Rather, the planetarium is a mission to evangelize and breed interest in astronomy. Supported by multiplatform software solutions, planetarians will gradually start to roll ”Visitors come with a mental model of out programs and extend their relationships knowledge as infinite. The learning they seek with their visitors. This creates new business is less about filling the gaps in understanding, opportunities, thus injecting more resources and more talent into our industry. The plane- and more about having their sense of the world tarium becomes the magnet, the central point expanded.” of gravity around which a vast number of -Informal Learning Review (Jan/Feb 2015) satellite programs are orbiting. Experiential hubs for astronomy and space exploration first, buildings second. Which is an incredibly strong position to use to increase attendance to the building itself.

The next 20 years: ducation redefined ple platforms, we will be the world’s primary will help with this, the visitor can be more at- Two decades out, the very way we think source for inspirational and engaging expe- tached to the experience by engaging and par- about learning will have been dramatical- riences about astronomy and space explora- ticipating online. ly transformed. In Building the Future of Ed- tion. As such, we have a given role in these vi- Finally, we need to evolve with the educa- ucation: Museums and Learning Ecosystems9 brant learning grids. tional system. With learning increasingly un- from Center for the Future of Museums, Kath- bound by a time and a place, planetariums erine Prince describes what she refers to as vi- Conclusions who have expanded onto multiple platforms brant learning grids. These are communities I suppose it is wise to be careful with con- can take a strong position as their communi- where learning is not bound by a time and a clusions from a speculative 20 year vision. But ties’ centers of excellence for astronomy and place, but happens everywhere, all the time. there are some clear tendencies that go deeper space exploration. Hopefully the educational Where our relationship with formal institu- than any individual trend, event or product, paradigm will also have evolved by then from tions have changed so the place we refer to and the following points is what I believe will a facts-first model to an interest-first model, as “school” may be the classroom, the library, be of importance: which makes the planetarium value propo- the internet or, yes indeed, the multiplatform The competition for talent will define our sition both for the in-dome and out-of-dome planetarium. Where learning is not motivated success or failure. If we can attract and pick experience even stronger. by authority, but curiosity. from the top layer of those 18.5 million devel- If you want to access the complete white opers, science visualizers and artists, planetar- paper, The next 20 years: A vision for Plane- iums will flourish. Planetariums should con- tariums in the 21st century,11 please send an 9 www.aam-us.org/resources/center-for-the- tinue to try to attract data visualization talent email to [email protected]. I future-of-museums/future-of-education from this group. And for those who cannot af- 11 http://sciss.se/blog/staffan-klashed-a-vision-for- ford an in-house content planetariums developer, reach out to other planetariums and AccessAbility Staffan Klashed is the CEO and co-founder share a content develop- of fulldome theatre company Sciss. He holds Solutions! er resource between you. a vast experience in the field of science visu- It is about getting out alization and immersive digital spaces. Over a there to find that latest decade ago, Staffan introduced the visualization software Uniview to the fulldome indus- data, massage it into con- try, a project that started as a thesis project Everyone’s Universe sumable content and ul- in cooperation with the American Museum of by Noreen Grice timately experiences on Natural History. Sciss and Uniview were quick- the dome, using the soft- ly established in the industry, and today Sciss is the principal of one of the world’s leading ware systems you have www.YouCanDoAstronomy.com fulldome system vendors with over 150 installations worldwide. 10 www.ted.com/speakers/sugata_mitra

10 Planetarian December 2015 WAS-MagazineAd-V01-Now2.pdf 1 17/07/2015 11:40

CMY

December 2015 Planetarian 11 Minutes of the 2015 IPS Council Meeting Room P 11, Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan Espace pour la vie Montréal Montréal, Québec Canada August 6-8, 2015

* indicates action items our visit to his facility and the beautiful city of In attendance: Not Present: Montréal. Joanne introduced the Vision 2020 President Joanne Young Association of Spanish Planetariums (APLE) team and their purpose for engaging Coun- Past President Thomas Kraupe Russian Planetarium Association (RPA) cil during the two days following the Council President-Elect Shawn Laatsch Meeting. Introductions of the Council Mem- Treasurer Ann Bragg Also present: bers and guests included 3 new Council Mem- Secretary Lee Ann Hennig IPS 2015 COUNCIL MEETING HOST bers and the representatives from the four IPS Pierre Lacombe, Directeur, Planétarium Rio 2018 Bid Proposal Presenters. The President re- Affiliate Representatives: Tinto Alcan/Espace pour la vie Montréal, viewed changes in the agenda and the format Association of Brazilian Planetariums (ABP) – Québec Canada for the days following the Council Meeting. Proxy Celso Cunha IPS 2018 CONFERENCE BIDDERS The Secretary’s Report on the Minutes of Association of Dutch Speaking Planetariums Alex Cherman – Astronomer, Rio de Janeiro the 2014 Beijing Council Meeting had been (ADSP) – Jaap Vreeling Planetarium Rio de Janeiro, Brazil previously published in the December 2014 Association of French Speaking Planetari- Alan Nursall – President and CEO, Telus World Planetarian. There were no additions or cor- ums (APLF) – Marc Moutin/Proxy Pierre La- of Science – Edmonton, Alberta Canada rections. combe [TWOSE] The Minutes were approved. Association of Mexican Planetariums (AM- Marc Moutin – Directeur des Expositions, Cité Former Treasurer Shawn Laatsch present- PAC) – Proxy Joanne Young de le¢ espace, Toulouse, France ed the 2014 Financial Report. Treasurer Ann Australasian Planetarium Society (APS) – Mrs. Rouillon-Valdiguié – Toulouse Deputy Bragg reported on the specifics of the mid- Warik Lawrance Mayor in charge of Tourism and CEO of year 2015 Budget, and the proposed 2016 Bud- British Association of Planetaria (BAP) – Mark Toulouse (Toulouse Convention Bureau) get. The IPS Vision 2020 budget will be exam- Watson Levent Gurdemir - Director, Planetarium Uni- ined for any revisions for 2016 based on the Canadian Association of Science Centres versity of Texas Arlington, Arlington, Tex- outcome of the two-day meeting immediate- (CASC) - Ian McLennan as USA ly following this Council Meeting. Proposed Chinese Planetarium Society (CPS) – Jin Zhu IPS 2016 CONFERENCE HOSTS – WARSAW, changes will be forwarded to Council for con- European/Mediterranean Planetarium Associ- Poland sideration by the Finance Committee. ation (EMPA) - Manos Kitsonas Maciej Ligowski – IPS 2016 Warsaw Confer- The Audit Report of 2014 confirmed that Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) – ence Host: Program Coordinator, Creative the treasury is in good standing and the doc- Jeanne Bishop Planet ument has been posted on the Council Group Great Plains Planetarium Association (GPPA) – Monika Malinowska – IPS 2016 Warsaw Con- Site. Proxy John Hare ference Host: Head of Conference & Events RMPA Affiliate Representative Michele Italian Association of Planetaria (IAP) – Proxy Management Dept, Copernicus Science Wistisen inquired about the Spitz Fund and Michele Wistisen Centre discussion followed on the guidelines for uti- Japan Planetarium Association (JPA) - Kaoru IPS VISION 2020 Planning Team: lizing those funds. The Star Partners’ program Kimura Jon Elvert, Chair is still available for those facilities that are in Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS) – Facilitator – Liz Monroe-Cook need of financial assistance for membership. Proxy Patty Seaton Karrie Berglund Shawn pointed out that there are other sourc- Nordic Planetarium Association (NPA) – Aase Ruth Coalson es available for IPS Membership assistance Roland Jacobsen Marc Moutin such as those provided to all new customers Pacific Planetarium Association (PPA) – Proxy Mark SubbaRao of Digitalis Education Solutions. The Treasur- Rachel Thompson er’s Report was filed. Rocky Mountain Planetarium Association Guests: As Membership Chair, Ann Bragg report- (RMPA) – Michele Wistisen Sharon Shanks – Editor, IPS Planetarian ed that the total membership as of June 2015 Society of German Speaking Planetaria (GDP) Alan Gould – IPS Webmaster via SKYPE (460) was down from the previous year at this – Björn Voss time – however that is not unusual consider- Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) The meeting was called to order at 9:20 a.m. ing it is a non-conference year. Automated re- - John Hare by President Joanne Young who welcomed minders are distributed in January and Feb- Southwestern Association of Planetariums Council and guests. The Council was warm- ruary to notify membership of dues renewal (SWAP) – Rachel Thompson ly greeted by Pierre Lacombe and he outlined procedures and then follow-ups are generat-

12 Planetarian December 2015 ed by the Membership Chair after those dates. •• Celso Cunha, Planetarium Foundation items which should be addressed in the Vision There is concern that several of the Affili- president and Alex Cherman, astrono- 2020 review process. ates were in danger of not meeting the min- mer, both of the Rio de Janeiro Planetar- Affiliate Reports not submitted: Associa- imum number of memberships to maintain ium, presented for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. tion of Spanish Planetariums (APLE) their affiliate status. Those affiliates will be •• Alan Nursall, president and CEO, Telus closely monitored. The Membership Report World of Science, introduced by Ian Standing Committee Reports was filed. McLennan, represented the Canadian As- In keeping with the compressed format of Past President Thomas Kraupe reported on sociation of Science Centers, for Edmon- the Council meeting, Standing Committee the highlights that will be detailed in his Past ton Alberta, Canada. Reports were previously submitted and re- President’s Report to be printed in the De- •• Marc Moutin, director of Expositions, viewed by Council. The full committee re- cember 2015 issue of Planetarian. He has fo- Citè de l’espace, and Mrs. Rouillon-Val- ports were posted on the individual Com- cused on several themes during his tenure: diguie, Toulouse Deputy Mayor for Tou- mittee Webpages and the Council Webpage. launching the Vision 2020 Initiative, building louse, France, presented. Discussion from the floor centered on select- bridges across the international communi- •• Levent Gurdemir, director, Planetarium ed committees: ty; reevaluation and creation of IPS commit- University of Texas at Arlington, present- Awards Committee tees with regard to their structure and objec- ed for Arlington, Texas, USA. Awards Committee Chair Manos Kitsonas tives; IPS fulldome festivals; collaborations Questions and discussion from Council to presented the IPS Awards Committee Report. with other organizations such as ECSITE, ESO, the presenters helped to clarify the proposals. The President’s Award, the IPS Fellows, and ESA; initiatives for open source projects; part- Council was encouraged to review the pro- the Technology and Innovation Award hon- nerships between art and acience; and many posals again for any further questions to be orees will be presented to the membership at more. On behalf of Council, President Joanne posed the following morning before a final the IPS 2016 Conference. There were no nom- thanked Thomas for being a great ambassador vote on the site of IPS 2018. inees for the IPS Service Award. Council dis- for IPS and continuing the work of the orga- cussed the nominee presented for the Tech- nization. IPS 2020 Conference Bids nology and Innovation Award. President Joanne Young delivered high- President Joanne Young reminded the IPS * Shawn Laatsch moved to approve the lights of the President’s Report. This report 2018 bidders to consider hosting the IPS 2020 recommendation of the Awards Commit- will be published in the September 2015 issue conference. Next year’s Council Meeting is tee for 1 individual to receive the Technol- of Planetarian. Joanne reviewed highlights of the deadline for IPS 2020 Bid Proposals and ogy and innovation Award, seconded by her first few months in office and the progress the officers will be monitoring those poten- Patty Seaton and approved by Council. of efforts relating to: Vision 2020 Initiative, tial proposals for intentions and follow up. The list of IPS Fellows was presented and hosting the IPS Officers’ meeting at her home discussion followed. earlier this year, the trip to Warsaw to confer Affiliate Reports * Shawn Laatsch moved to approve the with our IPS 2016 Conference hosts and the Because of the unique nature of this three- recommendation of the Awards Commit- business associated with the event, and the ef- day Council Meeting (one day for the Coun- tee for 3 individuals to be named as IPS forts to resolve the IPS 2018 Conference situ- cil Meeting and the following two days de- Fellows, seconded by Thomas Kraupe and ation. The Past President’s and President’s voted to Council input on the Vision 2020 approved by Council. Reports were filed. Initiative), the format for carrying out Coun- Council discussed the possibility of alter- cil business was restructured. nate award designs and categories of awards, Conferences Affiliates, as usual, had their Affiliate Re- especially in the fulldome categories. The 2014 Conference ports posted on the Council page of the IPS Awards Committee will continue to explore Dr. Jin Zhu, IPS 2014 Conference Host, pre- Website, however, based on Council feed- guidelines and criteria for awards. sented the final report on the Beijing confer- back, the format for reporting was modified. Elections Committee Chair Martin George ence and announced that conference pro- All posted reports could be accessed and read has drafted a revision to the elections proce- ceedings should be completed by the end of prior to the Council Meeting. There were no dure, however that topic is dependent on the 2015. questions from the floor concerning the indi- discussion relating to restructuring the orga- 2016 Conference vidual Affiliate Reports. Council agreed that nization in Vision 2020 proposals. Council Dr. Maciej Ligowski and Monika Malinows- having a flexible format for presentation, will consider these revisions via electronic dis- ka presented their report on plans for the con- such as that modeled by APS Representative cussion in the fall. ference at the Copernicus Science Center in Warik Lawrance, was helpful. Publications Committee Warsaw, Poland. The Conference is scheduled Secretary Lee Ann Hennig reminded Coun- Editor Sharon Shanks was attending as a for June 19-25, 2016, preceded by the Council cil that there are minimum requirements guest at the Council Meeting and was thanked Meeting. Details and updates will be posted on for Affiliate reporting set in our By-Laws and for her exceptional work on Planetarian. the Conference Website www.ips2016.org and Standing Rules, however, we can explore Standing Committee Reports were filed. will be published in Planetarian. Maciej had more efficient ways of accomplishing this ob- submitted a document for Council to con- jective. Ad Hoc Committee Reports sider for discussion the day before the Coun- Ad Hoc Committee Reports were reviewed cil meeting’s start, so this discussion was post- News from the floor: and discussed. Complete reports are posted on poned to later in the agenda, time permitting. SEPA Representative John Hare reported on the IPS Web Site Committee Webpages and 2018 Conference Bids the plans for a U.S. conference involving mul- IPS Council Webpage. Four IPS 2018 Conference bid proposals were tiple regional Affiliates to be held in October IPS Education Committee Chair Jeanne presented to Council for review. These new of 2017. Details will be forthcoming. Bishop reminded Council to follow-up on her proposals were necessitated as a result of the Additional discussion concerned a joint letter attached to the Committee Report. withdrawal of the winning proposal last year. membership package (affiliates/IPS) and other (Continues on page 15)

December 2015 Planetarian 13 Planetarium Live! IN and OUTSIDE the Dome

IPS 2018, 1-6 July Welcome to France, Welcome to Toulouse!

host an IPS conference, and this is why our aters will allow more than 400 delegates to Marc Moutin proposal for IPS 2018 is to host the full confer- follow dome demos at the same time. Cité de l'espace ence within Cité de l’espace, so that delegates In addition to these two domes, a 300-seat Toulouse, France will enjoy four days fully immerged in a space Imax 3D theater with a digital projection sys- [email protected] and astronomy environment! tem will allow parallel flat screen presenta- Since our opening in 1997, we have wel- tions by vendors in a very professional way www.cite-espace.com comed 300,000 visitors every year in Cité de and with high quality conditions for every- It is a great honor to have been selected by l’espace, and have celebrated the visit of our one. the IPS Council during its meeting in Montre- 5 millionth visitor last year. We do our best to During the evenings of planetarium and al, Quebec, Canada this past August to host the share with them our passion for everything flat screen demonstrations, delegates will also Congress of IPS in 2018. We would like first to that is above us: from satellites to astronauts, have the chance to visit our center, its gar- thank Council members for their confidence from the moon to extrasolar planets, from dens, and exhibitions, and enjoy sky observa- in choosing Toulouse and Cité de l’espace, and nebulae to galaxies. tions thanks to our new telescope. While writ- to congratulate our colleagues and competi- In Cité de l’espace delegates will enjoy: ing this article, the City of Toulouse, owner of tors, from Edmonton, Rio, and Arlington, who •• Two planetariums with full digital pro- the facilities, started the process of complete presented very good bids, rising very high the jection, renovation of the largest planetarium, includ- level of excellence in conference preparation. •• 2.500m2 of totally renovated permanent ing brand new technologies, high definition So, after meetings in Baton Rouge in 2012, exhibitions, presenting space and astron- projectors, and interactive devices in all seats. Beijing in 2014, and Warsaw in 2016, Cité de omy in an innovative setting, l’espace, Toulouse, will organize the 24th In- •• The gardens, with life-sized objects like Focus on live, in and out of dome ternational Planetarium Society Conference, the XMM space telescope, Soyouz space- For the 2018 conference, we would like to for the first time in France, a country where craft, Ariane5, and the Mir station, focus on “Planetarium Live! IN and OUTSIDE planetariums have been very dynamic for •• An astronomical observatory opened in the Dome” and take it as the theme. Despite close to 80 years. 2014 with a 16-in telescope and a solar new technical improvements, interaction be- Hosting IPS 2018 will be a great opportuni- telescope tween the public and a “live” person is one of ty for all delegates to enjoy a brilliant confer- •• A 3D Imax theatre, temporary exhibi- the keys to the success of planetarium shows. ence, and to discover many interesting places tions, and conference rooms and audito- The live action in the planetarium can be related to space and astronomy as well a beau- rium extremely varied. From welcoming our visi- tiful part of Europe. Thanks to our two planetariums and flat tors and implementing the variety of shows Be certain that the teams of the Cité de screen cinema, delegates can discover, in com- in our domes to bidding them to return, the l’espace and So Toulouse (the Toulouse Con- fort, the new technological developments of- role of the staff in our theaters is fundamental vention Bureau) will do their best to make fered by the planetarium industry. in our profession. From theory to practical ac- this first conference in France an unforgetta- The bigger planetarium has a 20m dome tivities in and outside domes, we would like to ble event. and 280 seats; its large gallery will allow for explore altogether the variety and richness of In this first article in our magazine Plane- any new equipment installation for special human interaction with our diverse audienc- tarian, we would like to give you a first flavor demos. Beside it, the Stellarium is a 15m the- es, linked to our different cultures and habits. of what we plan to offer you for your stay in atre equipped with fulldome video. It offers IPS 2018 “Planetarium Live! IN and OUT- Toulouse, for the conference and beyond. 133 seats for simultaneous demonstrations. SIDE the dome” will be the first internation- We believe our center has many assets to Both theaters are tilted 10°. Using both the- al laboratory of best live practices under and

14 Planetarian December 2015 Facing Page: inside the dome at Cité de l’espace, photo ©Manuel Huyhn; the river in Toulouse and an aerial view of the city, both ©Ville de Toulouse. This page, from left: a view of the old city, ©Ville de Toulouse; a view of the garden at Cité de l’espace and the team, both ©Manuel Huyhn.

of the Centre national d’études spatia- les (CNES, the French space agency). Also here: Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, French Weather Forecast/Météo France, and Observa- toire Midi-Pyrénées, which is involved with the Curiosity Rover on Mars, the Rosetta Mission, and running the Ob- servatoire du Pic du Midi. Since these professionals are strong partners of Cité de l’espace, they will outside our domes, in all their dimensions and gramme committee two years prior to the join their forces and skills to build with diversities. In order to be able to fully explore conference, including planetarium profes- the IPS conference committee a strong scien- this theme, we plan to dedicate one of our two sionals representing the broad range of ex- tific programme. Thanks to our large network, planetariums to this subject, and to use it for isting institutions, space and astronomy we will also ensure that high-level keynote live planetarium sessions during all the con- scientists, educators, science engagement spe- speakers will enrich the conference content ference. cialists, artists, and more. by providing unique and new perspectives. Our new astronomical observatory will Toulouse is famous for air, space and as- also be used as a demonstration tool for possi- About Toulouse tronomy, as well as atmosphere, medieval ar- ble associated activities, as could be the whole Toulouse is a very special place when it chitecture, gastronomy, and “savoir-vivre.” A of la Cité de l’espace. comes to space and (g)astronomy. It is the “Air whole afternoon will be dedicated to the dis- We want attendees to leave the conference and Space” European capital, representing covery of Toulouse and its area. Four different inspired, enlightened, taking with your new 25% of space jobs in Europe. Therefore, Cité visits are planned, matching different tastes ideas, new connections, new skills, and new de l’espace is part of a rich ecosystem of space and interests, arts, science, and industry: the plans for the future, no matter the size or the and astronomy institutions, including the Medieval city of Carcasonne (a Unesco World budget of your institution. headquarters of Airbus, a leading aircraft man- Heritage site), 1-hour drive from Toulouse; the In order to achieve this, we will form a pro- ufacturer, and the Toulouse Space Center, part (Continues on page 36)

(Minutes, continued from page 13) The Ad Hoc Committee Reports were the IPS Education Committee in doing a re- Addendum to the minutes: filed. view and possible extensions of those ideas Day 2, August 7, 2015 – Closed Session 9:10 Ad Hoc Committee Reports not submitted: generated by the workshops and testing. Per- a.m.-10:30 a.m. IPS Immersive Audio Committee (Past Presi- haps we could pursue further collaborations IPS 2018 Conference Bids: After care- dent Thomas Kraupe noted that an oral pre- with other organizations such as the IAU. ful consideration, discussion among Coun- sentation/workshop will be given to Coun- Jon Elvert reported on the Vision 2020 Ini- cil members and additional questions, the cil in SAT in Montreal during a special session tiative with an update on where the project vote was taken and the winning bid propos- following the Saturday council session); stands, the plan for the next two days, and fu- al to host IPS 2018 was awarded to Toulouse, IPS Presenting Live Under the Dome Commit- ture steps. France. President Joanne Young expressed ap- tee. preciation and gratefulness to all of the pre- For the good of the order senters for their excellent preparation and Constitution matters President Joanne Young recognized our presence in Montreal, but mostly for so gener- The revisions for By Laws and Standing newest Council members; BAP Mark Watson, ously offering to invite IPS members to their Rules regarding officer elections will be dis- GDP Björn Voss, and RMPA Michele Wistisen. home institutions and cities. tributed to Council for review this fall. Other GLPA Representative Jeanne Bishop, on be- Day 3, August 8, 2015 – Closed Session 9:15 changes to consider will be: revisions/updates half of Council, congratulated IPS President a.m.-10:45 a.m. in appendices, general consistency and clari- Joanne Young on her work related to her first IPS Vision 2020 Initiative: Discussion fication edits to keep the document current. Council Meeting concerning the continued progress of the Vi- With business completed, Shawn sion 2020 Initiative centered on the following Unfinished Business- none Laatsch moved to adjourn the meeting, items: New Business - none seconded by Thomas Kraupe, and ap- Finance Committee will present a propos- Project Reports proved by Council. al to Council regarding a contract for the Ini- Follow-up on Jim Sweitzer’s Nanotarium- Respectfully submitted, tiative Chair outlining the remaining time- a project to introduce planetariums (low cost Lee Ann A. Henning line, deliverables, and responsibilities; work simple devices) to the developing world. The Executive Secretary, IPS with the Vision 2020 Chair and members to project is supported by IAU-OAD and IPS. August 11, 2015 formalize the budget . I Council requested that Jim coordinate with

December 2015 Planetarian 15 Catch a ride to

16 Planetarian December 2015 A new blockbuster movie and a great book are kindling renewed interest in Mars. Planetariums can go along for the ride.

December 2015 Planetarian 17 Real Human Exploration of

Christine Brunello Shupla Education Lead Lunar and Planetary Institute Houston, Texas [email protected]

Human exploration of Mars has been a hot There are very real concerns Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop topic for decades; perhaps we shouldn’t be A very real concern is landing in a safe re- for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars is surprised that so many people think we are al- gion. The fictitious landing site for the Ares IV a step towards putting humans on Mars. The ready on Mars. The Martian, a fictional future rocket in the story is placed in a shallow crater meeting explored regions of interest, where account of an astronaut stranded on Mars, has inside of Schiaparelli Crater. The Mars Recon- Mars science research overlaps with potential sparked a number of stories of confused mov- naissance Orbiter has taken a high resolution resources for a sustainable human presence. iegoers who thought the movie was based on image of that region, revealing a very uneven a true story. surface covered with a layer of bright Mar- Close to the mark Much of the science and technology in tian dust at least a meter thick. NASA would The fictional site of the Martian Ares III the movie (and the book) is based on actu- avoid landing there: the dust would do a poor- habitat from The Martian is near one of the al research. Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s director of er job of retaining the heat from daytime, so proposed future sites being discussed by scien- Planetary Science, and Dave Lavery, NASA’s the temperatures would vary more than usual tists: Xanthes Dorsa in Chryse Planitia, the lo- program executive for Solar System Explora- between day and night. Also, the dust makes cation of the first Viking lander. tion, were technical consultants for the mov- it difficult to determine whether there are fea- In his trek across Mars, Watney passes ie. A number of NASA programs and technolo- tures present that scientists would want to in- through Mawrth Vallis and near McLaughlin gies were incorporated into the film, from the vestigate. Crater; both are proposed future landing sites. habitat, to the plant farm, the ion propulsion Fiction meets fact in The Martian in the Watney then passes relatively close to Firsoff system of the Hermes spacecraft, and the rov- path that Mark Watney takes from his habitat Crater and past some more distant proposed er. site in Acidalia Planitia to Schiaparelli crater. landing sites in the Meridiani region. There are a few cases where true science The book and movie both site actual geologi- NASA will use the candidate sites as part of takes a back seat to artistic license in the sto- cal formations on Mars throughout this jour- the process to determine where and how to ry. The most notable is the wind storm that ney. Some of these Mars locations are being conduct future human exploration of Mars. wreaks havoc with the crew and habitat. Al- considered as candidate locations for future Meeting outcomes will help NASA determine though Mars does have dust storms (some human exploration. where to focus more of the current Mars mis- covering the entire planet), the thinness of From October 27-30, 2015, about 200 plane- sions’ investigations in the coming months Mars’ atmosphere reduces the overall mass tary scientists met at the Lunar and Planetary and years, to help researchers determine the and resulting impact of the wind. Mars has Institute (LPI) to identify and discuss candi- suitability of the sites. NASA will also use the many dangers that we’re aware of, but wind is date locations where humans could land, live, results of the meeting as they plan details for not the greatest risk to humans. and work on the Martian surface. The First (Continues on page 20)

18 Planetarian December 2015 From left, NASA Astronaut Drew Feustel, Actor Matt Damon, Director Ridley Scott, Author Andy Weir, and Direc- tor of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters Jim Green, participate in a question and answer session about NASA’s journey to Mars and the film The Martian. All photos this page by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Twen- tieth Century Fox/AP Images

Left: Dr. Jim Green at the Twentieth Century Fox The Martian trailer launch event. Right: Book Author Andy Weir. (Photos by Eric Charbon- neau/Invision for Twentieth Century Fox/AP Images)

Background: Curiosity’s unique looking back view of Martian soil and boulders after crossing the Dingo Gap sand dune. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Inset on page 16: Matt Damon portrays the titular hero in The Martian. Aidan Monaghan, TM & © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

December 2015 Planetarian 19 future Mars missions, assessing the types of instruments and data they will need before a future human mission to the final selected landing site. The scientists discussed the advantages, resources, and science that could be conducted at their proposed “Exploration Zones.” The selected “Exploration Zone” would encompass a 200 kilometer-wide circle, centered around a habitat, where multiple crews from Earth would arrive and explore the nearby regions of scientific interest using rovers, which will greatly increase their mobility. The research will focus on science enhanced by the presence of humans. A possible timeline for suggests that the first human team could launch for Mars in 2035. Sites need to be safe for landing and for a return launch, and have resources that can sustain human teams, who would stay for an estimated two weeks. Making the habitat sustainable will require local sources of energy, such as the solar panels in the movie, and water that can be pulled out of the ground or perhaps from the atmosphere. The scientists also base their proposals on the variety, detail, and the significance of the science that can be done at those locations. Scientists are interested in determining more about Mars’ volcanic history, its ero- sional features, and its changing atmosphere; what we learn about Mars’ geology can help Above: This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s us better understand our own planet in com- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows The Martian’s fictitious landing site for the Ares 4 mission. (NASA) parison. Right: Actor Matt Damon, who stars as NASA Astronaut Mark Watney in the film The Martian, smiles af- Some of the questions include: How did ter having made his hand prints in cement at the JPL Mars Yard, while Mars Science Lab Project Manager Jim Erickson, left, and NASA Astronaut Drew Feustel look on.While at JPL Damon meet with NASA scien- Mars form and how has it changed to become tists and engineers who served as technical consultants on the film. (NASA/Bill Ingalls) the desert that it is today? Why is its northern hemisphere so much lower and smooth- er than the heavily cratered southern hemisphere? Did it once have an ocean, or has it been covered with sediments or lava flows to fill in the craters? That’s no all, of course. Scientists also are ex- sity of these proposed landing sites was very Contamination not allowed tremely interested in the features telling us impressive and makes it clear that it is going A significant issue facing human explora- about the history of water on Mars. Most of to take a significant effort and the acquisition tion of Mars is the possibility that Earth life the proposed sites have evidence of past sur- of more spacecraft data before the number of could contaminate Mars, possibly even wip- face water, which formed sedimentary rocks landing sites can be narrowed down to the fi- ing out Mars microbes before we discover such as clays, scoured channels with cata- nal few candidates.” them. All space suits and habitats leak, albeit a strophic flooding, scratched the terrain with One of the most significant scientific ques- very small amount. This would not pose a sig- glaciers, and perhaps formed lakes and seas. tions is whether Mars has ever had, or still has, nificant danger for the astronauts; the air pres- There is evidence that water is present to- life. Future human explorers on Mars will ex- sure is kept positive inside the suit, so nothing day beneath the Martian surface, frozen or amine how the conditions on Mars have from the outside enters. It would be a poten- maybe even in liquid form. This water could changed over time, and what they are deep tial a danger to any Martian life, however, as be extracted as a resource for human explor- below the surface. we cannot easily prevent our own microbes ers, but could also be studied, to tell us more Explorers could search the geological re- from escaping into the Martian environment. about subsurface conditions. cord for signs of microbial fossils. If life once Planetary protection protocols will be needed existed on Mars, learning more about it and to minimize this issue, before humans can ex- We followed the water the environmental conditions on early Mars plore Mars. These recent discoveries about the presence could tell us more about the origins of life on Human exploration of Mars remains a hot and distribution of water on Mars stimulated Earth. Ultimately, humans will search for evi- topic, and may grow hotter over the next two more than 50 different proposals for the loca- dence of current Martian microbial life. If life decades! (Continues on page 34) tion of the first human landing site. Dr. Steve still exists on Mars, it would be the first alien Clifford, a Mars scientist at LPI and participant life discovered—an indication that we are not in the workshop, said “The strength and diver- alone.

20 Planetarian December 2015 Supervolcanoes_8_5x11_WithAwards_Option01.pdf 1 10/24/2013 10:03:04 AM

CMY

December 2015 Planetarian 21 Navigating in The Martian

Fig. 2

est communication site, the Mars Pathfinder landing site. The book tells us the coordinates of Watney’s home base, called a habitat, or HAB for short, shown in Fig. 1. To put this into a more global perspective, Jeff Bryant Fig. 2 shows an orthographic projection of Scientific Information Group Mars showing the HAB location Wolfram The distance from the HAB to the Mars Pathfinder is about 464.6 miles from the HAB. Champaign, Illinois We can visualize the path Watney takes, as the crow flies, in Fig. 3. Once Watney has retrieved the Mars Path- The popular book The Martian by Andy which is what this submission focuses on. All finder and established communication, he Weir was released in movie form on Octo- of the graphics used in this article were gen- makes plans for an escape. Because of the way ber 2. The Martian is about an astronaut, Mark erated using the Wolfram Language in Math- the Ares missions are planned and executed, Watney, stranded alone on Mars. The crew ematica 10.2, which supports global Mars Vi- the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) is landed long of Ares 3, the third manned mission to Mars, king map data, and a programming language before the arrival of the next crew (the way thought he had been killed during an evacu- useful for exploring that data. off the planet). Basically, the Ares 4 crew won’t ation. When the crew left, they took the only It’s at this point I should probably post a arrive for four years, but its MAV has already planned means of escape and communication warning: SPOILER ALERT! From here on I will landed. The problem is that the Ares 4 MAV with them. be exploring aspects of the story and so will is in a different location on Mars, Schiaparelli The next manned mission to Mars isn’t for be giving away plot points. If you don’t like Crater (Fig. 4 and 5). four years, so Watney has to face the fact that those kinds of details, stop here and go read This is quite a long way from the Ares 3 he must either figure out how to survive for the book, and then come back and read this HAB—about 2006.77 miles. This is much far- up to four years on Mars or die. article. ther than the previous jaunt to get the Mars The book does a wonderful job of supply- I should mention that the movie actually Pathfinder: ing technical details of the conditions and avoids many of the details surrounding the supplies available, as well as of the problems main character’s travels, mainly for the sake Nothing is ever easy that arise as a result of using things in ways for of time, so much of these details can be found Of course, nothing is ever easy. Due to cra- which they were not designed. The story pro- only in the book. ters, valleys, and other complications, the ac- vides a great example of how problem-solving Travel and communication with NASA tual path is not a straight line like the one skills can be useful in survival situations. are among the major problems Watney fac- shown above. One of the first deviations along The details are also great for allowing us es. He decides to modify the abandoned mis- the way comes from Mawrth Vallis. This is a to explore the travels of the main character, sion rover for longer travel and go to the near- water-carved valley on Mars that bridges the

Fig. 1 Fig. 3 Fig. 4

22 Planetarian December 2015 transition from the relatively flat Acidalia Pla- points together to estimate the total distance order to survive on Mars. The book shows a nitia (upper left in the following graphic) to Watney actually had to travel, 2304.85 miles, great example of using problem-solving skills the more rugged, higher-altitude, and crater- nearly 300 miles farther than the straight-line for survival. strewn Arabia Terra (lower right in Fig. 6. distance. I will not reveal the ultimate outcome so Although Mawrth Vallis makes for a less di- you have something to look forward to. I rect route, it’s a more gradual slope, and there- And there’s more found the movie to be a really good adapta- fore easier to traverse. So Mawrth Vallis is a The story doesn’t end there. Once Watney tion of the book, even though it had some good thing! We can zoom into Mawrth Vallis reaches the Ares 4 MAV, he still has to take differences and avoided many of the details to make it easier to see, Fig. 7. off and intercept the Hermes, the large space- mentioned here. The main character actual- The approximate path taken by Watney as craft used to ferry astronauts between Earth ly had a harder time in the book than in the he travels through Mawrth Vallis appears in and Mars. Due to the use of ion propulsion, movie. Fig. 8. the Hermes cannot make sudden changes in If you are interested in the Wolfram Lan- Along the way to Schiaparelli Crater, Wat- its velocity, and due to the abrupt change in guage code used to create the graphics in this ney navigates using a number of geograph- plans, Hermes can’t enter orbit. So Watney has article, see the version on the Wolfram Blog ic features, and even names some after him- to figure out how to take a MAV designed to here: self. For example, he names the area bounded only reach orbit and get it to go much higher blog.wolfram.com/2015/09/24/strand- by Becquerel Crater, Trouvelot Crater, and to intercept the Hermes as it makes a close fly- ed-on-mars-exploring-travel-on-mars-in- Marth Crater (Fig. 9) the “Watney Triangle.” In by of Mars. the-martian I the words of Mark Watney, “I’m calling it the The proposed solutions to these problems Interested in investigating Mars? Mars Trek Watney Triangle because after what I’ve been are almost as scary as the problems them- (marstrek.jpl.nasa.gov) is an application that through, #!&% on Mars should be named af- selves. allows you to view imagery and perform anal- ter me.” The book was really fun to read. Mark Wat- ysis on data, and includes a bookmark illustrat- Once Watney reaches Marth crater, he real- ney had a lot of challenges to overcome in ing the path Watney takes in The Martian. izes he’s headed into a dust storm that could impact the power he gets from his solar panels to power his rover. Since he doesn’t know which direction the storm is headed, he lays out 3 solar panels at 40 km increments starting at Marth, each with a power logger. The panel showing the least drop in power over time is the safest bet, and this turns out to be due south. So, Watney takes a detour to the south to skirt around the dust storm. Taking all of the references and features mentioned in the book, we can get a fairly de- cent picture of the region visited by Watney along his way, shown in Fig. 10. The actual path covered is far from a straight line, so the total distance traveled is longer than the straight-line distance comput- ed earlier. We can combine all the destination

Fig. 5

December 2015 Planetarian 23 Confessions of a Martian planetarian

I have been a Martian since January 2011. That’s when I first travelled to the Mars Des- ert Research Station in Utah, sent on a mission of peaceful exploration by the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA). Little did I suspect how this experience was going to change my life in ways I had never imagined. Haritina Mogosanu At the time, I was living in New Zealand Space Place at Carter Observatory and had never visited America or any space fa- Wellington, New Zealand cility before. But I was looking ahead from the shoulders of giants. Romania had sent a cos- [email protected] monaut to space, Dumitru Prunariu, and we all grew up with his achievements. I felt like a schoolgirl taking his autographed postcard with me on the trip, which I have kept since I was very little. To go to Mars from Wellington, New Zea- land, you need to take the 91 bus to the airport and change planes in Auckland. Then wait patiently for about twelve hours whilst strapped to a chair at 36,000 feet up in the air. Nervously anticipating my adventure, I finally felt relieved hearing someone shouting in excitement throughout the airplane “land ho!” Imagine that! Exploration was awaken- ing atavic reactions in me, even though I am a landlubber. Or perhaps that was precisely the reason why. We were finally in Los Angeles. Then in Denver. Then in Grand Junction, Colorado. Then we drove to the heart of the Utah desert, where Mars awaited behind some hills. It did not take almost nine months (the length of time it takes to go to Mars, and, for that matter, to have a baby), but it certainly felt like it took forever to get there. The road to Mars looks like any road throughout the western U.S., but along the Above: Haritina on “Mars” at the Mars Desert Research Station. All photos provided way I came to understand the true meaning and/or taken by the author, unless otherwise noted. Below, left: Mars, photo taken by of magnificent. I felt in awe the entire time Curiosity Rover; right, Utah desert, photo taken by Haritina. looking at that much open space. There was something about the country that made me feel I finally found the ultimate destination.

24 Planetarian December 2015 Yet, I was in for a big surprise. Driving past the hills across Hanksville (where you can also buy the famous t-shirts: “Where the heck is Hanksville?”), I entered into a red world, something that I have never experienced before. The ochre colour was soothing to my eyes, but the January sky felt heavy and grey. Noth- ing seemed familiar in the immensity of the desert. Imagine an alien and eerie world that felt like we truly had landed on Mars.

Utah desert, analog for Mars Driving our SUV trip to the station I was Geologic features in trying hard to find something familiar. We the Utah desert, were lead through a rocky path by the com- a stunning analog for Mars. mander of the previous expedition, who met us at the gate. I was the first officer, whatever that meant, for RoMars 2011. I did not know what to expect; I only knew I had a long list of duties which seemed oddly combined. I was looking at my life in the mirror in that twinkle like diamonds all the time, Mau Piailug, Voyager 1 and 2 navigate by the that list. I am a horticultural engineer who thanks to the water vapour in the atmosphere stars. So why wouldn’t we, too? only felt happy while looking up. It was my here in New Zealand. And what a pretty sight The Maori star compass at the Mars Desert agronomer grandfather who taught me how that is! Research Station is the legacy of that know- to measure time by the night sky, and I have But what about the sky of Mars? Hm. ing. Polynesian navigation is different from taken every moment of my life since then to anything I have ever seen before. The sky is watch the stars. Navigating celestially split into 32 parts called houses, and the nav- For this mission, I was wrapped into one as One of the projects that I had planned for igators watch the stars as they rise from each the team’s engineer, gardener, (g)astronomer my mission was to try to teach my crew how house. (because we all had to take turns at cooking), to navigate by the stars “on Mars,” similar to At different latitudes they will rise from a aikido aficionado, and security officer, pro- the way that the ancient Polynesians did in different house. Looking at pairs of stars at the viding planetary protection to prevent con- the Pacific Ocean. zenith to find the directions north and south tamination produced by human presence. I was trained for this task by the best: Jack and also at specific zenith stars, Maori naviga- And, above all these, I was a “starryteller.” Thatcher, Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, and Hector tors could pinpoint locations with precision. That is someone who can’t stop talking about Puhipi Busby. They learned from Mau Piailug, They keep a vision in their minds of the the stars. I can’t find any other definition for the famous navigator who had to decide if he sky above the land they are trying to get to. it. It’s an invented title, actually, made espe- wanted to die with the knowledge or share As they navigate they are trying to bring that cially for me by my colleague Ron right after it with someone who was not from his fam- vision closer, almost as if the canoe is stand- I started working for Carter Observatory. By ily. Imagine how it would feel to hold that ing still and the land is getting closer and clos- day with the land and by night with the stars. knowledge and know you are the last naviga- er, as if the land is coming towards them. And How does it feel to be a planetarian on an- tor of the world? if they keep that image of the place of destina- other planet? Wnderful! Luckily for all of us he chose the latter. Like tion in their mind, everything else falls into Since 2005 I have been talking in the planetarium at Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington. I love my job, the best I have ever had. By day we share our starry stories under the dome. At dusk we would open the sky with the 150-year-old Thomas Cooke refractor telescope and the 41-cm Boller and Chiv- ens to share its true marvels with our visitors. A great telescope awaited me on Mars as well; I remember vividly that, after two days of tinkering with the polar alignment, I finally managed to see Saturn through it! I often tried to imagine that if I were on the real Mars, then I would look for the Earth through that telescope. The Earth would be beautiful and blue. Why would anyone need an astronomical observatory on Mars? I did not know at the time, nor did I care. The mere fact that the stars exist is sufficient reason to look at them in awe every day. The Southern Hemisphere skies have stars Traditional waka hourua (double hull canoe) Aotearoa One. The compas is a merger of western and Maori. Photoshop image by author.

December 2015 Planetarian 25 (Continued from page 25) (as we failed miserably to start the sprouts pictures from Earth and compare them with place. I have fallen in love with Polynesian don’t ask!). pictures from Mars. The amount of informa- navigation. Above all, going to Mars, even it it was in tion is, like the story of Goldilocks, just right. I love talking about navigation inside and Utah, was the best thing that ever happened In fact, anyone can present the show, even outside the planetarium, and especially love to me professionally. There, I embraced my without prior Mars knowledge. telling about it “on Mars.” inner horticultural engineer, my astronomer, The best part is that the script lets the audi- You can take a magnetic compass to Mars, my starryteller, and my planetary protection ence drive the show. This is what I always like but it would be useless weight, only a decora- sides. I was an explorer and watched myself be to do, to engage the audience in the presen- tion. It would not work, since Mars does not somebody who loved space more than any- tation. It becomes more like a dialog. People have a magnetic field. And even if we did have thing. There is a name for all that in one per- can immediately get the fact that Mars is very many positioning satellites in orbit by the son: astrobiologist, which is what I am now. much like Earth, and they don’t feel awkward time we reach Mars, there is nothing compa- about not knowing why that is, but have a rable to the magic of navigating by the stars. Fast forward in time chance to discover it for themselves. Plus, what a great way to remember the an- Fast forward four years to a post on Dome- The only time I intervene is to share some cient knowledge. l by Toshi Komatsu that generously brought of my personal experiences in Martian or as- with it a script for Invisible Mars. He pre- Back to Mars in 2012 pared it from the NASA MAVEN mission. On my second trip to MDRS in 2012, I took I jumped at the opportunity to share my Invisible Mars a red stone from Wellington, Te Upoko O Te passion for Mars with the public through Ika (the head of the fish, what the Maori call live shows in the planetarium. the North Island of New Zealand), brought up from the sea by the fishhook of Maui (or Scor- pius, as we know it in the West). The stone was Constructing the Maori star compass. blessed by a tohunga and we buried it in the red earth at the center of the Maori star compass so that the life force (Mauri) we brought Table of Contents could be a beacon for the returning crews. Background for Facilitator: Water on Mars 2 Background for Facilitator:You MAVENcan download the Invisible7 Kia Ora, the Maori salute, means “I bring the Optional Materials 9 Tips for Facilitator Mars materials at lasp.colorado.edu/9 breath of life.” What an appropriate salute for Additional Resourceshome for Facilitator/maven/education-outreach/10 Invisible Mars Script & Playlist 11 us, especially since, to date, Earth is the only Playlist (Screenshot)afterschoolsummer-programs/invisible-29 Earth-Mars Comparisonmars Image Captions 30 home we’ve ever known. Notes About Dry Ice Activity 32 There were many things that I learned at the Mars Desert Research Station about the real Mars. I was at a pretend Mars, but it was my pretend Mars, and I made the most of it. The word maven also means a trusted ex- trobiology matters, because I strongly believe The issues we faced were real. I felt deaf pert in a particular field, someone who seeks it also is very important when talking to the and mute at times. Inside of a space suit you to pass knowledge on to others. I’ve always public to tell the story through my own eyes. can scream, but nobody hears you, nor can loved the acronyms they (space agencies) Being at some point in my history on a TEDx you hear anyone without technology’s help. come up with; in Hebrew this one means the stage helped me cement this opinion. Headphones and microphones break easily “one who understands.” The script came at an In addition, science communication text- and it’s hard to order spare parts in a hurry. opportune time, along with the movie, The books says that people relate so much more You can look at things but cannot touch; you Martian, and the announcement from NASA to personal experiences, which is why me- can touch but will not feel anything, only the that “under some circumstances” water has dia is so successful when presenting the news spacesuit glove protecting your skin. “Bulky been discovered on Mars. and governments sound so dry when talking and cumbersome,” just like the planetarium Since I am the only Martian that New Zea- about the same thing. Opening up personal movie Astronaut describes it, is the constant land has, I was featured at length on TV, radio, experiences makes the presenter (subject mat- joy that comes from the space suit. and the written press raving about that. What ter expert) vulnerable, and, ironically, this is It was tiring to walk inside such a thing for a great opportunity this was to reach out even exactly what generates trust. The story is de- hours under Earth’s gravity. Since we had to more and use the planetarium! livered more effectively. pretend we were on the real Mars, we wore Space Place gave me the green light to The script talks about geology as well. Had suits every time we went outside the station. present the script and I modified it to suit a I not been at the Mars Desert Research Sta- The backpacks, too, felt heavy even though 20-minute live talk. We have been trialling it tion in Utah, I would not have understood they were pretend air supplies with ventila- each Saturday evening for over a month, and how important geology is to planetary explo- tors that worked on batteries. When the bat- so far it has been very successful. ration. In fact, I learned on my pretend Mars teries were gone it meant that our “air sup- I even got asked afterwards for a picture that geology is key to space exploration. Ev- ply” was over. With the ventilators stopped, with a young inspired padawan, which was ery crew has an embedded geologist who can breathing was always an issue. very nice. Since the show also caters to a pos- read the rocks. This is important because, by I began to appreciate how hard it is to be sible repeat audience, we are considering con- way of comparison, the geological processes an astronaut, as opposite to “kind of like get- tinuing these types of live talks where we pres- from Earth are very similar to those on other ting it” in theory. Charging the life support be- ent news on a chosen starry theme. We will planetary bodies. come the most important chore of the day. see how it goes, but this Mars script was the Since my most advanced knowledge about I never imagined that I would ever miss the perfect opportunity for figuring out how such geology before going to “Mars” was know- colour green, nor that I would give anything a programme might work for us. ing how to make soil profiles for establishing for the luxury to eat a fresh leaf of anything The script makes people think. They look at (Continues on page 28)

26 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 27 (Continued from page 26) vineyards, I got to really appreciate how Mars can truly tell its story if you know its language of stones. There are many other features in the script. My personal favourite was the Schiaparelli skin on Mars (yes, it comes with one). In 1877, Schiaparelli observed channels, mistranslat- ed from Italian as canals (canali), a little translation glitch, which generated great debates about possible aliens living Mars. Otherwise, the script is short, sharp, and fin- ishes grandly with a Milky Way fly through. There is a real opportunity to add news to it and comment about latest discoveries. I even Carter Observatory. Photo by Mark Gee managed to set it up to show New Zealand on the map instead of the ubiquitous U.S. I am very grateful for the opportunity and How to use a planetarium to take people to Mars the effort that Toshi made to put this together. It has worked perfectly for us in New Zea- The Invisible Mars script is following a great tradition of Mars-related outreach at Space land so far and it was great to have this pro- Place at Carter Observatory. When I went back to “Mars” in 2012, a year after my first mis- gramme handy. sion, it was with a New Zealand crew. And this time I was the Commander, in charge of a (Go to the IPS free media page for fulldome new outreach model that reached hundreds of school children. for download instructions: www.ips-planetar- Space Place at Carter was stellar in helping with the outreach effort and served as Mission ium.org/?page=fulldomemasters.) Control. From there, school groups could link with us on “Mars” and communicate live (we did not use the time delay necessary when talking with the real Mars.) The students had the The reality of Mars chance to ask all the wacky questions that kids can ask about space exploration, and also all Mars is becoming more and more a reali- the amazingly serious and scientific questions we all know they come up with. ty, and sustaining these discussions with real They felt happy to talk to real scientists on some remote location on Earth and they un- science, excellent movies, great scripts, and derstood perfectly what analog meant. whatever it takes to spark the imagination of As a consequence of Space Place at Carter being open to public and school visits, there was the audience is great. an increased number of schools that took space exploration as an enquiry in their curricu- We used The Martian here at Space Place lum. The mission was a total success. at Carter as a draw to present Toshi’s MAVEN Space Place at Carter also supplemented our Mars theme with shows and talks. Legacy to script to an audience who is willing to come the success is the website for KiwiSpace Foundation, www.kiwispace.org.nz/mars2012. Ana- back for more. There isn’t a space planetarium log sites in Utah were chosen that looked like the real Mars and with similarities in New Zea- show that we have at Space Place to which I land so that the students were able to replicate the experiments almost in their backyard. cannot relate the adventures of The Martian. Having the Space Place at Carter Observatory backing up this effort was very rewarding. As And even if the character is fictional, he is a consequence, Mars was intensely studied in the classroom because of the combined out- made real by those of us who love explora- reach effort. tion, science, and space. Our outreach model was the first of its kind implemented, as nothing has been done be- And we have to keep that “realness” alive fore at such scale, engaging an observatory, the public, the students, and the Mars Desert Re- and keep the inspiration burning. Astrobiolo- search Station. There was an issue with the bandwidth at the station (on purpose) and we gy is good at that, as it has the most beautiful managed to communicate with the outside world with the little that we had. It took a bit of questions humankind has ever come up with: engineering, just like in The Martian, but we made it through whilst keeping everyone hap- What is life? Is there life out there? and What py. The expertise we gained during the missions helped to bring science to the classroom is the future of humankind? by using space as a hook via the observatory. Mars is the closest place to start answering Since there are crews during the winter season at the Mars Desert Research Station, it is those questions. easy to organise such outreach events remotely. I’m not saying that if you want to talk about I loved Mark Watney’s message for his par- Mars you necessarily should all go to the Mars Desert Research Station or become Martians, ents: “Please tell them that I love what I do and but you could if you wanted to apply for a mission there. The field season runs every year I’m very good at it.” I from November to May with two week slots for crews of six. I

Haritina Mogosanu is the science curator at Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wel- The Mars Desert Research Station lington and also a biosecurity risk analyst/ risk communication subject matter expert (MDRS), owned and operated by the at the Ministry for Primary Industries of New Zealand. She is the lead of the New Zea- Mars Society, is a space analog facil- land Astrobiology Initiative. ity in Utah that supports Earth-based In 2014 Haritina worked with the Icebreaker team at NASA-Ames looking at planetary research in pursuit of the technology, protection. operations, and science required for In addition to the historic 23-cm Thomas Cooke Telescope and the 41-cm Boller and human space exploration. Find out Chivens Telescope, the Space Place at Carter Observatory has a 9.1-m dome with 63 more at mdrs.marssociety.org. unidirectional seats. It uses a Sky-Skan Definiti projector and a Cosmodome Mirror Dome.

28 Planetarian December 2015 Anatomy Ad 8-15.pdf 1 8/11/15 10:10 AM

fulldome anatomy education

CMY

available for SciDome in 2016

December 2015 Planetarian 29 Teaching :Red planet road trip

•• Class Road Trip Ask students to choose a location within your country for a “road trip.” Use Google Earth to determine the respec- tive starting and ending latitudes and longi- tudes by placing pins at each location. Then use Google Earth to travel to the ending location while describing the scenery (in terms of landforms) along the way. Bob Riddle Switch to Google Mars and repeat the “road Column Editor trip” using the pins from Google Earth. Scope on the Skies •• Team Road Trip Science Scope Magazine Have students work in teams to select their [email protected] road trip start and end locations on Mars. Use Google Mars and online resources to •• Subject Area(s): Earth and Space Sciences •• Resources/Materials: examine and describe the scenery (in terms •• Grade(s): Middle and High School USGS Topographic Map of Mars: pubs.usgs. of landforms) along the road trip path. This •• Description of lesson: gov/imap/i2782 could be written as a log detailing a simulated Over the past several decades, we have been Google Mars: www.google.com/mars (you daily travel journal, for example. exploring the surface of Mars using a variety will need to have Google Earth installed first: •• Simulations of spacecraft, including fly-bys, orbiters, land- www.google.com/earth) Within the resource listing are several ers, and rovers. When we start sending people Mars Simulation Project: mars-sim. downloadable programs that will allow stu- to Mars at some point in the future, we will sourceforge.net dents to work as teams or as a class group in find a very different world, yet one that, in Mars Colony Game: www.hyperkat.com exploring Mars from launch to surface explo- many ways, resembles our home planet. Freedrive: mars.nasa.gov/explore/freedrive ration. With that in mind, think of the opportuni- Drive A Rover: www.marsquestonline.org/ ties we have to extend our Earth science and coolstuff/drivearover Scientific Explanation geography lessons to include the red planet. https://www.nasa.gov/audience/fored- Imagine that you are part of the mission Given the wealth of images from orbiters and ucators/robotics/home/ROVER.html#.Vj_ planning team responsible for determining surface vehicles, students can explore features FOberS70 the route a rover will follow as it traverses the on Mars that are geologically similar to fea- Curiosity Landing Simulator: www. Martian terrain. What types of terrain would tures on Earth. khanacademy.org/partner-content/nasa/ you encounter? What sorts of geologic pro- •• Length of Lesson: searchingforlife/mars_science_lab/p/ cesses shaped the landscape? Varies, as long as needed depending on how curiosity-landing-simulation Answering these questions would be an in- this is done. triguing project for students. As they deter- •• Student Objectives: •• Procedures: Describe and compare surface mine the route to follow, they will also ex- Recognize surface features on Mars that features on Earth and Mars amine images of surface features on Mars, are similar to surface features on Earth (river Use Google Earth to show the school loca- applying their Earth science knowledge to de- channels, volcanoes, impact craters, wind for- tion from a global perspective and then zoom termine, for example, the direction that wa- mations) and that have formed under similar in. ter flowed as it shaped the landscape. Or, using processes. Determine latitude and longitude of the the law of superposition, students could deter- Use the coordinate system of latitude and school by adding a pin; the coordinates will mine the order in which landforms formed. longitude to locate surface features on Mars be shown in the pin edit window. Students can start their exploration of Mars and Earth. Ask students to describe the scenery (in by locating their Mars home. For example, the Reinforce map reading skills. terms of landforms) in all compass direc- latitude and longitude of my Earth home cor- tions—“what do you see looking toward the responds to a location on Tantalus Fluctus, Using maps of Earth and Mars, plan a road west?,” for example. a lava-flooded valley to the east of the large trip for Mars based on coordinates from Earth, Switch to Google Mars and the pin also will shield volcano Alba Mons on Mars. One can i.e., from Kansas City to Disney World in Flor- be displayed there. look across the gently sloping surface of east- ida, or from your home town to a popular va- Use the zoom and pan controls and as you ern Enipeus Vallis and just make out the jag- cation site. do, ask students to describe the scenery (in ged peaks of Tanaica Montes (Fig. 1), a line of Work cooperatively to simulate a crewed terms of landforms) in directions around the mountains about 100 km away. mission to Mars. Mars location. (Continues on page 32)

30 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 31 Page 30: Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view very tall volcanoes, is one of the largest in similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2500 kilometers from the sur- terms of the area its base covers. The shield face of the planet, with the scale being .6km/pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. All remaining images pro- volcanoes grew to their impressive heights vided by author. largely due to the absence of any plate tecton- ic activity. Without the movement of crustal plates over magma chambers or hot spots in the mantle, there are no chains of volcanoes like Earth’s Hawaiian Islands, for example. Because most of the volcanic activity is located within one area of Mars, the formation processes also pushed upward on the crust, causing the many fractures, or fossae, that line the region. Many of these fossae resemble a graben, or the down-faulted block of crust in between two faults.

Mars on Earth Scientists and others interested in the hu- Fig. 1 man exploration of Mars have identified several locations around the Earth that, in various ways, can represent conditions on Mars. (Continued from page 30) views and explanatory text are available. While there is no place on Earth that is ex- Turning around, one cannot miss the near- Getting around on the surface of Mars is cur- actly like Mars, many of these terrestrial ana- ly 7-km-tall Alba Mons 600 km to the west, rently limited to slow-moving rovers. There logs, as they are called, serve as in situ facilities nor the fractured terrain of long, linear, and are computer simulators online; as download- where scientists develop and test ways to cope nearly parallel groove-like depressions, or fos- ed software they give students the opportuni- with the Martian environment. sae, making up the eastern slope of the volca- ty to control a rover on Mars. Some are basic One of these is located at the site of a large no. driving simulators like the Mars Rover Simu- impact crater in northern Canada. At a lat- Stretching from the southwest toward the lator developed at Oregon State University. itude of 75° north, the Haughton Crater on northeast, the closest of these fossae is less The Mars Virtual Rover Simulator is a game- Devon Island is in a climatic zone that is very than 30 km away, just on the other side of a like program still under development, but a dry, relatively cold, and similar to conditions small, but very weathered, unnamed impact demo version is available for download (see on Mars. crater. Approximately 1,600 km farther to the resources). In this program, the rover operator Here, research is done that includes studies east across more mountain ridges and fossae has several tasks to accomplish and it is con- of the impact crater and the surrounding ge- would be the headquarters of the National Sci- trolled by basic scripting language rather than ology as well as the challenges of human ex- ence Teachers Association. The offices would keyboard controls. ploration of Mars. To study the latter, a group be on the slopes of Tempe Fossae, a much larg- There are other resources that can be used (Continues on page 34) er depression on Tempe Terra. Tempe Terra to support student investigations. is a large, uplifted landmass that is along the To get the big picture, download the northern edge of the Tharsis region of Mars. color map of Mars (Fig. 3) from the There are many resources available, both in Mars Odyssey website (see resourc- print and online, that will allow teachers to as- es). The map is color coded based on semble or extend a geology unit with an em- elevations determined by data from phasis on Mars. Look for curriculum modules the Mars Observer Laser Altimeter that focus on specific topics or questions, and on board the Odyssey orbiter. individual activities on the Mars Exploration For more detailed, higher-resolu- Program website. tion images of the Martian surface, Using images of Mars, students can ana- as well as descriptions and analyses lyze surface features in much the same way as of the images, have students search Fig. 2 planetary geologists do. Arizona State Univer- the Mars Odyssey website, the Mars sity maintains a Mars- based website that, in Reconnaissance Orbiter website, or part, offers students the opportunity to work the European Space Agency website with images taken by the thermal imaging in- (see resources). strument on board the Mars Odyssey orbiter. The Tharsis region, or Tharsis Bulge, is an elevated area dotted with Be a Martian! volcanoes, immense lava flow fields One of the most engaging websites for ex- (fluctus), and fossae. It is one of two amining the Martian surface is Be a Martian!, large areas on Mars that has had vol- (Fig. 2), which was developed by the NASA/Jet canic activity. The volcanoes of the Propulsion Laboratory and Microsoft. Once Tharsis region, for the most part, are registered, participants help NASA scientists shield volcanoes with heights rang- catalog craters and other landform features on ing in size from the giant Olympus Mars. Additional parts of the website include Mons (25 km) to smaller, more Earth- videos and images, and a scrolling, zoom-able sized volcanoes (4-7 km). Fig. 3 tourist map of Mars where higher-resolution Alba Mons, while not one of the

32 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 33 (Real Mars, continued from page 20) More resources and information: For more information about current Mars missions and research, go to mars.jpl.nasa.gov/. For information about the First Landing Site / Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars, check out the program at www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/ex- plorationzone2015/pdf/program.pdf and the abstracts searchable by authors, at www.hou. usra.edu/meetings/explorationzone2015/au- thorindex.cfm. For more information about “The Real Mar- tians,” check out www.nasa.gov/realmartians. Goddard Space Flight Center’s Visualiza- tion Studio has a variety of Mars videos and animations at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Mars. html. Mars activities for students and the public are available at a variety of sites: •• NASA JPL has educator programs and activities at mars.jpl.nasa.gov/participate/ marsforeducators •• LPI’s Explore Mars Inside and Out for in- Teach Mars under your dome, or in your classroom. For free. formal educators is at www.lpi.usra.edu/ NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Directorate has teamed up with Evans & Suther- education/explore/mars/activities land to produce and distribute a 10-minute planetarium show, Journey of a Lifetime: Mars, which •• LPI’s Explore Life on Mars for informal explains NASA’s current plans to place the first human on Mars and how students can get in- educators is at www.lpi.usra.edu/educa- volved and excited about the potential trip of their life time. tion/explore/LifeOnMars/activities/ To learn more about the program and request information and download instructions, go to •• Arizona State University’s Mars Education E&S at www.es.com/Shows/JourneyToMars. resources are at marsed.asu.edu. I The show is free of charge to any planetarium worldwide. You can view a one–screen video version on YouTube. Search for “NASA Journey of a Lifetime,” or link to www.youtube. (Teaching Mars, continued from page 32) com/watch?v=cafLyEU9Y50. The version en Español can be found at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OIRW0ADYCvo. of volunteers spends much of the summer In addition, all of NASA’s Mars educational resources are listed at www.nasa.gov/feature/ months living and working at the Haughton- journey-of-a-lifetime-mars-education-resources. Mars Project, using equipment under condi- Prepare your students for STEM-related career opportunities in the future. Interest them in tions that mimic living and working on Mars. pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation. NASA’s fleet of Mars robotic explor- Students can simulate living and working ers are paving the way for human exploration of the Solar System in the coming decades. Have on Mars with the demo program Mars Colo- your students join NASA in preparing for a monumental journey of a lifetime—to Mars! I ny (see the Virtual Rover link in resources). In a first-person, game-like manner, players start inside a lab-like facility with living quarters on Mars, already suited up and ready to take their first steps on Mars. The overall objective is to complete various tasks that support the success of the mission. The Mars Simulation Project, another Mars colony program, is available for free and is fully functional. A more detailed and complex program, it plays like a real-time strategy game and involves managing resources from the surrounding environment. When players start this simulation, they are overseeing several research stations, teams of explorers, and various support personnel scattered among the different sites. Players have limited resources and must explore and use local resources for a successful project. Missions are already in prog- Need more on Mars? Go to YouTube, where you can watch a panel discussion that took place at the ress, and players have the capability to de- Flandreau Planetarium at the University of Arizona with three distinguished scientists at the University of Arizona. From left, Gene Giacomelli, Alfred McEwen (who recently co-authored the NASA report find- sign and assign missions in addition to the ing strong evidence of flowing water on the Red Planet) and Wolfgang Fink, discuss the realities and fic- missions in progress. I tions of The Martian. The theater of 135 was filled. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPHPSRmhXg.

34 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 35 (Toulouse, continued from page 15) Avec plaisir: with pleasure In this city where human warmth is always City of Albi and the Toulouse Lautrec Muse- In Toulouse and its area, when saying thank felt, visitors can enjoy a relaxed stroll or bike um (Unesco World Heritage), 45-minute drive; you, be prepare to be greeted a typical “avec ride through the narrow historic streets to ex- the Old city of Toulouse and its heritage ob- plaisir” that encapsulates the spirit of the area: plore the treasures of its architectural heritage. servatory of Jolimont; and the Airbus assem- joyful and friendly. Toulouse was the favorite city for Antoine bly chain and Aeroscopia, the brand new aero- Toulouse is the capital of Midi-Pyrénées, de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little nautical museum. the largest region of France. Nested between Prince and a pioneer in the airmail adventure. A one-day post tour to the Pic du Midi Ob- the Mediterrannen and the Atlantic at the In the evening, visitors can enjoy the colored servatory, 2800-m high in the Pyrenees, will feet of the Pyrennees mountains and bor- lights that illuminate Toulouse’s monuments be planned. The Pic du Midi is a famous site re- dered by Spain, the region enjoys great “south and the banks of the Garonne River, offering nowned for the clarity of its sky (now protect- of France” sunny weather all year long. a romantic walk amid a series of veritable ur- ed), and where images of the moon were taken A must stop when in the region, Toulouse ban frescoes. to help NASA in the choice of Apollo landing is an intoxicating experience for visitors who Since our opening in 1997, we have been ac- sites. There, visitors will have the chance to fall for the colorful charms of the aptly named tively engaged in different networks, such as visit the different domes, telescopes, and co- Ville Rose (Pink City) and its Latin personality. IPS, the Association of French Speaking Plan- ronagraphs, meet astronomers and enjoy the Toulouse is known for its innate love of cele- etariums, ECSITE (the European Network of magnificent view of the Pyrenees. bration. From Spain, it has adopted a taste for Science Centers and Museums), and IAF, the Toulouse will part of the 2018 European long aperitifs with tapas on terraces, conviv- International Astronautical Federation. Capital of Scientific Culture, hosting the Euro ial meals and its many music and arts festivals. We have hosted the APLF conference in Science Open Forum (ESOF) July 9-14. The Another fundamental aspect of the Tou- 2000 and the ECSITE conference in 2012, with ESOF is the sister event of the American Asso- louse way of life is its cuisine and wines/spir- 995 delegates. It was a great success, according ciation for the Advancement of Science meet- its. Lovers of good food take great pleasure in to participant feedback. ing and hosts, once every two years, more savoring local produce and the city’s culinary We also have a strong experience in hosting than 4,000 delegates and 400 journalists com- specialties: Toulouse sausage, violet-flavored corporate events, thanks to a dedicated team ing from more than 80 countries. sweets, wines, and the famous cassoulet. which organizes more than 250 events and The dates of the IPS conference (on July The IPS 2018 gala dinner will take place in festivals every year in our location. 1-6), allows interested attendees to take part one of the many red-brick heritage buildings Will give you more information about the in ESOF 2018, while Toulouse will be vibrant of Toulouse: the Hôtel Dieu Saint Jacques, lo- program, the budget, and accommodation in with scientific culture activities and under cated in the heart of the city center by the Ga- an upcoming Planetarian. I strong media coverage. ronne river.

36 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 37 Our look at data visualization continues. In this issue, we learn how astronomers tease information from telescope data, and On page 56, review the history of these marvelous instruments that have expanded our views of the universe.

An Unusual Globule in IC 1396. Credit & Copyright: T. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage) & H. Schweik- er (WIYN, NOAO, AURA, NSF) This article features excerpts from the authors’ new book by the same name.

38 Planetarian December 2015 Coloring the Universe

Dr. Travis A. Rector University of Alaska Anchorage [email protected] Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Images of space can inspire awe and board a spaceship and fly to the Horsehead is because it magnifies something that is too wonder. But in many urban and suburban Nebula—what would you see? After a jour- small for us to see. This is often true. But the spaces, the light from stars is mostly drowned ney of more than a thousand light-years, you Horsehead Nebula is actually not that small. out by light pollution that humans have cre- would finally arrive at your destination. You The fields of view of these images of the ated. This is one reason that the pictures tak- look out of the window of your spaceship at Horsehead are about twice the size of the full en by telescopes on the highest mountaintops this same scene, but you’re now at a distance moon in the sky. You can’t see it because it is and remote deserts on Earth, as well as by the one hundred times closer than before, when too faint, not because it is too small. armada of observatories in space, are so im- you were standing on the Earth. Here’s your So why couldn’t you see the Horsehead portant. They are dramatic windows into our view now, in Fig. 2. Nebula even if you were much closer? For ob- universe. You’d see some of the brighter stars but jects that appear to be larger than a point of Despite our attraction and connection with none of the dust and gas in the nebula, includ- light (for example, galaxies and nebulae, but space images, many people are not sure that ing the horsehead shape. Why? not stars), how bright it appears has noth- what these images ing to do with how far show is real. When away it is. Moving closer one of our images was to it will make it bigger, recently featured on but not brighter. This a blog, several com- may seem counterintu- menters were skepti- itive, but you can try it cal. One person com- at home. Walk toward mented, “Really? a wall. As you approach Not Photoshopped? you’ll notice that the Amazing.” Others ex- wall is getting bigger but press doubt that we otherwise is the same can even see that far brightness. The same is away. true of the Horsehead These are impor- Nebula. If you can’t see tant questions to an- it with your eyes while swer. So where and standing on Earth, you why does the confu- still won’t see it from sion, or even contro- your spaceship. Fig. 1: The iconic Horsehead Nebula is part of a dense cloud of gas in front of an active star-forming re- versy, arise? gion known as IC 434. Credit: T. A. Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/ Why then can a tele- Let’s look an exam- AURA/NASA) The same area of the sky as shown in the first image of the Horsehead Nebula, but scope see it? A telescope ple. For many space shown as you would see it with your naked eye. Credit: T. A. Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF). offers several advantag- aficionados, the pic- es over our eyes. As mar- ture in Fig. 1 is iconic. velous as the human eye It captures a famous object called the Horseh- Three Things a Telescope Does is, it’s not that well suited for nighttime ob- ead Nebula, which gets its name from the dis- To better understand what’s going on, it serving. First, our eyes are tiny. The opening tinctive dark shape at the center of the image. helps to know what a telescope does. Just as that allows light to enter, known as the pupil It is part of a large nebula in the constellation a pair of binoculars can make the upper-level (the black area at the center of the eye), is only of Orion where hundreds of stars are being seats in an arena almost as good as courtside, about one-quarter of an inch (0.63 centime- born. a telescope can make a distant object appear ters) wide when fully open. The image was taken with an advanced dig- much closer. But a telescope does more than In comparison, the mirror that collects ital camera on a telescope at the Kitt Peak Na- this. It doesn’t just magnify an object; it also light for the Gemini North telescope is about tional Observatory (KPNO) in southern Arizo- amplifies it. It makes something faint appear 8 meters (27 feet) across. What this means is na. This is what the telescope and its camera much brighter. that, at any given moment, this mirror is col- can see. Some people might think that the reason lecting more than a million times more light But let’s pretend you had the ability to why a telescope can see objects our eyes can’t than your eye. The more light you can collect,

December 2015 Planetarian 39 the fainter an object you can see. A telescope is essentially a giant telephoto out into a spectrum (using a prism, for exam- Human eyes also don’t collect light for lens. It is a device that collects light from a dis- ple, or looking at a rainbow), the colors cor- long. Our eyes function like a video camera, tant object. The camera on the telescope then respond to the energy of the light. Red light taking images about thirty times every sec- uses that light to make an image. For this rea- is the lowest energy kind of light we can see. ond. So the exposure time for each image cap- son, telescopes are often referred to as “light Next up in energy is orange, then yellow, tured by the human eye is only one-thirtieth buckets.” Some telescopes allow for more than green, blue, indigo, and finally violet. Violet of a second. With digital cameras attached to one camera to be attached, although usually is the highest energy form of light we can see. the telescope we can collect light for as long only one can be used at a time. You may have learned “ROY G BIV” in school as we like. The longer the exposure, the more The purpose of the camera is to capture that to remember this. light the telescope collects. light and assemble an image from it. The digi- The way we see color is somewhat com- Typically a single exposure is not more tal cameras on a telescope are, at the most fun- plex. In some cases, a star may look red sim- than 10 to 20 minutes, but multiple exposures damental level, essentially the same as the dig- ply because it is emitting more red light than can be added together to make a single image ital cameras you own. In fact, the technology the other colors. Some colors, however, can be with an exposure time that is, in effect, much in everyday digital cameras was first devel- created in more than one way. longer. To create the most sensitive image oped and used on telescopes. At the heart of For example, there are two ways to see yel- ever made, astronomers collected over fifty days worth of observation time with the Hub- ble Space Telescope of a single portion of the sky. Known as the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), this image represents a cumulative exposure time of about 2 million seconds.

Complexity of the human eye The human eye is complex. It isn’t as sensitive to faint light, and it only detects amounts that are above a certain threshold. To prevent confusion, our brain filters out the “noise” below that level. In comparison, modern elec- tronics detect nearly all of the light that enters a telescope’s camera, even if it takes hours to collect the light. All of these factors enable telescopes to go far beyond the limits of human vision. The faintest objects in the XDF are about 10 billion times fainter than what the human eye can see. Finally, the universe and the amazing objects in it glow in other types of light—from radio waves to gamma rays—that are impossible Three images show a portion of the B, V, and I images used to make an image of the Pleiades for our eyes to see. It’s taken the ingenuity of cluster. They have been “colorized” to be blue, green, and red. These three images are then scientists and engineers many decades to de- combined to produce the fourth image on the right. Credit: T. A. Rector (University of Alas- velop our abilities to capture the views of the ka Anchorage), Richard Cool (University of Arizona), and WIYN. universe that we enjoy today. Without these technical tools, many phenomena and objects would be simply invisible to us entirely. It’s no exaggeration to say that telescopes any digital camera—on a telescope or not—is low light. You could either have an object that give us superhuman vision. Nearly every as- its detector, the piece of hardware that actual- emits just yellow light (like the low-pressure tronomical image contains objects too small ly captures and stores light. sodium lamps often seen in parking lots). Or, and/or too faint for us to see. And these imag- you could have an object that emits a range es often show us kinds of light our eyes can’t How we use color of light that includes red and green but not detect. So how do astronomers take what the Digital cameras are remarkable tools for de- much blue. Red and green light, when added telescope sees and convert it into something tecting faint light from stars, nebulae, and gal- together, combine to produce yellow. When we can see? Are these images showing us what axies. But there’s one problem. Measuring the all of the colors are added together in equal the universe really looks like? electricity in a pixel tells you the intensity of amounts you see white. the light but not the color. In other words, dig- How telescopes and cameras work ital cameras can only see in black and white Making color in photography When a news story reports something like (or, more precisely, gray scale). How then do Historically, making a color image hasn’t “Astronomers have taken a picture of a new we get a color image? been easy. Black-and-white photography was galaxy,” it’s easy to imagine scientists point- First off, what is color anyway? What does first developed at the start of the nineteenth ing a camera toward outer space, pressing a it mean for something to be, say, green? Even century. The first successful color photo- button (“click!”), and the image appears on the though most of us experience it every day, it’s graphs came about 50 years later, with a tech- back of the camera. Perhaps even a flash goes worth talking about the nature of the light we nique first proposed by Scottish physicist off (it is nighttime after all). In reality, taking see with our eyes, which is known as “visible” James Clerk Maxwell (who also is famous for an image of a cosmic source is not the same as light. coming up with the theory that tied electrici- taking a picture with your phone. When you take visible light and spread it ty, magnetism, and light together).

40 Planetarian December 2015 Known as the three-color process, it is, in many different kinds of objects for a variety ing. By that, we mean that the lowest-energy one form or another, the basis for all modern of reasons. So there’s no simple rule for how light is assigned red, the middle-energy light color photography. The technique consists of to choose colors for each filter. It depends on is green, and the highest-energy light is blue. Ob- taking black-and-white images through blue, the filters used, the object studied, what’s in- jects that emit relatively more low-energy light green, and red filters. These are then com- teresting about it, and the person who is put- will be redder, whereas objects that emit rela- bined to produce the color image. ting the image together. There are many ex- tively more high-energy light will be bluer. Remarkably, by mixing the “primary” amples of how astronomers do this, but first colors of red, green, and blue in different let’s start with a common scenario. Narrowband filters amounts, we can create all the colors we can Luckily for those who study the cosmos, see. (Again, we can make yellow by adding Broadband filters each type of gas glows with different, distinct red and green light in roughly equal amounts Astronomers often use what are known as colors. This enables astronomers to identify with little to no blue.). “broadband” filters, so named because they al- and map out the distribution of various types This is the process used with digital camer- low a wider range of the electromagnetic spec- of gases in space by just looking at those col- as on professional astronomical telescopes. As- trum to pass through. Sometimes astronomers ors. It’s a powerful tool. It allows us to know tronomers take one or more pictures of the will use red, green, and blue filters similar to what’s inside a nebula without actually fly- those used on ing out to it, collecting, and analyzing the gas your camera. In directly (a trip that would be impossible any- this case, the im- way because of the enormous distances to age would not these cosmic objects. be too far from To see these specific colors, astronomers use what you’d see what are called narrowband filters. The most if your digital commonly used is called the hydrogen alpha camera were filter (also known as “H-alpha”. It allows only mounted to the a specific color of red light produced by hy- telescope (and drogen gas to pass through. H-alpha is, there- if it were much fore, a handy tool for detecting warm hydro- more sensitive). gen gas. Because the narrowband filter blocks Once the out other kinds of light, it allows astronomers black-and-white to better see the location and distribution of images cap- this gas in whatever object they observe. tured through Astronomers use many different kinds of the different fil- narrowband filters, not just H-alpha, to learn ters are avail- not only where gas is in outer space, but also able, assembling what kinds of gas are present. We can also use the color image these filters to determine important physical is then usually characteristics, such as the temperature and straightforward: density of the gas. Somewhat ironically, by us- the image taken ing narrowband filters to exclude light we can through the red sometimes learn more. Or, as the French com- same field of view through each filter. The im- filter is colored red, the image taken through poser Claude Debussy once said, “Music is the ages are then combined to form a color image. the green filter is colored green, and the blue space between the notes.” But it is important to know that astrono- filter is colored blue. mers use more than just red, green, and blue Most often, astronomical images are made The spaces between the notes filters. The telescopes at KPNO have more with broadband filters other than simple red, Broadband filters allow relatively large por- than one hundred filters that are used for a green, and blue. There are filters of other col- tions of the light spectrum to pass through wide range of purposes. ors as well. In general, when assigning colors them. Some of these filters (for example, the The choice of filters is primarily depen- to each image, we give the image the color Harris B, V, and R filters roughly match up dent on the science to be done. For example, that the filter appears to have when held up to the range of colors seen by the short-, me- by measuring the brightness of a faraway gal- to a bright, white light. In some cases, howev- dium-, and long-wavelength cones in our axy through different filters, astronomers er, the filters used in visible telescopes are of eyes. So, in a sense, these filters can be used to can estimate its distance from us. Also, they energies of light just beyond what the human roughly mimic what our eyes could see (that don’t always use three filters. Sometimes they eye can see. For example, the “U” filter (for “ul- is, if our eyes were a million or so times more use only one. And sometimes they use many traviolet”) in the widely used Johnson-Cous- sensitive than they are now. more than three. Some astronomical images ins UBVRI filter set shows the energy range Narrowband filters, by design, allow only a have been made using as many as 13 filters. just above what the eye can see. And the “I” sliver of light to pass through. Each filter lets In a nutshell, the process for making a color filter (for “infrared”) captures the energy just through a specific color of light produced by astronomical image works like this: below what we can see. Since they are close to a certain type of atom inside the warm gas. • Take images of an astronomical object those colors, they are often colored violet and All of the other colors are blocked out. We through multiple filters. red respectively. can then study only the light these elements • Assign a color to each image (“colorize” it). This technique of combining colorized lay- make. For this reason, narrowband filters “see” • Combine them to make the final color im- ers can be used for any type of light the cos- light differently than your eyes do. age. mos gives off—such as microwaves or X-rays. Try thinking of broadband images as listen- It sounds simple, but in practice it is not. As- When using broadband filters, astronomers ing to one of Debussy’s most famous works, tronomers use a wide range of filters to look at almost always choose to use chromatic order- Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, by a Click to listen December 2015 Planetarian 41 full orchestra—strings, woodwinds, percus- from narrowband filters. Three of the most building machines like Gemini, Hubble, and sion, the works. These various sections of the commonly selected are [OI], [NII], and [SII], Chandra if they didn’t expand our vision. orchestra are akin to the different types of which show specific colors of red light pro- Astronomers use telescopes to study and light we can select with our astronomical fil- duced by oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur atoms. understand the fundamental questions of ters. When listening to Debussy’s orchestral These colors of red light are similar to hydro- how we came to be: from the formation and work, we might choose to listen just to the vi- gen alpha. In fact, they so closely resemble fate of the universe to the generation and olin section of the orchestra. This would allow each other that our eyes cannot tell the differ- function of galaxies; to the birth, life, and us to really home in on the nuances and de- ence. Fortunately, with the use of narrowband death of stars inside galaxies; to the planets filters, our cameras and moons around these stars; and to the ori- can. gin of life here and possibly on worlds beyond A good question our own. to ask then is: What These images illustrate the science that is colors should be being done with these telescopes. The repu- used for each filter? tations of the observatories, and the scien- If all of these filters— tists who use them, are tied to the truth of hydrogen alpha, what’s in the image. No self-respecting scien- [OI], [NII], and [SII]— tist would intentionally do something to cre- were shown as red ate a misleading image from his or her data. then we’d lose valu- Think of a doctor who has taken an X-ray able information. of an ailing patient. He or she may use tech- If we are to use col- niques to enhance the picture so that more ors other than red, detail can be seen, but he or she would never which ones? There add or remove a fracture in a bone. The same is no single answer is true here. for this question. In- But there are many steps and many choices stead, it depends on involved when creating an astronomical im- the filters used, the age. Scientists are people and they have their object observed, the own preferences, tastes, tendencies, and bias- science to be illus- es. No two astronomers would make the same trated, and the aes- image, even if starting with the same data. thetic goals. You might say there’s an artistic element to it. Astronomers of- But, ultimately, the goal is a scientific one: ten look at nebulae to share with people the discoveries astron- with three particu- omers are making with these fantastic ma- lar narrowband fil- chines of exploration. With advances in ters: h-alpha, [OIII], telescopes, cameras, and image-processing and [SII]. The “intrin- software, we continuously improve our abil- sic” colors of these ity to see planets, stars, and galaxies. Although filters are red, green, each image is a representation, it offers a real The M16 Eagle Nebula, the object that contains Hubble’s iconic “Pillars of Cre- ation,” is shown here in an image taken by the KPNO 0.9-meter (right) tele- and red—the colors view into our real and fascinating universe. scope. The image uses narrowband filters and the Hubble palette to bring out of Christmas. To learn more about how astronomers detail in the nebula. Credit: T. A. Rector and B. A. Wolpa (NRAO/AUI/NSF). What’s the best make images, we invite you to read our new way then to assign book, also titled Coloring the Universe. The color to these fil- book has over 300 images, and each image has tails of how this one instrument contributes ters so we may see the most detail? Almost its own story as to how it was created, what to the whole piece. We can do something sim- by accident, astronomers started using the it shows, and what scientists learn from it. ilar with narrowband filters on our telescopes. color scheme of [OIII] (blue), hydrogen alpha We hope that, by reading the book, peo- Sometimes we can learn more by seeing (or, in (green), and [SII] (red). This is in chromatic or- ple will better understand and appreciate the case of our analogy, hearing) less. der and is the color scheme used for the Pil- these beautiful images. The book is available When making images with narrowband fil- lars of Creation image of M16. Amateur as- online at amazon.com and barnesandnoble. ters, astronomers use color in a different way. tronomers often refer to using these three com. I Color can be used to show detail in the object filters with this color scheme as the “Hubble that would not normally be visible. The selec- palette,” although, in reality, only a small frac- tion of colors can also help distinguish differ- tion of images from Hubble use this scheme. Travis A. Rector is professor of physics and as- ent physical processes in the nebula or galaxy tronomy at the University of Alaska Anchor- in question. Astronomers can look at these im- Scientific and beautiful age. He has created over two hundred images with the giant telescopes at Gemini Observa- ages and deduce great stories invisible to the In this article we’ve talked about the some tory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Na- untrained eye. So how do astronomers use of the steps in the complex process of convert- tional Radio Astronomy Observatory, and oth- narrowband filters? And how are color images ing what the telescope can see into something ers. made with them? we humans can see. It’s a fundamental chal- Kimberly Kowal Arcand directs visualization lenge because our telescopes observe objects efforts for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observato- ry, at the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) located Fifty shades of red that, with a few exceptions, are invisible to in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Let’s look at an example that illustrates the our eyes. That is, of course, the reason why we Megan Watzke is the public affairs officer for challenges of making a color image using data build telescopes. There would be no point in the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

42 Planetarian December 2015 DynamicEarth_8_5x11_WithAwards_Option01.pdf 1 10/21/2013 11:07:46 AM

NARRATED BY LIAM NEESON

D Y N A M I C

Exploring Earth’s Climate Engine

CMY

December 2015 Planetarian 43 Making a planetarium jewel sparkle even brighter

Updates to the Griffith’s Samuel Oschin Planetarium

By Carolyn Collins Petersen eral of the animation “cheats” we did before Johnson, vice president and general manager would be unacceptable,” said Dr. Danly. at E&S. “We have been working with them for “We started on the brush-ups about nine 10-12 years, supporting and maintaining their The venerable Griffith Observatory’s Samu- months prior to the reopening and began a Digistar 3 laser system. It’s been a great rela- el Oschin Planetarium re-invented itself again wonderful partnership with Fiske Planetari- tionship of confidence and trust.” in late 2015, nearly ten years after a major ren- um (University of Colorado), which has an 8K The Griffith crew visited E&S’s Salt Lake ovation that ushered the 1930s-era Los An- system. We ran through our shows and made City dome to see the latest projectors, and geles facility squarely into the realm of full- a master punch list of fixes. We are forever made site visits to other theaters, including dome. grateful to Chris Maytag and Thor Metzing- the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond The latest update brought Digistar 5 along er for the long hours preparing our content, to see its Digistar 5 and Christie D4K120 pro- with six Christie Boxer 30,000-lumen projec- and for their keen eyes in the theater when jectors. tors to cover the 75-foot dome seamlessly. we watched our scenes.” According to Griffith Observatory Cura- Bringing a state-of-the-art projection sys- Planning for the install tor Dr. Laura Danly, the results are amazing. tem to Griffith required close cooperation After selecting the Christie Boxers, the next “The difference between our 8K solution and with Evans & Sutherland, which supplied the part was to plan for installation into Griffith’s our previous 4K solution with laser projectors original laser projection system in 2005. “We cove space, a difficult task since there is very (from ten years ago) is simply astonishing,” she discussed new projection technologies with limited area between the inner wall of the the- said. “At present, our content is still 4K con- Griffith as they became available over the ater and the bottom of the dome surface. Ac- tent, but they look like brand new shows on past few years, as the staff has been contem- cording to Griffith Observatory Director Dr. the new system. There are so many things we plating a projection system upgrade,” said Kirk E.C. Krupp, it required a great deal of plan- never saw before, and we keep finding them: ning to make the the- the loaf of bread on Galileo’s table, the Roman ater update a seamless sentry in a tower above Ptolemy’s courtyard one. For example, the in Alexandria, and so on. It’s really a thrill. I projectors needed 208 can’t wait to produce something in 8K!” volts of power at 19 The Samuel Oschin Planetarium is now one amps, which required of a growing number of 8K facilities in the an electrical contrac- world, and capable of handling shows pro- tor to install new cir- duced at up to 60 frames per second. cuits and outlets. That The upgrades were installed in September was done two weeks 2015, and the Griffith staff is taking full advan- in advance of the pro- tage of the increase in resolution and bright- jector install. ness of the Digistar projection system to opti- “This isn’t just a mize their next production. case of buying equip- To that end, the Griffith producers worked ment off of a shelf with the creative staff at Fiske Planetarium to Projector 1 in the Griffith Observatory Samuel Oschin planetarium cove, in- and installing it,” Dr. update the current show lineup. “We knew stalled September 23rd. Video cables, mask and lens were not yet attached. Krupp said, noting that once we went to the new system, sev- Photo courtesy Griffith Observatory.

44 Planetarian December 2015 Facing page: A front view of Griffith Observa- tory, sitting above Hollywood in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Matthew Field. that in addition to the electrical work, major physical and lighting modifications were involved. “Every dimension of the task had to be coordinated. Dr. Laura Danly led this effort with clarity and discipline. In addition, E&S was on top of its game throughout the process. It’s remarkable that we were closed down for only a week with such a major infrastructure change.” Patrick So, Programs Manager at Griffith said the preparation for the upgrade began months in advance. Once the projectors and D5 system were selected, the crew delivered working Digistar 3 show scripts to Salt Lake City for conversion to D5 scripting language, and show dome masters for re-encoding. Then, there were the theater modifications. “We spent months planning on how to A scene from the show Centered in the Universe, as seen through the newly installed Chris- place the projectors into a small space be- tie Boxer projectors. According to Dr. E.C. Krupp, this scene, once impressive, is now transcendant. Photo courtesy Griffith Observatory. hind the dome,” he said. “A projector mockup made out of foam core was used to determine how much room the projectors would take. It comments and reaction of the Griffith staff as and that is not always needed,” said Danly, turned out the projectors took all the room, they saw their feature show on the system. It’s the show’s producer. “We’re going to invoke from the bottom edge of the dome to the back among the very highest brightness and reso- it at certain times in select scenes where it will wall, with a few inches to spare. The horizon lution systems in the world and is among the have the maximum emotional impact. Our projectors were mounted on rails so we could best dome theater systems we have ever in- goal is always to make our audience feel some- move them forward to change lamps at the stalled.” thing they may not have felt before, and the back. The zenith projectors were a challenge The new projection system is demand- improved technology will help take us there. because they had to be inclined. To make the ing more from the Griffith production staff, Adding new technology is a major step in projectors fit, the back portion of the projec- a point that Dr. Krupp makes most emphat- continuing Griffith Observatory’s reputation tor had to dip below the catwalk. This meant ically. “It’s important to keep in mind that for astronomical story-telling, coupled with cutting large holes in the catwalk.” Griffith Observatory has, since 2006, been pio- first-rate imagery to support the stories. The result, according to Patrick is a seam- neering the use of all-dome digital animation “We are pushing the technology to achieve less visual experience that enhances the look in conjunction with the utterly remarkable an emotional, experiential, and intellectual of the shows. “With our old laser projector Zeiss Mark IX Universarium night sky,” he response in the audience, not to create a con- we had to manually align and adjust the edge said. “What we want on the dome is more de- sciousness of the greater technical virtuosi- blends between projectors,” he said. “Our new manding than what is generally required. We ty,” said Dr. Krupp. “The images on the dome system does this automatically with E&S’s expect to push this evolution of hybrid tech- dazzle with new clarity, brightness, depth of auto blend and auto align. The images are nology in the Samuel Oschin Planetarium color, and detail. Even if you’ve seen our pro- seamless – you can’t tell there are six projec- for years to come. The brightness and power grams before, you WILL want to see them tors.” of the new system introduces new challeng- again on the new system.” es and new resources. I expect mastering these The Griffith theater update was made pos- Function influences form will preoccupy us as we develop the next sible by a grant through the Observatory’s Griffith show philosophy requires that Griffith Observatory planetarium show. It re- support group, Friends of The Observato- the projection system be invisible to the au- quires us to treat visual transitions with new ry (FOTO), made by the Ahmanson Founda- dience, a challenge Evans & Sutherland took sophistication. We are now shaking down the tion, a Los-Angeles-based group that funds very seriously, according to Dennis Elkins, hardware and the software and learning how cultural and educational programs. It previ- E&S Director of Advanced Displays. “It adds to to make best use of the extraordinary capac- ously funded the purchase of the Zeiss star the immersive space and magic of the Griffith ity for astronomical storytelling now at our projector and is recognized in the name of presentations,” he said. “Our engineers were disposal. We want the audience to see the ef- the Ahmanson Hall of the Sky exhibit space. able to design, integrate, and install an 8K sys- fects of the technology and be unconscious of In addition to the projection system using the Christie Boxers to achieve that its existence.” tem upgrade, the project also added in objective, while also making it easy to main- new cove lighting and a new control sys- tain them.” Shows are in production tem from Bowen Technovation. I Kirk Johnson added, “I was there for the fi- The next show, focused on life in the uni- nal day of adjustments and the first two shows verse, is in production, and presents some in- Carolyn Collins Petersen is a long-time friend when the planetarium re-opened. The image teresting challenges to the crew. “We under- of Griffith Observatory and wrote their exhibits during the 2002-2006 renovation. She can quality of their show on the new system is stand that it would be a huge undertaking to be reached at carolyn@lochnessproductions. spectacular. It was fun to sit and listen to the produce a 30-minute program at 8K, 60 fps, com

December 2015 Planetarian 45 National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung Digital renovation of the Space Theater

Abstract The Space Theatre in the National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung was the first large planetarium in Taiwan. It was opened in 1986 with a GOTO opto-mechanical GSS-I star projector and an IMAX 15/70 film projector, along with some slide and special effect projectors. Upon deciding to update the facility, the museum started its renovation with a single multi-purpose 8K Digistar 5 system in August 2014, with the renovation completed in June 2015. The new system provides us a more active and flexible way to present shows and brings visitors a dynamic and exciting experience of learning. In this article, I would like to share with all what we learned from the installation and operation of such a system.

Introduction Chi-Long Lin The Space Theatre was opened in 1986 as part of the first of five Exhibition Department stages in the construction of National Museum of Natural Science National Museum of Natural Science (NMNS) in Taichung. It included an IMAX® 15/70 Omnimax film Taichung, Taiwan (ROC) projector and a GOTO GSS-I opto-mechanical star projector. The di- [email protected] ameter of the dome is 23 meters and there are 300 seats tilted 30 degrees. The major function of the theater was to play 15/70 IMAX movies. The ticket box income of this theater provides more than 20%

46 Planetarian December 2015 Facing page, top: Thousands of people waiting in line at the first opening of Space Theater in 1986. system become very attractive, with uniform (credit: Lee,Yuin-Long/NMNS). and homogenized display on the dome. Below: In 2015, the reopening of the theater attracted 25,268 visitors in the first 10 days. In July, the Since the new projector provides high con- ticket box increased 12% more than the same period in 2014. Unless otherwise specified, all photos courtesy the National Museum of Natural Science. trast ratio and high brightness at the same time. It is possible that the system could cover theoretically a 10.2-magnitudes range while the faintest stars can still be seen by human of the budget of the whole museum. There are system was determined and why they were eyes. If one assumes the faintest stars can be 7 regular IMAX shows through week and 9 on so decided. In section 3, I will describe the per- seen by human eyes were magnitude +6.5, the the weekends. Two films are on the show list formance of the new system, some phenome- brightest stars can be performed with one sin- by turns, and we usually change one of them na we observed and discussions on these phe- gle pixel by the projector will be magnitude every 6 months. nomena will also be given there. In section 4, -3.7. There is also a 40-minute planetarium show a brief conclusion will be given. We hope it That means one can use one single pixel to provided for free each week day. Additionally, is helpful to those who also have plans to demonstrate the brightness of almost all stars there is always a short, 5- to 10-minute plane- renovate their planetariums with a digital and planets in the sky. The only exception is tarium show given by the theater staff before system. Venus, which may reach the apparent magni- each IMAX show. The IMAX shows are pur- tude −4.9 during crescent phase. posely selected to include educational and/or Determining the science promotional topics. specifications In the past 29 years, the theater has served As described above, the museum has over 13 million visitors, averaging 450,000 vis- surveyed many years for a new sys- itors per year. The number of annual atten- tem before the renovation. Since we dances reached a peak of 659,364 in 1990 and planned to replace both the Omnimax has since fallen gradually to 253,358 in 2014. projector and GSS-I starball at the same That trend is quite logical since the projectors, time, the target we considered at the be- both the IMAX and GOTO, have gotten older ginning was a hybrid of a new opto-me- as the years go by. Breakdowns have become chanical starball and a new Omnimax more frequent in recent years. projector. However, IMAX stopped providing new Omnimax to their custom- Renovation planned for years. ers around early 2000s. During that period, the target of our new Thus we turned our target to the system changed from a hybrid of a new opto- hybrid of a digital animation play- mechanical starball plus a new Omnimax to a ing system plus a new opto-mechani- hybrid of a new opto-mechanical starball plus cal starball. However, we hesitated for a digital film playing system, and finally to a several years since the performance of multi-purpose, fully digital system, which can digital projectors was still much infe- be used to play both planetarium shows and rior to the Omnimax projector at that 4K movies. time. Besides, there were also some crit- Upper left: The size of a magnitude +3 faint star which In mid-2014, the museum was informed ical maintenance problems, like the uses only one single pixel is less than 5mm when projected onto the screen. The size of the pinholes, the black that we would receive a special budget for the blending and alignment among/be- dots, on the screen is 2mm. Upper right: The size of renovation from the Ministry of Education, tween projectors for such multi-chan- a magnitude +1 star. Lower left: The projected image so we immediately started our purchasing nel projection systems. These problems of the brightest fixed star, Sirius. The size of its central process. The committees chose the 8K Digistar make the color and brightness of pro- bulge is about 18mm. Lower right: Star point of Betel- geuse projected onto the 25 meters dome in Taipei As- 5 system that uses six Sony SRX-T615 projec- jected images not always uniform and tronomy Museum by their Zeiss Mark IV. Its diameter is tors provided by Evans and Sutherland along homogeneous. Boundaries among/be- about 15mm. But it is obviously much more compact and with their local partner, Dacoms, as our new tween areas projected by different pro- solid than the digitally projected ones. system. jectors become obvious even in just few The new system was installed from 20 April days after calibration. Before the IPS 2014 conference, we had to 9 June, 2015. As the installation was com- Several years ago, technicians would have been informed that we probably would re- pleted, a one-week test run and a two-week had to spend many hours to calibrate the sys- ceive a special budget for the renovation from free opening to the public were performed to tem, since that work can only be done manu- the Ministry of Education. One month after examine the new system. On 18 June, a press ally. Thus, it is very difficult to keep the the- the conference, the budget was formally per- conference of the new system was held and re- ater always in a good condition. However, mitted and the theater was scheduled to received very positive responses from the visi- these problems have been solved in recent open by 1 July, 2015. tors. years with new auto-calibrating software pro- Based on the experiences learned and dis- Finally, the theater was formally reopened vided by Digistar 5. cussions with experts in the IPS 2014 confer- on 1 July. In the summer vacation period During the IPS 2014 conference held at Bei- ence, the specification of the new system was that followed, the number of attendances in- jing Planetarium, two important new tech- soon determined as: creased about 12% than the same period in nologies were demonstrated. One was the new •• A fully digital system that can be used for 2014. digital projector with a contrast ratio 12,000:1 both playing 4Kx4K movies and plane- In this article I will share with all the experi- and a brightness up to 18,000 lumen. The oth- tarium shows. ences we learned during the procedure of pur- er was the Digistar 5 auto-calibrating software •• Resolution: ≥ 6.5Kx6.5K or 33 million ef- chasing, installation and operation. Section 2 capability, including alignment and blending. fective pixels with 4K ( ≥3840x2160) pro- is devoted to how the specifications of new These two technologies make a fully digital jectors.

December 2015 Planetarian 47 be achieved only for still images. The mechanical vibration reduces the performance severe- ly even for a new Omnimax, not to mention the 29-years old one in our theater. While industry terminology refers to systems of our type as 8K, the value measured in our theater is about 7.2K, which is to be described in detail below. It is already better than our old Omnimax projector and even compatible to a new one. That is also one of the reasons we made the decision to renovate our theater in mid-2014. Bright stars were projected with extra “bright star projectors” rather than Field examinations with the star plates so Besides the theoretical discussions, we also as to keep the stars com- made some field examinations in the theater pact and sharp. to measure the real performance of the new system. Theoretically, one has a normal visual •• Contrast ratio: ≥ 10,000:1. phenomena. acuity, usually referred to as a 20/20 or 6/6 vi- •• Brightness: Totally, ≥ 70,000 lumens with During the test run of the new system we sion, if one can tell two points separated apart multiple projectors or 3.0 ft-L measured compared it with the old systems. We surpris- by an angle of one arc minute or 1/60 degrees. on the screen.1 ingly found that its resolution looks better Thus, a perfect fulldome theater would have than our old 15/70 projector, which was usual- a resolution as good as 14.4Kx14.4K to cover a Time to decide on the new system ly claimed to be as good as 8K in resolution, es- 180-degree hemisphere. Committees, which included specialists pecially at the edge of the screen. Taking our theater as an example, that from two other planetariums in Taiwan and However, we realized that this should not means the size of each pixel should not ex- staff of our museum, were assigned to make be strange at all. There are two major factors ceed 2.5mm. In the ideal condition, the size of the decision on the new system. Three man- which make the digital system perform bet- each single pixel projected by an 8Kx8K sys- ufactures submitted their proposals in the fi- ter than the 15/70 film projectors. One is the tem should be as small as 4.8mm. The mea- nal stage and, although it was not easy to de- multi-channel composition,2 which uses six sured size of the central bulge of a faint star il- termine which one is the best, the committees wide-angle lenses instead of the single fisheye luminated with one single pixel in our theater chose Evans & Sutherland and its local part- lens used by the 15/70 projector. The second is is about 5mm (see Fig.3). That means the real ner Dacoms as the winner. A major reason for that digital projectors are free of mechanical resolution of the system is about 7.2K. How- this decision was their good after-installation vibrations which always occur when the film ever, we saw faint halos around these points service in several previous cases in Taiwan, in is running through the track. which would reduce the quality a little, but addition to their Digistar 5 software’s auto- The angle-of-view of lenses in a 6-projector not too much. blending and auto-alignment capabilities. system would be 1/√6 or 40.8% of that of a For digital planetariums, a traditional- The new system includes a Digistar 5, soft- fisheye lens. For example, if the AOV of a fish- ly common cause of discontent is loose and ware, corresponding hardware, and six Sony eye lens were 180 degrees, the AOV of lenses puffy bright stars. In previous digital sys- SRX-T615 projectors with 108,000 lumens needed for a 6-channel system would be only tems, one had to use many pixels to compose in brightness and 12,000:1 in the contrast ra- 73.4 degrees. As it is well known to the opti- a bright star since the poor contrast ratio, say tio. There is no industry standard for defin- cal engineers, the wider the AOV of a lens, the 2,500:1, of the projectors can cover only 8.7 ing 8K, and 8Kx8K resolution is just a theoret- worse the resulting aberrations. magnitude. The brightest star can be project- ical value. The value measured in the theater Regarding the problem caused by mechan- ed with such a pixel is about magnitude -2.2 will depend on the detailed allocation of the ical vibration of 15/70 film projectors: taking if one let its faintest level be at the magni- projectors. The real value we measured in the our theater as an example, any tiny vibra- tude +6.5. However, even large traditional op- final test is about 7.2Kx7.2K. That’s better than tion of the image was enlarged more than 500 to-mechanical starballs do not project bright what we expected of the new system. The de- times when projected onto the screen. Even stars with the star plates. They usually use iso- tails of the performance test will be described though Kodak3 says that the resolution of lated “bright star projectors” (see Fig.4) to proj- in next section. their 35mm negative (22 mm x 18.6 mm) is 6K ect these stars. horizontally, and IMAX claims the resolution Theoretically, the 12,000:1 contrast ratio Performance measuring of 15/70 format (70mm x 48.6mm) could po- could cover a magnitude range of 10.2 or from The museum had sent staff to visit plan- tentially be as good as 18K,4 these figures can magnitude +6.5 to -3.7. Aside from the sun and etariums around the world to survey differ- moon, which are not point stars to human ent systems in past years. However, brief visits 2 The proto-type of Omnimax was a 9-projector eyes, Venus is the only body, including plan- film presented at EXPO ‘67 in Montreal. The syncing for just several days are not enough for deep problem bothered the team very much and that’s ets, which cannot be projected with one sin- learning, as there are many things can only be why they decided to invent the IMAX technologies. gle pixel of this system. In our field test, the learned at the scene of operation for a long pe- But, that would reduce the optical quality especial- measured size of the brightest fixed star, Sirius, riod of time. During the first few months af- ly at the edge of the scene. More details of the sto- is about 18mm. That means DS-5 uses at least ry can be found at www.imax.com/about/history. ter reopening, we observed many interesting 9 pixels to compose the brightness of Sirius. However, since the syncing, alignment and blend- phenomena in the daily run of the new sys- ing among projectors are now no more problems, a Many of these pixels seem superfluous if one tem and learned much from analyzing these multi-channel system becomes a better choice than executives-talk-the-hunger-games-catching-fire- the single fisheye lens projector nowaday. and-imax-misconceptions 1 The request of brightness was determined based 3 motion.kodak.com/motion/Hub/nRodriguez.htm (Continues on page 54) on the standard of our old Omnimax projector. 4www.slashfilm.com/film-interview-imax-

48 Planetarian December 2015 skyskan.com/shows [email protected] 8K/4K, 2D/3D, 30/60fps December 2015 Planetarian 49

Planetarian_Oct_2015_Asteroid_Mission_Extreme-Scott_Color_Tweak.indd 1 10/23/2015 3:19:08 PM DigitalSky Full theater control means...

true integration SPICE AUTOMATION AutomatingA a theater that simultaneously runs projectors, house and cove lighting, sound, and multimedia demands a superior control system. Today, hundreds of the world’s top planetariums and large-format theaters rely on SPICE Automation. Now SPICE and DigitalSky are uniﬁed, eliminating the need to have separate applications.

intuitive Production SHOW CREATOR DragD and drop 3D models, video, images, or audio onto the timeline for quick show assembly. Use the Auto Keyframing feature to modify position, scale, and other object properties. Auto Keyframing can signiﬁcantly speed up your show creation eﬀorts. Show Creator records all your actions and creates all the needed keyframes for you at the current show position, freeing you to focus entirely on what’s most important to you – creating the most compelling show possible.

one-touch operation SHOW MANAGER Play fulldome content with the push of a button. Start, stop, pause, scrub forward and backward. The Show Manager is fully integrated The next generation in intuitive, into the Viewport, giving you a live view of what’s happening as you unified fulldome theater control your show content. software

skyskan.com50 Planetarian December 2015 DigitalSky Full theater control means...

skyskan.com December 2015 Planetarian 51 Sky-Skan’s best-selling show for 2013 and 2014

Space Exploration Shaping Your Life

52 Planetarian December 2015 The Museum of Flight 9404 East Marginal Way South Seattle, Washington USA www.museumofflight.org

Rich Lienesch With the system being so portable, you do get asked to set The Museum of Flight up in some unusual spaces! While the most common spaces are usually a school’s gym, library, or cafeteria, we have also A planetarium anywhere! set up in churches, school bus barns, rodeo spaces, the Wash- Growing up in a small town in Mon- ington State Capitol rotunda, and even outdoors (not recom- tana, I took a lot of things for grant- mended). ed—no traffic jams (ever!), walking only We began this adventure nearly 20 years ago with an ana- 10 minutes to go fishing, hopping on a log projector system, and this was a wonderful teaching tool snowmobile in the winter to get the at the time. But today we have three digital systems from Dig- mail, and having wonderfully dark nighttime skies nearly all italis—a Delta, a Zeta, and the new Iota system. It’s with these the time. Light pollution? I couldn’t imagine what that was. computer and software-based dig- I’ve lived in Seattle now for nearly 20 years, and while I ital systems that we have really very much love this city, my stargazing opportunities have been able to create and customize diminished greatly. Luckily my family loves the outdoors and our astronomy lessons to cover al- camping, so we get to spend many summer nights away from most any topic imaginable, to the light pollution and gaze at dark skies full of stars. fascination of thousands of stu- I also consider myself very lucky that, on almost any day dents each year. of the week, I can choose to spend part of my workday at The You can literally look at a near- Museum of Flight looking at a beautiful, but artificial, night ly unlimited number of objects. sky in a digital planetarium and sharing the wonders of as- Someone wants to see what sun- tronomy with students of all ages. spots look like? No problem. Saturn and Jupiter, or Enceladus With its vision to be the foremost educational air and space and Europa? Of course. A cluster, nebula, or Andromeda? Just museum in the world, The Museum of Flight offers a wide va- one second. How about Curiosity’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” riety of extraordinary educational programs on-site and on an descent down to the surface of Mars? There’s a fulldome-for- outreach basis, serving audiences around the world. These pro- matted animation of that! And yet another program has Big grams promote lifelong learning in science, technology, engi- Bird and Elmo guiding our youngest viewers around the sky neering, math and the humanities. The museum’s education- and going to the moon (One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adven- al initiatives provide programming for students in preschool ture). through high school as well as adult learners. Our standards- Each year we deliver over 200 planetarium programs off- aligned programs reach more than 80,000 participants a year. site; all are interactive and led by one of our educators. While It should be no surprise to you all that one of our most pop- we currently have four different programs in our regular line- ular educational tools is a planetarium. The new systems that up, the versatility of the system allows our very knowledge- have come on the market in recent years are simply amazing. able staff to go off-script whenever necessary, and allows us to But I don’t need to tell all of you that….you are all very famil- design new programs easily to meet the needs of customers or iar with the evolution of planetarium technology, and some to fit an event. of you get to spend time with the most expensive and capa- Some fun examples of this include a program on near-Earth ble systems. objects, and “scary” programs sharing Greek and Roman my- Due to a lack of museum space for a fixed dome planetar- thology stories for a Halloween event. We even have a com- ium, we opted for a portable system. Over the years we have puter programming class from our partner high school that used multiple systems and delivered our programs all over the has students spend time in the planetarium to learn a bit northwest United States, including Alaska. They are indeed about the system’s software and code, how to do scripting, very portable: the inflatable dome rolls up and stores in a large and then see the end result of that work. duffel bag and the projector goes in a large, padded travel box. As you all know, nothing can really beat learning astrono- Bring the fan in its box and a box of accessories and you’re set. my by spending time gazing up at an unpolluted sky or peering With the heavy pieces weighing between 50-90lbs, one per- through a telescope. But, as those opportunities decrease due to son can move them around and load them in a vehicle. Un- the increasing pace of our busy lives and constant expansion loading and setting up can be done in less than 30 minutes. It’s of civilization, we’re lucky to all be educators with the oppor- a portable universe you can take almost anywhere! tunity to influence and inspire astronomers of any age. I

December 2015 Planetarian 53 (Continued from page 48) and shouting can be heard always during the good enough to compete with the 15/70 has such a high contrast ratio. shows, especially from school kids coming in projectors. The homogeneous problem is Additionally, our digital system now ren- groups. now solved with the Digistar 5 auto-cali- ders the starfield in real-time and we can save During the 10 days of free activity in late brating technology. a preferred starfield look or adjust real-time June, 25,268 visitors came to the theater to • For replacing the opto-mechanical star parameters to provide a wide range of visual experience the new system. In July, the first projector, the new system is already very results not previously possible. month of formal reopening, the ticket box close to traditional starballs. Since the On the other hand, the diameter of Sirius was 12% higher when compared to the same DS-5 software still uses 9 pixels to com- projected onto our 25-m dome with the Zeiss period in 2014. pose the brightness of Sirius and many Mark IV starball is estimated as about 15mm. of them seem superfluous, I guess there It means that digital planetariums are now Visitor response, conclusions is still room for improvement even coming closer to the opto-mechanical plane- In the past 29 years, IMAX and GOTO tried with the existing system since the DS-5 tariums. every effort to keep our theater always in starfield is adjustable by setting several Since the new system was supposed to re- the best condition. GOTO even customized parameters. place both GSS-I starball and Omnimax pro- a main-control computer in 1998 and repro- • A digital system allows us to extend the jector, some items not very important for a duced all 32 star plates in 2004 for our GSS-I. show list with more films in the same planetarium become very critical for a film Those activities extended the lifetime of our day and provides the visitors more choic- playing system. GSS-I for at least 15 extra years. We deeply ap- es. This is what we are planning to do in At the beginning, we did not appreciate preciate their efforts working with us during 2016. the real value of Digistar 5’s auto-calibration the past years. • The planetarium shows produced by functionality, though we saw it before, until However, renovation is an unavoidable is- ourselves are unique and customized. the system was set up and tested in our own sue. During the competitive bidding, three man- That will give the visitors motivation to theater. During the first few days of the test ufactures presented their products to us. It was come back to the theater again. run we noticed a problem of inhomogeneous blending which was caused by different decay rates between projectors, which is a common occurrence during the first 100 hours of using new lamps.

Providing the best The museum expects to always provide visitors the best experience possible at our theater. So we decided to calibrate the system, mostly the blending work, every few days at After 6 weeks playing without any calibration, the boundaries among different pro- the beginning, and about one month at a time jection areas became significant like A. When playing animations, the visitors will see since, as the lamps became stable. The auto- what like B. After calibration, the brightness became much more homogeneous, like C. calibrating software enables us to finish such work within 15-30 minutes. Our staff can even run the calibration immediately at the end of not an easy process to determine which man- • The expected lifetime of a digital system daily shows if they see anything wrong dur- ufacturer and product would be best qualified is much shorter than the traditional me- ing the shows. That is very helpful to keep our to fit our immediate and future needs. chanical systems. It seems not easy to do theater always in a good condition. Two films are now on our show list by turns the mid-life upgrade like what we did in During the renovation, E&S and Dacoms and short planetarium shows are given at the past years. The museum certainly will helped us immensely. They demonstrated beginning of each show, just in the same way meet the issue of next renovation in 8-10 great efficiency in scheduling the installation. we operated under our old systems. However, years from now. That enabled us to minimize the shut-down owing to the good capability and flexibility • The performance of such a multi-chan- period for the renovation and allowed us to of the new system, we plan to add more films nel projection system is now approach- reopened much earlier than 1 July, the date we onto the show list and to try to extend the ex- ing the limit of human eyes. But, the originally expected. As a result, we even had a isting planetarium shows to some 30-40 min- quality of the image sources is getting far week to test the system before the press con- utes shows in the future. behind since movies are still shot with ference on 18 June. Below, some points are summarized from cameras having a fisheye lens or pro- Two shows, Flight of the Butterflies and Mys- our experience learned in these months. I duced with computer-graphic (CG) tech- teries of the Unseen World, converted from hope that could be helpful to those who are nology. Several multi-camera systems are 15/70 format, are now playing in the theater. considering a digital system for their theaters/ now under development. But they are Besides them, two short planetarium shows planetariums. now still far from mature. That will be a were produced in-house, with E&S train- • Maintenance of the new system is much big challenge of the giant screen industry ing staff’s assistance. Both of these shows are easier than the original systems. We ex- in the future. I about 5 minutes in length, one showing the pect that will save lots of money for us. summer constellations and the other taking • Operation is also much easier and thus reduces the load on our staff. That is help- the audiences to fly from the outer solar sys- Chilong Lin, an associate curator of the Exhi- tem through several planets, satellites, aster- ful since the government has been cut- bition Department, has worked at the Nation- oids, and then to Earth, Asia, Taiwan, Taic- ting the museum’s prescribed number of al Museum of Natural Science for 18 years. His hung, and finally to our museum. personnel gradually in recent years. favorite part of the renovations was acquiring the capability of producing programs by The audiences love these shows. Screaming • For playing movies, the 7.2K resolution is themselves.

54 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 55 Of glasses and mirrors, lenses and leviathans A brief history of the telescope

Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope Model on display at the South by Southwest Inter- active Festival in Austin, Texas. The JWST is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the largest space telescope to ever be built. NASA/Chris Gunn. Inset: Two of Galileo’s telescopes, Museum of the History of Science, Florence.

Dr. Jean-Michel Faidit Astronomical Society of France Montpellier, France [email protected] History of the telescope The invention of the telescope is due to a Summary Dutch optician, Hans Lippershey (1570-1619), Progress in the science of astronomy is related ry, while telescope mirrors, bronze, are still unsta- the first to file a patent in 1608, and not to Gal- to the improvement of the means of observation. ble in longevity. Large-diameter glasses had their ileo (1564-1642) as it is often believed. In fact, Long restricted to the performance of the human peak at the end of the 19th century. But large the telescope seems to have been designed in eye and angular measuring instruments, astro- lens manufacturing constraints forced astrono- Italy from 1586, probably due to the optician nomical observation began a revolution at the mers to become astrophysicists with the input of Giambattista Della Porta (circa 1535-1615). beginning of the 17th century with the introduc- spectroscopy and photography, and to prefer tele- The genius of Galileo was to steer one of its tion of the refractor telescope, followed decades scopes with mirrors from the 20th century, first manufacture to the sky, even though it does later by the invention of the reflector telescope. silver, then aluminized. another service for the Doge and members of Focal length and diameter were the first to A century later, confronted with the con- the Senate in its maritime surveillance appli- reach their limits when it came to telescope de- straints of large dimensions, solutions were cations August 21, 1609, at the top of the Cam- sign. found with active optics (not to be confused with panile, in order to obtain gratuities. In this race, glasses took the first advantage adaptive optics that compensate for atmospher- First advantage, the bezel provides a mag- on telescopes, reaching unreasonable lengths to ic turbulence), while interferometry with sever- nified image. It allows one to observe plan- defeat chromatic aberration before the inven- al telescopes and astronomy in space opened new ets or nebulae with details invisible to the nation of the achromatic lenses in the 18th centu- horizons. ked eye. Galileo could thus discover the reliefs

56 Planetarian December 2015 of the moon and the satellites of Jupiter, as he big glasses: Berlin, Potsdam, Vienna, Green- revealed in his famous pamphlet the Sidereus wich, Nice, and Meudon in Europe, and Char- Nuncius. lottesville, Washington, Pittsburgh, Lick, and The second interest of the scope is to col- Yerkes in the United States. The Lick glass in lect more light than the eye, even more signif- 1888 measures 89 cm in diameter. The largest icant amounts when the diameter of the lens entry into service was Yerkes in 1897, reaching is greater. The images become brighter and, in 40 inches (or 1.02 m in diameter) and 19-m fo- low light, inaccessible objects to the naked eye cal length. are easily visible. Galileo, turning his telescope The record was the goal of 1.25 m from the to the Milky Way, saw for the first time of great scope of the exhibition universal Par- the myriads of stars. But his largest telescope, is, 1900, installed horizontally on north and about 5 cm in diameter, still did not allow him south pillars. Capturing the light of the stars to discern the rings of Saturn. through a Foucault siderostat equipped of a In 1611, the County of Cesi, founder of the mobile mirror of 2 m in diameter, it was dis- Academy dei Lincei, at a dinner in honour of banded later and its objective sleeps in the cel- Galileo, offered the appellation telescopium lars of the Observatoire de Paris. for this new astronomical instrument, close to These glasses were designed for the study of the English “refractor telescope,” and in con- the planets and double stars. Combined with Galileo’s sketches of the moon from photography, they provided a map of the sky trast to the French language, which prefers the Sidereus Nuncius. Public domain. expression “telescope.” with 18 identical instruments (33 cm in diam- Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) perfected dur- eter, focal length 3.4 m) built by Paul and Pros- ing this same year 1611 the principle with an English optician Dollond (1706-1761) com- per Henry. optical formula two convex lens (objective bines these lenses polished in various refrac- But the era of the big glasses ceased at the and eyepiece). Over the decades, it is this form tive indices: the chromaticism is thus greatly turn of the 20th century because of techno- of Kepler that is retained. reduced. logical limitations. On the one hand, their Achromatic glasses at the end of the 18th lenses bend under their own weight, affecting Long glasses: Huygens and Hevelius century are mostly of the chaise lounge type: the quality of the images. On the other hand, Chromatic aberration is even more annoy- they were directed along the north-south axis it is difficult to achieve large blocks of glass ing when the focus of the lens is short. Em- and only adjustable in the vertical plane. with sufficient purity. pirical experiments showed that by decreas- This was the great century of astrometry or Spectroscopy and photography require ing the curvature of lenses—so by extending astronomy of position. In the tradition of the brighter instruments. Mirror telescopes, more the focal lengths—the iridescence of chromat- quarter-circle introduced by Jean Picard (1620- compact and easier to achieve (a single surface ic aberrations diminish. Glasses, then quick- 1682) and Adrien Auzout (1622- ly reached excessive lengths. Bamboo tubes, 1691) by adding a small bezel in- frames made of wood, rope and cables: a strument of angular measures, whole arsenal was used in assemblies operat- astronomers could map the sky ed by several assistants under the orders of the more and more precisely. observer. After the atlas of 2866 stars In 1653, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) in- of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), vented an eyepiece perfected for glasses, al- founder of the Greenwich Ob- lowing him to discover the rings of Saturn in servatory, followed that of 1655 as well as Titan, the planet’s largest sat- Jérôme Lalande (1732-1807) ellite. Its bezel of 37 m in length also allowed with more than 47000. This ce- him to discover such details about Mars as the lestial cartography allowed as- polar ice cap. The great scope of the observa- tronomers to realize that the toire de Paris, founded by Colbert in 1667 un- stars are not fixed, but that they der Louis XIV, allowed its Director Giovanni have a proper motion. Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) to see the divi- In 1806, Joseph von Fraun- sion of the rings that bears his name. The be- hofer (1787-1826), German opti- zel is so long that a tower is built to handle it, cian, takes lenses of exceptional the Tower of Marly. This gigantism race cul- quality. One of his glasses of 16 Joseph von Fraunhofer demonstrating the spectroscope. Photo- minated in 1673 with the Machinae coelestis cm allowed Friedrich Wilhelm gravure from a painting by Richard Wimmer. Public domain, Wi- of Hevelius (1611-1687), which measures 46 m, Bessel (1784-1846) measure in kimedia Commons. but restricted. This bezel, difficult to maneu- 1838 the first Parallax of the star ver, serves it mainly to map the moon. 61 Cygni, and determine its distance by trian- polishing) prevail. Astronomers are also mov- gulation 10.5 light-years away. ing away from viewing planets and stars and Dolland achromatic glasses turning to faint objects in the deep sky called More than a century after Galileo’s first ob- Large diameter glasses then by the generic term “nebulous,” with servation, a solution to the problem of chro- The first great modern glasses, again built their large diameter instruments. matic aberration is finally made. In 1733, by Fraunhofer, are installed by Struve in Rus- Chester Moor Hall (1703-1771) saw the way to sia, 24.4 cm in diameter; and by Pulkovo near History of the reflector telescope manufacture rifle targets without chromatic Pétersbourg of an equatorial refracting 38 cm Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598-1647), friend aberration with a combination of a concave in 1866 and a giant telescope 76 cm in diame- and correspondent of Galilee, first imagined a flint glass lens and a convex lens, glass crown. ter. Most observatories of this time equip with reflector telescope in 1632, while Marin Mer-

December 2015 Planetarian 57 senne (1588-1648) anticipated it in 1636 as a New optical combinations secondary serving as eyepiece. But the field is Because of the limits in the real- very low. In 1663, the Scottish mathematician ization of the large glasses, astrono- James Gregory (1638-1675) is the first to offer mers of the 20th century turned to the formula of the telescope with a magnifica- telescopes with mirrors, developing tion due to the concave secondary. While that new theoretical designs. Next to sim- is proposed before Newton, it is built for the ple reflector telescopes are growing first time by Robert Hooke and in 1673. catadioptric telescopes, with a thin Circa 1668, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) stud- lens, the corrective blade, placed at ied the decomposition of the colours of white the front of the tube to increase the light through a glass prism. He established his field of vision. laws of diffraction and explained why the im- The German physicist Karl age of a star by the Kepler telescope is colour- Schwarzschild (1873-1916) was the ful: violet light is more converging near the first in 1905 to design a perfect tele- lens than the red color. scope, which remains purely theo- Thinking on this insurmountable phenom- retical, relying on the mathematical enon with glass lenses, he invented a new tele- calculation of aberrations of opti- scope and built a first version in 1671 with a cal instruments. This telescope of concave bronze mirror. Presented the follow- Schwarzschild is envisaged with an ing year at the Royal Society, it had a mirror of elliptical secondary placed before a 37 mm in diameter with a focal length of 160 hyperbolic primary focus, so that it mm. A bezel of the same diameter at the time gives a virtual image. measured between 3 and 10 m in length. In 1910, the French astrono- In 1672, the priest and French physicist mer Henri Chrétien (1879-1956) de- Laurent Cassegrain (1629-1693) developed a signed an optical combination de- telescope with a parabolic concave primary rived from the Cassegrain, with two mirror and a convex hyperbolic secondary hyperbolic mirrors, built by the mirror. The concepts of Gregory and Casseg- American astronomer George Wil- rain considered the astronomer at the rear of lis Ritchey (1864-1945) and designat- the instrument, as for the Kepler telescope, ed since as Ritchey-Chrétien. This de- which meant the primary mirror must be sign was widely used for telescopes, drilled in the centre to install an eyepiece. On from Mount Wilson to the Hubble Top: Herschel’s 40-ft telescope; Below: Lord Rosse’s ob- the contrary, the Newton model used a small servatory at Birr Castle in Ireland with its 72-in (183-cm) Space Telescope. plane mirror placed at 45° on the optical axis telescope called Leviathan. Both images public domain. Telescopes are also specially de- returned the image on one side, on the front signed for developed photography, of the tube. He built others, ranging from 23-cm to the as shown by the House of Schmidt. 1.22-m diameter (with 12-m focal length) in In 1931 Bernhard Schmidt (1879-1935), an Esto- The giants: Herschel and Lord Rosse 1789, which remained the largest until Par- nian astronomer, used a spherical mirror and Large diameter and better telescopes were sons, Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), in Ireland, con- a diaphragm or corrective blade to its centre emerging, such as that used by William Her- structed the Leviathan in 1845, with a 1.83-m of curvature. It is convergent divergent and schel (1738-1722). He discovered Uranus in 1781 mirror weighing 4 tons, which allowed him to central part in the periphery. The Maksutov with a 7-inch (18-cm) aperture telescope. A par- discover the spiral structure of some nebulae. telescope, invented in 1941 by the Russian op- ticularity of the Herschel telescopis that it has Around the same time, William Lassel (1799- tician Dmitri Maksutov (1896-1964), used a cor- only a single mirror tilted to one side of the 1880), with a telescope at 1.20-m installed in rective slide sphere, more simple to achieve. tube where the eyepiece is placed as to not re- Malta in 1855, is one of the pioneers of the The Darr-Kilkham telescope, invented in- duce the brightness. equatorial mounts. dependently by Horace Edward Stafford Dall (1901-1986) and Alan R. Kirkham (1909-1968), The contributions of Foucault is a variant of the Cassegrain with a spheri- The main advantage of reflecting telescopes cal secondary and a primary with an ellipti- is that the colors do not intervene in the re- cal chaise. A series of optical combinations flection and the image is devoid of chromatic were developed as the Schmidt-Cassegrain or aberration. But the disadvantage is their mir- Maksutov-Cassegrain, and have been a great rors, made of an alloy of copper and tin, dull commercial success with amateur astrono- quickly, which requires frequent interven- mers. tions and does not encourage their dissemina- We cannot ignore the telescopes developed tion. Two centuries passed before the reflector by others. Jean Texereau (1919-2014) popular- telescope could claim itself. ized them through a series of articles in As- Léon Foucault (1819-1868) contributed with tronomy magazine starting in 1939, grouped the invention in 1856 of a lighter mirror by in a world-famous book ‘The construction of depositing a fine layer of silver on the exter- the amateur telescope’. John Dobson (1915- nal side of the glass, giving a renewed interest 2014), American monk, plied the US with A replica of Newton's second reflecting tele- to the reflector telescope. But the glasses still “Sidewalk astronomers”, offering nights of ob- scope, which he presented to the Royal Soci- have beautiful days, their peak dating from servations to the public. It democratized the ety in 1672. Photo by Andrew Dunn, Creative the end of the 19th century as seen. (Continues on page 60) Commons.

58 Planetarian December 2015 Introducing...

FULLDOME OnDemandTM

Can you send 1080p videos to your dome projector?

If so, now you can rent and stream your fulldome movies!

...and more titles coming!

Another way to get the world’s best content on your dome www.FulldomeOnDemand.com

December 2015 Planetarian 59 (Continued from page 58) Telescope in Chile or the Japanese’s Subaru at optimises continuously its parabolic shape. Newton telescopes, with diameters exceeding Mauna Kea Observatory. 60 cm, thanks to an easily transportable altaz- Whether in terms of brightness, diffrac- Turbulence and adaptive optics imuth mount, the Dobson Telescope. tion, or constraints of the mirrors, the theoret- The ability of any telescope to collect the ical limits of resolution telescopes is a stimu- light of a star is amplified by the turbulence 20th century large telescopes lating challenge for astronomers. of the Earth’s atmosphere. Adaptive optics is In support of these new optical combi- needed to adapt the shape of the mirrors to nations, the 20th century saw the advent of The optical active correct, in real time, the effects of turbulence. large telescopes. The first was the telescope Two alternatives are used to overcome By 1953, the American astronomer Horace Hooker, built by George Willis Ritchey (1864- the dimensional limits of the mirrors of tele- W. Babcock (1912-2003) was the first to pro- scopes: use a set of smaller mirrors instead of pose the idea of adaptive optics. In 1970, the a single large monolithic block, or fix perma- French astronomer Antoine Labeyrie devel- nently a large thin mirror which tends to de- oped speckle interferometry. form under its own weight, in order to opti- With the help of a succession of photo- mize its surface. graphics, a computer is able to retrieve a clean The first solution involves a mosaic of mir- image of a star. In 1987, he suggested using the rors. Prefigured by the Multi Mirror Telescope atmosphere itself to help by directing a laser (MMT) atop Mount Hopkins in Arizona, con- beam into the upper atmosphere on the thin structed between 1979 and 1998 with six mir- layer of sodium atoms left by meteorites, creating an artificial guide star to 80 km altitude to determine the instability of the air. At the end of the 1980s, the University of Hawaii developed the first adaptive optics system to an- alyze the deformation of the flat surface of the wavefront and correct it by adjusting the shape of a telescope mirror in real time.

Interferometry To increase the resolution of a telescope, Hippolyte Fizeau had the idea in 1868 to use interferometry. The first stellar diameter mea- surement is realized by Michelson in 1920 with the interferometer installed on Mount Wilson’s 100-in telescope. In 1970, Antoine Labeyrie designed the syn- Top, left: The University of Chi- cago’s Yerkes Observatory’s 40-in thetic aperture of two telescopes with a diame- (1897), located in Wisconsin (Wiki- ter equal to their spacing. The first experiment media, Creative Commons); above: is performed in 1974 at the Nice Observatory, The Hooker Telescope at Mount. Wil- paving the way for the large existing interfer- son (1917) (Mount Wilson Observa- ometers in Chile and Hawaii. The Very Large tory) and left: the Hale Telescope at Palomar (1949), both in California. Telescope (VLT), with its four telescopes at the (Palomar/Caltech). top of the Cerro Paranal in Chile, each having a mirror of 8.2 m and put into service between 1998 and 2001, can reach the theoretical resolution of a 130-m-diameter single mirror. The 1945) in 1917 on Mount Wilson in California, rors of 1.8 m or equivalent to a 4.5 m telescope, two Kecks are designed to operate in interfer- with a mirror of 100-inch opening, 2.54 m. It multiple mirror configuration is used by the ometry with an angular resolution equivalent became famous for having served in the 1920s two Keck telescopes installed at the top of the to a mirror of 85 m. in the work of the American astronomer Ed- dormant volcano Mauna Kea on the island of Interferometry is also used for non-optical win Hubble (1889-1953), highlighting the spec- Hawaii in 1993 and 1996. The Keck mirrors, 9.8- telescopes. First limited to the visible, astron- tral galaxies (redshift) offset and thus the ex- m in diameter, were the greatest of the world omy is indeed extended to other wavelengths pansion of the universe. for almost 10 years. The mirror of each tele- of the electromagnetic spectrum, starting Hooker was followed in 1949 by the Hale scope is actually a mosaic of 36 small hexago- with radio telescopes from the middle of the 200-inch aperture telescope, 5.08 m, atop nal mirrors of 1.8 m, each one adjustable. 20th century, such as Arecibo in 1964. In ad- Mount Palomar in 1949. The largest rigid-mir- The largest telescope of its kind is now the dition to quasars and pulsars, the cosmic radi- ror telescope made on the ground by the So- Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), in service ation at 3°K, validating the theory of the Big viets in 1975, with a diameter of 6 m at Zelen- since 2007 in the Canary Islands, a mirror Bang, was discovered in 1965. chuk in the Caucasus. equivalent to 10.4 m with 36 sections of 1.9 m. The idea of networks of telescopes devel- But like the problems faced a century ear- The second solution is the principle applied oped as early as 1981, with the Very Large Ar- lier for large glasses, making unique mirrors to the New Technology Telescope (NTT) at ray (VLA) in New Mexico, combining a set of also seemed to reach its limit, capping at the La Silla ESO to the Chile, with a 3.58 m mirror 27 dish antennas. A similar network has come two 8.4-m mirrors of the Large Binocular Tele- also corrected thanks to the optical active. A into operation in 2013 by ESO, Atacama Large scope (LBT) on Mount Graham in Arizona, fol- set of actuators with pistons on the rear of the Millimetric/Submillimetric Array (ALMA), at lowed by the 8.2 m for four of the Very Large flexible mirror detects its deformations and (Continues on page 62)

60 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 61 (Continued from page 60) Left: An artist’s impression of the 2008 service more than 5000 m altitude in the Chilean An- mission to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Tele- des, for the study of the radiation absorbed scope (ESA); The Atacama Large Millimeter/sub- by the water vapour contained in the atmo- millimeter Array, located at 16,500 ft in north- sphere. Located on the plateau of Chajnan- ern Chili. (W. Garnier, ALMA -ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) tor, it constitutes the largest equipment for astronomy on the ground. Composed of 66 antennas at distances up to 16 kilometers, its main network includes 50 antennas of 12 m in diameter, used as a single telescope by interferometry.

The telescopes in space Because of light pollution, which continues to grow, and because of the inherent problems of the Earth’s atmosphere, including to- in 1990, providing, for a quarter of a cen- tal (x and gamma rays) and partial (infrared, tury so far, the remarkable images that ultraviolet) absorption of different wave- we know. lengths of light, space-based astronomy has Its successor, the James Webb Space seen great development, only slowed for rea- Telescope (JWSP), of 6.5 m in diameter, sons of cost and logistics of launch. should be launched in 2018 from the At the same time, ground-based observa- Centre Spatial Guyanais near Kourou tories, not limited by the mass of the instru- in French Guiana by the Ariane V rocket and star or the separation of a double star, the up- ments, remain even more complementary placed in orbit at the second Lagrange point. coming challenge of interferometry is image with the contributions of adaptive optic. Working in the infrared, it will reach the first production equivalent to a large telescope us- There are several types of telescopic satel- moments of the universe and to study the ating several telescopes. lites: those that study the entire sky, such as mospheres of extrasolar planets. A cheaper principle, this hypertelescope, Hipparcos (1989-1993) and Gaia (2013-2019), Coronagraphy is also promised a bright fu- based on optical recombination giving a di- dedicated to the celestial cartography; those ture for the search for extrasolar planets. In- rect image, is a project in design by Antoine working on the microwave mapping of the vented by Bernard Lyot (1897-1952) in 1930 Labeyrie since 1996. A prototype, the Labora- cosmic background radiation, such as Cosmic with a system of concealment in a refractor tory of Stellar Interferometry and Exoplan- Background Explorer (COBE) in 1989; Wilkin- to observe solar protuberances outside eclips- etary (LISE), began near Barcelonnette in the son Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), es, its principle continues in the Solar and He- Alpes de Haute-Provence with many small 15- in 2001; and Planck, more recently, which liographic Observatory (SOHO) launched by cm mirrors equivalent to a “diluted mirror” of allowed us place the Big Bang at 13.7 billion NASA and ESA in 1995. SOHO, still in opera- 57 m called the Ubaye Hypertelescope, is seek- years; and those studying the universe in oth- tion, detects numerous comets with perihe- ing sponsors. er specific wavelengths. lions very close to the sun. The best known, of course, is the Hubble Liquid mirror telescope Space Telescope (HST). With the development The telescopes of the future Another track, the liquid mirror telescope, of the U.S. space shuttle, the dream to over- If CCD detectors have reached a maximum is also the subject of research. Envisioned as come the constraints of the atmosphere led to rate performance, future progress will come early as 1850 by Ernesto Capocci at the Obser- placing the HST into orbit around the Earth from interferometry. The European Extreme- vatory in Naples, it was tested without success ly Large Tele- by Henry Key in 1872 in New Zealand with scope (E-ELT) is the rotation of a vat of mercury. Its idea was Bard Spiral Tales of life, the universe and a few other things. By Chuck Rau planned as early taken over in 1982 by Ermanno Borra at Laval The Search For Intelligent Life Continues... as the 2020s, with University (Québec). A liquid mirror of 4 m, an equivalence of LMTI, is linked in Belgium and the India. 39.3 m, future vi- Here, adaptive optics is still at the research sions set on a goal stage with ferrofluid, colloidal solutions of TARGET ACQUIREDACQUIRED KEPLER-452b of a 100-m diam- iron nanoparticles subjected to an electro- α:19h44m0.89s δ:+44°16’39.2” eter telescope. On magnetic field. By centrifugal force, the liq- longer terms yet, uid-air interface forms a perfect dish for a rel- SIGNAL DETECTED! interferometry in atively low cost, and this type of mirror is space will open unbreakable. Although the design allows only up fabulous pros- observations at the zenith, it constitutes the pects. ideal approach for the upcoming Lunar obser- But beyond the vatories. power of resolu- Within a few centuries, not only was the development of astronomical instruments SW tion permitted Tracking 14:33:20.0 J2000 Tracking Active 14:33:20.0 J2000 Active 00.00.00.0 J2000 prodigious, but also continues to accelerate 0.0000 E with the fringes

0.00 5.83 Tracking with the contribution of new optical and dig- Active of interference of 3.83 0.1° ENorth 0.00 RECEIVING 01:53:51 10.0 two telescopes to ital technologies, auguring well for even more 1375.00 1375.00 1375.00 1375.00 ALFA amazing discoveries in the study of the stars 0.1256 Full Width measure the angular diameter of a and the universe. I www.bardspiral.com ©2015 C.Rau

62 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 63

Edge of Darkness AD 3.indd 1 10/13/2015 10:27:16 AM Fig. 1 The Zeiss double astrograf

Fig. 2 The Zeiss Refractor

Preserving and sharing the wealth of the Vatican Observatory

Alessandro Omizzolo Specola Vaticana Vatican Observatory

Fig. 3 The “Carte du Ciel” 00122 Vatican City State Vatican City State [email protected]

The Vatican Observatory has a rich archive of astronomical photographic material collected in almost a century of observations from Vat- icanbo before and from Castel Gandolfo. The first observations date back to the last decade of 1800, and the latest, taken with Schmidt telescope, August 1986. This photographic material and symbol were obtained using our telescopes that, until 1994, were those found in Castel Gandolfo at the Pope’s summer residence. It is a 40-cm Zeiss refractor (Fig. 1) which allows you to produce both photographic images and spectra (through the application of a prismatic slab in front of the telescope), and a 60-cm refractor by Zeiss (Fig. 2) which produced photographic images only. The latter was telescope mated in recent years with a Coronado solar telescope with filters for observing the sun. We also have photographic or doublet of telescope “Carte du Ciel” (Fig. 3) dedicated to, at least initially, the project of photographic chart and Astrografico catalog (Fig. 4). This project, which aimed at the realization of a map photo of the entire sky, was the first international scientific en- terprise in which the just-established Vatican Observatory participated in early 1900, completing work on the sky region assigned to it and producing the slabs of chart and its Astrografico Catalog. Finally, there was a Schmidt telescope (Fig. 5) with corrector plate from 65 cm that produced both direct photographic images and from its ob- Fig. 5 The Schmidt jective prism spectra. Of these four telescopes, the table shows the years of activity and the number of plates produced.

64 Planetarian December 2015 Telescope years of activity and the number of plates produced.

Instrument Period Project, no. Plates, Dimensions 33-cm photographic doublet 1894-1953 Carte du Ciel: 540 plates Astrographic Catalog: 1148 plates (16 x 16 cm) 40-cm Zeiss refractor 1935-1974 Direct images: 380 plates (30 x 30 cm) Direct images + spectra: 3111 plates (18x24 cm) Direct images: 1254 plates (13 x 18 cm) 60-cm Zeiss reflector 1935-1974 Direct images: 924 plates (9 x 12 cm) Direct images: 145 plates (7 x 9 cm) Direct images: 172 plates (6 x 9 cm) 65-cm Schmidt telescope 1957-1986 Direct images: 794 plates (20x20cm) Objective Prism: 1326 plates (20x20cm) Polarimeter: 30 plates (20x20cm)

Fig. 4 The chart

The photographic plates, over time, are load images. For now there are only available subject to deterioration and, in some cases, previews of images, while the original files are the posting from sensitive layer of glass jel- distributed on request. ly with consequent loss without possibility Was also produced electronic observations of recovery of any information. For this rea- logs with our telescopes. son, in 2003 the Vatican Observatory decided One of the most obvious differences be- to preserve the photographic archive by dig- tween the chemical emulsions of old pho- itizing it. tographic plates and modern electronic de- Initially the observatory took part in a sim- tectors is the answer to the receiving signal: ilar Italian national project, but after few years the latter, unlike the former, the answer is Figs. 6 and 7: The Scanner it ended for lack of funds. The observatory straightforward. This must be taken into ac- continued the digitization work, however, count when comparing magnitudes derived and today is working with the double sheets from original plates and those derived from astrografo. So far the plates of the Schmidt their digital images. telescope and chart and the Astrografico cat- To estimate the quality of images produced alog have been scanned. by the scans of the Schmidt images, we recon- In addition to preserving the heritage they structed some light curve quasar, light curve contain, scientific goals can be reached thanks derived originally with the use of a photome- to digitalization, including: the study/discov- ter to IRIS and then taken again, but this time ery of previous transits of near-Earth objects, from scanned images measured with the IRAF stars with high proper motion, spectral classi- astronomical software. fication on large fields, curves of variability of As you can see from the charts below the quasars or variable stars, and more. quality of the data obtained is good and the The only way to preserve information magnitudes obtained with the two meth- stored in photographic plates and make it ods are comparable (Figs. 8 and 9). In fact, the available to the international scientific com- curve that compares data obtained from orig- σRA = 0.41 arcsec, σDec = 0.62 arcsec munity is to digitalize it and store the scanned inal images and those obtained by those digi- and although the deviation in delta’s great images on hard disks accessible from a net- tized turns out to be a straight line with an er- results are encouraging. work. ror of + 0.15 magnitude. For scanning of the slabs was chosen a good The reduction was checked and astrometri- Scanned images of the sheets of the Vat- quality commercial scanner (Figs. 6 and 7), ca for this were used on slabs of choice area SA ican Observatory, for now, are available on an Epson 1640 XL, A3 size, optical resolution 57; repeated measurements of the position of request indicating the coordinates of the 1600x1600 dpi, 14-bit) combined with dedicat- the stars of SA made 57 on the same slab even- object of interest. We plan to create a web ed software (created by Stefano Mottola, Ber- tually damage a standard deviation in right as- site from which you can download freely lin) which allows you to interact with your cension and declination: previews of images. I scanner and produce positive or negative digital images in Flexible Image Transport Sys- tem format. This allows its headers and imag- Figs. 8 and 9 es that can be analyzed by specific software such as Image Reduction and Analysis Facili- ty in order to do astrometry, photometry, and spettoscopia. The average size of the images you get varies and depends on the scanned plate: from a minimum of 70 MB for 9x12 cm plates, and plates of 20x20cm at 260 MB. The files are saved on two different media: DVD single layer or double (with a capacity of 4.2 and 8.2 Gb) hard disk connected to the internet to down-

December 2015 Planetarian 65 replicated space environment, audiences Fulldome Matters couldn’t move around in it or force things to About Fulldome & Immersive Media move within it. Most VR goes beyond the simple comput- Carolyn Collins Petersen er simulation of sight and sound. It includes Loch Ness Productions an interactive element where, at a basic level, Post Office Box 924 you can incorporate head and hand motions Nederland, Colorado 80466-0924 USA to “direct” your experience. But even pre-ren- +1 303-642-7250 dered fulldome and VR content have a common ground: at this year’s SIGGRAPH confer- [email protected] ence, the “VR Village” sidled up to a fulldome system provided by Vortex Immersion. The Virtual reality and the dome and resolutions will increase as projection sys- two communities have a lot to share with In nearly every issue of this journal, IPS tems evolve. While they’re still a bit rare, 8K one another. members learn about advancements in systems are out there, and the new big “thing” equipment, educational outreach, and story- is rendering at 60 fps. We’ve even heard of 120 Hollywood takes to VR telling techniques. Change is the “meme” of fps, which leads to mental images of produc- Hollywood has taken VR to heart, as well our time. ers gnashing their teeth at ever-longer render as something called “augmented reality” (AR), The planetarium has always been an im- times and the further consumption of expen- although according to Michael Daut of Ev- mersive medium, even back in the days when sive disk space. ans & Sutherland, the industry is still feeling we only displayed stars. Some would argue And let’s not forget that our digital plan- its way through the medium. He represent- that the planetarium is actually the first vir- etarium technology is rooted in the simu- ed IMERSA at the Digital Hollywood sum- tual reality machine, capable of moving au- lation and training technologies developed mit in Los Angeles at the end of October 2015. diences from day to night with the flick of over the last 50 years. From military flight “The program offered a series of 29 panels on a switch. Interactivity was limited to rolling simulators to 3D CAVE environments. Virtu- VR and AR, and other immersive spaces,” Mi- through time and traveling to terrestrial loca- al reality (VR) is nothing new. chael said. tions, but that changed quickly as digital ca- What is new is application of VR to full- “Several common themes emerged: there’s pabilities advanced, enabling universal trans- dome and from fulldome to VR: VR systems a groundswell of interest in both VR and AR; port to any time or place imaginable. that now take the “fulldome immersive” ex- the industry really hasn’t launched yet; there Today, fulldome exists because advanced perience we all know and love and personal- is little money for VR projects—except from video and processing technology allow any- ize it with an interactive experience. While studio marketing departments that want to where from 2K to 8K content on the dome, the dome was the first to give audiences a extend or enhance the experience of a live TV show or feature film; and the necessary tools don’t exist yet, so there’s a lot of intri- cate work involved in producing VR.” The perception in Hollywood is mirrored, to a somewhat lesser degree, in the fulldome community. VR has been talked about and demonstrated at meetings such as the IMER- SA Summit, which facilitates conversations between immersive media communities. There’s certainly a rise in interest from full- domers, although it certainly hasn’t yet made a huge splash in fulldome production. But, it’s coming. And, there are producers who are using it in interesting ways. For example, you can tour NASA God- dard’s engineering workspaces in Boston Museum of Science’s show From Dream to Discovery by going to Boston (or any fulldome theater presenting their show) and Above A frame from the Muse- um of Science’s VR experience seeing it in the dome. If that’s not linked to From Dream to Discov- possible, now you can watch a ery; Right: The museum’s film 360-degree tour of the engineer- crew setting up a shot for the ing areas featured in the show, program. Both images Courte- sy Museum of Science, Boston. right from the comfort of your home or office. All you need is a Google Cardboard (or other VR headset) and you’re off to NASA! (www.360heros.com/2014/12/ from-dream-to-discovery-a-360- tour-of-nasas-engineering) The California Academy of Sci-

66 Planetarian December 2015 ences has posted a VR clip from Producer Aaron Bradbury of the 2012 Sentinel Mission Over- NSC Creative has a pioneering view press conference held in immersive VR production com- Morrison Planetarium: the VR pany of his own called Luniere, version places the viewer in a devoted to creating little pieces virtual Morrison Planetarium of content for the medium. His with a live recording of B612 film LoVR, a 360-degree immer- Foundation CEO (and former sive experience, was created ex- astronaut) Ed Lu describing the clusively for head-mounted dis- privately-funded deep space play. The piece was selected for mission. a North American touring VR The Academy has also creat- film festival. Aaron shares his ed full 360-degree, stereoscop- thoughts about his productions ic fly-bys of the asteroids Ves- on his blog (www.luniere.com/ ta and Itokawa, stereoscopic VR category/lovr). tests for their upcoming show, A screen shot from the California Academy of Sciences Sentinel Mission Over- It was only a matter of time Incoming! More clips will be view VR experience. Courtesy California Academy of Sciences Morrison Plane- before people figured out how posted closer to the March 2016 tarium. to port astronomy content into opening of the show. You can VR headsets. One effort is be- look for them on the Academy’s Vrideo page can see trailers for such shows as Dinosaurs at ing spearheaded by the StarsightVR team at (www.vrideo.com/calacademy) and You- Dusk and Natural Selection in VR format, plus Edinburgh University in Scotland that is de- Tube, as well as the MilkVR store. “We also use some full-360 renderings of a galaxy collision, veloping a version of the open source Stellar- the Samsung GearVR headset for previewing a visit to Mars, and a flight with a pterosaur. ium software for Oculus Rift. The idea, as en- works in progress,” said Ryan Wyatt, Director The creative folks at Dome3D have been visioned by astronomer Alastair Bruce who of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visual- approaching VR through sales of the 360Hero is the leader of the project, was to give peo- ization at the Academy. “Our sound designer camera setup that allows producers to shoot ple a chance to see the sky even when they and composer both receive VR clips that they real scenes and bring them into the dome. couldn’t, due to weather or other problems. use to craft the sonic environment for the Matt Mascheri, president of Dome3D con- As he pointed out on the project’s site, as soon as Oculus Rift came out, the team immediately jumped into porting Stellarium into it. The project is almost ready for release, and the team envisions providing live, presenter- led events over the Internet, linking VR-enabled viewers wherever they are, such as star parties and “virtual planetarium shows.” Stay tuned on that one—it looks promising! (starsightvr.org.uk) Not to be outdone, the folks at World Wide Telescope have developed a free VR show based on their astronomy application. It’s called Impacts: A Virtual Reality Experience. It’s made for Oculus Rift, but also runs in WWT- enabled domes, and—if you don’t have an immersive theater or Rift—on a flat-screen system. Naturally, these developments are spurring conversations in fulldome circles about when or if VR will replace planetariums—although even VR aficionados admit that there’s something special about the shared space of the planetarium dome. There will be more such discussions at planetarium meetings, and in particular at the IMERSA Summit in March, Above, left: Team members testing out Stellarium for VR. Courtesy StarSightVR. Right: A student expe- where a number of sessions on VR tools and riences VR content at a DomeLab event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Courtesy IMER- technologies are planned, in addition to pre- SA.org. sentations on production, storytelling, and the business of fulldome. show. And when I’m on the road (which hap- tinually encourages producers to “think VR” There’s a lot of food for thought here as full- pens every so often), I can use the headset to when they’re producing their dome shows, domers learn about and embrace VR—wheth- review clips and provide feedback.” and the company’s SkyBox Studio product er it’s simply as a “preview tool” for produc- Producer Robin Sip, of Mirage3D (www.mi- gives fulldome creatives a full set of tools in tions or as a way to enhance and extend their rage3d.eu) is making the move to VR and has AfterEffects™ for 360/VR production. The fulldome content out to yet another immer- posted clips on his site. It will be interesting Dome3D team is also working on immersive sive community. to see where he goes with it. Currently you 360 and VR content for their clients. (Continues on page 82)

December 2015 Planetarian 67 chat with Astronaut Mike Hopkins via Skype International News as a part of their space-themed summer camp. Their “Pluto Party” on 14 July welcomed over Lars Petersen 350 visitors. In June, Planetarium Curator Re- Planetarieleder nae Kerrigan traveled to Chile as part of the Orion Planetarium Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Søvej 36, Jels Program. 6630 Rødding, Denmark This summer, the Strickler Planetarium re- +45 8715 7370 furbished a 6-inch Criterion Dynascope tele- [email protected] scope in the Reed Hall Observatory on the www.orionplanetarium.dk campus of Olivet Nazarene University. In June, Director Stephen Case participated in the 12th Biennial History of Astronomy Dear fellow planterians: William J. McCallion Planetarium in Hamil- Workshop held at Notre Dame, where he pre- It is very uplifting to see how many facil- ton. sented a paper as part of a panel on 19th-cen- ities around the world are undergoing up- Quebec. Dr. Pierre Chastenay, who has long tury astronomy. grades and refurbishment. been associated with Planetarium de Montré- The William M. Staerkel Planetarium at At the same time, however, many insti- al, is now professor at Université du Québec Parkland College in Champaign welcomed tutions are also vulnerable to cutbacks and à Montréal in the Département de didactique, over 200 people for “Pluto-palooza” on 14 short-sighted decisions. In many planetari- within in the education faculty. His email is: July. Everyone then watched the “Phone ums, all kinds of special events, not the least [email protected]. He left the plane- Home” event in the dome. They also hosted being the fly-by of Pluto, have been used to tarium in 2013, but remains a supportive IPS their World of Science lecture series and a lu- communicate astronomy in new ways. In this member. nar eclipse party. tour around the globe you’ll learn of some of Both Pierre and Nathalie Martimbeau were The Cernan Earth & Space Center of Tri- them. Let’s start in the northern parts of the admitted as new Canadian members of the In- ton College is pleased to announce that Kris Americas. ternational Astronomical Union (IAU) in Au- McCall (previously at the Adventure Science gust, 2015. The number of Canadian members Center in Nashville, Tennessee) has been hired Canadian Association of Science went from 270 to 312 during this cycle. The as its new director. Bart Benjamin is now the Centres next IAU General Assembly is in 2018 in Vi- retired director. The Cernan Center closed in Ontario. In August 2015, Ontario Science enna, Austria. September to install new carpet and seats. A Centre in Toronto hired Dr. Rachel Ward- Newfoundland and Labrador. The John- “new and improved” Cernan Center, with a Maxwell as their new researcher-programmer son Geocentre in St. John’s features a digital Super MediaGlobe II projection system, re- in astronomy and space sciences. In this role, Starlab, so that accounts for two digital porta- opened in October. Rachel leads the content and program devel- bles in this province. Indiana. In its first ten months of opera- opment in the planetarium, as well as for oth- tion, the Brown Planetarium at Ball State Uni- er astronomy-related program offerings. Great Lakes Planetarium versity has welcomed nearly 17,000 visitors. Rachel is a recently-minted Ph.D astrophys- Association The Brown Planetarium is collaborating with icist from McMaster University and brings Illinois. This summer, astronaut Sunita other university departments and the com- several years of public outreach experience as Williams visited the Alder Planetarium in Chi- munity on special projects, one being with a coordinator for Let’s Talk Science, a Canadi- cago to discuss science careers with about 400 the Muncie Symphony Orchestra. Finally, the an charitable organization promoting science female middle schoolers as part of their annu- “old” BSU Planetarium is being converted into literacy in youth through free, hands-on sci- al Women in Space Science. In July, Adler was a production studio. ence programming. Rachel has also been a sci- fortunate to partner with the American Mu- GLPA President-Elect Dayle Brown of Pega- ence communicator at York University Ob- seum of Natural History in New York City for sus Productions gave a July Starlab presenta- servatory, Origins Institute 3D Theatre, and the Breakfast at Pluto event. Over 200 people tion in a library and participated in an August came very early to the art fair. planetarium to partici- The Edwin Clark Schouweiler Memorial pate in the live stream Planetarium at the University of Saint Fran- event. cis in Fort Wayne partnered with the Fort The Illinois State Uni- Wayne Astronomical Society for a Pluto Cel- versity Planetarium in ebration featuring two evening events of pre- Normal continues to sentations, Pluto fly-by day events, and public make improvements telescope viewing. as they celebrate their Michigan. In late-July at the University of golden anniversary. The Michigan in Ann Arbor, the first concrete was staff replaced aging lu- poured for a new biological science building, miline dome lights with which includes the new museum of natural an East Coast Control history. The current Ruthven Museum will go Systems’ Pleiades LED dark sometime in 2018. cove lighting system. The Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State In June, visitors to University hosted their first (and expected to the Dome Planetari- be annual) Star Safari, when they collaborated CASC: A multi-faceted lunar and planetary conjunction in front of the um at the Peoria Riv- with the Potter Park Zoo to have animals vis- Geocentre, on the morning of 9 October 2015, with Cabot Tower visi- erfront Museum got to it while doing a special star talk about animal ble in the background. Courtesy of Garry Dymond.

68 Planetarian December 2015 Creighton will present two new in-house programs featuring iconic movie moments in sci- fi and gravitational waves. The Wausau School District Planetarium and Director Chris Janssen are the happy re- cipients of a $230,000 grant from the Walter Alexander Foundation to modernize its theater and internal technology in the next two years. The Charles Horwitz Planetarium in Waukesha, Wisconsin offered public sky shows for the annual Apple Harvest Festival at GLPA: Top, Creating Relevant Ed- the Retzer Nature Center. ucation in Astronomy Through Ex- Lights, Camera, CREATE! Teenagers’ Guide to perience at the Soref Planetarium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. the Galaxy is the new show from the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium in Milwaukee. The show Right, Renae Kerrigan with her was created by Milwaukee-area students un- class Science is for Girls. Each der a grant from NASA that was used to form week the girls study a female sci- CREATE (Creating Relevant Education in entist and do an experiment or activity based on her work. Photo Astronomy Through Experience). courtesy Peoria Riverfront Muse- The University of Minnesota president has um, Illinois. recommended an increase of $6.725 million to complete a new Bell Museum of Natural His- tory and Planetarium on the St. Paul campus. The new building will open in 2018. The Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium at the University of Minnesota-Duluth has a new planetarium director (Marc Seigar, a new program director (James Rock, a new portable and STEM Camps. Sadly, Fran was recently let constellations. Planetarium Director Shannon planetarium dome from The Elumenati, and a go by the center in a cost-saving measure. The Schmoll traveled to Chile as part of the As- GeoDome Theater system. tronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Pro- planetarium’s future is uncertain. On his summer travels, Bowling Green State gram. Middle Atlantic Planetarium University’s Dale Smith stopped in at the The Longway Planetarium in Flint re- Society Northern Lights Centre Planetarium in Wat- opened on 30 May with a new Digistar 5. They The society has seen a growth with new son Lake, Yukon, which is one of the most iso- stripped out the old dome and rebuilt the theaters, including the host of the upcom- lated facilities in the world. The planetarium planetarium from the ground up. They’re now ing annual conference on 27-30 July 2016: the features programs about the northern lights, running a 4K system on the new 30,000-lu- James E. Richmond Science Center for Charles which are a regular winter sight. men Christie Boxer projectors. County Public Schools, Maryland. The James Wisconsin/Minnesota. The Gary E. Ohio. Jeanne Bishop had a great experi- E. Richmond Science Center is a focal point Sampson Planetarium at Wauwatosa West ence giving programs this summer to pre- of St. Charles High School. The science center High School added fulldome video projection K to eighth grade students at her Westlake includes a state-of-the-art 60-ft, 184-seat digi- capabilities in August. Ash Enterprises cleaned School system’s Link Summer Camp. tal dome classroom, a 6-ft NOAA Science On and painted the dome and The Elumenati in- The Smith Middle School Planetarium in a Sphere®, and an experiential learning cen- stalled a GeoDome Evolver projection system. Vandalia concluded a successful school year ter, or discovery lab. Members look forward to The UW-Milwaukee Manfred Olson Plane- in May with their annual Cosmic Jams music being welcomed by the recent addition to the tarium received an internal grant to purchase show and a Star Search Badge Night for scouts. community! On Put-in-Bay, Gene Zajac, Jay Reynolds, Su- UNIVIEW software. This fall, Director Jean Work is continuing to update the website zie Dills, and Jackie Taylor of the Lake Erie Is- lands Nature & Wildlife Center hosted the Miller Ferry and Nature Center stargazing cruise in July for 188 people. Gene had three MAPS: New Horizons Educa- other Plutopalooza events and a Perseid mete- tors enjoy chatting with As- trophysicist Fran Bagenal or public viewing event. during Pluto Encounter activ- The Ritter Planetarium at the University of ities. From left: Patty Seaton, Toledo has renovated the Brooks Observatory Bagenal, April Whitt and and installed a new Celestron 14 Edge HD on a Alex Eilers. See next page for robotic Paramount GEM. more details. Photo provided by Patty Seaton. The Appold Planetarium at Lourdes Uni- versity in Sylvania, which has a new digital projector from Spitz, recently offered a very popular show called Hubble@25. At the Lake Erie Nature and Science Cen- ter’s Schuele Planetarium, Fran Rifici Ratka was busy this summer with Rocket Camps

December 2015 Planetarian 69 the exhibit hall in 2016. The computer-based kiosk IRIS Active Earth Monitor (www.iris. MAPS: Patty Seaton at edu), allows K–12 students and public guests her poetry table to interact with science content in a new way, at the public Pluto learning how and why Earth’s seismic activi- Palooza event hosted by ty is studied. the Johns Hopkins Guests interact with the kiosk using a touch University. Courtesy of screen, mouse, or trackball. Over 700 teachers, Patty Seaton. more than 200 students, and more than 150 national parks and science museums have already benefited from the program and the Noble Planetarium is happy to be part of the next group to join. The planetarium was selected for participation in a program that enables the kiosk to work for NASA’s InSight Mission to Mars (in- to keep members current on all regional ac- W.A. Gayle Planetarium in Montgomery, Al- sight.jpl.nasa.gov/home.cfm). Through the tivities. Membership input is encouraged and abama. upcoming year planetarium staff will collect the society seeks to feature a different plane- WAC, the coalition of the four western re- images, videos, and animations as well as write tarium each season in order to keep each oth- gions of the U.S., has agreed to a joint confer- text and create storyboards to streamline con- er appraised of what’s happening under the ence in 2016. SEPA recognizes that the success tent and information as new discoveries are domes! See www.mapsplanetarium.org to fol- of regional conferences is in a large part direct- made—approaching the project asking the low MAPS. ly attributed to the support they receive from question the InSight team will ask. This summer, former President Patty the vendors/sponsors year after year. We rec- Sarah Twidal of Fort Worth Museum of Sci- Seaton participated, along with the New Ho- ognize, particularly in IPS conference years, ence and History explained “We are very ex- rizons Educators (NHE), in the Pluto Encoun- that vendor/sponsors sometimes incur over- cited to be taking part in this program and ter activities hosted at the Johns Hopkins Uni- seas travel expenses, and that their tradeshow look forward to what the InSight data will do versity Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, dollars must be allocated prudently. SEPA both for scientists as well as teaching students Maryland. (as well as WAC) is attempting to help less- of all ages about the solar system.” Patty reports that this was one of the most en the 2016 conference financial burdens for At the Perot Museum of Nature and Science exciting weeks of her life; the joy of being our vendors/sponsors as well as delegates, rec- in Dallas, Texas, students explore the search around the mission scientists as they celebrat- ognizing there is economy of scale with joint for life in the search for water in the solar sys- ed the fruit of their hard work was contagious! conferences. tem. In June astronomers captured Pluto’s oc- She and the NHE staffed a photo-op table ear- Look for specific conference information in cultation of a star to better observe its atmo- ly in the week during the press activities. The the next issue of Planetarian. sphere. The center point of the shadow fell table included models of the New Horizons Looking ahead to the 21 August 2017 total over water, but SOFIA’s mobility allowed as- spacecraft turned into hats. solar eclipse, SEPA has created an opportunity tronomer to observe the “central-flash” off Her personal highlights were talking with for eclipse chasers. The eclipse centerline runs the coast of New Zealand. Co-Investigators/Deputy Project Scientists thru Land Between the Lakes National Monu- Weeks later, the Multispectral Visual Imag- Kimbery Ennico Smith, Leslie Young, and ment. Lake Barkley State Resort Park is located ing Camera onboard New Horizons captured Cathy Olkin; Astrophysicist Fran Bagenal; and within Land Between the Lakes and contains back-lit views of Pluto, revealing distinctive Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman. a conference center. The center features 120 layers in the nitrogen atmosphere. Addition- “Actually, Dr. Leslie Young and I joined rooms, suites, executive cottages, and log cab- al images from New Horizons allow students hands and started jumping up and down yell- ins. There are also meeting facilities. to explore similarities of Pluto and Earth. Low ing, ‘Pluto! Pluto! Pluto!’ It was fabulous to The entire conference center has been re- level fog clinging to topographical features think that such a brilliant scientist was not served by SEPA. The accommodations are suggests changing weather. Pluto’s weather afraid to share her pure joy for this mission. I available to SEPA members on a priority basis. provides young students, ages 5-7 years, mate- also really enjoyed talking with Cathy Olkin; Remaining accommodations will be opened rial to discuss weather terminology. we spent a few minutes talking about teach- up to the general public on an as-yet unspec- Additionally, nitrogen glacial cycles on Plu- ing engineering to students, and then just ified date. to may be similar to cycles found at in the chatted about our children,” Patty Seaton ex- For membership or general information flow of Earth’s polar regions. claimed, as she reaches her exclamation point about SEPA, please visit the recently restruc- Students’ excitement over news of season- cutoff! tured website at www.sepadomes.org. al water flow on Mars encourages discussion The Saturday after the Pluto Encounter, about upcoming missions to the red planet. In Patty Seaton participated in the Pluto Palooza Southwestern Association planetarium programs for 10- to 12-year-old event hosted primarily by the New Horizons of Planetariums students, Martian geography and climate are Educators. She ran a table encouraging people Congratulations to Dr. Mark S. Sonntag at compared with that of Earth and at the end to write Pluto poetry. Angelo State University Planetarium, San An- of the program students may examine rego- gelo, Texas. He is retiring at the end of the lith simulant. Southeastern Planetarium school year after 31 years in the planetarium. Congratulations to Torvald Hessel and the Association Aside from Dr. Sonntag’s current teaching and staff at Texas Museum of Science & Technol- SEPA has adjusted its 2016 conference dates planetarium duties, his work includes a pro- ogy on the Planetarium’s Gala Opening in Ce- from its usual mid-June period, to 31 May posal for new observatories. dar Park, Texas. Astronomers of all ages are thru 4 June. This separates SEPA from IPS by At the Noble Planetarium in Fort Worth, now able to visit the museum for an out-of- 3 weeks. SEPA will host its conference at the Texas, an exciting new addition is coming to this-world experience in the planetarium.

70 Planetarian December 2015 SWAP: SOFIA 3-D. Courtesy of Amy Barraclough.

At the planetarium at the University of Texas at Arlington, a new active stereo 3-D show will transform learning for students and planetarium visitors interested in exploring the mysteries of our galaxy and beyond. The AMPAC: Aerial view of the planetario de Cozumel. Courtesy of Consejo Quinatar- planetarium, which is part of the UT Arling- roense de Ciencia y Tecnología. ton College of Science, will soon begin public showings of SOFIA 3-D, a short science film ton, and this film is directly aligned with our eral public, especially children, about their based on NASA’s research and outreach mis- overall goal of enhancing and fostering sci- research work; and a virtual reality hall. sion, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared ence education,” Cuntz said. Amongst its exhibits, a hall is devoted to wa- Astronomy, or SOFIA. The 3.5-minute film A software upgrade in 2012 provided a Digi- ter resources and a center for nature interpre- will also be shown prior to other future doc- star 5 projection system, which allows visitors tation to exhibit and share knowledge on en- umentaries. to virtually fly from one location to anoth- demic plants and herbs. The Cha´an Kaán is The NASA project has many goals, includ- er on Earth. The system also contains a com- the third planetarium in the State of Quintana ing the study of atmospheres of planets in the prehensive set of astronomical data. The latest Roo and, for the island of Cozumel, it will be solar system, such as Mars, and the study of additions use active stereo glasses to ”see” 3-D another great attraction not only for the local comets. During its planned 20-year lifetime, video on the immersive dome screen. population but for tourists as well. SOFIA also hopes to inspire the development The technology created several challenges Milagros Varguez, Cozumel Planetarium of new scientific instrumentation and nur- for the development team to overcome. Cre- director, was set to host the II International ture the education of young scientists and en- ating content in 3-D required more powerful Planetarium Festival and AMPAC’s meeting gineers. computers than previously used for content on 1-4 December 2015. “It has taken several years, but we are production. Planetarium program coordi- The Torreon Planetarium has inaugurated thrilled that we are finally able to introduce nator Amy Barraclough and director Levent a new observation tower, 6 meters in diame- this significant film to the public,” said Man- Gurdemir spent several months working to ter, hosting a large 10-in apochromatic refrac- fred Cuntz, a professor in the UTA Depart- procure enough computers and hardware tion telescope, thus becoming the largest in ment of Physics and principal investigator on to begin rendering video in 3-D. “Additional the country for public viewing. an $88,000 grant from NASA, which, among challenges with software compatibility had other activities funded the production of the to be managed as wel,l” Gurdemir explained. film and equipment needed to install, test and Russian Planetarium Association “Content is now created on 16 virtual servers Kaluga. The planetarium at the History produce content for the 3-D projection sys- controlled by one master computer, and this of Cosmonautic Museum started something tem. all means an even stronger experience for pa- new at the beginning of summer. Called “At- “Studies of Mars are pivotal for many rea- trons of all ages.” The film SOFIA 3-D is expect- tentive spectator,” every visitor could win up sons, including that Mars may have harbored ed to be available for public showings starting to three entrance freebies. For this purpose it or is still harboring alien life. Comets are im- in December. was necessary to buy a ticket for a competi- portant because they represent the leftovers tive session on Wednesday and Saturday in from the beginning of the Solar System, and the evening and to answer questions placed may provide clues to the physical and chemi- Association of Mexican on a web-site. cal conditions within the nebula out of which Planetariums On 20 August 2015 the Cozumel Planetar- Moscow region. The XII International Air- our Solar System was formed,” Cuntz said. ium was inaugurated, named Cha’an Ka’an, space saloon MAKS-2015 took place in Zhu- “This aspect will also be helpful to the study Mayan for “observe” or “enjoy the heavens.” kovsky on 25-30 August. M. Kazantseva, direc- of planet formation around stars other than It is equipped with an Evans & Sutherland Di- tor of Lytkarino Planetarium, visited the air the Sun, as well as to obtaining insight into gistar 5 projector with a full 3-D immersion show and took part in the round table discus- the origin of life.” system, and a 12-m, 15° tilted dome with a 95- sion “Modern role of museums of cosmonau- In 2009, planetarium staff developed Un- seat capacity. For more information see: www. tics, planetariums and establishments of addi- seen Universe: Vision of SOFIA as a full- planetariodecozumel.org. tional education in the field of maintenance length documentary, which is available to lo- The facility has an observatory; two class- of the heritage and popularization of achieve- cal schools free of charge. “We are engaged in rooms for workshops; an auditorium where ments of home cosmonautics.” Participants multiple SOFIA-related efforts at UT Arling- science researchers may lecture to the gen- shared the experience with young people, pre-

December 2015 Planetarian 71 sented in one place for the first time. A planetarium was presented in the zone of innova- tions. All interested persons were able to attend the programs in the mobile planetarium to learn about gravitational interaction between objects, to participate in practical experience on physics, and to independently watch the sun through telescopes. Vladimir. The students of a nearby child’s club participated in the competition of pictures on asphalt called My Space House on the celebration of the Day of Children’s Defense of 1 June. The Vladimir planetarium took part in the celebration of the Day of the RPA: Top, Marina Kazantseva at the exhi- City on 29-30 August. The cognitive bition of air ships. Courtesy of Serguey programs greeted guests in front of the Koshel. Right, top: Signs reading: “I am a gas giant. All will be. Simply breathe. planetarium. Everybody could com- Hello, Peter! I am Jupiter! I got here. I am plete rebuses with the in cipher names wonderful.”Courtesy of Saint Petersburg of constellations, find scientists and Planetarium. cosmonauts on photos, and correct errors of the unknown artist and constel- NPA: Right, bottom: Group photo by the lations on a map. lake, in front of the Haltia Nature Center. Courtesy of Timo Suvanto. Far right: In- The children with parents and em- flatable dome at Rosborg Gymnasium. ployees of the planetarium laid out Courtesy of Ole Aakjær. large famous constellations on the grass outside of the planetarium. Some sented interesting educational proj- of them took part in a masterclass on ects, and discussed problems in astron- plastilinography and collected puzzles omy and cosmonautic education. on the topic of the solar system. And it Nizhny Novgorod. The regional was possible to admire the moon in the science festival was held on 19-27 Sep- tember in different facilities. The planetarium organized the performances of scientists within the framework of the festival. Professors from Moscow gave the following lectures: A. Chernin, ”Dark energy around us;” and D. Vibe, ”The nights of observations. The sky was clear birth of stars and planets and where do as- only one night, but it was a big success! tronomers know it from?” Observations of Twenty telescopes looked in the sky and the night sky were conducted as well on some focused on interesting objects. evenings. The command of experienced observ- Colleagues congratulated Zina Sitkova in ers from Kazakhstan flashed mastery. August with the 40th anniversary of her work They managed the main 500-mm Dob- in the same planetarium. sonian telescope, made by the local com- Novosibirsk. The X Siberian Astronomi- pany Astrosib. A few photographers ac- cal Forum “SibAstro” (www.sibastro.ru) took cumulated their photons on the matrices of evening in a telescope. place on 18-20 September in the camp on the the telescopes and made participants of the Participants got gifts for correct answers, coast of the Ob Sea. The organizing commit- next day very happy. and the most clever and attentive ones got tee showed once again the link of “school-uni- Saint Petersburg. The summer season was the diploma of “Young Astronomer.” It is pos- versity-production”, oriented to the popular- opened on 18-19 June by the departure of the sible to look at reports and photo-reports on ization of astronomy and to the attraction of Petersburg Mobile Planetarium to the festi- the Vladimir Planetarium website at plan- young people to the field of engineering and val of modern technologies, sciences and arts etarium33.ru and in the group of vk.com/ science. By the way, no fewer than 10 partic- “Geek Picnic 2015: Man-machine.” The partic- club65267155. ipants of previous forums became employees ipants of the magazine club of planetarium of the Novosibirsk planetarium. discussed current topics of physics and astron- Nordic Planetarium Association Schoolchildren arrived in groups of 10 per- omy under the dome. It was possible to learn Finland. More than 40 participants from sons with teachers. There were 150 partici- about exoplanets, the mechanism of the Higgs 15 countries attended the Nordic Planetar- pants this year. They participated in lectures, particle, and gamma-rays. ium Conference in Helsinki in September. observations, and in the competition. Tradi- A festival titled VRontakte took place a Conference host was Kai Santavuori, and the tionally the main prize was a TAL telescope month later on 18-19 July. A great number locations were Heureka Science Centre, Hel- manufactured by the local firm Schwaber. of interesting internet associations, speakers, sinki University Observatory, and the Hal- Friday to Sunday, the forum included two musical groups, and organizations were pre- (Continues on page 74)

72 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 73 tia Nature Center out at the beautiful SGSP: Top, a view into the modernized Lake Pitkäjärvi. Lectures, talks, demon- dome of the Planetarium Mannheim: A strations and lively discussions of best Zeiss Velvet system, operating togeth- practices took place in the three days of er with the Universarium model IX star ball, and new seats. Photo courtesy Chris- the meeting. tian Theis. Below: Expansion work begins Denmark. Twelve 12 planetariums, at Planetarium Hamburg, September 2015. science centres, and museum in col- Courtesy by Planetarium Hamburg. laboration made special events on the launch of the first Danish astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, to the ISS on 2 Sep- the planetarium dome. The upgrade will tember. Thousands of primary and sec- conclude with the installation of a new ondary school and public guests as well 6k Zeiss powerdome fulldome system, to- followed the launch and many institu- gether with production capabilities and tions had invited space experts to an- an improved sound system. Reopening is swer questions from the audience. expected in spring 2016. Rosborg Gymnasium, Vejle has ac- Hamburg. Planetarium Hamburg cel- quired an inflatable planetarium. The ebrated a grand finale in July before it diameter of the dome is 7 m and it closed for expansion work. These Last was acquired from Cosmodome, Aus- Nights of the Stars featured many live art- tralia. Stellarium is used for displaying ists and show premieres, including a live the night sky and a plug-in for the VLC event during the Pluto encounter that player makes it possible to show dome connected domes around the world using films. The projecting mechanism is a the first version of the new Open Space mirror that projects the image on to Software. Also featured: the German pre- the dome. miere of Solar Superstorms (Spitz Cre- So far films from ESO have been used, ative Media) and the world premiere of and the high school also has made two Clockwork Ocean, a unique audiovisu- short films with clips from ESO, NASA, and operation desk, the control system, the light- al journey about ocean currents that features ESA. Until now the planetarium has been used ing system (including lasers), the slide projec- research by the Helmholtz Centre for Materi- to teach the astronomy class at the gymnasi- tors, and the previous fulldome system were als and Coastal Research located close to Ham- um (12th grade students), and it also joined the either replaced or completely removed. burg. Danish Science Festival, where eight school The newly-installed fulldome system is a In August the work for the planetarium´s classes from the local area learnt about the 9-channel Zeiss Velvet system with Velvet 7.5 million Euro grand expansion began. Until constellations and the stories from Greek my- 1600 projectors, resulting in a shadow-free, al- the end of 2016, a new entrance at park level thology. most 6k image on the repainted dome. The will be added within the green hill surround- In the winter it is planned to teach 15 class- fulldome system is controlled by the Zeiss ing the historic landmark building, allowing es of 10th grade students about the night sky powerdome III software in combination with much improved access to the building. Also and various phenomena that helped scientists a Sciss Uniview system. Additionally, a sepa- coming: new welcome and pre-show areas, ex- build the correct model for our solar system. rate rendering cluster with 16 nodes, special- hibit spaces, a staff area, lavatories, and new The retrograde motion of Mars will be exam- ly configured for 2-D and 3-D renderings, has elevators to the theater and the observation ined and students will look into how you can been installed. deck. In addition, a full-size cafeteria featuring measure the synodic period of the planets. Seating in the 20-m dome got a new hybrid indoor and outdoor seating will be created. Orion Planetarium, Jels premiered its new (semi-concentric) configuration with a stage Even though the main planetarium the- show The Hunt for New Planets in the au- area opposite the operation desk. More com- ater will remain closed until reopening, a tumn school break of October. It focuses on fortable seats, still allowing for tilt and rota- Planetarium Hamburg on Tour program will the transit method to detect exoplanets and tion of the individual seats, were installed in bring the planetarium experience to schools the discoveries of the NASA Kepler mission. the pre-existing concentric rows. The basic and allows for new types of cooperation with orientation of individual seats can be adjust- other institutions in Northern Germany us- Society of the German Speaking ed by 45 degrees. This way, different setups of ing several mobile domes. Planetariums the seating can be realized if necessary. Due Berlin. The Zeiss-Grossplanetarium, one of Refurbishment is under way at many plan- to the fixed position of the rows (defined by the two large domes in Germany’s capital, is etariums. In October this year, four of the larg- the underfloor heating) and due to the new- currently undergoing the largest transforma- est planetariums in Germany were closed for ly-installed stage area, the number of seats de- tion of all planetariums in Germany, receiv- refurbishment works: in Berlin, Hamburg, creased from 277 seats to about 230. Howev- ing a new fulldome projection system, a new Mannheim, and Stuttgart. The first to reopen er, the seating capacity for fulldome shows is star projector, new visitor’s facilities, exhibi- with new capabilities is the planetarium in raised substantially, because in the old con- tion spaces, and much more. Mannheim. centric configuration, more than one third of At the same time as four major planetari- Baden-Württemberg. Planetarium Mann- the seats could not be used for uni-direction- ums are looking into a bright future, the situ- heim reopened in early November with a al shows. ation is dim for many other domes in Germa- Zeiss Velvet fulldome system. Within a short Stuttgart. The Planetarium in Stuttgart is ny. Several German planetariums that mostly period of three months the planetarium com- currently under renovation with partial re- offer school shows used to be run by teach- pletely modernized its projection system. Ex- placement of the building’s infrastructure, ers, who received a few hours per week off cept for the Zeiss Universarium Mk IX pro- including heating and air conditioning, im- their school duty to operate the planetariums. jector, all other components, including the proved fire protection, and a repainting of (Continues on page 76)

74 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 75 This year, the school administrations in many the Serafino Zani Astronomical Observatory German states no longer awarded these “off” in Lumezzane, and the Torre del Sole Obser- hours to the teachers, taking away the possi- vatory and Planetarium in Brembate. In addi- bility to operate the planetariums during the tion to their shadow theater, Dario and Sasha day. spoke about efforts to grow plants on the In- At this time, most affected domes still pres- ternational Space Station and the future proj- ent occasional shows in the evenings, but los- ect of cultivating plants on the Moon and being the largest part of their audiences—school yond. This was the inspiration for their own groups—they are under threat of being closed LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Robot, a lunar gar- down. Currently, the planetariums and the dener, whose mission was to tend to an imag- SGSP are trying together to convince admin- ined moon nursery. The Grand Prize Winners istrations and policy makers to reinstate the of the Moonbots competition won a trip to teachers’ “off” hours. Tokyo in October to meet real Google Lunar XPrize Engineers. Dario and Sasha and Team Italian Association of Planetaria Moonshot were one of four teams for this fi- Last summer, two cousins from opposite nal grand prize. sides of the Atlantic, Sasha (age 10, from Na- Other winners were Team Mecaliks from ples, Italy) and Dario (age 12, from Brooklyn, Mexico, who entered a craft inspired by Ma- New York), participated in a worldwide com- yan cultural beliefs; Team Linked Lunas, competition for kids called Moonbots: A Google prised of twin sisters from the U.S.; and Team Lunar XPrize Challenge with the moon as the GalacTECHS, also from the U.S., who imag- subject of the competition. ined a future when it’s is possible to vacation Like the real Google Lunar XPrize teams, the on the moon. finalists in the Moonbots competition had to On 5 September the “StarLight… a handy EMPA: Most students make their first observa- build and design robots to complete a lunar planetarium” Association managed the sections with the telescopes of the Rijeka Astro- mission, only theirs were made out of Lego, ond Amateur Historical-Archaeological Docu- nomical Center. Courtesy of Rijeka Sport Ltd. Vex IQ, or Meccano. In addition, the Moon- mentary Festival with the Perusia Archaeolog- bots teams had to perform science, technol- ical Group (GAP). The Festival, in which the crescent moon with the naked eye. Partici- ogy, engineering and math outreach in their basic topic was “Light,” was published in the pants also observed the Pleiades cluster with community to teach people about the future international event program of the Interna- binoculars and the Andromeda galaxy with a of space exploration and their own Moonbots tional Year of Light 2015. As a result, there telescope. project. were some participants from the USA, India, European/Mediterranean Plane- tarium Association Croatia. In October the Rijeka Astronomi- cal Centre celebrated World Space Week and its 2015 theme “Discovery” with the introduction in its regular program of the live planetarium show Space Missions. The show highlighted some of the latest and most important discoveries related to the exploration of the solar system, focusing in particular on the discoveries made during 2015 by the New Hori- zons, Messenger, Rosetta, and Dawn space missions. Also as part of the World Space Week activities, the centre hosted a public presentation on the Croatian Space Program, while students from the local schools presented their own projects related to the various distance Moonshot team members Sasha Cipani and Dario Cipani, with Dario’s sister Luna (left) worked togeth- scales in the universe. er online to create their video and then built and programmed one-of-a-kind simulated lunar mission using the LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic platform. Google XPRIZE. On the occasion of Earth Science Week, which also was celebrated in October, the centre presented another live planetarium show Dario and Sasha (calling themselves Team Taiwan, and Spain. titled Ocean Movements: Waves and Tides. Moonshot, the only Italian team of the com- On the concluding evening StarLight orga- During November, the Astronomical Cen- petition) made presentations at three different nized an observation from the top of the me- tre Rijeka showed two more special live observatories not far from Lake Iseo in Lom- dieval Sciri Tower in the center of Perugia. Par- shows, the first to commemorate the launch bardy. They created a shadow puppet theatre ticipants watched a short presentation about into space of the dog Laika onboard the Rus- to retell a story by Italo Calvino called The light on the ground floor and then climbed sian Sputnik 2 and the second dedicated to Distance of the Moon, a fanciful tale about a the 250 stairs to the top of the tower. the Leonid meteor shower. Finally, in Decem- time when the Moon was closer to the Earth. While there was a great deal of light pollu- ber, the regular program was strengthened by They presented at the Specola Cidnea in tion, it was possible to observe the circumpo- yet another live presentation, this time on the Brescia (the oldest public observatory in Italy), lar stars, some boreal constellations, and the (Continues on page 93)

76 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 77 Centre, along with Dr. Piet Helm, a project Data to Dome manager for UTC, coordinated the workshop. The Science & Data Visualization Task Force The first step was a day of discussions with the stakeholders conducted at the Iziko Muse- um. Mark and I presented two high level over- Mark SubbaRao views of the technological requirements in Adler Planetarium terms of hardware and software, along with 1300 South Lake Shore Drive operational and sustainability issues to a va- Chicago, Illinois 60091 USA riety of potential researchers from UTC, Uni- [email protected] versity of Western Cape, Cape Peninsula Uni- versity of Technology, the University of Stellenbosch, the Department of Science and Technology, the South African Astronomical Observatory, the Square Kilometer Array, and the National Research Foundation. The stakeholders were asked how they Guest Columnist which uses active stereo in the would like to use the dome for visualization Shawn Laatsch dome for both public and uni- and research, and during the course of the day Planetarium Director versity uses. a list of requirements was compiled. This was Infoversum The visit to Groningen includ- then put into a matrix exploring the needs for ed a tour of our Reality Center Groningen, Netherlands categories such as shows, lectures, teaching, (RIS) in the Center for Informa- venue hire, and research in numerous fields. [email protected] tion Technology (CIT). This in- Following the matrix of requirements, Dr. [email protected] cluded a visit to the CAVE and Beitz and Dr. Helm organized four days of dis- the curved stereoscopic wall. cussions and exploration of the requirements The Iziko Planetarium in Cape Town, Tom and Theo had a chance to explore these in detail. We explored such technical consid- South Africa has embarked upon a plan to technologies and discuss the fine details of ste- erations as the size of datasets and possible transform their traditional planetarium into reoscopic projection with Dr. Frans van Hoe- query of data, the process of visualizing data a modern digital facility, which will not only sel, who heads the RIS. They were able to look and how researchers interact in this process, serve its school and public audiences in spec- at realtime software used by Frans for these the shelf life and ongoing operations costs of tacular new ways but also be a cutting-edge environments and the ways that university the technology (computers, video projectors, theater for university research and visualiza- researchers em- tion. The upgrade is being made possible by ploy them in vi- a unique partnership between the Iziko Mu- sualization. The Iziko Planetarium seums of South Africa and the University of The RIS has a Cape Town. As part of the process to evalu- close partnership ate the facility requirements for both entities, with Infoversum they started to explore other digital planetar- for creating visu- iums and contacted the IPS Science and Data als for our dome, Visualization Task Force for assistance. and they saw one During mid-May of 2015, Professor Tom Jar- of the projects rett from the University of Cape Town Astro- where Fran and physics Department was visiting the Universi- his department ty of Groningen to present a colloquium and worked with the asked to visit Infoversum to look at how our University Medi- digital theater was planned and the ways the cal Center Gron- university here was using it for science visu- ingen (UMCG) alization. to develop a ste- He brought Theo Ferreira , manager of the reoscopic playback visualization of a cut- graphics cards), requirements for rendering Iziko Planetarium, with him to explore the ting-edge surgical procedure where a lower leg raw data, and how the research will affect the technology and the operational side of digi- bone is used to replace a destroyed jaw bone. regular planetarium operations. tal domes. One of the key concerns that Theo This visualization was used by UMCG during had was the smooth transition between the a conference held at Infoversum on facial sur- Matrix and recommendations normal public and school operations that gery and used models as well as real imagery. Out of this process we came up with a com- Iziko Planetarium conducts and the future re- pleted matrix and recommendations for the search portion that would enable the upgrade Return visit to Cape Town facility. Some key items in this were having of the dome there. In July, Dr. Mark SubbaRao and I were in- two computing clusters: one for visualiza- We discussed options for this and also the vited to visit Cape Town and conduct a work- tion research applications, which is a “sand- ways in which researchers had interacted shop with the University of Cape Town (UTC) box” where experimentation is encouraged with the dome. Another key item for both to explore what the Iziko Planetarium needed and testing is conducted; and one for ongo- Tom and Theo was whether or not to include to become a modern digital research facility ing “operations” that is used for public and stereoscopic projection as part of the research while continuing the facility’s rich tradition school presentations. Having two clusters en- component. During the visit we explored 2D of serving schools and the public. Anthony sures stable programming will not be affected and stereoscopic projection at Infoversum, Beitz, who is the Director of their eResearch (Continues on page 92)

78 Planetarian December 2015 7

December 2015 Planetarian 79 Mobile News

Susan Reynolds Button Quarks to Clusters 8793 Horseshoe Lane Chittenango, New York 13037 USA +1 315-687-5371 [email protected] quarkstoclusters.wordpress.com

LIPS 2015 The fifth LIPS gathering occurred in late Mark Webb, and “Best Practices for Education September at the California Academy of Sci- Theory and Museum Learning” by Shannon ences in San Francisco, California. As usual, Schmoll. I was so very happy to meet Von Del again! LIPS attendees specifically focused on live, A fourth GLIPSA day will be held at the Photo provided by Susan Button interactive planetarium lessons: connect- 2016 Great Lakes Planetarium Association ing with audiences, enhancing performance Conference, scheduled or October 19-22 in skills, classroom management techniques, Flint, Michigan at the Longway Planetrium. tarium, one of the most famous planetar- sample activities and more. iums in the world This time the 22 different sessions were pre- A special treat at GLPA •• Renowned for his knowledge of Native sented to 40 attendees. Go to lipsymposium. I have to say the biggest thrill for me at this American astronomy org/LIPS/sessions?page=1 to see a description conference was having time to get to know •• A moving force behind establishing as- of each of the sessions. And go to lipsympo- Von Del Chamberlain a bit better and hearing tronomy and sky watch programs in the sium.org/LIPS/node/48 to find complete doc- him reminisce about the early days of plane- •• National Parks uments for some of the presentations from tariums and the formation of GLPA. •• A leader in meteorite investigation this and previous LIPS events. If you don’t know about Von Del Chamber- I first met Von Del at the 1992 IPS Confer- LIPS 2016 will be hosted by Spitz, Inc., lo- lain, the following is a brief summary that was ence in Utah. I was immediately taken with cated in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, about 45 listed in our conference guide: his charm, knowledge, and his entrancing sto- minutes west of Philadelphia. In 1963, Von Del Chamberlain, who was rytelling and flute playing! I am so delighted then a staff astronomer at Longway Planetari- that my husband Tom and I got to meet him Third annual GLIPSA day um in Flint, Michigan, noticed that most plan- again! On the day before the exciting Great Lakes etariums were operating in a vacuum, with Planetarium Associations’ 50th anniversary no interaction among staffs at various institu- Looking for great deals? conference, the third GLIPSA (merge GLPA tions. So, he did something about it. As a re- I recently learned from Ken Miller that and LIPS and you get GLIPSA) meeting was sult, Von Del is: GOTO Inc. is having a closing out sale! He re- held in the Grand Rapids Public Museum in •• The primary founder of GLPA ports that the few remaining GOTO EX 3 and Grand Rapids, Michigan. This wonderful day •• The primary founder of IPS E-5 projectors will be sold at a deep discount. of live interactive sessions included the fol- •• The originator of the first graduate de- Contact Ken Mill immediately for details. lowing presentations: a keynote session with gree program in planetarium education Phone: 1-317-537-2806; email: gotousa@earth- the Grand Rapids Civic Theater (improvisa- •• (Michigan State University) link.net tion techniques, other presentation skills), •• The first director of the National Plane- And contact John Hare if you are interested “Physics in the Planetarium” by Dave Brad- tarium at the Air and Space Museum in in any salvageable planetarium systems that street, “Meeting NGSS in the Planetarium” by •• Washington, D.C. he may run across when replacing old equip- Buck Batson, “Audience Response System” by •• The former director of the Hansen Plane- ment with new systems. If he knows you are looking he will keep you in mind. johnhare@ earthlink.net

And the winner is: Congratulations to Stephen Case, assistant professor and director of Strickler Planetari- Mythology With a New Twist: Su- um at Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbon- san Button shared another way of in- nais, Illinois), who has been selected as the volving the audience in an affective winner of this year’s contest. way, while using “minds-on” and even “hands-on” techniques using mythol- He will travel to Italy in the spring of 2016 ogy as the content material and then to present his lesson “How Do We Know What developing a ritual around it. Taking We Know about the Stars?” Students will part are Karl von Ahnen (center) and learn to identify stellar properties of distance, Ronn Kistler. Photo by Ian McLennan. mass, and chemical composition; discover the meaning of the terms parallax, binary stars, and spectroscopy; discuss the methods of sci-

80 Planetarian December 2015 entific discovery used Indeed, the aforementioned location sparked back corner of the room. in stellar astronomy; a life-long interest in science—specifically as- “In 2007, a small enthusiastic group of peo- and also enjoy some tronomy—plus exciting ways to share these ple from the Maryvale School District formed of his storytelling ex- natural wonders with individuals of all ages. a planetarium steering committee with one pertise. His proposed “Since April new light pierces the darkness goal: bring back life and excitement to their teacher presentation while people fill the seats, music percolates planetarium facility. I was fortunate to at- is called “Observation through the air and light from the stars—LED tend a meeting this spring where I shared my and Evidence in the stars—fills the dome once more! thoughts about current trends in the field and Stars: A Tool for the “If we turn back the pages of time, we learn how I could possibly help guide the commit- Scientific Method and that the planetarium was the only permanent tee to a planetarium projector solution. History of Science” installation in a middle school in the coun- “Present at that meeting was Michael Steven Case I know Steven will ty of Erie of the state of New York. The orig- Swords, Maryvale School District’s director of enjoy working with inal schematics are from Nova Laboratories, Community Education. I informed the com- Italian students, teachers and the public and Union Hill Park, West Conshohocken, Penn- mittee that stars could shine without further I look forward to his final report of the expe- sylvania and date back to August 1963. ado with equipment I already had for my por- rience! “The planetarium was built in the mid- table system. Mike Swords called me aside Meanwhile, we will be looking for appli- 1960’s, probably in 1966 or 1967, and Maryvale and together we chatted about student/adult cations for 2017. Start planning now; remem- faculty member Richard Kelsey of Hamburg, community education classes that could be ber the deadline is 15 September 2016! For the New York was instrumental in acquiring the offered immediately! rules of the contest please look here: www.ips- district’s unique tool for students’ visual im- “Tuesday, April 14, 2015 begin a series of planetarium.org/?page=portablecom mersion into earth science and astronomy two-week planetarium short courses through content. Mike Swords and Maryvale Community Edu- A planetarium give new life “Today still hangs the 20’ (2.7 meter) solid fication program. Topics presented to many ea- Paul J. Krupinski, director and owner of Mr. berglass dome from the main floor into a con- ger and curious individuals of the community K’s Mobile Dome Planetarium, shared this crete block basement room with little or no included “Discovering the Spring Sky: Featur- good news from MAPS territory: cove space and no dome access. Centered for ing Leo and the Big Dipper;” “The Lives of the I“In the basement of the Maryvale Middle decades was a Spitz Nova III brute-force incan- Stars; Exploring Frontier Worlds: Featuring School sits a small 20’ planetarium dome that descent lamp star projector. Interest waned in Pluto and the Kupier Belt;” “Worlds Beyond went dark nearly a decade ago. Interestingly, the planetarium since the historic Spitz ma- Our Solar System: A Search for Earth-like Plan- it’s the same planetarium where I first fell in chine was unable to project indoor stars and ets;” “Seasons, Eclipses, the Autumn Sky and love with the stars in Mr. Kelsey’s 8th grade was thus removed from its rightful place… Satellites of the Solar System: Featuring the earth science class as an awkward teenager. now sitting quietly against the wall in the (Continues on page 82)

December 2015 Planetarian 81 (Fulldome, continued from page 67) MORPHOS premieres in Colorado sual exploration of blackness in the growing enlightening demonstration of high-resolu- On October 18, BETA emerging technolo- world of digital immersive art; and Solongo tion and bright fulldome projection. E&S in- gy arts and Fort Collins Museum of Discovery Tserenkhand, who showed a fusion of West- stalled a temporary 8K Digistar 5 system using presented MORPHOS, an immersive audio-vi- ern and Eastern themes depicting the merger five 30,000 lumen Christie Boxer projectors as sual experience. Highlighting work from six of two diverse cultures. a follow-up to the 2014 GSCA Digital Dome international artists-in-residence, plus a reel Demo at the Science Museum of Virginia. of international artwork curated by Ethan ASTC Montreal Also at that event, E&S presented a first-of-its- Bach and Ben Gondrez, this unique 360-de- Fulldome featured prominently at three kind split screen comparison between 15/70 gree digital dome theater experience took panels at the Association of Science-Tech- film and 8K digital on a dome. Colorado audiences on a digital journey as art nology Centers October meeting in Montre- This year, E&S demonstrated a wealth of became life in the immersive world. al, Quebec. content produced in 8K, trailers converted Featured artists included: Oscar Sol, pre- Beyond the Dome: Planetariums and Astron- from giant screen film, fulldome 3D stereo, senting Quadrivium, a generative realtime omy Education in the 21st Century looked at inset DCI projection, and real-time computer performance with high levels of synchron- the traditional and emerging practices in the graphics. Delegates overwhelmingly praised icity with sound and complex geometric 3D dome. Session leader was Dan Neafus, Gates the clarity and brightness of the system and models; Dan Bruce Arnold and Rich Clem- Planetarium operations manager, Denver its viability as a replacement for 15/70 film ents, who presented Murmuration of Light, a Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO, in a dome theater. Read more about the Oc- sculpture made with light, created as a site- with presenters: Kaylan Petrie, Washington tober 2014 GSCA Digital Dome Demo (www. specific installation; Daniel Wiklund’s Hyp- State University, Pullman, WA; KaChun Yu, es.com/news/featured/2015/2015-01-21.aspx) norama3D, a hypnotic journey through the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, and this year’s GSCA Dome Day event (www. strange molecular world of allergic reactions; CO; and Ryan Wyatt, California Academy of es.com/news/featured/2015/2015-10-01.aspx). Omolara Abode’s Omorado, a mash-up of dig- Sciences, San Francisco, CA. The group pre- Also during Dome Day, Greg MacGillivray ital images performed as an abstract audio-vi- sented a lively and participatory exploration examined a series of film clips that were pur- of research and examples of dome experienc- posefully shot for an enhanced dome experi- es that enhance learning. They demonstrat- ence, in a presentation called “How I Stopped (Mobile, continued from page 81) ed a strong benefit from correlating in-dome Worrying and Learned to Love the Dome.” Ice Moons Eu- and out-of-dome activities to enhance scien- He discussed the advantages and opportuni- ropa and Ence- tific understanding. ties offered by the “half dome” so many of us ladus.” Eclipse 2017: Engaging Classrooms, Libraries, work under, and talked about technical issues “With the Individuals, and Planetariums in a Solar Eclipse. face by fulldome producers. original star Twice in the next 10 years (2017 and 2024) machine side- a total solar eclipse will sweep across North Upcoming Immersive Events lined, I’d arrive America. Millions will see a good partial 2016 is already shaping up to be quite a early to set-up eclipse by practicing safe observation tech- busy year for fulldome festivals and meet- my LED star niques, but millions more could also experi- ings. The IMERSA Summit—Exploring the Im- projector, with ence totality. This session explored the chal- mersive Universe—will be held at the Denver various cylin- lenges and opportunities presented by such a Museum of Nature and Science, March 16-20, ders, video pro- wide-ranging natural spectacle. Session leader 2016. Check out IMERSA.org for more infor- jector, laptop was Philip Groce, Helping Planetariums Suc- mation. computer and ceed, Macon, GA, and presenters were Todd If you’ve got a month to spend in Europe small speakers. Slisher, Longway Planetarium, Flint, MI, and next summer, you can start out with the Jena Each two-hour Martin Ratcliffe, Sky-Skan, Inc. Fulldome Festival. The theme is “Frameless session has cur- Paul J. Krupinski Whither the Planetarium: Various Futures Frenzy,” and the festivities run from May 25- rent events, a topical astronomy lesson and for Digital Domes examined how the full- 28. Check their website (fulldome-festival.de) star show. Many enthusiasts have attended dome revolution has altered planetarium’s for submission and attendance information. each class, becoming sky experts, and are able role within its “home” museum. With this Two weeks later, the IPS Fulldome Festi- to locate Arcturus, Spica, Polaris, Leo, the Sum- (healthy) identity crisis come questions. val Brno runs June 15-17, 2015, in Brno in the mer Triangle, Saturn, M31, the Great Square, What are the dynamics when a dome focus- Czech Republic. It promises three days of full- plus much more! es on earth and life sciences over astronomy? dome films, meetings with producers and “But wait: there’s more! Excitement and an- What’s the role of live programming in the planetarians, and other events. Their website ticipation grows at the Cheektowaga school, digital world? What about star machines in (www.fulldomefestivalbrno.com) has more thanks to the Maryvale Board of Education this world? Session leader for this discussion information about attendance, submissions, and dedicated persistence of the steering com- was Mike Shanahan, Director of Visitor Expe- and sponsorship. mittee. Why, you may ask? Well, on October rience and Planetarium, Bernice Pauahi Bish- On the heels of the Brno Festival comes the 19, 2015 a new high-tech digital projector was op Museum, Honolulu, with presenters Toshi IPS conference in Warsaw, Poland, June 19-23, scheduled to ship to western New York, bring- Komatsu, Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, 2016, with its promise of shows, talks, lectures, ing Maryvale’s planetarium into the 21st cen- CA; and Ryan Wyatt, California Academy of Carolyn Collins Petersen is Communications tury! Sciences, San Francisco, Callifornia. Coordinator for IMERSA and CEO of Loch Ness “Someday in the near future, faculty and Productions. She writes and edits this column students in the building won’t have to walk Dome Day at GSCA, San Jose with input from fulldome pros around the by room 141A and ask, ‘Is there really a plan- On September 12, during the Giant Screen world. Carolyn can be reached at carolyn@ etarium behind that door?’ Soon we can say, Cinema Association’s Dome Day, a capacity imersa.org or carolyn@lochnessproductions. com. ‘Follow me and let’s find out!’” I crowd at the Tech Museum dome enjoyed an

82 Planetarian December 2015 emotional education

December 2015 Planetarian 83 of the cosmic microwave background. They Seeking What Works made the discovery announcement even before publication. Alan Guth, author of cosmo- The IPS Education Committee logical inflation, announced that the discovery was worthy of the Nobel Prize. Jeanne E. Bishop But by a few months later, peer review had Westlake Schools Planetarium cast serious doubt on the discovery. Scientists 24525 Hilliard Road pointed to the effect of galactic dust, which Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA probably led to a wrong conclusion. To be ac- 440-871-5293 curate with our audiences during an ongo- [email protected] ing scientific debate about a possible important astronomical discovery, we need to keep abreast of what is happening—the significance of the discovery if it is confirmed, interpreta- tion of data, and awareness of what new data Accuracy in the Planetarium terchange rotation and revolution with other will be needed for universal acceptance. I think that the topic of accuracy is appro- space bodies and situations. For instance, cor- Without understanding how we learn, es- priate to discuss in this education column. rect use of rotation and revolution is found pecially an abstract concept that requires ob- Many considerations are important in the in the sentence, “The sun revolves about the servation, critical thinking, and ability to preparation of programs, but I think that ac- center of the Milky Way, while the galaxy as a combine perspectives, we may inadvertent- curacy, in a non-fictional situation, should be whole rotates,” which I have heard instead as ly promote misconceptions. If the presenta- foremost. “The sun rotates about the center of the Milky tion discussion is higher than the brain devel- A planetarium is one of the first places in- Way, while the galaxy as a while revolves.” opment level of the group, children will pick dividuals and media contact or attend in or- New information replaces old, and plan- up some phrases and use them to construct a der to learn astronomical information. We etarians need to keep up with those current wrong idea. need to earn the trust that schools, media, and confirmed discoveries. Astronomers once be- A child who is about 8-10 years old normal- lieved that the gas surround the stars of the the public in general place in us. If we do not ly can understand the seasons as seen from Pleiades was remnant gas left from the forma- present information accurately, two things the out-in-space perspective, the type of per- tion of these stars; after all, doesn’t it appear can occur: 1) Some students and other attend- spective that an orrery model provides. Also, that way in the beautiful photographs of the ees learn incorrect ideas, and 2) Some people the 10-year old normally can understand that Pleiades? But more than 20 years ago research are aware we have said or shown something the sun’s daily path for each season changes revealed that the Pleiades are middle-aged wrong so they lose confidence in their plan- as seen from the Earth’s surface. But most of stars. A chance intersection with a cloud of gas etarium. these 8-10-year olds are unable to mentally results in our viewing the stars and the cloud Gifted students and amateur astronomers combine the two perspectives to understand in the same direction of the sky. In some plan- who know a lot more about astronomy than the connection between the two views. The the average attendee may decide not to return etarium programs, some articles, and some brain must mature to be capable of this “pro- to a planetarium’s programs and classes. These books, we see the old, incorrect idea perpetu- jective concept.” are individuals who normally return to our ated. If a planetarium curriculum tries to do too planetarium offerings time after time. much too fast and beyond the ability of the Inaccuracies may be found in descriptions Keep up to date student to learn, the child emerges from the in visuals, and even sound effects. Some obvi- Sometimes new information makes a de- experience with either new misconceptions ous representations, such as exaggerations in scription more complete, and thus more ac- or a renewal of old misconceptions. cartoons, probably are not a problem, but oth- curate. Every year at the Great Lakes Plane- After attending a very involved program er things could maintain or instill misconcep- tarium Association’s annual meeting we have about seasons, I have heard a few students tions. an “Astronomy Update.” An expert astrono- who saw the program give these wrong rea- Usually we can avoid an inaccurate descrip- my lecture brings planetarians up-to-date on sons for seasons: the Earth changes distance tion by having a good understanding of the what has happened in astronomy in the pre- from the sun; the Earth’s axis tips back and material or re-reading text meant for a record- vious year. forth; and the sun orbit changes as the sun ed presentation. But some topics are a little Dr. Ron Kaitchuck from Ball State Univer- moves around the Earth. Clearly these stu- awkward. We need to be careful with a top- sity gave an excellent update this October, as dents were not able to mentally coordinate ic like the Big Bang. An example of incorrect in previous years. He discussed some new in- all the visualizations and explanations of the words, “In the beginning, an extremely tight- formation from 2016 that we should now in- planetarium program. packed ball exploded into space.” But this de- corporate into our programs include: much scription is deceptive, because space was cre- surprising new information about Pluto from We have the resources ated in the Big Bang, and only the combined New Horizons data; a third category of black We have a vast ocean of web sources to four forces were initially present. holes—medium size; four arms in the Milky find the latest information about astronomy. We must be careful with terms “rotation” Way; the outer arms of the Milky Way are rip- There is no excuse for not having current in- and “revolution.” Not only do we need to use pled; and the Milky Way has a halo with a di- formation as we prepare programs on almost them correctly, but in presentations we also ameter wider than the galaxy itself. any topic, including history, geography, lit- need to help teachers learn to use them cor- I think that it is important not only to erature, chemistry, physics, biology, art, mu- rectly. Repeating the terms in different con- know about new discoveries, but to know the sic, engineering, and mathematics (STEM or texts of a program and using them in ques- status of their acceptance by the astronomi- STEAM topics and more). Learning accurate tion-answer sessions with students can help. cal community. For instance, the BICEP2 Proj- information in other fields than astronomy I never have heard a planetarium teach- ect scientists at the South Pole announced in allow us to make accurate interdisciplinary er apply the terms incorrectly when discuss- March 2014 that they had found the elusive programs. ing the Earth, but I have heard colleagues in- gravity waves revealed in the polarization (Continues on page 93)

84 Planetarian December 2015 360

FULLDOME

Polaris is a story about a traveling penguin and a funny bear wondering why the night is so long at the South and North poles. Addressing astronomical concepts such as the tilt of the Earth’s axis, planetary types and ice in the Solar System, the show also introduces key elements of the scientific method. BEST FULLDOME SHOW AUDIENCE AWARD AUDIENCE AWARD DISTRIBUTED BY 2015 2015 29 minutes 2015 rsa cosmos 3RD PLACE 1ST PRIZE YAROSLAVL [email protected] KORIYAMA BRNO

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO WATCH THE TRAILERS WWW.PLANETARIUM-ST-ETIENNE.FR/PRO

360

FULLDOME

The Blind Man with Starry Eyes is a lovely tale for young children. Introducing basic astronomical concepts such as night and day, rotation of the Earth, stars and the Sun, shooting stars and meteorites, the show is also a profound story about life, knowledge and our relationship to Nature. BEST 23 minutes FULLDOME SHOW DISTRIBUTED BY December 2015 Planetarian2015 85 3RD PRIZE rsa cosmos

YAROSLAVL [email protected] all over the dome surfaces. Professional speak- Sound Advice ers come in coverage patterns that allow you to fine tune the coverage to just the seating areas. Use the lowest number of speakers possible, preferably one per L-R-Ls-Rs-C channel. Jeff Bowen This minimizes the number of sound sources Bowen Technovation that are spaced apart and thus minimizes the 7999 East 88th Street number of out of phase reflections. The loca- Indianapolis, Indiana 46256 USA tion and downtilt also figure heavily into the +1 317-863-0525 performance, so speaker selection, location and downtilt all need to be considered. [email protected] Surfaces. Treating the side walls facing the audience is a must. There are two approaches: absorption and diffusion. Both have their Going Thru a Phase: Acoustics in 8. Air attenuation: Air space is the best replace. the theater ducer of sound energy. First, absorption. We are seeing architects The modern domed theater provides an en- 9. Out of Phase Sound: Unacceptable specifying spray-on materials for this and are vironment for studies of many subjects: as- peaks and valleys in audio caused by finding they flake off easily and are not as ef- tronomy, math, physics, chemistry, meteo- sound from a source (speaker or voice) fective as other treatments. Another treat- rology, and even wave theory, also known as reaching the listener at different times ment is to just apply a carpet or thin sound acoustics. due to reflections. carpet material. This is better than having It is not that we want to study acoustics in this Let’s start with issues that are the easiest to nothing, but this is also not very effective. domed space, but rather we must. Otherwise the solve. Foam acoustic panels deteriorate with age following problems are out of control: and also, in many cases, are not properly Class •• Weird phasing and higher or lower vol- Inside the Dome A fire rated. A popular treatment is to apply ume in the sound as you move from seat Most sound problems inside the dome are mineral fiber fabric-covered acoustic pan- to seat. caused by sound reflecting off the interior of els to wall surfaces. This works well, but the •• Ringing or build-up of certain tones. the dome, the walls facing the audience, the thickness of the material determines the ef- •• Rattles and odd mechanical noises. •• Poor speech intelligibility. So, let’s study what makes these problems present, and more importantly, how do we make them disappear. In order to keep this easy to understand, let’s define sound as what we hear with our ear- drums.1 First some definitions as applied to this subject. It is helpful to be able to actually visualize sound waves. You are all science people, so you will be able understand. You have probably even taught this. 1. Sound: the sensation produced by stimulation of hearing organs by Figure 1. As sound frequency increas- Figure 2. Out of phase sound in a dome. vibrations transmitted through es, wavelength decreases. the air or other medium. 2. Sound/noise Transmission: Me- floor, and other areas (see Figure 2). The best fective frequencies, so it is difficult to have chanical vibrations moving through a solution is to prevent this rather than treating an effect on low frequencies due to their lon- material or air. it. Here are some methods we use: ger wavelengths. Applying the panels on top 3. Frequency: The number of sound Prevention. Select the proper speaker cov- of furring strips greatly increases the effective- waves per second. Measured in Hertz erage patterns. This means select only speak- ness, since you are adding airspace (a great at- (Hz). ers that cover the seating areas and do not tenuator) behind the panels. This way both 4. Wavelength: The physical length of a spray sound across the room onto the dome sides of the panels are working for you. sound wave. Inversely proportional to and side walls. Figure 2 shows how reflected A niftier and even better approach is to frequency (See Figure 1). sound creates “out of phase” cancellations. use the wall cavity as the absorber. Add a 2- 5. A sound at 1000Hz frequency is about The direct audio from the speaker reach- to 4-inch thickness of an approved acoustic 1-foot in length. es the listener much earlier than the reflect- sound board product to the airspace in the 6. A sound at 100Hz frequency is about ed sound from the dome, knee (cove) walls wall.2 Cover this with an acoustically-trans- 10-feet in length. or other surfaces. This timing change means parent fabric or a visually-interesting perfo- 7. A sound at 10,000Hz frequency is sound waves shift their amplitudes (peaks and rated metal panel treatment. These perforated about 0.1-feet in length (each of these valleys) and cancel or reinforce each other in panels come in a variety of shapes. We even lengths is very approximate for sim- ways that are destructive to good frequency plicity). response. 2 Never paint over an acoustic product. This negates Most consumer home theater speakers use the effectiveness of the material. All legitimate 1 The are successes these days with hearing by us- very wide coverage patterns that spray sound acoustic materials are available in flat black and oth- ing skull vibration, referred to as “bone conduction.“ er colors.

86 Planetarian December 2015 room. All that sound bounces around behind the dome and tries to re-enter through another set of perfs. Remember Figure 2? These waves are all bouncing back and forth creating delays (micro echoes) with different timings. The delays cause phase cancellations that lead to loss of intelligibility and ear fatigue. This also is a cause of the “ringing” or “echoed” sound you can hear in many domes. The walls and roof deck behind the dome must be treated aggressively with a black batt or black soundboard. Many domes differ in needs, but typical is 4” thick minimum. In some cases you might not need 100% coverage so you can save some money to buy projector lamps. Flat walls capture long wavelengths associated with lower frequencies, so those waves run along the walls and “pile up” or “load” where they meet in corners. You might find you need to go thicker in corners or build a trap. Con- tact me if you want more detail on that Figure 3, above. A time that you DO want stars on the walls! subject. Figure 4, right. Note the wood panel diffusers below the acoustic panels. Structure design The best ways to solve all acoustic problems is to design the building designed one site such that the perforations ure 2? Let these little holes do their work in structure with acoustics in mind. A knowl- are in the shape of stars (Figure 3). the other direction. Don’t put any materi- edgeable planetarium design specialist can Sometimes the cosmetic look and seating als directly on the back of the dome. Let the work with the architects to help design the plan sloping suggest adding some diffusion to sound waves pass through the holes into the structure so reflections and standing waves the package. These are often a wood product space behind the dome. Then what? Well, you are minimized or are predictable and can be with a combination of absorbers as well. The are ready for the next section. treated. best approaches are often a mixture of various surfaces and materials; usually 100% coverage Behind the dome Reader Question: Where can I read the ac- is not needed. Save some money, be creative, Just because you can’t see these areas tual legal language regarding Americans with and make the space look interesting. doesn’t mean they cannot have a dramat- Disabilities Act compliancy? ic impact on your audio. When the speakers Answer: www.ada.gov/regs2010/ The dome itself throw sound into the back side of the dome, titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_regulations.htm The perforated dome has two important some of the energy passed through those lit- Sections 219 and 706 relate to audio, and all functions. It serves as the projection screen, tle dome perfs. Some is reflected back into the the sections are enforced by the Justice De- but its perforations (perfs) allow audio to pass space behind the dome. Sound that makes its partment. through in both directions (the same is true way into the theater fills the room and passes Send your questions to me at jeffb@ for heating and cooling). Spitz and Astro-tec through the dome perfs in other areas of the bowentechnovation.com. I have performed ex- tensive research into what the size and spacing of the perfs best support audio “pass through.” This is why we can install L-R-C-Ls-Rs speakers behind the dome and still have great audio at the listener posi- tions. What about sound hitting the dome from inside the dome, such as in Fig-

December 2015 Planetarian 87 sults of the information, have a tablet nearby Book Reviews to keep all these acronyms in line. Also, in beginning a thought, the author suddenly appears to deviate a bit and recall April S. Whitt something he wanted to write about before Fernbank Science Center he forgot it. He also seems to remember that 156 Heaton Park Drive NE the average reader might not know all the sci- Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA entific terms in the body of the text, so he add- [email protected] ed quite a few footnotes, which sometimes not only were longer than the page on which they began, but often should have had foot- before. It is an intimate portrait you’ll enjoy notes of their own. Spaceshots and Snapshots of on every page. For readers with a fair understanding of Projects Mercury and Gemini: A This book follows each mission of Mercury gamma-ray bursts, this book would serve as a Rare Photographic History and Gemini in chronological order. You’ll see primer. For a neophyte looking for a good ex- John Bisney and J.L. Pickering, University of every patch and logo. There are so many in- planation, this is not the book. New Mexico Press, 2015 sights that you find new ones on every page. Reviewed by Jack Dunn, volunteer with Ok, you can tell I like this book. But I know Universe (Tenth edition) BCBS of South Carolina Planetarium, Colum- most of my colleagues are going put this on Roger A. Freedman, Robert M. Geller, William bia, South Carolina, USA. their shelf as one to go back to time and time J. Kaufmann III, W. H. Freeman and Company, Most planetarians qualify as “space geeks” again. The companion book, Moonshots and 2014 and certainly there is great reverence for the Snapshots of Project Apollo: A Rare Photograph- Reviewed by April Whitt, Fernbank Science Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs that ic History came out this fall. I can hardly wait Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. took humans to the moon. We all have classic to get my copy. In the spring on 2015, a group of us enrolled images burned into our consciousness that de- in a University of Montana astronomy class pict the typical astronaut on the moon with What are Gamma-Ray Bursts? (with a supportive and excellent on-line pro- a flag, rover, etc. And, of course, certain imag- Joshua S. Bloom, Princeton University Press, fessor), and were issued this textbook. es like the Earth from space show up every- 2011 In addition to being a standard university where from t-shirts to adver- Reviewed by Francine Jackson, textbook, I would also recommend it for the tisements and textbooks. University of Rhode Island Plane- interested and scientifically-literate general But there were thousands tarium, Providence, Rhode Island, public and for planetarians looking for a good more pictures taken during USA. resource. Information is current (as of publish- the beginnings of the space This was a book I was really anx- ing date), well-written, well-illustrated, and program. Some were taken by ious to read, as I normally restrict with a wealth of “extras.” NASA, but even more were myself to the solar system and The book begins with an introduction to taken by contractors, family, wanted to learn astronomy: history, development of the sci- and friends. These are the im- about these entific method, some mathematical reviews ages you’ve never seen before strange visitors (or introductions), powers of ten and distanc- (unless follow the Facebook from the realm es. The introduction continues with constel- group “Retro Space Images.” of space. lations and stellar coordinates, our moon, The authors are the source of Starting with gravitation, the nature of light, optics, and those.) the introduc- telescopes. This book is subtitled: A tion, the histo- Later sections detail “Planets and Moons,” Rare Photographic History. These pictures are “Stars and Stellar Evolution,” and “Gal- certainly both “rare” and “history.” They tell axies and Cosmology.” Each chapter in- the stories of the young men and women cludes a summative “Cosmic Connec- whose efforts pulled off one of the most amaz- tions” page, a fold-out color image of the ing feats of human history: the beginnings of latest information, and a guest essay or our exploration of space and the first landings article from the literature. on the moon. What I found most helpful were the In the pages of this book you’ll see the ev- ry of what gamma “cautions” boxes in chapters, noting eryday work that made it all possible. You’ll ray bursts were be- possible misconceptions, the “concept go on training missions and see the pioneers, lieved to be—cour- check” and “calculation check” ques- both in serious moments and at lighthearted tesy the Cold War— tions throughout the reading, excellent play. I think the average planetarian is going there seemed to be a analogies, and motivation statements to open this book and just exclaim, “Wow!” good progression as that “show how a section’s material fits again and again. to their origin and po- in with the larger picture.” Lt. Gen Tom Stafford, in his introduction to tential for the Earth. But, then came the rest There are question sets at the end of each the book, says, “I look at these photos and ask of the book. chapter, answers to selected questions, and myself: ‘Who are these young guys and what One of my pet peeves is the constant in- excellent indices and tables at the end of the were they thinking?’ At the time, I knew in troduction of abbreviations when referring book. some way it was the greatest adventure in hu- to events, objects, and general conversational Growing up with print, I was impressed man history.” That’s the story the authors tell terms. Unfortunately, it does appear as if this with the variety of resources that accompany in pictures and captions. They bring you the book would be twice its length if everything this book. The publisher provides online vid- adventure with new detail you’ve never seen had to be written out, but to get the best re- (Continues on page 92)

88 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 89

Lodz Poland EC1 8K AD.indd 1 10/9/2015 2:19:18 PM with the goal of creating a successful Tic-Tac- From the Classdome Toe. I found this format limited the students to only one or two paths. Most of the time Jack L. Northrup I just say “One from each row for a total of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium three.” King Science and Technology Magnet Center I used this when I introduced rotation and 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA revolution and I was amazed by the variety +1 402-557-4494 of responses I got from the students. Some of [email protected] them were a little frustrated with the choices, wishing I would just give them a worksheet and call it enough. Others wanted to jump to This article is going to start very differently talked you through the process, including the application level and just do the row. than my normal article, as I diverge from my when to stop CPR to allow the machine to at- For my components of the solar system fi- normal instructional role to one of concerned tempt to restart the heart. Our units are the nal project, I had the students choose one item and saddened teacher. I want to tell you more, same type used by our ambulance service and from each column. This made it so I didn’t but sometimes privacy and confidentiality can be plugged into the ambulance/hospital have anyone turning in a data table that was are more important. systems when they arrive. essentially copied from the book. A student Who is on your planetarium/museum/ The device is battery powered and picks one item from each row, with the goal school’s asthma/anaphylaxis team? They are ours is alarmed so if the voltage drops be- of creating a successful Tic-Tac-Toe. I found the people in your building who have taken low a certain value the system starts this format limited the students to only one classes and can assist a person who has had an beeping to change the batteries, but or two paths to create a successful Tic-Tac- allergic reaction and is having extreme diffi- is still visually inspected each week. Toe win. Most of the time I just say “One from culty breathing while waiting for emergency Also, you can see if your local hospital, frater- each row for a total of three.” services. This is a person who is trained in how nal organizations, and youth athletics pro- I used this when I introduced rotation and to correctly use an epinephrine injector (an gram have cost deferment programs for AEDs revolution and I was amazed by the variety EpiPen) if anaphylaxis is threatening a life. It available to community gathering locations. of responses I got from the students. Some of can be used through the clothing, usually into You can get training and/or additional in- them were a little frustrated with the choic- the muscle of the outer thigh. formation from the Red Cross, http://www. es, wishing I would just give them a worksheet If someone has a stopped breathing, who redcross.org and the American Heart Associ- and call it enough. Others wanted to jump to on your staff is trained in CPR? Cardiopul- ation, http://www.heart.org . I was CPR/AED the application level and just do the row. monary resuscitation is the method whereby certified for six years with the Red Cross and For my Components of the Solar System fi- one person physically makes another person’s am entering my 8th year certified with the nal project I had the students choose one item heart and lungs operate while waiting for as- American Heart Association. I have found from each column. This made it so I didn’t sistance. In the most recent training mod- both programs to be informative and useful. have anyone turning in a data table that el from the American Red Cross, they do not A final request is to make sure everyone was essentially copied from the book. Also, have you breathe into the person’s mouth; in- on your staff is knowledgeable about how to it made it so that the students had to show stead, they just have you ensure that the air- reach emergency services from any phone in knowledge about inner planets, outer planets, way is open. Air is circulated by the speed and your building. and “all the small things” by focusing in on depth that the chest compressions are made Okay, now I’m switching back to a bit more that group specifically for their Tic-Tac-Toe (Think along the lines of keeping up with the of a traditional article. (Deep cleansing breath, pattern (graph 2). beat of “Staying Alive”). and a couple more tissues). Jane turned in: This person will also be trained in the Heim- •• Inner Planet song lich maneuver and working with an obstruct- Lesson plan •• Outer Planet board game ed airway. I have been experimenting with a couple of •• Small things infographic learning strategies I learned about at a work- Ty turned in: Do you have a defibrillator? shop this summer. The one I have been seeing •• Inner Planet song Do you have an AED in your facility/ the most success with is nicknamed Tic-Tac- •• Outer Planet model school? If you have never seen this acronym Toe (graph 1). •• Small things mobile before you might know it by its full name: A student picks one item from each row, (Continues on page 92) Automatic External Defibrillator. This device can be used to assist in the effectiveness of Graph 1 CPR while waiting for assistance. It is a series Vocabulary Activity 1 Vocabulary Activity 2 Vocabulary Activity 3 of sticky pads that are applied directly to the Frayer Model Non-verbal representation Flash Cards skin and it monitors the heart through these Concept Activity 1 Concept Activity 2 Concept Activity 3 and applies a shock if necessary to save a life. Venn Diagram Concept Map Data Table All the devices I have had experience with Application Activity 1 Application Activity 2 Application Activity 3 Make it a Game Create a Song Create an Investigation Graph 2 Inner Planets Outer Planets Small objects, Moons, Dwarf Planets Interview each planet about its distance Scale Model (1cm=1AU) Infographic explaining the differences from the sun. Plot the orbits using the scale 10cm=1AU Game Create a mobile Song about the planets Write a travel brochure for a trip through 1-act play the outer planets.

90 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 91 (Data to Dome, continued from page 78) The staff of the Plan- by research. etarium Division of Another recommendation was to require Carl Zeiss Jena with any such vendor solution be open to host- Dr. Martin Wiechmann ing open source software such as World Wide (right), the new department head, thanking Wil- Telescope, OpenSpace, and others on their fried Lang (center) for clusters to provide enhanced research and col- his many years of service. laboration opportunities. While stereoscop- The Earth globe in the ic visualizations was desired for researchers, foreground has markings for all 200+ locations Wil- the overall view was that 8K resolution was fried worked successfully more critical for a research facility. Ideally one on planetarium projects. might incorporate both, depending on the op- Photo by Thomas Kraupe. tions available and costs of doing so. In addition to the technology side, a key recommendation was to have a “facilitator” who would be responsible for working with researchers and the planetarium to make the best use of the facility by both, and creating Wilfried Lang: A personal tribute and implementing a comprehensive technology replacement and operations plan to en- On October 5, Jena Planetarium saw a At that time, Wilfried and his team were sure sustainability of the facility. surprise party for a person I would call a already working on laser-based video pro- The process conducted by the University of true “alpha-animal of planetarium busi- jection systems, which proved to be a Cape Town and Iziko Planetarium could stand ness,” Wilfried Lang, longtime head of tricky solution. The first single projector of as a benchmark for future domes that might Carl Zeiss’ Planetarium Division, who re- that type I had the privilege to inaugurate be considering a path of research and visual- tired from his job on October 1. at Hamburg Planetarium in 2002, even be- ization. It is an exemplar prototype of how to Using the planetarium´s powerdome sy- fore we upgraded our star projector. plan and design a digital dome that meets the tem, colleagues and planetarium directors Following the challenging ZULIP/ADLIP needs of numerous stakeholders, while being were taken through Wilfried´s long and laser fulldome projection system, his team conscious of operational concerns and con- successful planetarium career. Already be- in Jena focused on the development of an straints. I fore the iron curtain and the Berlin wall entirely new digital technology, which was came down, Wilfried was responsible for called VELVET and is now installed in doz- the development of hardware for planetar- ens of planetariums worldwide. (Books, continued from page 88) iums coming from Jena. It is quite obvious, that under Wilfried’s eo clips, quiz practice questions, and a S.T.A.R. It was in the late 80s when we first leadership, Zeiss has continued to innovate study method. With the horrifying prices of met, when I was working at Stuttgart´s in the planetarium field, sometimes with textbooks these days, I was also pleased to find Carl Zeiss Planetarium, the closest planetar- patented solutions and sometimes by clev- that amazon.com offers this book as a rent- ium to Zeiss Oberkochen. Back then, Wil- erly implementing solutions which com- al, in e-book form, and from sellers in new-or- fried was spending a lot of time in Finland petitors have pioneered. Restless Wilfried used form. It’s a hefty read, but worth it. to implement the revolutionary first fibre did not want to give in and remained con- One caveat: this edition is full of typograph- optics starball (developed by Ludwig Mei- vinced that a realistic starfield is the heart ical errors. Numbers transposed, incorrect su- er) at Heureka Science Center near Helsin- and soul of a planetarium as he sees it. perscripts—I sometimes re-read passages sever- ki. The presentation of a single fiber op- In three decades, he travelled around the al times before working out the mistakes. That tics starfield on the 100-meter Stockholm world to make the case for planetariums, said, my copy is still rather tattered from use dome as part of an IPS post-conference vis- by airplane more than 40 times and by car as a reference, with tabs sticking out of three it in 1990 blew those who attended away (using one of his beloved BMWs) more than sides and lots of text highlighted. and convinced me that this new technolo- 25 times. In all, this restless man has man- On the whole, however, I’d recommend gy should be implemented in the new plan- aged to equip 215 planetariums with Zeiss this text. I etarium at Deutsches Museum Munich, technology. He attended virtually all IPS which I also worked for. conferences since the early 90s and contrib- (Classdome, continued from page 90) Since 1991 Wilfried was the head of the uted with sponsorship. Planetarium Division of Carl Zeiss Jena, and These are really big shoes now to follow, Carrie turned in: he made it the sole Planetarium Divison but his successor is Dr. Martin Wiechmann, •• Inner Planet interview of Zeiss, which continued to innovate in a very smart person indeed. He and Wil- •• Outer Planet board game the field of planetarium technology. Once fried already have worked hand in hand •• Small things mobile more, from 1996 until early 2000, when I in recent months, so you can expect con- Each student received their own copy of was the consultant for the American Mu- tinuity. And Wilfried will not entirely van- the Tic-Tac-Toe board and initialed the ones seum of Natural History’s new Hayden ish from the field; he was asked by Zeiss to they had completed. This was then attached Planetarium in New York City, I worked continue in the role of a senior expert, even to the grading rubrics when the students got closely together with him and his team to beyond the field of planetariums. So, wel- their projects back. Feel free to play around create the next generation Zeiss Universa- come to Dr. Wiechmann, and see you again with this technique. I know I am going to rium Mk.9, which since then has become soon, Wilfried! adjust it some more when I use it during my the flagship for Zeiss star projectors in big Thomas Kraupe, Planetarium Hamburg gravity unit. I domes. IPS Past President

92 Planetarian December 2015 (Seeking What Works, continued from page 84) be unnerving and detrimental to concept de- look into the real night sky. Most information from space program web- velopment. Although the nature of horizons in full- sites is current and accurate. But some web- Some inaccurate visualizations seem com- dome presentations does not have the same sites, books, and articles are not current or al- mon in planetariums. One is too many me- importance as astronomical inaccuracies, a ways accurate. If a fact or explanation from a teors on the dome for a given time for a me- realistic horizon is critical to the feeling one source seems strange, look for verification. For teor shower. One could tell the planetarium wishes to create. 10 years a myth about Mars appearing as large audience that things are sped up, but a very A horizon on the moon or at any place as the full moon has been perpetuated on the wrong idea is created if the meteor rate is too without an atmosphere needs to be stark and internet. So many people bring this to my at- fast. Think of what a person expects and the vivid. However, wherever there is an atmo- tention every year that I am reminded of ear- probable disappointment when she goes out- sphere on a space body, there is a graying or lier times when many excited, well-meaning side looking for meteors on a shower night. bluing effect for distant objects. Bright rendi- people called me about seeing a bright ob- Often a digital representation or a projections of distant woodland, buildings, archaeo- ject (Venus near greatest eastern elongation), tion from an optical-mechanical orrery pro- astronomy structures, and mountains do not which they assumed was a flying saucer. jection will show all planets simultaneous- meet the criterion of realism. We all use beautiful astronomical photo- ly on the dome. As with a hand-held orrery, I suggest that we try not only to be as ac- graphs, such as Hubble views and translations when we fill a dome or a flat screen with the curate as possible in all aspects of our plane- from X-ray, gamma ray, and infrared data. solar system, there is a problem with scale. The tarium presentations, but also that we try Many of these, even the well-used Astronomy inner planets should cover an area so small (tactfully, perhaps with humor) to point out Picture of the Day, are in false color. that it is almost impossible to see them. Omit- inaccuracies we see in our colleagues’ shows. ting the dwarf planet Pluto gives more space And if we find a mistake in a book, an article, Explain the false colors for all planets, but scale is still an issue. a cartoon, or a toy, we can also help by letting We should remember to explain the false Fortunately, in digital planetariums, once the publishers or manufacturers know about color depictions to our audiences, to tell them the true scale is shown, a zoom can reveal the problem. that the pictures are taken in wavelengths the nature of an inner planet. When we use a Only by being accurate and by urging ac- that the human eye cannot detect. We need zoom feature, we need to be careful to let au- curacy do we achieve educational goals and to be responsible interpreters of the false color diences know that this is what a telescope or earn the title of “astronomy interpreter,” a ti- pictures, telling how a computer assigns col- spacecraft would show, not the view of these tle that most of us feel is an important part of ors to invisible wavelengths, to different den- objects that they get when they go home and our proper job description. I sities of gas, to different velocities of gas, to different temperatures of materials, and more. (International, continued from page 76) And we should add that colors of features on Star of Bethlehem and on how the night sky Laboratory of the National Technical Univer- planets and other bodies often are enhanced. looked like 2015 years ago. sity of Athens joined forces for the organiza- An important aspect of a planetarium pre- Greece. Further south, the Eugenides Plan- tion of a 2-day event as their contribution to sentation is a set of visual effects. We should etarium in Athens celebrated the autumnal the worldwide activities celebrating the Inter- be accurate in how we present an effect. Con- equinox with two free-of-charge screenings of national Year of Light 2015. The event includ- sider the mental impact on a member of the The Hubble Universe, the production it made ed a series of public lectures by invited speak- audience of each of these inaccurate plane- to celebrate Hubble’s 25th birthday in space, ers, interactive labs and games and special tarium actions done within a program (rath- highlighting the great telescope’s contribu- narrations for the younger children, as well as er than in setting up for the program or with tion in furthering our knowledge of the cos- repeated screenings of the Eugenides Planetar- lights on): mos. ium’s digital show Messenger of the Universe. •• The operator quickly moves the sun On 1 October the planetarium had the hon- This event also included a guided tour be- from west to east in order to easily return or of having on its premises George Smoot, re- hind the planetarium dome, hosted by the it to a sunrise setting. cipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006, planetarium’s Director Manos Kitsonas, who •• A lunar or solar eclipse projection runs jointly with John C. Mather, for their ground- explained the importance of light and the in reverse (or up side down) to make the breaking discoveries regarding the exact form related new technologies and how these are eclipse demonstration reversed. and the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave used to create the modern audio-visual show •• A comet tail points toward the sun. background radiation. in a modern digital planetarium. •• Precession epoch is inadvertently wrong Smoot and his colleague Stavros Katsane- Finally, the Eugenides Foundation, in col- during a night-sky program. vas, director of the Astroparticle and Cosmol- laboration with the University of Crete and •• A moon phase is in a wrong position for ogy Laboratory (APC) in Paris, gave a series of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser the time of day or night (often a problem seminars on cosmology especially prepared of the Foundation for Research and Technol- in the art of children’s books). for secondary education teachers. ogy-Hellas (FORTH), premiered on 19 October Fortunately, synchronized planetarium Just 4 days later, the Eugenides Planetarium the astrophotography exhibition Outworld- motions and carefully manufactured digital premiered its latest digital production Strange ly light: the visible universe through the tele- projections have eliminated these possible Worlds in the Solar System, a fascinating jour- scopes of Skinakas Observatory. I mistakes in many planetariums. ney towards some of the most extreme plan- Studies have shown that when a person ets and moons in the solar system. As usual is confronted with conflicting information, there were three free-of-charge screenings of learning or understanding is greatly reduced. Reading someone else’s the show; this time, however, each screening To tell students or the public as you conve- Planetarian? Join IPS was preceded by a 15-minute live presentation niently move the sun from west to east, to on the solar system. and receive your own! get it in a sunrise position, that “the sun real- On 9–10 October, the Eugenides Foundation www.ips-planetarium.org ly does not move like this; I’m just doing this and the Photonics Communications Research to get ready for the next part of the show” can

December 2015 Planetarian 93 Waxing New An eclectic collection about planetariums, products and people Compiled by Sharon Shanks

“We are so proud to and 4K rsolution. The approximately 61.5 GB have the distinction of .jpeg sequence is available for download, or can serving our customers, be delivered via usb hard drive or datastick. and our country for 70 More information is available on the land- years,” said Eric P. Seiler, ing page, which will enable the user to down- chairman of Seiler In- load the show file. Go to the IPS website at strument. “This is a mo- www.ips-planetarium.org. You must log in mentous occasion in to the page to access the Members Only tab, the life of our compa- where you will find the Free Fulldome tab ny.” to more information. I Fun Fact: The survey equipment for the iconic Gateway Arch in Harold Van Schaik, 1934-2015 St. Louis was purchased Harold Marinus Van Schaik, retired from Seiler Instrument. director of the Garland Planetarium at These critical optical Lakeview Centennial High School in Seiler Instrument employees a the Seiler headquarters in St. Louis. Photo instruments were used Garland, Texas, passed away July 24, 2015 and logo courtesy Seiler. for alignment during in Dallas. construction. Toward Born September 19, 1934, in Lodi, New the end of construction Jersey, he was the son of Marinus Van Seiler celebrates 70th anniversary the two legs were not matching up, with a Schaik and Cornelia Troast Van Schaik. This year Seiler Instrument, headquartered gap for the final piece reduced by five inches. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Kel- in St. Louis, Missouri, celebrates 70 years as an It was thought that the optical devices were ley Van Schaik and sons, Harold M. Van optical instrumentation company. The com- misaligned, therefore causing a misalignment Schaik Jr. and Thomas L. Van Schaik. I pany, sole distributor of Zeiss planetariums in of the arch, but they were, in fact, very fine- the U.S. and Canada, has nearly 170 years of ly calibrated. Barbara Baber, 1934-2015 precision optics expertise. The real issue turned out to be thermal ex- Barbara Denzil Hudgens Baber, 81, Seiler Instrument and Manufacturing Com- pansion from the sun. Fire trucks were used passed away in her sleep at home on June pany, Inc. is a privately held, multi-division- to help cool the southern leg while the final 15, 2015. al company that has been family owned and piece was inserted in a massive event on Oc- Barbara was born in Petty, Texas on operated since 1945. It is a fourth-generation, tober 28, 1965. January 29, 1934 to Barney Collins Hud- family-owned, American success story. The That marks this fall as the 50th anniversary gens and Jewel Frances Yeager. She mar- business was founded by Eric H. Seiler, an im- of the Gateway Arch, along with 70 years for ried James Edward Baber on June 1, 1956 migrant from Germany skilled as a machinist Seiler Instrument. in Dallas, Texas, and was the mother of with a master’s degree from the Zeiss School of Stephen and Shelia. Fine Optics in Jena. Free clip for IPS members A 1954 graduate of Texas A & M Uni- Seiler designed and manufactured his own A 5-minute minishow taken from the lon- versity in Commerce with a bachelors surveying instruments and distributed them ger LICHMOND: Universe of Light is being degree in education, she also earned a through a national dealer network, and hence made available for free for IPS members only master’s degree in elementary teach- the surveying and manufacturing divisions by Bluphase Media and Hamburg Planetari- ing from Abilene Christian Universi- were created. The company has grown from um as an example of alternative content for ty. She taught elementary grades at the one employee in a small office to more than domes. The main track feature is “Precious Longview, Dallas, and Abilene indepen- 150 employees in six offices throughout the Life” by Alan Parsons. dent school districts. She moved into the midwest. Details: The clip is 5.02 minutes long, 30 fps teaching position at the Abilene I.S.D. planetarium in 1976, then becoming the director in 1992, a position she held until her retirement in 2001. Barbara received numerous educa- A state visit On 24 October 2015, the Prime tional recognitions throughout her Minister of Italy, His Excellen- years in Abilene I.S.D. She was selected cy Matteo Renzi (centre), vis- to host the conference for all the south- ited European Southern Obser- western states of planetarium direc- vatory’s Paranal Observatory in tors at McDonald Observatory in 1988. the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. He was taken on a tour She was awarded the H. Rich Cal- of ESO’s world-leading astronom- vird Award for outstanding profession- ical facilities by ESO’s Director alism for her service in the planetarium General, Tim de Zeeuw (right of education field in 1989, then elect- centre), and the Programme Man- ager of the European Extreme- ed president of SWAP (the Southwest- ly Large Telescope (E-ELT), Ro- ern Association of Planetarium Direc- berto Tamai (left). Francesco tors) that same year. She was named a Starace, CEO of ENEL, appears on Fellow of IPS in 1992. I the right. ESO/Juan Pablo Astorga.

94 Planetarian December 2015 Nano Testamonial Ad.pdf 1 4/28/15 11:37 AM

CMY

December 2015 Planetarian 95 mated artistic impressions to introduce the audience to the southern The dome under construction. Photo courtesy Otago Museum hemisphere sky. Rounding out this first group of shows is the presenter-led Southern Night Skies, which takes viewers on a virtual tour of what they can see in the sky over Otago on the evening of their visit. Jones said that one of the bigger challenges the team faced was creating content without a completed, installed planetarium. The Perpetual Guardian Planetarium seats 51 people. The 9-m Spitz dome is 23% void and is suspended from the ceiling and walls at a 12˚ angle. The digital system uses Evans & Sutherland Digistar 5 technology, with two projectors and 3D capability. The project is part of a multi-stage redevelopment of the museum’s science engagement hub. The opening of the planetarium marks the completion of the first stage. The museum currently has 60 full-time New dome opens in New Zealand and 60 part-time staff, and will focus on growing its science engagement team, investing in talent to facilitate the learning experience for The immersive world of planetariums is spreading south with a visitors. new addition in Dunedin, New Zealand. The Otago Museum’s Perpet- In October, Perpetual Guardian was announced as the naming rights ual Guardian Planetarium opened to the public on 5 December 2015, sponsor of the planetarium. The company has committed addition- marking a new southernmost planetarium and the only 3D planetari- al special funding to assist schools from outlying areas and low-de- um in Australasia. cile schools in engaging with the spectacular stories that will be told The project, led by Museum Director and Astrophysicist Dr. Ian Grif- through this new facility. fin, was set to launch with three shows, all produced by the museum’s With the support of some of Perpetual Guardian’s South Island in-house team headed by Fulldome Producer Oana Jones. trusts, the museum will be able to offer free access to several thousand Mārama ā-Whetū: Light of the Stars shares local Māori celestial myths students a year who would not ordinarily have a chance to experience and legends and takes viewers through the Polynesians’ journey to the planetarium. The Perpetual Guardian Reach for the Stars programme Aotearoa New Zealand. This show is animated in a 2.5D look, with bold was developed by the Otago Museum education team, and will be of- patterns and shapes which dominate the dome. fered to schools yearly for an initial period of five years. Amazing Universe is a narrated show taking viewers through the uni- More information is available on the Museum website at verse, combining imagery from within the Digistar system with ani- www.otagomuseum.nz. I

96 Planetarian December 2015 NEED FINANCING?

For over 10-years MTE has worked with qualiied, and trusted nancing companies and helped facilities throughout the United States nd the assistance they need.

Vicki Amorosi +1 305-573-7339 Vice President [email protected] Magna-Tech Electronic Company MTE proudly serves as the exclusive North American distributor of Konica Minolta Planetarium systems.

December 2015 Planetarian 97 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Internationa_Calendar.htm Compiled by Loris Ramponi - [email protected]

2 0 1 5 International Year of Light 15-17 June. FFB: IPS Fulldome Festival Brno, Brno Observatory and 1-4 December. II International Planetarium Festival and meet- Planetarium. www.fulldomefestivalbrno.com. ing of Association of Mexican Planetariums (AMPAC), Cozumel 17-18 June. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, War- Planetarium, Mexico. Contact: Milagros Varguez, dirección@ saw, Poland. planetariodecozumel.org 19-25 June. Revolve, 23rd International Planetarium Society Con- 4-6 December. Immersive Film Festival. IFF’15, Espinho/Sciss Plane- ference, Heavens of Copernicus Planetarium, Copernicus Science tarium Centro Multimeios de Espinho, Av. 24 nº 800, 4500-202 Es- Center, Warsaw, Poland. Contact: [email protected]; Monika Ma- pinho, Portugal. Contact: Antonio Pedrosa, apedrosa@multimeios. linowsky, [email protected]; Maciej Ligowski, maciej.ligowski@ pt, iff.multimeios.pt; www.facebook.com/immersivefilmfestival kopernik.org.pl 11 December. Deadline of the Stratoscript Compendium Ring 2014, 30 June. International Asteroid Day. www.asteroidday.org a scripting competition open to everybody by LSS-Planetarium. 3-9 July. ICOM 2016, 24th General Conference, Museum and cultur- Contact: [email protected]; www.lss-planetariums.info/index.php al landscapes, International Council of Museums, Milan, Italy. net- ?lang=en&menu=compendium&page=compendium2013 work.icom.museum/icom-milan-2016 31 December. Deadline of the prize “Page of Stars” organized by IPS 10-12 August. Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS), Spitz Portable Planetarium Committee in collaboration with Serafino Inc., Chadds Ford (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, USA. Contact: Zani Astronomical Observatory. The prize rules are available at [email protected]; [email protected]; http://LIPSymposium. the IPS Mobile Planetarium Committee web page. Contact: Susan org Reynolds Button, [email protected] 12-15 July and 18-21 July. Spitz Summer Institute 2016, Chadds Ford (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, USA. Planetarium educators’ 2 0 1 6 International Year of Pulses development and training (12-15 July Beginner/Intermediate ses- 28 February. Deadline of PlanIt Prize for an original video production, sion; 18-21 July Intermediate/Advanced session) for SciDome/Star- organized each year by Italian Association of Planetaria (PlanIt), It- ry Night Dome/TLE users. Curriculum, program creation, and live aly. The prize is open to everyone. First prize 500 euro. www.plan- presentation of astronomy and earth science for the digital planetari.org etarium. www.spitzinc.com/Institute or contact: jtowne@spitzinc. 13 March. International Day of Planetaria. www.dayofplanetaria.org com 16-20 March. IMERSA Summit 2016. Denver Museum of Nature & 27-30 July. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS), Annu- Science, Denver, Colorado, USA. Contact: [email protected], www. al Conference, James E. Richmond Science Center, St. Charles imersa.org County High School, Waldorf, Maryland, USA. Contact: Patty 15-20 March. IMERSA Summit 2016. Denver Museum of Nature & Seaton, [email protected]; www.mapsplanetarium.org Science, Denver, Colorado, USA. Contact: [email protected]; www. 15 September. Deadline for the applicants of “A Week in Italy for an imersa.org American Planetarium Operator,” in collaboration with IPS Por- 4-5 April. The Australasian Planetarium Society (APS), Meeting 2016, table Planetarium Committee. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/ Carter Observatory, Wellington, New Zealand. Contact: Law- Week_in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm rance Warik, [email protected]; apsplanetarium. 21-23 September. Digistar Users Group, conference, planetarium at com/2015/07/31/announcing-aps-2016-wellington-new-zealand University of Texas at Arlington, Texas. Contact: planetarium@uta. 22-24 April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PlanIt), XXXI National edu; 817-272-1183; www.uta.edu/planetarium; www.facebook.com/ Conference, Bari Planetarium, Fiera del Levante, Bari, Italy, www. utaplanetarium planetari.org; contact: [email protected] 24-27 September. Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) 30 April–2 May. Gesellschaft Deutschsprachiger Planetarien e.V., GDP Annual Conference, MOSI, Museum of Science and Industry, Tam- 2016, Annual meeting of Society of German-Speaking Planetari- pa, Florida, USA. www.astc.org ums, Munster, Germany. www.gdp-planetarium.org 23rd-25 September. British Association of Planetaria (BAP), annu- May. Association of French Speaking Planetariums (APLF), Yearly al meeting, At-Bristol, United Kingdom. Contact: BAP President, Meeting, www.aplf-planetariums.org Mark Watson, [email protected]; www.planetaria.org.uk; 18 May. International Museums Day, icom.museum bapconference.org.uk 26-28 May. 10th FullDome Festival in the Jena Zeiss-Planetarium, 11 December. Deadline of the Stratoscript Compendium Ring 2014, “Frameless Frenzy,” Jena Zeiss-Planetarium, Germany. Grand open- a scripting competition open to everybody by LSS-Planetarium. ing 25 May (in the evening). Contact: [email protected] or Contact: [email protected]; www.lss-planetariums.info/index.php Schorcht Volkmar, [email protected], www.fulldome-festival.de ?lang=en&menu=compendium&page=compendium2013 31 May – 4 June. SEPA (Southeastern Planetarium Association)-WAC 31 December. Deadline of the prize “Page of stars” organized by IPS Por- 2016 Conference, Western Alliance Conference (Pacific Planetari- table Planetarium Committee in collaboration with Serafino Zani um Association, Southwestern Association of Planetariums, Great Astronomical Observatory. Contact: Susan Reynolds Button, sbut- Plains Planetarium Association, and Rocky Mountain Planetarium [email protected]; www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=pagesofstars Association), W. A. Gayle Planetarium, Troy University, Montgom- For corrections and new information for the Calendar of Events, please ery, Alabama, USA. www.wacdomes.org send a message to Loris Ramponi at [email protected] More 9-11 June. European Network Science Centres & Museums (ECSITE), details about several of these upcoming events is included in the Interna- 2016 Annual Conference, “Colours of cooperation,” FRida & freD tional News column in this issue. Children’s Museum, Joanneum Universal Museum, Association The most up-to-date information also is available online at the IPS Calen- dar of Events at www.ips-planetarium.org ScienceCenter Network, Graz, Austria. www.ecsite.eu.

98 Planetarian December 2015 December 2015 Planetarian 99 Last Light easily double for one! The German-built GREAT (German Receiv- er for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies) is April S. Whitt a perfect instrument, Ali said. He would use Fernbank Science Center this instrument to teach how to build excel- 156 Heaton Park Drive NE lent instruments. Design, engineering, even Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA soldering—all perfect. [email protected] The faint infrared signals from targets in space require that all the SOFIA instruments be cooled with cryogens : liquid nitrogen, liq- And the winner is: Keith Johnson of Edel- Colleague Susan Oltman and I were fortu- uid helium, even liquid hydrogen. A team man Planetarium in Glassboro, New Jersey. nate to be selected as NASA Airborne Astrono- working on FIFI (University of Stuttgart’s Responding to my call for descriptions of In- my Ambassadors (AAAs) as well, to work with Field-Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrome- teresting Objects Left Behind, he writes: the amazing technicians and staff who sup- ter) noted that each liter of coolant for their “The most interesting objects left in the port the Stratospheric Observatory for Infra- instrument “is about the price of a good bottle planetarium for me were dropped by a young red Astronomy (SOFIA). of red wine.” I love analogies. couple who were attending a public show. FNSOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the The mirror coating facility (or MCF) (FN- The two came in quietly in the dark after German Aerospace Center; more about the NASA loves TLAs - three letter acronyms) is a the show had started (normally the doors are program is at www.sofia.usra.edu. large lab with a huge chamber in which the locked, but for some reason I had left them mirror is suspended for recoating. Zaheer not- unlocked this time). In the instrument lab ed that one could “make lots of beer” in a vat “Afterwards, I was patrolling the aisles and Part of our SOFIA AAA experience was tour- that size. seats as usual, and came across a perfectly ser- ing the instrument lab at Neil A. Armstrong To date, the mirror has not needed recoat- viceable set of ladies’ undergarments on the Flight Research Center at the Palmdale Re- ing, although the chamber setup and coating floor where the couple had been sitting. I’ve gional Airport in California. The Telescope procedure are practiced regularly. Even when tried to imagine the circumstances and chain Alignment Simulator (TAS) is “basically a glo- a problem with the “garage door” in the side of of events, and have come up with several pos- rified flashlight,” according to Zaheer Ali, the the plane left the door open while the observa- sibilities, but none of them seem likely, and engineer who takes care of the infrared instru- tory landed during a forest fire, the telescope some of them should not be mentioned in a ments for SOFIA. The simulator is a test and mirror was cleaned with horse soap to remove professional journal. verification tool used particulates. Pretty amazing technology. I “I was thinking of mounting the underwear to align the instru- on a nice plaque and hanging it in my office, ments that attach to but decided even my administrators, as liber- the 2.5 meter mirror al as they usually are, would have objections. telescope. I might still do it a week before I retire next SOFIA’s large in- summer…” struments are test- Congratulations, Keith; the glove is thrown. ed in the lab, then Anyone have a better story? hauled out to the observatory and fit- Astronauts and sleep ted to the telescope. During the Pluto fly-by fun of this past July, Removing the huge former astronaut John Grunsfeld pointed out black cap at the end that “science never sleeps.” And, apparently, of the simulator, neither do astronauts. Ali remarked, “Now SOFIA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador we remove the hot Michael Shinaberry from the Space History tub…” The cap could Museum in Almagordo, New Mexico, shared a story from his museum. Astronaut Eileen Collins was scheduled to give a talk about the space shuttle at the museum, and would ar- Top: Zaheer Ali describes the process for re-coat- rive just before her presentation. ing SOFIA’s 2.5 meter mir- The night before her flight to New Mexico, ror. The large hoop behind she was up all night with a sick child. (Moth- him supports the mirror in ers don’t sleep either.) Consoling her tired self the re-coating chamber. with the knowledge that she could sleep on Left: The AAAs September 15 flight on SOFIA includ- the plane to Almagordo, she boarded a comed the honor of flying with mercial aircraft, only to be seated next to a Nichelle Nichols, the actress young, newly-licensed pilot who talked about who portrayed Lt. Uhu- how much fun it was to fly. ra in the original Star Trek television series. Someone And talked. And talked. And talked for the brought tribbles on board. entire trip. Even though she was exhaust- More and more of them ap- ed, Ms. Collins said he was so excited, “I just peared as the flight contin- couldn’t tell him I’d served as commander on ued. Photos by the incred- the space shuttle.” ibly fortunate April Whitt.

100 Planetarian December 2015

Griffith Observatory 8K AD v1.indd 1 10/28/2015 9:37:36 AM