Jack Horkheimer: Planetarian and Star Hustler Executive Editor Jane G

Home , Bermuda Triangle, Here Come the 123s, Palace Museum, Zhu Jin (astronomer)

Vol. 39, No. 4 December 2010

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Lessons learned under Music City’s stars Page 8

Articles

December 2010 Vol. 39 No. 4 8 New Stars in Music City Kris McCall 12 Jack Horkheimer: Planetarian and Star Hustler Executive Editor Jane G. Hastings Sharon Shanks Ward Beecher Planetarium 15 So you’ve seen a UFO Steve Tidey Youngstown State University 2014 Conference Bids One University Plaza 18 Beijing Planetarium kindly invites you to China Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA Zhu Jin, Xiao Lin +1 330-941-3619 22 Come to Rio de Janeiro for a new era for IPS [email protected] Alexandre Cherman Advertising Coordinator 26 Inform, inspire, provoke: the planetarium as Dr. Dale Smith, Interim Coordinator storyteller in Vancouver Rob Appleton (See Publications Committee on page 3) 30 Minutes of the IPS Council Meeting, Membership Alexandria, Egypt Lee Ann Henning Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 39 Under One Dome: Sudie A. Fulford Community Library Subscriptions: $45 one year; $80 two years Learning Center Jean Schwabe All amounts in US currency 60 For the love of the stars Dayle Brown Direct membership requests and changes of 61 Chandra: A Stellar Life address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman 64 Celebrate the Year of the Solar System Back Issues of the Planetarian IPS Back Publications Repository Columns maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; 64 25 Years Ago...... Thomas Wm. Hamilton contact information is on next page 62 Book Reviews...... April S. Whitt 65 Calendar of Events...... Loris Ramponi Index 40 Educational Horizons ...... Jack L. Northrup A cumulative index of major articles that have 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue 43 IMERSA News...... Judith Rubin through the current issue is available online at 49 International News...... Lars Broman www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/planetarian_ 68 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt index.pdf 59 Mobile News...... Susan Reynolds Button 6 President’s Message ...... Tom Mason Final Deadlines 66 Waxing New...... John Schroer March: January 21 June: April 21 September: July 21 December: October 21 Index of Advertisers Astro-Tec Mfg., Inc ...... 14 Antares Fulldome Productions...... 7, 52 Associate Editors Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 17 Briefer History of Time...... 42 25 Years Ago Editor-at-Large Last Light Clark Planetarium ...... 58 Thomas Hamilton Steve Tidey April S. Whitt Creasey Productions ...... 29 Book Reviews Education Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 21 April S. Whitt Jack Northrup Mobile News Susan Button Evans & Sutherland ...... outside back cover Calendar IMERSANews Global Immersion...... 5 Loris Ramponi Judith Rubin Waxing New GOTO INC ...... 38 Cartoons International John A. Schroer Alexandre Lars Broman ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center ...... 55 Cherman Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 25 Mt. San Antonio College...... 46 R.S.A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover Rudinec & Associates ...... 4 Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 33, centerfold, 36 Softmachine...... 47, 48 Spitz, Inc...... 11, 41, 45, 57 International Planetarium Society home page: www.ips-planetarium.org Zeiss, Inc...... inside front cover Planetarian home page: www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian Kris McCall, director of the Sudekum Planetarium in Nashville, Tennessee, shares some of the intangible lessons learned while building a new planetarium starting Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: on Page 8. Photo by Theo Wellington. www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ guidelines.html

December 2010 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Great Plains Planetarium Rocky Mountain Planetariums Association of Planetaria Association Planetarium Officers Alexandre Cherman Shaaron Leverment Jack Dunn Association Planetário do Rio de Janeiro Explorer Dome: Ralph Mueller Planetarium Rick Greenawald President R. Vice-Governador Hands-on Science Outreach University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faulkner Planetarium Dr. Tom Mason, Director Rubens Berardo, 100 Mailbox 42 210 Morrill Hall Herrett Center Armagh Planetarium Rio de Janeiro RJ 22451-070 179 Whiteladies Road Lincoln, Nebraska College of Southern Idaho College Hill +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG 68588-0375 USA P. O. Box 1238 Armagh BT61 9DB +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax England +1 402-472-2641 315 Falls Avenue Northern Ireland [email protected] United Kingdom +1 402-475-8899 fax Twin Falls, Idaho United Kingdom www.rio.rj.gov. +44 117 914 1526 [email protected] 83303-1238 USA +44 (0)2837 524725 br/planetario +44 793 035 0805 www.spacelaser.com/gppa +1 208-732-6659 +44 (0)2837 526187 fax shaaron@explor- Italian Association +1 208-736-4712 fax +44 (0)771 0013453 cell erdome.co.uk of Planetaria [email protected] [email protected] Association of Dutch- information@explor- Loris Ramponi herrett.csi.edu/ www.armaghplanet.com Speaking Planetariums erdome.co.uk National Archive of Planetaria faulkner_overview.asp Ad Los www.planetarium.org.uk c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Past-President Planetarium Ridderkerk Serafino Zani Susan Reynolds Button Museum Johannes Postschool via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 Quarks to Clusters Rijksstraatweg, 101 Canadian Association I 25066 Lumezzane Russian Planetariums 8793 Horseshoe Lane 2988 BB Ridderkerk-Rijsoord of Science Centres (Brescia) Italy Association Chittenango, New York The Netherlands Ian C. McLennan +39 30 872 164 Zinaida P. Sitkova 13037 USA + 31 180 434441 or #404 - 1275 Haro Street +39 30 872 545 fax Nizhny Novgorod +1 315-687-5371 + 31 180 437716 Vancouver, British Columbia [email protected] Planetarium +1 315-432-4523 fax [email protected] V6E 1G1 Canada [email protected] Revolutsionnja Street 20 [email protected] www.planetariumrotterdam.nl +1 604-681-4790 www.planetaritaliani.it 603002 Nizhny [email protected] phone + fax Novgorod Russia +1 604-240-0938 cell +7 831 246-78-80 President-Elect Association of French- [email protected] Japan +7 831 246-77-89 fax Dave Weinrich Speaking Planetariums [email protected] Planetarium Society [email protected] Planetarium Agnès Acker www.ianmclennan.com Kaoru Kimura [email protected] Minnesota State Observatoire de Strasbourg Japan Science Foundation University-Moorhead 11, rue de l’université Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku 1104 7th Avenue South 67000 Strasbourg France Council of German Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan Moorhead +33 3 90 24 24 67 Planetariums [email protected] Southeastern Minnesota 56563 USA +33 3 90 24 24 17 fax Thomas W. Kraupe www.shin-pla.info Planetarium +1 218-477-2969 [email protected] Planetarium Hamburg Association +1 218-477-5864 fax [email protected] Hindenburgstraße 1 b John Hare [email protected] www.aplf-planetariums.org D-22303 Hamburg Middle Atlantic Ash Enterprises Deutschland Planetarium 3602 23rd Avenue West +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 Society Bradenton, Florida Executive Secretary Association of Mexican +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Steve Mitch 34205 USA Lee Ann Hennig Planetariums +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax 258 Springdale Avenue +1 941-746-3522 Planetarium, Thomas Ignacio Castro Pinal +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Wheeling, WV 26003 USA [email protected] Jefferson High School Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 thomas.kraupe@ +1 304-242-7614 www.sepadomes.org for Science and Technology C.P. 01490, México City planetarium-hamburg.de [email protected] 6560 Braddock Road D.F. México www.rdp-planetrium.de Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA +52 (55) 5500 0562 +1 703-750-8380 +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax Nordic Planetarium Southwestern +1 703-750-5010 fax [email protected] European/ Association Association of [email protected] cosmos.astro.uson.mx/ Mediterranean Prof. Lars Broman Planetariums AMPAC/AMPACintro.htm Planetarium Teknoland Linda Krouse, Director Treasurer and Association Stångtjärnsv 132 Noble Planetarium Membership Chair Manos Kitsonas SE-791 74 Falun Fort Worth Museum of Shawn Laatsch Association of Spanish Eugenides Planetarium Sweden Science and History All fiscal matters: Planetariums 387 Syngrou Avenue +46 2310177 1600 Gendy Street P.O. Box 4451 Javier Armentia 17564 P. Faliro [email protected] Fort Worth, Texas Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Planetario de Pamplona Athens Greece lars.broman@strom- 76107 USA All other correspondence: Sancho Ramirez, 2 +30 210 946 9674 stadakademi.se +1 817-255-9409 ‘Imiloa Astronomy E-31008 Pamplona +30 210 941 7372 fax www.teknoland.se +1 817-360-0082 cell Center of Hawai’i Navarra Spain [email protected] www.planetarium.se/npa [email protected] 600 ‘Imiloa Place +34 948 260 004 www.swapskies.org Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +34 948 260 056 +1 808-969-9735 +34 948 261 919 fax Great Lakes Planetarium Pacific Planetarium +1 808-969-9748 fax [email protected] Association Association [email protected] gestion@pamplonetario. Jeanne Bishop Gail Chaid infonego-cio.com Westlake Schools 1320 Glen Dell Drive Planetarium San Jose, California Parkside Intermediate School 95125 USA Australasian Planetarium 24525 Hilliard Road +1 408-540-8879 cell Society Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA +1 408-288-8525 Mark Rigby, Curator +1 440-899-3075 x2058 [email protected] Sir Thomas Bris- +1 440-835-5572 fax sites.csn.edu/plan- bane Planetarium jeanneebishop@ etarium/PPA Mt. Coot-tha Road, wowway.com Toowong www.glpaweb.org Brisbane, Queensland 4066 Australia +61 7 3403 2578 +61 7 3403 2575 fax mark.rigby@brisbane.qld.gov.au

2 Planetarian December 2010 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Awards Committee Conference Host-2012 Membership Committee Mailing Address Prof. Lars Broman, Chair Jon Elvert Shawn Laatsch, Chair Teknoland Irene W. Pennington Planetarium ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii Stångtjärnsv 132 Louisiana Art & Science Museum 600 ‘Imiloa Place International Planetarium SE-791 74 Falun 100 South River Road Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Society Sweden Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA +1 808-969-9735 +46 2310177 +1 225-344-5272 +1 808-969-9748 fax c/o Shawn Laatsch [email protected] +1 225-214-4027 fax [email protected] Treasurer/Membership www.teknoland.se [email protected] Chair Publications Committee Conference Committee Elections Committee Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair All fiscal business: Dr. Tom Mason, Chair Martin George, Chair BGSU Planetarium P.O. Box 4451 Armagh Planetarium Launceston Planetarium 104 Overman Hall Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA College Hill Queen Victoria Museum Physics &Astronomy Department Armagh BT61 9DB Wellington Street Bowling Green State University All other correspondence: Northern Ireland Launceston Tasmania 7250 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA ‘Imiloa Astronomy Cen- United Kingdom Australia +1 419-372-8666 +44 (0)2837 524725 +61 3 6323 3777 +1 419-372-9938 fax ter of Hawai’i +44 (0)2837 526187 fax +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] 600 ‘Imiloa Place +44 (0)771 0013453 cell [email protected] Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA [email protected] www.armaghplanet.com Finance Committee +1 808-969-9735 President, Past President, Presi- +1 808-969-9748 fax dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary [email protected]

IPS Web Site: Ad Hoc Committees www.ips-planetarium.org Armand Spitz Job Information Service +1 801-456-4928 fax Planetarium Education Fund Subcommittee [email protected] Finance Committee (Professional Services Committee) Please notify the Editor Steve Fentress, Chair Script Contest Committee of any changes on these Education Committee Strasenburgh Planetarium Thomas W. Kraupe Jack L. Northrup Rochester Museum & Science Center Planetarium Hamburg two pages. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium 657 East Avenue Hindenburgstr.1b King Science and Technology Rochester, New York 14607 USA D-22303 Hamburg Germany Contact the Treasurer/ Magnet Center +1 585-271-4552 ext. 409 +49(0)40-428 86 52-21 3720 Florence Blvd. +1 585-271-7146 fax +49(0)40-428 86 52-99 fax Membership Chair for in- Omaha, NE 68110 USA [email protected] +49(0)40-4279 24-850 e-fax dividual member address +1 402-557-4494 +49(0)172-40 86 133 cell [email protected] IPS Publicity Coordinator thomas.kraupe@plane- changes and general cir- webmail.ops.org/~jack.northrup (Publications Committee) tarium-hamburg.de culation and billing ques- Jacques Guarinos www.rdp-planetarium.de tions. Full-Dome Video Committee Astronef–Planetarium Interim Chairs: de Saint-Etienne Strategic Planning Committee Shawn Laatsch 28 rue Ponchardier Tom Mason, Chair ‘Imiloa Astronomy F-42100 Saint-Etienne France Armagh Planetarium The Planetarian (ISN 0090- Center of Hawai’i +33 (0)4 77 34 40 85 College Hill 3213) is published quarterly 600 ‘Imiloa Place [email protected] Armagh BT61 9DB by the International Planetar- Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Northern Ireland +1 808-969-9735 Outreach Committee United Kingdom ium Society. ©2010, Interna- +1 808-969-9748 fax Jon W. Elvert, Chair +44 (0)2837 524725 tional Planetarium Society, Irene W. Pennington Planetarium +44 (0)2837 526187 fax Thomas W. Kraupe Louisiana Art & Science Museum +44 (0)771 0013453 cell Inc., all rights reserved. Opin- Planetarium Hamburg 100 South River Road [email protected] ions expressed by authors Hindenburgstraße 1 b Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA www.armaghplanet.com are personal opinions and are D-22303 Hamburg +1 225-344-5272 Deutschland +1 225-214-4027 fax Technology Committee not necessarily the opinions +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 [email protected] Jack Dunn of the International Planetar- +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Ralph Mueller Planetarium ium Society, its officers, or +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax Planetarium University of Nebraska- Lincoln +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Development Group 210 Morrill Hall agents. Acceptance of adver- thomas.kraupe@plane- Ken Wilson, Chair Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA tisements, announcements, tarium-hamburg.de 9346 Drawbridge Road +1 402-472-2641 www.rdp-planetarium.de Mechanicsville, Virginia 23220 USA +1 402-475-8899 fax or other material does not [email protected] [email protected] imply endorsement by the History Committee www.spacelaser.com/gppa International Planetarium So- John Hare, IPS Historian Portable Ash Enterprises Planetarium Committee Web Committee ciety, its officers or agents. 3602 23rd Avenue West Susan Reynolds Button, Chair Alan Gould, Chair The Editor welcomes Letters Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA Quarks to Clusters Holt Planetarium to the Editor and items for +1 941-746-3522 8793 Horseshoe Lane Lawrence Hall of Science [email protected] Chittenango, NY 13037 University of California consideration for publica- +1 315-687-5371 Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA tion. Please consult “Guide- International [email protected] +1 510-643-5082 Relations Committee [email protected] +1 510-642-1055 fax lines for Contributors” at Martin George, Chair [email protected] www.ips-planetarium.org/ Launceston Planetarium Professional planetarian/guidelines.html. Queen Victoria Museum Services Committee Wellington Street Mike Murray, Chair The Editor reserves the right Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Clark Planetarium to edit any manuscript to +61 3 6323 3777 110 South 400 West suit this publication’s needs. +61 3 6323 3776 fax Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA [email protected] +1 801-456-4949 December 2010 Planetarian 3 In Front of the Console

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

I could have used one more page in this is- es to write down notes, but it’s not the best use sue. I had enough material for another page, of space and paper. Andreas Scholl (above) was misidentified though editor error in the September issue. An- but not enough for 4 pages, and in publishing The exception to the “4 or nothing” rule dreas, named an IPS Fellow at the Conference it’s normally 4 or nothing. It’s a quarto thing, is in newspaper publishing. When a newspa- in Alexandria, is not associated with the Olbers actually. per needs extra pages, it can add a “dink,” or Planetarium in Bremen, Germany, but is a plan- It you look at the structure of the Planetari- one sheet printed front to back. If you see a etarium enthusiast and historian from Germany who is now living in Austria. "Planetariums have an, you’ll see that each piece of paper has four section that is 10 pages long, look at it closely. been my hobby since I was 7 years old. The first pages on it. Page 1 is backed by page 2, but on There will be 4 pages printed on one piece of planetarium I visited was in Stuttgart; my sec- the same piece of paper there’s also pages 67 paper, and an extra half sheet of only two pag- ond visit there was with the school class and it and 68. es stuck in somewhere. was Thomas Kraupe who made the show! When In the newspaper world, this also is known Sadly, bound publications, such as the Plan- I was 12 years old I started to ask planetariums all over the world to send me information, bro- as a double truck. etarian, cannot have dinks. So, rather than chures, postcards and so on. I have a huge col- This method of printing dates back to be- leave material out, I gave up my space for more lection of these things and never stopped col- fore the Gutenberg Bible and allows a printer important things. I lecting." My apologies for the error. to make the best use of paper. Normally 8 pages are printed per sheet, front to back, and two Howard Schriever, February 25, 2010 folds produce the finished quarto. Book publishers don’t worry if their num- Howard Schriever, 83, of Rochester, Minne- etarium Director’s Handbook published by ber of pages aren’t divisible by 4. They just go sota passed away peacefully on Feb. 25, 2010 at Spitz and was an instructor for the company up to the next number that is divisible and Clare Bridge Senior Living in Plymouth, Min- at their summer educational institutes held in leave blank pages at the end. nesota, comforted by family members. Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. I don’t think I could get away with that, do During the “space race” of the 1960s, How- He was the first planetarium director for you? It would be nice to have a couple of pag- ard was part of the traveling science teacher Mayo High School, the oldest permanent program that Mich- school based planetarium in the state. Locally igan State Univer- and nationally he was recognized for his com- Donald E. Tuttle sity developed to mitment to excellence in “bringing the heav- 1920-2010 boost interest in sci- ens down to Earth” for students of all ages. Donald E. Tuttle Donald E. Tuttle, 90, of El- ence and engineering. Dave Weinrich, who student taught under gin passed away Sunday, August 29, 2010 at Traveling to schools Howard, remembers: “What always struck me Provena St. Joseph Hospital, Elgin. throughout the Mid- about Howard was his incredible energy and He was born July west with his “Mr. how much he enjoyed his work. He would be 22, 1920 in Medford, Wizard”-style road rubbing his hands together prior to some of Minnesota, the son of show of experiments, his elementary shows just bubbling over with George and Margaret he taught the won- enthusiasm. He taught me again and again Landon Tuttle. He had ders of science with Howard Schriever that science can be fun. He always had a good been a resident of El- a theatrical routine time with the students.” gin for 48 years. that made scientific principles look more like Larry Mascotti, Mayo High Don was a veter- a magic show than a science class. School Planetarium an of WWII serving Howard was a in the U.S. Navy. He passionate edu- joined School District cator. He present- U46 in 1960 as Plane- ed nearly 10,000 tarium Director, a po- planetarium les- sition he held for 24 Don Tuttle sons to 400,000 years. He also taught astronomy at Elgin Com- visitors in his 19 munity College for many years, retiring in years of service 2009. (1966-1985) to the Don is survived by his wife, Carol Heywood Rochester com- Tuttle, whom he married on September 3, munity. He was 1949, his three children, Susan Koeller, Richard the author of Tuttle, and Donna Hoppe, six grandchildren, many contribu- and his sister, Dorolyn Sohner Hafer. I tions to the Plan-

4 Planetarian December 2010 Small, but amazing...

As the smallest of our Fidelity™ theater solutions, Fidelity GO™ is everything you dream of from a planetarium system... with uncompromised performance, unrivalled simplicity, and an incredible price.

A complete planetarium system Fidelity GO projection system – our for domes up to 14-meters/46-ft exclusive blending and lens technologies in diameter. already in-built.

Solid-state technology... no lamp Access to the latest GIS changes, low power consumption, visualizations, WMS/KML datasets minimal maintenance and stunning and atmospheric effects. contrast and color. Complete media center with pixel management, distortion correction, New Uniview 1.4 for real-time media storage and playback. astronomy presentations, integrated video playback, layered media support A revolutionary concept with revolutionary and show production. results. The ultimate all-in-one.

Small Box. Big Contents. Astonishing Price.

Decemberweb: globalimmersion.com 2010 email: info@globalimmersion Planetarian EMEA+: +44 (0) 8450 456225 USA: +1 303 357 4760 5

36928 GLO] Fidelity go ad v5.indd 1 28/7/10 13:13:20 dividually, to consider establishing a new Ko- rean affiliate, and cited the successful launch President’s Message of the Brazilian affiliate and our hope that the Dr. Tom Mason Chinese one will be formalised soon. Armagh Planetarium So I suppose the best message that I can give you from this event is to watch this space. I College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DB hope that President Dave will be able to report Northern Ireland, United Kingdom progress in this region in the future, and of +44 (0)2837 524725 course I have let Martin George know about +44 (0)2837 526187 fax, +44 (0)771 0013453 cell these developments as our international de- [email protected] velopment chair. I must mention that as part of my swan- song I will also be visiting Brazil at the end of Dear Colleagues and Fellow Planetarians: ed on October 27 and ran until November 7. November along with President-elect Dave: I am writing this last president’s message to The festival involved the screening of 37 local we have been invited to attend a meeting of you as a valedictory, as it is almost time for the and foreign science fiction movies and 28 full- the Brazilian IPS group at the Planetarium in baton to be passed on to our incoming new dome planetarium shows. Rio de Janeiro. This will take place at the end president, Dave Weinrich. These were shown in the new planetari- of November 2010, so by the time you read Before I write any further I must acknowl- um, which is part of the Gwacheon Nation- this we ought to have been and gone. edge once more in this note the work that al Science Centre that is set in a spacious park happens behind the scenes and my friends in Seoul. The Science Centre is a huge build- and colleagues, Lee Ann Hennig and Shawn ing and has many striking exhibits displayed “International” comes first Laatsch, our sheet anchors who serve as sec- in separate areas over two floors. To see the To return to my main theme, I passionately retary and treasurer: and, of course, Past-Presi- building check out www.360cities.net/image/ believe that it is very important that we con- dent Susan Button and President-Elect Dave. natural-history-exhibition-gwacheon-nation- tinue to nurture the IPS’ international profile. The work is especially intense in confer- al-science-museum-seoul#0.00,0.00,70.0. It is a measure of the maturity of our organisa- ence years, as conferences don’t just happen, As the national science centre of Korea, it tion that we have made much dramatic prog- they are organised. So my very sincere thanks does a fine job of exhibiting the achievements ress expanding our worldwide presence over to them for helping to spread the load and in of the country’s science and industry. They the past few years. making my job easier. process over a million visitors in the planetar- I must also remind you that a further out- The recent Bibliotheca Alexandrina-hosted ium each year and can seat 270 at each show. come of the Alexandria conference was the conference in Egypt was a very successful in- Their theatre is a hybrid system with a Minol- meeting that was held during the confer- ternational event, and this is something that I ta Geministar opto-mechanical and a digital ence to progress the formation of an Arabic- think will continue to grow for IPS. While we system in the same space. speaking affiliate group, which will be anoth- may think that we have all bases covered, in It was opened in 2008 and the science cen- er milestone in our history. fact we still do not represent all of the plane- tre has 200 staff working on site. There are Armagh Planetarium has started to work tarians who are scattered around the planet. outdoor exhibits, including two rocket mod- with programmers on collaborative projects els, and a public ob- using iPhones, iPods and iPads to bring ba- servatory with mul- sic astronomy to everyone. We recently have tiple telescopes, launched Pocket Sky, a free version of a bigger which is sited on a application called Pocket Universe. small hill adjacent We are also launching a free quiz applica- to the striking plan- tion called Space Brains, which we have creat- etarium dome that ed with our friends at the Blackrock Castle Ob- is separate from the servatory in Cork in the south of Ireland. main building. My interest in promoting this thrust to- While I was there wards new ways of spreading the word about I talked to the ven- astronomy has been reinforced and under- dors who have been pinned by my observations of small children busy installing new (2-year-olds) interacting with iPad applica- planetarium projections. tion systems in Ko- The thing that is most impressive, and due rea and I understand in no small part to the skills of the program- that here have been mers, is the almost instant response to a finger many new plane- on the touch screen. One of my small guinea tariums, at least 14, pigs calls this her magic finger, as it enables her Gwacheon Planetarium and Observatory, Korea. Photo by Tom Mason. opened in the past to bake virtual cakes, match tiles, and make few years, so clearly jigsaws and a host of other things, including a the Korean state has cartoon hippo who echoes anything she says. First Korean show festival made the same decision that was taken during I tested this with some international friends For example, I am writing this in a 747 some- the Kennedy presidency following the sur- in Korea last week, and what makes the hip- where over Mongolia, on my way back from a prise launch of Sputnik. po’s simple echolalia most impressive is that it visit to Korea. I was invited there by Dr Hwan During a short talk I encouraged Dr Lee is truly multilingual, and echoes all languag- Kang Lee to represent the IPS at the first Kore- and his colleagues from other planetariums es. Just think about that for a moment, this is a an festival of planetarium shows, which start- around Korea, as well as when I met them in- (Continues on Page 46)

6 Planetarian December 2010 FullDome programs for digital planetariums

Duration: 34 min. This show takes audiences on a tour of the major astronomical milestones of the last 3,000 years. The Birth of the Solar System

Duration: 21 min. This amazing movie takes you on a trip to the very beginning of the creation of the Solar System.

Chronicle of a Journey to Earth

Duration: 22 min. Discover our galaxy through the eyes of an intergalactic traveller looking for a place to habitat.

English adaptation and sound track Watch full length movies on line by Loch Ness Productions

Contact: Alexander Zaragoza - [email protected] - tel. (+34) 933 323 000 - Barcelona, Spain December 2010 Planetarian 7 www.antares-fulldome.com New Stars in Music City Lessons Learned Building the New Sudekum Planetarium

Kris McCall, Director Sudekum Planetarium Adventure Science Center 800 Fort Negley Boulevard Nashville, Tennessee USA [email protected] www.SudekumPlanetarium.com www.adventuresci.com

Nashville, Tennessee is known around the world as “Music City,” the home of country music and the Grand Ole Opry. But Nashville is actually home to many different kinds of music, a wide variety of businesses, a surprisingly diverse population, and now, a unique new planetarium. The first Sudekum Planetarium began pre- Architectural rendering of the Adventure Science Center’s new Sky and Space wing by Tuck-Hinton Architects helped us build a strong foundation. Adventure Science Center as seen senting star shows in 1952, the second in 1963, from the top of the AT&T Tower (also known as the Batman Building) is the culmination of our persistence and patience. Photo by Winston Caldwell and the third in 1974. In June 2008, while the International Planetarium Society was meeting in Chicago, the newest incarnation of the a concrete foundation, lay a foundation of re- more will help later on when you are trying to Sudekum Planetarium debuted with an all- search. recall the basis of decisions. Carefully explain- star lineup. •• Market research: who is your audience and ing or justifying a particular concept will help For the first time in a large U.S. planetarium, what do they want? What will bring people others understand the reasoning or logic and an optical-mechanical in and keep them coming back for more? own their decisions down the line. star projector and full- This means talking to people who will use Who are the stakeholders in the project: dome digital projection and support your facility. your institution administration and board were seamlessly inte- •• Campaign feasibility: who are potential members, donors, architect, exhibit designers, grated, using the best of supporters and what do they think about future audiences, the planetarium staff, and both worlds to present the project? This type of study can reveal more. breathtaking immer- potential obstacles to the project and help Knowledge is power and helps people make sive experiences. gauge timing and fundraising goals. good decisions. One consultant told me “It is This project that led •• Select the contractor early to provide fre- not my job to tell you what to do. By educat- to this momentous quent cost estimates and contribute to de- ing my clients about all aspects of their proj- day launched in March Kris McCall sign. Contractor expertise can aid in bud- ect, they can be comfortable, make informed 2002 and provided the geting and value engineering. decisions, and ‘own’ the final result.” planetarium staff with a continuing series of •• Develop a realistic budget. It is essential to Don’t tell people what to do. Do you like challenges. From educating administrators know how much things really cost: con- it when people tell you what to do? You, as and donors to being domeless for 18 months, struction and building materials, exhibit planetarium director, may have great exper- from evaluating equipment to using state of hardware and software, planetarium equip- tise, but you won’t be doing everything your- the art technology to build more personal ment, shows and maintenance, etc. self. Sharing information and teaching oth- connections with our visitors, the past eight ers what to look for will often result in better years have been an exciting and exhausting Educate stakeholders decision-making, fundraising, and short and journey to bring the universe to Nashville. Your development director may know how long term success. I could talk at great length about building to raise money, but the more her or she knows design and equipment selection. There’s lots and understands about the building, the ex- There will be stress of advice I can share about technical specifi- hibits, the equipment, and the capabilities, When we received the initial gift that al- cations and exhibit development, but I won’t the more effective they can be raising money. lowed us to do research for our project, I told be talking about any of those things. Instead, Educating others about such technical things my mother that night that I was worried I want to share less tangible insights into how and taking the time to learn about their du- about how to pace myself over the long haul. to not just survive, but to learn and grow dur- ties, processes, and needs will make everyone In some ways, it was more challenging than I ing the process. more effective. ever imagined. Communication is one of the most impor- Tearing down the old dome felt like tear- Build a strong foundation tant aspects of this endeavor. Keeping good ing down my own home. Even knowing that Be sure to do your homework. Before laying notes about meetings, revisions, opinions, and a new dome would be built in its place, it was

8 Planetarian December 2010 still an emotional time. make will affect the future of the institution In most cases, your institution will have a Once the dome is demolished, there is no now and long after you are gone. I have heard long-term relationship with that vendor. The turning back. There also will be much discus- it said more than once: many planetarium di- quality of the equipment, their people, how sion about what the planetarium staff does rectors are egotists with visions of grandeur they do business, and less concrete measures during construction. Some facilities will es- who seek to build monuments to themselves. should play a role in important choices. You tablish a temporary dome on site or operate It’s OK to have grandiose plans and be proud will also likely be dependent on the vendor of what you are for many aspects of service doing, but remember for whom you You are part of a team are building: the You have a vision. We all do. Very few peo- visitors, the mis- ple are in a position to dictate every single sion, and the insti- thing that will happen as the project moves tution. forward. Even if someone draws the “big pic- Do your home- ture,” they will not be able to fill in the myri- work. Learn as ad details required for successful completion. much as you can— You are not building this by yourself. Ev- about everything. eryone brings different skills to the table. Use Admit it. You do those human resources to get more done: bet- not know it all. ter, faster, and cheaper. Share and distribute The more you the workload. Learn from others. Learn to del- know, the more ef- egate and accept that someone can get essen- fective you will be tially the same result by doing things differ- in all aspects of the ently from the way you would. project. Everyone has the same goal. No one I know Be thorough wants to build for failure. and objective: ev- Architectural rendering of the Adventure Science Center’s new Sky and Space wing by Tuck-Hinton Architects helped us build a strong foundation. Adventure Science Center as seen Everyone’s vision of the project and the fi- from the top of the AT&T Tower (also known as the Batman Building) is the culmination of our persistence and patience. Photo by Winston Caldwell ery technology nal result will not be identical. Administra- has pros and cons, tors, exhibit designers, facilities staff, and even features you want planetarium directors will look at the project a portable dome. We actually chose to do nei- and need, features you don’t want or need, from completely different perspectives. ther. Staff was more than fully engaged in ex- capabilities you didn’t know you wanted or Everyone has a different focus. Each per- hibit design, content writing, image acquisi- needed. Look at all the possible vendors at the son’s expertise will be different, but with good tion, and new planetarium matters. time you are developing your plans. Do not communication from beginning to end, you The administration also believed that “ab- base opinions and choices on hearsay or an- should all reach the same destination. sence makes the heart grow fonder,” and there cient history. Being flexible is a sign of strength. There is was advantage in building anticipation for An open mind is essential. I have seen some a classic story about what kinds of trees sur- the reopening of the planetarium. people write such narrow specifications that vive strong winds. Willow trees can bend and Pick your battles. You win some. You will only one vendor can qualify. Maybe they got twist, even in gale force winds. A beautiful oak lose many others. Thousands of choices will exactly what they wanted, but they might tree, which can be tall, wide, and heavy, is in- be made throughout the life of the project. have missed an opportunity to get something flexible when the strongest winds blow. Not You will not always get your way. Other peo- even better than they considered. only may branches break off, but the entire ple will bring good ideas to the table. You will Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions. An- tree could be ripped completely out of the need to compromise and admit that someone alyze the answers you get. Doing so will not ground and come crashing down. else may have a better solution than yours. only provide valuable information, but it will Be prepared for compromise. As mentioned Every recommendation or decision you give you deeper insight into the vendor. earlier, there are lots of ways to accomplish the

The Sudekum Planetarium in 1952 (left) featured a Spitz A1 under a 6-m (20- ft) plaster dome; in 1994 (above), there was a Spitz 512 under a 12-m (40-ft) dome.

December 2010 Planetarian 9 ments above about stress, educa- Keep in mind who you are building it for: tion, and compromise. “United we the visitors who will tell you how awesome stand. Divided we fall.” the experience was or how much they learned or those who will never thank you but who Be patient will be inspired to pursue a career in science or Rushing leads to mistakes. Any- maybe become the first person to set foot on thing worth doing is worth do- Mars (no pressure). They won’t know or care ing right. Patience is a virtue. Take about the disagreement over carpet color. a deep breath and get ready for a If you have any questions about embark- wild ride. ing on a renovation or expansion project, These things take time. Back in please do not hesitate to ask. If someone can 2002, our CEO asked if we could benefit from my experience and enjoy suc- open the new wing in 2005. That cess down the road, then everyone, especial- would have been in three years. ly public engagement, inspiration, and educa- It took six. You should probably tion will benefit. I double your initial estimate. Don’t announce too early. When an institution receives a gift to start a project, they will often get an architectural rendering and announce their plans within a matter of weeks or months. Do your research and have realistic expectations and budgets before announcing. Many projects announce too early and promise more than they can deliver because the planners do not know how much things really cost. Then, when fundraising comes up short, the new facility does not meet public expectations or ever worse, is never built. Good research in the beginning will pay off in the long term. Pick your battles. You win some. You will lose many more than you win. I have already covered this, but it bears repeating. Compro- mise, but also stand up for your principles, content, and profes- sionalism. You will either acquire grey hair From top: There was stress in January 2007. I can’t watch! or lose hair as a direct result of this The old planetarium had to die to build the new one. Photo process. This one is self-explanato- by Drew Gilmore. Center: Just a small part of a much larger ry. See stress above. team, from left, Drew Gilmore, Kris McCall and Theo Welling- ton. Bottom: Doing our homework, overdressed construction Pace yourself. No one can work workers Kris and Bill Gutsch inspect a Sony projector. seven days a week at 110% capacity for years. You will suffer physi- same result. One way to measure the necessi- cally and mentally, as will your personal and ty of battle is “Are you willing to fall on your professional relationships. There will be times sword for that.” There were occasions when to push as hard as possible. There will be times I had to let a little thing go, such as ejection to take it easy. Even in the home stretch lead- seats for unruly patrons. There were some oc- ing up to opening, take care of yourself. casions when I fought tooth and nail for a spe- Building a planetarium is a once in a life- cific item. I did not win every challenge. Ev- time experience. erything is not exactly as I thought it should After all the advice you have read so far, this be. That does not make me any less proud of last bit needs little explanation. Top: Gee, space sure is big! Either way, build- •• Remember, you are building for the future what we accomplished. ing the new Sudekum Planetarium and Sky and You will have to work with many of these and not just yourself. Space wing was a truly rewarding experience. people after the project is complete. Try not •• Take lots of pictures and video. Photo by Theo Wellington. Bottom: One of our to burn bridges. If you strongly disagree about •• There is a difference between pride and stakeholders, L. Glenn Worley, lifetime member of the Sudekum Memorial Trust, tests out something, that’s OK, but do it respectfully. ego. the seating in one of many Japanese planetar- Do not make it or take it personally. See com- •• Have fun. iums.

10 Planetarian December 2010 BlackHoles_FullPageAd_11-09-2010.pdf 1 11/9/2010 4:10:47 PM

Gobbling up audiences worldwide.

CMY

FULLDOME www.spitzinc.com/fulldome_shows December 2010 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION11 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 We’ll always Keep Looking Up for you

Jack Horkheimer: Planetarian and Star Hustler (1938-2010)

an active supporter of IPS and an associate ed- death at age 72. Yes, age 72. His life mission itor of the Planetarian for several years, begin- revitalized him; those of us who knew him ning with the first issue of the magazine. well know that many medical crises arose in Jack moved to Miami in the mid 1960’s. He these 40 years in Florida until his death, but he had grown up in Wisconsin, but he had an found ways to keep going. acute lung problem that precluded his living in the cold northern latitudes any longer. “Plays” about the universe With a degree from Purdue University and Bringing a background of theatre and writ- scripts of plays he had written and produced ing to the planetarium, Jack started producing there, he moved to Florida, where the more plays, as it were, about the universe with all favorable temperature and humidity might the philosophy, fascination, mythology, and extend what he considered would be a short science of astronomy tied together. Jack had life. an extensive private collection of music of all Shortly after his arrival, Jack met Arthur kinds; through museum connections, he had Smith, president of the Southern Cross Astro- access to local personalities with wonderful nomical Society. Arthur was a member of the voices for dialogue or narration. board of the Miami Museum of Science, and He embraced drama in his productions. For was looking for a director for the museum’s example, he encouraged start-up laser show new Spitz Space Transit Planetarium. Arthur By Jane G. Hastings companies to “bring on” their images! He in- became his mentor; he introduced Jack to the sisted on carefully-crafted soundtracks; his Retired, Thomas Jefferson High “real” sky and, at his insistence, the museum production staff will tell you that he was a School Planetarium hired Jack as the director of the planetarium. hard taskmaster and knew exactly what effect Arlington, Virginia USA After a few months under Arthur’s tutelage, he wanted. Jack came alive, so to speak. What he wanted was whatever he needed One of the planetarium community’s long- He dedicated himself to his newly-discov- to tell the story he envisioned. To keep the au- time innovators, Jack Horkheimer, passed ered twofold mission in life: using carefully- dience engaged, he divided his programs into away in August. His contributions to the plan- crafted, thoughtful planetarium productions segments, which he called “logs” or “episodes.” etarium and stargazing worlds are impressive to show the majesty and wonder of the uni- Each 10-12 minute segment was a story into and legendary; he was an inspiration to plane- verse and introducing people to the real sky. itself; the next story in the script might bear tarians and amateur astronomers alike. He was This dual mission dominated his life until his no apparent resemblance to the first, each seg-

12 Planetarian December 2010 ment making you wonder how it could possi- with lecturer/pointer was changing. Jack International Astronomical Union. Jack em- bly be related to the previous ones. Somehow, Horkheimer is one of the pioneers who braced his popularity as an opportunity to at the end, it all fit together in an unexpect- took show production to the next level and further his vision of introducing people to the ed and poetically magical way. I first saw one opened it wide to all the planetarium venues real sky. of these amazing shows in the early 1970’s and of today. was determined to see as many of them as pos- “Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers!” So Finding your place in the universe sible. began each weekly episode of Jack Horkheim- As he said, “Stargazing is all about where And so did many others. Over the years, er: Star Gazer. This 5-minute show was pro- you are in time and space. The reason people Jack produced at least 25 original shows. Al- duced at WPBT2 in Miami and distributed get out their telescopes and attend star parties though the shows rarely left Miami, a lot of free to PBS stations and other venues around is because they are trying to peer out over the planetarians saw them and spread the word, the world. horizon to find their place in the universe. If and people came to see them. Jack arranged For almost 40 years, the program kept view- I can help them find that, that’s all that mat- script writing sessions for people who request- ers informed about upcoming sky events, us- ters.” ed them; he welcomed visitors to Miami and ing simple graphics and Jack as “explainer,” He soon began to give talks during solar generously gave of his time and talents one- walking among the planets or sitting on the eclipse excursions, sponsored and participated on-one to anyone who asked. rings of Saturn. He ended each show with the in star parties, was a guest speaker at planetari- In 1976 Dennis Simoupoulos, planetarian advice to “Keep Looking Up!” um conferences, astronomical league conven- from Greece who visited American planetari- Previous to that show, in the 1970’s, Jack tions, and many other venues. ums and took 5 of Jack’s shows back to Greece, had a weekly 5-minute astronomy “what’s up Rik Hill, of the Lunar and Planetary Lab at commented: “European planetariums are 10 in the sky” show at radio station WKAT-AM the University of Arizona tells this story: years behind American, and American plane- in Miami. He would arrive in the studio with “Jack Horkheimer and I were guest speakers tariums are 5 years behind Horkheimer!” the latest copy of Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical for an eclipse trip in 1992 to Hawaii. One night My favorite planetarium shows at his Mi- Calendar and use it to figure out what to say when everyone was dead tired we all took the ami Museum of Science Planetarium, are Buck about objects visible in that week’s sky. boat back to our rooms at the Waikoloa in Rogers...Right On, Long Journey of a Young God, An outgrowth of the radio show was a Kona. The boat let us off at a landing near our and Child of the Universe. 5-minute TV show called Star Hustler which rooms; there was a bar there. Jack said he was aired each week and was available for free dis- going in for a drink and I said I’d join him after Miami’s favorite show tribution to ETV stations. It was a hit; many I took my exhausted wife and young daugh- Child of the Universe was Miami’s favor- stations put it at the end of the broadcast day, ter to our room. It takes little time to go up a ite. Using Jack’s signature segments, we ex- and some aired it every night. couple floors, see them safely in and then re- amined Kurt Weill’s song “Lost in the Stars,” As time went on, the name was changed to turn, but by the time I returned to the bar Jack heard confrontational dialogue between Gal- Star Gazer, as internet hits for “hustler” turned had everyone making planisphere star finders! ileo and the church, and then we traveled out up some questionable links. The show is cur- They were having a ball and he clearly, in the to space and then inward to the nanoworld rently running with guest hosts; WPBT hopes space of a few minutes, controlled the crowd of the cell (re Powers of Ten style). The story to keep this starry topic going. and had them eating out of his hand. That was ended with the popular poem-song of the era Many of Jack’s shows, in one-minute and Jack Horkheimer.” which engaged the audience by asking them in five-minute formats, are still found by go- So Jack used his planetarium to tell the sto- to “belong” to the universe. ing to www.jackstargazer.com. When you get ries he envisioned, and he used his TV show to The show was so popular that it had reviv- there, scroll down to watch three of Jack’s get us outside. Several years ago, he went one als in Miami during anniversary years. If you 30-minute shows from the 1970’s. step farther. He was again inspired by Arthur want to read the poem upon which the show The show is very popular; through the Smith in the initiation of the Young Astron- was based, try en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desider- years, ancillary products have appeared. omers’ Awards to encourage students’ interest ata. Tapes, cds, books, planispheres and sun dials in the stars. He worked with the Astronomical It is quite likely that you have not seen any are all designed to assist a novice sky gazer. At League to set up and personally fund four an- of these shows, but you may have seen Jack one point, a “Star Gazer” comic strip appeared nual awards. Horkheimer’s Starbound, an ambitious proj- in Odyssey magazine. (Continues on Page 46) ect funded by NASA which was distributed to Jack became somewhat of a celebrity dur- many planetariums around the world. ing the run of the TV show. In 2001, Asteroid All images from Jane Hasting’s personal collection. Forty years ago, the starry night live show 1999FD was named 11409Horkheimer by the

December 2010 Planetarian 13 14 Planetarian December 2010 Uh, pardon me. You have a minute? I’ve seen a UFO and need to ask you …

Editor-at-Large Steve Tidey Astronomy Educator 2 Stambridge Road Rochford, Essex, SS4 1DG, England [email protected]

I’m on a tight deadline for this article; it ment” that says the Earth has definitely never lighted to be proved wrong if just one piece of needs to be with our esteemed Editor before been visited by space craft from other worlds. irrefutable physical evidence can be produced the Vogon construction fleet of spaceships They already know that no one, no matter and verified by the world’s top scientists, but blows up the Earth to make way for an in- how much they may believe it to be true, has until that event happens I will keep the scep- terstellar bypass. Still, it could be worse; they yet to prove beyond doubt that we are alone tical chip in my head turned on. may want to read us their excruciating poet- in the universe, so all we can do is try to en- Some people say that true science is, or ry first… courage UFOlogists to use more logic and ra- should be, enquiry without scepticism. But if Aliens, eh? You can’t take them anywhere. tional thought. that were the case our heads would be filled (Well, you can, but you have to take them For example, tell them about Occam’s Ra- with so much mumbo-jumbo about fringe sci- back later to apologise for doing things like zor: when two very different theories can ence subjects (such as levitation, spoon bend- blowing up the White House.) Yes, they’re explain equally well a phenomenon, choose ing, telepathy, etc.) there wouldn’t be any (allegedly) zipping around our skies playing the simpler of the two, as that will invariably room left for thinking about the true wonders mind games with us. Or are they? Are UFOs prove to be correct. of the universe. alien spacecraft? Are they sitting out there on I would be the first to agree that the ab- So the first rule when investigating unusu- the solar system’s outer reaches studying our sence of evidence doesn’t necessarily infer the al phenomena is: eliminate the most obvious broadcasts? Is Star Trek their favourite pro- evidence of absence, but we ought to bear in solutions before considering the more far out. gramme? Will they bring back Elvis? Or is the mind the late, great James Oberg’s thoughts Yes, many of us would like to think that there whole alien visitation scenario just a load of on the matter. He once said, “I want to keep are aliens out there about to make first con- dingo’s kidneys? an open mind about it, but not so open tact with us, but UFOlogists have convinced Picture the scene. The local UFOlogist walks that my brain falls out.” themselves it’s happening now and has been into your dome and tells you about the latest Yes, there are about happening since the notori- strange light they’ve seen in the sky. You stand one or two per- ous Roswell incident in there thinking, “Why do they waste so much cent of UFO 1947. And so they go time immersed in these fanciful notions of sightings in search of evidence alien visitations, when they could be getting that are to support their be- excited about the many natural wonders that t o t a l l y liefs. astronomers know really are out there?” b a f f l i n g Human nature dictates We’ve all been in that situation, I’m sure. I and defy that our eyes will often see certainly have. They like to challenge us with any scientific assess- what our hearts and minds want them so called “facts” about alien abductions and ment, but it is too easy and convenient to say to see, and so it should not be too surprising “cover ups.” that the lack of a terrestrial solution automat- that UFOlogists see conspiracies and aliens in ically means that the weird sighting is, there- the most unlikely areas. Somebody should Some Argument Points fore, definitely alien space ships. point out to them that devising a belief sys- So, to help us keep our end up, I have com- I’d like to state for the record that, yes, I do tem and then going in search of evidence to piled a list below of logical points that you can believe there is almost certainly at least one back it up is the reverse of how science works. throw into the argument, to make them think other intelligent civilization elsewhere in Just ask Gil Grissom on CSI. more scientifically about what they’ve seen. the universe. (That belief pretty much comes Think of it like this: Somebody from the It’s important that we not be heavy-hand- with the territory we astronomy educators seventeenth century transported to our time ed in our approach to these well-meaning peo- occupy). would view television, amongst many other ple, as we run the risk of alienating ourselves, But no, I don‘t believe that UFOs are a man- things we take for granted, as the work of de- so to speak, making us look like the “Establish- ifestation of those life forms. I should be de- mons (or evil alien spirits). Indeed, the whole

December 2010 Planetarian 15 alien encounter syndrome could be consid- scope from being released as they supposedly way they did during the Cuban Missile Crisis ered to be the modern day equivalent of the show alien intelligence. However, what these in 1961, bringing the world perilously close to fear our ancestors had of demon gods, which people fail to realize is that the astronomers a nuclear confrontation just over a petty land has punctuated human civilization for over who use HST are given proprietary rights over dispute, if one or both of them really knew 2,000 years. their findings for one year, and this is the rea- that we are not alone in the universe, that our If people see something strange in the sky son why NASA doesn’t publish the data. affairs are being watched by unseen aliens? and find themselves thinking that they may In some quarters, an amateur film of a small In more recent times, I believe the USA be in the presence of an alien visitation, they asteroid briefly entering the upper atmosphere would not have dared contemplate the deep should ask themselves two questions. First in 1972 before bouncing back into space is still defence cuts seen in the west since the collapse of all, what is it, specifically, that makes this used as “proof” of an alien space craft arriving of communism, as it has limited the world’s object resemble a spaceship? And, second- on Earth. ability to defend itself from attack. ly, what is particularly alien about it? Are It’s significant Again, if NASA really does have evidence there features that one would never that hardly any of life on Mars or some other world tucked expect to see on a terrestrial fly- amateur astrono- away in their vaults, surely they would let the ing machine? mers, who regular- whole world know about it and use it to in- The world-wide popular- ly look at the night sky crease their falling budget. ity of The X-Files has made and know what they are look- Just think: it would justify their existence people even more sensitive ing at, report seeing UFOs. Ground Sau- forever more. Instead, since the end of the to identifying anything in the sky cer Watch, a Phoenix-based research group, Apollo program, they’ve been trying to think that looks unusual. has listed 109 objects that can move across the of good reasons why we should have a manned As an example of how people can foolish- night sky and be mistaken for UFOs. presence in space. If successive U.S. presidents ly jump to wild conclusions, consider the case have known about aliens on Earth, surely of a man in the UK who was driving his car at Is hypnosis reliable? they would want an armada of astronauts out night and was startled by a bright light that Some alleged abductees reveal their sto- there preparing for the worst. Mmmm. Appar- flashed once. He went to the local police sta- ries under hypnosis, but the American Med- ently not. tion and reported it as a UFO. They investigat- ical Association says that memories of any Similarly, the U.S. Air Force has allegedly ed and found that he’d driven through a red nature surfacing by hypnosis are less reliable played an active part in the cover ups, so why light, triggering a camera that photographed than those recalled without it. There tends to have they backed away from the many op- his car! be a danger of the subject responding subcon- portunities they’ve had to put their pilots into sciously to subtle clues given out by the hyp- space aboard the Space Shuttle fleet? Most U.S. The nature of belief notist, who may not be aware they are doing Air Force payloads are, instead, launched on Hard-core UFO followers have an almost re- it. This can lead to the equivalent of a court unmanned rockets. Surely they’d want their ligious zeal about their belief. Unfortunately, witness being lead in their answers. best pilots out there. a lack of physical evidence of alien visitation Writing in the UK’s New Scientist magazine Sleep paralysis is suffered by about 5% of and serious flaws in the logic in their argu- some years ago, the renowned British astrono- the American population. Many abduction ments don’t seem to matter. They have faith my author Ian Ridpath asked readers to imag- stories involve people on long car journeys, in what they believe, a leap of faith so heart- ine the following scenario: “Imagine, for a the hypnotic affects of which could bring on felt that it requires no external logic or reason- moment, that there are one million other civ- a type of hallucinatory paralysis. Sleep paral- ing. They will, therefore, fight tooth and nail ilizations in the Galaxy all sending out star ysis tends to strike in the twilight zone just as many of the logical lines of reasoning listed ships. Since there must be something like 10 one is falling asleep, when the mind produc- below. billion interesting planets to visit (one tenth es powerful hallucinations that are totally real There was a study performed in the USA to of all stars in the Galaxy), then each civiliza- to the victim. see what caused some people in the late nine- tion must launch 10,000 space ships annual- In addition to this, experiments have shown teenth century to believe they were seeing ca- ly for only one to reach Earth every year. If ev- that electrical stimulation of certain regions nals on Mars. Children were put in a room and ery civilization launches the more reasonable of the brain produce strong hallucinations. sat in front of a screen on which were project- number of one star ship annually, then we People suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy ed images of the planet. Those who sat close would expect to be visited once every 10,000 have experiences almost identical to those de- to the screen could see no linear markings, but years.” scribed by abductees: the presence of strange the further back one sat the more likely it be- Why did the USA allow the “star wars” bal- beings, anxiety, floating through the air, sexu- came that one would claim to see artificial listic defence program to be scaled down? al activity and a sense of missing time. markings. (There were none on the slide). The Surely they’d give it high priority if there re- canal controversy would appear, then, to be ally is an alien threat. The Department of De- If it’s Tuesday, it must be Mars linked with how the brain perceives the out- fence (which, we are told, colludes in the “cov- Generally speaking, the origin of aliens en- side world. er-ups”) would benefit enormously from an countered by abductees tends to change ac- In Antarctica, high winds over many centu- invasion scenario, as they could have virtual- cording to what planet is in the public eye at ries have created three-sided snow features— ly unlimited resources at their disposal. the time. For example, when Percival Lowell pyramids, if you like. On Mars, he notorious The entire posture of the U.S. military and first began to observe what he thought were “face” in Cydonia is a natural feature sculp- civilian space programs for the last 50 years canals on Mars, people suddenly began to tured by winds that are fiercer. The dark blob is contrary to the actions one would expect claim they had encountered Martians. that represents the face’s “nose” is really just if the top brass really did have physical evi- In the 1950’s it was Venusians, as astrono- data fallout on the original signal sent back dence that we are not alone in the universe. mers of the time believed the planet may be from Viking. To take just one example, do you real- a lush, tropical paradise and science fiction Some conspiracists claim that NASA bans ly think that either Khruchev or Kennedy magazines were filled with stories of lurid various images from the Hubble Space Tele- would have squared up to each other in the (Continues on Page 65)

16 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 17 IPS 2014 Conference Bid: 23-27 June

Beijing Planetarium kindly invites you to China

Dr. Zhu Jin and Xiao Lin, Beijing Planetarium Beijing at night

Abstract: As the first and the largest plane- part of the country. Zeiss theatre with 400 seats will provide excel- tarium in mainland China, Beijing Planetar- It is expected that astronomy education lent environments for vendors and planetari- ium has a major responsibility for the popu- will become an important issue in China in ans to display their most up-to-date products larization of astronomy in mainland China. future years. We are investigating the possi- and shows during the conference. About 800 IPS 2014 in Beijing may speed up the develop- bility of including astronomy as a normal square meters of available exhibition area can ment of planetariums in China as well as in middle school course in some cities and em- be used for the vendor exhibits. nearby regions of Asia. It may bring more peo- phasizing the importance of planetariums in Beijing Planetarium was opened to the pub- ple and organizations close to astronomy and astronomy education. lic in 1957, and the original dome was updat- help them learn more about the IPS. We are recommending that every middle- ed with the most advanced facilities in 2008. size city in China could have a large- or mid- The new building of Beijing Planetarium was Beijing Planetarium plays an important role dle-size planetarium, and every school could opened in 2004. in the popularization of astronomy in main- also have its own planetarium if possible. It is In addition to the digital and Zeiss theatres, land China. During IYA 2009, 24 series of pro- expected that hundreds of new planetariums the planetarium complex also features the 3D grams and more than 260 activities were orga- will be built in the next several years, and IPS Dynamic World, the 4D Popular Science The- nized in Mainland China, influencing millions 2014 in Beijing will greatly speed up such a ater, exhibition halls, the solar observatory, of people. process in China, as well as in some other re- the public observatory, a mobile planetarium, What’s more, Beijing Planetarium has been gions in Asia. astronomical classrooms, and the Beijing An- dedicated to astronomy education all around cient Observatory, among others. China for more than 50 years. As the head- About Beijing Planetarium The two domes will provide an excellent quarters of the Popularization Working Com- Beijing Planetarium is an ideal place for environment for vendors and planetariums mittee of Chinese Astronomical Society (Nan- hosting an IPS conference, not only because of to display their most up-to-date products and jing) and Planetarium Committee of Chinese its unique combination of an ancient obser- shows during the conference. Association of Natural Science Museums, Bei- vatory and modern planetarium, but also be- jing Planetarium is responsible for astronom- cause of its extensive facilities. The 18-m Digi- The theaters ical popularization for the whole mainland tal Space theatre with 200 seats and the 23-m The optical theater (23-m dome) was

Outside view of the Beijing Planetarium Hotel Nikko New Century Beijing

18 Planetarian December 2010 opened to the public in 1957. After continu- was the royal observatory in al operation for nearly five decades, it was re- the Ming and Qing dynas- constructed and reopened in July 2008. The ties, having successive obser- newly-renovated theatre with 400 seats is vation records of nearly 500 equipped with a Zeiss Mark IX optical projec- years from the Ming Dynas- tor and the first 8kx8k digital projector system ty to 1929. The current 8 as- (Sky-Skan Definiti) in the world, and a special tronomical instruments were effects laser demonstration system. made in the Qing Dynasty. The 18-m Digital Space Theater with 200 seats presents grand views of our night sky Conference site and feats of space adventures, projected by and hotels the world’s most advanced digital laser pro- Currently there are two op- jector, SGI visual workstation and ADLIP laser tions for the IPS2014 confer- system. Opened in December 2004, it was the ence site, either Beijing Plan- first planetarium dome in the world with dig- etarium itself or the Hotel ital laser projectors. Nikko New Century Beijing. The 3D Dynamic World has 48 seats and The hotel can provide good the 4D Theater has 200 seats. As a supplement meeting facilities and about for the Zeiss Cosmos and Digital Universe the- 1000 square meters for exhi- aters, they can present an exciting feeling of bitions. motion and special visual and audio effects Hotel Nikko New Century that enhance visitors’ experiences. Beijing, which is a 10-minute walk from Beijing Planetari- Exhibition halls um, is a five-star luxury hotel There are about 3000 square meters of ex- and a member of Nikko Ho- hibition space within the new building, and tels International. There are about 2200 square meters of it has been used various multifunction and for relatively permanent exhibits. meeting halls that can ac- There are two regular exhibition halls in commodate 18-1000 people the old building, each about 400 square me- and conference rooms of dif- ters in area and 7 meters high. One of them ferent sizes to fill the needs has been used for relatively permanent ex- for any activities, such as busi- hibits, the other for temporary exhibits, and ness conferences, exhibitions, both provide good place for vendor exhibits. banquets, etc. Another 400 square meters of area in the new They are fully equipped building could also be used for exhibits. with advanced audio-visual components, automatic pro- Public and solar observatories jector screens, high-speed in- The old facility of Beijing Planetarium has ternet access, mobile stages, a public observatory with a 130-mm optical and adjustable lighting sys- telescope made by Zeiss in 1950s. It was built tems. to organize observations and other astronom- The proposed cost of regis- ical activities and is now opened to public ev- tration is $350. The banquet ery Friday night when it is clear. cost is about $40 per person. Another public observatory is equipped The standard suite of Hotel with a 400-mm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, Nikko New Century Beijing which can provide youngsters with observa- costs $120 per night. There are tion and educational practice and some re- several four-star hotels (Xi- search work. yuan Hotel, Beijing Capital The Solar Vacuum Telescope, with an ap- Xindadu Hotel, Debao Hotel) erture of 300 mm, keeps watching the move- within walking distance of ments of the sun and sends the sunlight and Beijing Planetarium with ac- solar spectra via a 30-m vacuum tube down commodations ranging from to the 1.8-m display screen at the Solar Exhibit $50 to $100 (as of April 2010). Area at the first-floor. The full and partial im- From top: The Digital Space Theater, the updated Zeiss Cosmos ages of the sun in H-alpha and white light are Conference activities Theater, the 4D Theater, and an exhibition hall. also presented in real time from four other 80- The proposed dates for IPS mm telescopes. 2014 are 23-27 June 2014. The conference will follow the normal IPS confer- nese astronaut and an expert on ancient Chi- Beijing Ancient Observatory ence agenda, including papers sessions, post- nese astronomy. Beijing Ancient Observatory is located in er sessions, workshops, guest speakers, exhi- The agenda will feature a variety of excur- the southeast part of Beijing. It was built in bitions, sub-group discussions, etc. We will sions: visits to the Beijing Ancient Observato- 1442 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and invite some local speakers, including a Chi- ry and city attractions.

December 2010 Planetarian 19 Pre- and post-conference tours The Summer Palace and its 70,000 square Tours will be arranged before and after the meters of building space feature a variety of conference. There will be four options: a visit palaces, gardens and other ancient-style ar- to the Great Wall, a visit to Xinglong Station chitectural structures. Well known for its of the National Astronomical Observatories large and priceless collection of cultural rel- of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the fa- ics, the Summer Palace has become one of mous Chengde Summer Villa; a visit to Xi’an, the most famous tourist sites in the world. the most famous traditional city in China; The Temple of Heaven was the place and a trip to Hong Kong and Macao. where the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would worship Heaven and pray Your host sity for bumper crops. The Temple of Heaven is Beijing, capital of the People’s Republic of the largest architectural group for worship- China, is the nation’s political, economic, cul- ping Heaven in the world. tural, educational and international trade and In 1961, it was listed by the State Coun- communication center. Located in northern cil as “one of the key monuments under the China, Beijing also serves as the most impor- state protection.” In 1998, it was recognized tant transportation hub and port of entry in by UNESCO as “one of the human heritag- China. Beijing is a tribute to China’s proud his- es of the world.” tory and a gateway to China’s future. The Ming Tombs are located at a dis- The capital city during the Liao, Jin, Yuan, tance of 50km northeast of Beijing in an Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing has long arc-shaped cluster of hills fronted by a small been the center of China. It is now an interna- plain. Here is where 13 emperors of the Ming tional metropolis, home to 17 million people Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) were buried. from all walks of life. The Beijing Hutong has a very special Beijing has become one of the most signif- and important position in the rich histo- icant cities of the world, not only because of ry and culture of Beijing. It is a “must see” its splendid historical heritage, but also for its part of Beijing for tourists, for the Hutong is outstanding building projects for the 2008 a wonderful glimpse into the world of yes- Olympic Games, such as the “Nest,” the eye- terday in Beijing. While visiting the Beijing catching stadium, the “Water Cube,” the larg- Hutong, you can feel the dramatic chang- est natatorium in the world, the brilliant es of Beijing and experience its lifestyle and CCTV building and CBD district, which has traditional culture. made Beijing a world focus of the 21st Centu- ry by its diversified culture. Cuisine With a large group of State-protected Sites “Beijing cuisine” derives its uniqueness of Cultural Relic, the national treasure of Pe- from the blending of many food cultures, king Opera performances and acrobatics including local, Islamic, royal, feudal offi- troupes keep those traditional shows and en- From top: Beijing Ancient Observatory, the Tem- cial, and more. Islamic cuisine, which uses tertainment forms vital, while contemporary ple of Heaven, and the Palace Museum at the For- mainly beef and mutton, has an impor- bidden City. All photos provided by Beijing Plan- tant place in Beijing cuisine. Donglaishun’s music bars and night clubs thrive in an era of etarium. liberalization and prosperity. “Mutton Hotpot” has a long standing histo- As a modern metropolis, we are seeing not ry and is loved by many for its special taste. and Xinjiang Hotel. You can enjoy the famous only high-speed economic development but The Peking Duck, named “China’s Tastiest Peking hotpot and traditional northwest cui- also enhanced friendship between the Chi- Dish,” is made of grilled stuffed duck. The two sines of China. nese people and people around the world. varieties of Peking Duck are hang-grilled duck, represented by those served at Quanjude Res- This will foster more and more global interest What to see and vital energy to this famous ancient and taurant and stew-grilled duck, represented by Alongside 7300 cultural relics and historic modern capital city. those served at Bianyifang Restaurant. sites are more than 200 scenic spots, including the world’s largest palace, the Forbidden City, Closing statement Transportation as well as the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and The IPS Conference has never been held in Beijing Planetarium, located in the north- Temple of Heaven, among others. The Palace China and we feel that now is the perfect time west of Beijing, is about 27 km from the Bei- Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, is for such an important event. We have the jing Capital Airport. You can take a taxi or the the largest and most well-preserved imperial ability to hold a wonderful IPS conference in subway to get here easily. The subway stop residence in China today. In 1987, the United 2014. You may learn more about our prepara- (Zoo Station of Line 4, Exit D) is at the front of Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Beijing Planetarium. Organization recognized the Forbidden City tion at the website hwww.ips2014.org. as a world cultural legacy. It is believed that Beijing has been making great changes in re- Surroundings the Palace Museum got its name from astron- cent years. A number of great events have tak- Beijing Zoo is opposite of the Beijing Plane- omy and folklore. en place in Beijing. We hope IPS members will tarium. It’s worth a tour, especially if you are The Great Wall, symbolizing China’s an- choose to come explore the new Beijing and interested in pandas. cient civilization, is one of the world’s most choose our facility as your host for 2014. There are many good restaurants around renowned projects. It is about 75 kilometers We are looking forwards to seeing you at Beijing Planetarium, such as DongLaiShun northwest of Beijing. IPS 2014 in Beijing!

20 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 21 IPS 2014 Conference Bid: 26-30 July

Come to Rio de Janeiro for a new era for IPS

Alexandre Cherman, Planetario do Rio de Janeiro Copacabana at dusk, as seen from the Sofitel Hotel.

The phone rings, yanking you from your um business at the dinner table. Some of you vant way to divide the world, IPS Rio 2014 sleep. It’s 6:30 on a winter morning. Almost will have attended the Indigenous Planetari- would be the first conference held in the trop- immediately you regret setting up the wake- um Workshop; some will have discussed the ical region! up call the night before. But then you realize latest astronomical discoveries; some, still, will And, on a different note but still talking where you are and a smile brightens up your have learned all kinds of tricks for implement- about firsts, Rio is a very environmentally- face. ing inexpensive solutions in your dome. minded city. It has the largest urban forest in You get out of bed, wash up and get dressed. Did you enjoy this little piece of fiction? the world. We would make sure to neutralize You open the curtains of your bedroom and But what if it were no fiction at all, but real- all carbon emissions of our conference, mak- the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean greets you ly a typical day during our 22nd International ing IPS Rio 2014 the first Green IPS Conference good morning. The long shadows on the street Planetarium Conference? ever. point southwest. Come to Rio in 2014 and you will see! Out of your room and into the elevator you Hosting and organizing go. Eight floors down, you cross the hotel lob- A new era The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium wants to by, greeting the few other delegates who had Jon Elvert, our next conference host from host IPS 2014. We will do our best to make you the same idea you had. A couple of minutes Baton Rouge, jokingly said in Alexandria that all feel welcome. later, you are all barefoot, on the white sand, IPS 2012 would be the last IPS, since the world We would arrange keynote speakers from watching the surf break. will end later that year. Of course it was a joke! around the globe. We would divide the papers, The locals think the 20ºC (68ºF) is too cold, We all know that if the Mayans did predict panels and posters into four grand themes: Ed- so the beach is empty, as if exclusively re- something, they predicted the end of an era ucation, Technology, Low-Budget Solutions served for you and your fellow delegates. and the beginning of a new one. So let’s em- and Regional Astronomy (archaeo-, ethno- Almost an hour passes and you are all back brace Jon’s words and call IPS 2014 the first and cultural astronomy). And we would ex- at the hotel, fully dressed, having breakfast. In conference of the new era! plore the best of the southern tropical skies! a couple of minutes, the keynote speaker will And what better way to celebrate a new era We already have a powerful partner in begin his lecture. And as you wait, you share a than by taking IPS into new territory? South planning our Conference, the same profes- secret smile with one another. America is the only inhabited continent that sional conference organizer that put togeth- Later that day, you will all be sharing sto- has never hosted an IPS conference! If we fo- er the XXVII IAU General Assembly, here in ries, anecdotes and news from the planetari- cus on latitudes, a more astronomically rele- Rio, in 2009. Our staff and his staff are eager,

The Rio Planetarium main building, and its two domes The Sofitel Hotel, as seen from the Copacabana’s sidewalk 22 Planetarian December 2010 in cooperation with the IPS officers, to make only one that has an official policy to hire ex- ties needed for such an event (wi-fi internet IPS Rio 2014 the best IPS Conference we can clusively graduate-level astronomers for its access, dining facilities, A-V equipment etc.). dream of. domes’ activities. Surrounding this rather large hotel (almost 400 rooms), there are other hotels, smaller, less Our institution The City of Rio expensive, but equally well located. It makes The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium Foundation, Rio de Janeiro itself could be considered for very convenient logistics that most of the established in 1993, is actually a 40-year-old in- the Brazilian capital of astronomy. For over conference activities will be held at the hotel stitution. Its first dome opened in November 50 years, the Rio de Janeiro Federal Universi- conference center. Even people who do not 1970 and housed a Zeiss Spacemaster projector ty hosted the only graduate curriculum in as- plan to stay at the Sofitel will be within walk- and 130 seats. This dome, named after Italian tronomy (one new course opened last year, in ing distance. astronomer Galileo Galilei, is 12.5-m in diame- São Paulo). The classes are held at the Valongo The planetarium is only 15 minutes away ter. As part of our 40th anniversary celebration, Observatory, a hidden treasure located near by bus. Travel to the planetarium, including we completely renewed this dome, and it now the harbor in the downtown area. All the as- multiple dome sessions sponsored by vendors, houses a Barco/RSA Cosmos fully digital pro- tronomers from the Rio Plan- jection system. etarium staff graduated from Our mission is “To divulge Astronomy and this university. Science through the use of state-of-the-art Also in Rio is the National technology in a welcoming environment, of- Observatory, founded in 1827 fering our visitors high quality cultural lei- by Brazil’s first emperor, D. Pe- sure.” We see astronomy, and science in gener- dro I (father to D. Pedro II, who al, as part of the cultural heritage that should lends his name to one of the be spread among the people, especially school planetarium’s domes). Adja- kids. cent to the National Observa- As part of a constant effort to achieve our tory is the Museum of Astron- goals, the Foundation built two other domes. omy, and very close to both Its second dome opened in 1998, with a Zeiss institutions, there is the Na- Universarium VIII and 263 seats. It is 23 m in tional Museum, with its vast diameter and adjacent to the Galileo dome. It collections of fossils, mum- is named after American astronomer and sci- mies, plants and the largest me- Christ, the Redeemer, overlooking the Sugar Loaf ence communicator Carl Sagan. teorite ever recovered in Bra- The third dome was opened in 2008 and zilian soil (the famous Bendegó is located some 70 km away from the Foun- meteorite, which has replicas displayed all will be provided, and the planetarium head- dation headquarters. As odd as it may appear, over the world, including at the Palais de la dé- quarters can accommodate the whole atten- this was a sound decision taken by the may- couverte, in Paris, France). dance at once. or’s office and very much in alignment with Two observatories, the busiest planetari- The Rio Planetarium has already begun ne- our mission. Rio, as any major world city, has um, the oldest astronomy college and three gotiations with the Sofitel Hotel, in order to very distinct neighborhoods, presenting a related museums make Rio a fine destination guarantee the best possible price for IPS dele- wide range on HDI (Human Development In- for astronomy lovers from all over the world. gates. Some tentative figures follow. dex). The new dome was built in an under- But, truth be told, this is not what most people •• Estimated attendance (based on past IPS privileged part of town specifically to broad- think when they consider visiting our city. Conferences outside the U.S.): 300 en our attendance amongst the lower income Rio is the home of one of the New Seven Won- •• Projected registration fee (in accordance population. ders of the World, the “Christ, the Redeemer” with past IPS Conferences): U.S. $475. This third dome was named after Brazil’s statue, which overlooks the city, its open arms •• There will be special fees for planetariums last emperor, D. Pedro II, a great enthusiast of pointing along the north-south meridian line, from South America, stimulating them to astronomy. It is 12 m in diameter and hous- on top of the Corcovado mountain. join IPS, and from developing countries. es a Digistar 3 digital projector from Evans & Rio is the capital city of the state of Rio de There also will be an “early bird fee”. Sutherland and has 88 seats. This new build- Janeiro; it is the second largest city in Brazil •• Projected banquet fee (including the Cable ing has a 100-seat auditorium and some of the and third largest metropolitan area in South Car ride up the mountain): U.S. $75. exhibits originally showcased at the main of- America. It is the main tourist destination in •• Estimated average room rate at the Sofitel: fice. the Southern Hemisphere. U.S. $219. Our headquarters, in addition to its two •• Estimated average room rate at hotels near- domes, has a 120-seat auditorium, two class- Rio as a host city by the Sofitel: U.S. $89-199. rooms (for up to 50 each), a small digital the- Our proposed venue for the conference, the •• Average taxi fare, from the Airport to the ater (30 seats), an open amphitheater and its Sofitel Hotel, is located at the west end of the Sofitel: U.S. $45. famous “telescope square,” with four different famous Copacabana beach, some 200 m from We expect a large influx of tourists in 2014, domes and telescopes, open to the public ev- Pedra do Arpoador (and Ipanema Beach), mak- since Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup ery Wednesday. And, of course, we can’t for- ing it a perfect place for the out-of-towners to (football, that is, or soccer, for U.S. nationals). get the Museum of the Universe, an interac- stay and enjoy our hospitality. The final match will be held in Rio, at the fa- tive hands-on exhibit covering astronomy, This particular hotel has a large conference mous Maracanã Stadium, and it is scheduled from the astrolabe to the Hubble Space Tele- center (its main conference room can fit up to on July 13. scope. 600 people) and it could easily hold inflatable Our proposed dates for the IPS Conference, The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium is the bus- domes, as required by a unique event such as July 26-30, do not compete with this major iest and largest planetarium in Brazil, the the IPS Conference. It also has all the ameni- sports event. Hotel prices will be waning on

December 2010 Planetarian 23 has become the only inhabited continent IPS has not held a conference in. Meeting in Rio would be the fulfillment of the long-held goal of IPS to reach every continent and to meet on every continent.

The conference The Conference itself would be a fresh mix of standard IPS Conference activities, with a Brazilian twist and unique features. We would hold the usual paper and poster sessions and workshops, with open submissions from all delegates, respecting the four grand themes mentioned before. A city tour is part of our plans, mixing the standard tourist attractions with the more astronomically relevant sites in Rio. A night at a dark-sky site to watch the Southern Hemi- sphere sky is in our plans as well. Family members will find the city very welcoming, and they will find it easy to explore on their own. We plan two large banquets, one as part of the regular schedule (the awards lunch), to be held at Forte de Copacabana (“Copacabana Fortress”) just across the street from the hotel. The second would be the closing banquet, planned on top of the Sugar Loaf. A very interesting pre-conference tour would be a visit to the large telescopes in Chile. We are just now in the beginning stag- Rio is the Brazilian capital of Astronomy, with two observatories and the National Museum. All photos es of negotiation with people at ESO and Gem- provided by Rio de Janeiro Planetarium. ini, and we would very much like to offer a trip to their sites, for a limited number of par- our proposed dates, but we can still expect a The dream ticipants. Our preferred post-conference tour lot of foreign nationals in Rio, making it a par- And why do we want that? IPS Rio2014 would be planned with the help of Pará Plane- ticularly good environment to mingle. will send a strong and powerful message to tarium, the only Brazilian planetarium in the And mingling with tourists is one of our the planetarium community in Brazil and Amazon region, and it should include a boat natural talents. Forbes magazine elected Rio in South America as a whole. It will say “IPS trip through the Amazon River. de Janeiro as “the happiest city in the world,” knows you are there.” It will say “IPS wants to so cariocas (the locals, born and raised in Rio) be a part of your lives.” In closing are always friendly and ready to help. This The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium has been As you are aware, July is winter time in Rio, we have proven time and time again, hosting a member of IPS since 1997, back in the days which translates as our dry season (perfect some major events, from the Rio Eco-92 (an when we only had one dome. And IPS has for sky watching!). Temperatures range from ecological summit in 1992) to the Pan-Amer- been a part of our lives since then, so we know 18ºC to 26ºC, with an average of 21ºC. North ican Games in 2007, and including three dif- the benefits one can get from being part of Americans and Europeans will find our win- ferent music festivals (Rock in Rio 1, 2 and 3, in this global community. ter weather very pleasant and almost sum- 1985, 1991 and 2001). The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium also knows mer-like. Most recently, and in our particular inter- that it has a longstanding IPS desire to be pres- The Rio de Janeiro International airport est, Rio hosted the IAU General Assembly, wel- ent in the South American continent. This has direct flights to most U.S. and Europe- coming over 3,000 astronomers from all over dream has been proven difficult to realize, an hubs, and it can also be reached through a the world for 17 days of scientific excitement due to geographical, economical and linguis- large number of connections in São Paulo (a and discussion. The Rio Planetarium was a key tical issues. But the tide started to turn when 45-minute flight). partner in the organization of the IAU GA, ac- IPS held its Council Meeting here at the Rio de In addition to all the facilities and ameni- tively helping at the convention center and Janeiro Planetarium in 2007. That unique and ties the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium, its pro- hosting some parallel activities, both scientif- generous gesture was enough to stimulate Bra- posed conference venue (the Sofitel Hotel) ic and social. zilian planetariums to join IPS, and for the first and the city itself have to offer to IPS, we feel Our city’s ability to host large events was time IPS has a South American Affiliate, the that there is more: an immeasurable, intangi- recently recognized by three very distinct Association of Brazilian Planetariums—ABP. ble and abstract quality to Rio, the “Marvel- sports authorities. Rio will host the World Mil- The correlation of these two events is direct ous City,” that makes it an almost mytholog- itary Games in 2011, some matches of the FIFA and we hope that IPS Rio 2014 will make an ical place. World Cup, including the final in 2014, and even stronger case of the benefits for Brazilian Once again, we would be very honored to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. and South American planetariums to join IPS. IPS 2014, and we eagerly invite all planetariums Hopefully, we can add IPS 2014 to our list We cannot emphasize this point enough: to join us in the first IPS Conference to be held of events. after IPS2010 in Alexandria, South America in South America! I

24 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 25 IPS 2014 Conference Bid: 27 June-2 July

Inform, inspire, provoke: the planetarium as storyteller in Vancouver

Rob Appleton, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Downtown Vancouver showing the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (far left). Photo by Tourism Vancouver, used with permission.

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (HRMSC) tional knowledge into practice. ages with planetarium productions, live sci- is pleased to present a bid to host the 2014 In- ence demonstrations, and an interactive ex- ternational Planetarium Society Biennial Con- Vancouver welcomes the world hibit gallery. ference in Vancouver, Canada. As host city, Vancouver will offer a multi- The Space Centre also includes the Gordon It will have been over 30 years since the cultural and geographically diverse destina- MacMillan Southam Observatory adjacent to HRMSC last hosted the conference, drawing tion, with a population derived from more the main building. With the addition of an 250 delegates from around the world. While than 60 different cultures, and a spectacular exhibit gallery and new demonstration the- a large number of delegates for the time, with natural setting, nestled between the Pacific atre in 1997, the Space Centre evolved into the the successful work of IPS over the years and Ocean and the Coastal Mountains. Add to this community resource it is today. We are cur- the draw of Vancouver, we look forward to the vibrant arts community plus the top-rat- rently in the process of securing funding to hosting the largest conference in IPS history. ed restaurants, and it is evident why the city is upgrade our planetarium technology. Focused on evoking a sense of wonder so popular with visiting conferences and con- The distinctive building was designed by about the universe, astronomy, space travel ventions. architect Gerald Hamilton and is one of the and planet Earth, the HRMSC is positioned to The proposed dates for the 2014 IPS Bienni- most recognizable structures in Vancouver. facilitate a global dialogue and collaboration al Conference are Friday, June 27 to Wednes- While the roof of the building may look like among individuals with a vested interest in day, July 2, 2014, with the IPS Council Meeting a spaceship, this unique dome was designed to the promotion of scientific literacy. held before the conference and the travelling resemble the hats of the Haida First Nations Working with local and national partners, tours after the conference. people from north-western British Columbia. the HRMSC will ensure a rich and stimulating program to highlight emerging issues in H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Host institution facility amenities the field, inform the work of IPS delegates, at- Built in 1968, a gift from lumber magnate The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is com- tract new members and supporters, and fur- H.R. MacMillan, the Space Centre provides a prised of the following areas: ther the translation of astronomical educa- unique learning experience for visitors of all Star Theatre: a 19.8-m domed planetarium

26 Planetarian December 2010 theatre with concentric seating for 230. The messages in our theatre features the original Zeiss Planetarium stories addressing Universal Mark III projector in good working science, culture order. The Centre is in the process of securing and society as re- funding for digital upgrades. The cove area of lated to our ap- the Star Theatre will provide generous space preciation of the for vendors to install their demonstration night sky; equipment. •• The Storyteller: Auditorium Theatre: a 209-seat theatre program devel- with multimedia capabilities, primarily used opment and de- for public lectures, seminars and screenings. livery of both on- GroundStation Canada: an 87-seat multime- site and outreach dia presentation theatre used for live science programs; demonstrations and our Skype broadcasts. •• The Tools: soft- Cosmic Courtyard: a 500-square-metre ex- ware, hardware hibit area with both an astronomy and space and digital me- exploration theme. dia; and Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory •• The Audience: (GMSO): a separate, adjacent building housing program devel- our ½-metre Cassegrain telescope and a 45-per- opment, market- son classroom. ing, promotions, and evaluation. Conference theme The proposed theme, Inform, Inspire, Pro- Supplier expo voke—the Planetarium as Storyteller, is impor- and more tant in an age when our planetarium commu- The supplier expo nity is balancing the pursuit of increasingly will be situated in sophisticated equipment with our primary an area immediate- role as astronomy education organizations. ly adjacent to the In addition to discussion around the newest conference rooms. astronomical discoveries, the conference will The promotion of provide delegates the opportunity to share the supplier expo their experiences and knowledge, explore will begin at IPS how current research on learning in informal 2012 and continue settings can inform educational program de- until the 2014 con- Top: View inside the Chan Centre concert hall, location of the plenary speak- velopment, and discuss the effective use of ers for IPS 2014. Photo by UBC Conferences, used with permission. Below: ference. View from inside the Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory at HRMSC. new technologies and partnerships within the Ample space will Photo by HRMSC/Mike Koziniak. industry to support the learning experiences be available for we create. poster sessions in close proximity to the sup- • Digital media companies in Vancouver plier expo and conference rooms. (Bardel Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Radi- Keynote speakers cal Entertainment, Rainmaker Entertainment, The bid proposes a conference agenda that Enrichment sessions PIXAR). will include a variety of plenary speakers on • The 6.2-m Liquid-Mirror Observatory lo- • Digital media educational institutions in the following topics: astronomy; education cated in Langley (60 minute drive from down- Vancouver (Centre for Digital Media). and program evaluation; and delivery of qual- town Vancouver). ity, interactive programming for both onsite • TRI-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF) Registration costs and outreach programs. located on the campus of the University of In an effort to make the conference accessi- Speakers will be drawn from Metro Vancou- British Columbia in Vancouver. ble to the largest number of delegates, the reg- ver’s two preemi- • The SFU Teaching Observatory and Sci- istration fees will be set at $450 CDN for the nent universities, ence Outreach Centre on the campus of Si- early bird fee. This cost will include the open- the University of mon Fraser University in Burnaby (30 minute ing plenary; all sessions, workshops and ex- British Columbia drive from downtown Vancouver). hibits; delegate bags and conference materials; and Simon Fraser • The BCIT Planetarium, a 77-seat planetari- plus all coffee breaks and lunches. The confer- University, as well um on the campus of the British Columbia In- ence dinner will be an additional cost. as noted interna- stitution of Technology in Burnaby (30 min- tional speakers. ute drive from downtown Vancouver). Conference site, accommodations • The 30-m telescope being constructed at To ensure that the conference is accessible Conference Dynamic Structures in Coquitlam (45 minute to the greatest number, the organizers have lo- streams drive from downtown Vancouver). cated the conference activities on the campus We envision • Royal Astronomical Society Anthony of the University of British Columbia. With four conference Overton Memorial Observatory located in a mix of suites and semi-private rooms, the streams: Maple Ridge (60 minute drive from down- Gage Residence at UBC will offer accommoda- ••The Story: the town Vancouver). tions in the range of $44 to $183 CDN per night

December 2010 Planetarian 27 (including a full continental breakfast). Addi- tionally, attendees have the option to stay at one of the many world class hotels in the city centre.

IPS gala dinner The dinner will be held on the terrace of the Museum of Anthropology at the Universi- ty of British Columbia, overlooking the North Shore mountains and the Vancouver harbour. The west coast cuisine meal will include three courses plus all wines, beers and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as a tour of the museum.

Pre- and post-conference tours Tours will be arranged to the Dominion As- trophysical Observatory in Victoria and the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton. There will be additional tours Above: The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in available to explore other area of British Co- early evening. Photo by Tourism Vancouver/ lumbia: fishing for salmon in the Pacific, rid- Al Harvey, used with permission. Right: Killer ing the rails on the Rocky Mountaineer Rail Whale in Johnstone Straight near Vancouver. Photo by Tourism Vancouver/Tom Ryan, used Tour, cruising the inside passage from Van- with permission. couver to Alaska, and hitting the links at one of Whistler Resort’s championship courses. ral choice of venue for the 2014 International The IPS conference organizers will work with Planetarium Society Conference. Tourism Vancouver to create a menu of interesting tours of the area. International appeal The population of Greater Vancouver, in- Vancouver, your host city cluding all major suburbs, is just over 2 mil- Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the lion people. The city of Vancouver itself has Coast Mountain Range, Vancouver is a cos- 565,000 and these “Vancouverites” originate mopolitan city perched on nature’s edge. A from more than 60 cultural groups. This mul- city of unparalleled beauty, from the 1000- ticultural flavour is threaded throughout the acre jewel, Stanley Park—the largest city park region in the restaurants, festivals, and unique in North America—to the hustle and bustle of neighbourhoods that make up Vancouver fashionable Robson Street and trendy Yale- and the Lower Mainland area. lish and French, however, because of the won- town, Vancouver has it all. Vancouver has the third-largest Chinatown derful multicultural mix, our city is multilin- A playground for all ages, Vancouverites are in North America, after those in San Francis- gual. The people here speak many loyal to their outdoor recreation. Activities co and New York. Vancouverites and visitors different languages and follow the many range from rainforest walks, ocean kayaking, alike enjoy a trip to Chinatown to visit the traditions of their native countries. The most and salmon fishing, to skiing, snowshoeing, steamy windows of won-ton houses, meat common languages spoken in the city are Eng- golfing, and cycling, all done against awe-in- stores with displays of crimson Chinese bar- lish and Chinese, followed by Punjabi, Ger- spiring natural backdrops of mountains, wil- becued ducks, and stalls packed with exotic man, Italian, French, Tagalog and Spanish. derness and our spectacular harbour. roots and teas of Chinese folk medicine, jade, A vibrant city, the pedestrian-friendly silks and other novelties. Accessibility and infrastructure streets are filled with individuals from varied Just a mile from the downtown core is Com- As a premier tourism and event destination, ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. As a re- mercial Drive, the cultural centre of East Van- national and international access to Vancou- sult of its culturally diverse population, Van- couver. Nicknamed “Little Italy,” this neigh- ver is outstanding. Vancouver is one of North couver has equally diverse neighbourhoods, bourhood boasts numerous natural food America’s premier transportation hubs, offer- all of which provide wonderful browsing eateries, gelatterias, and fantastic Italian-style ing convenient access via all modes of trans- and shopping opportunities. Vancouver’s ex- coffee bars. A colorful collection of cafes, inex- portation: air, car, bus and sea. Within the city, otic setting is also reflected in its array of fla- pensive grocery markets and funky shops rou- the mass transit system and extensive road vourful offerings. Between its international- tinely draw locals and visitors alike. network provide quick and easy connections. ly praised fine dining restaurants and trendy In addition, Vancouver is home to a large The Vancouver International Airport (YVR), cafes, the city’s many restaurants offer every- population of Indo-Canadians who live located in Richmond, south of Vancouver’s thing from original seafood fare to unique throughout the city. The cultural focal point city centre, is a half-hour drive to the down- vegetarian dining. is approximately three blocks long, compris- town core. In 2010 Vancouver International Vancouver enjoys the best of all worlds: ing approximately 18 jewelery stores, 25 fabric Airport was named Best North American Air- four distinct seasons, snow-capped moun- shops and a variety of restaurants. This Pun- port at the Skytrax World Airport Awards and tains, ocean-side beaches, outstanding hotels jabi marketplace is a fascinating trip through 11th overall worldwide. The Vancouver Inter- and restaurants, one-of-a-kind entertainment, East Indian culture. national Airport serves over 41 international, cleanliness and safety. Vancouver is the natu- The official languages of Canada are Eng- national, and regional carriers. I

28 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 29 Minutes of the IPS Council Meeting Floating Room #3, Library of Alexandria Alexandria, Egypt June 25 & 26, 2010

* indicates action items Affiliates not in attendance: Ayman Elsayed, Deputy Director, described Russian Planetarium Association (RPA) some of the history of the area and promised In attendance: a memorable conference. President Tom Ma- President Tom Mason Guests: son and Council expressed their gratitude to President Elect Dave Weinrich Dr.Omar Fikry - IPS 2010 Conference Host, Omar and his team for their efforts to provide Past President Susan Button Director, Planetarium Science Center, Bib- a productive and unique setting for the con- Treasurer Shawn Laatsch liotheca Alexandrina ference. Following the introductions of Coun- Secretary Lee Ann Hennig Dr. Ayman Elsayed - Deputy Director, Plane- cil members and guests, Tom recognized new tarium Science Center, Bibliotheca Alexan- Council members and reviewed the format Affiliate Representatives: drina for the Council meeting as well as changes in Association of Brazilian Planetariums (ABP) – Jon Elvert - Chair, IPS Outreach Committee, the agenda. Dr. Alexandre Cherman and Pennington Planetarium, Baton Rouge, The Secretary’s Report on the Minutes of Association of Dutch Speaking Planetariums Louisiana, USA, IPS 2012 Conference Host the 2009 Toulouse, France Council Meeting (ADSP) - Chris Janssen for Ad Los Celso Cunha - 2014 Conference Bid Host, Presi- had been previously published in the Decem- Association of French Speaking Planetariums dent of Rio Planetarium Foundation, Rio de ber 2009 Planetarian. The minutes were ap- (APLF) – Lionel Ruiz for Dr. Agnès Acker Janeiro Brazil proved. Association of Mexican Planetariums (AM- Robert Appleton - 2014 Conference Bid Host, Treasurer Shawn Laatsch presented the PAC) – Ignacio Castro Pinal Executive Director, H.R. MacMillan Space Treasurer’s Report. Council reviewed and Association of Spanish Planetariums (APLE) – Centre, Vancouver BC Canada discussed specifics of the 2009 Financial Re- Asunción Sánchez for Javier Armentia Dr. Jin Zhu - 2014 Conference Bid Host, Direc- port, the mid-year 2010 Budget, and the pro- Australasian Planetarium Society (APS) – Mark tor, Beijing Planetarium, Beijing China posed 2010/11 budget. The Audit Report of Rigby Xiao Lin, Beijing Planetarium 2009 confirmed that the treasury is in good British Association of Planetaria (BAP) – Dr. Alex Delivorias - EMPA, Science Communica- standing and the document will be posted on Tom Mason for Shaaron Leverment tor, Eugenides Foundation, Athens, Greece the Council Group Site. Shawn reported that Canadian Association of Science Centres Simonetta Ercoli - IAP, Perugia, Italy Jeff and Diana Bowen have restructured their (CASC) - Ian McLennan Martin George - Chair, International Relations planned gift to IPS and it now has reached an Council of German Planetariums (RDP) - Committee & Elections Committee approximate total of just over $250,000 USD. Thomas Kraupe Alan Gould, Chair - IPS Web Committee It was also noted that Digitalis and Ash En- European/Mediterranean Planetarium Associ- Yaroslav Gubchenko - Fulldome Film Society, terprises also give back to the membership ation (EMPA) - Manos Kitsonas Moscow Russia in a variety of ways: Digitalis sponsors the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) – Eduardo Hernández - AMPAC President, Di- first year of IPS membership for new custom- Jeanne Bishop rector, Torreón Planetarium, Torreón Coah. ers and Ash supports the IPS Star Partners and Great Plains Planetarium Association (GPPA) – Mexico Spitz Education Funds. John Hare for Jack Dunn Carmen Gómez - Torreón Planetarium *Council expressed it thanks to the Bo- Italian Association of Planetaria (IAP) – Susan Anne-Lize Kochuyt - ADSP, Public Relations, wens, Digitalis, and Ash as prime exam- Button for Loris Ramponi Royal Observatory of Belgium Planetarium, ples of efforts to improve our organiza- Japan Planetarium Association (JPA) - Kaoru Brussel Belgium tion through their generous actions. Kimura Benjamin Mendelsohn - PPA President, Sarato- The Treasurer’s Report was filed. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS) – ga California As Membership Chair, Shawn reported that Lee Ann Hennig for Steve Mitch Dr. Dale Smith- Chair - IPS Publications Com- the total membership as of June 2010 was 638. Nordic Planetarium Association (NPA) - Lars mittee At the end of 2010, Shawn will provide a sta- Broman tistical report on the Associate Membership. Pacific Planetarium Association (PPA) – Gail The meeting was called to order at 9:25 A.M. The Membership Report was filed. Chaid by President Tom Mason. Tom greeted the Past President Susan Button presented her Rocky Mountain Planetarium Associa- Council Members and guests and introduced final Past President’s Report, which will be tion (RMPA) –Dr. Dale Smith for Rick our Host for the 2010 IPS Conference: Director (was) printed in the September 2010 issue of Greenawald of the Planetarium Science Center at the Bib- the Planetarian. Susan continued to represent Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) liotheca Alexandrina, Dr. Omar Fikry. Omar IPS through her attendance at regional con- - John Hare welcomed Council to the historic facility and ferences as well as through correspondence re- Southwestern Association of Planetariums presented an overview of the facilities and garding other issues in the planetarium field. (SWAP) – Dave Weinrich for Linda Krouse events scheduled for the next two days. Dr. Susan increased her oversight of IPS commit-

30 Planetarian December 2010 tees in terms of activity and suggestions for ternational” nature, we meet those challenges ed, reviewed, and discussed. The full commit- improvement. As Susan’s term of Past Presi- and are richer for it. The delegation includes tee reports will be posted on the individual dent comes to a close at the end of this year, 12 new attendees from Africa, an unprece- Committee WebPages on the IPS Website. she will continue to be a driving force in the dented number in IPS history. organization. Awards Committee President Tom Mason delivered the Pres- IPS 2012 Conference Chair Lars Broman presented the IPS ident’s Report. This report will also be pub- Jon Elvert, Conference Host for the IPS Awards Committee Report. The Presi- lished in the Planetarian. Tom spoke of some 2012 Conference, presented an overview of dent’s Award, the IPS Fellows, the IPS Service of the issues relating to conferences, since this the updated budget and plans for the next Award and the IPS Technology and Innova- is a time-demanding factor in any President’s conference at the Irene Pennington Plane- tion Award honorees will be presented to the tenure. Committee efficiency and relevancy is tarium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA, to membership at the IPS Banquet being held also an important part of the benefits of mem- be held July 22-26, 2012. Conference agenda, at the El-Salamlek Palace on Wednesday eve- bership, and in that arena some revisions had pre/post conference tours, and all other infor- ning. A review of the awards presented will be to be implemented. Tom also addressed future mation regarding the conference is posted on (was) published in the September 2010 issue of goals and areas on which he will focus as Past the conference website, ips2012.com, which the Planetarian. President. can also be accessed through the IPS Website The 2010 IPS Award recipients are: The Past President’s and President’s Re- Conference Page at www.ips-planetarium.org/ IPS Service Award: Thomas Kraupe ports were filed. events/conferences.html. IPS Technology and Innovation Award: Council members discussed other issues re- Terence Murtagh Affiliate Reports lated to conference planning, including ven- President’s Award: Past President Susan But- Written Affiliate Reports were reviewed dor time versus paper/presentation time, ton and Affiliate Representatives highlighted encouraging vendors to consider offering pro- 2010 IPS Fellows: Thomas Hamilton, An- events and concerns from their respective re- fessional development for participants, and dreas Hänel, Chris Janssen, André Milis, Mike ports. In news from the floor, it is clear that involving vendors to a higher degree in the Murray, and Andreas Scholl. the threat of facility closure or shrinking conference planning. budgets is still a reality in many parts of the Elections Committee world. This issue will be discussed by Coun- IPS 2014 Conference Bids Elections Committee Chair Martin George cil during committee business. On a bright- Council heard three proposals for the IPS presented the IPS Elections Committee report. er note, some affiliates reported new installa- 2014 Conference: Three individuals were nominated for Presi- tions and refurbished facilities in spite of the •• Planetário do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, dent-Elect and three replied in the affirmative global budget situation. The Internation- Brazil, presented by Dr. Alexandre Cherman to accept the nomination: al Year of Astronomy and its associated ac- and Celso Cunha. Date: July 26-30, 2014 •• Lars Broman Teknoland Stångtjärnsv 132, tivities and programs provided a great oppor- •• H.R. Macmillan Space Centre, Vancouver, SE-791 74 Falun Sweden tunity for many planetariums to promote British Columbia, Canada, presented by •• Gail Chaid 1320 Glen Dell Drive San Jose, their mission and reawaken the public’s inter- Robert Appleton. Date: June 27-July 2, 2014 California 95125 USA est in and awareness of Astronomy in general •• Beijing Planetarium, Beijing, China, present- •• Jack Dunn, Ralph Mueller Planetarium, and planetariums in particular. There contin- ed by Dr. Jin Zhu. Date: June 23-27, 2014 University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 210 Morrill ues to be concern that the Portable Planetar- Council discussed each of the bids and will Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA ium community is underrepresented in the be monitoring updates and responses to fur- Chair Martin announced that shortly be- overall membership of affiliates. Publications ther directives in the planning of the final bid fore the Council Meeting he was notified by Chair Dale Smith encouraged Council Mem- presentations at the IPS Council Meeting in nominee Jack Dunn that he was withdraw- bers to use the IPS Directory as a starting point 2011. Information on the 3 bid proposals will ing his name from consideration. For the in locating portables and to be vigilant about be posted on conference web sites linked from offices of Executive Secretary and Treasurer/ reporting contact information regarding the the IPS Web Site this fall. Membership Chair, Lee Ann Hennig and existence of portable planetariums in their re- Additionally, there will be (are) articles pub- Shawn Laatsch were contacted and asked if gions. lished in the December 2010 Planetarian con- they would consider running as incumbents Although there were no applications for taining information on each potential confer- for the offices they currently hold; both new affiliation at this time, it was encourag- ence site so that the membership can compare agreed. No other individuals were nominated ing to hear reports of possibilities of several the bids. Council will vote on the final site at to run for Executive Secretary or Treasurer/ potential candidates for new affiliation in the the Council meeting in 2011. Affiliate Repre- Membership Chair. near future. The Affiliate Reports were filed. sentatives will be working with their mem- At the Business Meeting during the berships about which site is most desirable conference, additional nominations for the Conferences based on the information provided by the three offices will be accepted from the floor.** IPS 2010 Conference bidders. Each of the bids will be presented to Upon the conclusion of the Egypt conference, Dr. Omar Fikry presented an update on the the membership at the General Business meet- the Elections Committee will contact all the IPS 2010 Conference. His staff has worked ing on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. On behalf nominees to send along their documents con- diligently to provide a welcoming atmo- of Council, President Tom Mason thanked the taining biographies and candidate statements. sphere for our delegates and an interesting ar- bid presenters for their efforts in planning and These will be posted on the IPS website and ray of guest speakers to supplement the nor- preparing the bids and for their willingness to included with the ballots that will be mailed mal conference agenda. President Tom Mason host an IPS Conference. in October of this year. The 2004, ’06, and ‘08 spoke of some of the challenges that arise elections were administered electronically when arranging an “international” confer- Standing Committee Reports and the 2010 elections will be conducted elec- ence, but how in the end, because of our “in- Standing Committee Reports were present- tronically as well. Martin reminded Council

December 2010 Planetarian 31 that it was important for Affiliate Represen- Fulldome Committee Planetarium Development Group tatives to encourage their members to consid- Chair Ryan Wyatt - No report Committee er running for an IPS office and to assist the Council reviewed the written report sub- Elections Committee in the search for quali- History Committee mitted by Chair Ken Wilson. Kris McCall has fied candidates. Historian John Hare reported that his com- agreed to write the chapter on planetarium mittee is working diligently on completing renovation, and Ken still needs volunteers to Publications Committee the scanning of slides and photographs of ar- author the chapters on special effects/multi- IPS Publications Committee Chair Dale chival material. These images will be avail- image and participatory planetariums. The Smith reported on the activities of the Com- able to IPS Members as thumbnails on a link completed chapters of the Planetarium Guide- mittee. Executive Editor Sharon Shanks com- from the IPS Website. Members are encour- book are posted on the IPS Web Site. pleted her fourth year in leading the team of aged to submit material to John for archiving. associate editors and continuing the improve- Ian McLennan and Thomas Kraupe are work- Portable Planetarium Committee ment of the scope and quality of the Plane- ing with Historian John on the subcommit- Chair Susan Button presented her report tarian. Beginning with the March 2010 issue, tee for deceased members. Ian spoke to the is- on the Portable Planetariums. The contest for there was an increase of the advertising rates sue of keeping a database of all members who “A Week in Italy” was expanded this year; see (for the first time in 6 years), and a revision in have passed, and a proper way to memorialize www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_ policy of selection of ads on the back covers, those who have passed in the last two years Italy.htm. Two new documents have been inside front cover, and centerfold (to offer a (the interim between IPS Conference Years). posted to the IPS Portable Planetarium Com- more democratic policy of open requests). *The subcommittee is drafting a proto- mittee Web Page: “What Projector Should I The IPS 2008 IPS Conference Proceedings col/format for such a memorial to hon- Purchase”-a list of questions to explore when were edited by Larry Ciupik and mailed to IPS or passed members, including a review of making such a decision; and “Portable Plane- members in December of 2009 with the 2009 their contributions. tarium Projections Systems”–a list of commer- Edition of the IPS Directory. The next edition cial portable planetarium projectors currently of the IPS Directory (which includes the IPS Di- International Relations Committee on the market. Work continues on produc- rectory of the World’s Planetariums-the “white Chair Martin George reported that he has tion of a collection of planetarium lessons au- pages,” and the IPS Resource Directory-the “yel- been progressive in his pursuit of making non- thored by U.S. educators from the “Week in It- low pages”) will be published in 2011. Updated IPS areas aware of the benefits of IPS member- aly” Contest (1996-2010) for distribution to IPS files are available on the IPS Website between ship and supporting these areas with informa- members. editions. tion and guidance. At the time of Unfinished Dale reported that the IPS Publications Ar- Business in the Council Meeting, the commit- Professional Services Committee chive remains available as a set of eight CDs: tee will present drafts of their work concern- Chair Mike Murray - No report $75 for members and $175 for non-members. ing guidelines addressing scholarships in sup- Dale continues to work with Web Commit- port of IPS Conference attendance and draft Script Contest Committee tee Chair Alan Gould to post archival materi- documents on behalf of planetariums threat- Chair Thomas Kraupe reported on the real and past Planetarian issues on the members’ ened with closure. Martin and his committee’s vised contest sponsored by the Eugenides area of the Web Site. Chair Dale Smith and Ex- work on the issue of Planetariums at Risk is Foundation. Because of the short timeframe ecutive Editor Sharon Shanks strongly recom- certainly a priority item and it was noted that for submission of scripts, only one entry was mend that the current issue of the Planetarian former IPS President and committee member received for the latest contest cycle. It was should be distributed in print only, consider- Jon Elvert was quoted by a Washington Post the opinion of the committee that no awards ing that past issues are archived on the web reporter in an article related to the circum- should be presented this year (2010), but in- site as PDFs. It was also suggested by Dale that stances surrounding threatened closures of stead, the committee will work on improved a 10-year perspective of the President’s Re- planetariums. advertisement for the next session. The one ports would serve as an interesting article for President Tom Mason thanked Chair Mar- entry that was submitted will be included in our membership. As usual, Dale encourages tin for his tireless efforts, at his own personal the next round with subsequent submissions. the members to use the Planetarian as a vehi- expense, in advancing the goals and visibility *It was suggested that this Committee, in cle to share their creative works with the plan- of IPS to planetariums across the globe. coordination with the International Re- etarium community, and reminds the Affili- lations Committee, sponsor a session on ate Representatives to solicit journal articles Script Writing at the next conference, and from their regional membership. Outreach Committee that Affiliates make a concerted effort to Standing Committee Reports were filed. Chair Jon Elvert presented the report on Outreach efforts. Jon served as representative promote the contest in their regions. Ad Hoc Committee Reports to the IYA 2009 Organizational Node and sub- Strategic Planning Committee Ad Hoc Committee Reports were pre- mitted a final IYA report listing all known Chair Tom Mason discussed with Coun- sented, reviewed and discussed. Complete re- shows and major events produced or spon- cil that the most urgent item of interest on ports will be posted on the IPS Web Site Com- sored by international planetariums specific the agenda was conference planning and ex- mittee Pages. to the IYA themes. Materials were also posted ecution. Several topics were brought up that on the IPS Web Site related to IYA events. The would be dealt with in detail during the Un- Education Committee committee continues to pursue partnerships finished Business session on Saturday. Council President Tom Mason presented the report and exchange of resources with other organi- was asked to think about lessons learned from on behalf of Chair Jack Northrup. The rede- zations. Chair Jon will participate in the an- this, as well as previous, conference(s), and signed committee continues to work on links nual ASP meeting in Denver, Colorado (USA) come prepared to consider some solutions relating to Professional Development and on in August to disseminate information on IPS and possible remedies for these issues, partic- the U.S. national and state standards for sci- programs as well as promoting collaborations ularly the Conference Guidelines. ence in general and astronomy in particular. with other groups. (Continues on Page 37)

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

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

Fulldome Version Produced and Distributed Exclusively By Sky-Skan A Melrae Pictures production in association with K2 Communications. Contact [email protected] Developed with the assistance of NASA and the Smithsonian National Air +1 603-880-8500 and36 Space Museum. Planetarian SkySkan.com/shows December 2010 S10-a01-01 (Minutes, continued from Page 32) will take effect immediately. tions and comments from Council discus- 2. Council reviewed the draft document sion and revise the 3 documents for Coun- The first day of the Council Meeting was concerning Guidelines on Scholarship Funds cil approval. adjourned at 5:15 pm. in support of conference attendance prepared by Chair Martin George and the International New Business The second day of the Council Meeting was Relations Committee. Council agreed that the 1. Secretary Lee Ann Hennig reported that called to order at 9:20 am on June 26, 2010. jurisdiction to manage the scholarship appli- the 2010 IPS Membership Survey has been President Tom Mason continued with the Ad cations should remain with the committee ac- completed and she will prepare a report on Hoc Committee Reports. companied by a review by the Officers. the results and submit it to Council by the SEPA Representative John Hare remarked end of August. Technology Committee that although SEPA offers scholarships to those 2. Shawn Laatsch proposed that IPS consid- Jack Dunn has agreed to head up the Tech- in need, and advertise it as such, there were er presenting awards for fulldome digital pre- nology Committee and will be organizing a no applicants. Some people thought that the sentations and showcasing them at IPS Con- committee immediately. term “scholarship” applied only to students. ferences. Thomas Kraupe stated that this was The guidelines for “scholarships” or whatev- another way of demonstrating how we val- Full Dome Committee er term is chosen must be clearly defined and ue good content and examples of fine work as Shawn Laatsch and Thomas Kraupe will be advertised as such. Several vendors have sug- well as elevating our profession. interim Chairs of the Full Dome Committee gested that they would like to have their do- Lars Broman, Chair of the Awards Commit- until a new chair is appointed. The Commit- nations used for scholarship purposes. * Susan tee, suggested that Shawn and Thomas draft tee needs to look at standards and to move for- Button moved to accept the document as suggestions on guidelines for the award and ward on critical issues in the field. written and to task the International Re- pass them on to the Committee for consider- lations Committee to be in charge of the ation. Web Committee scholarship program, seconded by Mark Chair Alan Gould presented the Web Com- Rigby and approved by Council. Project Reports mittee’s report. Alan reported on initiatives Chair Martin George was directed to devel- President Elect Dave Weinrich gave an up- to update the content and design of the IPS op a form for the applications and upon ap- date on the planetarium in Ghana. Dave re- Website. Yaroslav Gubchenko and other new proval by Council it will be posted on the IPS quested consideration for $600.00 from the members of the committee are working with Web Site and in the Planetarian. Armand Spitz Planetarium Education Alan on creating the basis of a new IPS web- 3. IAP Affiliate Representative Loris Rampo- Fund for Tom Zahler to travel to Ghana in or- site with a content management system that ni joined the Council Meeting via SKYPE to der to assist Dr. Jacob Ashong in on how to use will allow more flexible access and easier post- present his revisions for the Affiliate Report the Uniview software in his planetarium pre- ing of materials. The archival area is steadily Form. The two revisions are targeted at en- sentations. Thomas Kraupe and Ian McLen- growing and a music for the planetarium sec- couraging collaborations among affiliates not nan spoke to the support of this proposal and tion for members-only has been established. only through publications media, but through offered to monitor the project. Ian and John Alan is also working with the officers to uti- conferences, electronic collaborations, proj- Hare offered to donate some funds to the ef- lize survey tools and Council restricted web ects, and any other means. *Dave Weinrich fort. *Council approved the project. areas. moved to accept the revisions to the Af- President Elect Dave also mentioned that The Ad Hoc Committee Reports were filiate Report Form, seconded by Thomas Africa would be a focus of his attention during filed. Kraupe and approved by Council. his tenure as IPS President. The off-conference 4. Martin George presented the draft docu- Council Meeting for 2011 is at the discretion Constitution Matters ments from the International Relations Com- of the President in 2011, so Dave is looking at 3 Secretary Lee Ann Hennig presented the mittee concerning a policy/action statement potential sites and will notify Council before draft of proposed changes to the Standing for addressing the issue of IPS support for Plan- the end of August. Rules regarding Affiliate Organizations. The etariums under threat of closure. Council dis- Shawn Laatsch reported that the Two Small revision seeks to tighten the procedure for be- cussed the issues involved in becoming in- Pieces of Glass project was a great success. It coming an affiliate, more clearly define the re- volved in such matters. Among the many was translated into more that 15 languages, quirements for maintaining affiliation, and topics covered were: distributed free to all IPS members, and the outline the protocol to be followed when an •• How does IPS gather information on those digital fulldome version was made available affiliate fails to meet the requirements for af- planetariums at risk at a small cost. filiation. *Dale Smith moved to approve the •• What do we do with that data The accompanying 400 Years of the Tele- revised changes to the Standing Rules Ar- •• The facility must have local support first scope PBS program and the ASP kit of activi- ticle III, seconded by Lars Broman and ap- •• The facility must be proactive; don’t wait ties were also well received. NSF was extreme- proved by Council. until a planetarium is at risk before acting ly pleased with the outcome and may consider •• Garner support from a variety of venues other projects similar to this one. Unfinished Business •• Make sure the support does not backfire; President Tom Mason declared Council to 1. The Council discussed the issue of Confer- understand the reasons for being at risk be in Closed Session in order to discuss the 3 ence Guidelines and how we can ensure that •• Review GLPA’s Tips Booklet “How to Keep proposed bids for the 2014 IPS Conference and they are followed by the conference hosts. Your Planetarium Open” the issue of conferences in general along with The officers will circulate a draft of revisions •• We need to educate the uninitiated (admin- revisions to the Conference Guidelines. These to the Conference Guidelines based on the istrators, new planetarium personnel, some points of discussion will be included in the recommendations of Council. The draft revi- vendors, etc.) that the attitude of “legacy” Council review of Conference Guidelines to sions will be discussed on-line among Council planetariums being obsolete is erroneous. be conducted this fall. members and when the final draft is approved *The Committee will take the sugges- (Continues on Page 63)

December 2010 Planetarian 37 38 Planetarian December 2010 The Sudie A. Fulford Community Learning Center East Georgia College Swainsboro, Georgia

Jean Schwabe, Director [email protected]

Located beneath towering pines near the main entrance of East reer, when Dr. Brown managed teams that helped develop, test, Georgia College in east-central Georgia, the newly-constructed Sud- and launch AT T’s Telstar 3 and Telstar 4 satellites. Dr. Brown and ie A. Fulford Community Learning Center serves as a unique educa- the committee felt the planetarium would play an important role tional resource for Emanuel County and the surrounding area. in introducing the general public to science and astronomy and, Funding for the facility’s construction was made possible hopefully, foster an interest in modern science. through a generous donation to the East Georgia College Founda- As a result, the planetarium now serves as an exciting place the tion from Mr. and Mrs. A.D. “Pete” Correll in memory of Mrs. Cor- community can visit to explore the universe within which they rell’s mother, Sudie A. Fulford. live. Mrs. Fulford was a longtime, highly respected teacher and com- The small dome has a seating capacity of 35 and uses the Digi- munity volunteer whose educational legacy will continue through tarium Gamma Fixed digital planetarium system, which was pur- the Fulford Center’s outreach efforts. chased through the East Georgia College Foundation. A Digitarium The Center is a multi-disciplinary, community-focused learning elevator mount completes the system. facility open to all residents of Emanuel County and the surround- Through the Gamma model, we are able to provide a variety of ing area. It provides continuing education classes and serves as an features, including simulating the sky from any point on Earth or educational resource center, where teacher education students, from other planets and moons, moving forward or backward in K-12 teachers and students, and college faculty can acquire hands- time at varying speeds, displaying orbits of the planets, showing on training. constellations from multiple cultures, and playing fulldome video The facility can accommodate individual and small group tu- shows with surround sound support. toring and offers flexible classroom-style areas for meetings, work- As the only two-year college in the state of Georgia with a plan- shops, and small conferences. It also features a substantial instruc- etarium, we look forward to providing planetarium experiences to tional deck with outdoor theater seating. area schools, the college community, civic groups, and the commu- One unique feature of the Center, and sure to become a favorite nity at large. destination to individuals in the area, is its 20-ft fixed dome plane- East Georgia College, a two-year unit of the University System tarium. The idea of having a planetarium within the Center origi- of Georgia, is a student-oriented, access and opportunity college nated with Dr. Bob Brown, professor and division chair of the math- serving east-central Georgia. East Georgia is accredited by the Com- ematics and science division at East Georgia College and a member mission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and of the initial Fulford Center Planning Committee. Schools to award the Associate in Arts and the Associate in Ap- His fascination with astronomy began during a previous ca- plied Science degrees. I

December 2010 Planetarian 39 tion. At the start of the unit students are as- Educational Horizons signed a 30-second video segment related to a planet or moon in the solar system. They pro- Jack L. Northrup duce the music to occur during that sequence, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium and the teacher sends the music to the plan- King Science and Technology Magnet Center etarium to be included in their show. From 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA year to year the music styles change and the +1 402-557-4494 tone varies, making it a new and unique show [email protected] each year.

Special Education This edition’s article started out as one of the formatting of their thoughts. Teachers Groups with special needs require a little bit the many notes scattered around my desk. with older students will step up the require- more time to set up for their visit. Make sure The original topic was increasing the variety ments of the individual boxes; for grades 1-3 the captioning program is working and the of groups coming into the planetarium. How- it is normal to see a single sentence per box, captions are age appropriate. I also use a low ever, after thinking about it and brainstorm- grades 4-5 tend to use two to three sentences power red lamp to illuminate the sign lan- ing parts of the article, I found that it would be per box, and grades 6-8 prefer one to two para- guage interpreter, if one is needed, and during more effective to post some techniques that I graphs per box. a presentation so I make certain that the bulb have used with non-science classes and con- is still strong. tent standards in the planetarium. Mathematics Normally during the reservation process Many of you know the schedules for the You may be thinking that students will just the classroom teacher will relay any specif- schools around your planetarium, or you be figuring out “What fraction of the planets ic needs, such as extra wheelchair seats, any know which quarter of fifth grade science re- is terrestrial?” Well, you could do that, but I additional assistance devices that need to be views the Earth’s tilt and the seasons. I know think you will like this better. Every year in connected to the sound system, or illumina- that my calendar is quite colorful with notes November I have a group of 4th graders join tion requirements. about when a group of students starts with me in the planetarium as part of their math Hopefully this has given you some ideas to moon phases or a grade starts studying stars. class. The teacher is working on formatting draw other groups to your planetarium. However, if I were to ask a group of plane- data and creating charts. tarians when students write a persuasive letter The students walk in with clipboards, note- More Interesting Books or descriptive narrative that would be more pads, and pens to record their data. I have add- I have heard back from a few planetari- difficult to pin down. ed slides with the atmospheric make up of ans after my column about some of my PLC I am aware, from my planetarium’s statis- each planet to a presentation on the planets of books. I have another list of books that may tics, that 86% of student groups are brought in our solar system. The data is presented in dec- catch your interest. by a science teacher. The remaining 14% are imal or percentage form, as this is one of the •• Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talk- predominately made up of language, social times when fractions are too difficult. ing Effectively with Your Students by Jenny studies, music, and special education instruc- When I asked the teacher why not use a Edwards tors. I grouped by content area some ideas that website to get the data, I was told that by mak- •• A Framework for Understanding Poverty by I have implemented to enhance cross-curricu- ing it part of a larger experience, the students Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D. lar learning in the planetarium. used some of the visual cues from the presen- •• Meeting Students Where They Live: Motiva- tation in the charts like muted yellows for Sat- tion in Urban Schools by Richard J. Curwin Language classes urn, or that Uranus and Neptune were similar •• Rethinking Homework: Best Practices that Two topics for presentations geared toward but Neptune used more blues. Support Diverse Needs by Cathy Vatterott this type of classes include a persuasive let- •• Instruction for All Students by Paula Ruther- ter and descriptive narrative. For the persua- Social Studies ford sive letter activity, students write a letter to Several years ago a teacher came to me with “Dr. Goddard” to secure funding for a mission. a curriculum problem: a recently purchased Lesson for This Edition The mission could be an extension of a cur- textbook had an astrolabe lab that required Objective: Students will write a descriptive rent mission, based on data already collected. several months to complete. The goal of the paragraph about an alien world. Another type is a new mission to a location in lesson was for the students to measure the an- Grade: 3-4 the solar system to study a specific topic. gle of the sun at noon. The problem was the This assignment can be written as a person An excellent resource for the students and teacher had 20 astrolabes and 150 students visiting an alien planet or as an alien visiting teachers is a checklist for persuasive letters at and logistically it would be a nightmare. Earth. The box is a great template for the stu- teacher.scholastic.com/LessonPlans/checklist. Through discussion I found out that they dents to use when writing their paragraphs. pdf to make sure that all the key points of per- were starting at the Viking voyages to North Older students can have the assignment al- suasion are included. America and traveling through time to 1800. tered to demonstrate more advanced skills. Descriptive narratives can be a much wider We decided to use the planetarium to simu- One teacher had the students write on 5x8 range of topics, going from constellation sto- late several days on each of the voyages of Leif index cards. They used the back to draw a pic- ries to descriptions of alien worlds. Many times Ericson, Columbus, and Magellan. We also dis- ture of the planet they described and then students are asked to use 4-square writing tem- covered that we could only use the back half used them as post cards from an alien planet plate (Four Square Writing Method : A Unique of the planetarium, to prevent significant vacation. Approach to Teaching Basic Writing Skills for changes in altitude. Additional topics can be found at www.build- Grades 1-3 by Judith S. Gould, Evan Jay Gould, creative-writing-ideas.com/free-creative-writ- Judy Mitchell, and Mary Rojas (from Teach- Music ing-prompts-science-fiction.html. I ing and Learning Company, 1999, available, Music classes treat the planetarium visit as among others, from Amazon.com) to guide a summation activity instead of an introduc-

40 Planetarian December 2010 Zula_DTE_addForPrint_8.5x11_Rev03.pdf 1 11/9/2010 4:08:04 PM

CMY

FULLDOMEwww.spitzinc.com/fulldome_shows December 2010 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION41 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 Long, boring historical lectures got you down? Why not consider... A Brief History of Time From the Big bang to the Big Mac ® ExpertsExperts agree!agree!

“[It is] an amusing ramble through history that teaches with laughter.” - Dr. Kidstoniella

GetGet yoursyours today!today! Traditional Showkit: $100 DVD Video, Digital Slides on CD Includes 86-page Teacher’s Guide with classroom version of video Available through GeoGraphics Imaging www.geographicsimaging.com

A production of the Ward Beecher Planetarium Good for students middle school and older. Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio

42Funded through a NASA Ideas Grant Planetarian Big Mac is a registered trademark of the McDonald’sDecember Corporation 2010 speaking European countries. The response rate was 15%, (74 responders total) represent- IMERSA News ing science centers, museums, and school districts which have domes or small onsite planetariums accessible for astronomy programs. Judith Rubin Some of the results follow. Communications Director, IMERSA.org The answers [email protected] Meeting the mission was ranked the top success factor of a show, followed closely by By Sarah E. Herbert and Judith Rubin gan to map a course for producing fulldome audience evaluations and total attendance. shows by talking to other production groups Total revenue was spread evenly across the And the Survey Says… doing work similar to what they had in mind. board, important for some and less so for oth- According to recent surveys, astronomy and They found that the average digital fulldome ers as a definition of success. science-based shows continue to be the most production created from scratch (including Given the opportunity to further explain successful choices for fulldome video. Digi- animation, graphics and visuals, scripting, nar- what other standards are used to evaluate suc- tal fulldome technology presents great poten- ration, an original musical tial to stretch programming into new territo- score, and so forth) cost ry, but creating a production from scratch can about $300,000-400,000. stress a budget in this evolving arena. This co- Richard McColman, di- nundrum has prompted a closer look at how rector of the former Star to deal with the sticker shock. Theater (now the GlaxoS- IMERSA supporting members and content mithKline Fulldome The- producers Mark Petersen of Loch Ness Produc- ater), explains, “A promi- tions and Mike Bruno of Spitz Inc. keep a close nent consideration in the eye on this area and have both presented full- process of this survey was dome market reports, both at the 2008 Full- this: How do we, as a field, dome Summit in Chicago and, more recent- create high quality pro- ly, at the 2010 Fulldome Summit in Denver. A grams that can be afford- new survey, summarized here, was conducted able to facilities across the by the University of North Carolina’s More- board?” head Planetarium and Science Center in the To evaluate where their summer of 2010. production time and re- Part of Morehead’s own model for future sources should be allocat- sustainability will involve distribution of ed, they decided to ask the their own in-house titles as they transition fulldome community to from traditional to fulldome technology— define show quality and prompting them to do this survey to discover value for them. more about the evolving fulldome market. Involved in the survey As fulldome is still a very young and rapid- were Planetarium Direc- ly shifting arena, IMERSA considers it very im- tor Todd Boyette, Director portant to check in on a regular and frequent of Education and Planning basis. Our organization actively encourages Denise Young, Fulldome these studies and we will be supporting and Theater Director Richard conducting future studies. McColman, Digital Pro- The latest round of data underscores that duction Manager Jay Hei- the primary home of fulldome is still over- nz, Director of External whelmingly the planetarium and the primary Relations Jeff Hill, and subject is space science. Planetariums contin- Ravi Ayer, a recent MBA ue to adopt and upgrade to fulldome presen- graduate of UNC hired for tation at an increasing pace. the summer as a consul- However, that shouldn’t mask the other tant to help formulate the growing story about fulldome—the increas- business plan for the pro- ing awareness and application of the medi- duction team. um to other types of content and other types The Morehead team of venues. We will see fulldome increasingly went in without expec- adopted for the repurposing of non-astrono- tations. A cross section of my content while, at the same time, its use in fulldome venues was cho- entertainment venues grows. The recent IM- sen from the Loch Ness Top: The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the Universi- ERSA Fulldome Summit held in Denver (de- Productions’ online com- ty of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Center: The coyote narrator from tails below) bears this out. pendium and 503 email Earth, Moon and Sun, a show that was designed to strongly align with invitations were sent out national science standards at the elementary level. Below, from left: The strategy to facilities in several Eng- Planetarium Director Todd Boyette, Fulldome Theater Director Rich- ard McColman, and Director of External Relations Jeff Hill. All images After installing a new Sky-Skan Definiti sys- lish-speaking countries courtesy the Morehead Planetarium and the University of North Car- tem in January 2010, the Morehead team be- and a few non-English- olina.

December 2010 Planetarian 43 cess, many listed educational standards. Ap- content and appeal pealing to a broad audience, prompting posi- to school children tive audience feedback and repeat visits were and general audi- also among the considerations mentioned. ences. School children make up a large portion of About half of the the target audience for the vast majority of re- price tags on the spondents. most recently pur- Planetarium managers led by a large mar- chased shows were gin in making decisions about the purchase of under $5,000. Near- a fulldome production. “There are relatively ly one third were few people involved in the decision making between $5,000- process,” Hill commented, “So a lot of empha- 10,000. Another sis is on standards in educational content and 13% ranged up to not as much on entertainment value. This $25,000 and four made sense when we realized who the deci- respondents paid sion makers are.” more than $25,000. Not surprisingly then, shows for school Over half of the groups and children, with strong educational respondents felt and astronomy themes, were given the high- they had gotten a est success rate. The lowest scores were given good value in their Mark Petersen’s presentation at the 2010 Fulldome Summit in Denver. The to history themes, and non-astronomy sci- most recent pur- Uniview Earth in the background shows Mark and some of the 600+ Fulldome ence had the most N/A responses. chase. Notably, sites around the world. Photo, plus two on faceing page: All Rights Reserved, there was no corre- Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Questions lation between high The response rate, 15%, and the role of the cost and low value; respondents did not indi- cycle are such that, for example, animators person completing the survey, mostly the cate they had paid too much for a high-priced could be working on other projects while the planetarium manager, may have skewed show. Rather, the low values were assigned to current planetarium project is in music or ed- some of the numbers toward astronomy and some of the least expensive shows. Some plan- iting or scriptwriting.” science-based content and the strong desire etariums found that paying a low price or pur- One possible conclusion is that the field for meeting curriculum standards. chasing a well-known title did not necessarily is going to move toward fewer producers of Also, a significant number of the respon- guarantee a good deal. content than it had in the pre-fulldome era. dents, 55%, indicated that they had some type “There is the potential to create this whiz- of fulldome production capability. Follow up Conclusions bang stuff,” says McColman, “and the desire questions are needed to determine wheth- Like many planetariums, producing their is there, but it requires considerable resourc- er the respondents included specialized, one- own shows has been part of Morehead’s her- es. And then to recoup a substantial fraction off adaptations or fully animated, highly pro- itage since the facility’s opening in 1949. The of the investment is where the problem lies duced shows. results of Morehead’s survey indicate a direc- for medium to small planetariums where the tion to its intended, internal audience. budgets aren’t huge.” Impressions Since Morehead is a small organization in Further information about the fulldome The variables ranked in evaluating produc- terms of overall activities, with limited floor marketplace can be found at IMERSA.org. tion quality carry great significance in deter- space for exhibits and programming, their cre- mining where to allocate resources. Some ven- ative strength lies in the planetarium. They Notes from the 2010 Fulldome ues pay more attention to the script and some, hope that other planetariums will look to Summit, Oct 26-28 in Denver educational content. The overall impression them for licensing of fulldome productions (If you attended the Summit, please share your was important but individual aspects, such along with other distributors already supply- views on the survey on the IMERSA website.) as music, weren’t given much weight. Here, a ing the field. IMERSA’s first Fulldome Summit was a suc- producer must decide whether to get a musi- Organizationally, Morehead is trying to cess; participants were slicing content and cal score off the shelf, for example, or to devel- stretch out from traditional astronomy shows. showing up to the very end. From October op a special score in-house. When footing the entire bill up front, how- 26-28, the Summit, held concurrently with “Do you want to put your resources in the ever, they feel the need to cater to the mar- Symposium 2010 for Museum & Media Pro- music if it doesn’t get as much attention from ket to maximize the potential returns. In or- fessionals, drew some 280 people to the Gates the venue?” asks Hill. “The question also be- der to try more non-traditional programming, Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature comes, can you find a good score off the shelf? they might opt for grant funding. “We already & Science. The challenge lies in getting things to sync up, have successful shows on the market, such as The Symposium, hosted biennially by the getting the peaks and valleys of the score to Earth, Moon and Sun and Magic Tree House® Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, went on match the visuals to add to the overall impres- Space Mission,” says Hill. “We are not comfort- the road for the first time this year (to Den- sion.” able going too far out on the limb for non-tra- ver) and will likely return to Denver in 2012. Educational value and story/script ranked ditional shows when we are not sure that the In the meantime, IMERSA has penciled in an- highest over animation, audio, music, narra- market will respond favorably.” other Fulldome Summit for 2011. tion, graphics/visuals, overall impression and One option for supporting production ef- The fulldome community meshed well scientific/historical content. forts is to produce work for other entities with the wildlife documentary community Worth such as commercial institutions, the univer- that Jackson Hole caters to, for a fertile cross- Cost was equally important in deciding sity campus or other nonprofits. McColman over of ideas and artistry. IMERSA found en- which show to purchase, as were educational states, “The ebb and flow of the production couraging support for its goals of bringing full-

44 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 45 dome to wider circles beyond planetariums. and Composition work- The Symposium provided tremendous oppor- shop with them.” tunities for outreach and bridge building. Pentecost further com- “I thought we had a pretty good idea of what mented regarding the we could do with our new digital dome, but fulldome community: “It the Fulldome Summit completely blew me is a hearty group of pio- away,” commented Terry Burton, Digital Me- neers. The halls should be dia coordinator at the Fort Collins Museum & packed at the next Sum- Discovery Science Center, which is building a mit.” IMERSA’s board brand new museum facility—including a 36-ft members agree that the digital dome theater. “To have the opportuni- Summit and Symposium ty to spend three days in the world of immer- presented fulldome at its sive media was not only hugely inspirational, best and was a high point it came at a perfect time in the development in the positioning of the of our project.” format and its potential. David Pentecost is project manager at the The content showed Above: Tito Du- Center for Community, a new science cen- well on the Gates Plane- pret during his ter being built in New York that will include a tarium dome, and the pre- Spherical Pan- orama talk at the planetarium. He found inspiration in the pho- sentations demonstrated Gates; Right: The tography workshop given by Greg Downing significant attention to IMERSA Fulldome and Eric Hanson, principals at xRez Studio and the aesthetic aspects of the Summit work- producers of Crossing Worlds, a contemplative medium, not just the tech- shop with Bob sequence of landscapes shot in the southwest nology. The bar continues Patterson. Pho- tos all rights re- United States and set to music. to ascend for top shows serrved, DMNS “They used some techniques, little 3D tricks, in production and for the that are complex to pull off shooting still pho- caliber of producers and tography,” said Pentecost. “They are very suppliers working in the fulldome medium. skilled photographers and it was great to hear Note: Most of the Fulldome Summit ses- them explain what they did and then partici- sions were videotaped and will be accessible pate in the Spherical Panoramic Photography on IMERSA.org in the near future. I

(President, continued from Page 6) stunning achievement. year changes, so I will pass on the responsibil- I am just wakening up to the possibilities of ity to Dave at 00:00 Auckland time. But be- using iPad technology to interact with chil- cause Dave will still be in a North American dren with special needs, and with those with time zone, I am idly speculating that during cerebral palsy and other debilitating diseases. this interregnum, we will be technically leaderless for some hours. I promise to remain as Leaderless, but not for long vigilant as possible in case there are any po- Finally, I want to leave you with an in- tential coups or kidnaps by disaffected Little (Jack, continued from Page 13) triguing thought. Owing to the nature of the Green Men. As reported in the September 2010 issue of workings of our planet’s time zones and the So as president of the IPS, and personally to the Astronomical League’s magazine The Re- geography of where I will be at midnight on all of you living around our beautiful, fragile, flector, Jack Horkheimer’s “Award for Excep- December 31st, I will become past-president blue dot of a planet, I wish all of you well. I tional Service” is for high school age League before Dave takes over as president. Shock hope that all of your personal plots and plans astronomers. Entries were judged by members horror! gain much traction, and that your politicians of the Astronomical League; winners were an- We will be leaderless for some hours, as and local government officials will see the nounced in this issue along with a description I will be on New Zealand’s east coast as the wisdom of investment in knowledge at times of the activities for which the awards were of crisis. given. And I hope that you There are actually three service awards; each all continue to enjoy WALNUT, CALIFORNIA winner received a plaque and $1000. A fourth Supervisor, living in these amaz- Youth Journalism award of $1000, which was ing times and enjoy open to writers ages 8-14, was also announced Planetarium & the stunning images in this issue. Astronomy Observatory and data that is flood- In preparation for his death, Jack had his ing in from our ob- tombstone erected several years ago in Wis- Center servatories and space consin. It says: based telescopes. I’ll $6,483/mo + 6% shift differential. Apply by 4 PM, 1/10/11 at: “Keep Looking Up” was my life’s admonition look forward to say- I can do little else in my present position. http://hrjobs.mtsac.edu ing hi to you all at So, wherever we planetarians gather and Only online applications accepted. our next conference drink a toast to him (preferably champagne, App/info: 909.594.5611, X4225 at Baton Rouge in his favorite), we will raise our glasses and say, An Equal Opportunity Employer 2012. I “Keep Looking Up!” I

46 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 47 48 Planetarian December 2010 knowledge about astronomy. Every game has International News a rule list and questions to answer. They were: •• “Stars Wars,” inspired by Risiko. It is based Lars Broman on the northern (or southern) hemisphere Teknoland and Strömstad Academy map with star regions where the players Stångtjärnsv 132 have to reach different kinds of goals; SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden •• “The Danti Map,” like a table game based on +46 2310 177 the symbols used in the construction of the [email protected], [email protected] Gregorian calendar; www.teknoland.se, www.stromstadakademi.se •• “Celestial Puzzles,” two puzzles of the northern and southern celestial hemispheres At the time of writing—the evening of Octo- vided into two groups of six each, Group 1 one which had to be constructed in as short a ber 21—the moon shines almost full a little bit with a capacity between 80 and 280 seats and time as possible by writing the names of the above and to the left of an unusually brilliant Group 2 with 25 to 40 seats. The results appear constellations on a sheet of paper; and planet Jupiter. The sky is clear, so the temper- in the table. •• “Star Histories,” which aimed at construct- ature is well below 0°C (32°F). It’s the eternal Both groups offer workshops, conferenc- ing fantasy constellations by joining up the problem of Swedish star watchers: whenever es and shows. In Group 1, there are between 6 dots on a map and then writing the name the sky is both dark and clear, it is always un- and 15 different shows, and 3 planetariums de- and the history of each one. Then, in the comfortably cold. vote 30,000 to 125,000 € per year to the cre- dome, participants searched the sky for The International News column depends ation of shows. (1€ equals approx. 1.5 US$.) their constellations and then supplied the on contributions from IPS Affiliate Associa- The attendance for all includes individuals, relevant names and histories. tions all over the world. Many thanks to Agnès group, and school groups; Acker, Vadim Belov, Bart Benjamin, Ignacio school groups are especially Castro, Gail Chaid, Alex Delivorias, Shaaron important for Group 2. Leverment, Steve Mitch, Loris Ramponi, Scott Young and Alexander Serber for your contri- Association of Italian butions. Upcoming deadlines are 1 January for Planetaria Planetarian 1/2011 and 1 April for 2/2011. Any- The next Italian Planetar- one who wants to contribute news from parts ium conference will be held of the world where IPS has no association (see 16-17 April 2011 in the uni- page 3) is welcome to send them to Martin versity town of Padua and in George, [email protected]. the village of Crespano del Grappa, where a planetari- Association of French-Speaking um and an observatory are Planetariums located for the diffusion of The Bretagne Planétarium of Bretagne, astronomy among the pub- Pléumeur-Bodou, Brittany, recently surveyed lic and the schools. 12 planetariums. The planetariums were di- A new planetarium is in- AIP: The plan of Stars wars game, the northern hemisphere with cluded in the red borders for star regions. There are also other elements to play long list of Italian with: spaceships (various coloured bottons); cards for star regions, Group 1 Group 2 facilities. It is the for questions and for goals; and dices. Courtesy of Perugia Plane- planetarium of tarium. Staff/employees 9-14 0-6 the city of Pavia, (0=planetari- where the local association of as- Association of Mexican um runs through tronomy manages also an observa- Planetariums volunteers) tory (www.osservatoriocadelmon- By the time this report is published, AM- te.it). Under the 8-m (27-ft) dome Annual attendance 25,000-50,000 3,000-32,000 PAC will have held its annual meeting, set for there are 50 seats. 26-27 November 2010 at the San Luis Plane- Matteo Gagliani, young pro- tario SENTE in conjunction with celebrating ducer of Space Opera, participated Ticket price 5€ to 7€ for same the 25th anniversary of its foundation. As pre- a full price in October in the Full Dome Film viously mentioned in this column (Planetari- and 2.50€ to Festival organized by Imiloa As- an, March 2010), construction of the planetar- 5.60€ for a re- tronomy Center of Hawaii in con- ium was a consequence of AMPAC lobbying duced rate junction with the Aassociation of Science-Technology Centers Con- after an annular solar eclipse crossed the state Budget 18-50% from essentially de- ference. of San Luis Potosi in 1984. It was then that shows, meet- fined by reve- In September, the A. Volta Tech- governmental education authorities decided ings, workshops nue from show nical High School and the I. Danti to foster interest in astronomy by building a 30-78% gov- presentations Planetarium organized an activity planetarium. ernment grants called Astronomical Games, an af- Regarding other topics, AMPAC has invit- 4-12% shop ternoon dedicated to playing team ed planetariums to organize classical instru- sales games for young people and adults. ment concerts as part of their shows, enrich- They were well known games ing them with optical-mechanical and digital Results of Bretagne Planetarium’s survey that had been modified to convey dome projections, as a cultural approach to

December 2010 Planetarian 49 to run, and a great success. It created a feeling of excellence and rigor in subject matter and also provided a great bonding experience, allowing planetarium presenters to meet and chat with others in their field. Anyone looking to run a similar event and keen for some pointers is welcome to get in touch with Shaaron Leverment, shaaron@explorerdome. co.uk. Show content, the visual component, is also key to a successful planetarium show. Further to an invitation for comment on the direction of their next space-related project from NSC Creative (the team behind full dome shows such as Stars and We Are Astrono- mers), the mobile community is speaking out to make a case for more provision for small domes during the planning of such projects. NSC mentioned that content providers need to be more aware of the price point of small dome operators and are behind current con- APLF: The following tale was presented during the APLF conference in Dijon, May 2010: The Chinese leg- versations aiming towards improving how end of Zhinu and Nioulang gathers the three bright summer stars and the Milky Way. Nioulang met the young fairy Zhinu. They were married and had two children. But the Jade Emperor, lord of the sky, refused they better serve the digital dome communi- the union, and separated the couple by a vast celestial river, the Milky Way. Fortunately, magpies around ty, both big and small. the world built a bridge allowing the reunion of lovers, an event celebrated each year during a summer So what do mobile operators want? Not, it night. Courtesy of Roland Laffitte. seems, full-length feature shows scaled down for their domes. Instead, a suggestion has been the public. The shows will be given every two ters could offer more support for their small- floated about the creation of a suite of curric- months by a company taking charge of all ex- er, satellite, mobile domes that have smaller ulum-relevant clips that seamlessly comple- penses, and the planetariums involved will budgets to work with. One option provide the promotion and coordination of is that the larger planetarium/sci- dates. ence centre can include the mobiles Among events held in September, there was in certain events such as staff train- a visit to Torreón, Coahuila of American-Mex- ing days. ican astronaut José Hernández from NASA. As a result, a planetarium knowl- The Planetarium Torreón coordinated this edge share was organized in Sep- event where astronaut Hernández dedicat- tember in Bristol as a pilot proj- ed his lecture to students from elementary to ect. It was collaboration between high school levels and talked about his experi- the At-Bristol Planetarium, Explor- ence, NASA, and his visit to space er Dome, and Techniquest in order Astroceum, Tlaxcala´s planetarium, cele- to aid the underlying knowledge of brated its annual Astro Dinner with a report planetarium presenters in Bristol of its numerous activities during the year. and the South West. On finding that many present- British Association ers have little or no specific astron- of Planetariums omy education, a day’s training was Think of a planetarium and most people organized between the three plan- still think of large star theatres. This has been etariums with the help of Dr Rob- said 101 times and is still true, even within in Catchpole (Institute of Astrono- planetarium organizations such as BAP, where my, Cambridge). It was designed to virtually all the impressive feature presenta- help improve presenters’ underly- tions are geared towards the higher end of the ing knowledge of the physics and market: big budgets, big visuals, big theatres. astronomy that is being communi- We all are well aware of the positive aspects cated to the schools and to the pub- of the numerous portable domes: the inclu- lic. sive nature of their demographic, the person- Robin gave brief presentations, al experience for the audience, etc. It happens followed by question and answers that the majority of BAP members are porta- from presenters. Topics were geared ble operators and most centers run portables around the questions that are usu- alongside their main theatre, so it is important ally asked from visiting audiences. to work hard to include the mobile domes as a The plan was to wipe out the “bad BAP: Katy McDonald (At-Bristol), Dr. Robin Catchpole, Jane astronomy” answers that can so of- Young (Techniquest), and Shaaron Leverment (Explorer very significant part of our community. Dome, BAP president) with the planetarium presenters from BAP is attempting to keep this in the fore- ten be given to visitors. all 3 organisations outside the At-Bristol planetarium. Cour- front. It has been suggested that the larger cen- The day was easy to set up, easy tesy of Bristol Evening Post

50 Planetarian December 2010 ment the presenter-led shows of Appleton at rappleton@space- the mobile market. Ideally such centre.ca. clips would be high definition The Planetarium at the Man- and superior quality, targeted itoba Museum in Winnipeg, towards specific audiences and Manitoba hosted laser shows available in both fulldome and for the first time since 1994. The standard formats. With recent standard “classic rock” audience discussion it seems that some has been joined by a new gener- mobile operators are keen to ation of music fans, including pull together to help fund such fans of other forms of music. a plan. While Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Last year, between just three of the Moon was the #1 show at BAP portable dome operators— the box office, in second place Space Odyssey (Devon), Polestar was Daft Punk, featuring elec- Planetarium (West Yorkshire) tronic music which attract- and Explorer Dome (Bristol)— ed a very different demograph- presentations to nearly 100,000 CASC: Staff of the TELUS World of Science-Calgary try out their new mobile ic. The shows were held over an individuals took place. There- digital theatre from ePlanetarium, equipped with a projector and lens from Elu- extra week due to demand, and fore, as a very conservative es- menati and running TheSky Theatre Suite software. Courtesy of Alan Dyer, TE- remained popular despite ad- LUS World of Science, Calgary. timate, the mobile domes who vances in music videos and tech- are members of BAP reach at nology over the past 16 years. least 400,000 children per year. This compares each mixed with engaging activities, feature The shows were provided by Heck Indus- very well indeed with the numbers reached films and live presentations. Public shows are tries, with equipment from Nth Degree Cre- by shows in fixed domes, so it is hoped that also running 7 days a week. Following a suc- ative (both descended from Laser Fantasy In- with sufficient funding, the clip library pro- cessful first year in operation, the staff is ex- ternational). The two-month run with limited posal will bear fruit in the foreseeable future. cited to put more of their ideas to the screen. promotion paid for all costs, including equip- Contact and information: Bryen McGuire at ment, licensing, and staffing, and also gener- Canadian Association [email protected]. ated significant revenue for the planetarium. of Science Centres In Calgary, Alberta, final decisions on the se- Contact and information: Scott Young at scy- The staff at the Montreal Planetarium is lection of projection and automation systems [email protected]. currently working on the production of two are being made for the new TELUS World of new shows, one for the general public on the Science-Calgary now under construction, and European/Mediterranean Milky Way, and the other for kids 3-5 years for its two main theatres: an immersive domed Planetarium Association old on the theme of water in the solar system. theater and a smaller “presentation theater” The planetarium of the Science Center and In A Guided Tour of the Milky Way, the plan- for live demos and flat-screen movies. Technology Museum NOESIS in Thessalo- etarium lecturer guides our hosts on a grand While digital systems for the new perma- niki kick started its activities for the current tour of our galaxy in the Northern and South- nent theatres are being selected, staff is learn- school year with its participation in Research- ern hemispheres. On the way, we discover sev- ing to use a new digital mobile planetarium ers’ Night. This is a Europe-wide event bring- eral night sky gems—bright stars, nebulas, star purchased this past summer. Staff selected a ing together the public and researchers once a clusters —that the public can see with the na- 6-m (20-ft.) inflatable dome system from Plan- year on the fourth Friday of September. ked eye or with simple binoculars. This live etarium, using the Elumenati fisheye projec- On 24 September hundreds of visitors had presentation is offered in the evening from tion system. This system will travel around the opportunity to explore and enjoy the var- Friday to Sunday. southern Alberta bringing the digital sky and ious facilities of NOESIS, observe the night sky Their kids’ show, titled An Odyssey with immersive fulldome shows to rural schools. and participate in simple physics experiments Akvo, is aimed at preschoolers and young stu- Meanwhile, back at home, the old TELUS in a memorable astro party that included the dents (K-1). A fictional character, Akvo (“wa- World of Science, now in its final few months premiere of the planetarium’s latest produc- ter” in Esperanto) takes us on a tour of the so- of operation, is serving solely as a venue for tion To the Edge of the Universe. This 8-minute lar system in search of water like we find on major traveling exhibitions. In autumn 2010, show, constructed with the help of the UNI- Earth. This show covers several topics con- the facility was taken up completely by two VEW software by SCISS, is a fascinating jour- tained in Quebec’s School Curriculum on large exhibits from the American Museum of ney through space and time from the highest Earth and Space Sciences for Kindergarten and Natural History: Darwin and Einstein, staged peak of mount Olympus, the tallest mountain Primary 1. together for the first time. Staff produced a va- of Greece, to the time when the cosmic micro- Production of a third show due in May 2011, riety of support programs, such as a live stage wave background radiation was released, and on asteroids, should start soon. In the mean- demo for the Discovery Dome theater, lab is scheduled to be shown as an introduction time, work on the request for proposals for the workshops, a mobile phone-based “scavenger to the other NOESIS planetarium shows. new Montreal Planetarium continues, with hunt” and a series of evening conversations The Eugenides Planetarium in Athens cele- hope that the document will be available for on stage with guest experts on hot topics in bi- brated this year’s fall equinox with the screen- bidding soon. Contact and information: Pierre ology and physics. Contact and information: ing of Journey to the Stars, to the backdrop of Chastenay, [email protected]. Alan Dyer at [email protected]. live musical improvisations by pianist and Science North’s Planetarium, in Sudbury, The H.R. McMillan Space Centre in Van- composer Ariadne MacKinnon-Andrew and Ontario, recently upgraded to Digistar 4. With couver, British Columbia is in the running to planetarium composer and saxophonist Ta- this system also comes a variety of new and host the 2014 IPS conference. Look for their sos Katsaris. Journey to the Stars, a 40-minute exciting programming. Four unique bilingual full length article elsewhere in this issue of the real time presentation from today’s Earth to school programs are offered for all age groups, Planetarian. Contact and information: Rob the distant past, when the relic radiation of

December 2010 Planetarian 51 Antares FullDome Productions and Mediúscula present Moles What is out there?

Coming soon to a digital planetarium near you!

Antares FullDome Productions and Mediúscula present the FullDome cartoon film MOLES, for digital planetariums. MOLES integrate traditional storytelling with digital media in order to entertain children, and awaken their interest for astronomy and nature. With MOLES, children will learn basic concepts about science while having a great time. “I am Plato, MOLES is addressed to boys and girls between Plato the explorer!” the ages of 4 and 8. The film is perfectly suited for school programs as well as for family showings.

Duration: 2x15 minutes and 30 minutes Technical data: resolution 4K (4000x4000 px) Audience: Family Show, Children 4-8

More information here: http://moles.antares-fulldome.com

Order from: AMT Co., Ltd. - Astrodidáctico - Auriga S.p.A. - Carl Zeiss AG - CosmoDome Europe - Digisatel - Discovery Dome - Domebox - Hiperlab In Budget Co., Ltd. - Kappa Crucis SRL - Loch Ness Productions - MMI Corporation - Orbit Animate Pvt. Ltd. - Planeta - Sky-Skan, Inc.

Contact: Alexander Zaragoza - [email protected] - tel. (+34) 933 323 000 - Barcelona, Spain 52 Planetarian www.antares-fulldome.com December 2010 the early universe was released, was originally conditioning unit failed in late May. Tem- fred Olson Planetarium is starting its fall Fri- scheduled as a one-off event. However, public peratures soared to nearly 32°C (90°F) in the day night shows with a program on Terrific attendance was so large that instead of a single dome, which was too hot for people or equip- Telescopes, where some of the best telescopes performance, three were finally executed on ment. Although it took nearly a month, the in the world are described. Later in the season, the same night. unit was replaced. the audience will learn about the star patterns A couple of weeks later, the Eugenides Plan- Southfield’s Vollbrecht Planetarium had that are crossed by the Sun’s path in the pro- etarium premiered its latest production The a few private shows and one outreach program titled Constellations of the Zodiac. Day Star, a planetarium show on the birth, gram for “The Great Southfield Campout.” A Mankato District #77 Planetarium Director evolution and ultimate demise of the sun, our PowerPoint show about the solar system was Dave Burgess recently spent a week at NASA closest star. The show was introduced to the presented and demonstrations of the moon/ Goddard Space Flight Center. The week was audience by Dr. Ioannis Daglis, director of the Earth distance and seasons were given. Unfor- spent interviewing scientist who monitor Institute for Space Applications and Remote tunately, clouds prevented a planned sky ob- chemicals in the Earth’s troposphere by Earth- Sensing of the National Observatory of Ath- serving session. The program was designed to based instruments and Earth-orbiting satel- ens and was followed with the opening of the help scouts achieve their astronomy/nature lites. Over the next six months, the planetar- astrophotography exhibition Phenomena by patches. ium will develop a week-long lesson plan that Japanese photographer Hashimoto Takehiko. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum Planetari- will combine pre- and post-classroom activi- um was recently closed for maintenance, dur- ties with a planetarium visit. Great Lakes Planetarium ing which time the final conversion from Di- The Minnesota Planetarium Society’s por- Association gistar-3 to Digistar-4 took place. When the table ExploraDome had a busy summer. It vis- Illinois. The William M. Staerkel Plane- planetarium reopened, three new shows will ited fairs, festivals, and day camps, and wel- tarium at Parkland College in Champaign re- be offered: Mystery of the Missing Moon, The comed its 80,000th visitor after 3½ years of opened the weekend after Labor Day with Starry Messenger, and Evans & Sutherland’s operation! new equipment: an Evans & Sutherland Di- New Horizons. Minnesota State University’s Moorhead gistar 4 system using twin cove-mounted JVC In Grand Rapids, the Roger B. Chaffee Plan- Planetarium had good attendance for its live video projectors, a 5.1 sound system, and a cove etarium has been working on a planetarium summer constellation shows. In September, LED lighting system from East Coast Control program to accompany the cadaver exhibit they hosted a star party titled Jupiter Meets Systems. The staff has retained the services of Bodies Revealed, which arrived in the muse- Uranus, so named because of the close prox- their Zeiss M1015 opto-mechanical star projec- um in November. Autumn began with the 3rd imity of these two in the autumn night sky. tor for post-show star talks. Annual Autumnal Equinox Laser Light Festi- The Cernan Earth & Space Center at Triton val and the 2nd annual Art prize event, which Middle Atlantic Planetarium College in River Grove recently welcomed Dr. hosted the works of over 70 artists. Society Margaret Weitekamp, curator of Space Histo- The Dassault Systèmes Planetarium at the The 2011 MAPS conference will be co-host- ry at the National Air and Space Museum, for Detroit Science Center recently presented ed by Don Knapp (H.W. Ray Planetarium, Cen- its annual members’ event. Weitekamp de- Clark Planetarium’s shows Secret of the Card- tennial School District, Warminster, Penn- scribed the little known story of 13 women pi- board Rocket and Black Holes, along with their sylvania), Kim Small (Upper Dublin School lots who were put through the same rigorous own sky tour show What’s Up? Your Guide To District Planetarium, Dresher, Pennsylvania), tests as the seven Mercury astronauts as part the Night Sky. On the production side, staff and Keith Johnson (Edelman Planetarium, of a privately-funded research project in the members visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey). early 1960s. In other news, a new three-screen Center in Maryland to record interviews and Dates for this event are May 4-7, 2011. The video system was installed in early August by obtain video for a future show. conference hotel will be the Holiday Inn, Fort East Coast Control Systems, followed in early Ohio. Congratulations to Susan Batson! The Washington, Pennsylvania. More details will October by new production equipment and North Hills (Pennsylvania) Planetarium direc- be available soon on the MAPS web site, but staff training. tor and chemistry teacher has been named mark the dates now! Indiana. The SpaceQuest Planetarium and grades 7-12 Science Curriculum Leader for There will be a mini MAPS and PIPS event its parent organization, The Children’s Mu- North Hills Junior and Senior High Schools open to all MAPS members and anybody else seum of Indianapolis, were awarded a NASA at a legislative school board meeting in June. interested in learning more about planetari- grant to fund the development of an original North Hills is in the greater Pittsburgh area. um education and programming, scheduled planetarium show on the topic of aeronautics: At Lourdes College in Sylvania, the Ap- in Lockport, New York on March 18-19, 2011. the history, principles, vehicles, and its future. pold Planetarium is partnering with Toledo Kathy Michaels will coordinate the event in The grand opening is tentatively planned for MetroParks and the University of Toledo to Lockport with staff and facilities from the February of 2012. create a new show that will combine live the- Williamsville Space Lab and the Whitworth The Merrillville Community Planetarium ater with a digital planetarium show to discuss Ferguson planetariums. has added a high-resolution image slide show the Underground Railroad and navigation by The event will start at the Williamsville to its waiting area. A set of images is displayed the stars. It was held in conjunction with the Space Lab Planetarium and continue in Lock- in random order using a 46-inch LCD moni- opening of a local historical site that was a sta- port and other western New York sites for a tor mounted to the wall. Images come from tion on the Underground Railroad. total of 15 hours. Certificates will available for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and space shut- Students at the Smith Middle School Plane- those who need them for professional devel- tle programs as well as the Hubble Space Tele- tarium in Vandalia (a northern suburb of Day- opment credit. scope and planetary space probes. The next ton) now enjoy newly refurbished seats as the The cost for the meeting will be $10 to cover step will be to add a second monitor to display first step in the planetarium’s renovation. Di- food and incidental materials needed for pre- captions for the images on the main monitor. rector Scott Oldfield is looking forward to sentations or workshops. A mailing is planned Michigan. The Exhibit Museum Plane- hosting a 40th anniversary celebration later for early 2011 with more information. Mean- tarium of Ann Arbor had a rough end to the this year. while, further information and updates on school year when the 28-year-old rooftop air Wisconsin/Minnesota. The UWM Man- the schedule will be available on the website

December 2010 Planetarian 53 later this winter at www.williamsvillek12.org/ planetarium. Against what appears to be a trend to close or decrease funding for planetariums, the western New York area has seen resurgence in planetarium interest in the past few years. The Niagara County Community College Plane- tarium has upgraded some of its equipment and Williamsville Space Lab Planetarium has added fulldome digital and laser projection while keeping the traditional optical mechanical star ball. Buffalo State College has included a major new planetarium upgrade in the rebuilding of its science building. The Maryvale School District has updated its seating and is looking into new projectors, and the Lackawanna School District has finally gotten a projector after having a dome for many years. Three area BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services) offer portable planetarium outreach programs to their districts. The Robert J. Novins Planetarium at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey is finally seeing signs of life again. The planetarium was threatened with permanent closure in 2006 and was shut down in 2007. A roller coaster of events and efforts eventually led to a $3.5 million renovation and, on August 23, the planetarium held its formal ribbon-cut- ting event and showcased its new capabilities for the press and campus community. NPA: At left, from top: The Latvian Society The new theater features a new Spitz nano- House from 1904 is now renovated and hous- seam dome, E&S Digistar 4, Zeiss ZKP4 and es Ventspils Creativity House, complete with AVI SkyLase. The planetarium held its grand planetarium and public observatory. Center: re-opening to the public on October 16. The Ventspils Creativity House Planetarium. The Arlington (Virginia) Planetarium was Bottom: Lecturer and technician at the Plane- In recognition of his valuable contributions, tarium and the Observatory Agris Trashkovs, threatened with closure following the 2009 Sam Storch was presented with the NERAL master student at Ventspils University Col- school year. Local interests persuaded offi- lege, standing by the RSA planetarium projec- Special Service Award for his work in astron- cials to keep the planetarium open for anoth- tor. Above: Ventspils Creativity House obser- omy education. er year with the commitment to raise enough vatory. A young visitor at the Meade telescope Sam Storch and Steven Mitch were the in the Ventspils Creativity House observatory. funds to renovate and upgrade the facility. To- recipients of the prestigious MAPS Distin- All photos by Andris Rebhuns. ward this end, there was a special fundraising guished Service Award during the banquet event in July to raise money for the planetar- at the spring conference in Portland, Maine. in Latvia. In this center are placed a planetarium; the winner was Harold Geller, who was Both individuals have been extremely active ium with 8-m dome, made by RSA Cosmos, present with a Coronado Personal Solar Tele- in MAPS activities for more than 30 years. and an observatory with 12-in Meade telescope (PST). Sam is currently the MAPS secretary and scope. Two weeks later, the planetarium and Local Fox channel 5 for the Washington, has presented numerous papers and work- observatory opened for public. More informa- DC metro area did a story on the planetarium shops at MAPS conferences over the years. He tion is available from Dr. Janis Harja, Ventspils at about the same time, and the planetarium also was the Margaret Noble Banquet Speaker University College, [email protected], or at had a booth at the Arlington County fair to at the 2008 MAPS Conference in Schenectady, the center’s web site, www.jaunradesnams.lv. raise awareness and to raise money. New York. Neil de-Grasse Tyson from the Hayden Plan- Steve is currently the president of MAPS etarium in New York City gave his support to Pacific Planetarium Association and previously served as president from 1991- NASA awarded a $1.1 million grant to the keeping the planetarium open in a question 1992. Steve served as the host for MAPS con- Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washing- and answer session at a National Academies ferences while at Oglebay, West Virginia, in ton, to develop a NASA Now program. The forum in Washington, DC. 1986, 1990, and 1998 and the Triple Conjunc- Now program increases educational outreach And finally, the Save the Arlington Plane- tion Conference (MAPS, GLPA and SEPA) in in earth and space sciences. The program is tarium organization received its 501(c)(3) sta- the fall of 2007. also intended to inspire young adults to pur- tus as a nonprofit organization. sue careers within the STEM fields of science, This year, the North East Region Astronom- Nordic Planetarium Association technology, engineering and math. Contact ical League learned that a very valued per- On 2 September, the Pupils’ Creativity Alice Enevoldsen, Pacific Science Center at ae- son to the organization would be retiring and House opened in Ventspils, 200 km from Riga nevoldsen.pacsci.org. moving to Florida by the end of the summer.

54 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 55 S9-a01-02 A Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium Russian. (LIPS 2011) is scheduled tentatively for 9-11 Au- Nizhny Novgorod. gust 2011 in Bremerton, Washington. Bremer- The all-Russia Knowledge ton is one hour west of Seattle across Puget Day was celebrated at the Sound and is reachable by car or ferry. Digital- Nizhny Novgorod Plan- is Educational Solutions is hosting the event, etarium on 1 September. which has a focus of interactive lessons under Younger and new school- the dome. The intent is to be vendor and sys- children, as well as those tem neutral, allowing participants to gather who already have made lessons to do in any type of planetarium. Con- the first steps in astron- tact Karrie Berglund, karrie @DigitalisEduca- omy, visited the event. tion.com, for participant and sponsorship in- The guests were wel- formation. comed by the Stargazer The staff at the planetarium at the College and the Donno. The fairy- of Southern Nevada just completed an up- tale characters helped grade to a Digistar 4SP2HD. This upgrade has children to learn the stel- created a more pleasing visitor experience. lar ABC for Donno, and to The images are noticeably brighter and sharp- know Where in the Uni- er. The staff reports that the new Digistar 4GUI verse Do We Live? The also is easier for them to use. Gnome Astronomer Tells The PPA would like to spotlight Tay- Where to Fly. lor Observatory and Norton Planetarium in A honored delegation Kelseyville, Lake County, California. Barba- including Cosmonaut Al- ra McIntyre, coordinator of the Taylor Obser- exander Alexandrov (two vatory, says the information online at www. long-term spaceflights), taylorobservatory.org gives a visitor an idea of General-Lieutenant Alex- the public events and year’s schedule. ey Makarychev, chief Recently, Santa Rosa Junior College Astron- of the Baikonur launch omy instructor Keith Waxman talked about site construction in 1986- how to get started in astrophotography. There 1990, and Victor Blagov, was a demonstration included. current chief of the ISS Barbara’s team includes herself, Edward Gi- flight control, was wel- annelli, John Zimmerman, Janis Traub, Ste- comed at the Nizhny phen Kane and Nan Laney, all of whom have Novgorod Planetarium lots of astronomy experience. As their website on 3 September. says, “We are located beneath the coal black A traditional fall equi- skies of Lake County, in Kelseyville, Califor- nox Astronomical Con- nia. The facility features a 36-seat classroom, ference for school and a 16-inch research grade telescope and a plan- university teachers, el- etarium with a 6.2-meter (20-ft) dome and der schoolchildren, stu- a Digitarium star projector system. It is well dents, and amateurs has equipped for students, teacher workshops and been held on September the general public to learn about astronomy 22. Dr. Vladimir Surdin, and space science.” senior scientist from the The observatory and the planetarium have Sternberg Astronomical RPA: At top, Head of the Yaroslavl Planetarium Natalia Mal’shakova in a history dating back to the 1970’s. The obser- Institute (Moscow) and a front of the new Cultural and Education Center in Yaroslavl. Photo by vatory was built on property owned by the well-known Russian pop- Zinaida P.Sitkova. Center: From Left, A.A. Makarytchev, Zinaida P. Sitk- Elementary School in Kelseyville. Construc- ularizer of science, was ova and A.A. Alexandrov at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium with the tion began in the late 1970s and the observato- the invited lecturer. He Oka River and Metro Bridge in the background. Photo by Vadim V. Be- ry opened to the public in 1980. The planetar- delivered two reports: lov. Bottom: Educator Marina Yankina as Stargazer and educator Galina Matsneva as Donno with children at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium ium was added in 1985. “discoveries of new plan- for the all-Russia Knowledge Day.Photo by Lyubov Burbukina. ets” and “new-generation Russian Planetarium Association telescopes.” Barnaul. The 60th anniversary of the Bar- An unusual event occurred under the big Yaroslavl. Special festive events dedicated naul planetarium was celebrated on 3 Septem- Stellar Dome on 26 September. Children and to the 1000th anniversary of the city were or- ber. parents enjoyed the Bambi play based upon ganized on 11-12 September and attended by Moscow. The AUVIX Company, an autho- the book Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix the President of the Russian Federation and rized partner of Evans & Sutherland, USA, de- Salten. The actors were children and teenag- foreign guests. The celebration program in- veloped and delivered a fulldome solution for ers from the new-generation theater studio Il- cluded opening the Cultural and Education- the Planetarium of the Cultural Center of the lusion. The play was accompanied by animat- al Center named after Valentina Tereshkova, Russian Army. The video projection system ed fulldome panoramic views. the first female cosmonaut and first woman includes single-channel Digistar 4 and a Pro- Vladimir. Construction of the new plan- of the world in space, who was born in Yaro- jectiondesign F32 video projector. During Sep- etarium building is being finished. The next slavl. The center includes an observatory and tember, planetarium affiliates translated the steps will be interior furnishing and equip- a new planetarium equipped by the ZKP-4 star narrations of two E&S fulldome shows into ment mounting. projector and the Space Gate fulldome video

56 Planetarian December 2010 December 2010 Planetarian 57 THEY DON’T WANT THE HIGH SEAS. THEY WANT THE UNIVERSE.

A family adventure that puts you into the action. Available March 2010. Contact Mike Murray at [email protected] 58 Planetarian December 2010 801-456-4949 • clarkplanetarium.org/distribution

2245_Clark_SpacePirates_7x10.indd 1 1/21/10 9:20:48 AM and consultant for the University of Hawaii’s Mobile News 120-seat planetarium at the ‘Imiloa Astrono- my Center on the Hilo campus, and acted as the co-director of its planetarium show Mau- nakea: Between Earth and Sky. Susan Reynolds Button He currently teaches astronomy at Wind- Quarks to Clusters ward and has expanded the CAE’s outreach ef- 8793 Horseshoe Lane forts by establishing several resource facilities, Chittenango, New York 13037 USA including the Hōkūlani Imaginarium, which opened in October 2001. He serves as the di- +1 315-687-5371 rector for this 66-seat planetarium, where he [email protected], [email protected] teaches Polynesian voyaging and navigation classes. Mobile Workshops at IPS 2010 My workshop was titled “Mythology with Joe explained “I see my participation in the As you have read in the September Planetar- a New Twist.” During this session I explained American Planetarium Operator in Italy pro- ian, the conference in Egypt was super. I also that people seem to crave rituals in their lives gram as a unique opportunity to extend my want you to know that we remembered the as a form of relaxation and comfort, to main- outreach efforts internationally. The slogan educators working in small domes while we tain a sense of belonging, to validate their of the Teacher-in-Space program is ‘I touch were there! identity and to examine their place in the uni- the future. I teach.’ Inspiring children through There were two workshops presented spe- verse. the magic of teaching in a planetarium in Ita- cifically for those folks at the IPS 2010 Confer- We know that people of all ages respond ly would be personally meaningful to me. In ence. The two workshops were well received very positively to hearing and learning about the circle of life, it would be especially reward- and Dayle Brown and I enjoyed working with stories from ancient cultures. We explored the ing to touch the future of children within the conference participants who chose from many idea that another way of involving the audi- homeland of my parents.” enticing events to attend our sessions. Thank ence in a visceral or affective way, while using Joe will be working with three exception- you to the excellent staff from the Planetari- “minds-on” and even “hands-on” techniques, al planetarium directors while in Italy: Lor- um Science Center (PSC) of the Bibliotheca Al- is to use mythology as the content material is Ramponi, Luciano Bittesini, and Simonetta exandrina for assisting us with the dome and and develop a ritual around it. Ercoli. They are looking forward to experienc- projector during our presentations. ing the unique Hawaiian cultural perspective Dayle Brown, Pegasus Productions, present- American in Italy Contest and the creative techniques that Joe will bring ed a workshop called “Treasure Island.” Congratulations go to Joseph Ciotti, direc- to them and their students. Participants explored some of the naviga- tor of the Hōkūlani Imaginarium & the Cen- tional tasks that would have been encounter for Aerospace Education at the Windward Bareket Observatory in Israel tered by the characters in the fictional trip to Community College in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Joe I received an interesting report recently the island that was the title of Robert Louis was selected as the winner of this year’s con- from Dayle Brown, which appears on the next Stevenson’s book. test and will travel to Italy in 2011. page. In it she chronicles an interesting en- Participants worked in small “crews” to Joe wrote, in his application, that his child- counter with a planetarian in Israel. seek treasure. They determined their approxi- hood experiences at the Hayden Planetarium mate latitude by measuring the altitude of the in New York City were instrumental in guid- 7th European Meeting for Small North Star using a model of a mariner’s astro- ing him to a career in astronomy and impress- and Portable Planetariums labe. They determined their approximate lon- ing upon him the power that planetariums In August, 24 planetarians traveled to Jyväs- gitude after being given the time in Green- have on influencing the lives of students of all kylä, in the heart of Finland, for the 7th Eu- wich Mean Time and their local time. They ages. As a result, he has worked in the planetar- ropean Meeting for Small and Portable Plan- plotted their estimated position on earth by ium field for 40 years. etariums. This meeting was hosted by the means of a map using latitude and longitude. While teaching high school in Honolulu Kallioplanetaario Planetarium (www.kallio- The winning “crew” received “treasure.” For he was a lecturer at the Bishop Museum plan- planetaario.fi/etusivu). more information, contact Dayle at DayleDa- etarium and built a small 6-person planetari- Even though I was unable to attend this ex- [email protected]. um for his astronomy students. Since then he cellent conference, fortunately I could follow has built two ma- what was happening through the wonderful jor planetariums daily postings from Alexander Zaragoza, prod- in Hawaii, was se- uct manager, Antares FullDome Productions. lected as Hawaii’s His postings include some history and details NASA Teacher-in- about his personal perspective as he shared Space candidate for this event with us. (This is the same gentle- the Space Shuttle man who kept a running blog about the IPS Challenger mission, Conference in Egypt!) served as a NASA Thank you, Alex, for providing this re- Space Ambassador, cord and window on your experiences. founded the Center To read his entire, very detailed and color- for Aerospace Educa- ful blog, you can simply link to blog.antar- tion (CAE) at Wind- es.es, where he writes all his blog posts. Each ward Communi- blog post is written in both Spanish and Eng- ty College, served as lish; just scroll down for your preferred lan- Seven of us enjoyed connecting and telling “yarns” together. Photo by Tom the technical officer guage. I Button.

December 2010 Planetarian 59 For the love of the stars: A dedicated astronomer and educator in Israel

Ido and Or in front of their public astronomy image (photos by Dayle Brown)

to enhance learning, instructional design and development for astronomy education products, such as: •• The remote-controlled Planetary Soci- ety’s Mars Station model Visitors to the Bareket’s Mars Station website simply log in to the station’s computer and operate the rover, through the web! A control panel interface allows the user to drive the rover, with an image panel By Dayle Brown presenting the student the www.pegasusproductions.net rover’s perspective of its en- [email protected] vironment. In February, just before my husband, Da- •• The internet remote vid Piser, and I left for our trip to Israel, I read telescope program a posting on Dome-L requesting help with This program allows stu- a portable inflatable planetarium from Ido dents to collect and in- Bareket of the Baraket Observatory, just out- terpret information in side of Jerusalem, Israel. I couldn’t resist meet- response to their own per- ing Ido and learning more about Bareket Ob- sonal exploration and work servatory. together as collaborators in - D e m o n - Bareket Observatory operates for educa- a cooperative, rather than strating the tional and scientific purposes and is develop- competitive, environment, differences being unique and sophisticated materials for the in local and global groups. tween the North teaching of astronomy in the region. The mis- •• The Mars dial network and South Poles; sion is to act as a resource for schools and edu- web cast - M e a s u r i n g cational institutions. On the Spirit and Oppor- time on Earth and The staff is involved in conducting research tunity Mars rovers there are on Mars; projects such as near-earth objects, superno- miniature sundials, which -Learning about vae, radio astronomy, spectroscopy, and re- were used for calibration, seasonal changes; mote telescope control via the web. In addi- scientific and educational -Teaching as- tion, they present lectures on an ongoing basis purposes. The observatory’s tronomy with an to a large number of organizations in Israel as Top: The Bareket Observatory; Below: the emphasis on plan- staff has engraved several Earth Dial. well as at schools and sciences centers. large models (scale 1:10) of etary science. They maintain many astronomy courses this special sundial which More specific and classes as an integral part of the observa- are located at the observatory and different information about the project can be found at tory’s activities. The main objective is to light schools in Israel. bareket-astro.com/en/project/dial.htm. that “intuitive spark” by presenting the heav- The Earth dial is then broadcast via live •• Interactive educational tools ens in all its glory to those students who repre- feed to the Internet, where the students par- From time to time the observatory produc- sent the next generation of researchers. ticipate in projects with different groups with- es live free astronomical web casts of select- Ido is the executive director of the educa- in the country and across the globe. ed cosmological events, as solar eclipses, me- tional program and the administrative officer The main goals of the Earth Dial project in- teor showers the & lunar surface, transits and of the observatory. He is responsible for de- clude: more. They also offer a Monthly on-line astro- veloping astronomy sessions and overseeing -Being part of information gathering of nomical magazine in Hebrew with a produc- a variety of development programs in online Earth Dials at different latitudes around the tion of the Hebrew version of JPL’s “what’s learning and innovative uses of technology world; up” monthly video.

60 Planetarian December 2010 •• Conducting the astro-EDU database project The observatory is currently working on a unique astronomical on-line data base web site, and is looking for funding in order to build an appropriate web structure for it. Teachers could use the new on-line database in order to support the implementation of their research in the classroom. The database also enables younger students to download and use the observatory’s data in their own classrooms. •• Public Astro@Images program The project’s goal is to involve the general public with astronomy subjects. High quality canvas prints of astronomical subjects taken at the observatory are put in public places with written explanations with the hope that in this way more and more people will be at- tracted to the beauty and magic of astrono- When they were young: (from left) Fred Whipple, Chandra, Gerard Kuiper, and Gerald Mulders. From my. Chandra.harvard.edu/resources/illustrations/chandraPortraits.html; credit NASA/CXC/SAO •• Representative of the IDA organization in Israel As a part of the observatory’s voluntarily activities, it is the official Israeli Dark Sky As- sociation section (IDA). Chandra : A Stellar Life This comprehensive program would be Sharing a show for a great man’s centenary commendable for any planetarium or museum, but then we realize that this is all being No programme on astronomy, stars, white wishes to use it. done by one young man, with the help of his dwarves or black holes is complete without The script weaves biographical informa- family. His little brother, Or, was named for referring to Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan tion about Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar “light” or “star light.” The observatory is lo- Chandrasekhar. with narratives about the lives of stars of cated on the roof of his home. I was under- different masses: a 1 solar mass star and a 10 standably impressed. Thus begins Chandra: A Stellar Life, a new solar mass star. program written by Nandivada Rathnasree, A sample from the script: Needs help with a dome director of the Nehru Planetarium at the “It was the 31st of July 1930, the Italian To expand the outreach program, Ido ob- Nehru Memorial and Library in New Delhi. liner The Lloyd Triestino was sailing out tained a 6-m portable inflatable planetarium Dr. Rathnasree’s doctoral work at the Tata from the gateway of India, Bombay, and and was hoping for solutions to the following Institute of Fundamental Research, Mum- was headed towards Venice. problems: bai, India, was in the field of stellar structure “On board was 19 year old Subrahman- •• The inside color (white) is cracked and and evolution. He had been deeply inspired yan Chandrasekhar…on his way to Lon- worn. Ido would like to “re-coat” it with by learning about the life story of Subrah- don…with a government scholarship for fresh color, so it could be used with the new manyan Chandrasekhar as a school student, higher studies. digital projectors as well. and continued his interest throughout his “This was no ordinary young man… •• There are numerous small “pin holes” in the later education. “No. Definitely no. Most certainly, no. dome, due to long-term massive misuse. Is From this inspiration came the script for “How many 19-year olds would have there a way to fix this? the Chandra program, the premiere pro- spent those two weeks of a sea voyage work- •• The suggested way to fold the planetarium. gram in the newly-renovated Nehru Plane- ing over tricky problems involving rigorous •• How can they maintain the above? tarium when it reopened in October. mathematical calculations? Work which There isn’t enough funding for both the And, because the Chandrasekhar cente- would open up the whole new field of rel- dome and the projector, thus they are only in- nary also began in October 2010 (and runs ativistic astrophysics…and lead towards a terested in repairing the dome. through October 2011), the planetarium is recognition…half a century later…through Ido has designed and constructed a projec- sharing the content of the program, in the a Nobel prize!” tion mirror so that he can project images and form of the script/audio recording/visuals More information is available from Dr. data inside the dome. The mirror is curved to in a DVD format with any planetarium that Rathnasree at [email protected]. I accommodate the dome. I’m sorry to report that I could provide no real assistance. I have never seen a dome with The “pin hole” problem was easier to solve, in the planetarium or museum community to a white coating on the inside. It was cracked although the white interior would make share ideas and programs, and you can con- and worn, as reported. any patches very visible. There wasn’t room tact him through www.bareket-astro.com. Ido thought it might be a GOTO dome, but enough to spread out the dome in the home My visit with Ido at the remarkable Baraket we couldn’t confirm this. The outside of the or yard, so I couldn’t really help with the fold- Observatory proved to be a highlight of our dome has stars and images. If anyone reading ing question. visit to Israel. I expect to hear more about this this has a suggestion, please forward it to Ido. Ido would appreciate hearing from anyone innovative educator in the future. I

December 2010 Planetarian 61 be surprising to many who equate a Canadian Book Reviews space program with just an arm on the Space Shuttle, but Canada has not only been a presence from the beginning, it has been a leader in ground-based space research throughout most of the 20th century. April S. Whitt Canadian space science dates from 1925 Fernbank Science Center through research on auroral activity, which 156 Heaton Park Drive NE included building observing stations above the Arctic Circle staffed by scientists undergo- Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA ing amazing conditions to understand every- [email protected] thing there was to know about the beautiful Northern Lights. This led to increased activi- Stellar Evolution ing homework will most likely need an addi- ty in all aspects of space science, and, with the launch of Sputnik, Canada was ready to be a and Nucleosynthesis tional source of exercises. I found this textbook to be almost Zen-like part of the international race for space. Sean G. Ryan and Andrew J. Norton, Cam- in its spare, but thorough, descriptions of im- One of the major flaws of this relatively bridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-521- portant concepts from star formation to su- small book is that the authors attempt to cre- 13320-3, US $60.00. pernovae. Here is an example from Chapter 2: ate a comprehensive history of all aspects of Reviewed Chris De Pree, Agnes Scott Col- Gravitational Contraction, “Stars are self-grav- the Canada’s space program. They tried, but lege, Decatur, Georgia, USA. itating balls of gas. In order to understand how did not do the subject justice. As a neophyte

stars evolve it is therefore vital to understand on the subject, I found myself getting con- Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis is a the physics of how such balls behave.” And fused as I tried to keep all the players and their textbook intended for advanced undergradu- the book covers the fundamentals of main- contributions in line. Also, the number of ac- ates, and presumes that the student will have sequence stars in the brief 20 pages of its first ronyms used—although all of the agencies so had at least introductory courses in calcu- chapter. designated were important in Canada’s his- lus-based physics and descriptive astronomy. But unlike many textbooks, the authors tory—was too much to remember without a Having taught a course at this level in astro- have managed to include enough worked ex- flow chart. physics at an undergraduate institution for amples to keep undergraduate students happy I like Apogee books. They are very concise, many years, I know that it can be difficult to and engaged. The text probably does not give very informative, and a good read. This one, find books that hit the right balance of rigor enough detail to a student who has never seen though, just seemed as if the authors were told and clearness. This one does. The book is di- a particular astronomical topic before, but its to give the total history of Canadian space vided into eight chapters that explore the intended audience will have had an appropri- science in under 300 pages. This doesn’t real- physics the stellar life cycle, from star forma- ate introduction to the material covered. ly seem to make sense, especially after read- tion through evolution and death. Few undergraduate institutions have a ing another Apogee book about the Saturn Each chapter contains a well-written, con- course devoted to stellar evolution for their launch vehicle. The first chapter of that one cise introduction to the topic, followed by majors, typically including the topic into a states that, upon beginning research, the au- worked examples and boxes that explore par- more general astrophysics sequence. If your thors realized they only had room in their ticular topics in more depth. institution does teach such a course, you book for the Saturn V and that the others For example, in the chapter on nuclear fu- should definitely peruse this book. If it does would be dealt with in future books. sion, there is a half-page box that describes re- not, I would still recommend that you pick up There’s just too much information for the duced mass. Exercises are found within each a copy as a supplement to the texts that you size of this book. It would have been a much chapter, next to the material that they are re- currently use. better read had the authors been allowed to lated to (not at the end of the chapter). Each write as much as they wanted and added di- chapter concludes with an enumerated sum- agrams showing the progression of space re- mary of the chapter’s material. The exercises Canada’s Fifty Years in Space: search, the flow of the major scientists, and a have full solutions at the back of the book, so The COSPAR Anniversary better way to keep all of the departments and faculty using this book for a course and assign- Gordon Shepherd and Agnes Kruchio, Apogee research in line. That’s a book I would have Books, 2008, ISBN #978- been ready to get into. This was much too 1-894959-72-8, soft- short for the subject area. bound, US $26.95 Reviewed by Fran- Unmasking Europa: The Search cine Jackson, Universi- ty of Rhode Island Plan- for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon etarium, Providence, Richard Greenberg, Copernicus Books, Spring- Rhode Island, USA. er Science+Business Media, 2008, ISBN 978-0- 387-09676-6, US $27.50, and The year 2008 Europa marked the 50th an- Edited by Robert T. Pappalardo, William B. niversary of the Com- McKinnon and Krishnan Khurana, University mittee of Space Re- of Arizona Press (in collaboration with the Lu- search (COSPAR). One nar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas), of the countries repre- 2009, ISBN 978-0-8165-2844-8, US $85.00 sented from the first Reviewed Chris De Pree, Agnes Scott Col- was Canada. This can lege, Decatur, Georgia, USA.

62 Planetarian December 2010 not check every reference a “tell-all” memoir. Describing the initial kick- list in the 700-page volume, off meeting at JPL in 1977, the author describes but I was hard pressed to the technology of the Galileo mission to Jupi- find articles that did not ref- ter (originally called the Jupiter Orbiter with erence at least one of Green- Probe, or JOP) as being far from the frontier berg’s scholarly works. of technological innovation. “When failure is Greenberg’s book is writ- not an option, neither is innovation.” ten for a very different audi- The book does not dwell only on the pol- ence. Unmasking Europa is itics of science, however. Much of the book clearly written for a popular is taken up with clear explanations of Green- audience (the author says as berg’s scholarly work in tidal forces and the much in the introduction), explanations of Europa’s cracked, chaotic sur- and is intended to give in- face. sight not just into the moon Students of planetary exploration will en- Europa, but also into the joy this book’s thorough explanation of our sometimes surprising polit- current understanding of Jupiter’s mysteri- ically charged atmosphere ous moon, as well as the inside view into the of astronomical and particularly planetary sometimes charged political world of big- It should come as no surprise that near the research. Planetary exploration is an expen- money planetary exploration. I anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first observa- sive venture, and agencies like NASA com- (Minutes, continued from Page 37) tions of Jupiter there would be a number of mit many billions of dollars of federal fund- fascinating books on the topic of Europa, Jupi- ing and the lifelong work of engineers and For the Good of the Order ter’s ice-encrusted moon. Two of these books scientists to the exploration of a single plan- Shawn Laatsch announced that plans were practically ask to be reviewed in tandem be- et or moon. underway to hold a fulldome film festival at cause of the similarity of their subjects and the Readers will not find the science of Europa the Imiloa Astronomy Center Planetarium, fascinating relationships between the authors neatly separated from the political aspects of Hilo, Hawaii on October 5-10, 2010. This will involved. the investigation: the two are presented hon- serve as a good test bed for previewing and The more traditional of the two books, Eu- estly, thoroughly intertwined. Greenberg is a evaluating content and quality of some full- ropa, is edited by Robert T. Pappalardo, Wil- good storyteller, and presents our current un- dome presentations. liam B. McKinnon and Krishnan Khurana derstanding of the complex surface of Euro- John Hare challenged other vendors and and is a collection of articles from over 80 au- pa as revealed by better instrumentation over IPS members to match or exceed his compa- thors. Published by the University of Arizo- that past three decades of his career. ny’s donations to the Spitz Planetarium Edu- na Press in collaboration with the Lunar and The main disagreement that Greenberg cation Fund. Planetary Institute, the book is divided into presents is between two opposing scientif- With business completed, Shawn five parts: history, origin and dynamics; geol- ic views: that the surface details of Europa Laatsch moved to adjourn the meeting, ogy and surface; interior, icy shell, and ocean; are completely related to activity in a thick seconded by Thomas Kraupe, and ap- external environment; and astrobiology and ice layer (the “isolated ocean model”), or that proved by Council. perspectives. these same details are better explained by a Lee Ann A. Hennig The book’s 700+ pages thoroughly review permeable layer of ice, interacting much more Executive Secretary, IPS our current understanding of Europa. Astron- actively with Europa’s subsurface ocean. June 26, 2010 omers will certainly use this as a reference in This book is surely going to upset many of future work, but non-professionals will appre- Greenberg’s colleagues. Referring to members **Addendum to the Minutes: ciate the clarity and detail in the coverage of of a NASA team that you were part of as “pri- At the IPS General Meeting, the following this fascinating moon. ma donnas” will not make any friends, but business and subsequent action took place The book is exhaustively referenced, with Greenberg seems content to tell the truth of during the IPS Elections Committee Report, hundreds provided at the end of each article. his story as he sees it, and to let the readers which was chaired by Martin George: The articles vary from the general, “The Ex- judge. He is brutally honest about the scientif- 1. Chair Martin George announced that Gail ploration History of Europa,” to the specific, ic process, saying that it is “much messier than Chaid had withdrawn her nomination for “Geodynamics of Europa’s Ice Shell.” Many of the idealized list of steps that schoolchildren candidate for IPS President Elect. the articles, while clearly written, go far more are required to follow for their science-fair 2. Three additional candidates were nomi- in-depth than the average non-professional projects.” This honesty is good for students of nated for the office of President Elect: may ever want or need. But for any research- science to hear. •• Dr. Alexandre Cherman, Fundação Plane- er looking for our best current understanding And in Greenberg’s opinion, the accepted tário da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, R. Vice- of almost any topic related to this fascinating, view of the nature of the surface of Europa Gov. Rubens Berardo, 100- Gávea, 22451-070 icy moon, this is the go-to book. was shaped by the early pronouncements of Rio de Janeiro-RJ Brazil Missing from the 85-member author list of team leaders (Ron Greeley and Jim Head, both •• Thomas W. Kraupe, Planetarium Hamburg, Europa is Richard Greenberg, author of the geologists) and their graduate students. Scien- Hindenburgstr.1b, D-22303 Hamburg Ger- second book in this review, Unmasking Euro- tists young and old (and students interested in many pa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon. the process of science) will be particularly in- •• Mark Rigby, Curator, Sir Thomas Brisbane The title itself reveals a lot about the book and terested in the chapter titled “Doing Science.” Planetarium, Mt. Coot-tha Road, Toowong, its purpose, and while Greenberg is not a con- Greenberg has a talent for turning a phrase, Brisbane, Queensland 4066 Australia tributing author to the encyclopedic Europa and the book is a pleasure to read, even if The three additional names will be placed volume, his research is referenced in many if some of the passages made this scientist un- on the ballot for the election of officers in Oc- not all of the articles. I must admit that I did comfortable, reading what at times feels like tober. I

December 2010 Planetarian 63 Jordan Marche II had the results from 71 survey forms returned by IPS members. Most What’s25 New Years Ago wanted the Planetarian to publish full length scripts, and nearly all wanted script abstracts. Uses for the scripts were to copy in part or all (30), for reference (53), and as inspirations for Thomas Wm. Hamilton show topics (58). The article ended by propos- HOSS Planetarium ing that IPS maintain a script bank. 153 Arlo Road Lauray Yule’s Script Section offered Halley’s Staten Island, New York 10301 Comet 1910: Fire in the Sky by Jerred Metz (St. Louis). This exposed Comet Halley’s 1910 role [email protected] in song, advertising, politics, humor, and seemingly every other part of life that year. 25 Years Ago: Vol. 14, No. 3 “That Old Devil Moon” by James Rusk (Rus- “The comet will not hurt anyone. Its disposi- Two letters opened the December 1985 sell Planetarium, Texas) and Robert R. Young tion is naturally Planetarian. Earnest L. Martin (Hemet, Cali- (Harridge, Pennsylvania) took on the belief affectionate, and fornia) continued the debate over the Star of that the moon affects or controls human be- if children are Bethlehem. The Space Telescope Science In- havior, such as hospital admissions, homi- warned not to stitute suggested offering a show about the cides, or spells of insanity. A bibliography list- pull its tail, it will Space Telescope. Gee, you think? ed articles finding no correlation between pass us by with- Carolyn Petersen (Boulder, Colorado) wrote lunar phases and human activity. Laymen, out scratching.” “on a daily basis, we experience students, par- however, regard the two days before and the The Shut- ents, and other members of the public who are two days after the Full Moon as “full.” The re- tle Atlantis was ignorant of even the rudiments of science and sult is that up to 11 “full moons” per year coin- launched on No- math...their attitudes range from boredom to cide with weekends, when drunks do provide vember 27, de- complete indifference.” Inadequate or non- more activity for emergency rooms. ploying a satellite existent science education produces a lack Carl J. Wenning (Illinois State University) and experiment- of understanding of health and other issues. looked at another lunar problem, the moon ing on assem- Dr. Rodolfo Neri Vela How should one respond with a straight face illusion that makes the moon appear larger bling equipment to “why doesn’t the Shuttle go to the moon?” near the horizon than when high in the sky. in space. It car- or similar questions. Even today, we live with His explanation is that is a result of the Pon- ried the first Mexican, Dr. Rodolfo Neri Vela, what Carolyn wrote about. zo Illusion, also known as the railroad track il- to travel into orbit. The USSR launched 10 Ko- “Astronomy Cheer” was a light-hearted re- lusion. This finds background elements “influ- smos satellites (numbers 1705 through 1714), print of recipes for mixed drinks with astro- ence our perception of ‘foreground’ objects.” Molniya, and Meteor. Topping the Molniya nomical themes, such as the “Planetarium,” Wenning found that this also related to audi- communications satellite, the USA sent an the “Nova,” and the “Accretion Disk” (which ences’ perceptions of the apparent size of con- ITV communications satellite to geosynchro- I fear I may resemble). stellations as projected in planetariums. nous orbit. I

Celebrate the Year of the Solar System—Share your planetarium shows, your events, and your stories!

The Year of the Solar System (YSS) spans a Martian year—23 months—from October 2010 to August 2012. During this period, the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is celebrating the amazing discoveries of numerous NASA missions as they explore our planetary neighbors and probe the outer edges of our solar system. New missions will further explore Jupiter, the Earth’s moon, and Mars. Others will encounter comets and asteroids, and continue to decipher the mysteries of the sun, Mercury, Saturn, and our home planet, Earth. It is an unprecedented time in planetary sciences as we learn about new worlds and make new discoveries. Each month will highlight different aspects of our solar system—its formation, volca- nism, gravity, ice, the search for life—weaving together activities, resources, and ideas that teachers, clubs, and organizations can use to engage audiences. Promotional and educational materials, updates, a calendar of activities, and a space to share Year of the Solar System experiences are available at NASA’s Solar System website: solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss. Each month’s thematic content, images, animations, and other educational materials are sorted and have been made available for download and use. There are also logos and banner images, bookmarks, handouts, and more available online that you can use to advertise your own Year of the Solar System events. Add your thematic planetarium shows, public observing sessions, workshops, and more to the YSS calendar, informing audiences nationally about your events, and you can share your images and stories from your YSS events online and follow the project on Twitter, Fa- cebook, YouTube, Flickr, and iTunes. For more information, go to the website; you also may ask questions or pass along suggested to Christine Shupla, education specialist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Hous- ton, Texas at [email protected]. I

64 Planetarian December 2010 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events

2011 September. British Association of Plan- Yearly Deadlines for 20 March. International Day of Planetar- etaria (BAP), AGM and conference, “A Week in Italy” ia, www.dayofplanetaria.org. World Museum Planetarium, Liver- 31 August. Deadline for the applicants of 16-17 April. Italian Association of Plan- pool, United Kigdom. Shaaron Lever- “An experience in Italy for a French etaria (PLANIT), XXVI Nation- ment, [email protected] Speaking Planetarium Operator,” in al Conference, Crespano del Grappa 2-4 September. Nordic Planetarium As- collaboration with IPS Portable Plane- (Treviso) and Padova, Italy, www.plan- sociation Biennial Conference in Riga, tarium Committee. etaritaliani.it. Contact osservatorio@ Latvia. Conference host Dace Balode, 15 September. Deadline for the applicants serafinazani.it [email protected] of “A Week in Italy for an American 29 April-1 May. Immersive Film Festival 4-8 September. 6th Science Centre World Planetarium Operator,” in collabora- II at Centro Multimeios Espinho, Por- Congress, Cape Town, South Africa. tion with APLF. tugal. More information at iff.multi- www.astc.org 30 September. Deadline for the appli- meios.pt or from Antonio Pedrosa at 15-18 October. Association of Science- cants of “An experience in Italy for a [email protected] Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual British Planetarium Operator,” in col- 4-7 May. Middle Atlantic Planetarium So- Conference, Maryland Science Center, laboration with BAP. ciety Conference co-hosted by Don Baltimore, USA. www.astc.org For more information on the “Week Knapp (H.W. Ray Planetarium, Cen- 2-4 November. Annual Digistar Users in Italy,” go to: www.astrofilibresciani. tennial School District, Warminster, Group meeting at Stardome Observa- it/Planetari/Week_in_Italy/-Week_Ita- Pennsylvania), Kim Small (Upper Dub- tory, Auckland, New Zealand. www.di- ly.htm lin School District Planetarium, Dresh- gistardomes.org er, Pennsylvania), and Keith Johnson 31 December. Deadline for IPS Eugenides For corrections and new information for (Edelman Planetarium, Rowan Uni- Foundation Script contest. www.ips- the Calendar of Events, please send a mes- versity, Glassboro, New Jersey). www. planetarium.org sage to Loris Ramponi at osservatorio@se- mapsplanetarium.org rafinozani.it. 8-9 May. Conference of German Speaking 2012 Planetaria (ADP), Annual Conference, 31 March. Deadline for application for More details about several of these up- Wien Planetarium, Austria, www.plan- scholarship funds (IPS support Baton coming events are included in the Inter- etarium-wien.at Rouge Conference attendance by indi- national News column and elsewhere in 2-5 June. Association of French Speaking viduals). www.ips-planetarium.org the Planetarian. Planetariums (APLF), Yearly Meeting, 20-21 July. International Planetarium So- Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque ciety Council Meeting, Baton Rouge, The most up-to-date information also (Nord), Palais de l’Univers et des Sci- Louisiana. is available online at the International ences (Le PLUS),-Cappelle-la-Grande, 22-26 July. 21st International Plane- Planetarian’s Calendar of Events at www. France. www.aplf-planetariums.org. tarium Society Conference, Irene ips-planetarium.org/events/conferences. 1-2 July. International Planetarium W. Pennington Planetarium, Lou- html I Society Council Meeting, Nizh- isiana Art & Science Museum, Ba- ny Novgorod Planetarium, Nizhny ton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, jelvert@ Novgorod, Russia. lasm.org

(Tidey, continued from Page 16) creatures from Venus. But when space probes featured in that film: small, hairless bodies, year occurred in the three months after Sput- visited Venus and found it to be a boiling hell, grey-skinned with large heads and enormous, nik was launched. More people were looking the number of encounters with Venusians ovoid eyes. up at the heavens and seeing natural or man- tailed off remarkably. It’s highly unlikely that every single one of made phenomena which they weren’t accus- In the 1970’s, when Mariner 9 and the two the thousands of people who must have been tomed to, as their gaze had rarely been direct- Viking probes showed no signs of life on Mars, involved in worldwide government cover ups ed above the rooftops before. again the number of Martian encounters di- over the years could remain silent. It’s all very It’s often falsely stated that 2% of Ameri- minished. The creature that Barney Hill fa- well saying that they have been threatened cans think they’ve been abducted by aliens. mously claims to have seen in 1961 was almost with violence should they speak out, but not This arises from a Roper poll in which people exactly the same in appearance as a human- everybody can be controlled in that manner. were asked if they had experienced an odd, su- like creature that had featured on The Out- Human nature makes people tell others pernatural-like event that they couldn’t ex- er Limits science fiction television program a about big secrets, and the presence of an alien plain. They weren’t asked if they had ever few weeks earlier. on Earth would arguably be the biggest sto- seen a UFO or been abducted. It was the poll’s Additionally, since the huge success of ry of all. At least one person would have suc- sponsors who made the wild assumption that Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1978, al- cumbed by now to the prospect of selling all these cases were abductions. (See the Wiki- most all the aliens reported by abductees and their story to the media, thereby becoming a pedia entry on alien abduction claimants for encountered by characters in television series multi-millionaire overnight. more.) I have looked pretty much the same as the ones In 1957, 60% of the UFO sightings for that December 2010 Planetarian 65 the original Davy on television. Waxing New On the DVD, you can play the music videos individually or as part of the “Here Comes Sci- ence” musical laboratory show hosted by the John Schroer animated John and John (John Linnell and Dassault Systèmes Planetarium John Flansburgh, WMBG founders). The New Detroit Science Center Because they’ve done so much for spreading science and literacy we’ll forgive them for 5020 John R Street a couple of faux Detroit, Michigan 48202 USA pas: in “How [email protected], [email protected] Many Plan- +1 313-577-8400, Ext. 435 ets,” Uranus is pronounced, of course, with First off, we have a new device from Bob the review in the September 2010 Planetar- the long a, Crelin, the author of There Once Was a Sky Full ian), and, as icing on the cake, Crelin has de- and the IAU is of Stars, that helps beginning astronomers of veloped a Teacher’s Guide for grades 4-8 that’s called the Inter- all ages to explore and understand the phas- available free for the download at his web site: national Astro- es of the moon. The Moon Gazers’ Wheel is a www.bobcrelin.com. logical Union unique, interactive guide to the moon that, The threesome—the wheel, book, and teach- on the music after just a little bit of er’s guide—would be perfect stocking stuffers video “show,” but is correct in the liner notes. playing around with for all of your favorite teachers. (Or maybe that wasn’t a mistake.) it, makes a whole lot Even more: if you visit Crelin’s web site, It’s another great holiday gift for the science of sense out of those you see that he’s a man of many talents. Once minded and available through the group’s pesky phases. you appreciate his artwork and marvel at his website (www.theymightbegiants.com) or The user rotates the music, you’ll see that he’s also an inventor Amazon.com, among other sites. You also can central wheel until it and, dear to our hearts, a strong advocate of preview material on YouTube. matches the current dark skies. He is an award-winning designer moon phase. Hm- of a light fixture called the Glare Buster and mm—let’s turn it so has written and been written about in a num- Design Your Display The folks at Bowen Technovation have First Quarter is in the ber of articles about the fixture and light pol- Bob Crelin been busy showing off a new digital video pie-shaped cutout. lution. display and exhibit technology at IPS and re- Ah! Now we know gional planetarium conference. The Chris- when the moon is visible in the sky (rising at Songs About Science tie MicroTiles allow the creation of practical- midday, setting at midnight), where to look They Might Be Giants, the talented musical ly seamless display in a number of shapes and for it, and that the Full Moon will be visible group responsible for bringing the song “Why sizes. The user may stack each modular unit in seven days. Does the Sun Shine” out of 1950s obscurity like building blocks. There’s an image of the sun on the wheel so and into planetariums and classrooms every- Each unit is designed for use in high am- we’re always reminded from whence the sun’s where (it’s better known as “The Sun is a Mass bient light indoor environs, and measures 16 rays are coming; this also shows us that half of of Incandescent Gas.” Got it stuck in your inches wide and 12 inches tall. Only 2 to 4 the moon is always lit. head again? You’re welcome), has stepped up inches of rear clearance are required for ven- The “what you see” cutout shows one phase its education outreach with the release of a tilation. at a time, which eliminates the visual confu- CD/DVD set called Here Comes Science. Imagine building a castle wall, a vertical sion of those “all in one” moon phase dia- The quirky Grammy-winning group from column, or an escalator ramp of nearly seam- grams we see all the time. New York City says the work is “officially for less video displays. There was also speculation The Moon Gazers’ Wheel is a nice com- kids by really for ourselves.” Here Comes Sci- on how a dome of these digital displays would panion to Crelin’s book Faces of the Moon (see ence joins other “kids” projects Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s. work as a planetarium non-projection system. “Why Does the Sun Shine” is back in an up- The newest version of Bowen’s AstroFX Me- dated, much faster format; trying diaManager V4.2 now offers easy creation of to sing along with this one will planetarium panoramas without relying on leave you panting. A bit slower is slide projectors. This software can use your “Why Does the Sun Really Shine,” video projectors to project your pans and re- which “corrects” incandescent duces the time required to install any type of gas (they must have gotten com- image into your library of pans with drag and plaints from solar astronomers) drop capability. It can import from After Ef- and tells us that the sun is a “mias- fects, Audition, Premiere or Photoshop, and ma of incandescent plasma.” then mix and blend the images into single or Other titles include “What is a multiple video projectors at any point in the Shooting Star,” “Photosynthesis,” timeline. “Solid Liquid Gas,” “Roy G. Biv,” The show’s producer can then pan, zoom, and the hilarious “The Ballad of rotate, fade, mask, and color shift the images Davy Crockett (in Outer Space),” in real time without pre-rendering. It’s avail- especially funny for those of us old able for planetariums and/or exhibit spaces. enough to remember watching Moving on to theater illumination, Jeff and

66 Planetarian December 2010 Shows for rent County, Tennessee. Thomas is now the direc- Antares FullDome Pro- tor of the Bryan Gooding Planetarium at the ductions is introducing Museum of Science and History in Jackson- something new: the rent- ville. al of fulldome presen- Congratulations to Dr. Claire Flanagan and tations for portable dig- the Johannesburg Planetarium on the occa- ital planetariums. The sion of the planetarium’s Golden Jubilee! idea behind the concept The Johannesburg Planetarium, owned is to give portable plan- and operated by the University of the Wit- etariums the possibility watersrand, opened its doors on October 12, to show astronomy pro- 1960 and was the first full-sized planetarium grams at affordable prices. in Africa. It is among the country’s most trea- The films can be ordered sured sources of vital information on the ce- through Antares’ distribu- lestial realm. I tors and agents or directly from their website. Avail- able for rental are Astron- Updated AstroFX MediaManager. Image courtesy Bowen Technova- omy: 3000 Years of Star- tion. gazing, The Birth of the Solar System and Chroni- his group of technical wizards have updat- cle of a Journey to Earth. ed the FXAurora Commander software. Now For more Information contact Antares at you no longer have to program your LED sys- www.antares-fulldome.com. tem with a pre-programmed script; the new interface lets you program an entire show of On the people side lighting effects with only a computer mouse. School systems around the U.S. are reducing You can select an individual LED unit, a budgets. One result of these cuts is the closure group of units, or the entire system. You can of some school planetariums. Mark Reed of control color with a set of slide controls, use the Peter Hurst Planetarium in south-central a color swatch screen, or even select a gradi- Michigan has returned to classroom teaching. ent or stripe to blend and mix colors on your His facility is offering a few shows for public dome. audiences with no schools scheduled to visit GeoGraphics Imaging has announced the release of two new sequences in its fulldome an- For more information, check with Bow- for the foreseeable future. imation clip library: comet formation and star en Technovation, 7999 East 88th Street, Indi- Thomas R. Webber is on his way to a new birth. A brief description and preview of each anapolis, Indiana 46256 USA; email jb@www. job in Jacksonville, Florida after resigning as of these clips is available at geographicsimag- bowentechnovation.com. director of the Heritage Planetarium in Blount ining.com; click on the full dome button.

Personalities Under the Dome While well known for his strongly held opinions on planetarium projection technology, our first “Person Under the Dome” also knows how to have fun on the job. The boss at the Suite-Bueche Plan- etarium in Upstate New York, Steve Russo, has wandered around the Empire State in pursuing his career in astronomy education. His itin- erary has included:

Dates Location Projector Type 1973 – 1978 Wagner College Planetarium Spitz A3P 1979 – 1981 Hubble Planetarium, Viewlex GOTO Murrow High School Mercury 1981 Vanderbilt Planetarium GOTO JHS Custom 1981 – 1983 Bishop Planetarium Spitz STP 1984 Northeast Bronx Planetarium Spitz 512 1984 – 1998 Southern Cayuga Spitz A4A Atmospherium-Planetarium Steve Russo 1995 – 1998 “Look to the Skies” Portable Starlab Planetarium rience has an impact on what he does and does not do in the plane- 1998 – 2003 Plainedge Planetarium Spitz A3P tarium for school and public visitors. 2003 – Suits-Bueche Planetarium, Spitz A3P, GOTO Steve’s passion in sharing his experience and knowledge with his Schenectady Museum Chronos colleagues drives him to be a frequent poster on Dome-L. I am glad to have Steve as a friend and colleague, and we all benefit from his That’s more than 37 years in our field of endeavor, working in a experience. Besides, how can anyone compete with Steve in having range of permanent and mobile planetariums, and that much expe- one of the coolest offices around? I

December 2010 Planetarian 67 across...an object. It was blue. Clearly not stel- Last Light lar and about the size I had expected if the guy’s claims were right. Looked a bit like Nep- tune, but nowhere near the right place. I began to wonder! Then I realized I was looking April S. Whitt at the Saturn Nebula.... Fernbank Science Center “The universe remains safe for democracy.” 156 Heaton Park Drive NE When I mentioned that I sometimes think I’m/we’re doing a rather poor job of science Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA education, if people believe stuff like Mars [email protected] will appear as large as the full moon, Dave replied, “I think it’s not so much that we are doing Laurent Pellerin posted this memory of Jack 1300. He was so sincere I even tried to be gen- a bad job as that we are overwhelmed by the Horkheimer: tle about it. vast mass of crazy e-mails and TV shows. I sus- “It’s hard to believe. Jack was not one of the “The twist is that he gave me a fairly pre- pect that for every planetarium visitor, there greatest planetarium directors of all time, but cise position to check in Capricornus. He was are thousands watching that History Channel the greatest. However, Jack never acted like it. a nice guy, so I promised him I would look “science” program about astrologers consid- I’ll never forget FlorPlan in Miami many years with my C8. Not that night—I wanted to see ering the results on gray aliens of the massive ago. At the luncheon, Jack could have been the football game—but tonight. So I’m just get- solar flares predicted by the Maya who were sitting with other directors, presiding over ting in from my (drum roll) Search for Nibiru. using the ancient knowledge the Egyptians us, but no. Jack chose to sit with my young Needless to say, it isn’t where he thought it gave them when they built the Mesoameri- daughter and eat lunch with her, giving her would be. can pyramids with the help of ancient astro- the experience of her life. She’ll never forget “But as I scanned around along the line nauts who were really time travelers coming that, nor will I. he thought was most likely if it wasn’t ex- through the Bermuda Triangle.” “The Seminoles of South Florida say that actly where he expected, I actually came We do have to keep looking up. I when a great and good warrior dies, the Milky Way shines brighter to guide his steps into the afterlife. Jack was the ultimate great and good warrior for astronomy education. The Milky Way, and all of the heavens, will be shining bright for many, many nights to come…all you have to do is keep looking up!” Deb Fuller and I remember seeing Jack’s Star Hustler program on Public Television late at night (right after Dr. Who).

More on the World’s End This issue’s entry in the 2012 End of the World contest comes from Dave Hostetter in Lafayette, Louisiana. “Yesterday a very pleasant but misguided man came into the Museum with his rather extensive personal booklet of calculations relating a wide assortment of unrelated Bibli- Photo provided by Jane Hastings cal verses with a planet set to sweep by Earth in 2012. It’s the same planet that caused the One of my favorite passages that Jack wrote is from his Star eclipse at the crucifixion of Jesus, by the way. Bound program: “He was very sincere and concerned rather than crazy, and had clearly put a lot of work and money into his project. He seemed a bit Once upon a time . . . down when, after explaining it all to me for In a galaxy not so far away . . . an hour or so, we started talking about where There existed a creature strange the planet might be and that it would almost surely be visible to the unaided eye by now, With an insatiable thirst for knowledge. not to mention to all the comet hunters and Now this is the peculiar part: automated sky surveys. The more it learned, the less it knew. “Its tidal force on Earth would be over a hundred thousand times greater than the For with every answer, came another question. moon’s, and you would think someone living Now this is the beautiful part: along the Mediterranean would have noticed Of all the creature’s thirsts, their city was underwater. Not to mention the complete lack of historical records when This one brought him closest to the gods. it would have returned between AD 1000 and

68 Planetarian December 2010

Here are just a few of the new features included in our September software release, free to all Digistar 4 customers. And we’re just getting started...