Vol. 42, No. 2 June 2013

Journal of the International Society

The Magic of the Sphere Page 10 New Skies over Montréal Page 20

June 2013 Vol. 42 No. 2 Articles 6 Guest Editorial: Are Driven By Their Executive Editor Technology or By Ideas? Phillip Groce Sharon Shanks 10 The Magic of the Atwood Sphere Ward Beecher Planetarium Jean-Michel Faidit, Marvin Bolt Youngstown State University 20 New Skies over Montréal Pierre Chastenay One University Plaza Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 24 Noesis Planetarium: Mission takes kids +1 330-941-3619 on an interactive learning journey Vassilis Matsos [email protected] 26 Stratoscript Compendium Rings Lionel Ruiz 30 These doors open to mathematics Adam Thanz Webmaster 32 Under One Dome: Planetario de Bogota Alan Gould Ian McLennan Holt Planetarium Lawrence Hall of 52 Wonderful planetariums, wonderful University of California Martin George Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA 64 John Hault, 1947-2013 +1 510-643-5082 +1 510-642-1055 fax [email protected] Columns Advertising Coordinator 58 Book Reviews...... April S. Whitt Dr. Dale Smith, Interim Coordinator 66 of Events...... Loris Ramponi (See Publications Committee on page 3) 37 Educational Horizons ...... Jack L. Northrup 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks Membership 38 IMERSA News ...... Judith Rubin 42 International News...... Lars Broman Individual: $65 one ; $100 two 68 Last Light...... April S. Whitt Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 54 Mobile News...... Susan Reynolds Button Library Subscriptions: $50 one year; $90 two years 28 Partycles...... Alex Cherman All amounts in US currency 8 President’s Message ...... Thomas W. Kraupe Direct membership requests and changes of 62 Waxing New...... Sharon Shanks address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman

Printed Back Issues of the Planetarian IPS Back Publications Repository maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; contact information is on next page Index of Advertisers Astro-Tec...... 65 Index Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 63 A cumulative index of major articles is available on- Bays Mountain...... 18 line at www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn Clark Planetarium/Hansen Dome ...... 51 Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 57, 61 Final Deadlines Evans & Sutherland ...... 47, outside back cover March: January 21 Global Immersion...... 5 June: April 21 GOTO INC ...... inside front cover September: July 21 Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 29 December: October 21 Museum of Science, Boston...... 17 NSC creative ...... 7 R.S.A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover Associate Editors Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 33, centerfold, 36 Book Reviews Education Last Light Softmachine...... 27, 59 April S. Whitt Jack Northrup April S. Whitt Spitz, Inc...... 19, 41 Calendar IMERSANews Mobile News Spitz Creative Media...... 23, 45, 55, 67 Loris Ramponi Judith Rubin Susan Button You Can Do Astronomy...... 25 Cartoons International Zeiss, Inc...... 53 Alexandre Lars Broman Cherman

On the Cover: The exterior of the Astronomical Theatre (aka “the wooden International Planetarium Society home page: dome”), inside one of the cones that are the hallmarks of the www.ips-planetarium.org new Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. The cone has skylights and Planetarian home page: the stairs are an access path to the roof of the cone. Photo www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=plntrn by Raymond Jalbert. Story: Page 20

June 2013 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Association Italian Association Russian Planetariums Planetariums of Planetaria of Planetaria Association Officers Alexandre Cherman Jenny Shipway Loris Ramponi Zinaida P. Sitkova Planetário do Rio de Janeiro Planetarium Manager National Archive of Planetaria Nizhny Novgorod President R. Vice-Governador INTECH Science Centre & c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Planetarium Thomas W. Kraupe Rubens Berardo, 100 Planetarium Serafino Zani Revolutsionnja Street 20 Planetarium Hamburg Rio de Janeiro RJ Telegraph Way, Morn Hill via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 603002 Nizhny Hindenburgstraße 1 b Brazil 22451-070 Winchester, SO2 11H I 25066 Lumezzane Novgorod, D-22303 Hamburg +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 United Kingdom (Brescia) +7 831 246-78-80 Deutschland +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax +44 1 962 891916 +39 30 872 164 +7 831 246-77-89 fax +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 alexandre.cherman@ +44 1 962 868524 fax +39 30 872 545 fax [email protected] +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax planetario.rio.rj.gov.br JennyShipway@ [email protected] www.apr.planetariums.ru +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax planetarios.org.br intech-uk.com [email protected] +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell www.planetariodorio. www.intech-uk.com www.planetari.org Society of the German- thomas.kraupe@ com.br www.planetarium.org.uk Speaking Planetariums planetarium-hamburg.de Japan Christian Theis www.gdp-planetarium.org Association of Canadian Association Planetarium Society Planetarium Mannheim Dutch-Speaking of Science Centres Kaoru Kimura Wilhelm-Varnholt-Allee 1 -President Planetariums/PLANed Ian C. McLennan Japan Science Foundation D-68165 Mannheim Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku Dave Weinrich Andre Milis #404 - 1275 Haro Street Tokyo, 102-0091 Japan Planetarium Planetarium, Royal Vancouver, British Columbia +49 621 419 4220 (phone); [email protected] Minnesota State Observatory of V6E 1G1 Canada +49 621 412 411 (fax); www.shin-pla.info University-Moorhead Boechoutlaan 10 +1 604-681-4790 ct@planetarium- 1104 7th Avenue South 1020 Brussels, Belgium phone + fax mannheim.de Middle Atlantic Moorhead +324747030 [email protected] www.gdp-planetarium.org Planetarium Minnesota 56563 USA +324783026 fax [email protected] Society Southeastern +1 218-477-2969 [email protected] www.ianmclennan.com Patty Seaton Planetarium +1 218-477-5864 fax Association of French- Chinese Planetarium H.B. Owens Science Center Association [email protected] Speaking Planetariums Society 9601 Greenbelt Road John Hare President-Elect Marc Moutin Jin Zhu Lanham-Seabrook, Ash Enterprises Maryland 20706 USA Paul H. Knappenberger, Jr. Cité de l’espace Beijing Planetarium 3602 23rd Avenue West +1 301-918 8750 P.O. Box 532 Avenue Jean Gonord No. 138 Xizhimenwait Street Bradenton, Florida +1 301-918 8753 fax Edinburg, Virginia BP 25855 Beijing, 1000044 34205 USA [email protected] USA 22824 31506 Toulouse Cedex 5 P.R. China +1 941-746-3522 [email protected] +33 (0)5 62 71 56 03 +86 10-5158-3311 [email protected] +33 (0)5 62 71 56 29 fax +86 10-5158-3312 fax Nordic Planetarium www.sepadomes.org [email protected] [email protected] Association Executive Secretary www.cite-espace.com Aase Roland Jacobsen Southwestern Lee Ann Hennig www.aplf-planetariums.org European/ The Steno Museum Association of Planetarium, Thomas Mediterranean Planetarium Planetariums Jefferson High School Association of Mexican Planetarium C.F. Moellers Alle 2 Rachel Thompson for Science and Technology Planetariums Association University of Aarhus Portable Universe Man- 6560 Braddock Road Ignacio Castro Pinal Manos Kitsonas DK-8000 Aarhus C ager & Presenter Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 Eugenides Planetarium Denmark Perot Museum of Na- +1 703-750-8380 C.P. 01490, México City 387 Syngrou Avenue +45 89423975 ture and Science +1 703-750-5010 fax D.F. México 17564 P. Faliro [email protected] 2201 North Field Street [email protected] +52 (55) 5500 0562 Athens, Greece www.stenomuseet.dk Dallas, Texas 75202 USA +52 (55) 5500 0583 fax +30 210 946 9674 +1 214-756-5830 Treasurer and [email protected] +30 210 941 7372 fax Pacific Planetarium rachel.thompson@ Membership Chair cosmos.astro.uson.mx/ [email protected] Association perotmuseum.org Shawn Laatsch AMPAC/AMPACintro.htm sites.csn.edu/ www.swapskies.org Great Lakes Planetarium planetarium/PPA All fiscal matters: Association of Spanish Association P.O. Box 4451 Planetariums Jeanne Bishop Rocky Mountain Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Javier Armentia Westlake Schools Planetarium Planetario de Pamplona Planetarium Association All other correspondence: Sancho Ramirez, 2 Parkside Intermediate School Mike George ‘Imiloa Astronomy E-31008 Pamplona 24525 Hilliard Road 600 East Washington Street Center of Hawai’i Navarra Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA 600 ‘Imiloa Place +34 948 260 004 +1 440-899-3075 x2058 +1 602-716-2079 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +34 948 260 056 +1 440-835-5572 fax +1 602-716-2099 fax +34 948 261 919 fax jeanneebishop@ [email protected] +1 808-969-9735 [email protected] wowway.com +1 808-969-9748 fax gestion@pamplonetario. www.glpaweb.org [email protected] infonego-cio.com Great Plains Planetarium Australasian Planetarium Association Society Jack Dunn Warik Lawrance Ralph Mueller Planetarium Melbourne Planetarium University of Nebraska-Lincoln Scienceworks/Museum 210 Morrill Hall Victoria Lincoln, Nebraska 2 Booker Street 68588-0375 USA Spotswood (Melbourne) +1 402-472-2641 Victoria +1 402-475-8899 fax 3015 Australia [email protected] +61 3 9392 4503 www.spacelaser.com/gppa +61 3 9391 0100 fax wlawrance@museum. vic.gov.au www.aps-planetarium.org

2 Planetarian June 2013 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Awards Committee Conference Host- 2014 Membership Committee Prof. Lars Broman, Chair Dr. Jin Zhu, Director Shawn Laatsch, Chair Mailing Address Teknoland Beijing Planetarium ‘Imiloa Astronomy Cen- Stångtjärnsv 132 138 Xizhimenwai Street ter of Hawaii International Planetarium Society SE-791 74 Falun Beijing 100044 China 600 ‘Imiloa Place +86 10-5158-3007 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA c/o Shawn Laatsch +46 2310177 +86 10-5158-3312 fax +1 808-969-9735 Treasurer/Membership Chair [email protected] [email protected] +1 808-969-9748 fax www.teknoland.se [email protected] All fiscal business: Elections Committee P.O. Box 4451 Conference Committee Martin George, Chair Publications Committee Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Thomas W. Kraupe Launceston Planetarium Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair Planetarium Hamburg Queen Victoria Museum BGSU Planetarium All other correspondence: Hindenburgstraße 1 b Wellington Street 104 Overman Hall ‘Imiloa Astronomy D-22303 Hamburg Launceston Tasmania 7250 Physics &Astronomy Department Center of Hawai’i Deutschland Australia Bowling Green State University +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 +61 3 6323 3777 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA 600 ‘Imiloa Place +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax +61 3 6323 3776 fax +1 419-372-8666 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax [email protected] +1 419-372-9938 fax +1 808-969-9735 +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell [email protected] thomas.kraupe@ Finance Committee +1 808-969-9748 fax planetarium-hamburg.de President, Past President, Presi- [email protected] www.gdp-planetarium.org dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary IPS Web Site: Ad Hoc Committees www.ips-planetarium.org Armand Spitz Planetar- International Science & Data Visual- Please notify the Editor of any ium Education Fund Relations Committee ization Task Force changes on these two pages. Finance Committee Martin George, Chair Dr. Mark SubbaRao Launceston Planetarium Adler Planetarium Education Committee Queen Victoria Museum 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive Contact the Treasurer/Membership Jack L. Northrup Wellington Street Chicago, Illinois 60091 USA Chair for individual member address Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Launceston, Tasma- +1 312-294-0348 Planetarium nia 7250 Australia msubbarao@addler- changes and general circulation and King Science and Technology +61 3 6323 3777 planetarium.org billing questions. Magnet Center +61 3 6323 3776 fax 3720 Florence Blvd. [email protected] Omaha, NE 68110 USA +1 402-557-4494 Portable [email protected] Planetarium Committee webmail.ops.org/~jack.northrup Susan Reynolds Button, Chair Quarks to Clusters Committee 8793 Horseshoe Lane John Hare, IPS Historian Chittenango, NY 13037 Ash Enterprises +1 315-687-5371 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA [email protected] +1 941-746-3522 [email protected]

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June 2013 Planetarian 3 to: the IMERSA community wants to produce for our domes, and we want their content. In Front of the Console So how do we overcome the fiscal chasm be- tween us? Finding the answer to that will take com- Sharon Shanks munication. Ward Beecher Planetarium Youngstown State University There are basic facts Youngstown, OH 44555 USA In order to provide new content for our domes, there has to be an investment in pro- [email protected] duction up front and a recouping of this in- vestment with, hopefully, some profit. No one can argue with that. My between the March and June is- prised of forward thinkers with the creativ- But to be successful, a content producer has sues of Planetarian was bookended by the ity, the vision, and the financial impetus to to be able to make something that we will IMERSA Summit in Denver in February and produce content for the domed theater. That spend our hard-earned money on. Finding out the Ohio planetarium meeting in Dayton means not only our domes, but the rapidly- after the program is completed that no one in April. (And filled between, of course, with growing number of places that recognize the wants or needs it is too late. school field trips and public programs under uniqueness of projection into a hemisphere. It’s very easy to criticize a finished product. my own dome.) Or, to rephrase that: planetariums may be What’s not easy is the communication that They were very different experiences. unique in their presentation of stars, but are needs to take place between the people in the IMERSA was a high-ticket event1, and I no longer unique in the world of domed the- trenches—that’s us—and the people who are spent much of my time wondering why I was aters. able to give us what we need. there. I did learn quite a bit about production Undeniably, the quality of fulldome pro- I am going to cite some specific examples for fulldome, who the big names in immer- grams has improved over the past five years, from my own experience. Please do not take sive production are, and some of the problems both in content and in production values. We this as an endorsement of a particular compa- faced by the production/business end of full- planetarians can’t take the credit for that; the ny or product. dome media. kudos go to organizations like National Geo- In my humble opinion, Audio Visual Imag- The most valuable part for me personal- graphics Films, the Giant Screen Cinema Asso- ineering has taken the lead in mutually bene- ly was a workshop on AfterEffects tricks by ciation, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festi- ficial communication and production, at least Lance Ford Jones and Claudia Cumbie-Jones val, the Themed Entertainment Association, in programs for elementary students. from the Ringling College of Art and Design in and more, including companies that deal pri- They have a great working relationship Sarasota, Florida. They’re doing amazing work marily with planetariums. with Kim Small, the planetarian at Upper with their students in immersive media. The improvement continues thanks to full- Dublin School District in Dresher, Pennsyl- dome festivals that award fresh student vi- vania, and Julia Plummer, associate professor The widening financial gap sions with cash awards. It continues because at Penn State University, the first a working I unfairly told Ryan Wyatt of the California of the willingness of some large-format pro- teacher with a dome, the a university Academy of (and one of the founders ducers to also keep hemispheric production researcher. of IMERSA) that he and the large facilities rep- in mind when shooting scenes. Their newest productions, The and resent the “1%”2 of the planetarium world, and It continues because of solid research into The Weather, are modular programs that al- all the rest of us are the 99% when it comes to sweet spots, dome reflection, visual per- low live interaction with the target grade lev- being able to afford the high-priced fulldome ception and acoustics, and because of les- els. I have The Moon and expect it to be pop- planetarium programs now on the market. sons learned long ago on timing, narration, ular starting this fall. I’m looking forward to I still mean that, but I’ve expanded my view soundtracks and human eye movement. receiving The Weather (still in production), of what it means to be the “1%.” It’s not only IMERSA, as as group, has been able to stay at because second grade teachers in my area are the financial ability to buy programs, which the forefront of the technology, while change begging for a good program that meets revised has a negative connotation. The 1% also have under most domes is a slow, excrutiating pro- Ohio science standards. the creative vision and the means to make vi- cess restricted first (and always) by funding AVI communicated, teachers communicat- sion become reality that keeps our profession and layers of administrative hoops. ed, and the result was beneficial and afford- moving forward. That’s a positive statement. So what’s the connection between the im- able (I define “affordable” as $3,000 or less) Without the 1% in the fulldome produc- mersive media industry and us? programs. tion world, we would not have fulldome at I think that’s why I was at the summit, to What about the “bigger” picture? If a pro- all. I can’t imagine being able to teach some of mull over this question. I’ve broken it down (Continues on Page 18) the major concepts that I do now without the edge that immersive video gives me. It’s a tool I’m not willing to give up. (See Phil Groce’s IPS Conference Dates - 2016 Proposals guest editorial on page 6 for more about tools.) Dates had not been set for the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada conference by the deadline As I learned at the summit, IMERSA is com- for the March issue. They now have the dates: 11-14 July, 2016 There also was a typo for Warsaw, ’s dates in the March issue. The correct dates 1 Or it would have been a high-ticket for me, are 19-25 June, 2016 had I paid for it. For the sake of transparency: IMER- SA invited me to the conference and paid my hotel For Toulouse, France, the dates are 3-7 July, 2016. and registration fees. I paid the airfare. Please remember to let your affiliate representative or any of the officers know your 2 For international readers not familiar with the preference for the 2016 conference. American obsession with the 1%, see en.wikipedia. org/wiki/We_are_the_99%25

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42522 GLO] Electrosonic Projector Bulb ad_AW.indd 1 19/04/2013 16:33 and debated ideas to be presented to our au- diences, and we were inspired by well-written Guest Editorial scripts that communicated those ideas. We went home from those conferences stealing Are Planetariums Driven By Their Technology or By Ideas? every idea we could. Today, we go to conferences dominated by vendors peddling their wares. I know, for I’m one of them. Fortunately, with- By Philip Groce projector. These relatively low-cost plan- etariums made it possible for nearly ev- out exception, I find the vendors to Helping Planetariums Succeed be benign and truly interest- Macon, Georgia USA ery city to have a planetarium, yet their design limited us to largely discuss- ed in serving planetari- [email protected], [email protected] ing the stars of the Northern Hemi- ums. I don’t know of any company that In the December 14, 2012 issue of Science sphere. Because there was no south is getting rich off of (the journal of the American Association for polar region of stars to show, we the back of the planetari- the Advancement of Science), Freeman J. Dy- basically ignored the southern ans. However, ceding our son wrote an insightful perspective asking sky and the rich discoveries they pre- conferences to vendors the question “Is Science Driven by Ideas or sented. The unwritten rule was, “if we couldn’t show it, we didn’t it.” marches us along a danger-

by Tools?” It got me thinking about planetar- istockphoto.com ous path for a profession that is suppose to iums and a corollary question: “Are planetar- Roll forward in time and you have the celebrate ideas and not its tools. iums driven by their presentation technolo- addition of special-effect projectors, 35mm gy (their tools) or by ideas?” The recent spats slide projectors, 16 mm motion picture pro- Serving two masters as recorded on Dome- jectors, and later, video projectors. Each of There is also a problem with fulldome L show that there is a these presentation tools advanced and wid- movies. Almost all of the pre-rendered pro- great divide on this is- ened the circle of ideas that we could present grams have two masters to serve. The first sue, and the implica- to our students and to our public. is what can be affordably illustrated, and the tions of this question Precisely because of the advent of these second is the ideas that planetariums need to go to the very heart wonderful presentation tools, we became communicate. Too many of these fulldome and soul of the pur- more about ideas than the technology. Late- shows are being produced by vendors and too pose of a planetarium. ly, I have noticed how many planetarians few by end-users. In Freeman’s ar- look back at this period as the “golden of In reality, we have not really advanced ticle, he notes that planetariums.” It was a time when innovation much since the days of Spitz projectors. We modern physics and of content and the communication of ideas still only present the ideas that we can illus- astronomy are the re- dominated our conferences. trate or, sadly, the fulldome shows we can af- Phil Groce sults of ideas from ford. Unfortunately, many of those ideas pre- dreamers like “Ein- Technology dominates sented in fulldome movies are not your ideas, stein and Heisenberg Cycle to today and, once again, we have a but those of production houses. and Schrödinger and Dirac—who guessed na- profession dominated by technology rather Before I completely offend every show pro- ture’s secrets by dreaming dreams of math- than ideas. Friends of mine, looking for a rea- ducer, I must, again, point out that they are ematical beauty.” Yet, much of our modern son for this decline, blame the rise of fulldome benign, are truly trying serve planetariums, understanding of the universe came from the programs and digital planetariums. Nothing and not one of them is getting rich doing it. inventors and builders of telescopes and sens- could be further from the truth. In reality, However, conference planners may need to ing devices, the tools of modern astronomy. these wonderful tools are unlimited in what rethink how to return to discussing ideas and These dreams of Einstein have been built they can show and illustrate. content instead of showcasing digital tools or upon or supplanted by new ideas like string Literally, almost anything you can imag- pre-rendered content. theory and multiverses. Our tools have be- ine and have the talent to illustrate on a com- We are not the only industry led by the come even more powerful, revealing shadows puter, you can present with these very pow- nose by vendors. All you have to do is look of dark matter and dark energy. A black hole, erful tools. They are only waiting to be used at the computer industry (who really needs once just an idea, is now confirmed by the by people with the passion to communicate Windows 8?) or the medical profession. How tools of astronomy. Dyson writes that “per- the ideas and discoveries of modern astrono- many doctors are brow-beaten into prescrib- haps astronomy is the last remaining science my. No longer are we restricted by the tech- ing medicine by the pharmaceutical compa- that still has its main tools producing output nology, and every , these digital planetari- nies? in the form of images.” ums get easier and easier to use. Finally, there is the problem with digital Now how does this apply to planetariums? This beautiful picture of digital planetar- planetarium projection systems themselves. Well, for one thing, we have a history of be- iums I paint is not without flaws. For one They are, by their very nature, ephemeral. ing a technology-driven or tool-driven pro- thing, we are still a vendor-driven profession. Many are built upon consumer-grade projec- fession. From the very beginning, when Zeiss Lately, I have been amazed and troubled by tors and popular computer platforms, giving a made the first optical-mechanical planetari- how much time vendor presentations take up whole new meaning to built-in obsolescence. um, what we taught and showed our public at our conferences. There is an obvious reason It is in their nature to fail as they get older. audiences was determined by the technolo- for this: money. Planetarians have exchanged Please accept this fact and get over it. It is gy or the tools that were made available to us. content control of their conferences for spon- the price you must pay for doing something Sometimes, those tools limited what con- sorship to lower the registration fees. stunning and awe-inspiring in your dome. All tent we presented and what ideas we dis- I don’t think anyone, vendors or delegates, of the paradigms of how long a planetarium cussed. A good example is the venerable Spitz is really happy with this exchange. In the “golden age of planetariums,” we discussed (Continues on Page 28)

6 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 7 need to be told not just in one cultural area, President’s Message but all around the world. We share so much, and hence the “I” in IPS is growing in impor- Thomas W. Kraupe tance. All of us will benefit if we manage to Planetarium Hamburg improve our communications and our ex- Hindenburgstraße 1 b change of concepts and success stories in our D-22303 Hamburg, Deutschland planetarium theaters. +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-21 +49 0 (40) 428 86 52-99 fax; +49 0 (40) 4279 24-850 e-fax IPS and IDA +49 0 (40) 172-40 86 133 cell A good example of what an international [email protected], www.gdp-planetarium.org network can achieve is the program Losing the Dark, a free new resource for planetariums everywhere. Dear Fellow Planetarians: more than 400 applicants and five finalists to This presentation is a 6 1/2 pub- While I am writing this column for you, I pilot Vostok 6. lic service announcement from IDA, the In- can´t help but I feel a bit torn apart between In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, ternational Dark-Sky Association, and Loch extremes: on one side, our world is showing Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted Ness Productions that clearly and engaging- a devastating face of terror, where innocent into the Soviet Air Force and thus she also be- ly illustrates how our world is being drowned people are being killed or live in poverty— came the first civilian to fly in space! She spent in light pollution. This topic is extremely rel- and there is the other side, the mind-boggling nearly 3 days in space and orbited Earth 49 evant for all of us and that is why the IPS pro- “wonderworld“ of new scientific discoveries . Believe it or not, it took 19 years until vided seed money to start the project. on all scales of the universe. the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew Originally released in English, the program There has been an unprecedented lineup into space. may now be downloaded for free in a vari- of discoveries, from nearby earthlike I hope that I can meet Valentina in per- ety of formats and languages (currently avail- (NASA Kepler) to details of the early universe son at one of the upcoming festivities in Rus- able is a German, Hindi, Korean, and Spanish 13.8 billion light years away from us (ESA sia. Already last year I Planck Mission). We live in a world where our had the privilege of be- mind has to deal with such extremes and an ing invited, along with ever-increasing load of events from around German cosmonaut Sig- the world. mund Jaehn, to the new So, how do we manage to peer through “Valentina Tereshkova such an overload and still reach the minds Planetarium” in Yaro- and hearts of the people? I truly believe we slavl, Central Russia, have a vital asset for that: our planetariums! near where she was born They are the unique and ideal communica- in 1937, and I met her tion platform helping to unite people and daughter there. remind them what we all have in common: The marvelous archi- “one sky—one spaceship Earth—one people.” tecture of this planetar- Even when societies face big challenges, ium with a beautiful we planetarians should neither slow down mosaic artwork in the nor give up with our “Mission to Earth.” And lobby dedicated to Val- we all know that we have the biggest im- entina not only hous- pact with our youngest audiences and so we es a state-of-the-art dig- should focus on them. For young children vis- ital fulldome theater, iting our planetariums the first time, it could but also wonderful ex- be a life changing experience. hibt areas and interac- Remember when you were young? All of tive . us who grew up during the early days of the A salute to “Chaika“ space race got so much inspiration from the (in English, Seagull, Val- men and woman who boldly went where no entina’s call sign in this one had gone before. flight and later com- People are interested in people, and so we memorated as the name really have to think about the individuals re- of an asteroid, 1671 Chai- lated to exploration and scientific adventures ka) and all cosmonauts in our time. Who would you consider? Can and planetarians in Rus- you attract them for an event in your theater sia! You all will contin- or work with them to continue their legacy? ue to inspire and engage many more genera- 50 years ago–and to the tions—and girls in partic- Among the big “names from the past,” you ular—about space and certainly focus on Yuri Gagarin and Neil Arm- the environment we all strong, but do not forget Valentina Tereshko- live in. The Valentina Tereskova Cultural and Educational Center and Planetari- va, the first woman to fly in space on 16 June As you can see, there um in , and the beautiful mosaic inside. Photos courtesy Thom- 1963, 50 years ago! She had been selected from are great stories which as Kraupe.

8 Planetarian June 2013 version, with more languages soon to come). important conference gathers research scien- •• Awards for excellence An article about this project has already been tists and industry representatives as produc- •• Cross promotion of conferences published in the March issue of Planetarian. ers of astronomical and space-related infor- •• Providing opportunities for professional Links to the download area can be found on mation with public information officers in development our homepage at www.ips-planetarium.org. the field , science journalists, and staff mem- Details will have to be determined yet and bers from planetariums, museums and science we surely have to build on the expertise of IPS 2014 in China centers. our members. We are confident that steps can When you read this message, I will just have CAP is a very interesting forum to discuss be agreed upon this summer so that we can returned from a site inspection in Beijing in and evaluate ways for communicating astron- move forward. China, the site of our next IPS conference. On omy in many different ways. See www.com- We thank Dan Neafus and the whole IMER- this trip I was in the company of Jon Elvert, municatingastronomy.org/cap2013 . SA board for their hospitality and look for- our host in 2012, in order to secure his experi- Along with Robert Firmhofer, host and cur- ward towards a new level of exchange among ence and best practice from IPS 2012 in Baton rent president of ECSITE, I am working on a our organizations. Rouge, which was such an extremely success- special panel targeting what planetariums and In the light of the digital revolution in the ful conference. You can be sure that our host, IPS can offer to complement the CAP strategy planetarium field, IPS really needs to set spec- Dr. Jin Zhu, and his great team in Beijing will of the International Astronomical Union be- ifications—at least basic operation standards— amaze us with yet another unforgettable IPS yond 2013. This, in particular, will put the up- based on planetarium needs, which will pro- conference in 2014! coming International Year of Light 2015 in fo- vide guidelines for those who plan, build and We want to make IPS 2014 as accessible as cus. operate planetariums with content for audi- possible for a large number of IPS members Following the lessons learned in the Inter- ences of today. As I have outlined already, a on site. In addition, we also consider enhanc- national Year of Astronomy, we should start cooperative approach with IMERSA will help ing virtual access to the conference through to plan early! I do encourage you to partici- here, but there is more at stake: IPS needs to the internet and making downloads of record- pate in this endeavor. More information will think where it wants to go in the future. ed presentations (keynotes) available for later be made available as we move forward. Along with IPS President-elect Paul Knap- viewing. penberger, I am working on steps towards Despite the growing importance of remote Officer Meeting in Denver such a long- strategy of IPS and this will access through new streaming and online me- The team of IPS officers met in Denver on be a key issue for discussions at the upcoming dia, you should not underestimate the impor- February 9-10 during the IMERSA Summit. council meeting. tance of joining this event in Beijing. There The agenda included a review of our confer- is nothing like it when you feel the ener- ence guidelines and how we can help mem- IPS Task forces /Committees gy in the room filled with planetarians from bership and council evaluate/assess confer- Re-launch of IPS committees is underway, around the world! Mark your calendar now ence bids. Improved guidelines are being but with some delays. You will notice on page for the conference of June 23-27, 2014. worked upon and will be discussed at the 3 that some committees have finished their IPS 2014 in Beijing will be an experience not council meeting in August. work and are terminated now, while only one to miss! Dan Neafus and his team at the Denver Mu- new committee is listed. There will be more Please check the conference website for up- seum of Natural History put together a re- coming alive later this summer. dates. More details will be posted soon and ally great showcase during the summit that I am very pleased however, that I can an- sent out to IPS members. My next President´s spanned the history and the future aspects nounce that Dr. Mark SubbaRao agreed to Message will tell you how things are progress- of immersive media. We were very pleased chair the new “Science & Data Visualization ing. If you have any questions regarding this about this opportunity, which led to a joint Task Force.“ Yes, I prefer “task force” over conference, please do not hesitate and contact meeting of the IPS officers with IMERSA’s “committee.” me or my fellow officers. board members. Mark is an astronomer at the Adler Plane- Although there are wide differences in tarium and Astronomy Museum in Chica- D-day approaching for IPS 2016 scope, with IMERSA barely having an inter- go and a research scientist in the Department August 11-13, IPS council will gather in national member base and IPS with its world- of Astronomy and South Tyrol in Northern Italy and decide wide system of affiliates, there are also many Astrophysics at the where we will go for the 2016 conference. similarities in terms of passion and desire for University of Chica- The three sites competing for IPS 2016—Telus growth. There are many opportunities for go. As a member of World of Science in Edmonton (Canada), Citè mutually-beneficial collaboration. IMERSA the Sloan Digital Sky Espace in Toulouse (France), and Coperni- has the edge in terms of focusing on technolo- Survey team, he has cus Science Center in Warsaw (Poland)—have gies and areas where entertainment meets ed- already proven his made their cases. ucation and the arts meet science, hence in a expertise handling Please review once more the March issue of zone where creativity happens. Several more large data sets and this magazine, or look at the online versions or less experimental presentations in Denver writing codes. on the IPS homepage. Now is your last oppor- were great examples for that. As chair of this tunity to communicate with your represen- We agreed that a collaboration between IPS new IPS committee, MarkMark SubbaRaoSubbaRao tative on council (see page 2) and let him or and IMERSA should move forward in steps he will focus on the her know what you think and what questions and target specific areas where we can achieve “big data” that scien- should be answered before decision day. concrete results by benefitting from each oth- tists gather with new space- and ground-based ers strengths. observatories and experiments. CAP 2013 and Year of Light 2015 Areas selected for that are in particular: He will help establish a workflow leading From October 14-18 I will certainly attend •• Immersive media/fulldome standards fol- from these experiments and their correspond- the conference “Communicating Astronomy lowing DIGGS (which was funded in part ing computer data to science visualizations with the Public 2013“ in Warsaw, Poland. This by IPS) (Continues on Page 16)

June 2013 Planetarian 9 The magic of the Atwood Sphere

Exactly a ago, on June Dr. Jean-Michel Faidit 5, 1913, a “celestial sphere demon- Astronomical Society of France stration” by Professor Wallace W. Montpellier, France Atwood thrilled the populace of [email protected] Chicago. This machine, built to ac- commodate a dozen spectators, took up a concept popular in the eigh- teenth century: that of turning stel- lariums. The impact was consider- able. It sparked the genesis of modern planetariums, leading 10 years lat- er to an invention by Bauersfeld, engineer of the Zeiss Company, the Deutsche Museum in Munich.

Since ancient times, mankind has sought to represent the sky and the stars. Two trends emerged. First, stars and constellations were easy, especially drawn on maps or globes. This was the case, for example, in Egypt with the Zodiac of Dendera or in the Greco-Ro- man world with the statue of Atlas support- ing the sky, like that of the Farnese Atlas at the National Archaeological Museum of Na- ples. But things were more complicated when it came to include the , moon, planets, and their apparent motions. Ingenious mecha- nisms were developed early as the Antiky- thera mechanism, found at the bottom of the Aegean Sea in 1900 and currently an exhibi- tion until July at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. During two millennia, the human mind and ingenuity worked constantly develop- ing and combining these two approaches us- ing a variety of media: astrolabes, quadrants, armillary spheres, astronomical , co- pernican and celestial globes, cul- minating with the famous Coronelli globes offered to Louis XIV. In 2006 they were ex- hibited at the National Library of France. Diagram of the Atwood Sphere from 1913. One place this diagram appeared was in Popular Science Monthly, the precursor to Popular Science, Volume 84, 1914. Creative Commons. archive.org/details/ (Continues on Page 12) popularsciencemo84newyuoft 10 Planetarian June 2013 As the venerable device celebrates its 100th birthday, two authors take a look at where it fits in the evolutionary history of planetariums

Dr. Marvin Bolt When considering cutting-edge Vice President for Collections technology from a century ago, one Adler Planetarium might reasonably expect it either Chicago, Illinois USA to be obsolete (say, Formica) or to [email protected] be still used with little change (such as the zipper or windshield wipers). Rare indeed is the object that is both obsolete and yet still used with lit- tle change, but the Atwood Sphere is one. Its allure makes it unusual and unique among the inventions of 1913.

What is the Atwood Sphere? The Atwood Sphere is a 17-ft-diameter stain- less steel sphere punctured by 692 holes of dif- ferent sizes that map the night sky. It opened to great acclaim at Chicago’s Academy of Sci- ences on June 5, 1913. Built for the impressive sum of $10,000, de- signer Wallace Atwood wowed his audiences that evening, and for several years to come, by demonstrating the visible motions of the night sky. The 500 lb. metal globe, being only 1/64th in. thick, bowed and flexed as it rotated, so that visitors could also hear it and imagine the music of the heavenly spheres. Hearing sto- ries illustrated with constellations drawn on the interior surface, accompanied by glow- ing disks to represent planets and a moveable light providing solar illumination, children and adults alike were enthralled by the wonders of the heavens. When the Adler Planetarium opened just a few miles away from the Atwood in 1930, the Atwood was considered obsolete, and never regained its popularity at the Acad- emy. Indeed, it was not used at all for some years in the 1930s, although in 1941 it was used to teach navigation principles to the US Na- The Atwood Sphere today, Courtesy Adler Planetarium. (Continues on Page 13)

June 2013 Planetarian 11 (Faidit, continued from Page 10) World War, with the progress of the construc- tion of metal structures. Buckminster Fuller Early 17th and 18th went on to develop the principles of the ar- Now became the problem of represent- chitecture of geodesic domes, and this form ing a globe’s sky. In the Arab world and India, was consecrated by the Géode at La Villette, some arches in luxurious palace were deco- rated with diamonds. Lit with candles, they designed by the French architect Adrien Fain- allowed the viewer to enjoy a sparkling “star- silber in 1983 at the time of the project for the ry” sky, but the image was fixed. bicentennial of Boullée. The Géode is located This changed in the seventeenth centu- at Cité des Sciences et de l‘Industrie in Paris. ry with the invention of the Gottorp Globe. With a diameter of 3.1 meters, it was designed Temple to Earth, Lequeu (1790) by Adam Olearius at the behest of the Duke A few years after Boullée’s design, to cele- of Holstein-Gottorp and built by Andreas brate the Revolution, Jean-Jacques Lequeu, a Busch of Limberg between 1654 and 1664. cartographer by profession, an unknown art- Painted on the outside with continents and ist and an astronomy enthusiast, imagined oceans known at the time, it is tilted 54 de- the Temple to the Earth with the same star- grees. ry sphere, adding an educational aspect with An entry in the Indian Ocean allowed a globe Earth at the center, as the Stellarium spectators inside, where they could see con- Weigel in Jena. stellations painted on the interior and lit by Again, the project remains only in the state holes for the stars appear. An operator was to of diagram, but it marks a theoretical result manually rotate the sphere. showing the architectural progress of the Tsar Peter the Great received the globe as time. a present in 1715 and it was installed at the The nineteenth century saw the develop- Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. De- ment of panoramas, the ancestors of cinema, stroyed by fire in 1747, it is completely rebuilt as illustrated by Daguerre‘s Diorama and other between 1748 and 1752 and is now preserved theater devices. They bloomed in large cities at Lomonosov Museum. and included shows dedicated to starry sky. Alongside this first stellarium, was anoth- At the threshold of the twentieth century, er world designed by Erhard Weigel, profes- in 1902, George Méliès’ production A Trip to sor of mathematics at Jena between 1654 and the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) reflects the 1699. This globe, at a diameter of 11 feet, is a lit- public‘s enthusiasm for astronomical events tle more involved with an earthly sphere in- stalled in the center. Professor Atwood’s Sphere, 1913 In the early eighteenth century, Roger Long, Tonight is June 5, 1913. People flock to Mu- professor of astronomy at Cambridge, made seum of the Academy of Sciences of Chica- another mobile globe that was kept at Cam- go for the opening of a large rotating celestial bridge’s Pembroke College in 1758. Named sphere. Professor Wallace Atwood, director Uranium, it had a diameter of 18 feet and of the museum, its designer, is in charge. The could accommodate 30 people. Its complicat- door closes, and viewers see a beautiful star- ed rotation was accomplished with ropes. De- ry night. Slowly, familiar constellations rise in From top: The Gottorp Globe from 1664, Eise spite the enthusiasm of Long, his Uranium did the east, while others plunge to the west. With Elsinga’s planetarium from 1781, and the con- not receive the expected popular welcome. cept for Boullée’s Newton Memorial. All imag- suitable projectors, it is the moon and planets’ es on these two pages Wikimedia Commons. turn to be on stage. And then the sun, repre- Architecture takes over sented by a small flashlight, eclipses the stars Mobility being an obstacle, the stellarium and Maupertuis, was used to calculate the re- to simulate the arrival of the day. The enthu- concept was kept alive by the architects of the turn of Halley‘s in 1759 and paved the siastic shouts echo in the museum. eighteenth century. A current against the Ba- way for celestial mechanics. This 4.57-m sphere consists of sheets of gal- roque and classical style that reigned, the ar- Boullée was born in 1728, the year follow- vanized sheet iron of 0.4 mm thickness, suit- chitects proposed bold figures where the ge- ing Newton’s death. His concept was great. It ably curved. Weighing 227 kg, it is inclined at ometry was at the service of creativity. The obeys the geometry of a pyramid face, insert- 42 °, corresponding to the latitude of Chicago, spherical shape was directly interested in as- able into a triangle, and incorporates the fas- and rests on three wheels that permit its rota- tronomy. This was particularly the case in the cination with spheres, a trendy artistic theme tional movement. An electric motor actuates Cenotaph for Newton, designed in 1784 by following the launch of the first balloon flight the two lower wheels. Étienne-Louis Boullée as a perspective on the in 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers. Small perforations in the outer skin form centenary of universal gravitation. Although Boullée’s vision was a huge sphere with a 692 pinhole stars visible to the naked eye. The it was never built, Boullée was the first archi- cylindrical drum base with an opening that moon is made ​​by a series of small disks coated tect to design such a permanent building with allows the entire sphere to be seen. Beyond with a light coating, corresponding to the dif- bright stars and the effect of day and night. the imposing appearance, the most spectacu- ferent phases, while the planets , , Boullée devised his cenotaph, or an “empty lar concept was inside with a representation and are also figured with their tomb” to honor remains interred elsewhere, of the sky. changing positions. during the period of time when science was Long considered an impossible dream, Initiated by the president of the Academy flowering. The theory of universal gravita- the hollow sphere designed by Boullée ex- of Sciences, La Verne W. Noyes, the sphere is tion, spread throughout France by Voltaire perienced renewed interest after the Second (Continues on Page 14)

12 Planetarian June 2013 (Bolt, continued from Page 11) dieval and later audiences. The use of the word planetarium itself val Reserve unit at Northwestern University. most likely derives from the device made in Approximately 900 men passed through the the mid-1300s by Giovanni de’ Dondi, or rath- school every three . er from his text describing his machine. Like Over time, the instrument itself suffered many instruments of this kind from the late some decay. Being labeled a “white elephant” middle ages and later, it displayed the loca- by the media in 1956 did not help matters. tions of the seven classical “planets”—Mer- With little attendance and dwindling respect cury, Venus, sun, moon, Mars, Jupiter, and for it, the Atwood eventually suffered the in- Saturn—on dials or faces of a . In this in- dignity of being completely brought down to stance, the device had seven different “clock” Earth; its exterior was plastered and painted faces, one for each then known. to simulate a terrestrial globe in 1959. It was This kind of object—with faces or dials using given a new name as well: “The Globe-Plane- a pointer of some kind to indicate positions— tarium.” fits the broader category of mechanical de- The name changed again in 1983 to the “At- vices leading to the modern planetarium. wood Celestial Sphere,” but even so, it was These planetary machines took on a differ- not used from the early 1960s until 1986. ent form after the Copernican revolution in The sphere’s big move the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with various geared devices teaching the new as- In 1995, the Atwood left the Academy when tronomy of planets orbiting the sun. it was donated to the Adler Planetarium. The After Newton provided an intellectual- entire globe was dismantled—its wood inte- ly compelling explanation of the Copernican rior taken apart and the sphere itself cut into system, the public appetite for it led to a new 6 pieces—and put into storage. In the fall of material culture. Around 1705, George Gra- 1996, the Adler began planning its restora- ham built the first mechanical model of the tion, and completed that task in 1999 in the sun-Earth-moon system; this device is now significantly expanded Adler facility that add- part of the collection at the Adler Planetari- ed 50% to its exhibit space as well as a new um. state-of-the-art digital theater. Artisans produced many more such table- Today, ironically, the Atwood is located top models in the following centuries, there- just a few steps away from the world’s most by disseminating astronomical knowledge to technologically-advanced planetarium sys- a wider public audience eager to own this tem; just as ironically, it again enjoys a level universal knowledge. These are frequently of attendance and popularity it did a centu- known as orreries, named after the Fourth Earl ry ago. Understanding why takes us on a his- of , who commissioned a device similar torical tour of how we have built devices that to Graham’s. demonstrate the wonders of the cosmos.

Mechanical planetariums before Globes before Atwood Atwood Alongside the mechanical planetarium his- tory, we find another tradition that eventually Throughout history, astronomy has enjoyed produced the Atwood. This genealogy chron- a high reputation, due to its cosmic scope and icles spherical models of the heavens, usual- the universal belief in the powerful, yet mys- ly portraying the distribution of the stars, but terious connections between heaven and From top: The , the not the motions of the planets. earth. Every known culture has its own astro- Coronelli Globe at the National Library of The earliest reference to a celestial globe nomically-informed myths of origins, asso- France, and A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery dates from about 370 BC, when Eudoxus ei- ciated rituals of meaning, and some material by Joseph Wright of Derby at the Derby Muse- ther made one or brought one from Egypt, manifestations that express them. um and Art Gallery, England. while the oldest surviving celestial globe is Around the world, we know of altars, tem- the Farnese Atlas, circa AD 150, now in Naples. ples, homes, cities, and other spaces designed lennium. Reports of various devices in Asia Other records indicate the existence of Islam- to mirror on earth the structure and motions merit more investigation, as the most well-re- ic celestial globes from the 9th century, with of the heavens. searched sources address the European set- the oldest surviving example from the late The most specialized imitations find ex- ting. There, the invention of the clock soon 11th century. pression in mechanical systems that closely led to devices that displayed the changing po- European globes are known circa 1300, al- mimic the movements and timings of specif- sitions of key, selected heavenly bodies. though the oldest survivor dates more than a ic heavenly bodies. Indeed, the oldest known These astronomical clocks were found century later. Since 1500, celestial globes, al- mechanical device of any kind is the Antiky- in public spaces, such as town squares or in most always in tandem with terrestrial globes, thera Mechanism, an extraordinary instrument churches, or in private collections. While their summarized what was known of the heavens made 2000 years ago and found just a century key informational feature was a dial face with and the Earth. ago in a shipwreck. While scholars still debate a pointer indicating the current location of Along with these globes, armillary spheres its complex details, all agree on its fundamen- the specified object, the demonstration of provided an effective way to teach the mo- tal astronomical purpose. regularity and predictability manifested di- tions of the heavens. Since 1400, armillary We know of very few physical or mechani- vine order, which was the underlying message cal models of the heavens during the next mil- to be disseminated and to be absorbed by me- (Continues on Page 15)

June 2013 Planetarian 13 ly small initiative will ium in 1913 was the fusion between these two lead to a quantum leap previously separate representations of stars that will revolutionize and planets. the history of represen- Larger projects were born from a meeting tations of the sky. between several actors. In the months fol- lowing the entry into service of the Atwood The planetary Sphere in Chicago, the founder and first direc- mechanisms tor of the Deutsche Museum, Oskar von Mill- As with the represen- er, entered into a relationship with Max Wolf, tation of stars with stel- director of the Observatory of Heidelberg, lariums, modeling the and Walter Bauersfeld, engineer from the solar system also has ex- Zeiss Company. Starting in July 1913, the idea perienced several cen- emerged to take the rotating sphere to high- turies of development. er dimensions and incorporate the planetary Museum collections movements. are full of these orreries, Delayed by the war, Bauersfeld’s concept which set the planets in still faces technical difficulties to achieve a ro- motion around the sun tating sphere of 6 meters. Starting in March with clockwork mech- 1919, he reworked the initial idea and came up anisms, both through with a large fixed sphere with a central projec- horizontal devices and tor to show both moving images of the night vertical, integrated as- sky as well as the sun, moon and planets. tronomical clocks. As- A first design of this new projector mount- tronomical clocks mul- ed at the center of the sphere appears in his tiply after the lead of the notebooks in May, 1920. Developed over the astrarium by Giovan- next three years, it is first demonstrated in Au- ni Dondi, developed be- gust, 1923 in Jena, under a 16-m dome special- tween 1348 and 1364. ly fitted on the roofs of the Zeiss Company. The particular case of It was demonstrated in October that year in the moon leads to tel- Munchen under a 9.8-m dome, before coming luriums and lunariums, back to Jena. allowing the represen- There, the design was improved with the tation of eclipses, while help of Walter Villiger, who developed its ed- from the eighteenth ucational functions, and finally, in May 1925, century on, spurred by the new planetarium was installed at the the return of Halley‘s Deutsche Museum in Munich and open to the comet, another device public. modeled the elliptical During the interwar period, planetariums planetary movements multiply rapidly in the world, particularly of , a cométari- in large cities in Germany and mostly in the um. domes of large diameters. There were 25 erect- The 1766 painting A ed by 1939, including 11 in Germany and five Philosopher Lecturing in the United States. on the Orrery by Joseph America‘s first planetarium was built in Wright, housed in the Chicago in 1930 at the Adler Museum, evok- Top: Dr. Wallace W. Atwood inside the Atwood Celestial Sphere at the Academy of Sciences of Chicago. Below: the sphere, exterior front with Derby Museum (United ing in its architecture Boullée Cenotaph for lower exhibits, Laflin Building, circa 1920s. From the collection of the Kingdom), illustrates the Newton. Chicago Academy of Sciences, used with permission. success of these minia- Paris was no exception, with the first plan- ture planets. etarium built for the six months of Expo 1937 (Faidit, continued from Page 12) Larger projects began and coordinated by Reysa Bernson. But it was completely renovated in 1959. The exterior emerging, such as the well-known global built after the Second World War, and especial- is painted to present a geophysical globe and by Eise Eisinga at his home in Franecker (Hol- ly during the exploration of the moon, that colored filters are installed for the brightest land, 1774-1781; see Planetarian, 40-4, Decem- planetariums saw their highest development, stars. Ultraviolet lamps simulate dawn and ber 2011). Updated with electricity in 1925, the built by the hundreds in the United States, Eu- dusk. And a horizon is added: a skyline of the Copernican planetary at the Deutsche Muse- rope and Asia, mainly Japan. skyscrapers of Chicago. um, Munich, marked a climax in this represen- tation of the solar system’s precision, but with In conclusion. Stellarium reborn the disadvantage of a single viewer placed in The year 1913 is, therefore, a major turning The impact of this remarkable stellarium a rotating cage. The instrument was partially point in the history of representations of the rapidly raises identical projects, particular- destroyed by bombing during the war. sky. The entry into service of the first mod- ly in Germany. In 1914, another stellarium is ern planetarium that merged the approach of built in Heilbronn by Robert Mayer, while the 1913-23: Genesis of planetariums stellariums with Copernican orreries had a re- Deutsches Museum in Munich began study- But the most important consequence re- sounding impact. The advent of planetariums ing a comparable installation. This seeming- sulting from the impact of the Atwood stellar- (Continues on Page 16)

14 Planetarian June 2013 (Bolt, continued from Page 13) spheres became a standard tool for teaching astronomy to students. For present purposes, what distinguishes the mechanical tradition from the globe tra- dition is that the former point out locations in the sky, whereas the latter address the ap- pearances in the sky. That is, the mechanical devices indicate, for example, that the sun is currently located in the constellation Aries. Right: Dr. William J. Beech- This knowledge could be put to use for vari- er, director of the Chica- go Academy of Sciences, in ous computational, astrological, or even med- the foreground and Thurston ical purposes. Wright, preparator, in the While one could, and many did, put globes background, circa 1959, with to a similar use, the globe and armillary also the sphere transformed into provided explanations of what appeared in the Globe-Planetarium. From the collection of the Chica- the sky, for example, providing a way to un- go Academy of Sciences, used derstand how the sun’s location in Aries made with permission. Below: The the other constellations appear (or disappear) Atwood Sphere in use today in the night sky, why the moon appeared in at the Adler Planetarium. Pho- to courtesy the Adler. different phases in various constellations over the , and more.

The Copernican shift The adoption of the Copernican system marked a significant in these two tra- ditions. A model of how the sky appears did not need to show the reality of the solar sys- tem; just as significantly, indeed even more significant from an economic standpoint, the model of reality became distinct from how the sky appeared. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the contin- ued production of mechanical devices with dials that showed the Copernican reality with no attention to what appeared in the sky. The Graham orrery was followed by a variety of gadgets: pocket orreries, without which no gentleman would be caught, and grand orre- ries, whose enchantment was captured best by Joseph Wright of Derby. Other devices, sometimes called Coper- nican moving spheres, retained the look and feel of armillary spheres but instead of teach- ing about what appeared in the sky, they illus- trated a God’s eye view of planetary orbits.

A new kind of globe It is one thing to explain the heavens; it’s quite another to offer a simulated experience fire in 1747. How much survived is unclear, but tronomy, combined these two techniques in of them. A large celestial globe, made in 1654- seven years later, a new globe, now known as his 17 ft. globe at Pembroke College in 1758. 66 in Gottorp (Gettorf), near what is now the the Great Academic Globe, engaged audienc- Originally, a lamp illuminated the constella- German-Danish border, did just that. Made es again. tions, although after 1764, newly-bored holes of 7000 lb. of copper and measuring 11 ft. in After several moves and restorations, it is allowed up to 30 visitors to see stars illumi- diameter, it included a small door near the once again open to the public, now at the Lo- nated from the outside. A photograph from South Pole to provide access to the interior. monosov Museum in St. Petersburg. 1874 provides evidence of this sphere, which About a dozen people equipped with oil A related experience was provided by a was demolished and sold for scrap, but the lamps could see gilded stars and constella- much smaller, 20-in. sphere built at the Univer- key inspiration for the Atwood had arrived. tions portrayed on the globe’s interior, and sity of Jena in 1654. This globe displayed stars them rise and set against the artificial as tiny holes punched in the globe. The recent- Synthesizing these efforts horizon as the sphere turned about them. ly reopened Mathematisch Physicalischer Sa- Numerous other ingenious planetarium de- After liberating it from its original home, lon in Dresden, Germany features one of these vices merit more attention that the current Peter the Great moved it to the St. Petersburg globes made by Erhard Weigel. space allows, but the final one mentioned Academy of Sciences, where it burned in a Roger Long, a Cambridge Professor of As- (Continues on Page 16)

June 2013 Planetarian 15 (Bolt, continued from Page 16) here must be the hybrid system created at iting the Atwood in the soon-to-be-expanded the Deutsches Museum in Munich, one that Adler facility. Preparatory work involved the attempted to combine the mechanical mod- removal of paint and putty (from its terres- el tradition with globe tradition that simulat- trial incarnation) using scrapers, grinders, and ed the appearances. even acid treatments before hammering the In the early of the 1900s, Carl Zeiss mountains back down again. tasked its engineers to develop innovative These efforts plugged many star holes, re- ways for public astronomy. Early approach- quiring their re-drilling. In its original installa- es involved the same technique used by Long tion visitors had to walk up a flight of stairs and Atwood; Max Wolf had sketched out such to enter the sphere, while we deemed it im- a plan in 1912 prior to his receiving a printed portant to provide universal access. This re- description of the Atwood and forwarding it quired designing a carriage moved by a 21 ft. to his German colleagues. long screw built by a company that designed But Zeiss also built the largest mechanical the mass production facilities at the Saturn orrery in the 1920s in Munich. In a 36-ft. cy- car company. This provided a nice cosmic co- lindrical room, elliptical rails hanging from the incidence, not only because of the name but 9-ft ceiling used electric motors to drive the also because the assembly line mass produc- planets, represented by poles with light bulbs. tion of cars was another one of those innova- The central sun illuminated the planets and tions from 1913. The Zeiss Mark 1. Wikimedia Commons their movements, modeled on a scale of 12 Today’s tour guides take up to 8 visitors at per terrestrial year. time into the Atwood, where they can watch (Faidit, continued from Page 14) The key feature was a small platform linked the stars, illuminated from outside, rotating is so tied to 1923 and Bauersfeld that the fact to the Earth; it carried visitors and a periscope with diurnal motion. Fluorescent tubes light that the genesis of the idea actually started in through which one could watch planetary and up otherwise invisible paint to illustrate the 1913 is hidden. stellar motions. The cumbersome nature of constellations. Young children, teens, and This story of stellariums is an essential the room-sized orrery, the noise it produced, adults alike leave with a smile on their face, chapter opening the advent of planetariums. and the lack of a convincing experience of the charmed by the simplicity of the experience, With digital technologies, their evolution sky soon led Zeiss to develop optical projec- the solid basic content, and the charming anti- continues today to immersive rooms to sim- tors that convey these appearances more ef- quated technology that creates the Atwood’s ulate space travel. fectively. night sky. The Atwood represents the culmination of Bibliography The current Atwood many centuries of efforts to portray the won- Books: I suppose that one of the reasons why I am ders of the heavens in a controlled environ- Hagar, Charles, Planetarium: Windows to the especially fond of the Atwood Sphere is that ment. It played an important role in motivating Universe. Zeiss, 1980. it was my first project when I started working the development of modern planetarium pro- King, Henry C. and John R. Millburn, Geared at the Adler in 1996. That fall, the Adler be- jection systems, and was rendered obsolete to the Stars. Toronto: University of Toron- gan a carefully-planned restoration for exhib- by it. Yet, visitors today still love it! I to Press, 1957. Marché II, Jordan D, Theaters of Time and Space: American Planetaria, 1930-1970. Rut- (President’s Message, continued from Page 16) gers University Press, 2005. on our domes. For this endeavor he will con- cal areas and our editor Sharon Shanks for her Meier, Ludwig, Der Himmel Auf Erden: Die Welt nect with the big data hubs and supercomput- creativity and editorial excellence. In close der Planetarien. Johann Ambrosius Barth, ing sites around the globe, Chicago, Geneva collaboration with Alan, she is continuously Leipzig, Heidelberg, 1992. and Tokyo among them. I am convinced that improving not just the print version, but also Werner, Helmut, From the Aratus Globe to the this work will be a vital building block for the the digital version of our magazine. Zeiss Planetarium. Gustav Fischer Verlag, future of the planetarium. She has taken on the additional role of con- Stuttgart, 1959. Articles: As soon as council meets in August, you will tent editor for our website, including the dig- Atwood, Wallace, “The celestial sphere,” Bulletin receive news also about other committees and ital version our magazine. She enriches it of the Chicago Academy, No. 2, May 1913, 12. their tasks which are ready to launch and will with an ever increasing number of links and Bauersfeld, Walter, “Das Projektions-Plane- provide us with debates and help guiding so- cross references. These are great steps forward. tarium of Deutsches Museum in Munich,” lutions and recommended standards. Thanks also go to the oversight by Prof. Dale Zeitschrift für Feinmechanik und Precision 32 Please note also that we are moving for- Smith, chair of IPS Publications Committee. (1924A), 203-208, 68 (1924b), 793-797. ward towards web publishing. This current Don´t forget: your input is needed, especial- Faidit, Jean-Michel, “Spheres and Starry Tem- issue of Planetarian is the first issue which is ly your stories about what worked and what ples in the Enlightenment: Boullée Newton being published for all members simultane- didn’t work in your planetarium. Now you Cenotaph, Architectural Precursor to Plan- ously as printed version and as digital online can do that also on Facebook on our IPS group etaria?” Planetarian 32, 4 (December 2003). version. www.facebook.com/groups/33476998420. Other: Back issues still will be available in PDF format There are many ways to contribute your Fracek, Elizabeth, Remembering the Atwood online, and additional issues will be converted to most valuable assets—your knowledge and Sphere, 365 days of Astronomy, 13 Janu- “digizine” form on Issuu as time permits. your passion—and help to shape the future of ary 2010. cosmoquest.org/blog/365daysofa I like to thank our webmaster Alan Gould IPS and the planetarium. stronomy/2010/01/13 I for his dedication and expertise in all techni- Onwards and upwards! I

16 Planetarian June 2013 Awarded Best Immersive—Fulldome program at the 2012 Jackson Hole Science Media Awards, Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun explores a timeless question: Do other planets like Earth exist?

Travel to distant stars and fly up close to exotic planets. Experience the science shifting our perspective on humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Co-written by Alan Lightman, this show features an original orchestral score and is available in 24- and 31-minute versions.

Moons: Worlds of Mystery immerses you in the amazing diversity of and the important roles they play in shaping our solar system.

Follow in the footsteps of astronauts to our silvery Moon, then venture beyond to unfamiliar and exotic worlds. Journey to the outer planets and their moons, and return home with newfound wonder about the dynamic and intricate solar system in which we all live.

This show features an original orchestral score and is available in 24- and 35-minute versions.

Two SHowS now AvAILABLE from the Museum of Science, Boston

For more details and show licensing information: David Rabkin, Director, Charles Hayden Planetarium, 617-589-0149, [email protected]

Shows distributed by: June 2013 Sky-Skan,Planetarian Inc. 603-880-8500, [email protected] 17 Spitz, Inc. 610-459-5200, [email protected] ducer is planning a planetarium program built-in excitement that seems to appeal to there from third grade, a pity, because third with wide public appeal for the facilities that the public. (Remember, that’s only my opin- graders still love learning and the stars. By live or die on their gate receipts, there’s no rea- ion, not that of the Planetarian.) fifth grade they’re falling under the peer-pres- son why it cannot invisibly include an educa- The most infuriating and frustrating thing sure shroud. tional component that can tie to educational to me is knowing that there is content already The result? A good program for third grad- science standards. out there that will allow me to meet science ers will not play for fifth graders. We need There are two new programs from Spitz standards and add to our public program li- new content that’s still “fun,” but not “baby- Creative Media that do that: Dynamic Earth brary. And my planetarium can’t afford them. ish.” and Supervolcanoes. And, another message we need to send I have seen an increase in the number of Communication is the solution from the trench to the content producers: no middle school classes in my dome, again due Producers need to include more planetar- matter how good your product is, if it’s out of to revised science standards. ium people from the trenches, the “99%,” to our price range, We. Simply. Cannot. Buy. It. In seventh grade, the ESS (Earth and Space the beginning of production, to suss out those This sad fact, more than anything else, illus- Science) topics include cycles and patterns of science standards that will make for great gate trates the divide between the 1% and the 99% Earth and the moon. It’s all Earth cycles, how- programs and justifiable state standard pro- When I accused Ryan of being a “one percent- ever: the hydrologic cycle, patterns in atmo- grams. er,” it was frustration talking. Sorry, Ryan. sphere and oceans, the relationship between Producers: it doesn’t matter if you don’t So, what can we do about the $$ issue? thermal energy and currents, and (almost an know them. Just ask for some names from the That’s a new area of communication that will after thought) the relative patterns of mo- regional representatives, or from the major take both sides to figure out. tion and positions of the Earth, moon and sun planetarium vendors, or from the pages of the If we want the content providers to con- cause solar and lunar eclipes, tides, and phas- Planetarian. You’ll find that most of us will be tinue to produce for our domes, we need to es of the moon. happy to talk with you. buy their products. And, if we don’t buy their The eighth grade ESS focuses on the phys- Planetarians: let your needs be known, on products, then, logically, they’ll stop produc- ical features of Earth and how they formed, Dome-L, on the IPS website, to your affiliate ing for planetariums and focus their creativi- including the interior, the geological record, representatives and presidents, at conferences ty and passion on other venues. plate tectonics and landforms. and in Taurus sessions. Talk to the producers. I don’t have an answer for the money issue, Dynamic Earth, besides being a good public Better yet, bring your state standards with but I am willing to discuss, brainstorm, inves- “gate” program, also meets most of those sev- you to conferences. Find out the important tigate, experiment, or participate in any way enth grade standards. topics for each grade level, and share your cre- I can to help find a solution. To make it easy: Supervolcanoes is spot on for the eighth ativity with the producers. [email protected]. grade standards, and, I’m sure, will become a In Ohio, a good portion of the solar system I’ll discuss some impressions from the Ohio great public program. It’s got a sexy title and material is now in fifth grade. It was moved planetarium meeting in my next column. I

18 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 19 New Skies over Montréal Say bonjour to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium

steadfastly to persuade different levels of gov- Bonjour! ernment and potential private partners that this large-scale project was relevant. On December 10, 2007, Montréal’s munic- ipal government finally announced a part- nership agreement with the Quebec and Ca- nadian governments to fund the project, with Pierre Chastenay major financial support from Alcan (which Planétarium de Montréal/Espace pour la vie later became Rio Tinto Alcan).1 1000, rue Saint-Jacques The $48-million project is financed by the Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 1G7 municipal government ($25.7 million), the Quebec government ($9.5 million), the Cana- [email protected] dian government ($9 million) and Rio Tinto Alcan ($3.8 million). The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium of Mon- tréal has gone from a dream to a reality. Its ar- rival at the Olympic Park is also an important Inaugurated on April 1, 1966, in downtown projector. step in bolstering the Space for Life complex Montréal, the Montréal Planetarium was long After years of planning and construction, (Espace pour la vie, in French), which includes at the cutting edge of technology and an in- the planetarium is now reborn, complete with the Botanical Garden, Insectarium and Bio- novative venue for presenting shows and ex- a new building featuring the latest video pro- dôme, and is the largest concentration of nat- hibitions on astronomy and science. jection technology for immersive environ- ural science museums in Canada. The time came, however, when the site ments and a new name: welcome to Montré- Through an international architecture needed a major overhaul, given the techno- al’s brand new Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. competition, the Montréal firm Cardin logical revolution in planetariums over the The idea to move the planetarium to the past and the growing challenge of Olympic Park (Montreal hosted the 1976 sum- 1 Rio Tinto Alcan is one of five product groups op- erated by Rio Tinto, a leading international mining keeping much of its equipment in working mer games) in the city’s east end first surfaced group that is a global supplier of high quality baux- order, including its almost 50-year-old Zeiss IV 10 years ago. The planetarium’s team worked ite, alumina and aluminium.

20 Planetarian June 2013 Facing page: The exterior of the new Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. Photo ©Raymond Jalbert, used with permission. Above: The “star” of the show in the astrono- my theatre: the Infinium S star projector by Konica Minolta Planetarium. ©Marc Jobin, Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan, used with permission.

Ramirez Julien was commissioned to design Construction of the new site officially be- of world-renowned Montréal artists and the the new building (4,000 square ), which gan on August 25, 2011, at a groundbreaking creators of the shows La belle et la bête, Nor- houses two hemispheric theatres (18 m), an ex- ceremony attended by officials from the dif- man and Delirium (for Cirque du Soleil), were hibition hall (400 square metres), public spac- ferent levels of government and other part- brought aboard to produce the first show to es (ticket counter, café) as well as multipurpose ners in the project. run in the Multimedia Theatre. activity rooms, reception and dining areas for By early 2013, the building was ready to Continuum is a 23-minute production with- groups, and offices for the institution’s staff. welcome employees, who worked to put the out narration that transports audiences to The building, which is spread over three finishing touches on public shows and exhi- the surface of a lake in the Québec Lauren- floors and shares a lower level of common ar- bitions in preparation for the spring opening. tians. The ingenious set design consists of a re- eas with the Biodôme, boasts a futuristic look Visitors can expect to be wowed! flective floor evoking a lake surface, as well and includes a green roof open to visitors, a as beanbag chairs resembling rocks and com- grey water recycling system and various eco- Two theatres, two experiences fy adirondack chairs where visitors can sit or friendly features, the aim being to make the The first stop in our visit is the Multimedia stretch out to marvel at the starry sky. Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium a LEED2 Plati- Theatre. This 18-m hall is topped by a dome Continuum offers a fantastic immersive num certified building. slightly larger than a half sphere with a base journey that kicks off on Earth, travels to As for the immersive multimedia technol- located just one above ground level. the farthest galaxies and then explores the ogies specific to planetariums, the American Among the other features of this unique world of the infinitely small before heading company Sky-Skan Inc. won the public tender theatre is the lack of both fixed seating and a back home. The lush soundtrack, which plays to install monitoring, projection and sound central projector. The six DLP video projectors through a 17.3 surround sound system, fea- equipment in the Planetarium’s two theatres. (by Projection Design, models F32) are placed tures a collage of music by celebrated Ameri- The company also teamed up with the Jap- on a passageway circling the room and project can composer Philip Glass. anese firm Konica Minolta to develop and in- through openings in the dome. At the end of Continuum, visitors are in- stall a sophisticated opto-mechanical projec- This setup makes the Multimedia Theatre a vited to go to the other hall, the Star Theatre, tor in one of the theatres (more details below). multipurpose room that can be used either to where an expert science interpreter presents present a fulldome show or to accommodate the sky of the and reports on the lat- 2 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental De- an exhibition, performance or immersive in- est developments in astronomy. The Star The- sign) is an internationally-recognized system for cer- stallation. atre, which is also 18 m, is covered by a hemi- tifying the design, construction and operation of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, a pair spherical dome and includes 193 comfortable green buildings.

June 2013 Planetarian 21 seats arranged concentrically, as Left: In the multimedia theatre, well as three spaces reserved for visitors are seated on bean bags and comfy adirondack chairs (im- visitors with limited mobility. age brightened to show detail). At the centre of the room Below, from top: Part of our stands a brand new Infinium-S meteorite collection, one of opto-mechanical projector from the most important in Canada. A view of our exhibit area where Konica Minolta. This projector, we present “Exo: The Search for which creates a stunningly re- Life in the Universe.” Educational alistic sky, projects stars that are video games on Reactables are a invisible to the naked eye, but big hit! Visitors can explore multi- visible through visitor-used bin- media content by pointing fingers at the large video displays using oculars, not to mention dozens multi-users touch-screen technol- of star clusters, nebulae and gal- ogy. (c)Marc Jobin, Planétarium axies. Rio Tinto Alcan. The projector also works in hybrid mode with high-resolu- tion video images produced by two JVC projectors (models DLA- SH7NLG) in order to replicate the appearance and Victor Pilon, allow visitors to and movements of the sun, moon, planets and use huge multi-touch screens to a range of other celestial bodies and phenom- navigate through rich multime- ena. dia content and consult different Finally, to bring people’s heads closer to the sources of information in their dome’s horizon and offer a greater immersive search for extraterrestrial life. experience, the theatre’s floor is raised 50 cm Several reading levels are of- higher than the entrance. To enter, visitors fered on these screens. In addi- walk up ramps that run along the theatre’s tion, a kids’ corner lets children as wall. Here, too, a high-quality 17.3 sound sys- young as seven seek out alien life tem helps create an enthralling and immer- through games and activities. sive audio experience. Finally, the exhibition displays The Star Theatre session features live com- the Planetarium’s large meteor- mentary by a science interpreter and includes ite collection and contains a full two parts, each about 20 minutes long. working lab, where ge- In the first half, the interpreter presents the ologists and meteorite specialists sky of the month using the opto-mechanical can answer questions about rocks projector and video projections of celestial ob- that fall from the heavens. De- jects visible to the naked eye in that period of pending on a visitor’s level of in- the year, including constellations, planets and terest, the exhibition can easily other bodies and phenomena in the sky like take an or more to explore. comets and meteor showers. Whether in the exhibition or In the second half, the interpreter turns the in other public spaces (including theatre into a virtual spacecraft that blasts off the esplanade south of the build- from Earth and offers a breathtaking visit to ing), the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetar- the objects introduced in the first part. For ex- ium provides a good number of ample, if Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the science interpreters to answer vis- night sky that season, the first destinations itors’ questions and offer activities are those two planets, which are explored in to complement the theatre shows, depth, as are their main moons and rings. such as educational capsules, ob- The navigation software DigitalSky2 by servations of the sky through our Sky-Skan is the main flight instrument for telescopes (both day and night), this second part, which regularly takes visi- and live interpretation (in the me- tors outside the Milky Way and to the ends of teorite lab, for example). To wel- the Universe in keeping with the latest astron- come school groups, we’ll soon omy news. produce a series of educational sessions and special activities fo- Alone in the universe? cusing on astronomy concepts As they leave the Star Theatre, visitors come recommended by the Québec ed- to the entrance of our permanent exhibition, ucation program (both elemen- Exo: Our Search for Life in the Universe. As the tary and secondary). Our theatres title suggests, Exo has visitors ponder wheth- will also become excellent tools er other life forms, simple or complex, exist in for teacher training and for re- the Universe. search in astronomy education. The avant-garde layout and design, based For observational astronomy on an original concept by Michel Lemieux (Continues on Page 28)

22 Planetarian June 2013 Supervolcanoes_8_5x11_WRobinSip.Page 1 1/31/2013 11:49:49 AM

Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch

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FULLDOME www.spitzinc.com

June 2013 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION23 Contact: Robin Sip [email protected] T: +31 70 3457500 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 Noesis Planetarium Space Mission takes kids on an interactive learning journey

Vassilis Matsos Head of IT and Audiovisuals Noesis Planetarium Thessaloniki, Greece [email protected]

A live planetarium show with a “twist” was introduced by Noesis planetarium in Thessa- loniki, Greece. This live production uses its Uniview Theater software by SCISS to pres- ent Space Mission 101: Destination Solar System, a 25-minute presentation that focuses on the constellations, the planets and other ce- lestial objects and is followed by a general knowledge question and answer game. The show is intended for kindergarten and secondary school children, as its content is easily adapted to individual ages. Children participate in the program as “space visi- tors,” with supplied “boarding passes” that contain photographs and other information of the various celestial objects, presented in the show.

It all started last summer, when the plane- choice questionnaire with the help of a spe- tarium team at Noesis Science Center in Thes- cial cordless voting system. saloniki, Greece, decided to create their first- Since the opening of the Noesis Planetar- ever live planetarium show. ium in June 2004, the production team had Starting from Earth, children attending this wanted to go beyond the “traditional” digi- program embark on a guided tour of famil- tal fulldome prerendered type of show, to of- iar celestial objects, such as the sun and the fer something new that involves the audience moon, followed by some of the most easily- more directly. recognized constellations, and learn about the Even though prerecorded shows have the effects of light pollution. advantages of controlled storytelling and the Added to that, they learn about the eternal quality of visuals, the main benefit for the au- sequence of day and night, timekeeping, the dience is usually limited to the inspiration invention of the telescope, and more, before factor, while interactivity with viewers them- journeying to the different planets of the so- selves is minimal. lar system, learning about the conditions nec- Even if it is true that the educational impact essary for the evolution of life. of the prerendered shows can be enhanced by The live show is followed by a fun session other means, such as the distribution of ed- of questions and answers, during which chil- ucational material before or after the show, dren seek the correct answers to a multiple teacher guides, etc., the development and use

24 Planetarian June 2013 get, it is mostly self-funded by admissions. Pro- Facing page, from top: General view of duction funding was limited to man-months the planetarium theater, just before the of persons creating the content and low cost quiz starts. Live results of the partici- pants votes are displayed on the dome. materials, such as participant’s badges. Voting is done with handsets. In order to attract more visitors, purchase This page, top: an image from the show, more voting devices and offer an even great- approaching planet Mars with Noesis’ er experience to our audience, we have be- “spaceship.” The children receive board- gun preparing a sponsor’s presentation box, ing passes upon entering the theater; they contain images from celestial bod- so that it is easier for a sponsor to understand ies along with a small description. All our concept and what may be their benefit in photos courtesy Noesis Planetarium. funding the production. The box, targeted at technology-oriented companies, includes the sponsor’s logo on the visitor badges and leaflets, a small bulleted-list of such material in the classroom depends presentation with goals and benefits for the heavily on the interest of the school teachers sponsor, as well as photographs of kids partic- themselves. As such, we felt that we should try ipating in the show, all contained in a person- and engage schoolchildren in a different way alized printed box. In order to do just that, our team was in- We also suggested that we could include the spired by the technological tools that are al- sponsor’s scope of work to a part of the show ready available in-house at Noesis Planetari- (possibly in the form of a label in a graphic ob- um. The production of Space Mission 101 was ject or a reference to a concept by the present- made possible by combining the capabilities er), provided, of course, that such an inclusion of the real-time visualization astronomy soft- it was decided to introduce a spaceship cock- would not adversely affect the show content ware Uniview, along with a wireless voting pit that would be used whenever traveling in any way, while the sponsors themselves system by QuizdomTM and other materials. through space was required. could prepare a small token gift, to be given to Our main aim was to maximize the chil- Last, but not least, the production team in- all children participating in the show. dren’s participation beyond the “question and corporated in the show the background mu- Publicity of the show was made possible answer” phase that usually takes place in live sic and the effects that wrap up the overall ex- through mass email using the mailing list of show presentations, thus making the experi- perience. the science center, promotional video for TV/ ence even more fun to attend and more pro- Music, in particular, is important to fill in internet and a press release. ductive. any breaks that may exist in the communica- tion between the presenter and the audience, Future plans The team and process as well as to enhance the “drama” unfolding Our plans for further development of the Based on an idea by Vassilis Matsos, head of on the dome. production include efforts to expand and IT and Audiovisuals at Noesis Planetarium, an After the presentation of the live show, a adapt the content for older age groups and 8-member production team was formed, in- small break takes place with the cove lighting families visiting the Noesis Planetarium on volving planetarium operators, a graphics de- and background music on, during which the weekends, to create additional educational signer, educators and science communicators. personnel explains what is to be followed and material for kids to browse at home, to make It all started with a basic text outlining the hands out the voting devices, while the audi- posters available for download, to provide ac- main educational concepts that are in line ence is prepared for the quiz. cess on online educational games and much with current educational standards at schools. We were amazed to find out how easy it more. The next step was to write the actual script was—even for the younger ones—to familiar- A demo video which highlights and dialog, expanding the concepts into a ize themselves with the equipment. It seems some aspects of the show can be text and a series of questions that would im- that similar technological “gadgets” such as seen on YouTube (titles in Greek prove interactivity with the school group. game consoles, mobile phones, etc. already only at the moment though!) The length of the text was taken into account, available for youngsters have played their We would be more than happy measuring the narration time that was needed part in the familiarization process. to answer any questions you may have at mat- to present each concept. Development time for the production was [email protected]. I In parallel, the scenes for visualizing the in- limited to three months, including testing, pi- formation on the dome were constructed by lot/demo shows, present- planetarium operators, keeping in mind the er training and evalua- time limits set by the script and vice versa. tion. The show has been Featured in Later on, the visuals had to be corrected in accepted very well by terms of direction in order to convey the rel- school groups and teach- Sky & Telescope evant information in a meaningful and eas- ers alike and, since it was New Product Showcase ily-understood manner. This involved the first introduced in our balance of entities on the dome, direction of program, is in the top of movement, the surprise and “wow” factor, as our reservations list. Everyone’s Universe well as the size of texts, the colors, etc. (Second Edition) At this point the team also had to find the Sponsoring and best way of keeping the audience’s interest publicity by Noreen Grice alive, which also involved balancing the stat- Because the produc- ic scenes with travel in between. To this end, tion had a very low bud- www.youcandoastronomy.comwww.YouCanDoAstronomy.com

June 2013 Planetarian 25 Strato sc r ip t ndium e R From the recent Nightshade script- p in ing workshop and competition: at m left, in the dome and on a merry- g go-round, an animation intended o s to demonstrate the similarity be- tween what we see when riding C a wooden horse and the fact that we see the stars moving during the An annual contest with collaborative spirit night. Photo by Lionel Ruiz. Center: a view from the winning show. Pho- to by Marina Costa, Planetarium del Righi, Italy. Right: workshop partic- ipants. Photo courtesy Lionel Ruiz.

Lionel Ruiz scripts were really interesting, with some tech- Planetarium of Marseille nical tricks and designs that amazed the jury 2, place Le Verrier made of amateur astronomers and scripts spe- 13004 Marseille, France cialists. Neither Yves nor I would be eligible www.lss-planetariums.info for the contest). We share a script each year to give ideas to In 2005, when the first affordable digital the contenders. planetariums rose, everything needed to be As the competition has grown, more peo- The world of small digital planetariums is invented. Everyone soon realized that the pix- ple from more countries are joining the group, creating an astonishing gigantic wave. Even els matrix is definitely a limitless world where making it more lively and diverse. Many cre- if they are not funded at levels seen by the anyone can add to its construction. ations are near professional quality, involv- many greater structures, the number of these In a few years, I developed hundreds of ing not only tricks but awesome art and small units is extremely high. scripts, pushing first Stellarium, and then soundtracks. More than 750 planetariums can potential- Nightshade when it spun off in 2008, to its The idea to create a script-sharing group of ly use Nightshade, the open source planetari- limits, and sharing some in the Digitalis edu- developers isn’t original at all. Major plane- um software that split off from Stellarium to cation website for the pleasure of every user. tariums companies also are doing so. But lim- concentrate on fulldome use. Digitalis sug- This open philosophy led us to create links iting this group to registered users is the dif- gests that it can be used in their systems (400 between scripts makers. Some script courses ference, as only accepted users that submit a planetariums), and in another 350 with spher- were elaborated by French- (Lionel Ruiz) and good enough script can enter and access the ical mirrors and other systems. Spanish- (Raul Martinez Morales) speaking us- scripts made by others. It’s the booster for pro- That makes a lot of people who are avail- ers in France, Spain, Mexico and Canada. duction creation, and the reward is worth it. able to use or create Nightshade scripts, not After creating a website dedicated to Stel- Indeed, when you have created a script, you counting those who use the software not for larium and its offshoots and how to do your get access to scripts from others and the au- planetariums, but because it is open source own digital planetarium, Yves Lhoumeau and thorisation to use it into your own planetar- and is fun and smart enough to begin with. I soon wanted to go further and launch a con- ium. And it’s like the horn of plenty, as even test for scripters. after having participated one year, newcom- An engine is born ers that send scripts for this year (if the script The Nightshade scripting engine was made International from the beginning is good enough) are making it available for ev- by a genius French developer: Fabien Chereau, The first year, only few representatives en- erybody who participated before, so partici- influenced by Rob Spearman from Digitalis. tered the contest but, from the onset, it was in- pants get new scripts for many years after. The recipe cooked up perfectly. ternational (Spain, India and France) and the (Continues on Page 28)

26 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 27 (Stratoscripts, continued from Page 26) (Guest Editorial, continued from Page 6) Winning a contest system should last or how much it cost to op- Obviously, winning a contest will not only well taken into account. Retransmissions are erate have been shattered. Like it or not, there be gratifying personally for the winner; it also hard to manage as the screen is a dome and is no turning back. The talk of failure rates of means receiving many scripts, shows or full- the huge resolutions of the files limit the pro- digital versus optical-mechanical is nonsensi- dome videos, depending on the quality of the cess. cal. productions that were presented and what When there’s no money involved, howev- I have a hammer that has been in my fam- sponsors could give. er, freedom and pleasure from your efforts is ily for more than 50 years. It always works. I Instead of proposing only one reward, we easier to get. This year the result announce- also have a nail gun. It occasionally jams, re- proposed three: Show, Technical and Peda- ment was held during a free digital small plan- sulting in a few well-chosen epithets. But the gogical. It may not be fair if some creations in etariums workshop in France, and the win- nail gun is the carpenter’s tool of choice, be- the same category are far above others as only ners of the show contest, Italians this time, cause more can be done with it in a shorter pe- one will get a prize, but nobody will feel like were even present during this session. A con- riod of time. a loser as they go back home with so much in secration. A good carpenter has both tools. If it can af- any case. The only co-operative sharing idea that ford it, a great technology planetarium blends If you want many people joining, every- may work would be with domemasters/full- digital and optical-mechanical systems. But thing has to be free. That’s easy with this sort dome videos, as these are universal in the most planetarians, if put in the position of of content because scripts are sent by email or world of digital planetariums. I tried some choosing one, rightly choose the digital sys- data sharing systems. The only trouble I see years ago to create this sort of contest, but, tem. In the end, it can help communicate and coming is that having more and more scripts even if I’m a little bit renowned in the stra- illustrate more ideas. takes more time to review and judge. It’s a toscript world, that is not the case in the full- Rather than blame the digital planetari- small ransom to success. dome video world (even though I have made um systems or the fulldome show producers The other reason why it is working is prob- a lot of them) and it didn’t work. for the woes and high-cost of our industry, I ably that it’s far easier and quicker to create Many planetariums wanted to participate, ask every planetarian to look in the mirror content for a small dome with limited resolu- but their creations were linked to inner copy- for ideas and solutions. Planetarians should be tion. There sure are limitations with this kind rights and they had not thought of this kind leading vendors at conferences and not vice- of production, compared to fulldome shows, of trading before hand. versa. but we are the only one to know; the public is Beside, if sending a script is costless by email, We should all remember that we are in accepting of many things from smaller struc- it’s not the case for domemasters, as the size of the business of peddling ideas and scientif- tures. data requires hard disks and a lot of time to do ic concepts in the most passionate, creative, Ideas for the future copies. This will certainly restrain the open and entertaining way possible. I am hoping Although we would like to imagine that sharing. We can imagine that small sequenc- that this is one idea and one dream we can all winners could get a trophy, that we would re- es could be exchanged that way, if carefully agree upon. I transmit presentations on the internet, and compressed and sent through specialised FTP many other things, but the costs have to be servers. I on.fb.me/PlanetariumTweets

(New Skies over Montréal, continued from Page 28) Real tweets about real planetariums Mario DiMaggio buffs and novices, we’ll hold regular evening same desire to move forward has spawned a sessions in the Star Theatre, where partici- new chapter in its history. •• How could anyone NOT love a planetari- pants can learn to locate and recognize a range Within the Space for Life complex, the Rio um? Jealous. of deep-sky objects with both the naked eye Tinto Alcan Planetarium offers a novel ap- •• I´m TIRED and I have DREAM!, but I´m hap- and binoculars. proach to astronomy, drawing on science py ´cause I´m fine with my family and that I Finally, we’re very eager to test the limits of as well as art and poetry to forge a link be- have a travel to the planetarium soon our new “toys.” For example, we want visitors tween the cosmos and life on Earth. This ap- •• Our school is too cheap to get My locker a to lead a session by choosing the destination, proach is defining the Planetarium as an inter- number plate but has a planetarium. Legit. like the latest exoplanet discovered the day national trailblazer. The best is yet to come! They actually have a planetarium. before or a distant galaxy where a supernova Pierre Chastenay is an astronomer at the •• I am an astronaut, my coworker is Carl Sa- has just exploded. Montréal Planetarium. Translated from the gan, and the planetarium staff is the coolest We also plan to embrace new technolo- French by Neil Smith. I in the entire Science Center. Hands down. gies, like smart phones, in the immersive envi- ronment of our two theatres within sessions where participants use their own phones to PARTYcles Alex Cherman interact with the content they’re shown. I'm glad you came OMG!!! to your senses! What do you New sky for a new city mean?!? How will I ever know?!? The Montréal Planetarium has changed enormously since it opened in April 1966 with No more of that Relax... All electrons are I'm just messing its first show, New Sky for a New City, which abduction nonsense... indistinguishable... with your head... mainly presented the sky of the season with You're back to Who is to say I the help of the single Zeiss projector. As tech- your old self... There is not much of am who you nology evolved, the Planetarium reinvent- you to mess around think I am? with anyway... ed itself and sought to push boundaries. This Am I?

28 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 29 Adam Thanz Bays Mountain Planetarium 853 Bays Mountain Park Road Kingsport, Tennessee 37660 These doors open [email protected] to mathematics

New York City is a true metropolis. There sound and light. (Sorry, no taste nor smell.) the exhibits wanted to focus on an experien- are parks, museums, restaurants, stores, seem- The museum hosts many workshops and tial learning experience instead of an instruc- ingly endless buildings, and about a mil- lectures as well, making excellent use of local tional one. lion people. But something has been missing talent for public education. The one major point to address that I would here—in fact, it’s been missing from the entire Looking at the schedules, it’s obvious that suggest to them is to definitely have docents United States. It is a hands-on museum dedi- some of the workshops are great for young help with each of the exhibits (and that they cated solely to the education of mathematics. folks to make and take models, origami, and are active, not passive) so visitors not only This void has been filled by the National the such, while some of the lectures are great know how to use the exhibit, but also what Museum of Mathematics, situated in the mid- for the intermediate and advanced levels in to learn from it. This is a major point that is town area across Madison Square Park from highlighting complex mathematical meth- missed by many, but not all, hands-on facil- the famous Flatiron Building. Why, even its ods. I know I would enjoy them. ities all over the US. These other facilities do zip code is binary: 10010! A lot of thought went into making the ex- not invest in volunteer recruitment nor staff. MoMATH opened to the public on Decem- hibits as self-explanatory as possible. Interpre- This only leads to frustration and boredom by ber 15, 2012 to visitation much greater than tive material was provided via touchscreen the visitor. expected. My wife, Robin Byrne (who is also monitors. Each of these monitors covered A number of children attending while we an astronomer and has degrees in mathemat- three or four exhibits each and were placed were there were in the pre-K to 2 grade level. ics), and I visited barely two later to a on the side next to a wall or column. For them, it was just a chance to bash on but- cacophony of both adults and children of all But, within each interpretation, there were tons or climb on the giant foam SOMA cube. ages. Imagine: a wonderful sample of ages and three levels to choose from: basic, interme- I would place the best age to attend at the ethnic backgrounds, all engaged in mathe- diate, and advanced. This level choice was late elementary to middle school level. I did matical frivolity! a good idea, as it allowed visitors to learn at see a number of older students take part of their own pace. Each level had a number of an area that had puzzles and games at small Two stories of exhibits pages to flip through, so no one screen was tables that sat four people each. The activity The exhibits, which cover two stories, are cluttered. Having the interpretation clustered was still interactive and tactile, but provided hands-on and cover all sorts of math concepts. in one spot was important due to the limited a better environment for more concentrated These include products, harmonics, logic, spa- floor space. attention. tial reasoning, fractals, tessellation, solids and Upon observing how the visitors interacted As a side note, the gift shop was also as ele- their cross sections, and much more. with the exhibits, I will say that some instruc- gant as the rest of the museum. Glass, wood, The design and implementation of the ex- tion and interpretation at some of the exhib- and stainless steel prevailed here; they even hibits is very nice and robust. Metal, wood, its themselves is needed. I saw both adults and had a sculpture puzzle manufactured for the and hard plastic are used everywhere. Most kids try to use an exhibit, but didn’t know its museum’s opening, the Frabjous by George W. of the exhibits incorporate many of our sens- purpose or what to do with it. Hart. es; all were tactile, by either moving, pushing As stated on Hart’s website (www.george- buttons, handling models, or riding on some- Focus on experience hart.com/sculpture/frabjous.html), “The word thing. Other senses taken advantage of were I have a feeling that those who designed (Continues on next page)

30 Planetarian June 2013 And the award goes to ... Michael Narlock This April, planetarian Michael Narlock accepted the President’s Award for Excellence at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Narlock, head of Astronomy & Exhibits and Web Coordinator at Cranbrook, received the peer-submitted award for his contributions to the museum, the-newly renovated Acheson Planetarium, and the reno- vated Cranbrook Observatory. The President’s Award for Excellence is given each year to a small number of individuals who represent Cranbrook’s long history and dedication to excellence. Recipients attend a ceremony held in their honor and attended by the Cranbrook community. Recipients also have their names adorn a permanent bench placed on the Cranbrook school campus. Michael’s hard work was noted by the staff of Cranbrook for a num- ber of contributions to the school and community, including the com- plete renovation of the Cranbrook Observatory. The new observatory At the awards banquet, from left: Matthew Mascheri, Michael Nar- boasts three new telescopes for viewing and imaging, and can be con- lock, and Jason Heaton. Mascheri, formerly at the Adler Planetarium, is the founder of Dome3D. Mascheri and Narlock, at the Boonshoft Mu- trolled directly by an operator, or remotely through the planetarium’s seum of Discovery, comprise the rest of the Dome3D team. new Digistar 5 control system. I

(From previous page) Catch the ASP lecture Frabjous comes, of course, from ‘The Jaber- Please don’t get me wrong, the facility is wocky’ of Lewis Carroll. O frabjous day! Cal- fantastic, beautifully constructed, and offers series on YouTube looh! Callay!” It is made of 30 identical pieces lots of learning to visitors of all ages. Since the The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, that interconnect to create a wonderful, con- museum was less than two weeks old they San Francisco, has announced that its popu- structive geometric form. have, as any of us would, a learning curve to lar Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, which Upon speaking with the attendant in the travel. I wish them a great future and a high features noted scientists giving nontechnical gift shop when purchasing said puzzle and time for pi. illustrated lectures on recent developments mentioning that the store was a bit empty, You can learn more about the museum in astronomy, are now available on their own he replied that they didn’t expect such a re- from their website at momath.org. I YouTube Channel, at www.youtube.com/ sponse to the opening and visitors had dec- SVAstronomyLectures. imated their stock. This is a problem any of The talks include: us who needs to generate revenues from their •• Frank Drake discussing his modern view of gift shop would like to incur. the Drake Equation, •• Sandra Faber on how galaxies were “cooked” from the primordial soup, Facing page: How do you cut a pie in half? Make •• Michael Brown explaining how his discov- it door handles to MoMATH! This page, below: Robin Byrne holds a transparent cone in the ery of Eris led to the demotion of Pluto, path of lasers to show the conic sections. •• Alex Filippenko talking about the latest ideas and observations of black holes, •• Natalie Batalha sharing the latest planet dis- coveries from the Kepler mission, •• Anthony Aguirre discussing how it is possi- ble to have multiple universes, and •• Chris McKay updating the Cassini discover- Above: This giant puzzle let you walk the walk and talk the talk. But, you can only turn left! Be- ies about Saturn’s moon Titan. low: This was one of many game tables that al- The lectures are taped at Foothill College lowed more time to play with puzzles. All pho- near San Francisco, and co-sponsored by NA- tos by Adam Thanz. SA’s Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Note that the top page of the channel shows the lectures in the order they happened to be uploaded to YouTube. If you want to see them in chronological order, select the Playl- ist option. Both new and older talks in the series will be added to the channel as time goes by. Many noted astronomers have given talks in this se- ries since its founding in 1999; recent lectures are being recorded so that people around the world can “tune in.” I

June 2013 Planetarian 31 Planetario de Bogota, Colombia re-opens after two year renovation

By Ian McLennan

After faithfully serving citizens and school children of Bo- gota, the capital city of Colombia, for 43 years, Planetario de Bogota was closed for two years to enable a comprehensive renovation and technical upgrade. A series of gala opening celebrations was held over sev- eral days, starting on March 19, 2013. The renovation com- Technical equipment consists of a classical Zeiss star projector prised three main elements: a complete refurbishment of and PowerDome digital video system, and Spitz Nanoseam inner the building infrastructure, a technical upgrade of the plan- projection dome. Here, the colours of Colombia are displayed during the national anthem played during the opening re-ded- etarium star theatre, and introduction of a new astrono- ication. my and space museum in halls originally devoted to a con- temporary art gallery. I

One of the most engaging and intellectually satisfying exhibits within the museum display area is this room where a “debate“ takes place among six astronomers (played by excellent actors via six co-ordinated video monitors). The astronomers repre- sented are Edwin Hubble, Alan Guth, Fritz Zwicky, Albert Ein- The re-opening attracted widespread public and media inter- stein, Georges Lemaitre and George Gamov. Photo courtesy ID- est, and was celebrated using bright search lights seen from all ARTES, Bogota over the sprawling city of 8 million people. The nearby world- famous and iconic Colpatria Building is seen with thousands of animated LED lights sporting the colours of the Colombian flag. All photos by Ian McLennan unless otherwise noted.

The long-awaited and completely new astronomical museum fills five major rooms totaling 650 sq m within the planetarium complex. The museum exhibition was designed, fabricated and installed by Explora, Medellin, the site of Colombia‘s second ma- The 23-m dome theatre accommodates 420 newly designed, jor planetarium. Photo courtesy IDARTES, Bogota comfortable seats, arranged in the classical concentric, flat- dome format. Photo courtesy IDARTES, Bogota (Photos continue on Page 50)

32 Planetarian June 2013 Visualization without compromise.

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June 2013 Planetarian 33 THIS IS YOUR OFFICE.

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34 SkySkan.com | Americas/Pacific tel +1 603-880-8500, [email protected] | Europe tel +49 89-6428-9231 [email protected] | Australia/Asia tel +613-9372-6444, [email protected] 2013 THIS IS YOUR OFFICE.

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SkySkan.com | Americas/Pacific tel +1 603-880-8500, [email protected] | Europe tel +49 89-6428-9231 [email protected] | Australia/Asia tel +613-9372-6444, [email protected] June 2013 Planetarian 35 Premieres March 18

36 Planetarian June 2013 Comparison matrix Educational Horizons Now that you have used COBIUM, you can read the passage for understanding and use Jack L. Northrup the next strategy, which is comparison ma- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium trix. The example I am using is comparing the King Science and Technology Magnet Center planets; it is a good one to start with and some- 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA thing that we are used to seeing already. +1 402-557-4494 This is just a regular data table to most peo- [email protected] ple until you start asking the right questions. “Are there more moons in the inner or outer planets?” “Describe the relationship between I have reached the end of another school record is useful. I hand out notecards (3-4 period of revolution and distance from the year and have started planning for summer cards) to the students and have them write sun.” A favorite of mine: “Describe the rela- groups, camps, odd questions, and produc- the question on the blank back and the an- tionship between the period of rotation and tion. With the general feeling of planning and swer (including page number) on the lined distance from the sun.” preparation in the air, I thought this would be side. Not every comparison should be successful; a good article cover some more of the post-vis- •• Review—to see if you were able to answer it goes back to not every experiment is suc- it activities I suggested earlier; see the Decem- all your questions, or discover that you cessful, but at least you collected data. ber 2012 article for the whole list. need to find additional resources. Do you One of my galaxy lessons uses comparison For this article I am going to cover four have any new questions? matrixes to help organize information on five techniques: preview of text features, preview general types of galaxies. However, I do not of text structures, comparison matrix, and Text Structures give them the topics to be compared; they summary writing. These are all strategies that Preview of text structures is something that have to create their own four comparators. you can use in your classroom, planetarium, we can apply to planetarium presentations as This parallels the activity where you have or send back with the teacher. easily as a text book. When presenting new the students create their own organization vocabulary to the audience, do you give them method for a series of galaxy images. It allows Text features a chance to see the word, a one-sentence defi- the students do identify their own key items Preview of text features is a strategy that I nition, and a focused image? (Many of you are for comparing, meaning the students use it as like to include when I send books back with now concerned that I show fuzzy images in a review after reading, instead of filling in as the teacher after the visit. There are many dif- my planetarium. This is not the case.) you go. ferent types of mnemonics to organize your A focused image is one that shows the key thoughts as you are previewing text features, idea without a lot distracting details. If you are Summary writing but I prefer SQR3 (also known as SQ3R or talking about moon phases, don’t have your Summary writing is a great way to wrap up SQRRR): meteor shower effect running. It doesn’t mean a lesson or reading. I like to use exit slips when •• Skim—or survey the text for big ideas, pic- a completely blank dome, either; just keep it students are leaving the planetarium to have tures, captions. focused and useful to demonstrate the term. them summarize the presentation, lesson, or When using text structures and a book, it big idea. The problem develops when a person is all about the foundation work. A reason- wants to spend too much time on the sum- able number of pages is a consideration for mary. A two-paragraph summary of a 20-min- the students. A good rule of thumb is age di- ute planetarium presentation is extreme. My vided by 2. If too many are assigned, they get planetarium’s code phrase for summaries is overwhelmed, followed by it becoming “Say it in a sentence.” a race to the end of the passage. Too few, This policy makes it so the summaries are and the students may not get a com- useful. “Watched planets” doesn’t cut it. You plete image of the concept. watched the planets do what? A dance? Jump A social studies teacher I work with rope? After applying the policy, the summary has an acronym that she uses to start the might say “We watched the planets go around kids in using text structures: COBIUM. the plane of the solar system.” That small •• Colors and Captions—check out amount of detail makes the pictures first and read the captions. the summary more use- Are some words different colors? They ful in checking for un- might be important. derstanding. •• Objective statement—what is the The art teacher down first line of the reading? This is the first the hall made little cell- •• Questions—what you want to know the an- thing the writer wanted you to know. phones that she uses swers to after reading the text. •• Bold face—these can be your big ideas, pro- as exit slips. She found •• Read—the text, keeping an eye out for an- cesses, and concepts. that she can get four swers to your questions. •• Italicized font—often used in conjunction “phones” on a sheet of •• Recite—there are some variations at this with color to make new vocabulary words paper. step, just as there are times when talking pop off the page for the readers. There are two different styles of summary through the reading while mentioning the •• Underlined text—major idea that may have that she uses based on the lesson. One is called main ideas of different sections, new vocab- been up for debate or discussion. “text home,” where the students write a short ulary, and answers to your questions is ap- •• Memos—notes left by the author or editors text to their parents about what they learned propriate. However, sometimes a written in the margins and footer. (Continues on Page 64)

June 2013 Planetarian 37 tent to drive the business model.” Speakers Jay Williams of Super 78 Studios, IMERSA News Barry Clark of Telenova Productions and Jef- frey Kirsch, who recently retired as director of the Reuben H Fleet Science Center, all encour- Judith Rubin aged fulldome producers to find ways to bring Communications Director, IMERSA.org more money into the process. Williams raised the example of studios to- [email protected] day relying on producers to put together cre- ative financing and bring them packages. 2013 IMERSA Summit addresses Daut, Matt Mascheri, Brad Thompson, Caro- Clark suggested looking outside of institu- content, business models lyn Collins Petersen, Ethan Bach, Jim Arthurs, tions to identify visionary entrepreneurs to More than 150 attendees enthusiastically Jay Heinz, Ka Chun Yu, Ed Lantz, Ryan Wy- help push the boundaries of fulldome. Kirsch participated in IMERSA’s series of professional att, Timmy Edens, Jane Crayton, David Koern- spoke of pooling resources, citing the success development workshops and industry confer- er and Marty Crandall-Grela (there were many of the Dome Theater Consortium in funding ence at the Denver Museum of Nature & Sci- others as well). dome-specific giant screen film productions. ence February 14-17. The culture was peer-to-peer and the dialog More money for institutions was also a top- True to the “Immersive Storytelling” traveled across overlapping markets, with rep- ic of conversation. Kirsch pointed out that the theme, fulldome content development was a resentatives from affiliate organizations cul- Fleet charges an extra fee for fulldome show primary focus throughout. tivated by IMERSA to participate and share tickets, just as for IMAX films. Professional development sessions ex- their perspectives, including Jeffrey Kirsch of George Wiktor, whose company, the GW plored tools and techniques, such as live-ac- the Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA), Group, produces unique visitor attractions, tion capture rigs, compositing software and George Wiktor of the Themed Entertainment concurred that facilities should consider an photogrammetry. Hands-on workshops ad- Association (TEA), Jay Williams of the Produc- upcharge for fulldome content, and that vis- dressing workflow and 360 cameras and ers Guild of America, and Thomas Kraupe of itors would recognize the value. such as Hero 360, RED, Epic and the Canon IPS. Kraupe observed that a planetarium might fisheye tests made it clear that 4K acquisition Three IPS presidents were in attendance: sit- need to re-examine its mission as part of de- for fulldome is now viable. ting President Kraupe of Planetarium Ham- veloping new revenue models. Brian Wirth- Discussions ranged over such issues as cross- burg, immediate Past President David Wein- lin of Seiler, who recently revived LASERIUM platforming and transmedia, the practical and rich (Minnesota State University Moorhead), shows at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium in Saint Louis (see below) said, “Show facilities a profit model. They will benefit from learn- ing how to select and market shows.”

Discussing industry standards Helping advance the discussion of industry standards and cross-platforming was Martin Howe’s Introduction to DIGSS (Digital Immer- sive Giant Screen Specifications) presentation. The DIGSS initiative, stewarded by GSCA, was formed to establish technical standards for digital theaters with giant flat or dome screens, and fulldome theaters are now being incorporated into the specifications. Although standards work is something of a moving target in that individual specifica- tions and configurations can vary consider- ably from one theater to another, the exhi- bition technology continues to advance and From left, Networking at IMERSA are Matt Macheri of Dome 3D and Eric Hanson of xRez, while Barry Per- both producers and operators continue to lus (photo at right) examines a new camera. Photos courtesy IMERSA. push the frontiers. Barry Clark advocated for a future target production format of 120K. Jeff Kirsch referred financial side of production and distribution, and President-Elect Paul Knappenberger, re- to himself as “Dr. 4K” in connection with the and business models for facilities. cently retired head of the Adler Planetarium. Fleet’s custom fulldome system. Not long af- On the dome of the Gates Planetarium, a The “3D in the dome” panel included Mi- ter, Paul Knappenberger of the Adler Planetar- juried selection of fulldome films was show- chael Daut, Ka Chun Yu of DMNS, Ryan Wy- ium was described as “Dr 8K” in reference to cased, and experimental demonstrations att of the California Academy of Sciences, and the Adler’s newest system. screened into the night. The showcased films Paul Mobray of NSC. Mobray recommend- Both contrasts and synergies between the were: Chaos and Order, Earthquake, Escher’s ed “overproduction” in terms of optimiz- fulldome and giant-screen sectors were evi- Universe, The Life of Trees, The Longest Night: A ing a show to look good in the widest possi- dent in the recent international market sur- Winter’s Tale and Supervolcanoes. ble number of formats, noting that “3D stereo vey results presented by Global Immersion’s Dedicated volunteers who helped organize technology for fulldome is there but not quite Alan Caskey. The survey reflects respons- the summit included: Dan Neafus, Michael there. If it is to go forward, we must have con- es from 139 planetariums and 45 institution-

38 Planetarian June 2013 tiple technologies into the dome as with his systems to fulldome digital cinema and con- projects, Marvel Superheroes 4D at Madame sider the new programming options available Tussauds London, a multipurpose digital to them. dome that will be a highlight of a new tour- Laserium’s legacy of multimedia artistic ex- ism center in Shanghai, and the use of domes ploration in the dome was robustly on show for attractions at a new Chariots of the Gods at the IMERSA Summit, in the form of the VJ theme park now in development. programs and systems demonstrated by SAT, Michael Daut demonstrated the integration Laser Fantasy and Signal to Noise. of Kinect technology into a fulldome system, The following night, Mickey Remann of for playing Quiddich games on the dome, Bauhaus University delighted the assembly among other things. Thomas Kraupe declared at the conference banquet with his “Janus2.0” that realtime interactivity and data visual- skit—featuring a visit by the god Janus him- izations are key features of fulldome systems, self—an apt comment on the irony of full- whether presenting astronomy or not. Bar- dome exhibition for a species with two front- ry Clark: “I picture Avatar VII in fulldome.” facing eyes. Lance Ford-Jones: “I never sit still in a dome— Capping a great four days, following the of- I want swivel seats and cues to make me turn ficial close of the Summit, the IMERSA board around.” KateMcCallum: “Let the artists in!” members went to dinner with IPS representa- LASERIUM® creator and Summit special tives to talk about future collaborations and guest speaker Ivan Dryer arrived for the con- synergies between the two organizations. ference kickoff dinner. Following Ivan’s key- Ivan Dryer, the creator of Laserium, receives note—which received standing ovations at Laserium Revival IMERSA’s first award for lifetime achievement the opening and the close—Dan Neafus pre- In St. Louis, the James S. McDonnell Plane- from Dan Neafus of the Denver Museum of Na- sented him with IMERSA’s first award for life- tarium recently brought back the original La- ture and Science. Photo courtesy IMERSA. time achievement. serium run by one of the original laserists, Bri- It was an emotional event for many attend- an Wirthlin of Seiler, for whom the revival al giant screen theaters about current needs, ees who had fond memories and past associ- has been a labor of love. Wirthlin hopes that trends and expectations in operations, tech- ations with Laserium and Ivan. DMNS had it will spark a trend of new evening events nology, content, and technical perfor- mance. The survey results can be down- loaded from www.imersa.org. Numerous visions—and concrete ex- amples—were raised of the fulldome planetarium’s potential as a venue for multimedia and live theater, and the benefits of partnering with local artists and arts organizations. Ed Lantz, whose company, Vortex Immersion, did $1.2 million last year in corporate dome projects and produced a dome experience for Xbox Kinect at the Superbowl, said, “We’re just scratch- ing the surface of what you can do with gesture control.” Herbert Ruesseler of Fraunhofer FOKUS, whose 360 Lab has published a white paper on the digital dome of the future, spoke of the potential for cre- The iconic St. Louis Science Center/McDonnell Planetarium, (left), and images of the laser show by Brian Wirth- ating dome spaces with multiple con- lin, one of the original Laserium laserists. figurations in the style of the new per- forming arts centers that can switch from proscenium to thrust to theater-in-the- been a key venue for Laserium. at the planetarium, and draw in more atten- round. It was also a timely reminder of how cre- dance from the community. The facility’s Glenn Smith of Sky-Skan introduced some ative thinking, decades ago in the 1970s, led to leadership is rooting for his success. of the company’s unique projects, such as the creation of lucrative alternative business “The one thing that I have been asked con- Paul Pairet’s UltraViolet multisensory food models, new markets and new audiences for sistently since I first arrived in St. Louis over and media experience in Shanghai, the Magao planetariums. a year ago:’When are you going to bring the Caves simulation in Dunhoung and the Ger- The long lines and full houses for Laserium laser show back?’” said Bert Vescolani, presi- man Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 with 16 shows were a rejuvenator for many planetar- dent of the St. Louis Science Center. When it projectors under a transparent floor. iums that booked the laser shows, introduc- premiered in 1975, Wirthlin was of the first to Markus Beyr of Attraktion! talked about a ing new revenue streams, new audiences and see Laserium at the McDonnell Planetarium. live-action RED camera rig developed in al- a new business model for the facilities. Those He became not only a fan, but also a student liance with a Hong Kong company, to boost aspects have been getting renewed attention of the art and technology, and in reviving the content creation, and about integrating mul- as more and more planetariums upgrade their show, he digitized the original analog tapes.

June 2013 Planetarian 39 as “homes for education and a series of digital intermediates to optimize training in astronomy and each one and their process may well become a other sciences.” defining model for distributing a special ven- Lang explained that the ue title across a variety of educational markets company viewpoint is that and theater configurations, from science cen- a truly complete fulldome ters to planetariums to multiplexes. “We want system must combine the everyone to run it,” says SK Films President classic star projector with Jonathan Barker. the digital playback and re- Giant screen film dome operators have pro- al-time systems in order to tested for a number of years that the dome always have the option for format tends to receive short shrift. In the gi- real-time in any show and ant screen universe, the primary focus of pro- “the ability to communi- ducers and distributors in the past 10 years cate with the audience and or so has been on the flatscreen 2D/3D mar- answer questions on the kets. Added to the outcry from film dome op- fly.” Subsequently, Zeiss full- erators is a growing awareness of the sizable dome systems integrate all dome theater market. three elements and support Cross-platforming is a challenging and in- Ann Wagner (left), project manager from Carl Zeiss International, simultaneous operation, exact science. Adding fulldome to the spread with Wilfried Lang, vice president of Zeiss’ planetarium division. controlled by a single soft- increases the challenge. But SK Films believes Photo courtesy Seiler Instruments. ware program and console. it is worth the effort. Student participation in Film dome operators hailed a presentation The music selection is a mix of classic and the Jena festival is fostered as an important by Barker last fall at The Tech Museum in San rock, from Holst’s Neptune to Pink Floyd’s element for developing the medium. Lang Jose. “We showed what we had done to make Echoes. The revival of Laserium opened to the points out that all technical high schools in the film look its best on the dome, with a side- general public in Saint Louis on April 5, 2013, Germany now include a media technology by-side series of frames demonstrating the and shows will continue on selected dates curriculum, and this is where many of Jena’s changes from flatscreen to dome. We created through the summer. student contributors are drawn from. the film from a variety of different image cap- “When you show that on the planetarium’s According to Lang, Zeiss has invested some ture sources. Those were processed into three 80-foot dome, you’re just blown away,” said 4 million Euros to research and development separate digital intermediates from which we planetarium director John Lakey. “Laserium of its Velvet Black fulldome system over the filmed out: one for 1570 3D and 2D, one for was a huge sensation,” Lakey reported. Shows past 3 years, and the equivalent amount to 1570 dome, and one for 16 x 9 aspect ratio dig- sold out all the time.” each of 3 sizes of its classic starball projectors. ital cinema. Other facets of the planetarium’s anniversa- “On the dome version, we took the An anniversary celebration ry celebration include a return to 1963 prices flatscreen digital master as a starting point, The James S. McDonnell planetarium is cel- for star shows (50 cents!) and a new exhibition, and reframed it shot-by-shot to put the action ebrating its 50th anniversary this year. At- Gateway to the Universe: Celebrating 50 Years in the dome’s sweet spot. Sometimes, the re- tending a celebration of the date recently of the James S. McDonnell were representatives of Carl Zeiss Internation- Planetarium. al, including Laura Hammonds Misajet (sales manager), Wilfried Lang (vice president, Plan- Butterflies for the etarium Division) and Ann Wagner, project dome manager. There were also numerous represen- Flight of the Butterflies, tatives of Seiler Instruments, the local Zeiss one of the standouts from distributor, and members of the McDonnell the recent Giant Screen Cin- family. ema Association (GSCA) Film The evening included a public lecture, Expo & Digital Symposium “50 years of Astronomy” given by Professor at Moody Gardens in Galves- Charles Schweighauser. ton, Texas, and already The planetarium currently has a Zeiss Uni- booked on 100+ screens, has versarium Model IX fiberoptic starball projec- been customized for the tor, installed in 2001. There is talk of acquiring dome. a new, high-end, digital dome video (full- Butterflies premiered dome) theater system in the near future. in September 2012 at the Director Mike Slee and producer Jonathan Barker set a scene for Flight Wilfried Lang talked about the company’s Johnson IMAX Theater at of the Butterflies. Courtesy SK Films history in the planetarium community and the Smithsonian Nation- spoke in anticipation of the 7th annual full- al Museum of Natural His- dome festival at the Jena Zeiss-Planetarium tory, Washington, D.C., and is acclaimed as positioning required that we extend other ar- (held May 29-June 1) in Jena, Germany which a success both in terms of filmmaking and eas in the frame. We also introduced a gradi- is the Zeiss headquarters town. in spreading awareness of the loss of habitat ent in the color timing process, meaning that He spoke of Zeiss’s pioneering role in the threatening the Monarch butterfly. we darkened the sides and top of the frame to creation of the planetarium, beginning in Distributor SK Films is rolling out Butter- reduce cross-reflection, because one of the big- 1923 with the Deutsches Museum in Munich flies across a wide range of exhibition formats, gest potential problems in the dome is cross- and the company’s dedication to the facilities including fulldome. They took pains to create (Continues on Page 64)

40 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 41 ued projecting its shows with great success on International News its 23-m (77-ft) dome. Its previous Spitz illumi- nation and sound system was used with an Lars Broman appropriate intercommunication interphase. Teknoland and Strömstad Academy The Cuernavaca Planetarium, Digistar 4, is Stångtjärnsv 132 also projecting the Evans & Sutherland show SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden library in its 8-m (30-ft) dome. +46 2310 177 [email protected], [email protected] Canadian Association of www.teknoland.se, www.stromstadakademi.se Science Centres Winnipeg. As reported in the last issue, By the time you read this, I have already ti Duet Stereo system. The production team Winnipeg has finished installing a new Digi- been there, but right now I am busy editing is headed by Professor Luiz Pavão, who was star 5 system (the first in Canada) with two International News. I have to send it to Plane- also responsible for the planetarium project. F-35 projectors mounted on the Zeiss pedestal. tarian Editor Sharon Shanks several days be- They are aiming toward fulldome produc- This allows fulldome, and the slightly lower fore my regular deadline, since in a few days I tion and are open to projects and partnerships brightness helps hide the dome seams, as the will leave for Ukraine. I go there on invitation with other institutions. They have an Eng- dome was not cleaned or upgraded as part of from Planetarium, but I will visit the As- lish website at fulldome.pucpr.br/tiki-index. this interim project. tronomical Observatory of Kyiv National php?page=%22English%22. The transitional fulldome approach allows University and the Planetarium in Kharkov This year, the XVIII Meeting of the ABP will Winnipeg to run newer, syndicated shows. as well. be conducted at the Johannes Kepler Planetar- They are currently running a mixture of live A couple of presentations are in the plan- ium located inside SABINA, a Science Center shows plus features like One World, One Sky: ning, and I will talk about some of my favorite located in the city of Santo André in São Pau- Big Bird’s Adventure, Zula Patrol: Down to Earth, topics, Interactive Exhibits for Planetariums, lo State, 22- 26 September. To get more info on as well as 2012 Ancient Skies, Ancient Mysteries. Public Understanding of Astronomy, and A the event, send an email to contato@planetar- Winnipeg will import shows that comple- Master Program in Science Communication. I ios.org.br. ment a number of travelling museum exhib- have also been asked to give presentations at its next year as well as a variety astronomy the Polytechnic Institutes in Kyiv and Khar- Association of Mexican programs. Winnipeg contact is Scott Young, kov, talking about Solar Energy Education at Planetariums Master Level and Public Understanding of Re- In the March 2013 newable Energy PURE. Planetarian, a mistake Finally, I will spend a day taking a trip to was made by the AM- Chernobyl to see the remains of the nuclear PAC representative er- reactor that collapsed 26 April 1986 and the roneously naming the vast deserted area around it. I sure will have a Planetario Tuxtla, State very interesting time in Ukraine! of Chiapas, as host of the XL AMPAC meeting. It The International News column is built should have said Plan- on contributions from IPS Affiliate Associ- etario Bachilleres Tapa- ations. If you have news that you want col- chula, also in the State leagues worldwide to read, please send it to of Chiapas. Apologies to your IPS representative (see page 3). Their up- both planetariums. coming deadlines are 1 July 2013 for Planetar- This time, however, a ian 3/2013 and 1 October for 4/2013, so they photo is included from need your news ahead of those dates. the Planetario Tuxtla, You who want to contribute news from named in honor of Juan parts of the world where IPS has no Affiliate Sabines Gutierrez. It has Association are welcome to send it to Martin a Digistar 5 projector, George, [email protected]. two JVC projectors, 3D For contributions to this International frontal projection, and News column, I sincerely thank Vadim Be- a 15-m (50-ft) dome on lov, Bart Benjamin, Ignacio Castro, Alan Dav- which can be projected enport, Alex Delivorias, Sandro Gomes, John real time astronomy and Hare, Ian McLennan, Loris Ramponi, Aase Ro- microscope images. The land Jacobsen, Christian Theis, and Michele seating capacity is 129. Wistisen. I welcome you and other represen- Current shows are Au- tatives back with news for upcoming Plane- rora and Violent Universe. tarian issues. For those interested in accessing the Planetar- Association of Brazilian io Tuxtla web page, go Planetariums to www.planetariotuxt- The FDT Digital Arena was opened last la.mx. Top: ABP: FDT Digital Arena in Curitiba, Brazil. Courtesy of Luiz Antônio Pavão. April in Curitiba. It is a 14-m dome with seat- The Papalote Planetari- Bottom: AMPAC: Planetario Tuxtla Juan Sabines Gutierrez, State of Chi- ing for 120 people and a Sky-Skan Defini- um’s Digistar 5 has contin- apas, inaugurated 25 November 2012. Courtesy of Planetario Tuxtla.

42 Planetarian June 2013 [email protected]. Planck satellite mission, with which he is ac- Vancouver. The H.R. MacMillan Space tively involved. Centre (HRMSC) is pleased to announce the The center participated in the Croatian Na- purchase of a Colorspace 4K video projec- tional Science Festival with some of its regular tion system (by SCISS) for the 19.8-m (65-ft) planetarium shows, including its brand new Star Theatre planetarium. This upgrade will production Sky of the Future. In this live plan- replace the old slide-based all-sky system, but etarium show, the operators explained the the original Zeiss Jena star projector will re- movement of stars around our galaxy, their main operational for the time being. motion in the night sky, and how the shape The long-term goal is to complete the up- of the various constellations will change in date of the Star Theatre with a new dome and the distant future. seating, and ultimately relocate the Zeiss pro- An additional 10-minute show in the digi- jector as a feature within the public exhibit tal planetarium presented Yuri’s Night, which galleries. commemorates the exploration of space, as HRMSC is grateful to Claudette Leclerc and well as Earth Day, which focuses on environ- Scott Young of the Manitoba Museum, who mental protection. completed a similar project in the fall of 2012. In May and June, the Astronomical Cen- They have been always eager to answer myr- ter Rijeka hosted the Smiling Universe exhibi- iads of questions about their experiences up- tion, organized by the Academic Astronomy grading to a digital system. Society Rijeka, as well as the Meteorological The centre is working towards a public CASC: Well-known Canadian astro-photogra- Contrasts 4 exhibition, organized by Crome- opening in the second of July, 2013. It pher Craig McCaw, principal of Roundhouse teo for the occasion of the Interna- also is actively working with educational in- Productions, with his specially-rigged, porta- tional Day of Action on Climate Change. stitutions and local digital media companies ble assembly of cameras to record all-sky full- The center’s new show Meet 10 Super Con- dome scenes. Photo by Ian C. McLennan. to produce content for the dome. For further stellations introduced easily-recognizable con- information contact Rob Appleton, rapple- stellations for every season in the northern [email protected]. Montreal. A dramatic new planetarium hemisphere, explaining some of the myths Inspired by a presentation given at the IPS building opened in early April and is fully pro- behind their name and how to recognize conference last July by some of Adler Plane- filed in this issue. See page 20. and find their brightest stars. Finally, the cen- tarium’s Far Horizons project group, and with ter introduced a new show aimed for tour- software assistance and advice from Robert European/Mediterranean ists visiting Rijeka, which will be screened ev- Kooima of LSU, Vancouver’s Roundhouse Pro- Planetarium Association ery Wednesday evening during the summer ductions has constructed a simple camera ar- In April, the Astronomical Center Rijeka in months. ray designed specifically for shooting 4K full- Croatia celebrated the fourth anniversary of dome video. its work by introducing a new planetarium Great Lakes Planetarium Test shooting followed by production im- show titled Our Star–the Sun. This new digi- Association aging began in December 2012, and these all- tal show is intended for children in the kin- Illinois. The staff of the William M. weather (perfect for soggy Vancouver) rigs dergarten and in the lower grades of prima- Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College in have two versions: a five-camera array that ry school and introduces the sun and its daily Champaign is planning to collaborate with works well for all formats, and a four-cam- motion in the celestial sphere, explaining at the Chanute Air Museum in nearby Rantoul version, best for tilted domes, that reduces the same time its importance for our planet to jointly promote Flight Adventures from In- storage space and post-production processing and its place in our galaxy. dianapolis’ SpaceQuest Planetarium. This in- time considerably. All-weather front lenses Also, besides its regular shows for school- cludes new gift shop items and a flight simula- are removable. children and the wider public, Rijeka, in col- tor in the lobby. Video stitching is currently done by PTgui. laboration with the Croatia Association CE- The Staerkel Planetarium is now enjoy- The much-anticipated new video stitching ZAR, which promotes software, reported to hold great promise, by energy efficiency, orga- French software provider Kolor was set to be nized the International released mid April, 2013. Roundhouse is cur- Dark Sky Week, which rently in project and concept development included lectures on planning with Canadian Planetariums (a Ca- light pollution. nadian Telescopes company). International Dark For additional information, contact round- Sky Week ended with a [email protected]. Latest in- public lecture by Sabi- formation on Kolor software can be found at no Matarrese, professor www.kolor.com/video. of Astrophysics and Cos- Calgary. TELUS Spark, home of the digital mology in the Universi- visualization dome described in the last issue, ty of Padova, who capti- will host the 2013 conference of CASC June vated his audience with 13-15, in Calgary, Alberta. Informal dome ses- a presentation of the sions for Canadian planetarians will be staged. latest results regarding Delegates will be able to see how everything the cosmic microwave in the theatre is run off custom control pan- background radiation, EMPA: Little Franka’s (4 years old) drawing after visiting Rijeka’s plane- els on an iPad. as measured by ESA’s tarium. Courtesy of Rijeka sport, Ltd.

June 2013 Planetarian 43 vation and Evans & Sutherland have been cember for the annual Christmas holiday pot- awarded contracts to equip the new Tech luck and fellowship. Len Muni of the Midpark High School Planetarium in Indianapolis. Planetarium in Middleburg Heights hosted This year, Amanda Penrod, the new Earth the January meeting of the Cleveland Region- Science teacher at Wayne High School, was al Association of Planetariums. given responsibility for the planetarium. Minnesota/Wisconsin. The Charles Hor- BJ Harper, retired planetarium director of witz Planetarium in Waukesha, Wisconsin Northrop High School in Fort Wayne, has recently completed a successful Jan-Boree been training and coaching Penrod on the op- celebration and a Wild Winter Night in coop- eration of the planetarium’s Spitz A4. eration with Retzer Nature Center. The Edwin Clark Schouweiler Memorial The March program at the University of Planetarium at the University of Saint Fran- Wisconsin-La Crosse Planetarium was Time cis in Fort Wayne celebrated its fourth Win- Bandits, with Saturn-Jewel of the Heavens fol- terFest during the last two weekends of Febru- lowing in April. Weekly Album Encounter ary. One of the principal reasons for this event light and laser shows will continue until the was to reveal the completely restored and re- end of the school year in May. imagined black light Zodiac Mural that cov- In downtown Milwaukee, the Soref Plane- ers three of the four walls of the planetarium tarium has added 3D insert projection capa- theater. Jackie Bauman, then a USF art student bilities. This new 18.3m x 12m (61ft x 40ft) im- who had just joined the planetarium staff, age is currently featuring Flying Monsters 3D, agreed to take on the three-year-long mural Wildest Weather in the Solar System and Learn- restoration project. ing Journeys, an original live show that is be- Michigan. At the University of Michigan ing presented to every third grader from the Planetarium, the Indianapolis Children’s Mu- Milwaukee Public Schools, thanks to a local seum show Flight Adventures premiered in foundation grant. February, with an undersea adventure and mi- This spring, the Allen F. Blocher Planetari- croscopic tour of life on Earth to follow. um on the UW-Stevens Point campus is pre- GLPA: Scott Oldfield, Smith Middle School, The staff at the Eastern Michigan Universi- senting The Night Skies of Spring, along with Vandalia-Butler City Schools, Dayton, Ohio, ty Planetarium in Ypsilanti has begun a sched- visits to the observatory if the skies are clear. describes the generous cooperation received ule of public programs to be offered two Fri- The UW-Milwaukee Manfred Olson Plane- from a local monument company that helped day evenings per month. The planetarium tarium just completed the run of Birth of the turn a small grant into a permanent and beauti- ful planet walk project at his school. Photo by sees nearly 500 students each semester. Universe. This spring, it will present Planets Dale Smith. In early March, EMU will host the Michigan Near and Far, a show about planets in our so- Science Teachers Association (MSTA) confer- lar system and how they compare to the hun- ing its 25th anniversary season. The staff is ence for the first time. Norbert Vance will of- dreds of exoplanets we have found around pleased to announce that it is now displaying fer sessions in planetarium astronomy during other stars. a meteorite collection, on loan from the Jim the conference and evening observing at Sher- Larry Mascotti from the Mayo High School Kaler family, in their lobby that includes a 16- zer Observatory. Planetarium in Rochester, Minnesota sub- kg Gibeon specimen. The Argus-IMRA Planetarium has a new mitted a link about Digital Globes that got a The Peoria Riverfront Museum is now in name and a new partner: IMRA America. write-up in the New York Times. The article full operation, and the planetarium has seen IMRA is the oldest femtosecond fiber laser was titled Digital Globes Offer a Dynamic Vi- over 5,000 visitors each month since opening company. IMRA’s generous donation has al- sion and may still be found in the New York in October. lowed the planetarium to upgrade its Evans & Times online archive. One feature of the new facility is that the Sutherland Digistar 3 to a Digistar 5 and pur- dome furniture can be reset for alternative chase new LED cove lights. Italian Association of Planetaria programs, such as their Wine & Cheese Under Ohio. Fran Ratka and team are bringing the The projection system Digistar 5 by Evans the Stars series, Karaoke under the Stars, a Chi- stars inside at the Lake Erie Nature and Science & Sutherland was installed at Infini.to at the nese New Year’s Celebration, and a Birthday & Center’s Schuele Planetarium. Saturday Sky- Museum of Astronomy and Space in Febru- Anniversary Dinner under the Stars. Quest programs are targeted for adults who ary and presented to the public during a press On the spring , the staff inaugu- want some of the latest astronomy news in ad- conference. rated its Interplanetary 5K Race/1 Mile Walk dition to a sky talk. Similar Sunday programs A system of 10 computers handles the pro- through their new Community Solar System are aimed at families. jection and sound and provides the possibili- Model. The Smith Middle School Planetarium in ty of more and more realistic space travel. The Indiana. In anticipation of the 2013 com- Vandalia is riding high with continued high fulldome projection is made with 2 JVC pro- ets, Chuck Bueter has been making dry ice school classes in the midst of a district finan- jectors to 7k, which provides higher resolu- comets at schools, libraries, and special events. cial crisis, a newly installed planet walk, and tion and sharpness of images and a more real- For the comet recipe and tips, see his blog at a new infusion of equipment and shows from istic night sky. www.nightwise.org. Indianapolis’ Children’s Museum. By using Digital Sky, a database of the sky Jeff Bowen of Bowen Technovation in In- As the Bowling Green State University Plan- built on observations of the largest telescopes dianapolis reports that his company has been etarium prepares for installation of fulldome, on Earth and from space, one can hover over awarded the extensive exhibit design and in- Dale Smith is reprising programs run in the the sun and planets while closely observ- stallation contract for the new NASA Glenn planetarium’s first decade of the 1980s. ing spectacular 3D details, track satellites and Visitor Center at the Great Lakes Science Cen- Cleveland area planetarians and friends space probes closer to the star clusters and gal- ter in Cleveland, Ohio. Also, Bowen Techno- gathered at the home of Jeanne Bishop in De- (Continues on Page 46)

44 Planetarian June 2013 DynamicEarth_8_5x11_Redo copy.pdPage 1 1/28/2013 3:47:16 PM

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Exploring Earth’s Climate Engine

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June 2013 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION45 Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200 (International, continued from Page 44) many planetarians of MAPS who still axies, go to virtually “walk” to the collaborate, support and share ideas cosmos and travel back in time to the to keep our profession vital. beginning of the Big Bang. Frederick is at the heart of a very The planetarium programming is historical region. Complete informa- different during of the year and the tion and registration materials can be shows are regularly renewed through found on the web site MAPSplanetar- collaboration. Most of the shows are ium.org. produced entirely by the staff of In- fini.to and are designed specifically Nordic Planetarium for schools (11 titles) and for the pub- Association lic (3). The AHHAA Science Center (www. Shows produced by Infini.to have ahhaa.ee/en) wishes you welcome to already won two awards: 2009 Digis- the Biennal Nordic Planetarium As- tar Users Group Award beginner cat- sociation Conference in , Esto- egory with the show A magic lantern nia. The conference starts 6 Septem- for the planetarium, created in collab- IAP: Infini.to’s new digital planetarium Digistar 5. Courtesy of Infi- ber with registration, and the next oration with the National Museum ni.to. two days will feature workshops, key- of Cinema in Turin, and a 2010 Dug note speakers, a visit to the Old Tar- Award in the senior category with tu Observatory and, of course, possi- the shows Zoo in heaven (a show cre- bilities to see the Science Center and ated for kindergarten and the first their one-of-a-kind 360-degree plane- years of primary school) and Views of tarium. the sky. The AHHAA Science Center was Infini.to planetarium shows for presented in Planetarian 2012-2, pag- public are Evans & Sutherland’s Won- es 37 and 40. For registrations, pro- ders of the Universe and The Stars of At- gram details, or if you would like to lantis, as well as the in-house produc- give a presentation, please contact tions Discovering the Sky (2008), Views conference host Margus Aru at mar- of the sky (2010), Where are the others? [email protected]. The search for life in the Universe (2011), Framtidsmuseet, Science Center in and the children’s show The circus of Borlänge, Sweden and venue of IPS the planets (2011), a unique show artic- 1990, reopened 16 February. Among ulated in various performances, acro- great changes in the science center, batics, and balancing acts. In the great Framtidsmuseet now has a SCISS Col- NPA: AHHAA Planetarium, Tartu, . Photo by Margus Aru. circus of the solar system are perform- orspace system installed under the ing, for millions of years, the sun with 7.3-m Astro-Tec dome. The new plan- its faithful planets and their satellites, aster- USA, and the most recent winner of the “A etarium has 38 seats. The old Spitz A3P pro- oids and occasionally some passing comet. Week in Italy for an American Planetarium jector has been sold to an enthusiast in Stock- The 2013 meeting of Italian planetari- Operator” experience. holm, Sweden. ans, promoted by PlanIt (Italian Associa- During the XXVIII issue of the Nation- Four shows are already running: Zula Patrol: tion of Planetaria), took place at Planetar- al Conference was held the awarding of two Under the Weather and Astronaut, along with io dell’Unione Sarda in Cagliari (Sardinia), in prizes: two guided shows produced in Uniview at April. •• PlanIt prize year 2012, devoted to an astro- Framtidsmuseet. One is Jorden, solen & månen The Planetarium of L’Unione Sarda is lo- nomical video, to Davide Zambonin, plane- (The Earth, the Sun and the Moon) aimed for cated within the big complex which hosts tarian from Genova, and grade 0-3 students and Solsystemet (The Solar the base site of this publishing group, the big- •• The prize “tell your experience” to the System) aimed for grade 4-6 students. gest in Sardinia. It owns the daily newspaper Labofficina organization from Milan. All shows are available to the public, but L’Unone Sarda, the local television station The winner of the first prize received 500€. thanks to Teknikerjakten Falun-Borlänge, 800 Videolina, the radio station Radiolina, and the The audiovisual product by Zambonin, select- students will also be granted the guided shows websites unionesarda.it, videolina.it and ra- ed by a special committee, will be freely avail- for free. This year will bring along more guid- diolina.it. able for PlanIt members. The winner of the ed shows, now under production, for grades During the meeting, delegates participat- second prize received financial help to cover 7-12 as well. ed in a visit to the Sardinia Radiotelescope (60 travel and hotel expenses for participating in The Heureka Planetarium in is de- km from Cagliari) guided by INAF (National the annual meeting. veloping and sharpening up the planetarium Institute of Astrophysics) Cagliari staff. An- operations. Working together with a produc- other guided visit was to the Neolithic site of Middle Atlantic Planetarium tion company, a 15-minute planetarium show Pranu Muttedu near Goni, where one of the Society has been made. It is called Kilpisjärvellä (On most important and rare equinoctial align- MAPS will return to the birthplace of its Lake Kilpisjärvi) and it is a story about two Ar- ment of menhirs, or standing stones, is locat- name for the 2013 conference 17-20 July. In gentinians travelling to Lapland for a week. It ed. 1965 the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society was filmed using time-lapse technology, and One of the speakers of the meeting was Pat- was formed at Frederick, Maryland in a public the show has great images of the northern ty Seaton, director of the planetarium at the school science center with a handful of plan- lights, among other things. Besides at Heure- Howard B. Owens Science Center, Maryland, etarium educators to seed the group. Join the (Continues on Page 48)

46 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 47

WhiteRoom02B3 Ad.indd 1 10/26/2012 1:47:05 PM stop on the tour. Professional astronomers from all over the world use this facility to search for extrasolar planets and identify near earth objects. She was privileged to visit with Robert McNaught, discoverer of the comet by the same name. From Sydney to Cairns the landscape seemed to encompass all the known ecosys- tems, each full of their own amazing crea- tures. But the highlight of the trip was yet to come. November 14 found the group on the Cook- town road 151 miles from Cairns. This outback position near Mt. Carbine got them above the cloud bank that seemed to be shrouding the coastline of Cairns. According to Dr. Francisco Diego, the guest astronomer from the University of London, every eclipse has its own personality and this one was stunning. It was everything she’d read about: the drop in temperature, shadow bands, the diamond ring, Baily’s Beads, and then totality. But the sky wasn’t black like she had always seen in books; it was a blue gray and orna- mented with planets and stars. For a few mo- ments she could look at the sun with its stun- ning blue/white corona with the naked eye; it appeared like the eye of god just like the an- cients had said. RMPA: Top: The waning moon from Sydney, Australia. Below, totality and the diamond ring. All photos The year of 2012 was a great year for view- by Michele Wistisen. ing eclipses. But now Wistisen understands Jay Pasachoff’s statement, “Some people see (International, continued from Page 46) glowed through the haze and confirmed that a partial eclipse and wonder why others talk ka, it has been shown in Buenos Aires and in the Hunter stands on his head in the southern so much about a total eclipse. Seeing a par- Rotterdam. hemisphere. tial eclipse and saying that you have seen an The Siding Spring Observatory, home to eclipse is like standing outside of an opera Rocky Mountain Planetarium Australia’s largest optical astronomy research house and saying you have seen the opera; in Association facility and their 3.9-m telescope, was the next both cases, you have missed the main event.” To prepare for the 2017 solar eclipse that will pass over Wyoming, Michele Wistisen from the Casper Planetarium traveled to Aus- tralia for the total eclipse in November 2012. She booked a tour with Astro Trails, a com- pany out of England. After landing in Sydney on November 7, she spent a couple of days touring the vibrant city and its beautiful har- bor. While sightseeing she observed first hand that the illuminated phase of the moon real- ly does appear opposite when you are “down under.” A trip inland through the Blue Mountains with their lush growth and exotic birds was a spectacle for this high plains desert girl. A night in cabins in the small rural town of Gil- gandra was planned to provide travelers with a dark night for some telescope observing. Un- fortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. She was anxious to see many of the astro- RPA: Guests of Novosibirsk planetarium, from left: Elena Leus (lector of Omsk Planetarium), Elena Lu- govskaya (director of Geodesic Academy Planetarium, Novosibirsk), Nadezhda Stepicheva (director of nomical features she’d only read about and Tomsk Planetarium), Pavel Yagodkin (chief engineer of Barnaul Planetarium), Anton Shkaplerov (Cosmo- found herself wandering outside in the wee naut of Russia, Moscow), Irina Tiskovich (Biysk Planetarium), Zinaida Sitkova (president of Management of the morning hoping the clouds Board of RPA, Nizhny Novgorod), Taisia Baltina (director of Perm Planetarium), Dmitry Semenov (super- had cleared. High cirrus clouds still obscured visor of project of new Irkutsk Planetarium), Galina Shklovskaya (director of Barnaul planetarium) and the faint stars, but the bright stars of Orion Serguey Maslikov (director of Novosibirsk planetarium). Photo by Alexandr Timofeev.

48 Planetarian June 2013 (Quotes from: Littmann, M., Willcox, K., & Espenak, F. Totality. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.)

Russian Planetarium Association Moscow. The most recent Planetarium Lecturer Workshop was held 27 February-2 March. Planetarians from 29 Russian and one Kazakh (Aktobe) planetariums participated in the workshop. Natalika Papulova from Chely- abinsk brought a fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteor and showed a video about searching for it. Moscow scientists delivered 19 lectures on contemporary problems of astrophysics for the workshop attendees. The most impress- ing was the lecture Our Galaxy: View from In- side by Prof. Zasov, accompanied by fulldome video. The workshop was finished by the meeting of the Organizing Committee of the First Rus- sian Fulldome Film Festival, to be held 21-23 October in Yaroslavl. The Organizing Com- mittee includes I. Trofileva, director of the RPA: Maxim Yuldashev (left) and Natalika Pap- Tereshkova Cultural and Education Center, ulova with meteorite; inset: a meteorite frag- chairman; Z. Sitkova, chairman of the RPA ment in a snow “chrysalis.” Photos by Svetla- board; A. Serber, director of Nizhny Novgorod na Yuldasheva. Planetarium; L. Panina, head of Planetarium of the Cultural Center of the Russian Army; A. Lobanov from the Svenson’s Art Media Com- What a field trip! pany; and Ya .Gubchenko, executive director Russian Planetarium Association, of the Fulldome Film Society. Chelyabinsk. On 23 February, a few chil- Nizhny Novgorod planetarium holds an dren from Amateur Astronomer Club annual correspondence contest in astrophys- Apex, led by the club chair Natalika Pap- ics for schoolchildren. This year the contest is ulova and followed by parents, made a dedicated to the world-famous radio physicist trip to search for fragments of the mete- and radio astronomer Vladimir Razin (1930- or that broke up over Chelyabinsk on 15 2012) from Radio Physical Research Institute February. (NIRFI) in Nizhny Novgorod. It was not easy to find the place of fragment precipitation near the Emangelinka village, On 15 February, just by chance in the morn- but once found the site met enthusiastic expectations. Each member of the group collect- ing after the Chelyabinsk meteor fall, D. ed 8 to 10 fragments of a total mass of up to 170 grams! Wiebe, leading scientist from the Institute of “Searching was really thrilling! It was somehow like collecting mushrooms. Holes in Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sci- snow were very tiny and looked like traces of a pencil punctured the snow crust. Frag- ences (Moscow) arrived in Nizhny Novgorod ments entered snow almost vertically. Dipping hand carefully deep into snow al- to deliver the lectures Asteroid and Comet lows one to feel the snow ‘cocoon’ containing a meteoroid fragment. Now off Hazard and Martian Meteoroids in Nizhny snow and feel yourself very glad and happy!” said Natalika Papulova. I Novgorod Planetarium. The audience was es- pecially interested that day! The lecturer told that he was interviewed by telephone about Izhevsk. The lecture course Stellar Way for ond step in the upgrade followed. The old 40 times during the day. schoolchildren has been organized by Izhevsk ZKP2 star projector was replaced by a Zeiss Novosibirsk. A festive ceremony dedicat- Planetarium in cooperation with Izhevsk As- Skymaster ZKP4 using LED illumination and ed to the first year of operation of the new tronomy Club. The lecture was delivered on an excellent star projection. planetarium in Novosibirsk was organized on 9 February and accompanied by a “Street Cor- On 27 February, Menke-Planetarium Glücks- 8 February. ner Astronomy” event. In addition, a resource burg (Flensburg) premiered a new show titled The event was attended by planetari- center for astronomy has been organized. The Shut the door, the woods are howling. It is a com- ans from such Siberian and Ural cities as Bar- goal of this center is to help school teachers in bination of Loup Garou, the fulldome film ver- naul, Biysk, Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Omsk, promoting astronomy education. sion of the poem by Annette Droste-Hülshoff Tomsk, and Perm; representatives from part- (1797-1848), with a reading of contemporary ner companies; Z. Sitkova, chairman of the Society of the German-Speaking poetry by various authors from the mid-19th RPA board; and Pilot Cosmonaut A. Shkaple- Planetariums century. rov. S.Maslikov, director of Novosibirsk Plan- In 2011 the planetarium in the Museum of Loup Garou is the creepy story of a were- etarium, informed guests on his plans for the Natural Science in Osnabruck received a Dig- wolf in the Pyrenees, narrated by actor Gesa next year. Prospects for planetariums in Russia ital Sky system from Sky-Skan. The system Boysen and produced by fulldome film di- have been also discussed. consists of five LED projectors. In 2013 a sec- (Continues on Page 50)

June 2013 Planetarian 49 SGP: Upgraded system in Osnabruck: the starry night sky is produced by a Zeiss ZKP4 superimposed with constellation figures created by SkySkan’s DigitalSky system. Photo by Andreas Hänel. Impression from the new full- dome show Shut the door, the woods are howling. Photo by Ralph Heinsohn.

(International, continued from Page 49) The next presentations will take place at will serve as host for the eclipse and subse- rector Ralph Heinsohn. Unlike in other full- Menke-Planetarium Glücksburg, Mediendom quent SEPA conference. dome films, the intention of the actor was not Kiel, and other German planetariums. For in- The eclipse will occur on 21 August fol- to make facts and data comprehensive, but ternational licensing, an English version of lowed by the conference, 22-26 August. Ac- to create a beautifully scary atmosphere, in Loup Garou (10 minutes) is ready for distribu- commodations and meeting facilities at LBL which historic language becomes melody and tion. For further information please contact have already been reserved for the events. sound as a key to understanding ancient poet- Heinsohn at [email protected] or Rain- Veterans may remember the 1985 SEPA ry with the exclusive means and intensity of er Christiansen at [email protected]. conference that was hosted by LBL. The plan- an immersive dome environment. etarium, accommodations, and meeting facil- The reading was illustrated by scenic all- Southeastern Planetarium ities are located on the extensive and remote skies of creepy woods, highlands and dark Association grounds of this National Recreation Area. seas (by Heinsohn) with full moon and real- Plans for the 2017 SEPA conference are al- There is a possibility of another region time skies of the Digistar 5 system. It was il- ready in the works. You may ask, “why should holding their conference in conjunction with luminated by the light of a candle lantern we be concerned this far in advance?” It just the event at the same location. At this point (for the reader), enhanced with atmospheric so happens that a total solar eclipse will tra- details are obviously sketchy, so be sure to soundscapes, and equipped with historic cos- verse the SEPA region in August of that year. stay tuned as the dates draw nearer. tumes and antique furniture from the nearby The planetarium at Land Between the Lakes Further information regarding SEPA can be Glücksburg castle. (LBL) is within a few miles of centerline and found at sepadomes.org. I

(Bogota, continued from Page 32)

Right: One of the high profile people at- tending the re-opening of Planetario de Bogota was Dr. Silvia Torres de Peimbert, president-elect of International Astronom- ical Union, who was extremely busy for several days with Colombian media inter- views. Photo by Ian McLennan. Far Right: An informal moment at the Nicolaus Coperni- cus monument on the planetarium park grounds during the re-opening week, with (left to right) Andres Roldan of Parque Ex- plora Medellin, Maria Carolina Brühl of Plan- etario de Bogota, Ian C. McLennan, early consultant to the reconstruction project and German Puerta, well known Colombian astronomy educator and scientific director of Planetario de Bogota. Photo courtesy Ian McLennan

50 Planetarian June 2013 Join a family of aliens searching for the perfect vacation spot in the solar system. Now available. Contact Mike Murray at [email protected] 385-468-1237 • clarkplanetarium.org/distribution June 2013 Planetarian 51

6921-1_Clark_Planetarian_PLP_8.5x11.indd 1 4/18/13 4:37 PM Wonderful planetariums, wonderful Ukraine

By Martin George double astrograph, built over the period 1912 Chair, International to 1914 and moved to this observatory in 1945. Relations Committee My thanks go to Georgy Koralchuk, the muse- um curator, for showing me around, and to Dr During mid-2012 I took a trip to Ukraine— Elena Khomenko for her hospitality. a country I had never visited. During my trips A side trip to Khmelnitskiy, southwest to Russia I had become well aware of the en- of Kyiv, was in order to see three wonderful thusiasm of the planetarium community in world heritage sites: three of the locations Ukraine, and so I looked forward to reinstat- along Struve’s geodetic arc. These were sites ing closer ties with the established during the 19th century by Otto IPS. Struve in order to measure the Earth, and a to- Arriving in Ukraine tal of four Ukrainian sites have been classified from London, I spent by UNESCO in addition to others in different my first day looking countries, stretching as far north as Finland. around the delightful city of Kyiv (Kiev), in- Visiting the Gagarin Planetarium cluding the famous I then travelled back across the country to Lavra and St Sophia’s the east, to visit (Kharkov in Russian), Cathedral. However, where I was given yet another wonderful wel- of course, it was the come by Galina Zhelesnyak, director of the planetarium that was Gagarin Planetarium there, and many other my main interest, and staff. the following day I ar- The relatively tall building, in a sloping rived there to be greet- street not very far from the city centre, in- ed firstly by Kira Mak- cludes an exhibit area and an observatory on ogon. the roof with a 15-cm Zeiss cassegrain reflec- Martin George at Before long, af- tor. The heart of the building is, of course, the the Hardies Site of ter watching part of planetarium, with its 18-m dome and Zeiss Struve's Geodetic Arc. a planetarium show, projector. Kira, Klim Churyumov, Nataliya Kovalenko In Kharkiv I was able to meet an amazing and I spent some time chatting in Klim’s of- number of people, including Vladimir Zak- fice. One of the topics we celebrated—to much hozhay, president of the Ukrainian Planetar- clicking of glasses—was the relatively recent ium Association. Their great hospitality ex- discovery of the likely existence of the Higgs tended even to organising two interpreters for Boson! me, Natalya Kazachkova and Anastasya Ku- ruchenko, whose assistance was greatly appre- The Kyiv Planetarium ciated. The Kyiv Planetarium opened on its cur- I was invited to participate in two televi- rent site in 1988 with a Zeiss projector and a sion interviews and a media conference about 23-m dome. However, the earliest planetari- the work of planetariums and the Gagarin um in Kyiv began operation in 1948, when a Planetarium in particular, and was delighted much smaller one was established in the Old to do this on behalf of the IPS. Top: At the console in the Gagarin Planetarium. Astronomical Observatory. It used a Zeiss One afternoon I very much enjoyed partic- From left: Anton Pterov, Irina Borisenko, Martin ZKP1 projector and operated there until 1952, ipating in a video conference with planetari- George, Andrei Mogilko, Yurii Stetsenko, Svet- when it was moved to a church. ums in Kyiv, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk. lana Matveichuk.Photo: Kharkiv Planetarium. While in Kyiv, I was delighted to have been Present in the Kyiv Planetarium at that con- Center: At a media conference in the council taken to this observatory, where I was shown ference were many people, including several building in Kharkiv. From left to right: Vladimir Zakhozhay, Martin George, Galina Zhelesnyak. around by Scientific Researcher Lidia Ka- whom had worked on the Soviet Space Pro- Photo: Natalya Kazachkova. Bottom: Klim zantzeva. The room that housed the planetari- gram in the early days. Churyumov, director of the Kyiv Planetarium, um from 1948 to 1952 is now used as the obser- in his office. Photo: Martin George vatory’s Library. On display there are several Off to Kharkiv fascinating old astronomical instruments, and My trip to Kharkiv included an hour or so an interesting museum. the original Kyiv Meridian is inscribed on a at the Kharkiv University Observatory, where The trip also included a drive well outside wall outside. I was shown around by Galina and senior re- Kharkiv to see the Braude Radio Telescope, The Main Astronomical Observatory is searcher Dr Alexandre Zhelezhak. known as the “UTR-2.” This is a large, world- well outside the city, and a visit there was also The observatory includes a meridian cir- class T-shaped radio antenna array of 2040 di- well worth the trip! The main dome there was cle dating from 1886. It is housed in its origi- poles, used for observations from 8 to 32 MHz built in 1984 and within it is their German nal building, which has been converted into (Continues on Page 62)

52 Planetarian June 2013 The moment of inspiration when he decides to fl y to Mars one day. This is the moment we work for.

// PLANETARIUMS MADE BY CARL ZEISS

Inspirations for visitors of the refurbished Laupheim Planetarium, a powerdome ® Sky Theater comprising the latest SKYMASTER ZKP 4 and VELVET Duo hybrid system.

www.zeiss.de/planetariums in US/Canada contact Laura Misajet: [email protected] June 2013 Planetarian 53

Inspiration_engl_Planetarian2013.indd 1 21.01.2013 12:15:40 middle of the day, what are some things that Mobile News you do?” (eat lunch, take a nap). Follow the sun to sunset and ask, “And at the end of the day what happens?” (eat dinner, go to bed, it gets dark). Susan Reynolds Button The children want to be protagonist of the Quarks to Clusters show; to be as interactive as possible. They or 8793 Horseshoe Lane you can cast shadows with their hands or oth- er real things onto the dome and to make a Chittenango, New York 13037 USA puppet show or to use as a shape or constella- +1 315-687-5371 tion overlay. [email protected], [email protected] You can all sing songs together (like “Twin- kle Twinkle Little Star”), learn a poem, or play Working with our youngest Of course, if the group is really large and/ counting or matching games. visitors in the planetarium or there is not enough adult supervision, then The children can point out and follow the During my workshop, at the 2012 IPS Con- maybe the shorter time is appropriate. It all progress of the sun, moon or some special col- ference in Baton Rouge, my colleagues and I depends on your goals and expectations. ored stars. They can point at it, follow it, talk worked together to outline characteristics we It is important to engage the children im- about where it is going and then repeat the need to address when writing lesson plans or mediately. Ask questions, before entering the process. During this exercise the children can designing programs for pre-school and prima- dome and then when inside. Listen to their take turns pointing and following the sun or ry school children. Below are some of the gen- answers. Ask, “What do you notice? What moon with a flashlight or with a “magic” glow eral characteristics of 3-5 year olds that we list- does it remind you of? Do you notice that the in the dark wand, or even their elbow or toe! ed together. sound is different in here?” If you can, have If the horizon is low enough, students can •• They are curious about everything. them touch some things (the dome, the floor place markers on the horizon to record events. •• They are restless or antsy; they do not like or seats, the walls). to sit still for very long. Give them a purpose •• Most like to talk and share what they feel, for being in the plan- loudly. etarium through in- •• Typically they have a short attention span. structions and inqui- •• They can name and learn the names of ry style questions. One things. way to focus on a task •• They can tell stories. The youngest ones is to use stuffed ani- have difficulty with long stories and some- mals to get them ready times ramble or repeat. to find them in the sky. •• They can describe what they see, feel, hear, You can hand out ani- touch or smell. mals for them to touch •• They usually do not understand the idea of and hold and then give asking questions. back (or not) as they •• They are enthusiastic. prepare to look for •• Many have very little background knowl- them in the sky. A vari- Even young children can participate in the lesson, shown by this 5-year- old. For younger children, an “X” or a picture of the sun could be used. edge. ety of examples of each Photo by Susan Button. •• They are very literal. animal allows, and, in •• They are self centered. fact, encourages multi- •• They like to pretend. ple images of the characters. Dolls and other For instance, an “X” can mark the spot where •• There can be great variation between objects, like dippers, can be used for some of the sun rises and sets. groups. the other constellations. Chants are great to use and easy to make We shared a variety of strategies and activ- When looking for their observations, avoid up: “My name is the sun and I’m a star—shine, ities that work well with these youngsters. saying “no.” This signals that you are just look- shine, shine” or “Can you see me, I’m a dog— Here a few suggestions: ing for one correct answer. If you do only bark, bark, bark!” Give some time for exploring the venue, want one answer, like a naming activity, you Children love listening to stories about an- the planetarium, and give yourself time to get can lead them to give a choral response so imals, especially if you involve the children to know the group. Very young children like they can memorize it as a group. in the story (“What do you think will happen to touch and manipulate things. They like An example could be: The teacher says “The next?”). You can use cuddly animal toys while to explore and talk about what they notice. sun is a star. What is the sun, boys and girls?” storytelling to get and hold the children’s at- We need to help them interpret the physical The students say, “A star.” Or you can count tention. space, visuals that we present, and representa- together the number of stars in the Big Dipper You can culminate the class by having tions of things by planning some time for this. or some other group of stars. them stand and use their arms to show you Many planetarians like to keep visits with Young children do not understand time in the path of the sun and saying some short these children to 15 or 20 minutes because the same way we do, so we need to connect to sentences about the path, using words such they think the children’s attention spans are their experiences and routines during the day. as sunrise, wake up time, noon or lunch time, too short and they will not be able to engage You can ask, “What do you do when the sun dinnertime, sunset, bedtime. them for 30–40 minutes. That amount of time comes up in the morning?” Their answers will Another activity is to sing a song as you is barely long enough for the children to be- vary (wake up, have breakfast, get dressed). move your arms. (This is my revised version come familiar with their surroundings! Follow the sun to noon and ask, “And in the (Continues on Page 56)

54 Planetarian June 2013 FULLDOME www.spitzinc.com/fulldome_shows

June 2013 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION55 © 2011 Zula® USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200

Spitz_Zula_FullPage_11.07.11_v2.indd 1 11/7/11 2:11:33 PM (Mobile, continued from Page 54) topics as respecting babies, singing songs, and of a children’s song from my youth: “Good setting up inviting spaces for small children morning sun, good morning sun, the night that make discipline manageable. She is an ed- is gone the day’s begun, I’m certain while we ucator who is a stand-up comedian; you will work and play, the sun will guide us through enjoy her tips! www.ooeygooey.com the day!”) Alice Enevoldsen (Pacific Science Center Planetarium supervisor, Seattle, Washington, Avoiding discipline problems: USA.) Alice is organizing a Preschool Informal Use Appropriate Language: Pre-school chil- Astronomy panel discussion for the Astro- dren scare easily, therefore it is wise to stay nomical Society of the Pacific’s 2013 Annual away from comments like “There’s nothing Meeting. She will present hands-on activities to be afraid of.” All they will hear is the word and logistics from two pre-kindergarten plan- “afraid.” Validate their feelings. For example, if etarium shows. [email protected] they say they are afraid, you can say, “It’s okay Other presenters at the ASP meeting will in- to be afraid!” clude Anna Hurst Schmitt, ASP; Julia Plum- You can introduce a small number of unfa- mer, Penn State University; and Jen Jipson, Cal miliar vocabulary words during your presen- Poly-San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum, all tation, especially if you make it fun or even for “My Sky at Night,” a new National Science funny. Show your delight in using unusu- Foundation-funded project designed to foster al words. For instance, you might review the a love of astronomy in pre-schoolers. word “up” when the sun “rises” and “down” The ASP received the $2.5 million grant to when it “sets” and introduce “sunrise” and help science venues offer effective informa- “sunset.” tion learning for families with young chil- Then, depending on the group, you could dren. [email protected], [email protected] even talk about the word “diagonal,” which is Others who are contributing, but won’t be not exactly the same as straight up or down at ASP: and it is fun to say, “The sun went diagonally My little helper, the “Keeper of the Light!” Pho- Cirrelda Snider-Bryan, New Mexico Muse- up and diagonally down.” to by Susan Button um of Natural History & Science, One World/ Avoid Rushing Children: You can move One Sky, Prehistoric Preschool, and general tips the lesson along at a pace that accommodates for working with preschoolers. Cirrelda.Snid- their short attention spans without rushing Says game and say, “Hands on your head, [email protected] them to accommodate your goals. Be flexi- hands on your knees, hands on your hips, Kris McCall, Adventure Science Center, ble enough for the class to drive the lesson in hands on your lips.” Many pre-school teachers Sudekum Planetarium Preschool Script. plan- a unique direction. have little rhymes to control behavior; learn [email protected] Expect students to want to share what they some of them. Sara Porier, Ontario Science Center, Eyes on know or are interested in. To keep the pre- You can say, “Remember you are sitting on the Skies planetarium program for toddlers. sentation moving, direct what they tell you your sitters” and fold your legs “crisscross ap- [email protected] to the next part of the lesson; be creative. If a plesauce” or “I spy with my little eyes some- Susan Button, International Planetarium child shouts out, “I like the moon!” you can re- one who is looking at the sun!” Use the brief Society Portable Planetarium Committee, ply, “Wonderful, let’s look at the moon right “pregnant moment” that follows to give the characteristics of 3-5 year olds, presentation now! I know a story/song about the moon!” next direction. (“Oh wow, look over here, and discipline techniques. sbuttonq2c@gmail. Anticipate Trouble: Tell students what to what do you notice?” Or “I wonder what will com expect and what you expect of them. Keep happen next; let’s watch!”) Toshi Komatsu, The Lawrence Hall of Sci- it simple and make eye contact on their lev- Distract to a Positive Model: Examples of ence, activities and lessons learned from Law- el! Give the “active” students a “job” that helps this are statements like, “I really like the way rence Hall Preschool Planetarium Program- you. They could hold something that you will that boy is sitting on his sitter.“ “I like the way ming. [email protected] need to use later or you could assign them a you raised your hand.“ “Raise your hand if You can attend the 2013 Astronomical Soci- job. For instance, the “Keeper of the Light” you can see the moon.” ety of the Pacific Annual Meeting, July 20-24 would be in charge of turning on and off the Inject Humor: Keep the humor age-appro- in San Jose, California USA (astrosociety.org/ entrance/exit light. priate and positive. They love silly songs, you education/asp-annual-meeting) or you can Show Respect: Always tell them what is go- can make them up at the spur of the moment! contact Alice Enevoldsen (aenevoldsen@pacs- ing to happen and dim the lights slowly. Nev- Sarcasm is never appropriate. ci.org) for details after the meeting to find out er turn all the lights out without their per- Offer Choices: Build in times when stu- more about what was discussed. mission. If even one child never wants all dents can direct the course of the lesson. For the lights out, that is just fine. A child who is instance, you can say, “Would you like to hear Unique pointers scared could hold a small glowing doll or toy. a story about a big bear or a little dog?” Volker Röhrs, a friend and colleague from Some teachers provide a Glo-Worm1 toy. Use appropriate praise: If you constantly Germany, wrote to tell me about some very Give Gentle Reminders: Use a game or a over praise ideas or behaviors, students will cute pointers from Learning Resources. They rhyme. You can use something like a Simon know that it is false praise and they will try would be great for working with young chil- test your patience with silliness. dren, and they even come in different sizes! 1 The Glo-Worm is a stuffed toy that has a battery Other Resources for information about Volker wrote, “I just came across these neat powered device inside. When a child squeezes the working with pre-school children: little things. belly of the toy, it activates the LED light, which “Maybe it‘s already old news in the New switches on to illuminate the face with a soft and Lisa Murphy, the “Ooey Gooey Lady,” is gentle glow.” ( http://tiptopcat.hubpages.com/hub/ an early childhood specialist and has created World—but for planetarium lessons about ris- Finding-The-Best-Glow-Worm-Toy) some informative and funny videos on such (Continues on Page 60) 56 Planetarian June 2013 ®

June 2013 Planetarian 57 I first became aware of Dr. Yeomans in 1994, Book Reviews when he appeared as a guest in The Christmas Star, a Thames television documentary on the Star of Bethlehem produced the previous year. In it, Yeomans spoke about comets, their cul- tural and observational history, and the possi- April S. Whitt bility that the star could have been a comet. Fernbank Science Center Prior to the television special, Yeomans had 156 Heaton Park Drive NE published Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, And Folklore (John Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA Wiley & Sons, 1991). Now, Yeomans is back [email protected] with a book that expands the subject to not just comets, but all smaller bodies that come Double Stars: The Story of of herself than the rest of her family would near to Earth, including potential planet-kill- have ever believed, for despite hardships she ers and gold mines yet untapped. Caroline Herschel encountered, including the marriage of her At first glance, one might expect this book Padma Venkatraman, Morgan Reynolds Pub- beloved brother, she still continued her life of to be a listing of the rocks that could end lishing, Greensboro, North Carolina, 2007 learning and discovery. life on Earth forever. That is just the surface, Reviewed by Francine Jackson, University of Whether you are a seasoned astronomer, though, it does a fantastic job of explaining Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, Rhode Is- a history lover, or just someone who likes a what asteroids actually are, from their forma- land, USA. good read, Double Stars has something for ev- tion to their locations within the solar system. This book surprised me. I was under the im- eryone. And, although it is listed as a book in a Yeomans does the work credit by explaining pression that this was one of a set of books di- series for young readers, the writing can be ap- the different types of asteroids out there, and rected toward children, but the depths into preciated by all ages. what, exactly, qualifies an object as a near- which the author went to describe Caroline Also, if you know a person who might like earth object, or NEO. Herschel, her life and work, was way beyond to read this but isn’t familiar with astronomy, The book opens with a brief introduction what a normal kids’ book has. the author intersperses information concern- in the form of a rogues’ gallery of notable im- Venkatraman begins by declaring how ing any topic the reader might need. My only pacts, including the Peekskill fall of 1992, Tun- much, as the only daughter in the house- concern is often this supplemental content is guska, and the fall that may have brought hold at the time, her mother grew to see her added where the regular text is, so you’re actu- about the end of the dinosaurs. The book then as a free housekeeper; consequently, Caroline ally reading two topics at the same time. But, begins, in earnest, with a discussion of aster- was denied the chance to learn, as her broth- in total, this book was worth reading, not only oids and comets, including a detailed but con- ers were, because it was expected that she for the sky enthusiast, but for all wanting to cise description of asteroid types and where would stay home with her parents for the rest learn about a “giant” of 18th century history. they occur. of their lives. Yeomans moves on to the formation of the It even seemed as if nature was aiding the Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them solar system, discussing first traditional nebu- parents as, at age 3, Caroline was stricken with lar hypotheses and the “flies in the ointment” smallpox, which left her growth stunted and Before They Find Us of Laplacian models that led to the emergence her face scarred, traits her mother felt were Donald K. Yeomans, Princeton University of the Nice model, which better accounts for not conducive to finding a husband. Press, 2013 the current mass of Uranus and Neptune, the Despite this type of upbringing, Caroline Reviewed by Woodrow w. Grizzle III, Eliza- existence of the Oort cloud, and the types of never lost the will to learn, sneaking out of beth City State University Planetarium, Eliza- planetary systems we are finding about oth- the house when she was able to take lessons beth City, North Carolina, USA. er stars. in sewing and needlework. But it was through Don Yeomans is an authority on the small Further chapters deal with the discovery her brother, William, who requested her pres- bodies of the solar system. He is a fellow and and tracking of NEOs, as well as the hazard ence as an assistant to his astronomical re- senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion and natural resource riches that these objects search, that Caroline became internationally Laboratory, where he is manager of NASA’s might possess. The final chapter tackles po- known, not only because of her discovery of Near-Earth Object program office and super- tential methods by which an Earth-threaten- several comets, but because of her meticulous visor of the solar system dynamics group. ing object may be deflected. note taking, her updating of Flamsteed’s This book is written in clear language stellar catalog, and, of course, her observa- that should not scare off the novice, mak- tions of double stars. ing it a great first contact for people just Venkatraman, in Double Stars, portrays beginning their interest in NEOs and the life in 18th century Europe, and the in- nature of the solar system as a whole. credible will of a person brought up ba- This clarity is important, as the book’s sically to be an indentured servant who subject matter can be highly technical. defied her upbringing and became one of Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Be- the most famous astronomers of that pe- fore They Find Us is a fact-saturated work riod. that does not sacrifice entertainment val- Although many who read this might ue. Anyone with an interest, from nov- feel Caroline was only able to become ice up, would be able to pick this book the person she was because of her broth- up and enjoy it. As questions about NEOs, er, Venkatraman shows the determina- Earth impacts, and solar system forma- tion of a woman who, even without Wil- tion are common from our audiences, liam’s guidance, would have made more (Continues on Page 60)

58 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 59 (Books, continued from Page 58) cept, and a supplemental computer activity. (Mobile, continued from Page 56) brushing up on these topics is highly recom- Also, there are two sections. The first is for K-2, mended for planetarium professionals, and where you find exercises for day and night, ing and setting of the sun it might be a fun what better textbook than one from JPL’s pre- apparent size, sky motions, and the moon. toy for the children. (Post-its don‘t glow in the eminent NEO expert? After having students perform hands-on ac- dark!)” tivities, including walking outside and calling Thank you Volker; this is very appropri- How Old Is The Universe? attention to what is in the sky, they should ate for this particular column. Perfect timing! become more aware of their environment, Search for Learning Resources to find a store David A. Weintraub, Princeton University and note differences between night and day. in your country. Volker Röhrs; info@space- Press, 2011 The lessons for grades 3-4 introduce the books-etc.de; www.spacebooks-etc.de Reviewed by Bruce L.Dietrich, Wyomissing, planets, show seasonal variation by means Pennsylvania, USA. of shadows, and then it’s off to the constel- With the torrent of information coming Signing off, and some reminders: lations, including those that the sun travels Check the Portable Planetarium Com- to us from an armada of spacecraft, telescopes, through: the ecliptic. mittee website (www.ips-planetarium. electron microscopes, super colliders, and A third section, resources, is meant to in- org/?portablecom) for posted documents. even our own phones, we are assured that this crease awareness of the lessons. Included are Kindly send me any additions, corrections or is the information age. Yet, there are many in log sheets to report findings, charts to rein- suggestions for the committee page. our culture who don’t real- force what the students learn, and Register for Livefest—it is free! Scheduled as ly know what the universe “post cards” of the planets. Also, for a prequel to the Middle Atlantic Planetarium looks like, how old it is, nor the computer inept, there is a 4-page Society conference, it will be held on July 16 its origin. To them, these section on using the software and at Ausherman Planetarium, Earth and Space ideas are just idle philoso- what will be needed to perform the Science Laboratory, Fredrick County Public phy or symphonic themes. lessons. In all, Starry Night Elementa- Schools, Frederick, Maryland. The MAPS con- While we appreciate ry is a good introduction to astrono- ference follows, July 18-20. that there are alternate ap- my for the younger set. Educators interested in astronomy and proaches, we marvel at the Included with the package is the space science and planetarians who are work- ability of astronomers over the last decade to have DVD SkyTheater, a set of movies ing either full- or part-time in a small or porta- accurately determined supplementing the lessons, includ- ble planetarium are invited to attend. the age of the universe. ing a separate one for each planet, Meeting with colleagues this way can gave How Old Is The Universe? is comets, mete- you a needed “shot in the arm“ to your efforts the book which brings per- ors and aster- in teaching astronomy. Plan on it now and spective and understanding oids, and the register ASAP. www.mapsplanetarium.org by answering this deceptively sim- major moons, Do not forget to apply to go to Italy: ple question with intelligence and all of which are •• 31 August. Deadline for the applicants of style. Professor Weintraub skillfully short enough “An experience in Italy for a French-Speak- combines straightforward astronomi- to keep the at- ing Planetarium Operator,“ in collabora- cal history with clear explanations of tention of the tion with APLF. matter and energy. Stellar evolution, young audi- •• 15 September. Deadline for the applicants H-R diagrams, globular clusters, con- ence and help of “A Week in Italy for an American Plane- cise descriptions of both dark matter the students tarium Operator,“ in collaboration with IPS and dark energy, plus an abundance become more Portable Planetarium Committee. of sound scientific methodology are aware of our •• 30 September. Deadline for the applicants all here. solar system of “An experience in Italy for a British Plan- neighbors. etarium Operator,“ in collaboration with Starry Night Elementary: There also is BAP. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/ a “pocket” book by Steve Tomecek, Under a Week_in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm Space Science Curriculum for Starry Night, which, for the first-time astron- Don’t forget to register: Live, Interactive Grades K-4 omy instructor, gives a good all-around intro- Planetarium Symposium (LIPS), August 13- By Mary Lou Whitehorne, Herb Koller, and Pe- duction to the subject. 16, 2013 at Seminole State College in Sanford, dro Braganca, Published by Imaginova Corp., The only major problem with this package Florida (near Orlando). Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2007; software and is that Starry Night itself, which is a very pow- The LIPS website states, “Everyone who printed manual erful computer program, has so much more does live, interactive planetarium lessons— Reviewed by Francine Jackson, University of to it than the lessons within this curriculum or who would like to start—should come to Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, Rhode Is- guide. It gives point-by-point directions to use LIPS. It doesn‘t matter if you‘re using a dig- land, USA. the lessons, but not what to do with the rest ital system or a starball, whether you‘re in a If there’s anybody who should be review- of the incredible information contained in mobile or fixed dome, or where in the world ing a curriculum guide involving a computer, it; in fact, as is so prevalent in many comput- you‘re from (although please note that it should be me. My skill with them has intro- er packages today, the instructions are part of the meeting will be conducted in English). duced a new word to those in the know: Is a the drop-down menus. “Attendance is limited to 70 people. Your computer program “Francineable”? And, this For someone like me, those drop downs host will be Seminole State College. This is a one seems to be, at least as long as you follow may as well be on the moon; but, if you do 9.-m fixed dome with a Konica Minolta MS-8 the directions. want a way to just teach the K-4 astronomy starball and recent upgrade to an Elumenati The program consists of two parts: In-class benchmarks, Starry Night Elementary will be fisheye system with Uniview software.” lipsym- projects designed to explain the science con- invaluable. I posium.org/LIPS I

60 Planetarian June 2013 ®

June 2013 Planetarian 61 Waxing New (Ukraine, continued from Page 52) and completed in 1972. Director Alexander An eclectic collection about planetariums, products and people Konovalenko showed me around this impres- compiled by Sharon Shanks sive facility. It includes an optical observato- ry, which has a 70-cm Cassegrain reflector and tate and educational programs. a 25-cm automated telescope used for Near- Back in March, the facility reopened its Earth-Asteroid research. doors after a $4 million renovation, which in- Before, during and after my visit to Ukraine, cludes new shows for children and adults, as I have been assisted greatly by our planetari- well as more interactive activities. In its first um colleagues there. In particular, Kira Ma- month open, the museum had more than kogon in Kyiv, in collaboration with Klim 10,000 visitors. Churyumov and Helena Dirdovskaya, vice-di- Bozeman, Montana—The newly remod- rector of the Kyiv Planetarium, has researched eled Taylor Planetarium at Montana State the current status of Ukraine planetariums. University’s Museum of the Rockies re-opened There are six main active planetariums in the to the public in March after a $1.5-million up- country: at Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Donetsk, grade. The planetarium first opened in 1989. Vinnytsia and Dnepropetrovsk. These all date In addition to new carpeting, LED light- from Soviet times. ing and 110 new seats, the planetarium now There are several others, some only in plan- boasts a Digistar 5 and digital surround sound. ning, that are not currently part of the Ukrai- Orono, Maine—The University of Maine nian planetarium community. There is one broke ground in April on a $5.2 million proj- at the Uman State Pedagogical University, ect that will give its students a better view of which is thought to be active and was estab- the heavens. lished a few years ago. There are also known An anniversary in Mumbai Officials celebrated at the future site of the to be planetariums in Zaporozhye and Cher- On 3 March 2013 Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai Emera Astronomy Center, which will serve as kassy, but there has been no recent contact completed 36 years of its existence. Over the the new home of the Maynard F. Jordan Plane- with them. years, it has grown into a centre for the study tarium and Observatory, during an afternoon of astronomy and space science. It has also ceremony. Construction begins in mid-May created 35 astronomical presentations, 28 of Planetariums are being built them by using the Zeiss Mark IV Universal Pro- and it could open as early as the fall semester There are planetariums under construction jector. 0ver 13.5 million people have viewed of 2014, according to the university. in Nikolaev and Zhytomir, and there is one and enjoyed these shows. To keep abreast The new facility will be named for Emera planned for Lutsk. Kira also mentioned that in with the new technology, Nehru Centre in- Inc., the Nova Scotia-based parent company Odessa, the university provides astronomical stalled a Digistar-3 in 2003. The planetarium also arranges popular lectures by well-known of Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. and Maine Pub- lectures, but although it is classed as a “plane- scientists from the country and abroad. Cours- lic Service, which recently announced a $1 tarium,” they have no dome or projector. es on astronomy are conducted for students million gift to move the project forward. There are also several mobile planetari- and general public, and, to create interest in ums in Ukraine. Kira has few details of most astronomy and general science, the planetari- um arranges various contests like quizzes, es- Teaching resources of them, but it is hoped that they, together say contests, astro-painting and astro-poetry. Using teaching resources found on the in- with others that are either in existence or un- The planetarium’s outreach is done through a ternet is hit-and-miss. Some can be gems, and der construction, will all become part of the “mini planetarium,” a projector on wheels and some can be awful. Here’s one in the first cat- Ukrainian Planetarium Association, so as to a collapsible dome that can easily be set up egory. form a wider community. in any classroom and accommodate 40 stu- dents. Telescopes are kept outside the plan- Kris McCall from Sudekum Planetarium In particular, staff of the Crimea Mobile etarium for sky watching in the night. These (Nashville, Tennessee) shared on Dome-L a Planetarium are developing their own astron- telescopes also are taken to various places, site one of the educators at her facility came omy content and take their equipment to particularly in the rural areas. – Suhas B.Naik- across that looks fun to make and explains or- schools all over the Crimean Peninsula. Satam, program coordinator, Nehru Planetar- bits, moon phases and eclipses. It’s from En- ium, shown above with the mini planetarium. Unfortunately I was not able to visit the far chanted Learning—www.enchantedlearn- south on this trip to such great places as Odes- ing.com/crafts/ sa and Crimea, but I do hope to do this next In the News astronomy/su- time. Centerport, New York—Suffolk County’s nearthmoon—and, Meanwhile, I have kept in touch with our Vanderbilt Planetarium, a popular location when you check Ukrainian colleagues and I, together with for school field trips and laser light shows, the page, you’ll see the rest of the International Relations Com- has been renamed the Charles and Helen the science is there, mittee, look forward to more IPS involve- Reichert Planetarium after the couple donat- too. As Kris point- ment in this fascinating country! I ed $850,000 towards preserving the historical ed out, no model is and educational site. Reichert operates a num- perfect, but there’s ber of IGA stores in the area. an explanatory Enchanted Learning is a subscriber site. Per- The planetarium and museum was origi- sentence includ- sonal subscriptions are $20 per year; a school nally named for William K. Vanderbilt, who ed with the lesson that we so rarely see: “Note may subscribe for $125. I was subscribed for left his mansion and a $2 million trust to the that although the relative sizes of the Earth several years but found I did not use the mate- county after his death in 1944. and the moon are roughly accurate (about 3:1), rial as much as I thought I would. A keen eye His daughter, Muriel Vanderbilt, donated the sun should be much, much larger (the sun for science accuracy is required; some material an additional $6.2 million to preserve the es- is over 100 times bigger than the Earth).” is great, and others miss it altogether. I

62 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 63 (Educational Horizons, continued from Page 37) John Hault, 1947-2013 The Canadian planetarium community lost in art that day. The other is “tweet it,” where they use hashtags to identify new vocab- one of its most visionary and energetic pioneers ulary words and important facts about people in the lesson. when John Hault died from heart complications In preparation for this article I sat down with my colleague Darci and looked a few at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Centre in Halifax, samples that she had collected. One that jumped out at me was found during the Vin- Nova Scotia on February 1 at the too young age of cent van Gogh biography lesson. One of the students summarized the lesson, then 65. Born in 1947, he was the son of George Chris- hashtagged it “#depression #1ear #starrynight.” I thought it was interesting that the tie Hault and Lillian Veronica (Steele) Hault, who idea of depression jumped out at the student, and that they tagged a piece of art. both predeceased him. I asked her if she thought about having the students add a bit of drawing to the mes- Although John had been sages, because you can attach images to both in real life. The response was for her sum- away from the planetari- maries are done in the last three minutes of class while she is checking that all the art um community for some supplies are back in their places. I tried “tweet it” during my to Newton les- time, his imprint on the son and hung them up on a piece of cardboard to create a newsfeed. A couple of the medium, in Canada and hashtags that jumped out were #geocentricfail, #inthetub (), #inawell (Er- elsewhere, was formida- atosthenes), and #projectileapples. ble. John attended Dalhou- I hope these give you some ideas for integrating these strategies into your planetar- sie University and gradu- ium presentations or classroom lessons. I am not going to give you a summer reading John Hault ated in 1969. After a period list this year; I’m just saying you need to read at least four books and they don’t have of teaching, he became di- to do with astronomy or technical manuals. You’re welcome. I rector of the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium in Ed- monton, Alberta. (IMERSA, continued from Page 40) During those years he championed the cause of a new planetarium and science centre for Edmon- reflection causing light to wash out in the middle of the frame.” ton. After several years of lobbying, fund-raising Butterflies is already booked to show in the HD Digital Dome Theater at Telus Spark and assembling a supportive board of directors, science center in Calgary (open since May 2012, the theater has a Digistar projection John‘s vision for new skies for the city was real- system and Spitz Nanoseam screen). To ready it for fulldome, Butterflies must undergo ized. In 1973 John became director of the Edmon- another custom mastering process. Evans & Sutherland will collaborate with SK Films ton Space Sciences Centre and is credited with to create a series of dome masters. being the visionary behind what is now TELUS World of Science-Edmonton. The new facili- Events relevant to fulldome ty was inaugurated in 1984, and featured a 23-m Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD), 2013 Conference state-of-the-art Zeiss planetarium, plus astrono- June 6-8, 2013, San Francisco, USA my exhibit halls and western Canada‘s first IMAX www.abovethefog.segd.org theatre. European Network of Science Centres and Museums (ECSITE) annual conference Under John‘s leadership and support, his staff June 6-8, Universeum in Gothenburg, Sweden, www.ecsite.eu continued the work of using the new Margaret Currents 2013 at the Santa Fe International New Media Festival (Partners include the Zeidler Star Theatre for creative and innovative fulldome theater at IAIA) programming. June 14-30, 2013, Santa Fe, New Mexico USA In 1989, John left Edmonton and returned www.currentsnewmedia.org to his native maritimes as founding curator of SIGGRAPH 2013, Conference & Exhibition the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellar- July 21-25, Anaheim, California USA, www.siggraph.org ton. On leaving the museum, he entered the pri- Société des arts technologiques, SAT Fest 2013–international festival of short 360° films vate sector with the acquisition of Design Group August 21–Sept 20, The Satosphere, Montreal, Canada, [email protected] Displays, a Halifax-based exhibit-building dis- ‘Imiloa Fulldome Film Festival (IFFF) play house. When he retired, he continued con- September 5-7, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo, Hawaii sulting under the name of Hault and Associates. www.imiloahawaii.org/168/IFFF2013 Throughout his career he was active in the Royal GSCA International Conference & Trade Show Astronomical Society of Canada. September 14-17, 2013 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, www.giantscreencinema.com John was happiest sailing „Nutmeg“ out of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, where he was (will include fulldome presentations) a senior member and dock master for the Marble- September 23-27, Moran, Wyoming, USA, www.jhfestival.org head-to-Halifax yacht races. John has the distinc- Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) tion of having an asteroid named after him (Aster- SATE ‘13 Experience Design Conference oid 85200JohnAHault) for his services to science. October 3-4, Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD), Savannah, Georgia USA He was a trustee and volunteer curator for the www.teaconnect.org Canadian Naval Memorial, HMCS Sackville, in Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), Annual Conference Halifax October 19-22, Albuquerque, New Mexico USA, www.astc.org He is survived by his loving partner, Clare First Fulldome Festival in Russia Lane. A celebration of life is planned in Halifax at October 21-23, Valentina Tereshkova Cultural and Educational Center, Yaroslavl, a later date. Russia, with support from Yaroslavl City Hall, Valentina Tereshkova Cultural and Submitted by Ian McLennan, with contribu- Educational Center and the Russian Planetarium Association. Organizing commit- tions from Paul Deans, Alan Dyer, Douglas Hube, tee includes Yaroslav Gubchenko, executive director of the Fulldome Film Society Clare Lane and Roger Woloshyn. en.fulldomefilm.org/festival2013.html, [email protected] I

64 Planetarian June 2013 June 2013 Planetarian 65 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Internationa_Calendar.htm Compiled by Loris Ramponi - [email protected]

2 0 1 3 27-28 September. British Association of Planetaria (BAP), 2013 annual 6-8 June. “Dreams, the spirit of innovation”, ECSITE Annual Confer- meeting, International Centre for Life (Newcastle-on-Tyne), Unit- ence (European Network of Science Centres and Museums), www. ed Kingdom. bapconference.org.uk; contact: Dr Jenny Shipway, ecsite.net [email protected] 24-28 June. 8th World Conference of Science Journalist (WCSJ), Hel- 14-18 October. Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2013 sinki, Finland. www.wcsj2013.org (CAP 2013), Challenges in Communication of Astronomy and 25-29 June. Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA), Annual Space Exploration, Warsaw, Poland. www.communicatingastron- conference, Brian Gooding Planetarium, Museum of Science and omy.org/cap2013/index.html History, Jacksonville, Florida, USA. www.sepadomes.org 6-19 October. Great Lakes Planetarium Association Conference, Peo- 17-20 July. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS), Annual ria Riverfront Museum, Peoria, Illinois, USA. Contact: Sheldon Conference. Ausherman Planetarium, Earth and Space Science Schafer, [email protected] www.glpaweb.org Laboratory, Frederick County Public Schools in Frederick, Mary- Presentations at GLPA meeting will be streamed and video-taped. land, USA. www.mapsplanetarium.org Those interested should go to the GLPA website to initiate stream- 20-24 July. Annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pa- ing with their browsers. The GLPA website also will allow access cific (ASP), San Jose, California, USA. Contact: Andrew Fraknoi, to video clips. [email protected]; www.astrosociety.org 19-22 October. Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) 29 July–2 August. Spitz Summer Institute, Spitz, Inc. Chadds Ford Annual Conference, Explora, NM Museum of Natural History & (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, USA. Annual event focusing Science, National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albu- on planetarium education. Includes instruction in Starry Night querque, New Mexico, USA. www.astc.org software, curriculum and live lessons, teaching with SciDome 21-23 October. The First Russian Fulldome Festival. Yaroslavl, the digital planetariums. Beginner, intermediate and advanced ses- Tereshkova Cultural and Education Center. Contact: en_ti- sions. www.spitzinc.com/institute. Contact: jtowne@spitzinc. [email protected]; [email protected]; www.yarplaneta.ru com 11 December. The Stratoscript Compendium Ring 2013, a scripting 31 July – 2 August. Digistar Users Group Conference, Colgate Univer- competition open to everybody by LSS-Planetarium. Contact: lio- sity, Hamilton, New York, USA. departments.colgate.edu/vislab/ [email protected]; www.lss-planetariums.info/index.php?lang=en& dug2013.asp menu=compendium&page=compendium2013 9-10 August. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, Bolzano, Italy. 2 0 1 4 13-16 August. Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS), Semi- 16 March, 2014. International Day of Planetaria. www. nole State College in Sanford, Florida, USA. LIPSymposium.org dayofplanetaria.org 31 August. Deadline for the applicants of "An experience in Italy for 17-19 March. 7th Science Center World Summit, Technopolis, Mech- a French Speaking Planetarium Operator", in collaboration with elen and Brussels, Belgium. Partners: Technopolis, Flemish science APLF. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_in_Italy/Week_ center, Mechelen, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Italy.htm Brussels. www.technopolis.be 5-7 September. Imiloa Fulldome Film Festival (IFFF2013), Imiloa As- April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PlanIt), XXIX National Con- tronomy Center, Hilo, Hawaii, USA. The festival will feature 25-30 ference, Italy, and 4th Full-Dome Italian Festival. During the con- full length full dome programs in 2D and stereoscopic 3D. www. ference Skype session for planetarians from other countries. www. imiloahawaii.org/168/ifff planetari.org Contact: [email protected] 6-8 September. Nordic Planetarium Association Confer- 1-5 May. Three languages-The same sky, Symposium of Planetariums ence, AHHAA Science Center, Tartu, Estonia. Conference language 2014 Lucerne, Switzerland (in planning). English. Contact: Margus Aru, [email protected] June. International Planetarium Society Council Meeting, Beijing, 14-17 September. Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA), Interna- China. tional Conference & Trade Show, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. www. 23-27 June. 22nd International Planetarium Society Conference, Bei- giantscreencinema.com jing Planetarium, China. www.ips2014.org, contact Dr. Zhu Jin, 15 September. Deadline for the applicants of “A Week in Italy for an [email protected] American Planetarium Operator,” in collaboration with IPS Porta- 18-21 October. Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) ble Planetarium Committee. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/ Annual Conference, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Week_in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. www.astc.org 18-20 September. Western Alliance Conference (Pacific Planetari- um Association, Southwestern Association of Planetariums, Great For corrections and new information for the Calendar of Events, Plains Planetarium Association and Rocky Mountain Planetari- please send a message to Loris Ramponi at osservatorio@serafino- um Association), Science City and Gottlieb Planetarium, Kansas zani.it City, Missouri, USA. Contact: [email protected]; www.wacdomes. More details about several of these upcoming events is included in org/2013/WAC2013.html the International News column in this issue. 22-26 September. XVIII Meeting of the Association of Brazilian Plan- The most up-to-date information also is available online at the IPS etarium (ABP), Johannes Kepler Planetarium, SABINA Science Calendar of Events at www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=calendar Center, Santo André, São Paulo State, Brazil. www.planetarios.org. br Contact: [email protected]

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June 2013 Planetarian 67 Last Light Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet—Jokes Requested

I see it in the stars. Someone’s going April S. Whitt to be laughed out of court—and soon. A Russian astrologer has filed suit against Fernbank Science Center NASA claiming the impactor probe the 156 Heaton Park Drive NE space agency used to blow a football Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA field-sized crater into a speeding comet has “distorted” her horoscope. [email protected] Filed before the July 4th explosion on the surface of comet Tempel 1, the suit It seems to be the season of celebrating the PANSTARRS images were shared electroni- was filed by astrologer Marina Bai in a Moscow court. The initial filing was to small stuff in our solar system. Comet ISON cally as well. The light-polluted metro area prevent the experiment from happen- may be a treat in November, and we‘ve had where I live effectively “clouded out” any ing, a request that was denied by the some close encounters with asteroids this hope of seeing the comet, but colleagues in court. spring. better zoned areas reported sighting it over The explosion, which occurred ear- Asteroid 2012 DA14 swung by on Febru- several nights. ly Monday morning, created a cloud of dust and debris composed of clues NASA ary 15. It wasn‘t visible to observers in the Craig Ferguson, a late-night television host hopes to evaluate to shed light on the US, but a number of images from around the and comedian, mentioned PANSTARRS as origins of the universe. world were posted on the internet and shared well: Ms. Bai was not happy about one of through social media. “Tonight there’s a comet. A comet mak- the most significant celestial accom- plishments in human history and is ask- To confuse the already-confused general ing the closest approach ever to Earth. Now ing for $300 million in damages for her public even further, a bright meteor explod- is it really a comet? Or is it one of President “moral sufferings,” the same amount as ed over Chelyabinsk, Russia on the same date. Obama’s drones? the mission’s cost. One reference joked that the asteroid was sup- “They say the comet is visible to the naked “It is obvious that elements of the posed to come on December 21 for the Mayan eye. The naked eye? My eyes are always na- comet’s orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explo- calendar thing but the (notoriously slow) Rus- ked. Do people wear eye clothes now? sion, which interferes with my astrology sian postal service didn’t deliver it until Feb- “There are a lot of people watching the work and distorts my horoscope,” said ruary. comet tonight. I’m surprised that advertisers Bai in the legal documents, as reported aren’t sponsoring it.” by Russia’s Izvestia newspaper. And then there are comets Humans have been fascinated with com- A Moscow district court spokesper- son said the court would hear the case And then there are the comets. In March, ets for millennia. In 2005, J. Miller posted an but did not release a date. NASA repre- account of comet sentatives in Moscow were unavailable astrology on web- for comment. proworld.com, af- Bai claims a personal and familial at- ter NASA’s Deep tachment to Tempel 1, which was given a face lift at 23,000 mph by a washing Impact mission machine sized impactor craft some 83 smacked Comet million miles from Earth. Tempel 1 (see box). Deforming the comet violated her “life and spiritual values” by des- ecrating a comet of significance The reindeer to her life path and family history. effect The comet was part of her grandpar- And a part- ents’ courtship, she claims, as her grand- ing thought from father pointed out the comet to her comedian Jack grandmother during a romantic encoun- ter. Handey: “I think (As the reporter has a stroke refrain- there should be ing from crude but entirely inappropri- something in sci- ate jokes, feel free to think of your own ence called the here—to give you a boost, try phras- es like “heavenly body” and “deep im- “reindeer effect.” I pact.”) don’t know what Scientists said the crash did not sig- it would be, but I nificantly alter the comet’s orbit and the think it’d be good explosion did not put Earth in any dan- to hear someone ger. say, “Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying ex- www.webproworld. ample of the rein- com/webmaster-forum/ deer effect.” threads/36710-Astrologer- Hey—is there Sues-NASA-Over- an asteroid named Comet-Jokes- Reindeer? I Requested?highlight=NASA Asteroid passing near Earth, February 15, 2013. By Katharine.

68 Planetarian June 2013 Digistar 5 Ad Q2 2013 - Show Production Toolkit.indd 1 4/18/2013 9:18:49 AM