Vol. 40, No. 1 March 2011 Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Vol. 40, No. 1 March 2011

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Sunrise eclipse over Sweden

Articles

March 2011 Vol. 40 No. 1 8 Everything is possible: The making of Touching the Edge of the Universe Isabella Buczek Executive Editor 14 Smart Kids’ Club tries to change attitudes Sharon Shanks Ward Beecher Planetarium Lilian Valdoski Youngstown State University 18 India: 40 planetariums, 3.3 million square kilometers One University Plaza Piyush Pandey Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 22 Call for nominations for IPS awards Lars Broman +1 330-941-3619 22 Wanted: Your creative and educational scripts [email protected] Thomas Kraupe, Manos Kitsonas Advertising Coordinator 24 Giving for the future: Scholarship fund established Dr. Dale Smith, Interim Coordinator for planetarium training (See Publications Committee on page 3) 26 Armageddon? or Arma-Telling You, Don’t Worry? Steve Tidey Membership 28 Days, weeks, month: Plenty of chances for Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal planetariums to shine Library Subscriptions: $45 one year; $80 two years 28 Planetarians Without Borders Lina Canas All amounts in US currency Direct membership requests and changes of address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman Columns Back Issues of the Planetarian 51 Book Reviews...... April S. Whitt IPS Back Publications Repository 55 Calendar of Events...... Loris Ramponi maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; 33 Educational Horizons ...... Jack L. Northrup contact information is on next page 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks 36 IMERSA News...... Judith Rubin Index 40 International News...... Lars Broman A cumulative index of major articles that have 56 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue 48 Mobile News...... Susan Reynolds Button through the current issue is available online at 12 Partycycles...... Alex Cherman www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/planetarian_ 6 President’s Message ...... Dave Weinrich index.pdf 54 Waxing New...... Sharon Shanks

Final Deadlines March: January 21 June: April 21 September: July 21 Index of Advertisers December: October 21 allsky.de...... 34 Astro-Tec Mfg., Inc ...... 21 Antares Fulldome Productions...... 25, 53 Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 15 Associate Editors Bob Crelin/Moon Gazers’ Wheel...... 24 Book Reviews Editor-at-Large International Clark Planetarium ...... 23 April S. Whitt Steve Tidey Lars Broman Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 35 Calendar Education Last Light Evans & Sutherland ...... inside back cover Loris Ramponi Jack Northrup April S. Whitt Global Immersion...... 5 Cartoons IMERSANews Mobile News GOTO INC ...... 37 Alexandre Judith Rubin Susan Button Cherman Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 17 Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium ...... 49 R.S.A. Cosmos ...... outside back cover Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 29, centerfold, 32 Spitz, Inc...... 19, 39, 41, 47 White Tower Media...... 13 Zeiss, Inc...... inside front cover

International Planetarium Society home page: www.ips-planetarium.org Planetarian home page: www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian Eclipse in the morning: The 4 January 2011 partial solar eclipse as seen in Nynäshamn, Sweden. Photo by Janne Paavilinen. Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ guidelines.html

March 2011 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 Dave Weinrich Rubens Berardo, 100 Mailbox 42 210 Morrill Hall Herrett Center Planetarium Rio de Janeiro RJ 22451-070 179 Whiteladies Road Lincoln, Nebraska College of Southern Idaho Minnesota State +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG 68588-0375 USA P. O. Box 1238 University-Moorhead +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax England +1 402-472-2641 315 Falls Avenue 1104 7th Avenue South [email protected] United Kingdom +1 402-475-8899 fax Twin Falls, Idaho Moorhead www.rio.rj.gov. +44 117 914 1526 [email protected] 83303-1238 USA Minnesota 56563 USA br/planetario +44 793 035 0805 www.spacelaser.com/gppa +1 208-732-6659 +1 218-477-2969 shaaron@explor- Italian Association +1 208-736-4712 fax +1 218-477-5864 fax erdome.co.uk of Planetaria [email protected] [email protected] Association of Dutch- information@explor- Loris Ramponi herrett.csi.edu/ 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 Dr. Tom Mason, Director Museum Johannes Postschool via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 Armagh Planetarium Rijksstraatweg, 101 Canadian Association I 25066 Lumezzane Russian Planetariums College Hill 2988 BB Ridderkerk-Rijsoord of Science Centres (Brescia) Italy Association Armagh BT61 9DB The Netherlands Ian C. McLennan +39 30 872 164 Zinaida P. Sitkova Northern Ireland + 31 180 434441 or #404 - 1275 Haro Street +39 30 872 545 fax Nizhny Novgorod United Kingdom + 31 180 437716 Vancouver, British Columbia [email protected] Planetarium +44 (0)2837 524725 [email protected] V6E 1G1 Canada [email protected] Revolutsionnja Street 20 +44 (0)2837 526187 fax www.planetariumrotterdam.nl +1 604-681-4790 www.planetaritaliani.it 603002 Nizhny +44 (0)771 0013453 cell phone + fax Novgorod Russia [email protected] +1 604-240-0938 cell +7 831 246-78-80 www.armaghplanet.com Association of French- [email protected] Japan +7 831 246-77-89 fax Speaking Planetariums [email protected] Planetarium Society [email protected] President-Elect Agnès Acker www.ianmclennan.com Kaoru Kimura [email protected] Thomas W. Kraupe Observatoire de Strasbourg Japan Science Foundation Planetarium Hamburg 11, rue de l’université Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku Hindenburgstraße 1 b 67000 Strasbourg France Council of German Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan D-22303 Hamburg +33 3 90 24 24 67 Planetariums [email protected] Southeastern Deutschland +33 3 90 24 24 17 fax Thomas W. Kraupe www.shin-pla.info Planetarium +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 [email protected] Planetarium Hamburg Association +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax [email protected] Hindenburgstraße 1 b John Hare +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax www.aplf-planetariums.org D-22303 Hamburg Middle Atlantic Ash Enterprises +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Deutschland Planetarium 3602 23rd Avenue West thomas.kraupe@ +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 Society Bradenton, Florida planetarium-hamburg.de Association of Mexican +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax Steve Mitch 34205 USA www.rdp-planetarium.de Planetariums +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax 258 Springdale Avenue +1 941-746-3522 Ignacio Castro Pinal +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell Wheeling, WV 26003 USA [email protected] Executive Secretary Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 thomas.kraupe@ +1 304-242-7614 www.sepadomes.org Lee Ann Hennig C.P. 01490, México City planetarium-hamburg.de [email protected] Planetarium, Thomas D.F. México www.rdp-planetarium.de Jefferson High School +52 (55) 5500 0562 for Science and Technology +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax Nordic Planetarium Southwestern 6560 Braddock Road [email protected] European/ Association Association of Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA cosmos.astro.uson.mx/ Mediterranean Prof. Lars Broman Planetariums +1 703-750-8380 AMPAC/AMPACintro.htm Planetarium Teknoland Linda Krouse, Director +1 703-750-5010 fax Association Stångtjärnsv 132 Noble Planetarium [email protected] Manos Kitsonas SE-791 74 Falun Fort Worth Museum of Association of Spanish Eugenides Planetarium Sweden Science and History Planetariums 387 Syngrou Avenue +46 2310177 1600 Gendy Street Treasurer and Javier Armentia 17564 P. Faliro [email protected] Fort Worth, Texas Membership Chair Planetario de Pamplona Athens Greece lars.broman@strom- 76107 USA Shawn Laatsch Sancho Ramirez, 2 +30 210 946 9674 stadakademi.se +1 817-255-9409 All fiscal matters: E-31008 Pamplona +30 210 941 7372 fax www.teknoland.se +1 817-360-0082 cell P.O. Box 4451 Navarra Spain [email protected] www.planetarium.se/npa [email protected] Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +34 948 260 004 www.swapskies.org All other correspondence: +34 948 260 056 ‘Imiloa Astronomy +34 948 261 919 fax Great Lakes Planetarium Pacific Planetarium Center of Hawai’i [email protected] Association Association 600 ‘Imiloa Place gestion@pamplonetario. Jeanne Bishop Gail Chaid Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA infonego-cio.com Westlake Schools 1320 Glen Dell Drive +1 808-969-9735 Planetarium San Jose, California +1 808-969-9748 fax Parkside Intermediate School 95125 USA [email protected] 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 March 2011 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: Dave Weinrich Martin George, Chair BGSU Planetarium P.O. Box 4451 Planetarium Launceston Planetarium 104 Overman Hall Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Minnesota State Queen Victoria Museum Physics &Astronomy Department University-Moorhead Wellington Street Bowling Green State University All other correspondence: 1104 7th Avenue South Launceston Tasmania 7250 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA ‘Imiloa Astronomy Moorhead Australia +1 419-372-8666 Minnesota 56563 USA +61 3 6323 3777 +1 419-372-9938 fax Center of Hawai’i +1 218-477-2969 +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] 600 ‘Imiloa Place +1 218-477-5864 fax [email protected] Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA [email protected] 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 Education Committee IPS Publicity Coordinator Script Contest Committee Jack L. Northrup (Publications Committee) Thomas W. Kraupe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium Jacques Guarinos Planetarium Hamburg Please notify the Editor King Science and Technology Astronef–Planetarium Hindenburgstr.1b of any changes on these Magnet Center de Saint-Etienne D-22303 Hamburg Germany 3720 Florence Blvd. 28 rue Ponchardier +49(0)40-428 86 52-21 two pages. Omaha, NE 68110 USA F-42100 Saint-Etienne France +49(0)40-428 86 52-99 fax +1 402-557-4494 +33 (0)4 77 34 40 85 +49(0)40-4279 24-850 e-fax Contact the Treasurer/ [email protected] [email protected] +49(0)172-40 86 133 cell webmail.ops.org/~jack.northrup thomas.kraupe@plane- Membership Chair for in- Outreach Committee tarium-hamburg.de dividual member address Full-Dome Video Committee Jon W. Elvert, Chair www.rdp-planetarium.de Antonio Pedrosa, Chair Irene W. Pennington Planetarium changes and general cir- Navegar Foundation Louisiana Art & Science Museum Armand Spitz culation and billing ques- Centro Multimeios Espinho 100 South River Road Planetarium Education Fund tions. Av. 24, nº800, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA Finance Committee 4500-202 Espinho +1 225-344-5272 Portugal +1 225-214-4027 fax Strategic Planning Committee +351 22 7331190 [email protected] Tom Mason, Chair The Planetarian (ISN 0090- +351 22 7331191 fax Armagh Planetarium 3213) is published quarterly [email protected] Planetarium College Hill by the International Planetar- Development Group Armagh BT61 9DB History Committee Ken Wilson, Chair Northern Ireland ium Society. ©2010, Interna- John Hare, IPS Historian 9346 Drawbridge Road United Kingdom tional Planetarium Society, Ash Enterprises Mechanicsville, Virginia 23220 USA +44 (0)2837 524725 Inc., all rights reserved. Opin- 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] +44 (0)2837 526187 fax Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA +44 (0)771 0013453 cell ions expressed by authors +1 941-746-3522 Portable [email protected] are personal opinions and are [email protected] Planetarium Committee www.armaghplanet.com Susan Reynolds Button, Chair not necessarily the opinions International Quarks to Clusters Technology Committee of the International Planetar- Relations Committee 8793 Horseshoe Lane Jack Dunn ium Society, its officers, or Martin George, Chair Chittenango, NY 13037 Ralph Mueller Planetarium Launceston Planetarium +1 315-687-5371 University of Nebraska- Lincoln agents. Acceptance of adver- Queen Victoria Museum [email protected] 210 Morrill Hall tisements, announcements, Wellington Street [email protected] Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA or other material does not Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia +1 402-472-2641 +61 3 6323 3777 Professional +1 402-475-8899 fax imply endorsement by the +61 3 6323 3776 fax Services Committee [email protected] International Planetarium So- [email protected] Mike Murray, Chair www.spacelaser.com/gppa Clark Planetarium ciety, its officers or agents. Job Information Service 110 South 400 West Web Committee The Editor welcomes Letters Subcommittee Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA Alan Gould, Chair to the Editor and items for (Professional Services Committee) +1 801-456-4949 Holt Planetarium Steve Fentress, Chair +1 801-456-4928 fax Lawrence Hall of Science consideration for publica- Strasenburgh Planetarium [email protected] University of California tion. Please consult “Guide- Rochester Museum & Science Center Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA lines for Contributors” at 657 East Avenue +1 510-643-5082 Rochester, New York 14607 USA +1 510-642-1055 fax www.ips-planetarium.org/ +1 585-271-4552 ext. 409 [email protected] planetarian/guidelines.html. +1 585-271-7146 fax [email protected] The Editor reserves the right to edit any manuscript to suit this publication’s needs.

March 2011 Planetarian 3 In Front of the Console Voting results for president-elect

Sharon Shanks Dear Colleagues and fellow Planetarians, I am pleased to report to you all that Ward Beecher Planetarium the voting for the new president-elect Youngstown State University has been concluded and the votes tallied Youngstown, OH 44555 USA in accordance with our rules. My thanks [email protected] go to Martin George, chair of the IPS Elec- tions Committee, and the committee members for their meticulous organiza- Being an associate editor for the Planetarian the Hamilton Planetarium Scholarship Fund. tion of this important process. is a thankless job. Along with the glamorous As much as I enjoy his recounting of past is- Thanks also are due to Webmaster Alan title comes no pay and a nasty editor nagging sues in his 25 Years Ago column, I am thrilled Gould for once again setting up the elec- about deadlines. that the planetarium field is gaining such a tronic voting process. We’ve seen some regular columns come generous and valuable asset, one that will go I am especially pleased that once more and go, and some that have been a constant far in enticing new, dedicated and well-edu- the IPS has come up with a first. In this for many years. Forum, for example, fell to the cated people into our field. case, the membership has voted for Thom- speed of information exchange on the inter- The “what’s new” column has seen its ups as Kraupe as the new president-elect. This net, and Planetarium Shows Review—which and downs, and I have given John Schroer a is the first time that we have had a previ- required sensitive handling because it dealt break to devote time to his presidency of the ous president re-elected to serve a further with the lifeblood of many of our vendors—is Great Lakes Planetarium Society. term of office. Congratulations Thomas! on hiatus while Steve Case continues his edu- I envision the Waxing New column to be I can confirm, of course, that Lee Ann cation. It may or may not return. a light collection of news about planetariums Hennig will continue in her role as execu- International News, on the other hand, has and the people in them and have adopted it tive secretary, as will Shawn Laatsch in his been in the capable hands of Lars Broman for for the time being. News items can be emailed role as treasurer and membership chair. many years, and April Whitt has taken on two to me. I am not necessarily looking for “busi- I would also like to thank the other columns and done a wonderful job at both. ness” news, but press releases will be consid- candidates for their participation in our Loris Ramponi is the master of the calen- ered. democratic process, and hope that they dar, both in print here and online. Susan But- I especially would like newsy bits about will consider standing again in the fu- ton keeps mobile planetariums and their op- people: retirements, new hires, awards and ture. erators in her heart and in our pages. the like, and I’m keen for items and products —Tom Mason, IPS President 2009-2010 This time we’re bidding farewell to Thom- that might make our lives easier and even as Wm. Hamilton, who is devoting his time to more fun. I Understanding climate change through the eyes of NASA satellites

By Brian A. Campbell Senior Earth Science Education Specialist NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Wallops Flight Facility Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

Understanding how our global climate sys- the climate change puzzle friendly, we have 2010. tem works is the first step in understanding come up with a project know as Know Your The popularity of the Know Your Earth our planet. At NASA, we have a fleet of Earth- Earth. The Know Your Earth project is a ven- program led us to further our reach into sci- observing satellites that do just that: from ob- ture between NASA’s Earth-observing satellite ence centers, museums, aquaria, and planetar- serving the thickness of polar sea ice and ice missions that are managed at several NASA iums. Since this program is of a visual nature, sheets to understanding the composition of centers, including the Goddard Space Flight it will take minimal effort to show this at your the atmosphere and the role of carbon diox- Center, Langley Research Center, and the Jet planetarium location. A simple free download ide in it. Propulsion Laboratory. and a link to the NASA Know Your Earth in- Studying the oceans is a major factor in Know Your Earth is a fun, engaging, and ed- formation web site are located at www.nasa. understanding climate change as well. These ucational three-minute segment of “did you gov/KnowYourEarth. satellite missions give us more than just a know” questions that all have a message that Making science fun is a big part in inspiring glimpse into how our planet works; each mis- focuses on global climate change and literacy. the next generation of scientists, teachers, and sion serves as piece of the climate change puz- Phase I of this project began with collabo- researchers. zle that allows us to see just how the many ration with National CineMedia and its Lob- Please feel free to contact the author, Brian variables of our Earth’s functions affect glob- by Entertainment Network. The segment was A. Campbell at [email protected], al climate change. shown in 291 national movie theaters during for more information. I In order to make the understanding of the summer movie blockbuster month of July

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36928 GLO] Fidelity go ad v5.indd 1 28/7/10 13:13:20 Last year’s IPS conference in Egypt inspired me to start reading books written by Egyp- President’s Message tian author Naguib Mahfouz. I found a celes- Dave Weinrich tial gem in his book Khan al-Khalili. The name Planetarium, Minnesota State University-Moorhead of that area of Cairo may be familiar to some 1104 7th Avenue South of our members, who were on the post-confer- Moorhead, Minnesota 56563 USA ence tour that visited the famous market from which the novel gets its name. +1 218-477-2969 Mahfouz writes, “It was the middle of the +1 218-477-5864 fax month of Shaaban and the moon was gleam- [email protected] ing brightly in the clear August sky. All around it stars were twinkling coyly as though to express their regret that the moon had again ap- Dear Friends and Fellow the lifeblood of our profession. Each of us has peared in its youthful guise, something they Planetarians: our own personal stories. One of my favorite had always known would not last.” Can’t you just picture the scene in your I am happy to report that, as President Tom things to do at a conference is to ask fellow mind’s eye? We can paint similar word pic- Mason noted in his December column, even planetarians how they first became interested tures in our presentations, using rich word im- though IPS was technically leaderless for ap- in astronomy or how they got into the profes- agery that helps our audiences to create their proximately 12 hours as 2011 arrived around sion. The answers are fascinating! own vivid mental pictures. our spherical Earth, the passing of the lead- ership baton went smoothly. Actually, I was It’s my brother’s fault… sleeping when I became president, since I was Therefore, I want to relate how I got inter- Visiting Brazil visiting my brother in Denver, Colorado and ested in the sky. It’s all my brother’s fault! I was In November, President Tom, Dr. Pedro Rus- didn’t stay up to ring in the New Year! 13 and my brother Wayne had a school assign- so, the global coordinator for IYA 2009, and I You will not be reading this until March, ment to go outside and find some constella- joined over 120 Brazilian planetarians at the yet I would still like to extend New Year’s tions. I checked out a book on constellations annual conference of the Association of Bra- greetings to everyone. I would also be re- from the school library and we used it on our zilian Planetariums (ABP). miss if I did not offer a special thank you to first foray outside. Celso Cunha, president of the Rio De Janei- all of the officers, regional affiliate representa- It was a cold Minnesota night. As recom- ro Planetarium Foundation, Alexandre Cher- tives, committee chairs and many others who mended, we first searched for the Big Dip- man, and the rest of the staff of the planetari- have served our organization over the past 40 per. There it was! Clear as day (or should I say um were wonderful hosts. I must give a special years. night?). The bowl and the handle were easily thanks to the young ladies who helped guide visible. OK, now we follow the pointer stars us around the conference site and provided The officers cycle to the North Star. There it is—that bright star English translation, since neither Tom nor I speak Portuguese. All of them were employees As Susan Reynolds Button leaves the office over there! That was easy. Pleased with our ob- of the planetarium, working as greeters and of past president, I am sure that she will still be vious success, we went inside to warm up. guides at the reception center. vigorously involved in the activities of IPS, as The next few nights were cloudy, but when This 15th ABP conference coincided with she has been for so many years. She continues it was clear again, I went out to review the the 40th anniversary of the Rio de Janeiro to chair the Portable Planetarium Committee constellations that we had found and perhaps Planetarium Foundation and oh, what a cel- and will certainly be a valuable resource for find some new ones. I found the Big Dipper ebration it was! There was a special presenta- the current officers. and the North Star again, but then happened tion detailing the history of the institution, a Tom Mason now becomes our past presi- to turn around and look in the opposite direc- musical concert under one of the domes, plan- dent. We are all thankful for his guidance over tion—and there was the real Big Dipper stand- etarium programs, papers, posters, talks, a be- the past two years and especially for his leader- ing upright on its handle in the northeast- hind-the-scenes look at the production of a ship, which culminated in our highly success- ern sky! So what had we found the previous new show, food and, like at all planetarium ful conference last year in Alexandria, Egypt. night? conferences that I have attended, wonder- Shawn Laatsch and Lee Ann Hennig, as trea- I’m almost ashamed to admit that it was the ful opportunities for conversation with oth- surer/membership chair and executive sec- constellation of Orion! How, you might won- er planetarians. retary, respectively, have both been integral der, could anyone confuse Orion and the Big Personally, I especially enjoyed speaking parts of the officer corps for so many years. Dipper? If we are ever together in a planetari- with some of them in front of their posters. They are the constants as we presidents flow um, I can show you. Even though I couldn’t read the text, the pic- in and out, and thereby they provide a strong That was the genesis of my passion for as- tures were a natural lead-in to conversations continuity between successive administra- tronomy and 45 years later I still keep looking about their facilities and the programs that tions. up, fascinated by the awesome universe that they presented. Finally, we welcome our new President we live in. The Planetarium Foundation aggressive- Elect Thomas Kraupe, although in a way I hes- ly sought government funding to support itate to use word “new” as he was also presi- An admitted bibliophile the conference. These funds paid for the trav- dent elect from 1995-1996 prior to serving as One of my favorite activities is traveling, el and hotel expenses for the three invited president of IPS for the two subsequent years. and I especially enjoy looking for books writ- speakers and provided partial scholarships to He brings a tremendous amount of experience ten by local authors from the places I have vis- pay the registrations of 25 attendees. to his office. I look forward to working with ited. As I read I like to look for clever ways that In addition, there were 15 full scholarships this wonderful team of officers over the next authors use words, passages that are particu- granted to young planetarians from all over two years. larly well written or perhaps one that paints Brazil that paid for airfare, hotels expenses and Stories are as old as humanity and they are an astronomical image.

6 Planetarian March 2011 registration. After attending the conference, that day and show in my theater. But to do so, shown them why what we do matters? each of the people who received full schol- I had to know a telnet address, usually a series We need to show that we are relevant at arships had to write a report detailing what of numbers, which I could use to go to a site all times, but especially in times of financial they had learned. What a wonderful way to and using FTP, bring images back to my com- distress when administrators must make cuts encourage the future growth of the planetar- puter. I couldn’t preview the images in ad- somewhere. Let us not make that task too easy ium profession in their Brazil! vance. I just had to wait and see what I got. But for them, simply because we have not shown It’s also a good way to encourage future it was amazing! them why what we do matters. professional engagement, one component of Now, in 2011, we have portable digital pro- IPS has a Professional Services Committee which is attending conferences and share and jectors, some of which cost less than the car whose function is “to help planetarium pro- interact with other planetarians. which transports them; projectors which fessionals and those interested in developing fill their domes with moving video and take planetariums gain the knowledge and back- Important Council meetings viewers out to the edge of the known uni- grounds necessary to manage a profession- Every year, the IPS officers, regional affiliate verse. Truly awesome! al operation.” Chair Mike Murray has written representatives, and committee chairs partic- Some new permanent facilities are being an article titled “Planetarium Operations and ipate in a Council meeting, either personally built and others are either installing new dig- Management.” A link to it is posted at the top or by submitting their reports digitally. Min- ital projectors or upgrading existing ones. But of the IPS Home page, the address to which is utes of the annual meeting are published in many of us also face some challenges, especial- on page 1 of every issue of this journal. I en- the Planetarian. Committee reports are posted ly during the current fiscal difficulties that courage all of you to read it if you have not on the IPS website committee page. many nations face. Some planetariums that done so already; if you have, then a little re- During conference years, we meet for 2 days have closed and others are in danger of clos- view never hurts. prior to the start of the conference. During ing. There have been some victories, where fa- I want to highlight one sentence that Mike non-conference years, we meet wrote: “If there’s one thing that at a site chosen by the incoming museums have learned from the president. You can’t wait for inspiration; you have to go after business world, it’s that you need There are several questions to be more responsive to a world that may be considered in choos- it with a club. -Jack London of rapid technological and soci- ing the site for the non-confer- ological change.” How true. In ence year Council meeting. Are the world of Facebook, interac- there areas of the world where tive gaming, large mega-media we can help establish a new affili- events, and video mapping of ate? Are there areas where we can help region- cilities that were to be put on the chopping buildings, how do we remain relevant? Let us al affiliates rejuvenate themselves? Are there block were saved, but there have been too all look for the answers, individually and as a parts of the planetarium community with many sad endings. group. which our Council members lack familiarity? There is much discussion, at least in the Are there places of astronomical interest that Important: helping planetariums United States, about standards and “teaching may aid Council members in their own pro- The IPS officers and the Council have dis- to the test.” In the midst of planetarium clos- fessional development? cussed and will continue to discuss these is- ings, we may struggle to justify our existence The 2011 Council meeting will be in Nizh- sues in the future. What can we planetarians by saying that we can teach astronomy and ny Novgorod, Russia, on July 1-2. One impor- do in the face of these cutbacks? I am con- other subjects more effectively in an immer- tant item of business is the selection of the site vinced that each of us must be proactive. If we sive environment. for our 2014 IPS conference. wait until our facility is in danger of closing it I am not suggesting that these points are Three sites are bidding for the conference, may be too late. We have to build up our sup- not important, but perhaps we are missing listed alphabetically: the Beijing Planetarium, port prior to the crisis. Many of the issues are the most important thing that we can do in the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium and the Van- local, therefore it is vitally important that we our theaters, and that is to inspire. We can in- couver Planetarium. Your input is important have local support. Certainly, IPS will do what spire students to develop a life-long interest in for the Council to make its decision. Please re- we can to support our members and we need science and the world around them whether view the articles that the three sites wrote for to look for more ways to offer support. they pursue scientific careers or not. the December 2010 Planetarian and inform Recently, while reading an article about de- The American educator and motivation- your regional affiliate representative of your creases in funding for the arts in the United al speaker William Arthur Ward wrote, “The choice; their contact information is on page 2 Kingdom, I considered if we might not have mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher ex- of each issue of the Planetarian. You may also the same problem in our field for the same rea- plains. The superior teacher demonstrates. want to inform them of any other issues that son. The author, Alaine de Botton, wondered The great teacher inspires.” How can we in- you would like discussed at the Council meet- if some in academia were at least partially to spire if we aren’t inspired ourselves? ing. blame for bringing the problem of decreasing Attending conferences with colleagues can There are many bright spots in our pro- funding on themselves, because they “have be inspiring. Going out and looking at the fession. We really do live in an exciting time failed to explain why what they do should night sky, remembering why you fell in love with so many astronomical discoveries and matter so much.” with it in the first place, can be inspiring. Be- tools for communicating them to our audi- Can we ask the same question of ourselves? ing around children and seeing their bound- ences. These tools were almost unimaginable Why does what we do matter so much? We less energy can be inspiring. Watching a great a generation ago. may know the answer, but a more important video or reading a great book can be inspiring. I remember a mere 17 years ago when Com- question to ask is do our audiences, our admin- It doesn’t matter how you get inspired, just go et Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter. How amaz- istrators, and our government leaders know out, and do it! Jack London said it best, “You ing it was that I could go online, get images the answer. If they do not know the answer, can’t wait for inspiration; you have to go after that had been taken at sites around the world is it perhaps because we have not told them or it with a club.” I

March 2011 Planetarian 7 Everything is possible: The making of Touching the Edge of the Universe

8 Planetarian March 2011 Isabella Buczek Immersive Produktionen Fachbereich Medien Fachhochschule Kiel Grenzstr. 3, Raum 1.67 24149 Kiel [email protected]

Top: Shooting in the At the IPS Conference last year in Egypt, tionists, such as myself, among planetarium green box. Below: The some planetarium colleagues asked me about producers who are reluctant to try not-yet- collaboration with ESA the production of Touching the Edge of the Uni- perfected methods, perfectionism should not on this production allowed us to film at the verse and what I have learned as a result of this keep you from trying out new technologies, original settings. We production. I decided to write this article in even if they might not yet produce 100% per- were granted access to order to share all my experiences with the in- fect results. We should encourage each other the dust-free clean rooms ternational planetarium community. and work together to find and improve new in Noordwijk, the Neth- erlands, in which the Her- Additionally, I want to detail how we were solutions to push the possibilities of content schel-satellite was assem- still able to do everything on a fairly tight bud- visualization. bled. Moreover we could get—because, if you are imaginative enough film in the mission con- to find creative solutions, have talented peo- My Background trol room at the European ple on your team, have a good network in Space Operation Centre I have been producing content for planetar- in Darmstadt, Germa- your city, and are brave enough, you can ac- iums for eight years now. ny, where the scientist tually accomplish it. A shortage in budgeting It all started in Kiel, Germany, while I was working there simulated, does not have to stop you from breaking new studying communication design at the Muth- just for us, the real rock- technological borders nor show new (experi- esius Art Academy. One day in 2003 the di- et launch of both satellites, Herschel and Planck mental) production ways that have not been rector of the Mediendom, Eduard Thomas, All images provid- tried before. approached the Art Academy to produce a ed by the author. Although there might be quite a few perfec- musical program for the opening ceremony

March 2011 Planetarian 9 of the Mediendom, together with the Univer- The Mediendom has something very of a Mars Rover. This part has been trimmed sity of Applied Sciences Kiel and the Hamburg unique—a magnificent “heart” which works out for the short version. Planetarium. as a giant magnet for artists, designers, musi- The short version presents a straight-to-the- I remember myself walking with some fel- cians, researchers, and educators. You do not point story of the development and history of low student through the Mediendom con- have to search for these talented people be- Astronomy, starting with Galileo Galilei and struction site feeling so thrilled, realizing that cause they are already there; it is an amazing then following 400 years of observation that something new will arise in Kiel and I had the network of people ready to give their best for initiated a scientific revolution. It features the unique opportunity to take an active part in a unique fulldome show production. launch of the Herschel and Planck missions; it, to produce actual content for such a won- The Mediendom, which is a planetarium both telescopes are exploring the life cycle derful medium with such stunning immer- only 9 m (30 ft) in diameter, not only is the of stars and the birth of the universe. Because sive impact and technology. It was one of heart of fulldome production— it also is the both are current missions, viewers and teach- these moments that you never forget. cradle of very talented and strong personali- ers can keep up to date with information and Since then I have been working for the Me- ties who are well represented in the interna- educational material at www.planetarium- diendom, the Melbourne Planetarium in Aus- tional planetarium society today. show.eu. tralia, the Hamburg Planetarium, and, at last, Furthermore, the Mediendom is one of leading the production of Touching the Age of the best-connected small planetariums with- Making Touching the Edge the Universe as head of production for the Eu- in its city of Kiel, the capital and most pop- We wanted the narrative and the visuals to ropean Space Agency and 30 German-speak- ulated city in the northern German state of be state-of-the-art and to use the newest tech-

ing planetariums. Schleswig-Holstein. This is due to the tremen- nological possibilities. As a result, 4K 3D ani- Currently I am working as a lecturer at the dous marketing work over the last 10 years of mation, fulldome film and a narrative play University of Applied Sciences Kiel, teaching Director Eduard Thomas and Heidemarie Go- were combined to present a novel planetari- and passing on my passion for the immersive erigk, the directing assistant. um production. medium to young students. In addition I start- This immense and strong network made it The addition of real characters filmed in ed research towards my PhD at the University possible to collaborate with the Kiel theatre, a fulldome green screen environment espe- of Plymouth, UK, and to keep up-to-date I am without whose help the filming sequences cially has to be mentioned. These specifica- still producing content for planetariums and would never have been possible. tions demanded technological and creative planetarium companies. know-how, special equipment, and a pioneer- Lastly, I am also working as a consultant for Introduction ing spirit to meet the required standards using new fulldome production teams. For exam- The year 2009 was quite exciting for pret- untried methods. Even though the methods ple, recently I started working as a production ty much every planetarian on this planet, were untried, ESA was convinced to support consultant for the Copernicus Science Cen- thanks to the intense and successful market- production, thanks to the knowledge and the ter in Warsaw, Poland, and as one can imaging of the International Year of Astronomy. multifaceted expertise of the collaborators. ine I am enjoying it a lot. There are wonderful That year was especially unique for German- creative people in Warsaw and their first pro- speaking planetariums because 30 of them en- Planning stage duction is beginning to look more and more tered into one of the biggest joint ventures in The show was planned and conceptualized promising. Keep your eyes open for this pro- history: a collaboration with the European as a normal film project. The script was writ- duction! Space Agency to produce Touching the Edge of ten, the storyboard drawings evolved and an the Universe. The show is now being played in animatic (an animation of the complete show Mediendom as production plant over 50 planetariums around the world and in a very rough version) was created. The aim Mediendom is a wonderful facility that is currently being translated into 15 different of this very important production phase was unites the Mediendom staff, the non-profit languages. to see how the speech and the visuals would organization Kieler Planetarium, the Univer- Needless to say, the Mediendom was, and (or could) work together. sity of Applied Sciences Kiel, and multimedia still is, very proud to have been selected as the The animatic also is a very important check production students and they deserve almost production plant for this European pilot proj- of the script and reveals if there is enough their own article. But let me explain why I am ect. time and space for the all-consuming visuals convinced that the Mediendom was chosen The content of the long version includes, on the dome. to be the plant for this important European at the conclusion, the future missions to Mars Of course, the fulldome medium always re- production. and explains the functionality and the usage quires special treatment in all phases, so the

10 Planetarian March 2011 storyboard pictures were drawn with fish- to the “flat” plane—or in other words, to the tant for keying. In our case, the extensive set eye distortion and the preview videos were flat recorded frame. lightening was not sufficient for each scene rendered in 1 K resolution so that everything When you film live action with a fisheye to compensate the light reduction caused by would be recognizable on the dome. lens, all the movements, like a hand mov- the fisheye lens and the adapter. The bright Every planning phase was developed in ing towards the spectator, are already distort- green fabric appeared in the recorded imag- multiple versions and was refined during the ed correctly according to the fisheye lens in es in some scenes as dark green and therefore collaboration with ESA’s communication de- depth and therefore they will never lose the would be difficult to key. partment, ESA’s scientists, 30 planetarium di- depth appearance and the immersive impact. In addition, the camera software tended to rectors, and astrophysicists. The was always The green screen for this production had to create strong noise effects under weak light- a high value placed on the scientific entitle- be prepared appropriately in terms of a dome ening conditions. We were able to reduce this ment, which made the development of corre- and shooting with a fisheye lens. A green noise by using an Adobe After Effects® plug-in sponding visuals a continuous challenge. back wall was not sufficient; the ceiling, the called DeNoise, which enormously increased sides and the ground also had to be covered the rendering time but at the same time re- The shooting in green fabric to meet the requirements of a sulted in a clean key and final image. The shooting was done with Nikon 6mm- fisheye lens (even if “only” half of it was used). We decided to use DPX format as a compro- and 8-mm fisheye lens on a RED ONE® cam- In order to build such a unique green screen, a mise between color depth and file size. Two era. The lenses overlap the image circle in size; theatre with a comprehensive stage was rent- versions were exported: one with high-satu- for fulldome video, however, only the verti- ed and an area of 8x4 m was covered with rated green values for the keying and one that cal resolution is rele- green fabric. could be used in the final show. vant because round The actors were chosen from the renowned The keying was performed through sever- shaped images use theatre-ensemble in Kiel, which also has ex- al stages. In the first stage, an animated mask

Left: Eduard Thomas, Joachim Perschbacher, Isabella Buczek, Bastian Barton, Heidemarie Goerigk, Bob We- ber, Markus Schack, Jens Paulsen, and Matthias Unruh (as Galileo Galilei). Center: The Mediendom. Right: Meike Bohmann presenting a program under the Me- diendom dome.

only a squarish partial area of the sensor. tensive experience in film. They were delib- was created which covered all the lights, mi- Hence a specifically designed adapter (deliv- erately selected for the fulldome shootings crophones and other equipment used on the ered by Tom Kwasnitschka) was used reduc- since they were used to playing scenes in one set. In the second stage, several further levels ing the image to the correct size. long piece without cuts in between. They also with Keylight in After Effects were used. were used to presenting on a big stage, rather Giant green and filming in 4K than working on fine tuning for each gesture Fisheye doesn’t like match moving For the green screen shooting we took an- in close ups. When we started production there was no other approach. By means of a self-developed For each scene we shot different takes with match moving software that would work shift-mount the lens could be moved vertical- different camera movements and settings be- with fisheye-distorted images. Hence, on the ly, so that only half of the circular image cov- cause we would not view the material on RED ONE camera we mounted an addition- ered the whole sensor, allowing the full 4K res- a dome right away. We made sure we had al high definition camcorder, which record- olution. enough material to choose from afterwards. ed the tracing marks on the set. This meth- Using half of the circular image being the However, the big TV screen on the set od led us to some challenges during post front half of the dome (180 degrees vertically turned out to be very helpful, even though it production because the image section was from the left to the right and 90 degrees from was a flat screen, showing the acting simulta- not always optimal to follow adequate fixed the bottom to the zenith of the dome) was suf- neously while we recorded it. Thankfully, af- points; the camcorder-recorded image, with- ficient for the recording of the action in the ter producing fulldome content for several out fisheye distortion, was much bigger than green screen environment. This gave our ac- years you train your eye so that you are able the RED. This was especially a problem when tors a huge stage and the freedom to move to judge if the gestures, size and closeness will the actors moved a lot because sometimes too within the depth and horizontal width of half look and feel acceptable afterwards when pro- many tracing points where hidden for an ide- of the dome. jected on a dome. al match moving. Of course we were also using other film- After the first tests, it became obvious that ing methods that resulted in fewer headaches, The chroma keying the real fish-eye distortion differs from the but they were limited in scope. For example, Chroma keying is a technique for compos- mathematical, virtual one in the 3D software. actors could be filmed with a HD camera or iting two images or frames together in which A perfect match, therefore, was not always even in 2K with the green box being basical- a color of one image is removed, revealing an- possible and a very close approximation had ly a green wall. other image behind it. This technique is also to be created. This required a lot of sensitive After the keying process they could clever- referred to as color keying, color-separation manual adjustments. Thankfully, the results ly be placed on a plane in a 3D scene, but their overlay, greenscreen or bluescreen. were very good, and we are quite proud of our movement in depth and to the sites is limited The lightening of the set is most impor- work. The audience does not notice that Gal-

March 2011 Planetarian 11 ileo is acting in a virtual world; instead, he is standing definitely on the ground of his Tus- can villa. But this was absolutely the most intense time and gave us a lot of headaches.

3ds Max and V-Ray The 3D animations in this project were in- credibly varied. For example, we recreated Gal- ileo’s historical domicile, but also displayed highly technological objects (satellites, rocket launches, etc) and abstract astronomical concepts. To visualize this sophisticated content in an immense field of view for a full fisheye camera was a continuous challenge. The 3D animations were produced with Au- todesk’s 3ds Max 2009 (64 bit) and V-Ray 1.5. Because of the high resolution used, the high realism of real actors and highly detailed tex- tures being developed, the 64 bit system was absolutely necessary to process the enormous amount of data. Also, because 3ds Max does not include a fisheye camera, a further renderer was needed. We chose to work with the V-Ray plug-in and its “dome camera.” The people behind Touching the Edge of the Universe. Next to the scientific requirements, the aes- thetics played a major role during production. Because nobody has observed a planet forma- dome sizes and tilts, and there is a different mitment of the whole team such a pioneer- tion or similar natural spectaculars there was installation and positioning of the speakers ing work would have been unimaginable and artistic freedom in some occurrences, which in each dome. Thus the experience with sur- never been possible, so I want to personally allowed our artists imposing representations round sound depends on the seat position thank everyone who made this production and planetarium. Therefore all four channels while still retaining scientific realism. possible! (front left and right, rear left and right) were I also want to personally thank Eduard treated equally. The center channel was used Compositing Thomas for being such a wonderful and sup- only for the speech. portive friend over the past years and for giv- We used Adobe After Effects in the compos- ing me the trust to realize such a production. iting process. Individual image layers were as- Conclusion Furthermore, I also do thank him for making sembled, color corrections were applied and The show Touching the Edge of the Universe possible such collaborations with other insti- match moving was adjusted. Some usual com- was successfully accomplished and is still be- tutions like the Muthesius Art Academy, be- positing standards cannot be used with a full- ing played in many planetariums around the cause otherwise I might have never entered dome format, however. For instance, picture world. The complete list of all openings can be the planetarium world. I will do my best to elements cannot be scaled or adjusted in the seen under www.planetariumshow.eu. keep this collaboration work going. 2D compositing process without losing the It was very much worth it to meet all the If you are interested in the show, either correct fisheye distortion. challenges of such a young medium and to the long or short version, in your language In one of the scenes the actors had to be re- use all the exciting creative chances in order or if you should have questions regarding duced in size and positioned as a texture on to create an informative as well as visually the content of this article, please do not hes- the inner side of a hemisphere inside 3ds Stu- convincing show. itate to contact me at isabella@ib-creations. dio Max. Then they were rescaled along the com. You can also visit my web site, which surface bending, and finally they were ren- Acknowledgements features more about productions, at www.is- dered by Dome Camera with the V-Ray plug- Without the tireless, never-ending com- abellabuczek.com. I in.

Music It is easy to make the mistake of not giv- Alex Cherman ing enough attention to the sound. Without PARTYcles sound the most beautiful moving image will It’s warm, All matter and The temperature become voiceless and therefore appear dead. huh? energy are is absurd!!!! Music makes things alive! confined in a In this show the sound and music were tre- minute region! mendously important to support the emo- tional impact of the visuals. The music was Volume is at specially composed and mixed in consider- a minimum! It’s the Big That’s what I ation of the dome requirements in Dolby 5.1. Bang! Of course, no two planetariums are alike; Pressure is at just said... a maximum! “warm, huh?” there are different seating arrangements,

12 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 13 Out of the favela, into the planetarium Smart Kids’ Club tries to change attitudes

Lilian Valdoski, Educator Planetário do Rio de Janeiro R. Vice-Governador Rubens Berardo Rio de Janeiro RJ 22451-070 [email protected]

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in times living in subhuman conditions. But yet More recently, it has been visited by Ma- Brazil, ranked #6 in the Americas and #26 in they strive. And they dream. donna and Beyoncé, which only strengthens the world in terms of population. And, as in If you are a kid growing up in the favela, the children’s dreams of becoming pop stars. many major cities, especially in developing you can dream of a few ways to improve your Rowing against the tide, a local journal- countries, it presents a deep social gap amongst own life. One, sadly, is going to crime. But in ist, Ms. Tamara Leftel, realized that the best its population. the past few years, the police have been vig- chance the Santa Marta kids had to ascend so- There are places in Rio that the Human De- ilante and crime in the favelas has hugely cially would be through study. She began a so- velopment Index (HDI) is as high as in Swit- dropped. cial project in the favela, making sure that the zerland or Sweden; but there also are places Most boys dream of becoming professional kids had a proper place to do their homework where the HDI is very low. The lowest HDIs in soccer players; most girls, of becoming singers, and to study after classes. Rio happen in the favelas (slums). models or actresses. Very few will fulfill those Even though it was a wonderful project, Ms. A Brazilian sociologist once said that “the dreams. And even fewer will consider chang- Leftel was not satisfied. She wanted more. She favelas are not a problem; they are a solution.” ing their lives through science. wanted different. She wanted to involve the He meant that, faced with a habitational def- That is where the Rio de Janeiro Planetari- planetarium. icit, the lower levels of the social pyramid um is playing a key role. found a solution of their own: the favelas. The planetarium The typical Rio favela is located on a hill. The project Tamara Leftel was a regular student in most This reflects a good decision turned bad. Rio Among hundreds of favelas, there is the of the planetarium’s astronomy courses. She is very proud of its hills, two of the most fa- Santa Marta. Named after Lazarus’ sister, Mar- was well known by the astronomers and very mous being the Sugar Loaf and the Corcova- tha, this favela is located in the south part of respected; that made all the difference. do. Around the 1960s, a city ordinance pro- the city, which is also the richest part of the After a few brief meetings, the “Smart Kids’ hibited the construction on the slopes of the city. It became fairly known around the world Club” was founded. The planetarium pre- hills. Law-abiding citizens respected that reg- as the location for Michael Jackson’s video for pared one of its classrooms to be the club’s ulation. Unfortunately, some segments of the the song “They Don’t Care About Us.”1 cations in Brazil, at Salvador da Bahia in addition to population couldn’t afford that luxury and Dona Marta in Rio. The second video was shot in a they started to build there irregularly. 1 “They Don’t Care About Us” is a single from Michael prison and contained footage of multiple references Jackson’s album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book to human rights abuses. Commercially, the song be- The dream I, released in 1996. The song is one of the most con- came a top ten hit in all European countries and number one in Germany for three weeks. In the US, ra- Fast-forward 50 years and we have the fave- troversial pieces Jackson ever composed; musically, it is an aggressive hip-hop production about social dio stations were reluctant to play the controversial las as part of the Rio landscape. They concen- ills. The song was accompanied by two music videos composition; it, however, managed to peak at num- trate a big part of the poor population, some- directed by Spike Lee. The first was shot in two lo- ber 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. - ed.

14 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 15 On Page 14, left: Three very happy Smart Kids Club hold their diplo- mas; right: the Santa Marta Favela. This page, top: The kids doing homework at the planetarium; below: “graduation” day. Ms. Tamara Leftel, who fostered the Smart Kids Club idea, stands at the center in the back. All photos by the Rio Planetarium Press Office with the exception of Santa Marta, which is from Rio de Janeiro City Hall files.

headquarters. Every Monday, a select group of 32 kids from the San- ta Marta favela hop into a bus, and after a 20-minute ride, they arrive at the planetarium. At the planetarium, they interact with school teachers, education specialists and astronomers. They watch presentations inside the domes, have “treasure hunts” in the museum, and listen to different specialists talking about socially relevant scientific issues. The name There has been some debate about naming this initiative the “Smart Kids’ Club.” Some education specialists felt that it could drive a wedge between the kids, causing some prejudice among classmates. The kids who did not get into the club might feel bad, for “not being smart,” some specialists said. But everybody who was involved with the project from its incep- tion felt the opposite way. We wanted to turn the prejudice around. In the favela environment, it was not cool to be smart, it was not cool to study, and it was not cool to enjoy science. So by bringing them to the planetarium on a weekly basis, completely free of charge, we are showing these kids that it can be cool to study. Studying can be fun. The kids who liked to study are not castaways anymore. They are becoming the cool kids. And some of those who didn’t care about school are now developing a sort of “envyness,” and are themselves trying to study harder so they can, too, become a member of the “Smart Kids’ Club.” The name has been working to our benefit. ed in their family dynamics as well, for now they understand that sci- The results ence and education can, indeed, be a powerful tool for social ascent. The “Smart Kids’ Club” is still too young for us to have any defin- The “Smart Kids’ Club” will continue throughout 2011. Some kids itive results. It started only in 2010 and at first is benefiting 32 kids will return and new kids will join the initiative. And the Rio Planetar- from the Santa Marta favela. The oldest of them has just turned 14; the ium will continue to offer its facilities and professionals to help fulfill youngest is 8 years old. this dream. What we can say at this point is that these “smart kids” have com- We would like to give a tip of the hat to Ms. Tamara Leftel, the pletely changed their attitude towards studying. This has been reflect- originator of this whole project. I

A few at a time, thousands at a time To promote its newest digital dome in the outskirts of town, the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium Foundation promot- ed a big party for the kids, celebrating Children`s Day on October 12 and taking advantage of the long weekend provided by the Our Lady of Aparecida holiday. The whole event lasted for about 10 hours, including a music show by various local artists (left), including famous samba group Molejo, circus clowns, marching bands and 25 consecu- tive presentations of Zula Patrol: Under the Weather in the dome! The total attendance of the whole event was esti- mated in 40,000 people! I

16 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 17 Meeting the challenge India: 40 planetariums, 3.3 million square kilometers

Piyush Pandey, Director Nehru Planetarium Mumbai, India [email protected]

India, a federal constitutional republic with in Kolkata, set it up under the guidance of re- alyzing the planetarium movement in India. a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 nowned physicist Sir K. S. Krishnan. That was The trio served on several technical commit- states and seven union territories, is the sev- in the year 1955. It could accommodate about tees and advised a number of municipal and enth largest country by geographical area, the 40 persons at a time. other bodies about setting up planetariums. second most populous country with over 1.18 In April 2009 I visited the New English billion people, and the most populous democ- School in Pune, run by the famous Deccan Ed- Where they are racy in the world. ucation Society, which was celebrating its 120 By manufacturer, here are the locations of Spread over its 3.3 million square kilome- years of existence that year. There I discovered the planetariums in India: ters are only about 40 planetariums that are that the honor for being the oldest planetari- operational today. Many old ones have closed um of India goes to them. It was established in Spitz (2): Pune & Puttiparthy down, but there is a batch of new, smaller fa- 1954, one year earlier than NPL planetarium, Zeiss (22): Allahabad, Bangalore, Baroda, cilities coming up, mostly under the aegis of and was slightly bigger. Calicut, Gorakhpur*, Kolkata, Ludhiana, the National Council of Science Museums At the top of the school building sits a 9-m Lucknow*, Manipal, Mumbai*, SCI Mum- dome that houses a Spitz A1. It is sad that this (NCSM, www.ncsm.org.in). bai, Manipal, Muzaffarpur, Nagpur, New India has seen the transition from opto-me- equipment now has only partial function (for Delhi*, NPL New Delhi, Porbandar, Rajkot, chanical to digital, and now, in some recent the last 3 years), but the good part is that the Salem, Surat*, Vijaywada & Warangal. cases, to hybrid. school is seriously considering replacing it GOTO (13+3): Ambala, Bhubaneswar, with new equipment. Burdwan, Chennai, Guwahati*, Hydera- Finding the first bad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata (Sc. Cty It was believed until last year that the Spitz, then Zeiss and GOTO & Modern High School for Girls), Patna, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum. + Space The- small planetarium that functioned for quite The two other Spitz installations in the atres at Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai; some time at the National Physical Laborato- country are at a spiritual center at Puttiparthy Pushpa Gujral Science City, Kapurthala & (thus not a public planetarium in the strict ry (NPL) in New Delhi was India’s first. It was Regional Science Center, Lucknow. gifted by Carl Zeiss (then of East Germany) sense) and Kalpana Chawla Memorial Plane- to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime min- tarium in Kurukshetra (hybrid). Evans & Sutherland (13): Ahemednagar, ister of India, and he in turn passed it on to In the 1960s and 1970s, Carl Zeiss of Jena Dharampur, Goa, Gorakhpur, Gulbarga, the NPL. Prof. R. Subramanian, now the direc- took the lead in supplying and installing their Jorhat, Kapurthala, Mumbai, Nashik, Ram- tor general of M. P. Birla Institute for Funda- opto-mechanical planetariums across the pur, Siliguri, Surat & Tirunelveli. mental Research and M. P. Birla Planetarium country. Later many opto-mechanicals supplied by GOTO of Japan were installed and Hybrids (5): Goto + E&S (Ujjain & Guwa- “stole” the lead from Zeiss. hati); Sky-Skan + Megastar (New Delhi & Lakshadweep), Spitz (Kurukshetra). In recent years, refurbished old planetariums (like Mumbai) and newly-created plane- *An asterisked city name denotes that its tariums have gone digital and the equipment old equipment has now been replaced by chosen has been Digistar 3 and Digistar 4 Laser new one. Italics are the facilities currently from Evans & Sutherland. under construction. Prof. R. Subramanian (of M. P. Birla Planetar- ium, Kolkata), Dr. Arvind Bhatnagar (found- The first major public planetarium of India ing director of Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai is M. P. Birla Planetarium in Kolkata; its cur- and Director Udaipur Solar Observatory) and rent director general, Prof. R. Subramanian, yours sincerely have been instrumental in cat- has the distinction of being the longest serving director of any planetarium in India (from The Spitz A1 at the New English School in Pune. All photos provided by author. 1962 to present).

18 Planetarian March 2011 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 March 2011 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION19 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai; M. P. Bir- la Planetarium, Kolkata; Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi; B. M. Birla Planetariums at Hydera- bad and Jaipur; and Jawaharlal Nehru Planetar- ium, Bangalore, are rather special in the sense that they play a lead role in terms of show production, astronomy activities and astronomy courses and have good exhibition galleries. Perhaps this may be due to the fact that they have employed astronomers (retired or active) or people trained in astronomy. In contrast, several other planetariums are operated by technicians and have therefore no other al- lied activities to offer. The M. P. Birla Planetarium of Kolkata and later the Nehru Planetarium of Mumbai organized a few meetings of Indian planetarians, engineers and educators. In the recent years Infovision Technology of Mumbai (a part- From Top: The M. P. Bir- la Planetarium, Kolka- ner of Evans & Sutherland) has tried to fill this ta; Nehru Planetarium, gap by organizing similar meetings for fellow Mumbai; and the Saturn- planetarians regularly. shaped Indira Gandhi Plan- However, being organized by a vendor, a etarium in Lucknow. few planetarians consciously stay away from these meetings and they

Pioneers: Prof. R. Subramanian (top) and Dr. Arvind Bhat- nagar (1936-2006)

have a distinct promotional flavor. In spite of this, they do serve a purpose—providing a common forum for planetarians to meet, interact, and keep abreast of the new innovations in technology, albeit from one source. Indian planetariums are also unique in the sense that they have no federations or asso- ciations. Prof. R. Subramanian created a Plan- etarium Society of India, but it fizzled out as it could not prove to be truly representative. Subsequent efforts in this direction by yours sincerely, Dr. N. Rathnasree of New Delhi Plan- etarium and others did not bear fruit. Architecture of Indian Planetariums var- Left: The New English School in Pune. ies from the traditional Buddhist stupa shape Above: The author (in blue shirt) with the (Kolkata), to modern (Nehru Planetarium, Pune staff and others. Mumbai) and unique Saturn shaped (Indira Gandhi Planetarium Lucknow). One at Baro- da is shaped as a pyramid. I

20 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 21 Call for nomations: Fellow of IPS, IPS Service Award, and IPS Technology Award

Lars Broman ual, institution or commercial vendor whose Award Committee Chair technology and/or innovations in the plane- [email protected] tarium field have been, through the years, uti- lized or replicated by other members and/or Every second year, at the International planetariums. “ Planetarium Society Conference, is the time This is a rather new award, and it has so far to give awards and to name Fellows of IPS. The been given only twice, in 2008 and 2010. next time, then, will be in Baton Rouge, Loui- Deserving members of IPS can be named siana in 2012. IPS Fellows. In order to be named a Fellow of The IPS Council decides which persons IPS, the Standing Rules say that: “a member should be honored, and it is the task of the IPS must have continuous active membership in Awards Committee to prepare the background good standing in IPS for at least five years, and material from which the Council can decide. substantial contributions in at least two of Crystal glass piece from Nybro Crystal Sweden, It is a rather long process, since the decision which is engraved to become the IPS Awards. the following respects: (1) Serving IPS in elec- is made a year in advance at off-year Council Courtesy of Nybro Crystal, Sweden tive office, diligent and/or devoted commit- meetings. The next Council meeting is in Ni- tee work, and the organization of conferenc- zhny Novgorod, Russia, on 1-2 July 2011. es and meetings. (2) Relevant and significant Therefore, now is the time to nominate! IPS has two kinds of awards. First is the clas- publications and /or conference presenta- Your nominations should reach the Awards sic IPS Service Award, about which our Stand- tions. (3) Cooperation with professional soci- Committee no later than 1 June 2011 so we can ing Rules say: “An IPS Service Award shall be eties, organizations and groups which bring prepare a recommendation for Council’s deci- bestowed, from time to time, by the Society attention to the importance of planetariums’ sion. upon an individual or institution whose pres- existence. (4) The development of new meth- You can send your nomination(s) to any of ence and work in the planetarium field has ods in the planetarium field.” the Award Committee members. We are: been, through the years, an inspiration to the Since the mid-1980s, 232 IPS members have •• Jeanne Bishop, jeanneebishop@wowway. profession and its members. “ been named Fellows of IPS. com; Between 1982 and 2010, twenty-one Service The names of previous awardees and Fellows •• Thomas Kraupe, thomas.kraupe@planetari- Awards have been given. are found at www.ips-planetarium.org/or/fel- um-hamburg.de; and The second award is the IPS Technology lows-awardees.html. The complete rules are •• Lars Broman, [email protected]. and Innovation Award which, according to found on page 16 in the IPS Bylaws and Stand- Please include the reasons why you think the Standing Rules: “shall be bestowed, from ing Rules, the pdf version of which is found your nominee should be named a Fellow. time to time, by the Society upon an individ- at www.ips-planetarium.org/or/rules. I

Wanted: Your creative and educational scripts

Thomas W. Kraupe, Script Contest Chair test is December 31, 2011. The target audience and topic of the script Planetarium Hamburg Please visit our webpage at www.ips-plan- are up to your discretion. You may target chil- Hindenburgstr.1b (Stadtpark) etarium.org/events/eug/index.html, where dren, the general public, or school groups of D-22303 Hamburg, Germany you will find the competition guidelines and any age range and may select any science-re- [email protected] other important competition information. lated topic. The competition is open to all currently en- In order to avoid limitations in the script Manos Kitsonas rolled IPS members. Please note that scripts which may occur due to your specific projec- Eugenides Foundation need to be in English. If you have your script tion equipment, we encourage authors to ex- 387 Syngrou Ave. in another language, please do not allow that plore their vision of a script without those re- 17564 P.Faliro, Greece to stop your entry; consider sending in a trans- strictions. To support the main goals of the [email protected] lated version. contest with the least constraints on imagina- Previously submitted scripts, any material tion and creativity, consider a broad scientif- You are invited! Input from creative writ- published elsewhere, and all scripts that have ic subject with the goal of a fulldome environ- ers and planetarium show producers around been integrated into planetarium productions ment capability. The objective is to expand the world is welcome for the annual IPS Eu- already released or which are scheduled for re- your vision of a script which might otherwise genides Script contest. The deadline for sub- lease before the IPS Conference 2012, are not be defined by instrumentation instead of by mitting scripts in the new round of the con- eligible. (Continues on Page 50)

22 Planetarian March 2011 SATURN: JEWEL OF THE HEAVENS

BLACK HOLES

EXTREME PLANETS

HUBBLE HAS NOTHING ON US.

SECRET OF THE CARBOARD ROCKET

The imagination and creativity of our original digital dome productions are so fantastic, you’ll think our animators actually live in space. Or at least get to borrow the keys to the Hubble on the weekends. Talk to us about what these productions will do for your planetarium. Contact Mike Murray at [email protected] • 801-456-4949 • clarkplanetarium.org/distribution March 2011 Planetarian 23

3429-1_HubbleHasNothing_Planetarium_8.5x11_F.indd 1 1/13/11 11:09:50 AM Giving for the future Scholarship fund established for planetarium training

Long-time planetarian and astronomy edu- terrestrial rock or industrial slag they mis- ing work for other planetariums, and taught cator Thomas Wm. Hamilton of Staten Island, takenly think is a meteorite. courses in astronomy, the history of astrono- New York, has established the Hamilton Plan- •• Meteorology: Weather can be the enemy my, science fiction, and MBA-level computer etarium Scholarship Fund Inc. to provide fi- of observational astronomy, but what you management. nancial incentives for talented individuals to learn in such a class can be applied to oth- Hamilton was the originator of the theory enter the field. er planets. that planetarium shows be based on the tri- The organizing statement says both public •• Optics: A valuable help in making special ple concepts of science, education and drama, and governmental officials need to gain a bet- effects for the planetarium, as well as under- with a successful show utilizing a balance of ter understanding of astronomy and space-re- standing types of telescopes. (Planetarium all three. While planetariums that mainly of- lated issues, particularly in a world where personnel are often asked questions about fer concerts or laser shows do not follow this many question whether the Apollo landings purchase of telescopes.) philosophy, it remains one of the main con- took place and others question whether an- •• Photography: Learn how to take great pho- cepts in the field. cient Mayan prophecies foretell doom from tos that you can put up on a dome. With the temporary closure of the Wagner the skies. •• Planetarium Technology/Planetarium College Planetarium, Hamilton worked at the “One of the Show Design: This is not offered in many Newark Museum Planetarium while teaching ways such mat- schools, but if offered you must take these. at the College of Staten Island. He retired from ters are confront- If not offered, check your school’s policy teaching in 2003. ed is from the na- on independent study, special topics study, He is a Fellow of the IPS and, in 2009, had as- tion’s nearly three and individualized curriculum. teroid 4897 named Tomhamilton in his hon- thousand plane- •• Theater (in some schools called rhetoric): or. He is the author of dozens of articles in the tariums. Howev- Learn something about drama and appeal- planetarium field, two books on computers, er, professional ing to audiences. and an alternate history science fiction novel training for plan- published in 2008, Time for Patriots. etarium work has 25 Years Ago column lagged,” according Because work with the scholarship fund will The fund trustees to the statement. take more of his time, Hamilton has stepped Hamilton is one of three trustees for the Thomas Wm. Hamilton The scholarship down from writing the “25 Years Ago” col- Planetarium Scholarship Fund. Also a trustee is hopes to encour- umn in the Planetarian. He brought a unique Sheldon Schafer, director of the Lakeview Mu- age talented students to pursue the planetar- perspective to the column, having taken part seum Planetarium in Peoria, Illinois. Schafer is ium field. personally in many of the events the column a past president of the Great Lakes Planetari- Renewable student stipends will be for one described. um Association. He has been in the planetari- year and will include a paid one-year mem- Hamilton himself is a colorful personal- um field since 1973, and has taught astronomy bership in professional organizations in the ity. He was a child actor from 1946-1952 and at Bradley University for 30 years. planetarium field. starred in the role of Barnaby in the stage pro- Rounding out the trustees is Pam Eastlick, Those interested in being considered for duction of Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley, based director of the planetarium of the Univer- a scholarship must complete an application on Crockett Johnson’s comic strip Barna- sity of Guam since 1993. This planetarium is form, available by email from tham153@hot- by. (Johnson’s later works include children’s noted for being the most isolated on Earth, mail.com or by regular mail from Hamilton books centered on Harold, including Harold nearly 2000 miles from its nearest planetari- Planetarium Scholarship Fund Inc., 153 Arlo and the Purple Crayon.) um neighbor. Road, Staten Island, New York 10301. Educated at Columbia University, Hamil- (Sources for this compilation are from Ham- ton worked in the mid-60s at Grumman Air- ilton’s announcement of the establishment of Suggested curriculum craft in Bethpage, New York on the Apollo the scholarship fund and from wikibin.org/ar- Under the philosophy that good planetari- Project, a fact he admits is still his proudest. He ticles/thomas-william-hamilton.html. – ed.) I um presentations will be a balance of science, later worked for a plan- education, and drama, the scholarship sug- etarium manufactur- gests a well-rounded curriculum, including: er, writing planetarium •• Astronomy: An absolute minimum of a shows provided to pur- year, but more is highly desirable. You chasers of Apollo mod- should definitely take a course in the Histo- el planetariums. He pro- ry of Astronomy if one is available. duced about 30 shows •• Education: A course of methods of science for general public audi- teaching (usually will have a semester of an- ences and for elementary other education course as a prerequisite). school groups. •• Geology: At least one semester, so that From 1970 to 1983 you at least can recognize the differenc- Hamilton ran the Wag- es among igneous, metamorphic and sedi- ner College Planetar- mentary rocks, particularly on the inevita- ium in Staten Island, ble day when someone wanders in with a New York, did consult-

24 Planetarian March 2011 Antares FullDome Productions and Mediúscula present Moles What is out there? Coming soon! You have never seen a cuter mole!

Antares FullDome Productions and Mediúscula present the FullDome cartoon film MOLES,MOLES, forfor digital planetariums.. MOLESMOLES integrateintegrate traditionaltraditional storytellingstorytelling 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..

MOLES is addressed to boys and girls between the ages of 4 and4 and 8. The8. The film film is isperfectly perfectly suited suited for for school school programs programs as as well as for family showings..

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

Order from: AMT Co., Ltd. - Astrodidáctico - Auriga S.p.A. - Carl Zeiss AG - CosmoDome Europe - Digisatel - Discovery Dome - Domebox - Gravity Ltd. Hiperlab - In Budget Co., Ltd. - Kappa Crucis SRL - Loch Ness Productions - Metaspace - MMI Corporation - Orbit Animate Pvt. Ltd. - Planeta R.S.A. Cosmos - Sky-Skan, Inc. Contact: Alexander Zaragoza - [email protected] - tel. (+34) 933 323 000 - Barcelona, Spain MoreMarch information 2011 here: Planetarian www.antares-fulldome.com25 http://moles.antares-fulldome.com December 21, 2012: So that’s it, then. The balloon’s going up on December 21, 2012, or so we’re told by the alarmists. On that Armageddon? or fateful day, the Cosmos will give humanity its long overdue comeup- pance. Kaput. Sayonara. Adios. The vacuum cleaner of Destiny will scoop up our worldwide civilisation and un- Arma-Telling You, ceremoniously chuck it into the rub- bish bin of Fate, to lie up against the cat litter. On every street corner we’ll be tripping over sandwich boards pro- Don’t Worry? claiming “The End Is Nigh.” (So my team, the Buffalo Sabres, have only got one more season to win the Stanley Cup.) And the sands of time are running out for the rest of you to Editor-at-Large Steve Tidey learn the rules of cricket. What do Astronomy Educator you mean, you don’t understand how 2 Stambridge Road two teams can play for five days and Rochford, Essex, SS4 1DG, England nobody wins? [email protected] Virtual farm smells Really, my flabber is gasted; I’ve found so much hog wash online about the supposed “impending catastrophe” of a planetary alignment on December 21, 2012, linked to a reversal of the geomagnetic poles around the same time (yeah, right) and the ending of the Ma- yan long count calendar that it’s beginning to smell like a farm around here. Pass the air freshener, please. This date marks the first time that the Ma- yan calendar has been reset to 0, as it were, since the beginning of their calendar system 5125 years ago. Believe it or not, Google throws up a depressing 2,070,000 hits for “2012 planetary alignment,” proof positive that, regardless of the other fine things the internet has done for our daily lives, it does also have the tendency to open up the world to every kook’s wild fantasies and conspir- acy theories. But that’s another story, and another headache. The Mayans had several calendars tied to different cycles: a lunar calendar, a solar calendar, a Venusian calendar, a ritual calendar, etc. As these cycles are all comparatively short, they invented a “long count calendar” to keep track of much longer periods of time. It has 5 digits to keep track of the number of days since the istockphoto.com beginning of time using a base-20 nu- merical system instead of our modern day base-10, but it was a very log- (The editor wishes to point out that this is not Steve Tidey) ical system.

26 Planetarian March 2011 One of the key things to remember is that the only effect it has on our society is that the they never foretold any prophecies about average person says to themselves, “OK, it’s the destruction of the world at the end of the shortest day of the year. What’s on TV to- their calendar cycle. According to many Ma- night?” Now that’s hardly end of the world, yan scholars, they didn’t view it as a date to run for your lives, launch the lifeboats stuff, be feared. In fact, there are stone carvings now is it? across the Mayan countries that imagine the On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun coronation of king Pakal in the year 4772 AD, won’t eclipse the exact Galactic centre, as pin- long after 2012 has come and gone. pointed by the location of the x-rays from the As everyone’s favorite “bad astronomer” black hole. No, it won’t make its closest ap- Dr. Philip Plait has stated, the end of the long year. They also kept detailed records of the proach to that point for another 200 years. In- count calendar is like the odometer on your motions of Venus, and so were able to accu- stead, the sun will be about six degrees from car ticking over—in other words, when all the rately predict the periods during which it dis- that position. numbers again reach 0. appears behind the sun. December 21, 2012 merely marks the end of They were also adept at predicting so- A reversal of fortunes Baktun 13 in the Mayan calendar. A Baktun is lar eclipses, as these were thought to be dire What about the fears of the Earth’s magnet- 144,000 days, or about 394 years. The Mayans warnings from their gods. They believed that ic polarity reversing? To begin with, the mag- believed the world was created on August 11, the movement of the stars was the action of netic poles are about 1,000 miles from the geo- 3114 BC, which was the first day of Baktun 1, their gods. Many of the con- s t e l l a - graphic poles. The magnetic field has been in the start of the “Great Cycle.” tions that we know in mod- its present orientation for approximately the ern times were known by last 700,000 years. Magnetic traces that are still An eschatological belief the Mayans, but called detectable in ancient rocks indicate that the The 2012 phenomenon is what’s known as by different names. average length of time between reversals an eschatological belief. The Oxford English For example, they has averaged about 450,000 years. Dictionary defines the word as “concerned saw the constel- The longest was three million with ‘the four last things: death, judgement, lation Libra as a years, and the shortest was heaven, and hell’.” pig. 50,000 years. Given the worrying state our global soci- So what As the time for a ety finds itself in these days, it’s perhaps not about the reversal approaches, surprising that so many of these beliefs crop planetary group- the intensity of each up with increasing regularity. We’ve had so ing on December 21, pole’s magnetic orienta- many of these world-threatening scares in 2012 that coincides with tion slowly will decrease to my lifetime that I’m tempted to say, “Missed the end of the long count calen- zero. But at the present rate this one? Don’t worry; there’ll be another one dar? There was a closer grouping of of decrease, the poles will not along real soon.” The others have come and planets on June 13, 2010, when Uranus, Ju- reach zero until about the year gone and the world still turns. And so on the piter and Mercury were lined up on one side 4000 AD. However, it’s not an ex- dreaded date, the sun will actually still set and of the sun while Venus, Mars and Saturn were act science, so the true timeframe rise on our intact society. on the other side. And there was another clos- may be much longer. And besides, once the The Maya culture was a civilization that er one, too, on May 5, 2000. strength has fallen to zero it still takes the mag- thrived from about 2000 BC through 900 Nevertheless, numerous internet sites give netic field thousands of years, not one day, to AD. Its influence stretched from central Mex- the impression that we’re about to have the build up the reverse polarity. ico through Guatemala, Honduras and El Sal- red carpet rolled up on us, the solar system Even if the Earth does undergo a slow mag- vador, and was noted for having the only will fall into transcendental alignment with netic reversal, we wouldn’t be harmed by it. known fully developed written language of the heart of the Milky Way, and, to top things Yes, compasses wouldn’t work, but the Earth’s the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as pos- off, the Earth will be hit by a rogue planetary magnetosphere would still exist, just in a lit- sessing good knowledge of art, architecture, body named Nibiru. (Oh boy, somebody’s re- tle weaker state than before. Most important- math and astronomy. ally been working overtime on this one). ly, it would still be capable of shouldering The Maya reached their highest state of de- Uninformed alarmists, based on no evi- away damaging cosmic rays from reaching velopment during the Classic period (c. 250 dence whatsoever, have announced on inter- the Earth’s surface. AD to 900 AD). At its peak, it was one of the net sites that there’ll be a “galactic alignment” Interestingly, a magnetic reversal may have world’s most culturally dynamic societies. that doesn’t bode well for Earth. occurred while Homo Erectus, one of modern But the Maya civilisation and influence on Other self-appointed new-age seers claim humanity’s ancestors, was around, but they other South American cultures began to rap- that the feared date will usher in a spiritual re- didn’t suffer a mass extinction. idly decline with the arrival of the Spanish newal for humanity, or a “harmonic conver- Lastly, as for Nibiru, it’s a non-existent plan- conquistadores. Today, their descendants are gence.” We’re told that the gravitational in- et that the ancient Sumerians thought they still found throughout the original Mayan ar- fluence of the sun and the black hole at the had discovered. It was supposedly found at a eas. They have a clear set of traditions and be- galaxy’s center will disturb the Earth, and the distance of 50 AU and thought somehow to liefs that are an amalgam of pre-Columbian position of the sun on the 2012 winter solstice be in free fall headed straight toward Earth and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. will force us to enter the Milky Way’s dark rift and would collide with us in 2003. Astronomically speaking, the Mayans had a along the central plane of our galaxy. When nothing happened in that year, the strong interest in zenithal passages, which are Yes, the solar system will cross the galactic doomsday date was moved forward to Decem- occasions when the sun passes directly over- plane in 2012. Each December, in the north- ber 2012 to conveniently coincide with the end head in tropical areas. In the low latitudes of ern hemisphere, the Earth and sun do align, of the Long Count calendar. I the Mayan countries, this happens twice each approximately, with the galaxy’s center, but

March 2011 Planetarian 27 Days, weeks, month: Plenty of chances for planetariums to shine

Planetarians are always eager to give recog- Organized in 1995, the day is always held the dates) and as part of Astronomy Week, kicks nition to others—kudos to a correct answer Sunday before or after the spring equinox. off in May. This year is the 39th that day of from a school audience, praise to a thought- Planetariums that normally are open on “Bringing Astronomy to the People” has been ful question from a public audience—but we Sundays are invited to open their doors for scheduled, and a revised award is new this always seem to be the last in line to seek rec- free or at a reduced price, and are invited to year. ognition for ourselves. link to the Day of Planetaria website (www.as- The 2011 dates are May 7 and October 1. As- There are a number of opportunities for us trofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Day_of_Planetar- tronomy Week is May 2-8. Astronomy clubs, to step up and shine, from Astronomy Day ia.htm) and list their activities. Special events planetariums, observatories, and museums in activities to the International Day of Plane- such as lessons, shows, exhibitions, and sky the United States and other countries through- taria, that are perfect for putting our mission viewing are suggested but not necessary. out the world will host public viewing events, in front of the public and receiving well-de- More information is available from and telescope workshops, hands-on activities, and served recognition. suggestions can be made to Associazione dei presentations to increase awareness about the Planetari Italiani, c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche profession and hobby. Day of Planetaria Serafino Zani, via Bosca 24, 25066 Lumezzane, For 25 years, awards have been given for First up this year is the International Day of Italy, or by emailing [email protected]. the groups or organizations that best empha- Planetaria, set for March 20, 2011. The day in- size the concept of Astronomy Day. Current- volves the international community in a col- Astronomy Day ly sponsored by Sky & Telescope magazine, laboration that aims to promote knowledge Astronomy Day, which can be observed as a the American Astronomical Society, and the of planetariums to the public. date (either in the spring or the fall, or on both Astronomical League, the Astronomy Day Award has undergone revision to allow smaller organizations and population bases to have Planetarians Without Borders an equal footing in the award process. The revised award has three primary prize Lina Canas, Planetarium Working Group winners of $150 each for 3 population size cat- Global Astronomy Month 2011 egories: large, medium and small, and two sec- Centro Multimeios de Espinho, Navegar Foundation, Portugal - [email protected] ondary ($50) awards for the best new idea and the organization that does consistent quali- The project Planetarians Without Borders—an effort to bring ty events. Honorable mentions are given for together planetariums around the globe in joint events—will those groups in final contention for the pri- launch during April, Global Astronomy Month, a world- mary award. wide celebration begun by Astronomers Without Borders. The deadline for entering each year is June Astronomers Without Borders is dedicated to foster- 13. Events held after that date are eligible to ing understanding and goodwill across national and cul- enter the following year’s award. tural boundaries by creating relationships through the Besides the awards to venues, Astronomy universal appeal of astronomy. The various projects pro- magazine and Celestron are providing tele- mote sharing—resources, knowledge, and inspiration—all scopes to be given away at each partner venue through a common interest in something basic and univer- and another telescope as a grade prize. More sal: the sky. information is available at the magazine’s Global Astronomy Month is one of these projects. New ideas and web site, www.astronomy.com. new opportunities will connect people around the world in these events. In addition to the web site, more informa- A new working group was created for Global Astronomy Month 2011 with- tion also is available from Gary Tomlinson, in AWB dedicated to the purpose of gathering, sharing and creating activities Astronomy Day Coordinator, Astronomy in planetariums for their potential in inspiring their audiences in a unique way. Day Headquarters, 30 Stargazer Lane, Com- The project Planetarians Without Borders will be launched during GAM and will focus on stock Park, Michigan 49321, gtomlins@sbc- (Continues on Page 52) global.net. I

28 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 29 30 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 31 32 Planetarian March 2011 have been modified to make a little square im- Educational Horizons age that I use with the students during a constellation shoot out. I also have experienced Jack L. Northrup an overly helpful guest teacher who supplied Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium all of her fourth graders with flashlights just King Science and Technology Magnet Center in case they had issues in the dark, which re- 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA sulted in the most light polluted star talk of +1 402-557-4494 my career. [email protected] There are some great instructions online for modifying flashlights for planetarium use, including red cellophane on the flashlight lens Audiences that can be used to hand out “penalty flags.” I with duct tape or foil tape to minimize aper- ture. I would not suggest handing them out Audiences can come in many different fla- have used these with groups up to 40 to let me for the entire presentation, but there are times vors: boisterous, respectful, resentful, uncon- know when a topic is not being understood. when they are useful for the receiving input scious, and perfect. They can also have an The penalty flag is made of red and yellow from the audience. even wider range of subject knowledge that construction paper that is laminated and as- Transition from dark to day: When the can affect your presentation of the show. sembled (see picture) to make flag with a red lights are starting to come up after the pre- Where do you stand? There is a quote that end and a yellow end. The students raise the sentation there are some members of the au- is used in inquiry instruction that goes “Are yellow end if they need the definition or ex- dience who hop up like the chairs have been you a sage on the stage or a guide on suddenly electrified. Use this pop-up action the side?” This statement can be used by saying, “Oh, thank you for volunteering to gauge your level of inquiry and the to work our straw poll on where you think amount of audience participation in the space program should go next. Ask those your presentation. around you and tell me the most popular an- I must admit this quote is normal- swer for your area of the planetarium.” It ally applied to science classrooms, as lows you to get the opinions of the audience very few planetariums are setup with without having to meet with everyone of the control console in the front of the them as they leave the planetarium. planetarium. So, for this edition’s Ed- ucation column, I am including four different techniques that you can use Lesson plan time to get your audience more involved. The lesson for this edition is actually an Before the lights go down: Try interdisciplinary activity on colonizing ex- this next time with a group of 3rd, oplanets implemented in the classroom of 4th, or 5th graders. Before the lights go Melinda Lewis. This activity has several con- down, ask them how many planets nections to the “Design a Country” activity are in our solar system. You will get that has been around for many years. varying responses based on the au- The start of this activity is in a science or as- dience. Some will not speak, while tronomy class where the students do focused others will start having debates with and guided readings on some of the exoplan- their neighbors and you will have ets that have been detected. The students then go to the planetarium for a presentation on lost control. “Penalty flags,” with the improvements made by my para- Let’s take another approach with professional in the bottom image. Photos by author exoplanets to see the distribution of exoplan- the same group of students, but this et systems in the night sky. time prepare the audience by say- A misconception that has to be overcome ing: “I am going to be asking your opinion on ample to be rephrased, and they raise the red is that only stars exactly like the sun can have something and I am going to show you how end if they are lost and need additional help. planets. to answer my question. Feel free to do the ac- I recently had to make a new set due to wear The second part of the presentation is on tions with me so you know them when I ask and tear after six years of use and my parapro- the variety of planets within our solar sys- my question. Eight or less is your hand cover- fessional educator made a slight update to the tem. Students then go to work designing there ing your nose. Nine is hands on your cheeks. original design. She put a yellow foil star on planet, using a worksheet with some basic in- Ten is hands on top of your head, and 100 is each side of the yellow end and two red foil formation about the planet and its star. You ‘jazz’ hands above your head. So here is my stars on each of the red ends. The foil stars may want to limit the amount of time the stu- question—remember, answer with the ges- catch just enough light that if the sky is ex- dents spend on coloring and designing the ap- tures—how many planets are in our solar sys- ceptionally dark you can see what side they pearance of the planet as it can begin to con- tem?” are holding up. sume time from other parts of the project. If you have talkers, praise a student who In the dark: There is one type of audi- There is some “baking” of the math for this is quietly giving their opinion—it generally ence participation that I would suggest you activity, for which the math teacher has the works like magic. It gives you a chance to vi- use only in limited quantities and only with students calculate the gravity of the planet 2 sually see where the audience is on planets in audiences you truly trust: use of flash lights. by using Gravity=Mass/(Radius ) and extreme the solar system. (Pausing for all those planetarians out there to limiting of the planet’s semi-major axis. The Transition to the dark: In that brief pe- catch their breath and let their heart rates re- students do not get a chance to choose the riod between the regular lights of the plane- turn to normal.) semi-major axis. It is assigned by the color of tarium and night mode, there is a bit of time I admit that I have a set of flashlights that star they chose.

March 2011 Planetarian 33 Star type Distance from Star Design an Exoplanet Worksheet (AU) Blue 10 White 5 Yellow 3 Orange 1 Red 0.3

They then just use P2=a3 then solve for P to get the period of revolution. There is a social studies component also, because now that they students have a planet it is time to colonize it. The social studies teacher has the students compare and contrast different types of governments and what influ- ences make a society. This information will be added to the student’s essay on the planet that they write for the language arts class. The essay the students write includes details on the appearance, climate, and physical details of the planet and the government, reli- gion, and society of the colony. Most students are able to successfully meet these requirements in five to six paragraphs. A secondary assignment includes having students create a travel brochure, advertisement, video, website, or song to try and convince others to come visit or join their colony. I

over

250fulldome live action and time lapse sequences online now!

allsky.de - t. kwasnitschka, w. ermgassen u. ges. gbr am doerpsdiek 37 24109 melsdorf / kiel phone: +49 700 allskyde fax: +49 4340 4192945 www.allsky.de [email protected]

34 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 35 tional scientists and teachers and a Toronto physics student, Leela. The message: Matter IMERSA News is the interconnectedness of particles; being connected is important—for matter, for people, and for the universe. Judith Rubin A team of 55 people also shot scenes on loca- Communications Director, IMERSA.org tion in India. According to Singer, “you need a [email protected] great team to produce great images.” They used standard tools and worked with Digital Fusion and DomeView, the Fulldome plug-in “Are we there yet?” According to Singer, the Live Images Enter the Fulldome for After Effects from the Navegar Founda- answer was, “Yes, we are! The technology and tion. “Whatever your equipment is, you also Repertoire the quality are there. There is no limitation need to think of the set, lighting, makeup and By Sarah E. Herbert and Judith Rubin for creativity. The time is now.” camera movements; you have to know how Since domes compete against other expe- to move and use your tools effectively, then Live images acquired for use in the digi- riences for entertainment dollars, it is impor- pixels and resolution are not as much of an is- tal dome—through panoramic photography, tant that their fulldome shows look good. sue,” says Singer. 2.5D, stop-action and live film—give storytell- Mascheri suggests “Seek out artists who can ers artistic options to help audiences relate to help compose shots. Sometimes we focus on Pano-photography their narratives more thoroughly. Pioneers the science so much that the art gets lost.” Winner of Best Film Design at DomeFest in the field bring biology, history, ecology, 2009, Crossing Worlds, from Hanson and xRez physics, and archeo-astronomy to life, com- Live action partner Greg Downing, resulted from a col- plementing classic planetarium fare. Offering Live-action material captured in front of laborative project that continues to evolve. subject matter that is compelling, engrossing a studio green screen for the movie Cosmic Downing spent 21 days with photographer and entertaining as well as educational gives Dance was composited with artistic 3D CG Vance Howard boating down the Colorado planetariums the edge when competing for backgrounds. “So the story is not just told River and shooting extensively. More than entertainment dollars. by the actors,” says Singer, “it is enhanced 30 scenes from the desert southwest were set Weighing in on why and how to use live through the relationship between the back- to music to raise public awareness of environ- images in fulldome production are: ground and the foreground.” mental issues at the Grand Canyon. •• Hypermedia Director Tito Dupret, Patrimo- Working with LivinGlobe, “Crossing Worlds was really a test bed for nium-mundi.org; the Canadian Museum of how to employ full feature-film effects to •• CEO Eric Hanson, Hindu Civilization in To- breathe life into the static images and create xRez Studios; ronto brings the concepts of meaningful content from them,” says Han- •• Fulldome Produc- quantum physics to life in son. “Fulldome is great for science, natural his- er & Technology Cosmic Dance through con- tory and cultural heritage. When you go to Consultant Matt versations between interna- terrestrial-based programming, there is a lot of Mascheri, Dome room to explore.” 3D; With Canon digital SLR cameras and a va- •• Digital Artist Mi- riety of lenses, they took overlapping shots chael Schmitt, to create 360° spherical panoramic images at California Acad- variable resolutions up to gigapixels, more emy of Sciences than enough for fulldome. “The exotic parts Visualization Stu- of our equipment, though,” reports Hanson, dios; and Direc- “are the robotic devices, like the Ger- tor Harald Singer, man-made Rodeon, a panoramic de- LivinGlobe. vice with programmable motors with a variety of control options for Artistry shooting.” In October 2011, IMERSA co-hosted Hanson and Downing take their pa- the Fulldome Summit at the Gates Plan- no-photography a step further when etarium in Denver, held concurrently they recreate with the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Fes- models of land- tival’s Symposium 2010 for Museum & scapes or objects Media Professionals. People from a variety of within a scene backgrounds presented their techniques, sto- using a digital el- rylines, artistry and ideas. evation model Each of the projects mentioned here was (DEM) that aligns discussed and it was widely agreed that shar- the terrain mod- ing experiences, trials and errors with others eling data with in the industry is key to pushing fulldome for- the high-resolu- ward. tion photo. Cin- A major question asked at the Summit was, ematic camera moves can then We progress seamlessly from the large to the microscopic with one camera move- be created from ment and no wipes, fades or cuts. Courtesy of the California Academy of Sciences

36 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 37 spherical panorama at 12000 x 6000 pixels us- sites, visiting more than 40 countries. “The ing PTGui. WH List is access to knowledge, history and Then they separated the panorama into ideas,” says Dupret. “It breaks down distanc- multiple layers with transparency masks uses and arguments, increases a sense of belong- ing Photoshop and Nuke. Next they recreat- ing.” ed the 3D geometry of the grove using Softim- The equipment and techniques Dupret uses age GATOR (geometry attribute transfer tool), are extraordinarily light and quick, allowing which uses a high-resolution texture projec- him to adapt himself to any place. He uses a tion from the spherical panorama as a refer- DSLR camera, monopod and fisheye lens, (AF ence. DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED). “With “It is easier to chop the photo into layers that,” he says, “I can go everywhere.” like a collage,” says Schmitt, “than to model He takes eight overlapping images, includ- the bark on the tree, the texture, the lighting, ing floor and ceiling, and stitches them to- etc. in CG. Using live shots mapped onto a 3D gether. The software can build the sphere and scene, we can get all the detail that’s there in stitch the images but Dupret prefers to do the the photo.” stitching himself in post production to ensure the imagery is seamless—an approach that en- Stop action ables him to work without a tripod. He uses The Dome 3D team used stop action to give bracketing in the darkest and lightest zones. Chicago audiences a new look at the everyday He finds planetariums ideal for giving people scenes around them in Second City, winner of a sense of our size in the universe and believes a 2009 Telly Award and a 2008 Domie Award. they can do the same for our sense of unity on Stop action, also known as time lapse, is an Earth. “I want to turn the camera from the gal- affordable way to bring live action into the dome. “Shoot for half a day, edit down to 45 sec- onds and you can show time passing with the rotation of the stars, the movement of the clouds or passing of shadows. And,” Mascheri says, “the audience feedback is great.” Dome masters from Second City, showing (Top) Most of the equipment used at the City Water Tower and (Bottom) the Crown Fountain in Chicago. Images courtesy Dome Dome 3D is off-the-shelf. Through 3D. trial and error they have found a variety of Nikon and Canon DSL- the single still image, or CGI can be used to Rs in the higher or mid-range that composite clouds or waterfalls into the scene. work well for them. It then becomes 2.5D. One piece though, the digital Red One camera, is unique. There 2.5D: More than 2D, less than 3D are only 8000 in the world, most- Life: A Cosmic Story, from the California ly used for shooting Hollywood Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, opens feature films. The Red One cap- with a shot of the redwoods of Bohemian tures high-resolution images (4K, Grove in California’s Muir Woods National compared to the 2K of an HD Monument. Slowly drifting toward one tree, camera) that are well suited to one branch, one leaf, the shot seamlessly en- fulldome shows, and is more por- ters a single open breathing pore and contin- table and less expensive than an ues to zoom into the molecular, biological IMAX or 35mm movie camera. structure of the cell. Mascheri asks, “If it exists, why Top: Panophotography at the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal by Tito Dupret projected at Gates Planetarium, Denver, Col- Going from the full tree to the microscop- recreate a site in CG when you orado (original photo ©Dupret; dome photo ©Dan Neafus, ic in 3.5 minutes with one camera movement can bring your audience there? DMNS). This domoscopic setup shows how panophotography and no wipes, fades or cuts was achieved by CGI has its place, but when pre- can document and illustrate the shrinking of the glacier. Bot- the film team—Lead Digital Artist Schmitt, Se- senting a subject such as archeo- tom: The same panophotography in a portable GeoDome at Discovery World, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (© David McConville/ nior Technical Director Jeroen Lapre and Data astronomy, for example, you can The Elumenati). Wrangler/Technical Director Matthew Black- show the audience the real Yucat- well—using 2.5D imaging. an Peninsula. It is an experience they can nev- axy to the Earth and use the WH sites and pa- With a Nikon D3X camera and a 17 mm lens, er have with CGI.” no-photography to give the audience the feel- they shot 37 views of the grove, each with five ing that they are not just part of one country, levels of bracketed exposure, to create texture On location but one Earth, to transfer national pride to maps of color and lighting. They combined Dupret captures images of the remote and planetary pride. As we look to the other plan- each view into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) fragile sites on the UNESCO World Heritage ets in our galaxy, we must remember that the image using Photomatix Pro, and stitched List to bring these places to audiences. So far Earth, too, is a planet in space, and we know so them all together into a 360° equirectangular he has been to more than 300 of the list’s 900 much about it already.” I

38 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 39 International News Lars Broman Teknoland and Strömstad Academy Stångtjärnsv 132 SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden +46 2310 177 [email protected], [email protected] www.teknoland.se, www.stromstadakademi.se

On 4 January, the sun rose around 10 a.m. as etarium hosted the opening ceremony of the usual at my northern location. But not so usu- largest and busiest ABP meeting ever. The 15th al, because it rose 85% eclipsed by the moon. Annual ABP meeting lasted for five days, and Unfortunately, Falun was completely those five days were great. overcast so the local newspaper journalist The Association of Brazilian Planetariums and photographer who visited me didn’t get was founded in 1996, so its 2010 annual meet- much more than a photo of a professor looking was its 15th gathering. Over 120 people ing slightly disappointed with unused observ- from all over Brazil attended, an all time re- ing gears in his hands. cord. Luckily, however, my former solar energy As distinguished guests, we had Tom Ma- AFP: Vincent Coutellier winner of the RSA Of- fer 2009, in front of the dome with the Cos- colleague Janne Paavilainen was at the same son, now past-president of IPS, who talked modyssee IV. Courtesy of Vincent Coutellier. time some 300 km (200 miles) southeast by about alien life forms; Dave Weinrich, now the shore of the Baltic Sea, and the clouds IPS president, who talked about science pop- there opened up so he could get some nice ularization in third world scenarios; and Pe- projects, and the winners were Aldo Cabanis photos of the event. dro Russo, global coordinator for the IYA2009, in 2008 and Vincent Coutellier in 2009. The The International News column is depen- who talked about science popularization in third contest opened in February 2011, and dent on contributions from IPS Affiliate As- the 21st century. the winner will be announced during the sociations all over the world. Many thanks This ABP meeting also tried to enlarge its next APLF meeting. to Agnès Acker, Vadim Belov, Bart Benjamin, boundaries, and we had panels and discussions The 27th APLF Conference will be held Ignacio Castro, Alexandre Cherman, Kevin with major players from the different levels inside the Palais de l’Univers et des Sciences Conod, John Hare, Shaaron Leverment, Loris of government (federal, state and municipal). (PLUS) in Cappelle-la-Grande, Dunkerque. Di- Ramponi, Alexander Serber, and Mike Smith The “How to insert planetarium shows in the dier Schreiner will organize the event, set for for your contributions to this column. context of the up and coming Brazilian movie 2-5 June 2011. Please contact him at Didier. Upcoming deadlines for International industry” panel was a major success, as was the [email protected] for more information. News are 1 April for Planetarian 2/2011 and 1 “Renewing Planetariums” discussion group Two 3-day trainings were organized by Li- July for 3/2011. Anyone who wants to contrib- that talked about digital versus classical proj- onel Ruiz and Yves Lhoumeau to introduce ute news from parts of the world where IPS ects for the old domes to be renewed. planetariums leaders and animators to the has no Association (see page 3) is welcome to fulldome video format. The 6 m (20 ft) Plane- send it to Martin George, martingeorge3@hot- Association of French-Speaking tarium of Marseille hosted the first workshop mail.com. Planetariums in November 2010) and the small Planetari- um of La Couyère (nearby Rennes) the second RSAcosmos announced very surprising in- one, held in December. The Lhoumeau’s LSS Association of Brazilian formation in 2007: a portable device, COS- projector and the software NightShade were Planetariums MODYSSEE IV (projector and dome), will used. The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium turned 40 be awarded to the best project of implant- The program was large, introducing by lec- this past November. And, on the exact day it ing a planetarium in France for three succes- tures and experimentation different types of was celebrating its anniversary, the Rio Plan- sive years. A dozen candidates presented their digital planetariums (fisheye, spherical mirror, multi- channel), digital imaging and how to use software, scripts specific for astronomy, dome-masters creation, ray-

ABP: (Left) Association of Brazilian Planetariums members celebrate their largest meeting ever by the domes of the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium. (Above) IPS President Tom Mason talks about Alien Lifeforms for a Brazilian audience. Photos by Filipe Mourão.

40 Planetarian March 2011 March 2011 Planetarian 41 of the study of the uni- Mountains. There is a small planetarium, a verse and was followed by public astronomical observatory, and the fa- a description of the new ap- mous Star Terrace where are exhibited the re- proaches which were to be productions of old astronomical instruments. the subject of the following Bed and meals in Crespano are very cheap and conferences. therefore we invite colleagues abroad to join Professor Gino Tos- us. ti spoke on “Studying the During the meeting it will be possible to Universe with Gamma present Skype messages. Thomas Kraupe, the Rays” at the second confer- future IPS president, will present a message de- ence, where he illustrated voted to the International Planetarium Soci- the research project he will ety. Planetarium manufacturers can present be working on during 2011 their products sending brochures or through in the United States. Pro- a communication by Skype. fessor Tosti will also be the Registration for societies is 100€ to distrib- speaker at the fifth meeting, ute materials and 250€ to present a communi- a videoconference from San cation, payable to Treasurer Walter Riva, wal- AFP: The digital workshop in the Marseille Planetarium. Notice the Francisco. [email protected]. For information about Foucault telescope in the background. Courtesy of Lionel Ruiz. The third conference was Crespano, try [email protected]. held by Professor Maurizio Biasini of INFN on the topic Association of Mexican tracing tools (Blender, Cinema 4D), digital vid- of “The Big Bang, Black Holes and Higgs Boson: Planetariums eo, the use of Scenario and timeline, realizing the Geneva Large Hadron Collider.” Professor As previously mentioned in the news col- an audio file, and analyzing digital shows. Biasini, who became the Italian scientific at- umn, AMPAC held its XXXIX meeting on 26- taché at CERN in January, explained how at- 27 November 2010 at the S.N.T.E. Planetarium Association of Italian Planetaria tempts are being made to shed light on aspects in San Luis Potosi, coinciding with the XXV The A. Volta Technical Institute and the of elementary particle physics which are still Anniversary of its foundation. Ignazio Danti Planetarium, in collaboration unknown and which are thought to be the Attending were representatives from 17 with the Astrophysics Section of the Physics key to understanding the formation of the planetariums throughout Mexico. A good Department of the University of Perugia, have universe, the nature of matter and of funda- year is in perspective for AMPAC as Eduardo organized a cycle of eight conferences held by mental interactions Hernandez informed in his annual report as speakers who are all experts involved in in- The International Day of Planetaria will be AMPAC president. Mainly, after the success- ternational research to acquaint secondary held on 20 March 2011. For more information, ful 2010 Stars Night, a better one was being school students and the general public with see www.dayofplanetaria.org. planned for 26 February 2011 with many plan- new approaches to the study of the cosmos. The XXVI national Meeting of Planit (Asso- etariums participating. Eduardo reported the Three conferences have already been held ciation of Italian Planetaria) will be held on 16 enterprising donation of Bushnell company during 2010, while another five will take place April in Padua and on 17 April in Crespano del representatives in Mexico of about 100 tele- during the first months of 2011. Grappa, near the city of Treviso and not so far scopes, 5 to 6 inches in diameter, to enhance Professor Maurizio Busso held the open- from Venice. In Padua will be held a short fes- planetarium activities. So far, 25 of them have ing conference, titled “The Study of the Uni- tival of fulldome shows produced abroad but been distributed. verse—New Methods for New Objectives, available in Italian language. A renovated AMPAC web site will be op- “which dealt with a brief historical outline Crespano is situated among the Grappa erational early in 2011 as soon as planetari-

AIP: (Left) Exchange elements of Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory in Geneva. (Right) At the Ignazio Danti Planetarium, where Professor Maurizio Bi- asini presented the lecture “The Big Bang, Black Holes and Higgs’ Boson: the Geneva Large Hadron Collider.” Photos by Simonetta Ercoli.

42 Planetarian March 2011 ums start sending information ant screen theater. The existing from their facilities, at www. community solar system will ampac.org.mx. A photo exhi- be rebuilt based on a 14-m (46- bition with 3D images from all ft) sun to be laid in concrete on planetariums in Mexico also is the plaza outside the new plan- being planned, so each planetarium. etarium can show its visitors In January, the Cernan Earth the location and facilities of & Space Center on the cam- other planetariums through- pus of Triton College in River out Mexico. Grove premiered the Detroit Amongst the AMPAC meet- Science Center’s Bad Astrono- ing highligths was the lecture my on an all-new three screen given by Dr. Arcadio Poveda video system. Ricalde from the National As- Indiana. This fall, the Ken- tronomy Institute UNAM on nedy Planetarium installed a Planetary Systems Around scale model solar system on other Stars. Participating plan- the Kennedy Academy play- etariums at the meeting shared ground. An 1.8-m (6-ft) sun rises their current activities and over the doorway, while small- projects being developed. er planet plaques are placed Fernando Serrano, director at their scale distance. Each of the Morelos Planetaium in plaque includes the planet’s AMPAC: AMPAC’s XXXIX Meeting at the S.N.T.E. Planetarium in San Luis Potosi, 26- Cuernavaca State of Morelos, 27 November 2010 Courtesy of Daniel Pichardo distance from the sun, diame- offered its facilities for AM- ter, and relative gravity. PAC’s 2011 meeting. Pending Mitch Luman from the Koch issues are the establishing of Planetarium in Evansville host- new bylaws concerning issues and responsi- Many other planetariums in the UK also are ed a Jupiter Watch on the evening of 23 Octo- bilities for hosting an AMPAC meeting site ac- finding the under 5 market to be a winner. ber. The two-hour event, which took place in cording to IPS similar regulations. Techniquest in Cardiff now has a vast array the museum’s parking lot, was held in coop- of in-house developed shows for little people. eration with their local astronomy club and British Association of Planetaria These include Pawprints in the Sky and Day welcomed about 70 people. The British Association of Planetaria is still Trip to the Moon, where children have to Michigan. The cold winds of late autumn growing, welcoming 5 new members in the help the main character decide what to take found the staff at Detroit’s Dassault Systèmes last 6 months. on her space adventure: heavy boots? an um- Planetarium busy with script work and vid- One new member is Alton Castle, now in brella? maybe a swimsuit?! eo editing for their newest show, Sun Struck- its 15th year as a residential youth centre for The Liverpool Museum Planetarium runs Fury of the Daystar, due to open in mid-2011. children aged 9 to 13. Each visitor gets a plane- Sunshine, which is an NSC Creative show for This show focuses on NASA’s Solar Dynamics tarium presentation and (weather permitting) nursery and infants. It gets a lot of repeat vis- Observatory and how SDO will advance our an observing session. The groups are lead by itors, about 10,000, which is around 11% of understanding of the sun. young people and, with large visitor numbers, their total visitors. Jen Longman from Liver- In Ann Arbor, the winter semester theme current work involves developing programs pool states “We like it for a variety of reasons: was water. To that end, the planetarium of- that can be delivered by non specialists in as- its shorter than our family shows so adds flex- fered Oasis in Space. tronomy. ibility to our scheduling, often people will In Battle Creek, the new Kingman Museum Other planetariums are promoting their as- come back and watch other shows after see- celebrated its grand re-opening in September. tronomy expertise and focusing planetarium ing this one, and it introduces really young The mezzanine level of the museum was com- shows, Q&A sessions and curriculum-related kids to astronomy by just showing them the pletely renovated and is home to several new activities around the new and growing Gener- beauty of a clear and un-light-polluted night exhibitions. Kingman has seen a dramatic in- al Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) sky, a rarity for visitors from my corner of the crease in visitation since the re-opening. Sara astronomy course. world.” Kubarek is the new educator and manager for Garry Mayes from Mobile Stars Planetari- youth programs for both the Kingman Muse- um particularly mentions how he has been Great Lakes Planetarium um and Leila Arboretum Society. able to support a GCSE course in its first year Association Since the 2009 GLPA conference at Bay by working closely with teachers by sharing Illinois. The William M. Staerkel Plane- City’s Delta College Planetarium, the projec- his previous knowledge and experience of the tarium at Parkland College opened 2011 with tion system has been upgraded to Evans & coursework to support new course sets ups. their World of Science lecture series, featur- Sutherland’s Digistar 4. The central projec- In other news, At-Bristol has launched a ing talks on the periodic table, the cow ge- tion pit has been removed and sixteen more new presenter-led planetarium show called nome, and the emerald ash borer. seats added in the center. A new five-button Little Stars aimed specifically at children un- Ground was broken for the new Peoria Riv- interactive system from E&S also has been in- der 5 and their families. The audiences are tak- erfront Museum on 7 September 2010, with stalled. en on a journey throughout the cosmos along a projected opening date of 20 October 2012. Grand Rapids’ Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium with the characters Ursa and Leo. The new museum will have three times the spent the first few weeks of autumn running These shows are also an integral part At- exhibit area, a 40-foot planetarium (with the back-to-back presentations of fulldome art in- Bristol’s new Toddler Days, which have prov- current Zeiss ZKP4/Quinto Powerdome Sys- stallations during the city’s second annual Art- en to be very successful. tem to be moved into the new dome), and a gi- prize event. During those 17 days, the Grand

March 2011 Planetarian 43 ed the skies of Glassboro New Jersey, Kim Small of the Upper Y o u n g s t o w n ’ s Dublin School District in Dresher, Pennsylva- Ward Beecher nia, and Don Knapp from the H.W. Ray Special Planetarium in Experiences Room at Centennial School Dis- October as the trict in Warminster, Pennsylvania. YSU staff ran Cal- Tentative plans include visits to the Johns- gary’s The Hal- ville Centrifuge and Science Museum (nadc- loween Show, museum.org) and to the National AeroSpace along with their Training and Research (NASTAR) Center own annual (www.nastarcenter.com). Nightlights. More The theme for the conference will be Edu- than 670 people cation in the Dark. Members will be offering attended five seat- their thoughts on using new technology as an ings for First Night educational tool, the current status of educa- Youngstown on tional standards, new ideas for planetarium New Year’s Eve. teaching, and more. For more information, e- At Bowling mail Keith Johnson [email protected] or Green State Uni- see the MAPS website for the latest informa- versity Planetari- tion: www.maps-planetarium.org. MAPS: the Planetarium at the Upper Dublin School District Planetarium in Dresh- um, Fall Fest 2010 Longtime MAPS member Tom Hamil- er, Pennsylvania. Photo by Philip Groce. featured encore ton has established a Planetarium Scholar- runs of four pro- ship Fund. The fund’s organizing statement grams that ex- says both the public and government need Rapids Public Museum, home of the Chaffee plore the Earth and sky. December brought to gain a better understanding of astrono- Planetarium, welcomed over 200,000 individ- the 21st annual run of BGSU’s own Secret of my and space related issues, particularly in uals. The remainder of the season was spent the Star. a world where many question whether the in the production for Our Bodies in Space, a Wisconsin/Minnesota. The Charles Hor- Apollo landings took place and others ques- show looking at the short- and long-term ef- witz Planetarium in Waukesha, Wisconsin tion whether ancient Mayan prophecies fore- fects of space on the human body. presented Aurora to the general public dur- tell doom from the skies. One of the ways such The Vollbrecht Planetarium in Southfield ing the month of November and The Season matters are confronted is from the nation’s presented eight shows for its Fall Series, in- of Light in December. In January, they pre- nearly three thousand planetariums. cluding those on UFOs & SETI, Interstellar sented Time Bandits for their annual Wauke- In order to enhance professional prepara- Travel & Nebulae, and Birth, Life and Death sha Jan-Boree festival. tion in the planetarium field, the Hamilton of the Milky Way. Congratulations to GLPA Past-President Planetarium Scholarship Fund hopes to pro- Ohio. The new planetarium person at the Gary Sampson, who was approved last sum- vide financial incentives for talented individ- University of Findlay’s Newhard Planetarium mer to be an official member on the Nation- uals to enter the field. Student stipends will is Dr. Todd C. McAlpine, who is also assistant al Science Teachers Association Informal Sci- be for one year, renewable, and will include a professor of Physics. ence Education Committee. paid, one-year membership in professional or- At Sandusky’s Sidney Frohman Planetar- In December, the Daniel M. Soref Planetar- ganizations in the planetarium field. ium, Lois Wolf ran Legends in the Autumn ium in Milwaukee presented Evans & Suther- Those interested in being considered for Skies as their fall public show. land’s Stars of the Pharaohs with the muse- a scholarship must complete an application Mythology is also in vogue at the Vandalia- um’s new Mummies of the World exhibit. form, available by email from tham153@hot- Butler Planetarium at Smith Middle School, After 30 years of service, the Paulucci Space mail.com, or by regular mail from Hamilton where Scott Oldfield told the stories of the Theatre in Hibbing, Minnesota closed at the Planetarium Scholarship Fund Inc., 153 Arlo Summer Triangle and gave lessons on the prop- end of November. Director Joel Carlson wrote Road, Staten Island, New York 10301, USA. (See erties of early autumn stars, then switched to that the current plan is to change to a “plan- story on page 24.) Perseus stories as the sky changed. etarium-on-demand” model where the plan- The North Museum of Natural History & The elementary program at the Shaker etarium will only be open by appointment Science Planetarium, Lancaster, Pennsylva- Heights High School Planetarium remains ac- from March through May. nia, started offering live theater as a result of a tive. Districts outside of Shaker are now using The UW-Milwaukee Manfred Olson Plane- three-year National Science Foundation grant the planetarium for their field trips. tarium started the year 2011 with An adven- called STEPS (Science Theater Education Pro- In September, Bryan Child, Joe Marencik, ture-the Odyssey told under the stars. Cel- gram System). The grant established a partner- and Gene Zajac helped with “International ebrating Hubble runs from late January to ship between the Space Science Institute, As- Observe the Moon Day” at Perry’s Monument early March, with HST images and a descrip- tronomical Society of the Pacific, SETI, the visitor’s center on Put-In-Bay (South Bass Is- tion of its most important scientific contribu- Association of Science-Technology Centers, land). tions. and eight museums nationwide, among oth- In early October, Joe DeRocher from Cuy- er institutions. ahoga Community College gave a presenta- Middle Atlantic Planetarium The STEPS collaboration created three the- tion to the Cleveland Astronomical Society Society atrical stories on astrobiology (Planet Hunt- titled “December 2012: The End of the World- The annual MAPS Conference will be co- er, Extrem-O-What? and Mars Interrupted) Again?” Joe explained the science and non-sci- hosted by three school planetariums in the while creating an innovative way of com- ence of the upcoming Mayan Calendar event Philadelphia area 4-7 May 2011. The confer- bining live actors, digital characters, science, of December, 2012. ence hosts will be Keith Johnson of the Edel- audience participation, and high definition Holly Ween and Jack O’Lantern navigat- man Planetarium at Rowan University in quality visuals in a museum setting. For more

44 Planetarian March 2011 NPA: (Left) Planetarium educators Louise Buhre and Henrik Stigberg with Rector Ola Nilsson, Strömstad Gymnasium, during the inauguration of Stella Nova Plan- etarium. (Right) The first class visiting Stella Nova Planetarium at Strömstad Gymnasium on the day of inauguration. Photos by Kari Holmwall, Strömstads Tid- ning. information regarding the project, visit www. in Strömstad, Sweden on 8 November 2010. in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, stepsproject.org. The planetarium, with a 5-m (17 ft) Eurodome Ufa, Yaroslavl, Tomsk, Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Lee Ann Hennig was one of only a few per- and a standard STARLAB projector, had pre- Kaluga, Samara, and Aqtobe, as well as by such sons selected from a very large pool of appli- viously been owned and run by Teknoland, honored guests as Pilot-Cosmonaut Grego- cants nationwide to participate in the de- and it was a donation from Strömstad Acad- ry Grechko and Colonel Anatoly Bykov, Ga- velopment of the New National Science emy to the Strömstad Gymnasium (senior garin’s classmate at the Orenburg Air Force Standards as a primary reviewer for the draft high school). The planetarium will not be set Academy. copies. up permanently, but once in a while for 1-2 The conference attendees visited Soyuz, The Arlington, Virginia Planetarium was weeks at the time. It will be used primarily for Proton, and Zenit launch sites (the first one is threatened with closure following the 2009 educational programs. also called the Gagarin Launch Site), the oper- school year. Since the last update in the Plan- During the inauguration, there was music ations and checkout facilities of these launch- etarian, they have received a $100,000 dona- by a local brass band, a popular lecture called ers, and observed a launch of a Soyuz rocket tion to help keep the planetarium open. Great Cosmos by Strömstad Academy Rector with a cargo spacecraft Progress M08M No. Spitz, Inc. was recently involved with the Lars Broman, a ribbon cutting by Strömstad 408 on 27 October. installation of four new planetariums (St. Vin- Gymnasium Rector Ola Nilsson, and a pre- Moscow. The opening of the big Moscow cent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Brou- miere planetarium program by Louise Buhre Planetarium has been officially postponed to ghal Middle School, Bethlehem, Pennsylva- and Henrik Stigberg. More information is April 2011 because of the large volume of con- nia; Mary Hooker Environmental School, available from [email protected]. struction work to be done. Hartford, Connecticut; and Robinson Nature Nordic and Baltic planetarians are going Izhevsk. A planetarium opened in this city Center NatureSphere, Columbia, Maryland). to meet for their biennial conference at Teh- on 10 October 2010. Over 100 school classes Three additional planetariums—Lebanon noannas Pagrabi (Children’s Science Centre, visited it during the first 40 days of operation. High School, Pennsylvania; Lincoln Univer- www.pagrabi.lv) in Riga, Latvia 2-4 September Kirov. The 50th anniversary of the Kirov sity, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania; and 2011. During these days there will be an NPA Planetarium was celebrated 20-21 December. Montour High School, McKees Rocks, Penn- membership meeting to elect a new board for A festive concert was delivered at the school sylvania—are scheduled for new construction the next two years, several lectures, presenta- hall comprising the planetarium. The jubilee later this year. tions, discussions about topical planetarium guests visited the Regional Cosmonautics Mu- Fernbank Science Center is gearing up with issues, and some local excursions. seum, which is fairly rich with show pieces. programs for their area’s schools which are Delegates also will visit the Tehnoannas Kirov is known as the city of teenage years of aligned with the science performance stan- Pagrabi interactive exhibition. The program, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the place where he dards for that grade. In February, Fernbank registration and accommodation details will started thinking of space flights. worked with Brownie Scouts on their Science follow in Planetarian 2-2011. In the meantime, Nizhny Novgorod. A new synthetic show, Wonders Try-It. more information is available from confer- Starlight Music, by the Nizhny Novgorod April Whitt will be giving a teacher work- ence host Dace Balodi, [email protected]. Planetarium, has become extremely popular shop for the Georgia Association of Science in the city. The first run was performed at the Teachers. Focus is on the MESSENGER craft Russian Planetarium Association International Day of Music, celebrated on 1 going into orbit around Mercury this March, Aqtobe – Baikonur (Kazakhstan). The re- October every year since 1975 by the decision and the New Horizons on its way to Pluto. search and practice conference 50 Star Years, of UNESCO. The show was presented to pub- The Fernbank Science Center also pro- dedicated to the forthcoming 50th anniversa- lic four times until the end of 2010. It harmo- duced a new family program for Black History ry of the first manned spaceflight by Yuri Ga- nizes The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, Month, Stories of Africa, that features on ani- garin, was held in Kazakhstan 24-28 October played live by the Nizhny Novgorod Cham- mals telling stories about the stars. 2010. It was organized by the Russian Plane- ber Orchestra Solisty, and a fulldome vid- tarium Association and the Aqtobe Regional eo based on high-resolution images of stellar Nordic Planetarium Association Planetarium and attended by 33 Russian and clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. Stella Nova Planetarium was inaugurated Kazakh creative specialists from planetariums World Space Week, 4-10 October, at the Ni-

March 2011 Planetarian 45 zhny Novgorod Planetarium was marked by a visit by Nikolai Samus, leading scientist at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University and co-chair of the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society. He delivered a public lecture on variable stars and related space projects. The first contest of young astronomers and cosmonauts with schoolchildren from Nizhny Novgorod and Chelyabinsk participating was held on 2-5 November. The guests from Chelyabinsk picked up skills in manual in-orbit spaceflight control and docking to ISS using the Soyuz- TMA spacecraft flight simulator, participated in a quiz and a best-docking contest, and visited a few Nizhny Novgorod museums. Pilot-Cosmonaut Major-General Victor Gorbatko, Chief ISS Flight Control Specialist Victor Blagov and Head of Cosmonaut Training De- partment Sergay Bronnikov from S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corpo- ration Energia, and Vice-President of the Russian Cosmonautics Federa- tion Valerian Tikhonov visited the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium on 10 December. The visit included a city tour, a meeting with schoolchildren, and a press conference. The forthcoming Russian Cosmonautics Year (RCY-2011) was welcomed at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium by the new theatrically-animated fulldome show The Rocket New Year Tree. The show is dedicated for children of age 7-11 was demonstrated to public for the first time on 17 December as a philanthropic presentation and was included in the planetarium schedule until 9 January 2011. Novosibirsk. The exhibition City of Astronomy was open for the public at the Novosibirsk City Museum 1-15 September 2010. Its aim was to highlight the history and present state of astronomy in Novosibirsk. Penza. The planetarium in this city has been closed because of the ultimate limit state of the building. Vladimir. Patrick Buzzard, NASA Russia Representative, visited the Vladimir Planetarium on 30 September 2011. He delivered a lecture for schoolchildren and answered their questions.

Southeastern Planetarium Association Steve Morgan reports that planning is well underway for the 2011 SEPA conference to be held 21-25 June at the Rollins Planetarium at Young Harris College, Georgia. Young Har- ris is located in the high-mountains in north Georgia, a scenic two-hour drive from Atlan- ta, George; Asheville, North Carolina; Green- ville, South Carolina; and Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee. In keeping with the lofty location, the conference theme is Creating Mountaintop Ex- SEPA: Steve Morgan, periences. The host facility opened in 1979 director of the Rollins and underwent equipment upgrades in 2002 Planetarium and host of the next SEPA con- and 2008. The 12-m (40-ft), 109-seat theater ference. Photo by John features a GOTO Chronos star projector and Hare a Sky-Skan Definiti DLP 6-Plus fulldome digital system. The conference registration fee will be in the $250 range and will cover all meals and conference activities, including a field trip to the Tellus Museum and Planetarium in Cartersville, Georgia and an observing session from the summit of Brasstown Bald Mountain, elevation 1,458 m (48,600 ft). The conference hotel is the elegant Brasstown Valley Resort & Spa situated about 1.5 km (1 mile) from the planetarium. Single or double occu- pancy rooms are $143. On-campus dormitory accommodations are available for $50 per night. RPA: (Top) Opening of the conference at Aqtobe. Left to right: Z.P. Sitkova, V.V. Be- Further information regarding SEPA and the 2011 conference lov, A.A. Bykov, G.M. Grechko, and K.Sh. Bulekov. Courtesy of Dmitry Alyoshin. (Cen- ter) Conference attendees at the Gagarin launch site. (Bottom) Vadim Belov, Sec- is available at SEPA’s website, sepadomes.org. I retary of the RPA Board, at the control board of the Buran space shuttle. All photos courtesy of Anatoly Denisov.

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FULLDOME www.spitzinc.com/fulldome_shows March 2011 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION47 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 •• affect the brain’s center which is responsi- Mobile News ble for creativity development Rakoczy states, “If knowledge is considered to be food for thought, music is said to be the digestive system that is responsible for mak- Susan Reynolds Button ing sure that is integrated appropriately.” Quarks to Clusters This is all good information for us; it vali- 8793 Horseshoe Lane dates what we intuitively already knew and Chittenango, New York 13037 USA encourages us to continue to cross-pollinate our lessons with science and music. +1 315-687-5371 Contact Information: email: denise@star- [email protected], [email protected] sonthemove.com; website: www.starsonthe- move.com Symphony of Science: Scientific “How does music affect the brain?” by Chris- Resources: knowledge through music ty Rakoczy that summarizes current research •• www.symphonyofscience.com I recently discovered the existence of an- I have been reading about in local newspapers •• answers.yourdictionary.com/science/how- other delightfully interesting website by fol- and science magazines. does-music-affect-the-brain.html lowing my curiosity. Rakoczy states, “Music is said to influence •• www.calprog.com/music_and_the_brain. Denise Vacca posted a note on the Middle the process of thinking and learning. If while htm Atlantic Planetarium Society’s listserve and I working you listen to soothing songs, the mu- •• www.thefreelibrary.com/Science+ wanted to know more about Denise and her sic may help you think better, analyze mat- News/2010/August/14-p510 program. Seeing “Stars on the Move” as part of ters faster, and work more efficiently.” the email she provided, I googled “Stars on the Rakoczy reports that, according to research, Dabbling in the digital world Move” and, sure enough, she had a website. music can: In some regions of the world, digital por- I read: “Stars on the Move is a portable plane- •• promote a positive mood and attitude table planetariums are “invading” territories tarium service owned and operated by Denise •• give an overall sense of motivation that are already served by analog planetari- Vacca. Denise has over 15 years experience in •• make activities seem more manageable to ums. I am discovering that many times they astronomy education. As producer at the Fels accomplish appear on the scene unannounced and are un- Planetarium at the Franklin Institute Science •• encourage people to explore different fields cooperative with regard to collaborating with Museum, Denise has worked with schools, ed- •• boost confidence and aid in achieving more existing planetariums. ucators, and public audiences. She has pro- success in endeavors They present themselves as newer, more duced, presented and developed numerous as- •• heighten self-trust modern and updated; sometimes they are just tronomy shows, as well as special programs •• sharpen personal discipline. a movie theater with a person who pushes a and activities for space-related events. •• aid in the studying of math button. Schools are then enticed by the glitter “Denise opened her own planetarium in •• stimulate the areas of the brain that are re- of this new technology and will no longer use 2004 and continues to delight and educate sponsible for thinking, planning, and an- the services of the trained educator running a thousands of children and adults with enter- alyzing and thus improve organizational non-digital planetarium. taining astronomy programs.” skills While I believe both systems, if used well, Then, as I perused her website, I found a link •• help improve memory and concentration are valuable and I would hope that we all to something called “The Symphony of Sci- work together, the reality is some- ence.” Being interested in both music and sci- times when money is tight it is a ence, I, of course, clicked on the link. “dog eat dog world” and we must be The welcoming words on this website state, willing to be flexible and ready to “The Symphony of Science is a musical proj- compete. ect headed by John Boswell, designed to de- One of the lower cost ways to liver scientific knowledge and philosophy in compete is to use a computer and musical form. Here you can watch music vid- video projector to replace slides and eos, download songs, read lyrics and find links to project short animations or mov- relating to the messages conveyed by the mu- ies as part of your lesson. sic. The project owes its existence in large mea- Another way is to assemble a mir- sure to the wonderful work of Carl Sagan, Ann ror projection system. In 2003, Paul Druyan, and Steve Soter, of Druyan-Sagan As- Bourke developed this projection sociates, and their production of the classic technique and has generously pub- PBS Series Cosmos, as well as all the other fea- lished articles on how to assemble tured figures and visuals.” such a system. (Planetarian, Decem- I spent the next hour navigating this site ber 2005) and watching the videos. I thoroughly en- A resource exists closer to home joyed the experience and encourage you to for me. Alan Hunter replaced me as visit it too! We all know the affective benefits the OCM BOCES portable planetar- of including music in our programs and it al- ium outreach educator. I knew that ways nice to see someone else’s creative way Alan was experimenting with new of doing this. technology, so I went to interview It is serendipitous the way things seem to him and find out how the program come together. I recently read an article called Alex Hunter. Photo by Susan Button was faring.

48 Planetarian March 2011 Sadly, I discovered that due to the econom- Alan does not like the digital starfield this ask it to do too much too fast. ic crisis in many school districts the program system provides, so he only uses the system at Since the system is made up of component has been reduced to only 60 planetarium the high school level now for daytime lessons parts, Alan could gradually upgrade the mir- days. Alan generally uses a STARLAB fiberarc of tracking the seasonal sun’s paths and show- ror or computer or the LCD projector over projector and the STARLAB digital dome. He ing altitude and azimuth measurements. He time to make a high quality system that could really likes the starfield and finds the projec- likes the look of the digital sun as it travers- replace the analog system entirely if that was tor very durable. Although he has had to re- es the sky. desirable. place the auxiliary projector bulbs, he finds He tried using the digital nighttime sky I asked, “How many days do you teach and that the main bulb seems to last forever—so with some primary level students and it was how many high school days? And he replied, far two years. He reports that the side lamps nice for connecting the stars to show constel- “Out of 60 planetarium days, I teach high are also durable and adjust nicely to prevent lations, but he feels that the nighttime sky school on 6 of them and use my mirror sys- glare in student’s eyes. looks too “cartoonish” and distorted to him, tem on just 3 days.” When asked, “What do the I invited Alan to attend a Great Lakes Plan- especially when compared to his fiberarc teachers say about the added digital sun and etarium Association meeting a couple of years which provides such a nice starfield. He also seasons or any other digital you have used? Do ago and there he met the folks from e-Plane- says that the mirror has a flaw that he can de- they like it/feel it is more effective? He said, tarium. Although disappointed with digital tect, but the students do not seem bothered “Strangely, they say very little. One teacher stars, he was interested in finding out more in- by it during the daytime lesson. liked it but the few others didn’t express any formation about other capabilities of digital Alan sets the mirror system by the door- comments about it on their evaluations.” systems. way; the southern sky is projected on the op- I asked if he has the fiberarc set up alongside One employee explained how easy it would posite side of the dome. He places the mirror the mirror system and he said no. He presents be for Alan to put together a low cost mirror on an old camp table he already had; it folds all the classes on the sun’s path on one day, system. So Alan went back and purchased a se- up for transport and is the perfect height to al- then packs up the system and replaces it the curity mirror from our local business supply low for the LCD projector to be placed on top next day with the fiberarc. He presents night store (Staples) for $44 US and the highest def- of the fiberarc projector box. He sets the com- sky lessons on the second day. He uses the vid- inition and brightest LCD projector BOCES puter on a lower/smaller camp table or on a eo projector to show short clips on the plane- could afford (now about $400 US) and, using plastic tub (Rubbermaid) that has a nice lip tarium wall. his existing laptop from BOCES, he set up his around the top which prevents the computer He stores his videos on his iphone along mirror system. He is using the Stellarium free- from sliding off. He did say that since the com- with music he uses before or during the les- ware, which has built in warping settings that puter is old, the processor is too slow and will son. One of his favorite songs for the high provides fulldome projection capability. sometimes freeze. He has to be careful not to school students is “The Stars are Ours” by The

March 2011 Planetarian 49 Nylons; he sets the sky so that the referenced You must also include the text of a 60-min- constellations are there to see. You can hear it ute lesson plan, with activities and stories that at www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbGx4Ssylvg you would like to present for the students. Later I asked, “How do you use the iphone Planetarians are encouraged to apply many for the music and videos? What speakers are times with the idea that “if at first you don’t you using for sound? Do you connect the ip- succeed, try, and try again.” You can always hone to your computer with a short USB ca- ask for comments from us about how to make ble? Did I see velcro on the back of your ip- your application stronger. hone? Do you velcro it to the side of the Send your application to: Loris Rampo- projector case?” ni, Osservatorio Serafino Zani, Via Bosca 24, Alan replied, ”You need the correct cable 25066 Lumezzan, Italy; [email protected] for the iphone or ipod. Believe it or not, I got or [email protected]. mine at Walmart (discount department store). Additional deadlines for the “Week in Italy” I also got my “boom box” at Walmart for $30 experience are: US. All you need is one with an auxiliary in- •• 31 August. Deadline for the applicants of put or an ipod/iphone input. Yes, I use velcro “An experience in Italy for a French Speak- to hold my phone where I want it, not just for ing Planetarium Operator”, in collabora- the planetarium but in my vehicles too.” tion with APLF. He also told me the iphone is really useful •• 30 September. Deadline for the applicants of when a student asks a question he cannot im- This is Alan’s method of setting up his mir- “An experience in Italy for a British Planetari- mediately answer; he can look it up on the ror system. Diagram by Susan Button um Operator”, in collaboration with BAP. I web and provide the answer by the end of the lesson! Scriptwriters, continued from Page 22) I use to carry carpet in my van when I went chase the following domes without having to schools to dampen the echo in the dome to purchase the projector at the same time. If your originality and inspiration. and to provide warmth. I found that sponge- anyone knows of other domes that are avail- backed carpet held odors and no matter how able please let me know. More complete infor- Awards and visibility at IPS 2012 they were cleaned they still smelled badly af- mation also will be posted on the IPS Portable We look forward to receiving many entries ter awhile. Alan does not use that carpet any Planetarium Committee web page for all who for the competition. Thanks to support from more for that reason. I asked “How is the no are interested. the Eugenides Foundation, the prize mon- carpet thing working; do people complain of •• STARLAB Domes, www.starlab.com/domes. ey (US $1,500 for first place and $500 for sec- the cold or mind sitting on the bare floor?” htm ond) is attractive, but there is much more in He said, “No one has said anything regard- •• Digitalis Domes, digitaliseducation.com/ the basket than just money. You will be in the ing the lack of carpeting, nor has it come up domes.html spotlight, both at the awards ceremony at the on the evaluations. Of course I make sure I •• Go-Dome, www.go-domes.com upcoming IPS 2012 conference (July 22-26 in have cushions and or chairs for the teachers.” •• Quim Guixà Domes, www.quimguixa.com, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) and in our IPS I told him that I found that the jute-backed [email protected]. You must email for Planetarian magazine with worldwide im- carpet did much better but was heavy and in- complete information and pricing. pact! flexible to load in the car. Some people use in- And here is additional incentive: think door/outdoor carpet or carpet squares. Opportunities about your schedule. If you have a new show He said, “I actually thought about carpet Don’t forget to register for the Live, Inter- ready to premiere at IPS 2012 and if the script squares and contacted flooring dealer and was active Planetarium Symposium (LIPS), August for this show is entered before the deadline, told they would give me the old carpet sam- 9-11 in Bremerton, Washington. LIPS is being then you might get even greater attention and ples to use. By the time I pursued them, they hosted by Digitalis, but the event is vender recognition! The Script Committee is ready to were out of business.” neutral. (Go to lipsymposium.org/LIPS) talk to you about this and will certainly help Resources for spherical mirror projection “The attendees will choose what is on the to make this happen, since we all would want systems: schedule. How will they do this? By proposing to see shows based on great ideas/scripts. •• www.ips-planetarium.org/fulldome a session they wish to lead, requesting a ses- •• local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/miscella- sion to be led by someone else, and finally by Scriptwriting at IPS 2012 neous/domemirror choosing which sessions they want to attend. Our committee also is planning to host •• local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/miscella- Note: Attendees must first register in order to a workshop on scripwriting at IPS 2012, for neous/domemirror/faq.html propose, request, or choose sessions.” which we are planning to feature high-pro- •• tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/small_plan- Start planning now for the September 15 file storyboarders and writers from outside etarium deadline for “A Week in Italy for an American the field, from theaters, movies and radio/TV Planetarium Operator.” This exciting oppor- to the gaming arenas, to inspire us and locate Domes, domes, domes tunity has been offered since 1995 and we are similarities and differences we can learn from. Most portable planetarium manufacturers grateful to all the planetarians in Italy who en- This also underscores that a script is not just sell their projectors with a dome. I have pro- able us to continue to provide such a life-alter- a script—it is the core and seed for our immer- vided the current list of those manufacturers ing experience to some very gifted educators. sive multisensual theatrical experience we are on the IPS Portable Planetarium Committee Participants must send an application that staging in our planetariums. web page (www.ips-planetarium.org/or/com- includes full name, complete address, year of Be sure that you do not miss out earning ex- ms/portablecom.html). birth and curriculum vitae. Send this informa- tra prestige for you and your planetarium— Others sell their domes separately or are tion along with a cover letter explaining why be creative and enter your script before De- strictly dome manufacturers. You can pur- you wish to be considered for this experience. cember 31! I

50 Planetarian March 2011 ample, there are only two types of lunar eclips- Book Reviews es—total and partial. The Pleiades are referred to as an asterism, in addition to being a collection of stars known as an open cluster. His star chart shows the position of M13, but there is no information April S. Whitt on the page as to what it is. Likewise for M22. Fernbank Science Center They are both just listed as “clusters,” then ex- 156 Heaton Park Drive NE plained near the end of the book. And An- dromeda isn’t depicted at all on the charts, but Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA it gets a word in the galaxies section. [email protected] Despite those bits, it is a good little introduction to the sky for the very beginner. Also, Innovation in Astronomy The Naked-Eye Sky some of his images are very good, such as his sundog, earthshine and sunset shots, although Education (No Telescope Needed) his moon simulation collage, despite the shots Edited by Jay M. Pasachoff, Rosa M. Ros and James R. Sowell, published by Sowell & Sons being good, would be confusing to someone Naomi Pasachoff, Cambridge University Press, Publishing, Atlanta, Georgia, 2008, and Classic trying to understand phases, a very tricky 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-88015-2, US $131.00 Printing, Nashville, Tennessee, 2010, ISBN 978- problem for all ages. Reviewed by Angela Sarrazine, Fernbank 0-615-33181-2, softbound, US $24.95. I wouldn’t recommend giving this to a Science Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- young person as a first astronomy guide, but ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, for an adult looking for a new hobby, this Innovation in Astron- Rhode Island, USA. might be a good introduction. omy Education is based on the proceedings of Notice part of the name of this a conference on educa- book: “No Telescope Needed.” In- The Quantum Frontier: tion in astronomy con- deed, no telescope is needed to be- The Large Hadron Collider ducted by the Interna- gin to enjoy the beauty of the sky. Do Lincoln, Johns Hopkins University Press, tional Astronomical James Sowell, in this short and Baltimore, 2009, ISBN 13: 978-0-8018-9144-1, Union’s Commission in quick volume, has made an intro- ISBN 10: 0-8018-9144-2. US $25.00 August of 2006. The book is broken Reviewed by Dave Hostetter, Lafayette Plane- into four parts: gener- tarium, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. al strategies for effective teaching, connect- This is a very clear book about the Large ing astronomy with Hadron Collider and the science behind it. the public, effective use Covering topics of instruction and in- from quarks to the formation technology, equipment and de- and practical issues connected with the im- tectors of the LHC, plementation of 2003 IAU resolution on the this could be a re- Value of Astronomy Education. ally dry book, but The introduction of each section is a thor- Lincoln manages ough and well organized overview of the arti- it all with a light cles that follow, allowing the reader to quick- touch and even ly ascertain which papers will be most useful. some humor. Innovation contains great articles on astrono- duction to the sky for nothing but your To his cred- my throughout history and across several cul- eyeballs. Also, he takes time to show it, he wastes little tures. Throughout the text, a wide variety of what can often be seen in the daytime. time on the many countries are represented and several educa- Of course, there’s the sun (the observa- fears concerning tional models and programs are described. tion of which, unfortunately, he gave the Large Hadron One advantage to the reader is the inclusion no caution) with rainbows and sun Collider. That gets of names and contact information for each ar- dogs. about a page in ticle’s author. If a program or an idea inspires Then comes night, starting with the the prologue. After the reader, he/she can potentially locate an moon, with its phases, eclipses and tides. The that, it’s off to the good stuff! expert to learn more information about an next step is to go beyond the moon to the Lincoln divides his topic into basic, well- existing program. constellations. For these, the author breaks focused chapters: What We Know, What We Innovation also includes great articles on them up into five sets: each of the four seasons Guess, How We Do It, How We See It, and the incorporation of sound into the astrono- and the zodiacal; he does acknowledge the cir- Where We’re Going. my classroom and edible astronomy demon- cumpolar set, but feels more comfortable add- What We Know is an introduction to the strations. (Popcorn radioactivity was a partic- ing them as part of spring and autumn. Standard Model. It has probably the best de- ular favorite with this reader.) Anyone looking Although this book is a good introduction scription that I’ve seen of quarks, leptons, for new ideas, resources, internet sites, and ac- for the very beginner, it might benefit from force carriers, and other particles. Protons, tivities would be well-advised to find a copy different organization. In addition to no cau- neutrons, and quarks are there, as is matter of this book. tion with respect to the sun, he notes, for ex- and anti-matter. Although the book is essen-

March 2011 Planetarian 51 tially math-free, there are plenty of helpful di- weather delay at Houston International Air- asm shows through. Imagine the privilege of agrams and tables to help the reader keep all port. I won’t say it made the time fly by (noth- visiting Mt. Wilson, Paranal, Mauna Kea, and these admittedly exotic concepts straight. ing was flying by that day), but it sure held my the Large Hadron Collider in addition to trav- With the basics under control, the reader attention. It does require your concentration, eling the world to a dark matter experiment then leaps off into the unknown with What but I don’t think I have read a better introduc- buried deep underground, to neutrino detec- We Guess. There’s a discussion of some of the tion to the LHC and its related science. I rectors in the ice at the South Pole and in the wa- basic physics the LHC is designed to study— ommend it. ters of Lake Baikal, and to the South African he origin of mass, the possible unification of Karoo (a possible site for the proposed Square forces at high energies, The Edge of Physics: Kilometer Array). and the possibility that The story of the travel was interesting in it- matter might be broken A Journey to Earth’s self. I had no idea that planes landing at the down beyond quarks Extremes to Unlock the South Pole Station don’t cut their engines for and leptons—but Lin- Secrets of the Universe fear that they might freeze and not restart. coln also makes it very Anil Ananthaswamy, Houghton Or that they don’t stay parked for over a half clear that the LHC is a Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2010, hour to prevent the skis from freezing to the discovery machine. ISBN 978-0-618-88468-1, US $25.00. ice. Sure, there are cer- Reviewed by Dave Hostetter, For that matter, it never occurred to me that tain questions physi- Lafayette Planetarium, Lafayette, people camping on the ice of Lake Baikal like cists hope it will answer, Louisiana, USA. to hear the ice cracking around them because but they will also have it means the ice is solid and moving with the to be alert to things we This is supposed to be a book water; if the ice doesn’t crack, it means the have not really imag- about experiments in cosmolo- cracks are getting big and it’s probably time to ined yet. However, the gy and particle physics designed consider alternate lodging. book’s concentration is to test ideas such as string theory, In many ways, though, this book is a very on what they do hope multiverses, dark matter, dark en- human story of science and the people who to find, from the Higgs ergy, and more. That’s all here and plan it and do it. In many cases they are doing Boson to supersymmet- very well done. But the book is re- ground-breaking work and some of the things ric particles and to sub- ally about the scientists themselves, their cre- they may find could be profound. It’s good to quarks. ativity, and, in many cases, their passion for get to know them a bit. How We Do It is about the LHC itself. Lin- their work. This is a well-written book that is not just coln starts out with electric and magnet- The author must have had the adventure of a good, popular level book about cosmology ic fields, and guides the reader through elec- a lifetime doing his research, and his enthusi- and physics—it’s also a good read. I tromagnets to superconductivity and how these can be used to create and focus a particle beam. Because much of the LHC uses tun- nels from earlier CERN accelerators, the chap- (Planetarians Without Borders, continued from Page 28) ter finishes with a very brief history of CERN and those earlier accelerators. This could all be bringing together planetariums around the while reading poetry under a starry dome; really slow reading, but it isn’t. globe in ongoing programs and events meant •• Searching for New Skies: A chance for audi- The heart of the LHC is the system of im- to be sustainable even beyond the month. ences to experience whole new skies-specif- mense detectors designed to reveal whatever A growing list of global programs are sched- ically, other peoples’ skies-during the same comes out of the particle beam collisions. How uled. The month kicks off with the “lord of global celebration; We See It starts with an overview of ways par- the rings” April 2-3, a Saturn Watch. •• Dark Skies Awareness: How is your sky? An ticles can be detected and then goes into the On April 9 is a global star party, the night event combining the sky of the planetari- nuts and bolts of the LHC detectors. to set up telescopes and share the wonders of um and the real sky, creating awareness for Some of these are immense. The Compact the sky with others. From April 10-16 it’s Lu- preserving night skies, especially in big cit- Muon Solenoid is 65 feet (19.8 meters) long, nar Week, when our gaze turns toward Earth’s ies; 48 feet (14.6 meters) in diameter, and weighs natural satellite. On April 17 we switch from •• SunDay: Promote, on during SunDay, a 12,500 tons (over 11,000,000 kilograms); AT- night to day, dedicating special events to our planetarium show dedicated to the sun and LAS is nearly twice as big, although weighing closest star on SunDay. invite audiences to “get to know your star.” “only” 7,000 tons (over 6,000,000 kilograms)! On April 21-22, get comfortable in some- These are only some ways you and your Illustrations bring this size home by including thing warm and spend the night scanning the planetarium can celebrate Global Astrono- humans to scale. Descriptions of how these sky for meteors during Lyrids Watch. my Month, but we want to hear more. Plane- and other detectors work are clear and under- Wondering what to do during GAM for tarians around the world are already doing so standable. your planetarium? Within the global pro- many creative initiatives and doing it so well; This is all very nice, but one might wonder gram described above there are some projects we invite you to share with us your GAM and how this fits into astronomy and the planetar- for planetariums you might want to add to become an inspiration to the community. ium. That’s in the last chapter, Where We’re your list of activities and join us in this cele- All planetariums—traditional and dig- Going, which includes a lengthy discussion of bration during April: ital, big domes and portable ones—are dark matter and how the LHC might be used •• Cosmic Concert: You can enjoy an online asked to join the project planning and to search for it. That’s followed by dark ener- “Cosmic Concert”— a live piano solo per- shape Planetarians Without Borders. Join gy, and ways it might be related to the Higgs formance—and broadcast it in your plane- us and tell us how you think it should be. field and LHC’s search for the Higgs particle. tarium; More information is available from Astrono- I read much of The Quantum Frontier: •• Astropoetry sessions: transform your plan- mers Without Borders at www.astronomer- The Large Hadron Collider during a five hour etarium to combine images/video/stars swithoutborders.org, and from the author. I

52 Planetarian March 2011 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 www.antares-fulldome.com

March 2011 Planetarian 53 Contact: Alexander Zaragoza - [email protected] - tel. (+34) 933 323 000 - Barcelona, Spain aMuseum box.” in South Korea. ToSoftmachine find the also page, has search for “Original Waxing New Haydenwelcomed Planetarium” Mia Wues on- Facebook. teney as the new distri- An eclectic collection of news about planetariums and people Realmbution of and Life marketing wins award coordinatorCongratulations at its head to - Softmachine, whose fulldomequarters in Munich,Realm Ger of- Light–Amany. Brief History I of Mia Wuesteney Boston’s Hayden Re-opens projector and tronaut.perform He other was upgrades. serving as a pay- Life won the Best Mov- Congratulations to Planetarium Director Approximatelyload $162,000specialist. is needed to finish ie Award at the 2010 In- David Rabkin, Planetarium Systems Coor- the campaign. ternational Planetari- dinator Darryl Davis, and all the staff at the Sky-Skan wins um Movie Festival, held naut. He was serving as a payload specialist. Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, Mas- in October at the Gwa- Sky-Skan winstechnology technology award award sachusetts, for a successful re-opening in Feb- Congratulations to Sky- Cheon National Science Congratulations to Sky-Skan, whose lens ruary. Skan, whose lens projection sys- Museum in South Korea. projection system won the 2010 Product of Mia Wuesteney The grand opening celebration followed a tem won the 2010 Product of Softmachine also has the Year Award from the New Hampshire $9 million renovation that took a year to com- the Year Award from the New welcomed Mia Wueste- High Technology Council. Sky-Skan is head- plete. The new facility boasts a 57-ft dome, 209 Hampshire High Technology ney as the new distribution and marketing co- quarters in Nashua, New Hampshire. seats, a Zeiss Starmaster and Sky-Skan’s Digital- Council. Sky-Skan is headquar- ordinator at its headquarters in Munich, Ger- Sky 2 software and Definiti 4K projection. ters in Nashua, New Hampshire. many. Nagoya planetarium gets name The Zeiss projector has already been Jim Mullaney shares that “the Cambridge Atlas of At press time the opening of the largest dubbed the Death Star by Darryl and Boston Nagoya planetarium HapppyHerschel Objects anniversary has just been to released Bowen and it's Systems Coordinator Daryl Davis at his “Death Star” commandplanetarium in the world, at Nagoya City Sci- residents. Happymagnificent—largely Anniversary due to to Jeff the Bowenamazing andceles Bo- - center (Photo by Andrea Shea; courtesy WBUR at wbur.com) gets name ence Museum, was set for March 19. In Janu- wential Technovation, cartography of Wilwhich Tirion! celebrated It's intended its 25thas At press time the opening of a companion volume to our earlier work, The New planetarium honors Ramon ary, an agreement was reached with Brother anniversary on September 10, 2010. Bowen Boston’s Charles Hayden Planetarium Re-opens the largest planetarium in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas.” A memorial ceremony for Shuttle Colum- Industries, Ltd. for the naming rights, and the Technovation is headquartered in Indianapo- Congratulations to Planetarium Director David Rabkin and world, at Nagoya City Science Of course, being the author, Mullaney is a bit biaPlanetarium disaster astronaut Systems Col.Coordinator Ilan Ramon Darryl was Davis part at thenew Charles facility is now known as Brother Earth lis,biased Indiana. in his praise, but probably is well justi- I Museum, was set for March 19. of Haydenthe opening Planetarium ceremonies in Boston, in FebruaryMassachusetts, at the for aPlanetarium. success- fied. Both are available from Cambridge Uni- In January, an agreement was Margotful re-opening and Jozef in February. Rethazy The Planetarium, grand opening part celebration Brother fol- Earth Planetarium has a dome of versity Press. lowed a $9 million renovation that took a year to complete. The reached with Brother Industries, WadeJames MullaneyE. Allen is an astronomy writer, lectur- of the Alex and Bet- 35 m (115 ft), installed by Astro-Tec Manufac- new facility boasts a 57-ft dome, 209 seats, a Zeiss Starmas- Ltd. for the naming rights, and 1953-2010er and consultant who has published more than ty ter Schoenbaum and Sky-Skan’s Sci DigitalSky- 2 software and Definitituring 4K pro of- Canal Fulton, Ohio, USA. Sky-Skan 700 articles and eight books on observing the the new facility is now known Wade E. Allen, former curator of astronomy ence,jection. Educational, The Zeiss projector has already been dubbed theand Death Konica-Minolta also are involved with wonders of the heavens. Formerly Curator of as Brother Earth Planetarium. at the Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, Ohio, CulturalStar by Darryl and Sports and Boston residents. the project. For more, see the website at www. the Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Sci- Brother Earth Planetarium passedence inaway Pittsburgh, on Decem Pennsylvania- and more re- Campus at Kiryat brotherearth.com. has a dome of 35 m (115 ft), in- bercently 9, 2010. Director He was of born the DuPont Planetarium, Yam, Israel. New planetarium honors Ramon stalled by Astro-Tec Manufacturing of Canal Januaryhe served 15, as1953, staff in astronomer Day- at the Universi- The planetarium NY Hayden lives on in cyberspace ty of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory and A memorial ceremony for Shuttle Colum- Fulton, Ohio, USA. Sky-Skan and Konica-Mi- ton, and was a gradu- was provided by The original New York City Hayden Plan- as an editor for Sky & Telescope magazine. One bia disaster astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon was nolta also are involved with the project. For ate of the University of World ORT, the in- etarium lives on in the virtual world of Fa- of the contributors to Carl Sagan’s award-win- part of the opening ceremonies in February more, see the website at www.brotherearth. Dayton.ning Cosmos An PBS-Televisionelectrical series, his work ternational Jewish cebook. The site includes photos and re- at the Margot and Jozef Rethazy Planetarium, com. engineer,has received he also recognition was a over the years from education charity, membrances of the dome that defined part of the Alex and Betty Schoenbaum Sci- foundingsuch notables member (and fellow of stargazers) as Sir Ar- and is located at the “planetarium.” thethur Miami Clarke, Valley Johnny Astro Carson,- Ray Bradbury, Dr. ence, Educational, A funding infusion Wernher von Braun, and formerWade student Allen NASA Ramon Planetarium Col. Ilan Ramon The Hayden was located at the American Cultural and Sports A sigh of relief for the David M. Brown Plan- nomicalscientist/astronaut Society. Dr. Jay Abt. In February of Center, named for Museum of Natural History on Central Park Campus at Kiryat etarium in Arlington, Virginia, upon receiv- 2005He is he survived was elected by his a Fellow life partner, of the presti Brenda- Col. Ramon. It can seat 80, with 40 in reclin- West in New York City from 1935-1997. It was gious Royal Astronomical Society (London) Yam, Israel. ing a donation of $100,000 from a former Gamon, and by Stephen Gamon, whom he ing seats and 40 on cushions on the floor. replaced by the New Hayden Planetarium in The planetari- school board member to avoid being closed helped raise. I “There were no survivors,” the memorial the Rose Center for Earth and Space, which re- um was provided by down. Former Arlington School Board Chair- reads. “However, Ilan Ramon’s spirit remains defined the idea of planetarium again with its World ORT, the in- man Preston Caruthers’s donation moved the alive within every boy and girl who has an in- “sphere in a box.” Wade E. Allen ternational Jewish planetarium toward its goal of $402,000, the terest in space.” To find the page, search for “Original 1953-2010 education charity, amount needed to replace the dome and star The planetarium opened on the anniversa- Hayden Planetarium” on Facebook. Wade E. Allen, former curator of astronomy and is located at the projector and perform other upgrades. ry of Ramon’s death, which fell on February at the Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, Ohio, Ramon Planetarium Approximately $162,000 is needed to finish 1, 2003 when Columbia brokeCol. Ilan up Ramon and disinte- Happpy anniversary to Bowen passed away on Decem- Center, named for the campaign. grated while landing. Ramon was a colonel in Happy Anniversary to Jeff Bowen and Bo- Col. Ramon. It can ber 9, 2010. He was born the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astro- wen Technovation, which celebrated its 25th seat 80, with 40 in reclining seats and 40 on January 15, 1953, in Day- anniversaryThe Hayden on lives September on in 10, cyberspace 2010. Bowen cushions on the floor. ton, and was a gradu- TechnovationThe original is Hayden headquartered Planetarium in Indianap lives on- A “Therefunding were infusion no survivors,” the memorial ate of the University of olis,in the Indiana. virtual world of Facebook. The site in- reads.A sigh “However, of relief forIlan the Ramon’s David M. spirit Brown remains Plan- Dayton. An electrical cludes photos and remembrances of the dome Jim Mullaney shares that “the Cambridge Atlas of etarium in Arlington, Virginia, upon receiv- engineer, he also was a alive within every boy and girl who has an in- that defined “planetarium.” The Hayden was Herschel Objects has just been released and it's ing a donation of $100,000 from a former Realm of Life wins award founding member of terest in space.” located at the American Museum of Natural magnificent—largely due to the amazing celes- school board member to avoid being closed Congratulations to Softmachine, whose thetial Miami cartography Valley of Astro Wil Tirion!- Wade It's intended Allen as The planetarium opened on the anniversa- History on Central Park West in New York down. Former Arlington School Board Chair- fulldome Realm of Light–A Brief History of Life nomicala companion Society. volume to our earlier work, The ry of Ramon’s death, which fell on February City from 1935-1997. It was replaced by the man Preston Caruthers’s donation moved the won the Best Movie Award at the 2010 Inter- CambridgeHe is survived Double Star by hisAtlas life.” Of partner, course, being Brenda 1, 2003 when Columbia broke up and disin- New Hayden Planetarium in the Rose Cen- the author, Mullaney is a bit biased in his praise, planetarium toward its goal of $402,000, the national Planetarium Movie Festival, held in Gamon, and by Stephen Gamon, whom he tegrated while landing. Ramon was a colonel ter for Earth and Space, which redefined the but probably is well justified. Both are available amount needed to replace the dome and star October at the GwaCheon National Science helped raise. I in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli as- idea of planetarium again with its “sphere in from Cambridge University Press.

54 Planetarian March 2011 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events

2011 9-10 September. British Association of Planetaria (BAP), AGM and 18-19 March. MAPS and PIPS event, Lockport, New York and conference, World Museum Planetarium, Liverpool, United Williamsville Space Lab, Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium. Kigdom. Shaaron Leverment, [email protected] www.williamsvillek12.org/planetarium. 16-18 September. Planetaria 2011: Meeting of German small 20 March. International Day of Planetaria, www.dayofplanetar- domes and school planetariums, Sternwarte und Planetarium ia.org. Adolph Diesterweb, Radebeul, German. Contact Ulf Peschel, 16-17 April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PLANIT), XXVI Na- [email protected], www.sternwarte-radebeul.de tional Conference, Crespano del Grappa (Treviso) and Pado- 15-18 October. Association of Science-Technology Centers va, Italy, www.planetaritaliani.it. Contact osservatorio@sera- (ASTC) Annual Conference, Maryland Science Center, Balti- finazani.it more, USA. www.astc.org 29 April-1 May. Immersive Film Festival II at Centro Multimeios 2-4 November. Annual Digistar Users Group meeting at Star- Espinho, Portugal. More information at iff.multimeios.pt or dome Observatory, Auckland, New Zealand. www.digistar- from Antonio Pedrosa at [email protected] domes.org 4-7 May. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society Conference co- 31 December. Deadline for IPS Eugenides Foundation Script con- hosted by Don Knapp (H.W. Ray Planetarium, Centennial test. www.ips-planetarium.org (see page 22) School District, Warminster, Pennsylvania), Kim Small (Up- per Dublin School District Planetarium, Dresher, Pennsylva- 2012 nia), and Keith Johnson (Edelman Planetarium, Rowan Uni- 31 March. Deadline for application for scholarship funds (IPS versity, Glassboro, New Jersey). www.mapsplanetarium.org support Baton Rouge Conference attendance by individuals). 8-9 May. Conference of German Speaking Planetaria (ADP), An- www.ips-planetarium.org nual Conference, Wien Planetarium, Austria, www.planetari- 20-21 July. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, um-wien.at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 12-14 May. Fifth Fulldome Festival, Jena Zeiss Planetarium. www. 22-26 July. 21st International Planetarium Society Confer- zeiss.de/planetariums, [email protected] ence, Irene W. Pennington Planetarium, Louisiana Art & 14-15 May. Australasian Planetarium Society 2011 Meeting, Mel- Science Museum, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, jelvert@ bourne Planetarium at Museum Victoria’s Scienceworks. lasm.org 26-28 May. ECSITE Conference (European Network of Science 13-16 October. Association of Science-Technology Centers Centres and Museums), Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, (ASTC) Annual Conference, COSI (Center of Science and Poland. www.ecsite.net Industry), Columbus, Ohio. www.astc.org 1 June. Deadline for nomations for IPS awards (see page 22) 2-5 June. Association of French Speaking Planetariums (APLF), Yearly Deadlines for Yearly Meeting, Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque (Nord), “A Week in Italy” Palais de l’Univers et des Sciences (Le PLUS),-Cappelle-la- 31 August. Deadline for the applicants of “An experience in Ita- Grande, France. www.aplf-planetariums.org. ly for a French Speaking Planetarium Operator,” in collabo- 21-25 June. Southeastern Planetarium Association 2011 confer- ration with APLF. ence, Rollins Planetarium, Young Harris, Georgia. www.sepa- 15 September. Deadline for the applicants of “A Week in Italy for domes.org an American Planetarium Operator,” in collaboration with 27-29 June. World Conference of Science Journalists, Cairo, IPS Portable Planetarium Committee. Egypt. www.wcsj2011.org 30 September. Deadline for the applicants of “An experience 1-2 July. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, Ni- in Italy for a British Planetarium Operator,” in collaboration zhny Novgorod Planetarium, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. with BAP. 18-22 July. Spitz Summer Institute, Spitz, Inc. Chadds Ford, Penn- For more information on the “Week in Italy,” go to: www.as- sylvania, annual event focusing on planetarium education. trofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_in_Italy/-Week_Italy.htm Includes beginner and advanced Starry Night instruction, planetarium curriculum discussion, presentation exercises/ For corrections and new information for the Calendar of Events, activities, digital media workshops. www.spitzinc.com/insti- please send a message to Loris Ramponi at osservatorio@serafino- tute zani.it. 30 July-3 August. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Outreach Conference “Connecting People to Science,” in Baltimore, More details about several of these upcoming events are includ- Maryland. www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html ed in the International News column and elsewhere in the Plan- 2-4 September. Nordic Planetarium Association Biennial Con- etarian. ference in Riga, Latvia. Conference host Dace Balode, dace@ pagrabi.lv The most up-to-date information also is available online at the In- 4-8 September. 6th Science Centre World Congress, Cape Town, ternational Planetarian’s Calendar of Events at www.ips-planetar- South Africa. www.astc.org ium.org/events/conferences.html I

March 2011 Planetarian 55 “In other planetary mission news, tech- Last Light nicians at the Deep Space Network installation in Canberra, Australia have identified the probable cause of signal weakness in the primary 90-meter antenna: the dish was ap- April S. Whitt parently mounted upside-down. A tentative Fernbank Science Center schedule and budget estimate for correcting 156 Heaton Park Drive NE the mount is underway. DSN Australian Coordinator Michael J. Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA Dundee was quoted in the Australian week- [email protected] ly P*** Off Mate as saying that this mystifying problem had never been encountered before, Back in 2008, during construction of the Headline News for April 31 but was probably due to reliance on American International Space Station, several interest- “The Congressional Budget Explorer Mod- antenna design parameters. “I’m still not con- ing instructions were transmitted to the astro- ule (CBEM) is scheduled for installation in vinced that anything’s wrong, but we’ll try it naut construction crew. the orbiter Titanic’s payload bay this after- the other way and see.” (As background, Johnson Space Center in noon. Technicians resolved an earlier prob- But as Kyle Doane posted on Dome-L, Houston is located in Harris County, Texas.) lem with hydraulic line pressure when it was “N.E.W.S.= Not Exactly What’s Said” The newly-attached part of the Kibo sci- discovered that several fragments of lobbyist ence lab was the construction site one eve- had become stuck in a flapper valve. The 127- Come again? ning. The execute package stated that the Jap- ton CBEM payload will mark the beginning And from Jupiter Scientific (at www.jupiter- anese Logistics Module, or JLP, would: of NASA’s ambitious decade-long “Mission to scientific.org): …add to the total square footage of ISS. The Fort Knox.” When Mr. Leno of the Tonight Show (long- Harris County tax assessors estimate that this “A Flight Eagerness Review is scheduled lived late-night talk/entertainment pro- will increase the value of the station by $43.6 M, gram) went J-walking and the millage rates will be increased accord- and asked pedestrians ingly. We may have to dip into your per diem as some science questions, we had not counted on the higher resulting rent he discovered some for your crew. The good news is that if we add amazing new facts a bathroom and bamboo flooring to the JLP, we about the universe: can more than double that assessed value in re- Jay Leno: “Why does sale price! dew appear on plants in The shuttle Endeavor transported the large, the morning when the Canadian-made robot Dextre into space, and sun comes up? the shuttle crew helped assemble the nearly A waitress: “Is it be- 4-m tall Special Purpose Dexterous Manipu- cause the sun makes lator. them perspire?” Houston’s Mission Control Center honored Jay Leno: “Why does the occasion with some celebrities. the moon orbit the “Optimus Prime, Gigantor and Robbie Earth?” the Robot are here in MCC today, represent- An auto mechan- ing the Robot Actors Guild, to celebrate the ic: “To get to the other launch of Dextre. side?” “We’ve incorporated a few new flight rules, Jay Leno: What are magnets?” now that we are about to have robotic EV’s: for tomorrow and Thursday. The current tar- A taxi driver: “Are they the things crawling 1. Dextre may not injure a human being or, get launch date is Friday, May 11. If no further over a week-old dead cat?” through inaction, allow a human being to problems are uncovered in the FER, the launch It is reported that Copernicus’ parents said come to harm. will probably be pushed back a few days any- the following to him at the age of 12: “Co- 2. Dextre must obey orders given to it by hu- way just for the heck of it. The CBEM launch pernicus, young man, when are you going to man beings, except where such orders window ends on Tuesday, May 21, when Ve- come to terms with the fact that the world would conflict with the First Law. nus rises in Aquarius and Neptune’s influence does not revolve around you?” 3. Dextre must protect its own existence as is no longer balanced, violating critical Astral The Official Unabashed Scientific Diction- long as such protection does not conflict launch criteria.” ary defines black holes as what you get in with the First or Second Law. “Meanwhile, the Velikovsky spacecraft is in black socks. “The guild members bristled about these good health on its journey to Venus. It’s now “Whatever the missing mass of the universe rules and ‘being held down by the man,’ but 122 million miles from Venus and about 28 is, I hope it’s not in cockroaches.” – a New York figure that they can’t be held back for long. feet from Earth. Engineers at the Jet Propul- City tenant. ‘First Dextre, next Data, then THE MATRIX!’ sion Laboratory report that failure to actu- An astronomy major had a part time job declared Optimus at arrival at JSC.”1 ally launch Velikovsky has had little impact working in the university’s off-campus hous- on its ability to perform the primary pseudo- ing office. One day, a fellow student, upon en- 1 A variety of fictional robots here, with referenc- science missions. Earlier problems with volt- tering the office in thought about the morn- es to the Transformers, Tetsujin 28-go, the 1956 mov- age fluctuations in the Wide Eyed/Credulous ing lecture, asked, “What is an astronomical ie Forbidden Planet, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a movie series that features sentinent machines. The Subject Scanner are being monitored careful- unit?” flight rules, of course, have been liberally adapted ly. “I’m pretending this is really exciting,” says To which the astronomy major replied, from Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics that JPL team leader Geraldo R. Spencer. “One helluva big apartment.” I first appeared in his book I, Robot.

56 Planetarian March 2011 As an ongoing service to our growing user community, E&S offers hours of free Digistar 4 training in live webinars. Now we invite you to a live webinar to explore the power of Digistar 4’s ground- breaking graphical user interface for yourself. Just email us at [email protected] to reserve your spot in the webinar, and we’ll send you the login information. Once you experience Digistar 4, we think you’ll agree that it’s just the digital planetarium system you’ve been looking for.

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