·PLANETARIAN Journal of the International Society Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001

Articles 4 Cosmic 101 ...... James Sweitzer 9 How Tycho Brahe Really Died .. Aase Jacobsen & Lars Petersen 11 Special Effect Control Using PC Printer Port ...... Piyush Pandey and Avijit Biswas 13 Abstracts from 2001 ...... Jean-Michel Faidit

Features 17 Mobile News Network ...... Susan Button 22 President's Message ...... Martin Ratcliffe 24 Focus on Education ...... Kathy Michaels & Francine Jackson 27 Reviews ...... April S. Whitt 32 What's New ...... Jim Manning 38 Gibbous Gazette ...... James Hughes 41 International News ...... Lars Broman 46 NASA Space Science News ...... Anita Sohus 48 Last Light ...... April Whitt This is lNhat counts:

ZKP 3 5 51 Decatur, USA Fle xi bility

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ZKP 3 560 "'"gos, " Seeing is Believing! ZMP-TO Kenner, USA In the U.S. & Canada 561 contact Reilly ,r,' ; ( • " ,"A, N, Phone: 800-726- 8805 ZKP 3 Ta oj oo, SK fax 985-76j-~396 562 {-Mdll: plle,fi, ",am.com

ZKP 3 563 Kreuzllngen. CH Carl Zeiss Planetarium Division 564 07745 lend, Germany Phone: -t-49· 3641·642406 Fax +49-3641-643023 £ Mall: piane!dllum(:: zel~~.de W\VI'V zel~s.delplan('taf1ums The Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is published quarterly by the International Planetarium Society. ©200 1, International Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights reserved. Opinions expressed Planetarian by authors are personal opinions and are not necessarily the opinions of the International Plan­ etarium Society, its officers, or agents. Acceptance of advertisements, announcements, or other Vol. 30, No.4 material does not imply endorsement by the International Planetarium Society, its officers or agents. The Editor welcomes items for consideration for publication. Please consult "Guidelines December 2001 for Contributors" at http://www.GriffithObs.org/IPSGuidelines.html (or request a copy by mail). The Editor reserves the right to edit any manuscript to suit this publication's needs.

Executive Editor John Mosley INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Griffith Observatory 2800 E. Observatory Road Adler Planetarium ...... Los Angeles, California 90027 USA (1) 323-664-1181 daytime phone Astro Copy Service ...... 23 (1) 323-663-4323 fax Audio Visuallmagineering ...... [email protected] Calgary Science Centre ...... Advertising Coordinator Conceptron Associates ...... Robert]. Bonadurer East Coast Control Systems ...... 26 Director, Minneapolis Planetarium 300 Nicollet Mall Evans &: Sutherland ...... outside back cover Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 USA Goto Optical Manufacturing Co ...... (1) 612-630-6151 (1) 612-630-6180 fax Learning Technologies, Inc...... 30 [email protected] Minneapolis Planetarium ...... 36 Membership Minolta ...... 16 Indi vidual: $50 one year; $90 two years R. S. Automation ...... inside back cover Institutional: $200 first year; $100 annual renewal Library Subscriptions: $36 one year Seiler Instruments ...... inside front cover Direct membership requests and changes ofaddress Show Doctor .'...... 23 to the TreasurerlMembership Chairman; see next Sky-Skan, Inc ...... page for address and contact information. Spitz, Inc ...... 40 L P. S. Job Information Service Walrecht, Rob ...... ~ ...... 47 The IPS Job Information Service has moved to the World Wide Web. Please check the !Jobs" page on the IPS web site: http://www.ips-planetari um.org. Back Issues of the Planetarian Avail able from: Focus on Education Last Light Charlene Oukes Kathy Michaels April Whitt Francine Jackson IPS Back Publications Repository Mobile News Network Strasenburgh Planetarium Susan Button Rochester Museum & Science Center 657 East Avenue NASA Space Science News Rochester, New York 14607 USA Anita Sohus Index A cumulative index of major articles that have appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue through the current issue is available on paper ($12 ppd) or disk ($5 ppd) from the Exec. Editor. A shortened copy is at the Planetarian web site.

Final Deadlines International Planetarium Society WWW home page: March: January 21 June: April21 http://www.i ps-planetari um.org September: July 21 December: October 21 Planetarian journal WWW home page: http://www.GriffithObs.org/IPSPlanetarian.html

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 1 I .. P .. President jelvert({lllane.k )2.or.us 6560 Braddock Road Martin Ratcliffe Alexandria. Virginia 22312 USA Director. Theaters & Media Services Past President (I) 703-750-8380 Exploration Place Dr. Dale W. Smith ( I) 703-750-5010 fax 300 N McLean Blvd BGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman Hall [email protected] Wichita, KS 67203 USA Physics & Dept. [email protected] (I) 316-263-3373 Bowling Green State University (I) 316-263-4545 fax Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA Treasurer and Membership Chair mratcl i [email protected] (I) 419-372-8666 Shawn Laatsch, Director (1)419-372-9938 fax Gheens Science Hall & Rauch Planetarium President Elect [email protected] University of Louisville Jon Elvert 108 West Brandeis Avenue Lane ESD Planetarium Executive Secretary Louisville, K Y 40292 USA 2300 Leo Harris Pkwy Lee Ann Hennig (I) 502-852-5855 Eugene, Oregon 9740) USA Planetarium (I) 502-852-0831 fax (1) 541-461-8227 Thomas Jefferson High School 102424.1032.compuserve.com (I) 541-687-6459 fax for Science and Technology I .. P. S. Affiliate Representatives Association of French-Speaking Council of German Planetariums Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society Southwestern Association of Plane- Planetariums Dr. Wolfgang Wacker Peter Connors . tariums Agnes Acker Planetarium Mannheim gGmbH [email protected] Mark S Sonntag Observatoire de Strasbourg Wilhelm-Vamholt-Allee I Professor & Planetarium Director 11, rue de l'universite (Europaplatz) Nordic Planetarium Association Department of Physics 67000 Strasbourg France 68165 Mannheim Germany Lars Broman Angelo State University 0390242467 49621419420 Broman Planetarium San Angelo, Texas 76909 USA 03 90 24 24 17 fax 49 621 41 24 11 fax Ostra Hamngatan I ( 1) 915-942-2136 [email protected] [email protected] S-791 71 Falun (1) 915-942-2188 fax [email protected] (46)2310177 [email protected] European/Mediterranean (46) 2310 137 fax [email protected] Association of Mexican Planetariums Planetarium Association [email protected] Ignacio Castro Pinal Dennis Simopoulos http://www.nnn.se/om/xtra/tc- llkranian Planetariums Association Museo Tecno16gico CF.E Eugenides Planetarium wnpa.html Ivan Kriachkow Apdo. Postal 18-816 Syngrou A venue-Amfithea Kiev Republican Planetarium CP 11870. Mexico City. Mexico. Athens Greece . Pacific Planetarium Association 57/3 Krasnoarmeiskaia Street (52)55161357 (30) I 941 1181 Jon Elvert 252005 Kiev, Ukraine (52)55 165520 Fax (30) I 941 7372 fax Lane ESD Planetarium 744227 2781 [email protected] [email protected] 2300 Leo Harris Pkwy. 74422751 66 Eugene. Oregon 97401 USA 7 44 227 51 43 fax Association of Spanish Planetariums Great Lakes Planetarium Association (1 ) 541-461-8227 [email protected] Antonio Camarasa Susan Reynolds Button (I) 541-687-6459 fax L'Hemisferic Onondaga-Cortland-Madison [email protected] Avenida Institutio Obrero de Valencia B.O.CE.S. Planetarium http://www.efn.org/-esd-.J)lt Esquina Autovia de EI Saler P.O. Box 4754 46013 Valencia Spain Syracuse, New York 13221 USA Planetarium Society of India 34 96 33 55 330 (I) 315-433-2671 Prof S Gopinath 34963355331 fax ( 1 ) 315-433-1530 fax Director, Astronomer [email protected] [email protected] Innovative Learning Technologies and Open Skies Australasian Planetarium Society Great Plains Planetarium Association No.3, 9th Lane. Indiranager Glen Moore Jack Dunll Adyar, Chennai 600020 India Planetarium. Science Centre Ralph Mueller Planetarium 91 444418487 University ofWollongong University of Nebraska- Lincoln [email protected] Northfields Ave, 210 Morrill Hall Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA Rocky Mountain Planetarium 61 2 42865000 ( I ) 402-472-2641 Association 61 2 42 836665 fax (I) 402-475-8899 fax Christine Shupla gkm+AEA-uow.edu.au [email protected] Arizona Science Center http://home. vicnet. net.au@apsweb 600 East Washington Street Italian Planetaria's Friends Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA British Association of Planetaria Association ( 1) 602-716-2078 Teresa Grafton Loris Ramponi [email protected] London Planetarium National Archive of Planetaria Marylebone Road clo Centro Studi e Ricerche Serafino Russian Planetariums Association London NWI 5LR England United Zani Zinaida P. Sitkova Kingdom via Bosca 24. CP. 104 Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium 44 171 487 0310 25066 Lumezzane (Brescia) Italy Pokhvalinskii S'Yezd 5-A 441714870286 (39) 30 87 2164 Nizhny Novgorod, 603 600 Russia 44 171 465 0862 fax (39) 30 87 25 45 fax (7)8312305151 Teresa. [email protected] http://www.cityline.it (7)831 23051 66 fax [email protected] [email protected] Canadian Council of Science Centres John Dickenson, Managing Director Japan Planetarium Society Southeastern Planetarium Pacific Space Centre Shoichi Itoh Association H.R. MacMillan Planetarium Planetarium Ur John Hare 1100 Chestnut Street Suginami Science Education Center Ash Enterprises Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 3.19 3-3-13 Shimizu. Suginami-ku 3602 23rd Avenue West Canada Tokyo 167-0033 Japan Bradenton. Florida 34205 USA (I) 604-738-7817 ext.234 (81) 3 3396 4391 (I) 941-746-3522 (I) 604-736-5665 fax (81) 3 33964393 fax (I) 941-750-9497 fax .i d ic [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

2 Planetarian IPS Membership Committee IPS Publications Committee IPS Conference Host- 2002 Shawn Laatsch. Treasurer April Whitt, Chair http://www .exploration .orglips2002 Rauch Planetarium - University of Louisville Fernbank Science Center Martin Ratcliffe 108 W. Brandeis Avenue 156 Heaton Park Drive NE Director. Theaters & Media Services Louisville. Kentucky 40292 U.S.A. Atlanta. Georgia 30307 USA Exploration Place ( I) 502-852-5855 (I) 404-378-4314 ext. 221 300 N McLean Blvd ( I ) 502-852-0831 fax (I) 404-370-1336 fax Wichita. KS 67203 USA [email protected] april. [email protected] (1) 316-263-3373 (I) 316-263-4545 fax IPS Elections Committee IPS Web Committee [email protected] Steve Mitch. Chair Tom Callen, Chair Planetarium Cosmonova Omnitheater IPS Ethics Committee - vacant Benedum Natural Science Center Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet Oglebay Park Frescativagen 40 , Box 50007 IPS Finance Committee - President. President­ Wheeling. West Virginia 26003 USA SE 10405 SWEDEN Elect, Treasurer. Secretary ( I ) 304-243-4034 (46) 8 519 551 04 (I) 304-243-4110 fax (46) 8 5 J9 551 OOfax [email protected] [email protected]

IPS Awards Committee IPS Conference Committee Phyllis Pitluga. Chair Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair The Adler Planetarium BGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman Hall 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive Physics &Astronomy Dept. Chicago. Illinois 60605 USA Bowling Green State University (1) 312-322-03 J9 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA ( 1) 312-322-2257 (I) 419-372-8666 ppitl [email protected] (I) 419-372-9938 fax [email protected]

IPS Consumer Affairs/Astrology Committee IPS Language Committee IPS Professional Services Committee Dr. Jeanne Bishop. Chair Chris Janssen David Menke. Chair Westlake Schools Planetarium Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht 936 SW 49th Ave. Parks ide Middle School Planetariumweg 19 Fort Lauderdale. Florida 33317-4411 USA 24525 Hilliard Road B-3600 Genk BELGIUM [email protected] Westlake. Ohio 44145 USA +3289307990 ( I ) 440 835 6399 +3289307991 fax IPS Script Contest Committee (I) 4408356325 [email protected] Steve Tidey [email protected] Astronomy Educator IPS Media Distribution Committee Alexander Brest Planetarium Armand Spitz Planetarium Education Fund - Thomas Kraupe. Chair 1025 Museum Circle Finance Committee Planetarium Hamburg Jacksonville, Florida 32207 USA Hindenburgdamm 01 [email protected] IPS Education Committee 0-22303 Hamburg GERMANY Gary Sampson (retired) [email protected] IPS Technology Committee Gary E. Sampson Planetarium [email protected] Kevin Scott. Chair c/o 880 Hi-Ridge Avenue (49)040-514985-15 The Renaissance Center Waukesha. Wisconsin 63186 (49) 040-514985-10 fax P.O. Box 608 (Phone) (I) 262 784 0341 855 Hwy 46 South [email protected] IPS Outreach Committee Dickson, Tennessee 37056 USA Christine Shup\a (I ) 6 15 740 55 I 0 IPS History Committee Arizona Science Center (1)6157405618fax John Hare. Chair. IPS Historian 600 East Washington Street [email protected] Ash Enterprises Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA 3602 23rd Avenue West (I) 602 7162078 Bradenton. Florida 34205 USA (I) 6027162099 fax ( I ) 941 746 3522 [email protected] (l) 941 7509497 fax [email protected] IPS Planetarium Development Group Ken Wilson. Chair IPS Job Information Service Subcommittee Ethyl Universe Planetarium (Protessional Services Committee) Science Museum of Virginia Steve Fentress. Chair 2500 West Broad Street S trasen burgh PI anetari um Richmond, Virginia 23220 USA Rochester Museum & Science Center (I) 804 367-0457 657 East A venue (1) 804367-9348 fax Rochester. New York 14607 USA [email protected] Address (I) 7162714552 ext. 409 (I) 716 271 7146 fax IPS Portable Planetarium Committee International Planetarium Society steve _ [email protected] Sue Reynolds Button, Chair c/o Taylor Planetarium Starlab Planetarium Museum of the Rockies IPS Lasers in Planetariums Committee Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES Montana State University Jack A Dunn. Chair P.O. Box 4754 Ralph Mueller Planetarium Syracuse, New York 13221 USA 600 W. Kagy Blvd, 210 Morrill Hall (I) 315 433 2671 Bozeman, Montana 59717 USA University of Nebraska-Lincoln (I) 315 432 4523 fax Lincoln. Nebraska 68588-0375 USA [email protected] IPS Web Site: ( 1) 402 472 2641 http://www.ips-planetarium.org (I) 402 4758899 fax [email protected]

Produced at the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California; http://www.GriffithObs.org/IPSPlanetarian.html

Vol. No.4, December 2001 Planetarian • Saturn SW:CE~SSJtu I Ii make it to the 1 1 Universe? I We had not anltlClpalted segments of our show, but it was.

were to be many other "HUH'I..-1>,o:;.H1;'; the trip before we finished the program for our gala event on the of 12/31/99. To add to my the night the millennium the new planetarium show, lJ",rChnr+ Universe, the we including astronomical attendances 1.S million viewers in its first year alone. article some of the adventures Museum of Natural experienced the of show. It's a L'-'-.UU.HUI"'" Central Park West 79th me to go a crash course York call Cosmic Spaceflight 101.

Many late nights in November of 1999, I in data sets that described our . The goal of the opening space show wished I stilI had the Zeiss Mark VI projector We were simply trying to travel from the the new Planetarium was " .... r'~.~ ..... I; I knew so well from my years at the Adler Earth to Saturn, visiting Mars and Jupiter cated. We would use the full power of our Planetarium. With it I could easily imagine along the way, but we were repeatedly foiled digital systems to transport audiences ahead of time what it could do and where it could take me. With the Mark VI, I would This article highlights some of the adventures experienced have avoided many headaches, only having the production of this show. It's a recounting of what it was like to worry about controls for diurnal and lati­ tude and annual motions. Life was less stress­ me to go through a crash course in what I call Cosmic Spaceflight ful with that older, earth-bound projector. 101. But, that wasn't the case now. During those long autumn nights of the last few months of the 20th Century, my production team by the enormity of the task of flying in three was trying to find their way billions of light dimensional space with its full translational years into virtual space. And we were having and rotational degrees of freedom, past effec­ major problems just driving a mere ninety tively microscopic astronomical objects. light minutes to Saturn! Time after time we failed to make the trip to This was the month space when we were finish­ were many billions of ing the digital camera light years from home. It choreography of the was to be one nonstop opening planetarium flight size show being produced scale change of a factor for the new Ha yden of 1019! There would be Planetarium at the no jump cuts, and we Rose Center for Earth aimed to use real scien­ and Space. Our new tific data sets the entire digital planetarium in way. We wanted our the Rose Center's audience to ","V1ntH'H""""''' Hayden is the most the architecture of the advanced in the world. Universe. We use a high-resolu­ We would not have tion Trimension digi­ been able to even con­ tal projection system template such a with seven 12" CRT but for a projectors. It is fed by a multiple graphics-pipe, Silicon Graphics Onyx II supercomputer. Those nights in No­ vember we had loaded

4 Planetarian Vol. nomical data sets in three dimensions on a much of the screen as possible in creating Seen from the galactic realm, when dome. Much of the visualized data sets could our illusions. We could not rely on simply stars become impossible to resol ve, be projected in real time with our powerful zooming straight into relatively tiny objects Digital Galaxy was composed of dozens SGI computers, but some visualizations like the way video or unidirectional theaters texture maps set into a 3D that of the Orion Nebula in the middle of might. We relied heavily on the power of Beyond this, in deep, intergalactic space, our show, with its diffuse surface of ionized immersive motion cueing to achieve our 3D relied upon an atlas of galaxy observations gas, could not. This was simply too huge a effect. During the early production stages, by Brent Tully, visualized by NCSA, task for any computer to do in real time. Al­ when we first tried out our system by simu­ was good out to 150 million light years. though the Orion Nebula appears for only lating horizontal motion of the stars and the go farther than that, we relied upon a two minutes, it required 10,000 processor­ Galaxy through the theater, we were aU sur­ retical simulation of the entire Observable hours to render! This brings me to the second prised with how realistic motion cueing can Universe modeled by Jerry Ostriker of reason we dared to chart this voyage, and be in creating the illusion we were actually ceton University and rendered at NCSA. that is the help of our computing partners. in space. was real scientific data and models We could not have performed the necessary Scientific data sets were the vertebrae that way. Although many of the visuals could be computing for this and other scenes without formed the backbone of this show. Except projected in real time, we chose, instead the assistance of the San Diego Supercompu­ for the close-up scene of the Orion Nebula pre-render everything to achieve the ter Center (SDSC) at the University of Cali­ and most of the extragalactic scenes, the data resolution images possible and to make the fornia, San Diego, and the National Center sets we needed from the Earth out to a few show easily repeatable on the half hour for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at hundred thousand light years were com­ show schedule we have been r111,n;,nrr the University of Illinois. They were key bined to make what we caned the Digital the day we opened. The Digital Galaxy, used players in a large, talented production team. Galaxy. The work to construct this galaxy in real time, was vital to creating the show in (See the acknowledgements at the end for a and perform the other required visualiza­ one more way. It allowed us to tryout, on more complete listing.) tions was funded by NASA. From early 1997 the average, several dozen moves for each But in this paper I'm going to focus on the on, we described the Digital Galaxy as the show segment. unique lessons I felt were the most fascinat­ first true digital atlas of the Galaxy suitable But to get to opening day we needed to ing to a planetarium astronomer as we learn­ for planetariums. It was organized into three traverse these data sets with a virtual, seven­ ed to navigate realistically the virtual worlds realms: Solar System, stellar and galactic. headed camera in a way that would the constructed from the astronomical data. The Solar System realm was made up of audiences understand their place in space. In Many other critical tools and processes were planets with texture maps from NASA mis­ the end we learned lessons in several areas of necessary to accomplish this challenging sions. For this first show at the new Hayden, cosmic navigation - from how to move con­ show, beyond the 3D navigational ones the planets were placed to scale in their loca­ vincingly to how to insure people could see described here. For example, the stars as seen tions on 2/19/00, the first day we opened to alien realms as three dimensional objects and from Earth are projected in our theater by the public. In retrospect, this attention to an structures. the unparalleled Zeiss Mark IX. Although it specific day constrained our flight out of the wasn't used for the majority of this particu­ Solar System to an extent that would give us Issac ...... ,.... ""' .... Versus lar show, our new Zeiss always takes the serious headaches late in 1999. We could Saucers audience's breath away. The audio composi­ have just placed the planets anywhere we One of the arguments scientists use tions and effects had a huge effect on the liked and then flown past them, but we were against UFO sightings is that the seen program too. But the story of the navigation loathe to tamper with the accuracy of our in the sky are often reported moving in ways may be the most interesting for those of us ·virtual universe. that violate Newton's laws of motion. In working to understand the sea change faced At the interstellar scale, we filtered the other words, if indeed a flying saucer could by planetariums going digital. Much of the European Space Agency's Hipparchos data execute a nearly instantaneous rHTnr_::In,rrl.:> success in creating a willful suspension of set to represent some 25,000 nearby stars. For turn you can be assured that the acceleration disbelief was due to how convincingly we the rest of the stars in the Galaxy, we relied would emulsify or pulverize any alien could fly the audience into deep space. A upon a theoretical distribution of 900 mil­ we could envision. But we know from clumsy flight would have destroyed the illu­ lion stars spanning the entire Galaxy, as ing video games that computer sion of being there. theorized by Hayden astrophysicists Ron need not conform to Newton's Laws. When Drimmel, Frank Summers and Neil Tyson. we first started looking at real time simula­ Within the Galaxy, the only gaseous nebula Breaking Through The Crystalline tions of planets and galaxies in our dome, I we flew near and into was the Orion Nebula. Spheres was struck by how sensitive people are to For it, we used the popular Kitt Peak Nation­ Fundamentally, planetariums project what I call UFO moves - those motions that al Observatory image from far away and images of the astronomical world onto violated the laws of inertia. Anyone who has then used a 3D model created through great hemispherical domes. It is easy to compre­ donned a virtual reality helmet knows how effort led by the Rose Center's Carter hend the Ptolemaic universe in a traditional nauseating motion in uncontrolled Emmart, and modeled by Erik Wesselak also planetarium because with its fixed constella­ environments can be. We found two tricks of the Rose Center, working with the San tions it duplicates the celestial sphere so well. to keep viewers feeling they were still under Diego Supercomputer Center's Dave Nadeau But many of us never truly grasped 3D space Newton's sway. and Jon Genetti. Orion visualizations were in a planetarium dome until the first Evans First, we made sure the flight were based upon HST data and the astrophysical and Sutherland Digistar projectors. Many graceful and banked the wayan inertial models of the scientists who made those domes are inclined to the horizontal, but the space craft or airplane might bank. If it felt Hubble observations: Robert O'Dell and Hayden dome is traditional only in that it right, it usually was right. But we also per­ Zheng Wen while they were at Rice Univer­ has flat horizon. Because of our dome's hori­ formed a second trick that made a big differ­ sity. zontal orientation, we needed to use as ence in fooling people into think were

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian really moving. It was using our audio system. for the precision and variety of tempo crazy at warp speed. I still cannot get over We installed a large array of speakers required of deep space NASA missions that I how insufficient my book-learned cosmo­ throughout our theater. In particular, we wouldn't have had otherwise. Shifting gears logical knowledge was when confronted bolted small transducers under every seat to to head out into interstellar space also led to with a real scale model cosmos. enable us to deliver low frequencies rumbles a curious and humbling moment. and other sound effects directly to each audi­ The flight to Saturn was followed with an Gentle Spirals ence member. Overused, such audio devices accelerating sprint out of the Solar System. By this point of our show, the virtual can be annoying and fatiguing. We learned At the beginning of the move we glided out spacecraft was in second gear and trOl'u",lincr to use them judiciously, however. We rum­ in such a way that we could look back and nearly SO light years per second thr,ou$l:h see the entire Solar System shrink away slow­ bled the seats on two types of occasions, Hipparcus data set of nearby stars. Stars achieving the illusion of flying in an inertial ly. I insisted that we needed to make sure and streamed by rapidly as we hurtled towards direct our path properly for our next destina­ world: whenever we accelerated, we rumbled the Orion Nebula. At this scale the motion the seats. If a large, massive object, such as a tion, the Orion Nebula, some 1,600 light was very simple and satisfying. From now on planet loomed overhead, we rumbled to years away. Remember, we didn't want to the show would be much easier to naVigate, make audiences feel the mass of the object. make any jump cuts. So, we went through a in part because the detailed objects we We didn't need to do shake people up too tremendous amount of effort to try and would zoom into or away from could now often, because most of the time we were far direct our motion carefully for this next step be composited into the scene. But I was yet from any planet or star. in our flight. But the fact is, we didn't really to learn a surprising tactic from Carter need to. This is because it didn't matter what Emmart, our lead science visualizer and art Motes in a Cosmic Ocean direction we were moving in. When transi­ director, as he planned the subsequent flight tioning from interplanetary to interstellar As astronomers we all know intellectually path. This tactic enabled us to fly through flight, we had to increase our virtual speed of that the Universe is extremely large and complex regions like that of the Orion motion some million times simply to make empty. Astronomical objects in it are very Nebula in a way that we could perceive the it to Orion as quickly as we had traversed the small compared to the spacing between true spatial structure and scale of all its fea­ Solar System! It didn't matter how we had them. But close attention to the mathemati­ tures. Carter and Erik Wesselak had worked been moving in the past at all. When we cal concept of cosmic scale and careful read­ hard with astrophysicist Robert O'Dell of jumped to the interstellar realm, our previ­ ings of Carl Sagan's books could not prepare Rice University and programmers from SDSC ous path was but a point compared to the me for the reality of navigating a scale­ to insure that the nebula, including its stars, grand interstellar swoop we would now take. model Universe. Typically, factors of four or proplyds, ionization fronts, dust regions, and Each lower scale realm was a mote in the five orders of magnitude separate each astro­ shock waves, was accurately modeled. But it next larger realm. I kick myself that we nomical realm. I got my first glimpse of these was an alien landscape to be sure, even for didn't think of what this would be like once chasms when testing the Solar System realm astronomers like myself who have spent a we shifted gears. Our effective flying speeds of the Digital Galaxy. Leaving the Earth, the half my life gazing at the Kitt Peak of Moon flashed by in the blink of the eye. increased as quickly as the scale changes the Orion Nebula on my office wall. The real occurred. As the show production contin­ Flooring the accelerator brought Mars into 3D nebula is far more complex than any 2D ued, I now knew I was either mad or going view relatively quickly, Jupiter then loomed picture can depict, including structures at bright and only a leisurely jaunt away. But, once beyond Jupiter, driving to Saturn seemed to take forever - the outer Solar System felt like a cross country trip between small towns in the Midwest. With a traditional planetarium projector plus a few strategically located video projec­ tors, all one needs to simulate a trip across the Solar System is to cross-dissolve zooms into the planets one after another and forget about the background stars. Yet with our scale digital model making such serial dis­ solves was impossible. We had to move quickly and also see the tiny planets - a daunting challenge. The Rose Center's Carter Emmart described the planet encounters as if he was, "driving a Formula One racing car from full speed to braking so as to perform a hairpin turn around a blade of grass." To complicate matters, dashing into deep space required motion that had to be inertial too. In effect now we had to slam on the breaks and skid to allow graceful looks at the plan­ ets. Then once we had viewed the planet, we had to regain our traction and slam the accelerator to the floor to make it quickly to the next planet. I now have an appreciation

6 Planetarian Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 many scales. We needed to take it all in, but the nebulae come to life. team led by Donna Cox. But, we had to trav­ then plunge through it on our way out of el to Urbana, Illinois, to choreograph the our Milky Way galaxy. Entrances, Exits and Fly Unders flight in their CAVE (a small virtual reality Carter's solution was to not merely dive in Our continuing journey in the show still theater that holds four people comfortably) head first, but to pay special attention to held a few surprises and lessons as we blasted since our Hayden theater was not yet ready. keeping our hydra-headed digital camera deep into the Observable Universe. So far we We had chosen to use an SGI computer sys­ moving all the time. So, he outlined a careful had made a nearly impossible racing slalom tem in great part because it is the high per­ path in which our virtual flight traced a spi­ to the outer Solar System, winged our way formance simulation computer of choice for ral on the outside of a constricting cone with towards Orion, spiraled into the nebula, then scientists working in science visualization. the center of the nebula at the apex. As we lifted off out of our Galaxy. Now, we were This meant that anything that could be visu­ swooped in, we spun around as the spiral effectively accelerating in reverse, looking alized or run on an OpenGL system, like tightened and slowed. Besides simply help­ back while our Milky Way shrank away at those at NCSA, could be run in our dome. ing audiences see things in 3D without spe­ hundreds of thousands of light years per sec­ OpenGL data can now be manipulated on cial glasses, Carter used this path as a way to ond. And we continued to do it in a way that laptops so these data will soon evolve to allow us to get closer to the small features of Newton would approve of. (Einstein may much more economical computer systems. the nebula, such as the nascent solar system not have, but I'll deal with him later!) We Initially, we intended to rocket out of our HST10. Slowing up all the while, Dave were entering intergalactic space and learned Galaxy and encounter other galaxies head­ Nadeau of SDSC also suggested we continual­ quickly to keep this trajectory as simple as on as we shot far into extragalactic space. ly change our direction of flight vector with possible - ballistic, like that of manned Our first flight path tests incorporated this respect to the radial chord from the point Moon rockets. type of trajectory and it was a wild experi­ about which we were moving. At first, I Our three dimensional extragalactic data ence. We hurtled past galaxy after galaxy on feared Carter and Dave were proposing an bases were beyond what the real-time Digital our way through the Virgo Supercluster. Just unnecessarily complex flight path. But their Galaxy model could handle when we were like the planets, galaxies are tiny compared instincts turned out to be perfect. Audiences producing the show. We now have galaxy to their separation, so it's only when we got could take in all the structure of the nebula data bases we can manipulate in real time, close to them that we could see them as in this graceful gyration, feeling more like a but we couldn't at the end of 1999. So then actual disks or ellipsoids. But this move was circling hawk than a dive-bombing falcon. we turned to colleagues at NCSA and pre­ making me sick in the CAVE and really The plunge ended in the nebula's thin ion­ pared to use the galaxy data of Brent Tully. didn't help advance the theme of the show. ization front. Luckily, beyond the HII region We actually choreographed this part of the So, I decided that we should keep the path as we see from Earth looms the huge, dark show a couple of months before the Saturn simple as possible - just fall away from the Orion Molecular Cloud. We used the dark­ flight that gave me so many headaches. This Milky Way as if we were on a ballistic trajec­ ness it provided to further re-orient ourselves one didn't give us many problems because of tory at very high speed. Looking backwards, and shift into high gear. We would need to the skill, experience and tools of the NCSA the Galaxy would then gradually join larger be moving much faster to whirl out of the Milky Way. And spin again we did. By the time we left the Orion Molecular Cloud we began to accelerate until we reached a virtual speed that would exceed thousands of light years per second. Now, because we wanted to give people a bigger and bigger perspective, we would keep the theater's zenith always ori­ ented opposite our direction of motion. It was as if we were falling out of the Galaxy. But this time Carter specified a flight that was, in many ways, a reverse of our path into Orion. Now we spun outward on a trajectory that was ever widening as it accelerated. When we left the disk of the Milky Way and could view our entire galactic home, we did so in an orbit that widened and moved from one side of the galactic plane to the other. The net result was that we could truly take in the size, thickness and geometry of our home Galaxy as it receded from view. Once we were well beyond the distance of the Magellanic Clouds, the spiraling stopped and we rocketed in a straight line. Yet the lesson in the middle part of the show's journey was not one of straight lines. The 3D perceptions induced by the spiral motion cueing both gave these legs of the trip a powerful grace­ fulness and also made the complex shapes of

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 7 and larger extragalactic structures. about this with several colleagues. Yet I To still keep the flight interesting, we believe we were justified in seemingly violat­ as Earth looms into view, we decided to bring M31 and M33 onto the ing physical laws. down to a speed NASA could handle. dome from below the horizon on separate The goal of the show was a cosmographi­ audiences react intellectually sides of the theater. We cruised backwards cal one, not an attempt to teach the laws of until they saw this space show right between these two nearest spiral galax­ physics. The script always clearly stated that realize our smallness in the ies. Not only does this entrance surprise the we were exploring a virtual "map" of the the Universe. Emotionally, they often say audience into paying attention to our neigh­ Universe and not simulating actual space­ that the experience has made our bors, it also makes the galaxies appear big flight. The argument can be made that its inhabitants all the more precious. enough so people can't miss them. If we'd because of the power of the visual scenes we Of course this voyage did the same for taken a path that zoomed in on them, then nevertheless, inadvertently, cause audiences but professionally, it gave me an ~".L~',1'o~L we would have had to make sure and point to think such travel is possible. That may be, table experience of what it is like to them out when they were far away. In retro­ but I feel that helping people construct a into space which I could have only Imagllllea spect, we might have been able to achieve seamless model of the entire Universe in or dreamt about before. I first better depth cueing of the Tully atlas of their minds is worth the risk. The so called hand the enormous size scale difference galaxies if we had taken a sinuous path, but "locale memory" this show formed in peo­ between objects and distances in space. dis­ at least this way made matching this data set ple's imaginations is a rapid, powerful and covered how wired we are to terrestrial onto Ostriker's much easier. lasting way to learn. Such memories are notions of inertia. I learned how to move so Horizon-level entrances work well in our based upon a continuous experience of a that we could see and understand the ab­ dome. Falling backward past something big, location or map*. stract structures of the Universe. It was the like M31, is amazing. FI ying under large Another digital show which takes into closest thing to encompassing the Universe objects is extremel y exciting too. This account Einstein's theories of relativity in its totality I have ever known. worked well for Saturn with its large rings would be eXCiting. Digital planetarium sys­ I also realize that in many ways this may and it is also effective for the plane of the tems are geometry machines and thus ideal be a unique planetarium show for the near Galaxy. (We experimented with the latter for generating relativistic experiences. In future. The resources necessary to it move many times, but decided not to save it principle, all one would have to do is to pro­ were astronomically larger than available to for a future show.) gram in the transformations. We might then create the average space show. But this will Once away from the horizon, the Local see stars as they would really appear to a rela­ change as digital systems become more Group of galaxies shrank and converged near tivistic traveler - abberated and Doppler affordable and when real-time cOlmr;lut.lti()nS the Zenith. Picking up speed fast, we backed shifted - an interesting Sight, but difficult to can yield a realistic Universe. I away from our corner of the Universe and explain. (A challenge we will want to con­ that my lesson in cosmic sp:aC(~t1i,gtJlt could see the Virgo Super Cluster of galaxies front in the future.) In a relativistic show, help others when they take similar irll1''''''''''';: to shrink down to a tiny knot of light. It however, I'd miss the star streaming. When in future planetarium programs. then became just one intersection in the 3D the stars sail by in a digital theater, it never When I was ten years old, I received a network of superclusters that make up the fails to elicit gasps from the audience, just the small, wobbly reflecting telescope. At best it joints in the grand design of our Universe. way a stunning, static, starry sky does. I'm was good for gazing at the Moon. I could Immersed in this complex, tangled struc­ not sure I'd want to give up creating that only glimpse its stark, alien terrain because ture, the problem we had to solve now was reaction. of the unsteady mounting. But I took in as to help people see the geometry of the pat­ much of the lunar landscape as I could. I tern. When simply static, this structure is Returning Home integrated these extraterrestrial with confusing because we only see what looks Sailing back to Earth at the very end of the every library book, comic book, and science like a chaotic Jackson Pollock drip painting. show was a breeze because we were in a sim­ fiction film I knew. In the end I had a pretty The solution again was to put the flight path ulated Universe. We simply brought the the- good imaginative model of the Moon and into a sinuous curve. This caused the net­ Solar System. I flew there repeatedly in my work structure to pop into three dimensions. youthful imagination. Years later, when I * This type of memory is particularly rele­ It provided the perfect ending to the show as was in graduate school and started vant to large-scale structures displayed in it revealed in the 3D web-like superstructure at the Adler Planetarium, I also integI'at~~d planetariums. It's described in: Caine, R. N. of the Cosmos. model of the wider Universe from a and Caine, G., Making Connections: Teaching of different sources and again flew through it and the Human Brain, Addison-Wesley Pub­ in my reformed imagination. Now, with the Breaking Einstein's Speed limit lishing Company, New York, 1994. Starting show Passport to the Universe, using the new At the show's climax far out in extragalac­ on page 44 the authors discuss the subject by digital technologies at the Hayden Planetari­ tic space, we were effectively traveling far in explaing that "... everything happens to us in um, I got a chance to see how the Universe excess of the speed of light. You'd think we'd space. This is so fundamental that we over­ really fits together. I was surprised at how have been pulled over by the cosmic speed look it, and it needs to be made apparent. ... much I still had to learn and how little I cop, Professor Einstein. We were traveling at We are genetically endowed with the capaci­ could trust my imagination, no matter how a rate of about 100 million light years per ty to 'navigate' through space. We do this by hard I had worked to make it well founded. I second. This comes out to a speed of around constantly creating and testing spatial maps think that in the planetarium 3x1015 times the speed of light! (It's doubtful that give us information about our sur­ may be this process of continually rp~""'nrr any cosmic cop could have caught us.) In roundings. Maps are constructed within our imagination of the Universe and then fact, we started traveling faster than c within what [is called] the locale memory system. We trying to re-create the cosmos is what trans­ seconds of leaving the Earth. Should we have automatically form long-term memories of ports us into the future. gotten away with this? I've had some inter­ events and places without deliberately esting and sometimes heated discussions attempting to memorize them." (Please see Spaceflight on page 21)

8 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December blood was attracted causing I I I aC(:OInr>artying continuous

Wittich who visited died between 9 and 10 in the mc)ming 24th October: "A stone made to urinate and he died from a burst bladder."

laO:1;ernerlt of the prostate or another disorder of the system fonowed uremia. However, at that time it was how to insert a catheter and relieve the that way and was rather young years) to suffer from n,.r,,,+~,tir hu-n",,.-+ ... ,.,,-nhu wasn't that done? Could there be explanations of his death? After Tycho Brahe's death, rumors arose that he had been victim of a case, and since the are in accordance

This famous Danish astronomer died in Prague on the 24th of October 1601, eleven days after he had attended a banquet at the Bohemian count of Rosenberg. Tycho was too courteous to obey the calls of nature during the hour-long dinner and finally his bladder burst, which led to his death. Or so the story goes. But is this the real cause of Tycho's death? Is it at all possible to die from a burst bladder? Or are there more likely explanations of his death?

In 2001 we commemorate the 4th centenary of the death of Tycho Brahe, per­ haps the first scientist in a modern sense.

Modern scientific investigations and anal­ yses have given us new insight on the cir­ cumstances in those fateful days in Prague, October 1601. Three contemporary sources are available to diagnose Tycho's last illness. Johannes Kepler recounts in Tycho's observation log that during the banquet with plenty of food and drink, Tycho Brahe didn't want to empty his bladder and would wait until he got home; however he was un­ able to do so. After five sleepless nights he produced bloody urine, suffering great pain. Then fonowed more insomnia, fever and delirium. On the 24th October he passed away peacefully after hours of delirium ex­ claiming: "Have I not lived in vain!". Tycho's friend, the doctor Johann Jesseni­ us Jessen, states in his funeral sermon: "Then followed urine retention (lacking ability to pass urine) and great pain, by which the

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 9 with strand of hair or is not to determine the concen­ tration of a certain element but also the time motive for "",r.'" .. ,,.-.i-n,(Y since exposure to the Hair (and and religious since neither the catholic coun­ beard) will grow at a certain rate, and cil nor the nobiH ty were pleased with the lO(:atl"mr a concentration of, for exam­ influence this protestant had gained on the ple, arsenic at a place on the it weak emperor Rudolf II in can be calculated when the person was

To my knowledge this is the first time about Tycho Brahe1s accidental suicide is printed in English.

The first medical-legal was eX1Po~;ea to arsenic. made possible in 1991 when a small box (at a In Tycho Brahe's beard a Danish flag ceremony on Tycho Brahe's amount of lead to the present grave in the Teyn Church in Prague) was was found, so it can not be handed over to the newly appointed Danish excluded that died from lea.Q-IJOlSOll- the mercury was taken over a ambassador in the Czech Republic by the But more the lead content could of time. director of the Czech National Museum as a be caused the historical fact that lead fre­ In 1996 gift to the Danish government. The box con­ quently was used in kitchen ware, water tained a piece of shroud and some beard rem­ pipes and as a wine-sweetener. Also environ­ nants. A small note explained that these mental influences such as lead in the coffin items originated from the opening of may have a high concentration of lead Sweden., Tycho's grave in 1901 on the third centenary in the beard. the root nr,~c", .. u~'rl of his death, where the city authorities of The concentration of arsenic was not mercury was not from an outside source wanted to restore the sepulchral found to be high enough to have caused the ~~"",,~II'<, had been Qlg~estea. monument, and at the same time they inves­ death of Tycho Brahe. the tigated the rumour that Tycho's corpse had However, the beard contained a much eluded that been removed in 1620 when the Catholics higher concentration of mercury than nor- one took power in Bohemia. The grave was somewhat dam­ aged and it contained a male corpse, very that of Tycho Brahe since part of the nose was missing, but no bladder stone was found! In addition, a female corpse was discovered, possibly that of Tycho's wife Kristine Barbara, who outlived him by a few years. When the beard rem­ nants arrived in the director of the Ole R0mer Museum in Copen­ hagen, Claus Thykier, took bladder caused the initiative for the item's ousness, but mercury transference to the Institute own medicines that led of Forensic Medicine at uremia of which University for a possible clarification of the rumours of poisoning. Claus The leader of the institute, I, p.lS Bent Kcempe, consented to Claus such an investigation, con­ vol.l, p.12 centrating on arseniC, lead, Bent and mercury by using an kier, Naturens Verden atomic absorption spec­ votU-12, p. 425 trometer. Jan Of the 4 em long beard, 0.1233 gram were used for Fragment of Tycho Brahe~') beard. Credit,'Department of Forensic LnemZSn'v. the analysis. By using this Copenhagen University.

10 Planetarian Vol. directory. For the DOS Boot you will ial Effect C trol U have to load your mouse driver software Sp but you would not need to do it if you are running it from within windows. any PC Printer Port case you will get the screen: #4. Clicking the buttons on the GUI will Piyush Pandey & Avijit Biswas toggle their color from Green to Red and M. P. Birla Planetarium vice-versa. The color of the button (if you are using a color monitor) the 96 Jawaharlal Nehru Road off/on state of the device. Green color Kolkata 700071 means the device is off and Red color but­ India ton indicates its "on" state, but else will happen as you have not connected 91-33-2231516 phone anything to your printer port. The EXIT 91- 33-2827344 fax button switches off all the devices and clos­ es the GUI. The following screenshot [email protected] (Figure 2) shows that out of the eight, three

While reading the very informative article "Computer Control of Multiple Video Projectors" by Prof. Bert Thiel in the September 2001 issue of the Planetarian (Vol. 30, No.3), we got the inspira­ tion to share our experience about automation with the readers of the Planetarian. Under item, Special Effects, Prof. Thiel mentions a visual basic program with which he turns the special effect devices "on" or "off". Last year we developed such a programme using QBASIC 4.7. This programme works like a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and addresses a parallel printer port. You can connect as many as eight special effect devices (or for that matter any electrical gadget) to the printer port as shown in Figure 4, through appropriate interface circuitry, of course. Please take the following steps.

#1. Visit the first author's website http:// www .geocities.com/bokia and follow the link GUI Figure 1. The CUI would look like this on screen. for Control of Electrical EqUipment Using Printer Port at http://www.geocities.com/ bokia/guLhtm and download the GUI.ZIP file (43.2 kb) anywhere in your computer.

#2. Unplug your printer from the computer's par­ allel port. Unzip all the files. This operation will result in three files named:

INST ALL.BA T 65 bytes GUI.EXE 58.9 kb PP.QBF 2.78 kb

Now you run the INST ALL.BAT. This will auto­ matically create a directory GUI in your root (C:\) and copy the required files there. Otherwise, you can create the directory GUI yourself and unzip GUI.ZIP there.

#3. You can now run GULEXE by double clicking its icon from Windows itself or you can go to MS DOS Prompt (or boot your computer in DOS mode) and run GUI.EXE from the GUI Figure 2. The CUI in action with device numbers 3,5 & 8 "on".

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 11 devices, numbers 3,5 "on" at the moment.

#5. Before you 'It may be a does ..,..",+h,."" nect LEDs port as shown in you should be able to switch and "off" the GUI. Please spare cable for this .... "'·""',-,..~n

#6.

port. You need to your PC from external draw power from PC thlrOl:!2h er cable. One need not

en can be r!ir.prt:h, connected to drive other ry (take care about is usually, +5 V for TTL and + 3V to 30 V for CMOS ICs).

tec:hnicaHy with "data port one can generate 28 (256 unique) addresses and control as many Figure 3: Testing the CUI with LEDs devices, but you electronic r;,.,,..,,;1-,.,,

this, our GUI lU'ClL'au addresses and .... ,.r",.rlA~

6 computer control of the tion system and several accessory at M. P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata. However, in our the number of devices be controlled is much more than 8 72). Therefore, instead of the port, we address a PCL-225 PC add-on-card by Dynalog

(Programmable Peripheral Interface) and can control up to 144 devices (for this, the appro- port addresses have to be into the GUn. With this kind of arrangement we do not have to decode the 8255 outputs using ICs, rather, this job is done GUI itself. The article GUI for controlling devices using DYNALOG PCL-225 add-on-card http://www.geocities.com/bokia/gui225.htm describes the method and you can also download its demo version GUI225.ZIP designed to control 8 devices. On request, we can e-mail the full version (for 72 devices) to anyone in the pl,metm'iUlll munity. Happy mouse c1i(::kin2!

Figure 4. How to connect your devices

12 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December Fabien Nathan

Translation Cowles Freeman Astronomy Center and Planetarium New Orleans, Louisiana USA

The Search the French members of HOU (Hands-On Michel Blanc, Director of the Toulouse Astro­ Universe). After a pH~Sel[1tatioln physics Laboratory, former Director of the physical context by a Midi-Pyrenees Observatory program, the eX1Jerim,ent Inventory of the objects in the solar system on the planetarium dome thanks to an HOU in order to understand its structure and com­ CD-ROM. The invited teachers in middle and position, followed by the current state of high schools will be able to the research on planetary systems. experiment in their classrooms. Also, planetaria connected to the internet, observ­ ing sessions can be held via telleSOOD~2S tion. Sylvie Vauclair, Astrophysicist at Midi­ nected through the HOU network-which Pyrenees Observatory will be most for amateur astrono­ From movements on the solar surface, it is my groups. This original and attractive idea, possible to better know its interior activity. using new technologies, can reinforce the Such observations gave birth to helioseis­ collaboration between and teach­ mology, a discipline in vigorous growth. ers, and will new contacts with the dren. What Are All These Blind Museum.s and Cultural Sites: sea:rchinJ,r Peter von Ballmoos, Center for Radia- Lost Success tion Studies Marc Grodwohl, President of the Today we live in a unique moment in museum of Alsace astronomy. With the flight of space tech­ Notes by Agnes Acker: I had the chance to niques and thanks to the instrumental devel­ hear Marc Grodwohl a lecture opments during the second half of the 20th the Economic and Social Council of century, new windows on the Universe have His talk charmed us all, and

been opened: the domain of radio waves, his talk in our I'-'''''uu" radar, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and author but oelnanolmg gamma rays are-for the first time-accessi­ ble to the curiosity of astrophysicists. This of "museums summary presents several recent facets to Alsace", but it keeps the same force this new astronomy, along with instruments vancy if we enlarge the ge()graplrllc rA,.;c>,.'"T''' and discoveries in diverse wavelengths. The and if we the term museum to intention is to describe images in the invisi­ "site of scientific teaching" or "pllanetclrillm ble sky. Letter to Evgen Bavcar. The Stakes and Lim! ts

Anne-Laure Melchior, DEMIRM, Obser­ StE~ptllan.e Colsenet, Director of of vatory of Paris the Universe/Planetarium de Dunkirk The HOU project proposes a series of exercis­ Is scientific animation es with researchers for students at the sec- Reflections. level, based on astronomical images. Planetaria are the to lead the training of secondary teachers in this innovative in collaboration with

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"'Mythology, for the same group of stars. We have Shapes" Undarae Bauer (OIle1dla-~{adJsoIt1- records of the stories. Have students Herld.mer BOCES) for familiar themes (ideas) or pIe, objects, animals): Grade Level: Grades 5-12 (age 10-17 years) repeating cycles (first woman, first direction/latitude indicator (Home Cylinders: basic northern hemisphere, contrast (Place of Decision), Greek/Roman, Native American, Chinese, sons (rabbit tracks, butterflies and African/Egyptian bears, male chief - 3 stars, rabbit, 7. Change cylinder to Chinese. Note: Note: All of these cultures could be found at political system is different from the Native basically the same latitude and could see the American people and more like the same stars. Use the winter sky for this lesson Greek;Roman culture. As a result there are because it has the most similarities among cul­ more universal stories across China. tures and in this season there are more bright is used more as an almanac by this culture. stars and distinctive patterns. Before this lesson, Have students look for familiar themes students should already have a basic grounding (ideas) or shapes (people, objects, animals): 315-432-4523 fax in Greek;Roman mythology. famB y unit/ unit [email protected] Empress, Prince, Prime Minister), Procedure: Repeating cycles (Basket of 1. Have students look at the night sky and male warrior - 3 stars (Tsen), jackal), square (four towers) PIPS September 14-15, 2001: notice everything (motion, colors, shapes) 8. Change the cylinder to AfY'k21n 11F.g",rntian The two-day meeting of Powerful Inter­ 2. Explain that the ancients used informa­ Note: The political system is different active Planetarium Systems (PIPS) that was tion in the sky because they noticed a and community living units much smaller held, on Friday, September 14, and Saturday, relationship between what they saw and again in the African culture. As a result September IS, was a success despite the tragic what was happening on Earth: there are many units and each unit may events on September 11th. Several people can­ a. Direction-review how to find the have a different story for the same group of celled, so we had a small but very lively north star and label the directions on stars. We have fewer records of the stories. group for the two days. Fifteen people the dome The Egyptian culture, on the other attended. A PLATO grant from NASA provid­ b. Time-note positions of basic patterns was based more on a city-state government. ed funding for this meeting along with sup­ at different hours Have students look for familiar themes port from Learning Technologies, Inc. and c. Shapes-some of the same shapes seem (ideas) or shapes (people, objects, animals); O.CM. B.O.CE.S. significant to most cultures family unit/political unit (Osiris-male 3. Point out that each culture used story­ ure with three-star belt, Isis - The following topics were presented: telling to define certain stars or patterns opposites (male female beasts), relJeatirlg "Finding Directions" (Gr. 2), "Multi-cultur­ in the sky. These stories were used to pass cycle (wheat::::: north star, al Mythology", "Longitude, Latitude, along knowledge, signals of the changing ancestors' eyes circle), dog (jackal) Ocean Currents, and Weather" presented seasons, the history of their civilization, 9. Go back to the night sky cylinder. by Lindarae Bauer (Oneida-Madison­ and their belief system as well as to rein­ up by review of what we discovered. Herkimer BOCES); force their political system. There are many similarities across cul­ 4. Change the cylinder to the Greek/Ro­ tures. Each star pattern, though, can rep­ "Sky Wonder ... Plus ... Lives of the stars" man. Brief! y review the Greek/Roman resent many different things. The (popular basic sky show with unique stories of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cephe­ can be: sauce pan (French), ideas) ... Plus ... All about Light" (Gr. 5) pre­ us, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Pega­ (British), upside down elephant or sented by Paul Krupkinski (Ancient Eyes sus, Gemini Twins, Orion, Canis Major, (African), skunk or fire (Native Ameri­ Productions/Mobile Dome Planetarium Lepus, Hydra can), bear (Greek). Cassiopeia can be: a Buffalo); 5. Note themes present in these characters queen (Greek), first woman (Native and stories by stating some examples: American), five canoes or a fish "Observations - Patterns and Cycles", direction/latitude indicator (North Star), sians), reindeer horns (Northern Cana­ "Why Mythology?", 'Iroquois Cosmologi­ family unit (king, queen, daughter, twins, dians), hands of Fatima (Saudi Arabia). cal Stories", Susan Button (OCM BOCES). bears), compromise (twins, Perseus), re­ 10. So, patterns in the sky are named because peating cycles (circumpolar bears), oppo­ they mean something significant to the We also discussed; "What's New at Learn­ sites (twins), gods interfere with lives of particular culture. The shepherd, farmer ing Technologies, Inc." (Sunspotter, Lewis humans (Orion - three stars, Cassiopeia), or sailor watched the sky each and and Clark Cylinder); Commercial Pro­ political unit (king, queen, princess), signs night and noticed everything grams Available for Starlab; the Inter­ of the season (Aquarius, square of brightness, times of rising and national Planetarium Society's Portable Pegasus) relationships to the seasonal changes and Planetarium Guide. 6. Change the cylinder to Native American tasks that needed to be performed) and Indian. Note: The political system is differ­ stories were passed on from one genera­ I include below the notes I took from Lin­ ent and community living units much tion to the next. This was a means of darae's workshop, "Multi-cultural Myth­ smaller. As a result there are many tribes passing along information and instruc­ ology." and each tribe may have a different story tions for seasonal activities as wen as

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 17 their beliefs. Sometimes the stories Krupinski's Starlab. Look for more informa­ 'Hl.l1<",'H,", about all the consequences included explanations of natural events tion in this column as details are finalized. yes." and fostered respect for the political sys­ Think about planning a meeting at your This is very news, even tem and ancestors. And, there are many location. Call or write if you would like be difficult to transport the Starlab! similarities across the cultures. in planning a one- or two-day mini-confer­ there, in South Africa, as write this! 11. We could make our own constellations ence for small and portable planetarians in had to the Southern and write stories that show significant your area. It is wen worth the minimal effort. relationships between our constellations learn the Southern and what is happening on Earth, in and She continued to write, "I will also nature and in our culture, today. Are we opportunity to ask you whatever t:lVlnt:l ..."t:lrlrt:l still concerned with some of the same you have from the southern Marie Radbo of Stockholm, Sweden wrote things as the ancients? have star charts which I can to share the good news. She wrote:" ... you for the southern know that I have teachers working for me isphere? my main task is PIPS 2002: with my planetarium (Starlab). Just imagine, work with the Starlab and the starry The next meeting will be held in June. I have had it for 19 years. Now I have got an while South Africa, I do aPlJre1cia'te Mark your calendar now! On June 14-15, invitation from South Africa and in one whatever you can share with me or if 2002 we plan to meet at the Maryvale Plane­ month I will go there. I will travel aU over know else to turn to. tarium in Buffalo, New York. Kathy Michaels the country giving public lectures and work­ ing, for breakfast, I talked to my h11,~h::1lnrl will host this second two-day PIPS meeting. shops and as you understand I feel very hon­ about my and then he to Workshops will be held under her 20' sta­ ored. I have also been asked to bring my find out for himself what it will look like tionary dome, with a Spitz Nova, and in Paul Starlab and - I must admit - without really

Cut out the two wheels below by cutting all around the edges. Place the black wheel on top of the other wheel and at the center with paper fastener. The paper fastener represents the position in the sky that is directly out in space from the South Pole of Earth. There is no in that position that we can see in the sky without a telescope! Hold your outer wheel so that the current month is at the top. As you turn inner wheel to different times, notice what happens to the positions of the star patterns.

Activities: 1. When you go outside you can observe where the star patterns are in the sky. Using your star wheel in the same way (holding it so that the current month is at the top), dial the stars to pOSition them as they appear in the sky and you can tell the time without a watch - the ancients did! 2. While indoors, dial up the time for the sky tonight and notice the positions of the stars. Make a prediction about where you should look the real sky to find the Southern Cross at your house tonight. Go outside and see if it is there!

18 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December Cape Town and I have not managed to con­ hands on your shoulders, hands on your sonal constellation. vince him about the directions yet. We real­ hips, hands on your lips. Now I am their name on one axis ly take it for granted that it should be like it to play some music and your job is to be the other axis. (handout) is at home, don't we. I tried to use one of my an observer." Also, praising children that tennis balls but it does not seem that I man­ are following directions helps others to Curtis Spivey: aged. And I also find that I myself have to start listening. Recommended GEMS think twice not to think in a 'northern' • Velcro horizon on Starlab: useful for use for pre and post way." teaching horizon astronomy. Lets chil­ other ideas. I searched the web and found two plani­ dren figure out directions through obser­ sphere makers for Marie. I have seen both of vation and discussion, then have them Jack: these dealers at conferences. Southern Sky place cardinal direction signs on the dome Planispheres: http://www.walrecht.nlland once everyone agrees. http://www.astromax.com/chandler/night­ II Point to North (after finding it - using the sky.htm Big Dipper pOinter stars to the North Star) inch, one mile is one I also found some Australian sites. Interest­ then turn right to each next direction say­ scale, the nearest star is 4.5 miles away. ing info but not updated to the spring! http ing "Never Eat Soggy Worms": memory 011 If you use carpet squares, :/ /minyos.its.rmit.edu.aure21092/ / trick to remember order of directions. group take them out with them. ssky.htm and http://cidw.rmit.edu.au II Paper plate astrolabe - designed by Chuck r e21092/ssky.htm Beuter. It has flaps on the top edge to make I sent her the simple southern star wheel it easier to site correctly. below; it is not too pretty, but it is function­ " Use X signs to make guesses on the Velcro al! See the box on the previous page. horizon. Students just place a marker on Bob 1-I""1Al"".,rl· To contact her and find out how she en­ the dome to show predictions such as Shared his sound system joyed her trip, write: Marie Radbo (Astrono­ where the sun will set or rise. machine. It is and mer and Assistant Professor, Experimental s Put paper under side lamps to reflect the in a Starlab dome. (hand out) Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, lamps' light; this increases the overall • Aim up in dome and SE-412 96 GOTEBORG, Sweden Tel: +46 31 dome lighting. will be better. 772 31 40i Fax. +46 31 81 20 89;Email: radbo • Cut the bottom off of a popcorn can or an @fy.chalmers.se Homepage: http://fy oatmeal box. On the other end cut a hole, Don: .chalmers.serradbo/) leaving a half inch ledge. Slide can over Uses clear the Starlab bulb and housing. This makes a Christmas ornaments) and lets

n'1\IC..... t"·::.n in Italy Contest: platform for holding a plastic cup upside dents draw reference lines for down over the light. On the inside of the Remember, don't delay, this is your * Another scale was cup students can draw a design which can chance to travel. This is a golden opportuni­ sun down to the size of a then be projected on the dome. This is ty; don't let it pass you by! Applications for another idea from Chuck Beuter. In that scale, one year 2002 are due March 15 th! If you are not miles. The nearest star would be American, think of a country you'd like to Sharon Mendonsa shared: away. go to and see if you can partner with a plane­ tarium there and with the manufacturer of • How to make an inexpensive cover with holes to match the buttons on your planetarium! Maybe you can expand this networking. See the announcement on the cylinder. This is used to do activities the this year about the sun and day and It blocks the following page. about and demonstrated some all the stars, except the sun, in the for the time. Make a template of the and Portable cut out the holes. Add Velcro to the edges HH""' .. ." ...... ,.,...... 2001: of the cover to attach it around the Sharon Mendonsa (Sudekum Planetarium, der and make it removable for m~;httmle Cumberland Science Museum) and I decided stars. to join forces this year to conduct a work­ • A prototype lighting system that allows shop at the SEPA/GLPA Conference. This students to see the stars and see star charts workshop was designed to provide a forum or other materials at the same time. responses Susan received so far, for sharing ideas, programs, activities, tools, • A moon phases book made from paper H .... JlH.llH'" response (120 out of 211) and resources that would be useful to others plates and also a constellation cup. teachers was that the in the small dome/portable planetarium observation skills and field. It was also the perfect opportunity for April Whitt: problem-solving with a group of profession­ • Lets children make noise when they first als that have faced the same challenges. get in Starlab, just to get used to the envi­ Here are some notes from Sharon about ronment. She sends the teacher in first and focus on "what nl"'nQi~"'r. what happened at that workshop: operates the door herself, letting 2 chil­ listed activities and concepts dren in at a time. this. For instance, activities Starlab and Small Dome Shar-A-Thon .. Pre and post visit activity "Personal involve the horizon as events Susan Button: Constellation" - students are given a grid and also using it as a way for sttw~~nt:s «I Shared a quieting technique she uses. She with x and y axis to design their own per- mark Paul and Susan both says to students, "Hands on you head,

Vol. No.4, December 2001 Planetarian a Velcro horizon on their Starlab wall and voltage regulator under his dome and after serve humanity and Earth. use various markers that can be "stuck" to it. the last student finds his or her seat, he I'd like to share a little Paul also has applied a Velcro celestial merid­ immediately dials a desired pressure - it takes that was expressed by a local ir"n11A;" ian to his dome and has students use it for about a second! His regulator is called The ultimate goal to strive for! measuring altitude. We also, however, look­ "Powerstat" by the Superior Electric Com­ ed at some of Paul's special projectors and pany, Bristol Connecticut, USA. We are instructed to carry love for discussed their effectiveness when used spar­ So, all in all, we looked at the unique char­ another, ingly. acteristics of a planetarium, teaching tech­ And to show great respect for all of The two cylinders highlighted this year niques, useful hardware and got recharged the earth. were the "Galactic Cylinder" and the "Lewis with new ideas for another year! We must stand together, the four sacred and Clark Celestial Navigation Cylinder." orsofman, Susan described how she uses the Milky Way In Closing: as the one family that we are, projection on the galactic cylinder to kick Peace and Justice go hand in hand. I am in the interest of peace .... off a lesson on "Deep Space." Steve Berr proud of the cooperation many nations of Our energy is the combined will of all demonstrated the newest cylinder, "Lewis the world have shown thus far. I hope that people and Clark," by showing how Lewis and Clark justice can be served and we can have peace With the spirit of the natural world, used dead reckoning and celestial navigation someday soon. All peoples will have a big job To be of one body, one heart, and one mind. to find their location. of maintaining that peace and guarding Paul demonstrated how he controls the against those with an agenda that does not Chief Leon Shenandoah fan speed from inside his dome. He uses a

operating in the whole world and in your this reason we inform you that the pro­ 2002 Day of Planetaria country (see IPS Directory), the existence posed date for next "2003 is March of the International Planetarium Society 16th. Press Release and the name and reference of your Regional or National planetarium Associa­ In this way we can create a permanent tion. It could be also interesting to expose link between your site and "WWw On March 17th, 2002, the next issue of the in your planetarium some copies of IPS .cityline.it". Communicate to the webmas­ Day of Planetaria, that has been organized publications, Planetarian magazine and ter of our Internet site your Web address. since 1995, will take place. journals edited by other planetarium asso­ The aim of this initiative is that of pro­ ciations. Programs could be also collected in each moting the knowledge and the diffusion of country by "Day of Planetaria" collabora­ planetaria. 4) The entrance is free in some planetaria tors. In Slovakia, for example, the These are our suggestions for the plane­ during the "Day". grams are collected by Patricia LH;V",H"U. taria accepting the proposal of collaboration for the Day of Planetaria of March 17th, 5) For such an occasion exchanges and twin­ 9) "Day of Planetaria" also offer the idea of an 2002: ships between planetaria of Eastern and astronomical children's drawing exhibi­ Western, Northern and Southern coun­ tion on-line in particular to 1) During this "Day" the planetaria offer their tries, in particular with planetaria of not that collect children drawings. We ordinary program or organize special developed countries, are promoted. lecting on the Internet events freely, such as lessons, shows, exhi­ .it/cult/ZANI/disegnLhtm) the best draw­ bitions, practical sky viewing and so on. 6) We are inviting all planetaria, not only the ings about two national astronomical con­ Obviously in the monthly, weekly or European ones, to take part and to support tests and about the teaching activities daily program we suggest to indicate that the "Day", for example by celebrating a with the students. We suggest that "March 17th, 2002" is the annual "Day of planetarium recurrence (anniversaries of taria send us a copy of one of their best Planetaria" that is celebrated in different planetarium buildings, or openings, or drawings collected in the last years or countries. Join in the celebration of the past directors and lecturers and so on). select the best drawings among the "Day;" it does not take big efforts; tarium young visitors of these last 7) The initiative provides a good chance of months. The best way is to publish these 2) In the leaflet that describes your planetari­ diffusing the knowledge of planetaria to drawings in your Web site and to commu­ um program or in a special leaflet printed the large public. The simultaneity in dif­ nicate to us your Internet address. This for the "Day" planetaria, you are invited to ferent cities draws mass media attention exhibition on-line will become the reproduce the logo of the "Day of Plane­ to this event. Obviously each planetarium "junior" section of "Day of Planetaria" in­ taria" selected after an international con­ is invited to indicate in the "press releases" creased each year by new contributions. test in 1997 (available on the Internet at: that March 17th, 2002 is the "Day of Plan­ http://www.cityline.it/cult/Grup sci! etaria". We hope that in the future also other planeta.html, or simply opening the sci­ countries join in this initiative. For further ence pages on the Internet ''http://www 8) The programs of the "Day" sent to Italian information or suggestions you can contact .cityline.it"). Planetaria's Friends Association will be us at: Associazione Amici dei Planetari, c/o also available in the Internet site Centro Studi e Ricerche Serafino Zani, via 3) If you decide to print a special leaflet for .. www.cityline.it .. (pages of "Science"). We Bosca 24, 25066 Lumezzane fax your public we suggest you mention suggest that you create a permanent space 30/872545, e-mail: info@serafinozanUt. briefly the total number of the planetaria in your Web site devoted to the "Day." For

20 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December 2001 (Abstracts, continued from page 13) APLF 2000: Excursion to the Pic du Midi Observatory Astronomy events in 2001. Bruno Daversin, Director of Ludiver Olivier Gadal, Cite de l'Espace The passage to the third millennium also Discovery of new tourist installations. marks the end of the first year of operation Jean-Yves Marchal, Strasbourg Planetarium of Ludiver. Report of activities. IPS 2000 at Montreal: A Lively Success The title of Stanley Kubrick's celebrated film Pierre Lacombe, Director of the Montreal could be applied to space news this year, Modernization of the Lucerne Planetarium Planetarium first of the third millennium. Many of these Daniel Schlup, Lucerne Planetarium After London in 1998, the international events will be rich, so rich that it is sufficient After more than three decades of activity, meet to describe the ones. We shall the planetarium in the Swiss Transport ing of the IPS was held in Montreal in 2000- forget to say one last goodbye to the Mir Museum is undergoing a facelift and an up­ the first time that such a meeting has been space station, which, aft~r fifteen years of date to its equipment to enter into the 21st held in a French-speaking planetarium. The good and loyal service, was deorbited century. A visit to the work site. meeting was the site of many exchanges March 2001 to burn up in the atro.os;pnere between 350 planetarians from six conti­ and leave some estimated 40 tons to The Functioning of a Small Planetarium nents to highlight technological advances into the ocean. Michel Verdenet, Planetarium of Bourbon and to share experiences through communi­ Laney cation and diverse thematic workshops. The Library of the Stars Or, how to program a session. participants decided to hold the IPS 2002 Philippe Dagneux, Science writer meeting in Morelia, Mexico. Panorama of recent books. Diverse Planetarium News News from various facilities. Conference in Sri Lanka The Sky on the CoInptlter Information on the Sri Lanka conference. Philippe Dagneux, Science writer General Assembly of the APLF, Toulouse, News on new software. Cit~ de l'Espace, May 2000 Louisiana News Gilles Roussel, Director of the Nantes Plan­ News from the Lafayette Planetarium. The Planetarium Gazette etarium News on planetaria, meetings, and shows. Information on the general meeting of the Planetaria across the world Association of French-Speaking Planetaria Statistics on the number of planetaria world­ The Planetarium Ob~f/'ab::>rv (APLF). wide. Statistical information about visitation. The 2000 APLF Colloquium at the Cit~ de A Planetarium in Algiers l'Espace, Toulouse, 6 and 7 May Information about the planetarium in Olivier Gadal and Marc Moutin, Cite de Algiers currently under construction. List of sources, organizations, eqll1ip1rnlmt }'Espace manufacturers and providers, etc., for the The 15th colloquium of the APLF ran from Tinkering with the Stars planetarian. the 6th through the 8th of May at the plane­ Loris Ramponi, President, Association of tarium at the Cite de l'Espace in Toulouse. Italian Planetaria With a program full of meetings, diverse Pedagogic laboratories in astronomy with Directory of internet sites and e-mail address­ events, and cultural and scientific outings, common and recyclable materials. Proposed es of planetaria. the 2000 colloquium was the occasion of experiments before the lesson in the dome. meeting, discovery, and the exchange of 2001 Planetarium Shows ideas. Notes on shows running at various facilities.

(Spaceflight continued from page 8) (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. Since Observatory. Rendering, flight and ours was a ground-breaking use of a large choreography of the extragalactic scenes Onyx computer in a planetarium, we bene­ relied upon the tremendous talents and Acknowledgements: fited from extraordinary support at all levels ance of Donna Cox, Robert Patterson and Flying deep into the Universe during the from Silicon GraphiCS. Visualizations of the Stuart Levi of NCSA. The AMNH making of the space show Passport to the Orion Nebula would have been impossible and navigational crew" was led Carter Universe reqUired significant support and without the HST data and assistance of C. R. Emmart, Josh Mingus and Erik Wesselak. many talented people. For the specific work O'Dell of Rice University and Zheng Wen of Thomas Kraupe and Julio Marrero consis­ described in this paper I would like to thank Columbia University. Rendering and flight tently helped us get back on our feet during NASA for its generous support of the Digital paths through Orion required the patient this process as they had done throughout the Galaxy Project, led by Neil Tyson and Dennis oversight and efforts of Jon Genetti and design of the new Hayden Planetarium. And Davidson with significant scientific gUid­ Dave Nadeau of SDSC. Extragalactic travel the overall decision making on how best to ance from astrophysicists Frank Summers, would have been in empty space without achieve our story and production goals and Ron Drimmel, Charles Liu and Brian Abbot. the data sets courtesy of R. Brent Tully of the keep from getting lost was ably under con­ The heavy-lift visuals of the show were a University of Hawaii and]. Ostriker of trol by astrophYSicist Steven Soter of the result of our partnerships with the San Diego Princeton University. Fleshing out the Digi­ Hayden Planetarium, his co-writer Anne Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the Univer­ tal Galaxy required a variety of images from Druyan, along with our producer Robin sity of California, San Diego, and the Nation­ Kitt Peak National Observatory and some Silvestri of Batwin+Robin Productions. * al Center for Supercomputing Applications from David Malin of the Anglo-Australian

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian any other day. The sky was dear and blue. The air still. Fall was approaching. My biggest This .VUlA .. 'L,u problem seemed to be resolving the location of the 2002 conference. I was to work listening to National Public Radio when I heard vague reports of an accident in some Cllitllll~t::j New York where people thought a plane had ,U'",uU".u. One of the reasons struck one of the World Trade Center towers. financial. Methods of printing Minutes later it was dear that something of over the past tragic proportions was taking place. A second made the plane had struck the second building. This was no accident. Our world came to a screeching hal t. Since that awful, tragic day, each of us has shared the emotion and had to carryon with mratcl iffe@explorat cess is necessary. our lives with some sense of meaning. The pOltenHal Since my last message to you, much has Certainly for a week or so planning for a con­ changed I am writing this in early October, ference seemed pretty inSignificant. How do and although you will not read this until you deal with the epitome of evil? The January, the words are no less pertinent, to answer came soon. Quickly a determined medium that we represent. I have be sure. The changes began as I was working resolve grew out of the tragedy. ImpfE~SSe~a with some of the .... u,... u,... '-_, on details of the 2002 IPS conference. On around the world emailed messages of sup­ August 20 I received the news that the port and friendship. International relations Executive Council that governs the Morelia took on a new and more important convention center where our IPS 2002 con­ cance. ference was to be held had cancelled the con­ Five weeks following the tragedy in New ference due in large part to political and York the IPS Officers and Council were to financial reasons. No need to go into details, meet at our annual planning meeting, at the but it is fair to say that Gabriel Munoz, our Vatican Observatory in Italy. As I write this colleague from Morelia, was stunned by message I am traveling to chair the Council those events as much as I was, and certainly meeting, as are nearly two dozen of our col­ will to everyone. actions far from his controlled to the cancel­ leagues. (In the last issue I said I would bring As a result, I'd like to ask for your lation. you the results of the meeting, but the dead­ into these The is This is the first time in the history of IPS line for this issue falls on the date of the nal, and this is the time for you to that such an event had occurred. A large Council meeting, so that will have to wait sug:gestic)fls and comments. What amount of work, phone calls and decisions until next time). It will be good to see our format and would you .... ~ .. J,'U.,_. were made during the few days following group together, an international group with Jot down su~:gestH)ns August 20. I want to thank every officer and like minds. The significance of our mE~etiinQ" me an email with your ideas. member of council for working so hard and at such a time of international crisis seemed so quickly to resolve the issue of a confer­ an the more important. Traveling from all ence site. I would also like to thank Past corners of the world, 22 colleagues Presidents Dale Smith, Thomas Kraupe, and together for the betterment of our There are many conferences James Manning for assisting with the process. and representing planetarians from across where it would be beneficial to the Two of the current officers, Shawn Laatsch the world. Our SOCiety, bonded by a com­ to have some visible rel=)re~;;enlta1:ioJt1. and myself, stepped up to offer host sites, and mon love of the universe, peopled indi­ links between the education offices as such could not be involved in the selec­ viduals of every religion, color and race, '''",.H.-'''''''' NASA centers are wen tion process. The three Past President's were takes on a deeper meaning at times like thr'ouJrh the work of a number of individu- kind enough to work through the selection these. Each of us realized how important it is als, and the is just right for a at the American Astronomical the Division of Planetary Sciences of the AAS, and at ASTC. Christine from the Dorrance Planetarium i.n Arizona, U.S.A. is ideas to have process and provided crucial service to IPS in that we accept and embrace each other's cul­ IPS booth at some of these conferences. The order to bring a decision as fast as possible ture and without fear but with understand­ idea is that volunteers from various , .... u·,,"";... under the circumstances. As most of you ing. How important it is to see our world as a IPS groups could host such booths and already know by now, I am pleased to offer tiny planet with one leading reach­ promote the work of across the the services of Exploration Place in Wichita, ing out for the stars. We planetarians see our world. If you think you can Kansas to host the IPS 2002 conference. More planet from this different perspective. We portant aspect of our communication of this later. have a vital role to teach this perspective to outside world During the detailed planning and prepara­ future generations, made ever so more myself. The tion for the vote on the conference site, the important after the events of September 11, IPS and date of September 11, 2001, rolled around on 2001. (Please see Presiden-rs the calendar. A normal just like

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the show doctor 61 dewey avenue st. louis, rna 63116 Innovative Concepts in Multi-Media 314. 3.33 To help educators use its print and elec­ leaders visiting a tronic tools to improve student learning in Great Lakes these areas, Project 2061 offers an array of professional development programs that can E be customized to suit the specific needs of schools and school districts. For more infor­ mation about these professional develop­ ment programs call 1-888-PDP-2061, or visit Kathy Michaels their web site at www.project2061.org. Books discussed here can be purchased through the Dan is also on TP'\,i"inO" Maryvale Middle School Oxford University Press. booklet on keeping your pl(mE~tal~iUlm Planetarium Project 2061 has produced a series of books when challenged with designed to gUide educators in improving would like anyone who has eXI)eri.en(:ed 1050 Maryvale Drive education in science for all students. Today ers, budget cuts or closing threats to Cheektowaga, New York we'd like to highlight its landmark publica­ one-page summary of te(:ml1(1U€~S 14225 tions, Science for All Americans, and Bench­ saving their facilities. Email him marks for Science Literacy, which have address found at the GLPA web site. [email protected] sparked national and local discussions about For the past several years, Chuck what students should learn. has been gathering useful paper Science for All Americans (SFAA) identifies omy activities. His project led to COlnpletl.on Francine Jackson what everyone should know about the sci­ of a wonderful videotape, which hig~hlilghts University of Rhode Island ence endeavor: how it operates, what its several of the best projects. Chuck strengths and limitations are, and what it has time paper plate guru, Wayne James/ present­ Planetarium to do with our lives and our future. Its bold ed a workshop at the GLPA/SEPA meetHlg P.O. Box 353 recommendations for education reform this past June. This tape is available to aU, downplay traditional subject categories, contacting Mitch Luman, at the Providence, Rhode Island highlighting instead the connections web site. Or see Paper Plate Education at 02901 between them. It also emphasizes under­ http://analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate. [email protected] standing important ideas and thinking skills Gene Zajak is almost finished a TIPS book­ over memorizing specialized vocabulary. In let on music in the planetarium. It mentions short, SFAA shows that science literacy has to astronomy-related songs and music that All of us, whether in the classroom or do with the quality, coherence, and utility of useful in a variety of planetarium situations. museum setting, must be aware of changes our knowledge rather than the sheer quanti­ Gene hopes to finish it and have it in school curriculaj however, it sometimes ty of isolated bits of information we have by the end of the year. appears there are more organizations coming acqUired. Bob Bonadurer and Dave DeRemer up with more interpretations of standards Created in close consultation with a cross received a NASA grant to write a that it can be daunting to try to keep up section of American teachers, education caned "Stargazer." The show is im;piI'ed with them all. Our best bet is to stay with the researchers and scientists, Benchmarks for the professional life of of minois standards developed by organizations with a Science Literacy (Benchmarks) provides guide­ Professor James Kaler. Dr. Kaler's fascination reputation for quality. And, quite possibly, lines for what all students should know and with astronomy from boyhood to adult when looking for Science, Math and Tech­ be able to do in science, mathematics and provide the framework to create a plametari­ nology curricula, our best bet is that of the technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and urn program which teaches about stars. American Association for the Advancement 12. It is not a proposed curriculum, or a plan GLPA's first program, of Science (AAAS). for one, but a tool for educators to use as Magical Sky," was presented at the GLPA/ Founded in 1848, the AAAS has continual­ they design curricula that fit their students' SEP A meeting last summer. Show D(J('IOlllf'S ly worked to advance science by promoting needs and meet the goals previously out­ are available for $100 by co:ntalcting communication and cooperation between lined in SFAA. Luman. scientists, fostering better science education, However, there are advocates of science, Internationally, Marie Radbo and enhancing the public understanding mathematics and technology education .chalmers.se) writes that she has received an and appreciation of science in human reform who have claimed that the content invitation from South Africa to share progress. Considered one of the leading scien­ of the curriculum is not appropriate for the experiences of science communication. This tific societies in the world, the AAAS in­ modern world, that it has become over­ will include her use of the Starlab. Marie's cludes over 143,000 individual members and stuffed with poorly coordinated topiCS, leav­ report will appear in the next Education nearly 300 affiliated scientific, engineering ing students with too little time for learning Focus; in the meantime, see Mobile News and mathematical societies and academies of any of them well. Next time we will address Network earlier in this issue. science. these criticisms. Their Project 2061, founded in 1985, is Our regional education highlight comes helping to foster a society in America that is from Dave DeRemer, Chair of the Great literate in science, mathematics and technol­ Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) Edu­ ogy. The project is developing a coordinated About three dozen educators were cation Committee: GLPA Past President Dan set of reform tools and services - books, CD­ leged to spend a week in Sri Lanka Francetic has prepared an educational survey ROMs, on-line resources and workshops - to March, 2001. The summary for planetarians. For over a year, the survey help educators improve K-12 education for experience is from a poster session has been distributed to teachers and group all students. the GLPA/SEPA Conference by

24 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December of Fernbank Science Center in Kentucky, conference in Sri Lanka was perhaps one of offered ideas about June 2001 : the best I've attended. In large part this was gin of craters, while Dale Smith rernHloe:o Thirty five delegates from around the world because of the opportunity we had to get to delegates of IPS Educational 'V-'r,,,.-.f-''': gathered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in March know each other and the people of Sri Lanka. our eyes on the 2001. From tourist sites to the incredible stu­ The children were the most inspiring. Their A colorful cultural program dents and teachers, each of us came away enthusiasm, gratitude, respect, and above aU and dancers, and a delicious baJrlqlllet richer in spirit. We met Sir Arthur writer of their abounding desire to learn, brought ed out the D.n,,,nin

towards the children. It was an atmosphere Jan Sifner detailed the STARVID teCnn()lO~~y the destruction that occurred in ,-,,,,!J"._HAU'-' of encouragement and reward. For instance, I used in the Prague Planetarium in the Czech of 2001 in the United States, he released think of the presentation of certificates to Republic. statement, which was on the the children that had completed the plane­ And the school children enchanted us NASA Chief Historian tarium course on astronomy, and the cere­ with singing and cultural dances. Delegates Clarke's words, which addressed the disaster, monial and congratulatory atmosphere that were invited to present prizes to the winners are words of that all of us should accompanied it. No wonder the children of student astronomy project competitions member, even our darkest times. were so enthusiastic, and receptive to what after lunch. they remain a part of our lives: "Uke we could offer them. It is a lesson all other The last of the paper sessions was held at the world, I watched with horror and countries should learn." the conference Hotel Lanka Oberoi. The lief the unfolding events of Black Italy's Dr. Ron Drimmel reported on build­ Space Museum sent astronomy local networks gave BBC and CNN rr.~,p!f""(U:' ing a digital galaxy, a project to aid how we teaching packages that were described by for hours. see the sky. He offered the following com­ Chee-kuen Yip and Karen Sit. ment: "I think I can honestly say that the From Chennai, India, Professor P. Devadas (Please see Education

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian

"Making a Red Planet.' Included are very sim­ argument more than a tJilllH_'C)VIJ"LI ....

Vol. No.4, December 2001 Planetarian the debate is given from first-hand experi­ The Storytelling Star: Tales of the the distance scale. ence. The weight of evidence gathered since Sun, Moon and Stars, by James Hirshfeld tells the reader immE~i,ltejy 1995 has finally brought the two camps Riordan, Pavilion Books Limit­ "there is no way to determine the distance together at an age of a little over thirteen bil­ ed, London House, Great East- a star by casual of the lion years. This figure fits nicely with what ern Wharf, Parkgate Road, Lon­ Star brightness alone does not we know of the ages of the oldest stars and don SWll 4NQ UK, ISBN method for determining distances. "A our theories of galactic evolution. 1862052026, hardcover, UK Iy bright star might be a moderate The Birth of Time is written for laymen pounds12.99. emitter sitting on our solar o;:"~:tptn'o;: d04::>rs'tep with some understanding of astronomy, and - or it might be a luminous "sulpergiant" would make a good gift for a student or a Reviewed byApril Whitt, Fernbank Science parked halfway across the Galaxy." planetarium presenter. Center, Altanta, Georgia. "Parallax is the glorious, The cover of this delightful volume de­ readable story of wha Starry Tales, by Geraldine Mc­ picts stars falling into the upraised hands of Caughrean, Simon & Schuster, children allover the world. Each star brings a might have turned out to 1230 Avenue of the Americas, story for (as the first tale in the book, a an entirely hopeless quest." New York, NY 10020, USA, Seneca story describes) IIStories are like the 2001, ISBN 0689830157 (hard- stars in the sky; they are countless and last cover), U5$21.00. for time out of mind." liThe pathway to the stars is rooted in Here are nine stories, mostly of the cre­ everyday phenomena called Reviewed by April Whitt, Fernbank Science ation type: the Maori "Making of Heaven Parallax is the apparent shift in an Center, Altartta, Georgia. and Earth," the Inca "Birth of the Stars," and position, when viewed alternately from dif­ the Aztec "Girl Who Became the Sun." The ferent vantage points." While the ancients I'm always looking for folk tales and sto­ Perseus and Andromeda story is told with a had some success in measuring a dis­ ries about constellations and the sky. We use different twist, and the Norse "Little Master tance to the Moon, when it came to the them in planetarium programs, classes and Thief" is a Pleiades tale. The illustrations and more distant objects, "they were camps. Stories are a powerful way to impart page borders are lovely, and this book has a defeated." knowledge and a sure-fire way to hold stu­ list of sources - important if you're tracing a Parallax is divided into three parts. The dents' attention. story for a program. I would add this book to first chronicles efforts to prove the stars The fifteen stories collected in Starry Tales a list of resources for teachers and planetar­ might exhibit a year! y "wobble." If the Earth are beautifully written, lyrically illustrated, ians anywhere. takes one year to circle the Sun, one to and full of sly humor. And they come from be able to measure star positions every allover the Earth. The familiar Greek myths "Stories are like the stars in mon ths (when the Earth is on the oP1P05;ite of Orion and Taurus, of Ophiuchus (Aescu­ side of the Sun). Once that was lapius) and Scorpius are here. The Weaving the sky; they are countless plished, the hunt for stellar I-' ... 'L .... AJ' ...... Princess story from China may be known to and last for time out of the laying out of the cosmic third dimension many. I had never heard "Starbright, Star­ mind." - could begin in earnest". sprite" from the Pawnee culture, liThe Cocka­ Of course, given that the stars are much too and the White Gum Tree" from Austra­ more distant than one might have ...... '...... , lia, the "Many Colored Llama" story from such parallax is very tiny indeed. No instru­ Peru, or "The Giant Who Stole the Sun" from ments existed in antiquity that could Afghanistan. There is a bit of background Parallax: The Race to Measure to measure such miniscule shifts. about each story at the end of the book. My .,:.' 1 the Cosmos, Alan W. Hirshfeld, attempts to make them (and introduce a only disappointment with this volume is '" W.H. Freeman and Company, "heliocentric" solar system in which Earth that there are no sources listed. rt...." 41 Madison Avenue E26th 35th goes around the Sun) were entirely doomed. This is a book you'll want in your plane­ Floor, New York, NY 10010, Doomed also were most attempts to get tarium library for inspiration. 2001, ISBN 0-7167-3711-6, away from an Earth-centered universe. US$23.95. The first part provides an excellent of early thoughts about the universe, "The fifteen stories collected Reviewed by Richard Dreiser, Yerkes Obser­ ning with that of the ancient Greeks, in Starry Tales are beautiful­ vatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA. with a fine explanation of parallax ly written, lyrically illustrat­ whether in surveying or in measuring mind­ Visitors to an observatory or planetarium numbing distances to stars. ed, and full of sly humor. And are told that stars are spheres of gas undergo­ The second part of Parallax chronicles the they come from all over the ing nuclear fusion. Stars are like the Sun, but efforts of astronomers to measure this Earth." located much farther away from Earth than extremely tiny shift. Several of the Sun. OccaSionally, someone will ask how astronomers rashly supposed parallax mea­ we can pOSSibly know. The answer of course surements could be made accurately and is parallax. Although by no means an easy quickly. Astronomers knew what to look measurement, it is the most basic method in theory, but lacked good and there is. All other methods, at least for the did not understand how difficult, time-con­ closest stars, are based on parallax. Without suming, and vast the undertaking would be. it, we would only have a vague concept of Part two covers the development of lenses.

28 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December The first known depiction of spectacles dates in the midst of our tascmlatlng from a fresco painting dated 1352. Obvious­ "Once again. Kaler has put ic world, poets and poetry can ly, lenses were understood and manufac­ together a very reada ble. things out, help us find m~~anin~[ful nersnec­ tured before then. Galileo fine-tuned a tele­ fascinating astronomy tive, help us fathom so much that scope and made it astronomical; by the late unfathomable. 1700s, astronomers had built at least one rel­ book." Verse and Universe is an excellent collec­ atively crude but giant reflector. tion of contemporary poetry about The third part of Parallax explains how and COBE results, and does this an in a his­ and mathematics edited by the poet astronomers were finally able to begin mak­ torical context. Brown and written American poets work­ ing meaningful parallax measurements, fol­ Then there's the great value spectroscopy ing in the second half of the 20th century. lowing the introduction of fine telescopes plays in telling us about the Universe. We The book is written by serious and more-precise measuring devices, in the can teU at a mere spectral glance that stars ing, searching, and like an good SCientists, 1800s. Without the development of fine flint range from dim bulbs indeed, with their carefully observing the world and then, with glass in the 1800s, the "modern" refractor spectral Signatures of neutral metals and fertile imaginations, making new connec­ could not exist. molecular hydrides, to the hottest, with their tions, new insights into the way Parallax is the glorious, very readable ionized helium and hydrogen. The book is organized into eleven story of what might have turned out to be Kaler explains how stars fit into the HR ters entitled: Verse and an entirely hopeless quest. One wonders Diagram, and covers the way stars change or Time, Matter, Heavenly Bodies, Earth, Ani- what would have happened if stars were all evolve. One kind of star may burn only mal, Human, Theory and Num- one thousand times more distant than they briefly, while another may bum practically ber, and Biography. As I read the are. Better yet: what great strides might we forever. We learn how and why stars are book, I checked each poem, c1oub.le-(:he~cKing have made if the stars had been one thou­ placed on the HR Diagram, and what we can any that in some way moved me. The first sand times closer. If humans had measured predict from its placement. Our knowledge time I worked my way through the book I the first stellar parallax in, say, 1500, we of "nearby" stars enables astronomers to double-checked 23 out of a total of 161 would no doubt have progressed scientifical­ examine entire galaxies of stars, analyzing poems. The double-checks rose to 42 the sec­ ly much more rapidly than we already have. light that left them millions of years earlier, ond time around. That's a lot of good poems. That the riddle of stellar parallax was solved strengthening our theories. A few misuse the term "light as a at all is a fantastic and enjoyable story relat­ Once again, Kaler has put together a very unit of time - not a big deal, more of a per­ ed here. readable, fascinating astronomy book. While sonal pet peeve. A small number of poems it would be particularly useful for upper (Jorie Graham's selections come to mind) are Extreme Stars At the Edge of middle or high school students intent on so deeply mysteriOUS and Creation by James B. Kaler, pursuing a career in physics or astrophYSiCS, I thoughtful that they left me behind and I rdFJ Cambridge University Press, cannot recommend it for those under wasn't sure what they were about. LL/ 2001, ISBN 0521 40262 X hard­ twelve, unless they are very gifted or really This collection's poems have few back, 248-pages, US$34.95. wish to expand their horizons. and they are wen hidden - perhaps like any true meaning. In his prose poem Farder Reviewed by Richard Dreiser, Yerkes Obser­ Reache, Albert Goldbarth relates free verse vatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA Verse & Universe, Poems About poetry to the unbounded universe of 20th Science and Mathematics, edited century astronomy compared to the

"Our ordinary Sun provides a baseline, a by Kurt Brown, Milkweed Edi­ rhymed and metered lIuniverse" of standard against which we compare other tions, 430 First Avenue North, 17th century. stars, against which stellar limits can be test­ Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN, ed." So begins James B. Kaler's excellent 55401, 1998, ISBN 1-57131-407-5, "Perhaps poetry is an Extreme Stars (page one, paragraph one). $15.95 attempt to explain the Beginning with a study of our own star, the Sun, Kaler provides in ten chapters a .Reviewed by Dan Rosen, Western Sky Plane­ world, an attempt to under­ detailed look at stars, all kinds of stars. With­ tarium, Fruita, Colorado, USA stand the consequences of in a mere 228 pages, he manages to convey our lives: who we are, how we vast amounts of information about not only At the county library in Grand Junction I the ordinary, but the superlative: the recently listened to a local author discuss his got here, where we are going faintest, coolest, hottest, brightest, largest, new book. He asked, "What is poetry?" With ... and I thought, 'Hmmm, smallest, youngest, oldest, and strangest stars that question in mind I thought of this book, sounds like science.'" in the Universe. Verse and Universe, that I've been preparing Accompanying the well-written text are to review. over one hundred and eight-five figures and Perhaps poetry is an attempt to explain Many of these poems cut to the core of photographs, thirty-three of which are in the world, an attempt to understand the the never-ending conflicts and contradic­ full-color, and seven tables of information. consequences of our lives: who we are, how tions inherent in thinking human Kaler explains how graVity and nuclear we got here, where we are going ... and I John Witte's poem "Robert '-'1-'.1-''-.''''''''''''-' fusion maintain their precarious balance, as thought, hmmm, sounds like science. 1945" is a fine example. But by far the most stars convert hydrogen to helium (at least on The more we think about the concepts powerful and unforgivingly honest poem the simplest level). He discusses the funda­ and implications of modern science the describing this conflict is "Giving In" mental nature of stars, draws together the more bizarre it seems that we are sitting here Roald Hoffmann, a Nobel sci­ newest information about nearby galaxies thinking about it. As we search for meaning entist enthralled with his study of the natu-

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 29 ral world and ever so cognizant of the activi­ Whew! that sits by the side of your bed, on a bath­ ties of man. It describes the extreme pressure Len Roberts' "Learning The Planets" vivid­ room shelf, upon the hearth. You pick it up necessary to produce artificial in ly describes astronomy lessons while in reli­ and find comfort and inspiration and it the laboratory and compares that with a gious school in 1958. I can almost see Sister helps you dream. Poetry speaks to the end­ simple pressure device used for torture in a Angelique, less possibilities of a lifetime. Here is Albert cellar in Buenos Aires. The " ... scream in the " ... telling us about the Black Hole that Goldbarth in Farder To Reache of cellar ... " leaps off the page - and I can still sucked inviting Kepler out for a beer with Walt hear it. This shattering poem, in so few all light into it, Whitman ... and then it happens: words, captures the struggle of living in a fas­ spreading her black-winged arms and "... Really: he's flinging his cloak on now. cinating world of always wanting to know wrapping It's a foggy night as we sit around the more, and a horrifying world of knowing too Margaret Blake veranda overlooking the lake. much. to show her what it was like ... " /I Albert is worried at first if they will have In the chapter entitled Human are a num­ Alison Hawthorne Deming celebrates a anything to talk about. But, ber of excellent poems most notably Charles night of observing in her poem Mt. Lem­ " ... maybe it's the beer. Harper Webb's remarkable -shaped mon, Steward Observatory, 1990. She pon­ It turns out we can shoot the s-- all Descent (For My Son). ders, stein after stein, anecdote on anecdote, Beginning with "Let there be amino acids "... What is it to see? until the first light swarms over the water ... ," the poem goes on to tell a very concise A mechanism wired in the brain like thistledown on fire . story of evolution from the sloppy primor­ that leads to wonder. What is it Then the fog disappears ... " dial seas through many livings and dyings to wonder but to say Surely, poetry and science have much to and chance occurrences eventually leading what we've seen and, having said it, offer each other. Read this book and laugh, to his son. It should be read by every fresh­ need to see farther..." shudder, celebrate, dream, scream, get down man biology student. " Why not think the brain's on your hands and knees and give thanks Some of Kurt Brown's selections are down­ favorite food is seeing?" that every once in a while ... the fog right sexy in their celebration of the uni­ And let's always keep in mind what Tim pears. verse. Gloria Vando's offering HE 2-104: A Seibles says in Something Silver White, Kurt Brown has done a great job putting True Planetary Nebula in The Making stands " ... You know you can spend your whole this wonderful and important collection of out. Here she describes an observing session life glancing at your watch while everything poetry together. This book should have a and is reminded of a hot night in Texas in mysterious does everything mysterious ... " place in any skygazer's library, and in any the back seat of a red mustang convertible. What is poetry? It is a collection of words museum or planetarium gift shop. '*

• convenient and safer than other telescopes for solar observation • ideal for small groups • useful for viewing the sun, eclipses, tracking the position of sunspots, and for daily record keeping

STARLAB Portable Planetarium Use STARLAB in conjunction with your fixed planetarium for: • school & community outreach • training programs • hands-on education • multicultural education • workshops • public relations • special events • fundraising

30 Planetarian Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001

solar system. And "Microcosm: The Adven­ Mark and ture Within" is a "Fantastic Voyage"-like ed that a new Geodesium music journey through the human body with plot, sixth), entitled "Stellar Collections, and looks like great fun. Other programs are available the best also currently available. Jeri can be reached soundtrack work over two decades; at her e-mail address:[email protected]. is $15 US. for CD, $10 for cassette. '1C'17-'IC'::U1.InC., 51 Lake Street, Nashua, New remastered "Music Back-Pack" Hampshire 03060 USA, telephone +1-800- Honed in a column) is also 880-8500 or +1-603-880-8500, fax +1-603-882- in CD form, and the latest issue of 6522, web site www.skyskan.com: Paul Tetu announced that DVD versions of Sky-Skan's famous special effect laser discs were now available, with quality superior to that of the laser discs, and that DigiDome 4.0 was like­ As I write these words in mid-October, wise available with some new digital slide Mars is just from cap- processing features included for customizing tured by the well of the planet Mars slide images for the dome. Steve Savage pre­ to begin its reconnaissance of that CU],re11tl'v- sented the latest demo for Sky-Skan's Sky­ dusty world, the remarkable Space One Vision in Jon Elvert's Lane Planetarium the­ pictures of the nucleus of ater using high-definition video projectors - Comet Borrelly are still fresh, and yet our and the effect was quite stunning. I've never thoughts are aimed at our own beau­ seen video projection look so sharp on an tiful and troubled entire dome, and the imagery was gorgeous, If our calling is to seek cosmic perspective ranging from a heaving oceanscape to Stone­ n"fh.,olt£,l" a winner. and to share it with others, there seems no henge to assorted abstracts to the space shut­ gram releases include "Oceans in better time than now to engage in that noble tle over the Earth to the piece de resistance. a screened last year in Corsicana, endeavor. And my modest effort is to share complete 3-D assembly sequence for the program features a search for with you what I've found in the last few International Space Station. Amazing stuff! able for life with a focus on oceans, months that's new or fresh to me and per­ Sky-Skan has also recently beefed up its staff. narrated haps to you as well - that may us in our Contact as given above for more informa­ astronomy program), and an task. And the Western Alliance tion on these and other Sky-Skan "Hubble Vision," program featuring Conference in Oregon, USA provid- and services. coveries of the HST. "MarsQuest" ed many opportunities for discovery. Attend Minolta Camera Co., Ltd, Planetarium sell for U.S., Operation, Esaka CTS Center, 2-30 Toyotsu­ For more details cho, Suita-shi, Osaka 564 Japan, telephone Out +81-06-386-2050, fax +81-06-386-2027, and US Office, 101 Williams Drive, Ramsey, New The Western Alliance Conference brings Jersey 07446 USA, telephone +1-201-934-5347, together the Pacific, Rocky Mountain, South­ fax +1-201-818-0498: Phil Groce that west, and Great Plains planetarium associa­ Minolta's GeminiStar system, which com­ tions for a multi-region annual gathering bines a Minolta Infinium II projector with an that attracts a number of vendors and others E&S Digistar II system, will now come as a that his company was with new to report. Following are nut­ single physical unit incorporating both sys­ sale an extensive laser shell accounts, in no particular order, of tems, with a small footprint and an rlllr"1_"'rj-" for what many had to offer and to say, with ed control system. contact information for those who wish M~~aSV!iite1n!il. Inc.: Phil Groce also ... c>r"."... -~"rl more details. that the company, which supplies ,a,,,,.--'''' Evans &: Sutherland, 600 Komas Drive, Salt mat film systems and digital sound systems disk, All".lU'UlL'~ Lake Utah 84108 USA, telephone +1- for planetariums (among other clients), has 25,000 frames of constellations, astronomical 801-588-7500, fax +1-801-588-4520, web site merged with Pacific Title Art and and the like. to follow www.es.com:Jeri Panek, in addition to bring­ Studio, one of the largest post-production ing copies of E&S's currrent and nifty lunar studios in Hollywood, California. The com­ "Nature," and phases calendar, presented three video trail­ pany can also transfer film-based content to cost $900 U.S., with a discounts for ers of programs currently available or in many other formats. My contact informa­ chase of two or more of the CD's. development for the company's various con­ tion for the company is not current; you announced that Laser and figurations of its StarRider (including interac­ may wish to contact Phil at Helping Plane­ Visual (A VU, both of tive - that is, real-time - and linear playback tariums Succeed, 619 Orange Street, Macon, compact full-dome laser versions for display of full- or part-dome Georgia 31201 USA, telephone +1-478-750- had reached an agreement computer-generated video programs). 7870, fax +1-478-750-7826 for more details. offer its Omniscan system to domes 50 "Wonders of the Universe" takes the audi­ Loch Ness P.O. Box 1159, (15 meters) and while ence on a journey through the larger uni­ Groton, Massachusetts 01450 USA, telephone will focus on its sys- verse (l've seen this program in its +1-978-448-3666 or +1-888-4-NESSIE, fax +1- tem to domes smaller than SO feet (15 m). on a dome, and it's "New 978-448-3799, web site www.lochness.com: nice to see these two welH~espe<:ted Horizons" does much the same but for the

3.2 Planetarian Vol. nies for the benefit of our figure projections, 3 rpm motors which USA, +1-317-226-9650, small community! Several program trailers allow the machine to run to any 226-9651, e-mail bmNeIlpr'OdG3laCI1.C()m, were demonstrated in the Lane Planetarium, in ten seconds, the use of LED illumination un_H...... Ulh LF's "Brief Mystery of Time," an and fiber optics bundles from a educational program, and "Pink Floyd: The source. The projector is designed to fit neatl y Hon on the AstroFX Wall" and "Dance of Light" the into the footprints of projectors it may be which uses hard-drive storage of famous Pink Floyd album and classical replacing in older facilities, and is at ments; contact as above to learn music The system under $400,000 U.S. For more information - it's cool stuff. sells for between $140,000-150,000 U.S. on the new projector - and Goto's superb Ash Ent1erprises, US. Route I, Chadds Ford, Penn­ and exhaustive panorama library, whose Bradenton, Florida 34205, telleptlOIle ""1.7.,.,, '-' 19317, +1-610-459-5200, images are available for sale, contact Ken as 746-3522, fax +1-941-750-9497, e-mail fax +1-610-459-3830, e-mail spitz@spitzinc given above. aol.com: John Hare announced that .com, web site www.spitzinc.com: Joyce Audio-Visual Inc., 10801 Eric Melenbrink will be Towne announced two new partnerships Cosmonaut Blvd., Orlando, Florida 32824 full-time beginning - one with CineMuse, Inc., (www. USA, telephone +1 407 859 8166 or +1-800- chosen cinemuse.com) one of North America's lead­ 952-7374, fax +1-407-859-8254, e-mail joanne Company to be its exclusive U.S. rer)re:seI1lta­ ing video entertainment @av-imagineering.com, web site www.av­ tive for parts and service, and Ash cmnpalliles, according to a press release dis­ imagineering.com: Joanne Young presented vides parts and service on a tributed at the conference, to distribute pro­ the first in a series of AVI's "Legends of the A-model and others. The grams from CineMuse's extensive Night Sky" programs, featuring classic sky ny also offers refurbished Goto

+h"A"'r+rH· as part of its (the cost systems; the partnership will create opportu­ and it's simply delightful - as well as U.S. without the overhead induded, $795 nities to combine Spitz's strengths in video faithful to the original myth. This is a won­ with). Ash is also an authorized East

technology with Trimension's in derful alternative use of laser L ... ".UAlVJVh Control and real-time interaction technology, according essentially offering a clever cartoon treat­ management and to a second press release. In the Lane Plane­ ment of tales. I can't wait to see the next .... VJ"".,uLJ.HF. services. Contact John, as tarium, a trailer for its "Oasis one, which will involve Orion. For more above, with your needs. in Space" available with its Electric Sky sys­ information on this series, the Omniscan East Coast Omtrol P.O. tem, and character development for full-dome laser graphiCS system which ran Bigler, 16825, telE~phlDne its upcoming release called "Dark Star the demo, and other products and services 8S7-5420:John Frantz informed me Adventure" featuring the adventures of an provided by AVI, contact Joanne as Coast has now converted the front alien family (nicely done). CineMuse offered above. virtually all of the extant R. A. some video snippets as well. 4301 32nd Street West, C-1, P.O. Box control systems, the MC-10 Contact Joyce for more information on 14278, Bradenton, Florida 34280 USA, tele­ puter with his PC-based Hercules many products, induding domes, its phone +1-941-794-3200 or +1-800-543-5960, cessor. Our made the cnanl!e-o'"er Nomad Remote Control Console Unit (for fax e-mail about months ago (we theater contro!), interactive audi­ tank-like MC-lO, but it was aarnHted.ly ence response system, and PolyDome (a Joe Hopkins demonstrated the first of his \"VHA~JUiHh mode, had tal image processing system for dome visual­ Cosmic Tools DVD series of computer-gener­ and it was izations, version 1.5 now in release). ated video - DVD #1 caUed "The disks ... ); we're very Goto Co, 4-16 Planets" and featuring images of an nine with the results and of the East Yazaki-cho, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo 183 Japan, tele- planets of the solar system rotating, zoom­ Coast system. John'S company offers com- +81-423-62-5312, fax +81-423-62-9571, ing, and slewing. There are 27 sequences in suite of theater control devices, as well and USA Liaison Office, 1525 Bemice Street, all, readily selectable via a menu screen, and as laser systems whieh I've found very im- Honolulu, Hawaii 96817, telephone +1-888- nicely rendered. The DVD costs $295 U.S...... ,.,~cc,;,"c when I've had r ....nnl"l .. t"ni1H ... " 847-5800 or +1-808-847-5800, fax +1-808-847- Upcoming DVDs in the series include liThe them demonstrated. For 5850, e-mail [email protected]. web site Solar System" which expands the menu in p,p'nn""lu~'ni www.goto.co.jp: Ken Miller announced the selection to 40 entries, including the sun, Astro-Tee Malnufa(:twlinl~b de'velopmt~nt of a new projector moons, and asteroids, and liThe Earth" which 608,550 Elm to fill the 26-40 foot (8-12 meter) gap in focuses on the Sun-Earth-moon system Ohio 44614 USA, telE~ph(me Tr.JJ\.rO~)":t-L~L\J'':1'. Gota's product line: the Model G812, whose (priced at $395), and "Deep Space," which fea­ fax +1-330-854-5376, e-mail sh()PJ)er@a:stnJ- first installation is scheduled for next year at tlires nebulae, galaXies, quasars, and other Harris in Young Harris, Geor- deep-sky objects. Other JHE products include anie USA. The new model was developed with the Planetscan, a new system which provides des of their adventures around the world, for from in focus group ses- slewing video capability, and all-sky system, the company is one of the sions conducted at planetarium conferences a panorama system, show control modules, screen manufacturers in the world. over the last year or so. Features of the and more. Contact Joe as above for the full country, if has pl,m(~ta.rhlrr:ls cal-mechanical instrument include the pro­ array of products and services. attractions, it n,.,... lvlhl" jection of 8,500 stars down to magnitude 6.5, Bowen 748 E. Bates Street, Hon domes somewhere. Astro-tee digital planet 24 constellation Suite 300W, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202 been a wonderful supporter of nl~'n""+-:H·l".-n

Vol. December 2001 Planetarian conferences over the years, as have which owns the to Carmen. While the all of the vendors listed in this col umn. first concentrated on the solar system, the That's not new - but its very good! Astro-tec second features the universe The not onI y erects, but also refurbishes, replaces, Carmen premise remains: she steals some­ and paints old domes. For your dome needs thing (or is about to), and the audience, led and questions, contact Stephanie and the by an ace detective, solves and clues gang in Canal Fulton. to track Carmen in an attempt to capture her ME~astarJ 2-18-25 Minami-Ikuta Tama-ku, and make right the universe once The Kawasaki Kanagawa, Japan 214-0036, tele­ programs are fast-paced and fun. We're hav­ phone/fax +81-0-44-976-1318, e-mail oohira@ ing a great time the first Carmen ja2.s0-net.ne.jp: Takayuki Ohira, the creator show, and the second looks even better; the of a new planetarium projector called video animation and all-sky sets are more Megastar, demonstrated his prototype model elaborate, and VAL, the helpful in the Lane Planetarium during the Western computer, has been afflicted with U'~ULAp'''' Alliance conference to the oohs and ahs of personalities which adds to the fun. If you the assembled planetarians. (See the Decem­ want in, the purchase price is about $6,500. ber 2000 issue of the Planetarian for an That's steep for many planetariums, but this account of the system's development.) The is big-league stuff, and we, for <>"",..,.' ..... 1 tus of educational opportuni1ties sphere-shaped projector is small and com­ financed the purchase with local business ians. Once the 100-inch (2.5 meter) teH~C()pe, pact (45 em or about 18 inches in diameter, grants and donations with relative ease. So weighing less than 27 kg or 60 pounds), but give Bill a call for details; these shows are projects a mighty 1.7 million stars down to great for kids, families, and school groups. magnitude 11.5, plus 300 deep sky objects And you get to "chew the as the ace An"nA".. hini;H"", to brighter than magnitude 8. It features the detective and what doesn't work with SOFIA for year as standard diurnal, latitude, and azimuth love to do that? iting educators program. Other I.;:U,.L\,,(.I.uu'u motions plus free axis rotation and has twi­ Pl(JmE:~taJrium, 1515 Bernice Street, and outreach programs are p13lflnlea. light, sunset, and sunrise glows plus mood Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 USA, +1- Contact Edna DeVore at lighting and separate planets projectors indi­ 808-847-8235, e-mail miJkes(@bi.sh()pnluseurn. Institute, or access the SOFIA vidually computer-controlled. The effect on org: Mike Shanahan an excerpt of out more. the 40-foot (12m) Lane dome was breathtak­ the second Explorers project program, "Ex­ ing; the projected sky was virtually gra y with plorers of Mauna Kea," which I saw in its faint background stars in a vast multitude, entirety last year and liked. The news is that and the Milky Way glowed in the most spec­ a third installment, called of the tacular portrayal I've ever seen in a planetari­ International Space Station," is due out next um rich and delicate and detailed and star­ spring. The show kits contain 250 laser crammed, with dark lanes and douds stand­ disc, CD soundtrack, and prC)d.llctllon ing out in marvelous contrast. It was just gor­ notes, and technical and educational web geous. It will be interesting to see where this sites. Stay tuned for more news on the tiny, elegant, and eminently portable plane­ upcoming release. tarium system goes now in its development and availability in the larger market - Minneapolis, MN 55401, telepnone because it seems to me to be eminently mar­ 630-6150, web site ketable if it can be produced and maintained Rod Nerdahl presented a in quantity. If you have a chance to see it, program "Time Bandits" at the Lane, which don't miss it; the sky will delight you. featured a group of kids a romp Contact Mr. Ohiro in Asia as given above for through time lead by an alien. The pl;;me:tarl­ manager, sent news of STScI UdPpCnllH);,~. more details, or talk to Bill Gutsch of Great urn offers a number of such programs for Planetarian Ian Griffin 1""rrnA"'rlu Ideas, 11 The Crossway, Smoke Rise, Kinn­ sale, and those I've seen feature solid Ireland, and New Zealand elon, New Jersey 07405 USA, telephone +1- information within charming story lines. the staff as head of 973-492-8165, fax +1-973-492-1836, who is the And the as I recall, run in the several­ Frank North American and European contact con­ hundred-dollars-U.S. range. If like to cerning the system. learn about the wide selection, contact as Great 11 The Crossway, Smoke Rise, above. Kinnelon, New Jersey 07405 USA telephone Learrlmg Tedlnc)io,gles, Inc., 40 Cameron tiCI[patlCln in the IPS slide service; "',",'''<>'"'''''",£"1 +1-973-492-8165, fax +1-973-492-1836: the irre­ Avenue, Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 access to Hubble news releases; pressible, incorrigible, and irremediable Bill USA, telephone +1-617-628-1459 or +1-800-537 multimedia programs which feature Gutsch not only assisted Takayuki Ohiro -8703, fax +1-617-628-8606, e-mail starlab@ COIlg10ITler,HH)nS of Hubble with his Megastar demo, but also demoed an starlab.com, web site www.starlab.com: excerpt of the second of the "Where in the Eileen Starr reported on her collaboration Universe is Carmen Sandiego?" programs with to a developed by a consortium of production new Lewis & Clark Starlab cylinder which entities under his project direction, with the highlights the navigational stars used by the cooperation of the Broderbund company duo on their western U.S. explorations, as

34 Planetarian events and scientific for spe- contact a fellow names Brian Davis at brian@ Astronomical

cial needs. In the future, STScI hopes to pro­ LU.'_V'' seminars for planetarians at the institute. All "' .... "' ....., .... Down With Videos? CD-ROMs? Books? SHdes? '-"" ..... "'-". good and helpful stuff; see John for particu­ Dale Smith has alerted me to the web site lars. of Trico Machine Products, 5081 Corbin Laser Jack Dunn of the Drive, Bedford Heights, Ohio 44128 USA, tele­ Mueller Planetarium at the University of phone +1-216-662-4194, fax +1-216-662-7513, Nebraska state Museum, 213 Morrill Hall, web site www.tricomachine.com. which sells Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 USA, e-mail an interesting product: a special binocular [email protected], reported on his work to use holder which allows you to look down to see lasers to provide captioning on the planetari­ the sky. um dome for regular programming for the The product is called the Sky Window, hearing impaired. It's effort indeed; if and employs a binocular mount suspended can order on line at you'd like to learn how he does it, contact above an 8 X 10 inch (20 X 25 cm) mirror by at +1-800-355-2624 him as given above. which can swivel on the altitude axis. You 2624 from outside the U.s.), or aim the binoculars down onto the mirror, 415-841-9785. Our adjust the mirror to bring into view a por­ MMI COrpor;Ulon, Well, of course it is. But that's also the title tion of the sky between horizon and zenith of a CD-ROM that Tom Hocking has written in the direction its aimed, and then you look to tell me about. It comes from ACR microscope-style through the binoculars at International LLC, 2255 N. University what's on the mirror. No shaky hands, no Parkway, Suite 15-#277, Provo, Utah 85604 neck stiffness - but you need a fiat surface on USA and features a sizable of Hubble which to set it, or a tripod to which you can images. Concerning the product, Tom writes attach the device via the tripod adapter. the follOWing: This is an interesting concept for those "Every once in a while a product comes desiring steady views - and would be espe­ that is better and more useful than cially useful, I think, for showing kids binoc­ numerous intended by its creators. While not bleeding ular objects in the sky. The Sky Window sells DVDs, and a and solar edge in timeliness - it has a 1999 copyright for $230 U.S. You can also purchase a pair of system models. You can contact the compa­ ny by the usual means: +1-410-366- date - "Our Fantastic Universe" is a CD-ROM 8x60 binoculars to use with it, which pro­ with a wonderfully accessible and fast load­ vide a 55-degree field of view and cost $110. 1222, fax +1-410-366-6311, e-mail mnrlio::>rp ing collection of some of the first 4000 or so Buy them both, and the cost is $320. @ao1.com, web site Hubble Telescope images. Many of these Check out the pictures of the device at the .com. images are not new to folks who have been company web site, where you'll also find following the odyssey of the HST. But for more information. (But pass by the Data folks who would love fast, non-internet which shows a long-exposure image of the Roger Mansfield of Astronomical Data dependent access to some very good imagery Andromeda Galaxy on the mirror; the Service, 3922 Leisure Lane, Colorado (and captions!), as well as archival press path obviously went through the 200-inch Colorado 80917, has done it releases and MPEG and QuickTime video at Palomar Mountain first to get that view. a fine set of data pubHcatiOJls clips, then this is one CD-ROM worth the $15 Ah, marketing!) Thanks to Dale for the tip. can be customized for your Earth suggested retail price. location. liThe CD-ROM is browser based (its auto­ The Skywatcher's Almanac 2002 "'rr\u;,rtoC! launch feature starts your browser and opens Rob Walrecht in the Netherlands reports of the times of sunrise and sunset, the start page for you) and the index is easy that his English-language planisphere for 20 moonrise and moonset for every of the to follow. If you have no browser, no worries degrees North is now out, and that he year for one's latitude and JOJlgi1tudle, .-no,""hi...,...... this information with sections on there, since it comes complete with an install to have his English-language of Netscape 4.7. If your net connection is live based planisphere out sometime next year. for 2002, and vis­ though, then the collection of links inter­ He will then have complete coverage, at reg­ explamaticms of concepts, and other spersed throughout the collection will be ular latitude intervals, from 65 degrees North useful bits. It sells for $18 U.S., $20 for a laser­ live. Again, this is not bleeding edge - but if through 45 degrees South - which just about version. you want a fast loading archive of hi-resolu­ covers everybody but a few polar bears and The Photographer's Almanac 2002 offers tion HST pictures, then you need to own this penguins. To see his full line of products, similar data with the addition of the times disk. You can even buy quantities for resale check out his web site at www.walrecht.nl. twilight and ends, the azimuths of in your gift shops too." or e-mail [email protected] these bodies at their and and Tom gives minimum system reqUirements their altitudes at local noon. The cost is $20. as 486/66 MHz CPU, CD-ROM drive, Net­ Buy the addition of the scape or Internet Explorer 3.x or greater, or the second, and you get a cOlnpllinleratalry Media Player with ActiveMovie 1.0 or If you're looking for astronomical stock­ copy of software greater. for sales and free technical support, ing-stuffers for the holidays for your favorite gram, suitable for windows 95/98/NT, you can call +1-801-229-1230 or fax +1-801- astronomy nut, check out the latest catalogs allows you to plot the sun and moon's alti­ 229-1123. For more information, you can also from the following companies: tudes as functions of local mean time for any

Vol. No.4, December 2001 Planetarian day of the year for any location on the Earth. of the full Earth bracketed by the words" All magnet. What are we to do? Two other available publications are the One People." And it's never seemed more always done: to offer Local Planet Visibility Report 2002, which lists pOignant a message to me than right now, remind them that we live on the right ascensions and declinations of the when, in the course of events this troubled incontrovertibly connected world five visible planets for two- or five-day inter­ year, and especially on September 11, we real­ and cosmos. That we vals, plus an equatorial star map on which to ized how far some of us are, on this small and species, defined far less how we are plot them, plus a users guide, for $15, and the fragile planet, from understanding or accept­ ent than how we are the same. That Comparative Ephemeris 2002, which offers a ing this basic and powerful truth. it to ourselves, to our to the uniVe'f5>e day-by-day set of positions for the planets The year 2001, the first year of the new that nurtured us and of which we ""N·.,~lhln and the sun and moon, for $12. millennium, with all of its desperate hopes may be the Purchase all four (the Forecaster's Special for our flawed and fallible world, hasn't - to survive. That we're all in this tAClr<.>ti',",'" 2002) and you can do so for $60, a $7 savings. turned out as any of us would have desired. And that we can still reach for the I like these publications - especially the We're not really spacefarers yet, as Clarke What are we to do? Our first two - and use them regularl y in both envisioned. We're not living lives of techno­ Here at the end of 2001, I wish my work and play. They're useful and con­ logically-wrought leisure as predicted by the serenity and resolve to continue your venient and I recommend them highly. visionaries of the 50s. We're still fueling work - the work of us all - as we do Contact Roger above for a set of your own. ancient grudges with modern weapons. And bu t part to make this we're still killing each other in the name of world a better in 2002 and

Finally I A Personal Note ... God. Have a calm solstice, the faith, and So what are we to do? looking for all that's new and worthwhile I have a magnet on the file cabinet in my our beautiful, Earth ... office. It's a simple thing; it shows an image Personally, I find the answer in my little

Minneapolis

AMAZING STARGAZING JOURNEY TO THE STARS Running time - 30 minutes time - 29 minutes <# of slides - 172 - 101

AURORA! ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Running time - 35 minutes '* of slides - 302

HERCULES SUPERSTARS THE X TRA TERRESTRIAL Running time - 37 minutes time - 34 minutes If of slides - 219 - 122

HONEY, I SHRUNK THE SOLAR SYSTEM 3-2-L.BLAST OFF Running time - 36 minutes time - 32 minutes # of slides 336 - 152

ALL S4~5.00 HONEY J SHRUNK THE UNIVERSE WINTER WONDERS Running time - 37 minutes Running time - 35 minutes If of slides - 172 If of slides - 172

Call 61 1 more information and sample 300 Nicollet Minnesota 1

36 Planetarian Vol.

flawlessly under a 21+-meter (70+-foot) Inc. dome. As I write this, the cere- monies of a special use of the building for the Asia Pacific Economic Co­ operation Conference (APEC) are to an end. Leaders from 20 nations convened to discuss the economic future of the During my time at Scienceland, I saw many crafts and trades people working to finely ... to polish this new jewel. Shanghai would be a (Orlando, Florida) and ::spcu:::e,Mewa OO'utalffi­ great location for a conference. Visit who collaborated Scienceland's website at tion in called and www.apec-china.org.cn for further details. I am always looking to make this column more international in scope. Please send any news to me at the address above. I'm sure others would enjoy hearing from you. We'll start this edition with some long­ show your time colleagues who ... Visit www.universedimensions.de er look. ... to Smnp.son (Gary E. Sampson Planetari­ um, Waukesha, Wisconsin) is now retired and you read correctly - the School Board in IPS ... Wauwatosa (his former employer) renamed the former Wauwatosa West High School I recently had a fantastic opportunity to Planetarium in his honor! travel to Shanghai, China to assist with the Dr. Eileen Starr (Director of the Roades installation of some shows at the brand new Science Center Planetarium at Shanghai Scienceland. This new monument State University in Valley City, North Dako­ to science has to be one of the most exciting ta) will be retiring at the end of this academ­ facilities in the world. Inside what they are ic year. She says, "Valley City State Univer­ calling the Imax Universe Theater you will sity is a great place to work!" find a Digistar 2 projector from Evans and Dick a planetarian since 1965 and soon to be Sutherland; A/V and control; and Manager of the Russell C. Davis Planetarium, Beach, North Carolina an ImaxDome Projection System. This the­ jackson, MiSSissippi, since before it in foot) dome 1024/ATM4 ater will open with China: The Panda Ad­ 1978, retired on August 15, 200l. venture and Buhl's Through The Eyes Of .J ....."""' ...... , Production Supervisor, Hubble in December, 2001. Nearby stands an him in retirement on june 30, 2001. Some of Imax P3D Theater utilizing polarizing 3D you may know that Dick began his glasses. To top it off they also have an Iwerks sional career at the Morehead Planetarium in TurboRide Theater running Pirates in 4D Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His that is housed inside a huge yellow sphere ments there included training astronauts in Detroit Science Center! He will be suspended inside a geometric glass enclosure celestial recognition, leading the with at the center of the facility. Add in some im­ urn through the transition from live to pressive exhibits including a walk-through shows, drafting accreditation rainforest and an underground geological stand-alone planetaria that the American simulation and you can imagine what a Association of Museums later and wonderful resource the people of Shanghai developing the Morehead Graduate Intern­ will soon be enjoying. A great big thank you ships in Planetarium Studies. Their to the museum staff including Mr. Xue, supported by Cinema-360, the Foundation, Director of Theaters, and Mr. and the City of jackson, produced The Senior Engineer, ior their hospitality. Also on Shuttle: An American Adventure, the first pro­ site were Mr. Lu and Mr...... ' .. __~ fessional film shot in orbit using NASA's first from the E&S Bejing Representative movie camera payloads. Since its premiere in in Davie, Florida. Office and Kirk Johnson of E&S USA. Sky­ 1985, the film has played in nearly twenty Skan reps Scott Niskach and Jim Brandt kept theaters worldwide to over one million peo­ the equipment humming. Gerald ple and earned a gold medal in the Inter­ son, Imax Customer Support Supervisor, and national Film and Television Festival of New Todd Sonics Associates, Project York. Thanks in large measure to Dick and Technical Specialist, bent over backwards to Lenard's efforts, C-360 transformed into the insure that all the systems were integrated

38 Planetarian News in Contributions of links, lesson etc" are camera obscura. I would be welcome. Contact Jeff at astronomer@ .... A·~ ...... "T if there is another An fire is blamed for $2.5 home.com. camera 0 bscura was the million in damage to the South Florida Keithdc~ru:lSon of the Fleischmann Plane­ Museum's Planetarium in Bradenton, tarium in Reno, Nevada, has created a new Florida. The 23, 2001 blaze created use for old Macs ... he has written a program billows of smoke and closed the entire (actuall y a FileMaker Pro file) called museum. No one was and flame, "AstroQuiz" that can be installed in a stand­ heat and smoke did not reach the alone computer kiosk. The title on the screen museum's renovation projects. is "Who Wants to Be an Astronomer?", and The Bradenton Fire it's modeled after ... wen, you'd have to be ed to smoke seeping from the domed theater in a cave if you don't know. The pro­ around 5:30 am in the morning. After an gram features 60 multiple-choice questions intense, long search for the source of the fire, of varying difficulty but levels of sin­ investigators have pinned it as electrical in cerity and excellence, four I-/VJ.HIUH_ allow nature. The amount soared because answers, and you can even add your own our shows. We have since removed the area that fire and smoke affected con­ questions or delete unwanted ones. Visitors jector rack and built some custom shelves tained SO to 60 computer-controlled carou­ operate it with scripted buttons; very user­ accommodate the camera obscura sel projectors, three video projectors, and an amicable (and hacker-proof: they can't get tradi tional shows. expensive laser system. out of the program without a keyboard). there were some obstacles to overcome, You might be able to port it to FMP for are thrilled to have obscura ." Great Windows, but Keith thinks you'll lose all the Need a little inspiration? Look no further layouts, and a couple of AppleScripts. Re­ than www.jplnet.com.It·s the website of qUirements: Macintosh that can run FMP4 .)ULXIC:.uU Numazawa and his Japan Plane­ and show a 640x480 color display I was in on 2001. tarium Lab Inc. This sight has lots of astro­ ably higher than 256 colors); any PowerPC We had to stay in China for an additional nomical observations as well as fine art will work, and probably the later Quadras at five days until air traffic got back to normal. images that he sells through a photo bureau. least and FileMaker Pro 4 or higher. Still Someone from the staff of Scienceland said, Forwarded from Claudio Veliz in New interested? Want to take a look at the pro­ "it is a new year in America". It took me York City, "I found this powerful search gram? Let him know, and he'll send you a moment to realize what he said was, engine, focused only on scientific informa­ CD-ROM. If you like it and use it, Keith is ask­ "it is a new era in America", tion: http://www.scirus.com". ing for $20, which today is a great for events unfold on television, I felt that Adkins has started a new web site for an interactive exhibit. Email Keith if you of the that we astronomy teachers called www.Astronomy have questions at [email protected]. Teacher.com. He hopes to post lesson plans, working on was now somehow dilnilnished. links to online courses, and of course links to That was the case until I started to astronomy sites. At the moment, the Links about all of you out there. I When is a planetarium more than just a and Resources page has a lot of links, but the how you strive to the wonders planetarium? When it's the Plane­ other areas are just getting started. There is beauty of the heavens. How your eye tarium (Ruth Patrick Science Education also a message board where you can set up kles like a star every time someone stops Center, University of South Carolina Aiken, conversations, ask questions, find out how ask, "how does that machine in the South Carolina). According to Director other people teach moon phases and so on. of the room work?" I about "As far as I know, we have the only Of course, all of it is free. Stop by, take a look, J. lucky I was to be a olanel:arian, planetarium in the world that can act as a and let him know what you think. me

(Prl<>tirjrmjf-'~ continued from page 22) Future IPS (EdrUGClDon, continued Two issues ago I mentioned some between scientists doing research and pJane­ thoughts about how IPS can either stay as it tarians performing the communication to "I, and aU my aSSOCiates, would like to is today or expand in the future. Critical to <'u...... "....,th,u to those the public at large. growth of an organization is a close look at or involved, which now must its current structure. Over the next few mean almost And we "'1-/1.''''.. '-''.4,,­ IPS 2002 months discussions will take place that will the e-mail messages we have received from Please make a note of the new dates for the study the structure of IPS as an 'HI',~'.A~~"A~ many friends in the areas affected, rea.ssulrirlg IPS 2002 conference. It will take place and see how it can best be developed to pro­ us of their between July 28 - August I, 2002. I encourage vide better service to its members and to ''It has been said that every ca1tastro,ollle you to come to this conference, with its increase its membership base. John Dicken­ an and one can theme of "New Explorations", an exciting list son of the H.R. McMillan Space Science Cen­ his will unite the whole world in an of speakers, and a chance to share ex­ tre in Vancouver, Canada, is leading the dis­ effort to stamp out those res0011SUJle. periences with your colleagues. You'll find cussion and I again encourage you that if life must go on. To quote information at http://www.exploration.org you have ideas on how IPS could be im- words of the greatest /ips2002. I look forward to greeting you all at for your benefit, now is the time to last century, Winston Churchill, 'Never IPS 2002 next summer. tell us. Please send John or myself your up - never up - never 1/ thoughts as we work through this process.

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The editing is done at a time when there is a strong feeling of uncertainty among us, and many contributors have included a thought related to the terrible events of 11 September. In comparison with this, it seems like a small accident that an SAS plane crash­ ed two weeks ago at the very same Milan Airport where these lines are written, when I am on my way to the IPS Council Meeting in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome. I can only say as so many others that I just hope that peace will be possible on our planet in the not-too-distant future. The International News column depends entirely on contributions from IPS Affiliate Associations all over the world. Many thanks to Bart Benjamin, Ignacio Castro, John Dickenson, Jon Elvert, Jean-Michel Faidit, John Hare, Aaron McEuen, Loris Ramponi, and especially to Paul England, who now hands the BAP reporting duties to Teresa Grafton, for your contributions. You are wel­ come back with new reports, and I look for­ ward to reports from other Associations as well. Upcoming deadlines are 1 January for Planetarian 1/2 and 1 April for 2/2.

Association of French-Speaking Planetariums No important news from France by this report, so we take the opportunity to publish a map of French planetaria. And a message of sympathy to our American colleagues after the terrible events of 11 September.

Association of Mexican Planetar­ iums It was with deep surprise and disappoint­ ment to find out on August 23, through Christine Schuplas' IPS news service, about the cancellation of the IPS 2002 Conference

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 41 yet its planetarium. A few more additional ing the review include the relatively low University in Kankakee on 27 October. mobile domes are now operating in the UK profile of science centers, with government, Spring 2002 meeting (with Wisconsin/ doing business mainly with schools. business and the general public; declining Minnesota) will be held on 3-4

Generally, all are doing adequate business government funding to the sector; the need Madison. The Adler Planetarium in '-'''''''-'''Jl'.V but none reports large growth and some are to develop new and more inclusive pro­ has premiered Solar Storms as its latest static. Large centers are meeting visitor tar­ grams; and the need to enhance links to busi­ active offering for visitors to gets but not their revenue projections. There ness and industry. Canada's geography, the sky show presents findings about is concern that we are reaching a plateau and lack of dedicated resources, and the absence storms from the sun, its spectrum and mag­ the economic situation, but holidays spent of a plan or objectives complicate the desire netic fields, and it encourages the aUQlE~nC'e at home, with the current world situation to develop solutions to these issues. to test their knowledge about our parent ,may help. We hear of new dom~s being One outcome of the Planning Session was On 22 September, Adler hosted a series of planned, and they can only compete with that the following goals were developed for activities to usher in the astronomical already increased number of Millennium/ the Council. of autumn, induding Phyllis Pitluga's lecture Lottery-funded science attractions which 1.To establish the relevance of the Council entitled Cultural Significance have mushroomed in the last few years. Will to our staff, government and the general and Solstices. there be sufficient business for us all and public. The William M. Staerkel Planetarium who will fail? May be all of us! 2.To develop a Federal government funding Parkland College in Champaign New officers for 2001/2002: Eva Hans of program to increase the capacity of sci­ several new shows this fail, In('11I,(llrH1 South Tyneside College is now President, ence centers, enhance science literacy and Lights, a Sudekum Planetarium nl"rvil·.rtii".... Teresa Grafton of London Planetarium is UK enhance innovation and creativity. written by their own Waylena IPS Representative, David Thomas of Techni­ 3.To develop a program that assists members November they opened Santa's Secret Star. quest is remaining as Treasurer. Hollie Moly­ to enhance the effectiveness of their pro­ Also returning this fall will be a five-week neaux of NSSC Leicester has become Secre­ grams and services. workshop on practical backyard astronomy, tary, much to her surprise! We are grateful to 4.To measure and communicate the efficacy a teacher's workshop in their Alex Barnett for offering to host the BAP of science centers in enhancing science lit­ Loaner Program, and a Telescope Secretariat at Leicester. These officers with eracy and economic development. Seminar. Lakeview Museum presented a lim­ the past presidents make up the Council S.To develop an effective organization to ited selection of school shows in September with co-options for various projects during achieve our goals. while all of its laser disk players were in the year. The CCSC Board has also agreed to expand Chicago for preventive maintenance. Shel­ This year BAP's two awards were presented its membership and representation, to sever don Schafer, Director of Science Prc)gr,amls, as follows. The Undine Concannon Award its affiliation with the Canadian Museums was fortunate to see a perfect eclipse from for Organisational Achievement goes to Alex Association after the 2002 conference in Mozambique, part of a 21-day camping safari Barnett for her tremendous determination, Calgary, and recommend a change of name through South Africa, Swaziland, Mozam­ planning and achievement of the opening of to the membership. The proposed new name bique, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. the National Space Centre at Leicester sup­ of the SOciety will be the Canadian Associa­ Sheldon said: /lIt was an unbelievable adven­ ported by her team. The Terence Murtagh tion of Science Centres. Next meeting of the ture." Award for Technical Innovation goes to CCSC Board will be at the Phoenix ASTC This fall, the Cernan Earth and Space Cen­ Peter Bassett for taking mobiles to places Conference, October 5th to 9th 2001. ter at Triton College in River Grove hosted they had never been before, and the techni­ The recent terrorist acts in New York and From Observation to Exploration, a cal challenges he overcame to do this. Washington DC have created a level of un­ Educator Workshop Series featuring basic BAP is looking to provide a Presenters certainty rarely experienced in the last few astronomy and planetary science, as well as course this year. It is also investigating closer decades. Many Canadians sent messages of participating in the Museum Partners working links with Association for Astron­ condolence to their friends and colleagues in Science Program. The ISU Planetarium re­ omy Education. The web site will be further the USA. The concept of the fragile blue opened in Septem ber with the program developed and other sub-committees formed planet, our only home, was helpful to many Daughter of the Stars, which showcases a vari­ for projects suggested at the meeting. BAP in trying to get to grips with how they ety of legends about the night sky as told remains strong and a source of support and should react to these horrific events. Now Native Americans from Alaska to Mexico. help for all planetarians in the UK. For many many are also evaluating the possible im­ Indiana. The Fall 2001 meeting was held at it can be a lonely misunderstood calling, and pacts on travel and tourism, and on atten­ Goethe Link Observatory in Martinsville on an encouraging call from a fellow member dance at our facilities. We join our friends 26-27 October. The Spring 2002 meeting will can reach places and give strength not found around the world in praying for the speedy be held in Mishawaka on 20 April. The PHM elsewhere. return of peace. Planetarium Air & Space Museum is scale model Air Museum to its Manned Canadian Council of Science Great lakes Planetarium Associa­ Museum. The Air Museum includes 1/72 Centres tion scale models of all the major aircraft of each decade, including both military and com­ Like many organizations, including IPS, At the SEPA/GLPA Conference in June, mercial aircraft. The planetarium has also the CCSC is planning for the future. CCSC GLPA conducted an election of officers. put together a 38-minute video entitled needs to adapt to meet the needs of its mem­ Joseph DeRocher was elected PreSident-elect, History of Flight in the 20th Century. Director bers and provide leadership to the science Robert Bonadurer was re-elected as Secre­ Art Klinger and Dr. Phil Wymn have com­ center and planetarium community in Can­ tary /Treasurer, and Susan Reynolds Button pleted a rough draft of a new astronomy ada. A CCSC Planning Session was held in was re-elected as IPS Representative. textbook/workbook entitled Mysteries Sudbury on 8-9 June 2001, hosted by CCSC lllinois. The Fall 2001 meeting was held at Night Sky. This fun year introductory astron- President Jim Marchbank. Key factors driv- Strickler Planetarium of Olivet Nazarene

42 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December omy text is for high school or college intro­ The Longway Planetarium in Flint enjoy­ ductory courses. ed the beginning of its new era as a The Carmel Clay Community Schools planetarium when they re-opened on 29 lie show in conjunction with the """"UT,1t-U1"" Planetarium has made some recent renova­ September. In mid-September, as part of the traveling exhibit. As part of a tions, including the addition of new seating Quilts at Crossroads countywide quilt show, paign, their ten-year theater seats and carpet and a new sound system. The they presented Star Quilts at Longway Plane­ Muncie Community Schools' Planetarium tarium, a show of locally made quilts with a Wiscomin/Minnesota. There was presented the StarDate Ancient Horizons star theme in their exhibit lobby. 2001 but the 2002 me1etir12 Egyptian program in both English and The Grand Haven Area Public Schools (with Illinois) will be held on Spanish in September in celebration of Planetarium is working to increase the num­ Hispanic Heritage Month. In June, the plane­ ber of classes visiting this year after a success­ tarium was a downlink site for the summer ful reopening. Last year, 6th and 8th solstice total solar eclipse 2001 from Zambia, students were treated to visits. This year, 4th South Africa. HoUy Hudson is the new Plane­ and 7th grade students were added. The Delta tarium Director for Terre Haute Schools, tak­ College Planetarium in Bay City shut down ing over after Jerry Mansfield, who retired in during the month of September for annual children's show, The FlU"U,'",,, June. equipment maintenance and cleaning. The started Maryann Foster, an art teacher, and Gregg planetarium reopened for a new season of Williams, Planetarium Director, have pro­ shows in October. Once again, in celebration duced a planetarium show titled Van Gogh of Halloween, they hosted a free day where Sees the Stars for the Merrillville Community they ran Night Walk free of charge to all visi­ During the last National ME~etJnll Planetarium. The program traces the life of tors. Planetaria October 2001) news was Vincent Van Gogh and his interest in the Ohio. The Fall 2001 meeting was held in presented about the of sky. The planetarium hopes to use the show Pittsburgh on October 12 & 13. The Spring Naples. The second has been with art classes and as a public program. 2002 meeting dates and location will be November in the Italian science cen- Steve Sumichrast, a Student Assistant and announced later. A veteran Ohio planetarian ter, the of Science" of high school student in Merrillville, has is retiring. Dick Speir has directed the Sidney dome of 9.8 meters (75 seats), a ZKP helped create a website for the planetarium Frohman Planetarium in Sandusky since its projector with been as part of the school system's website. In opening in 1967, serving schools in Sandusky installed. The planetariul~ August, the University of St. Francis appoint­ and the surrounding area and running week­ Alessandra Zanazzi . The star a Goto weiler Planetarium. Luann Watson was hired lapse of almost ten years, the Fostoria High 5 model, will be used in the section as Educator to present and develop school School will be implementing its planetarium museum devoted to children. programs. into their Earth Science curriculum once During the in Michigan. The Fall 2001 meeting was held again. The NOVA III star projector has been new project was described, an Italian at Grand Rapids on 19-20 October. The refurbished by Ash Enterprises. tarium of 1873 and a memory about Spring 2002 meeting will be held in Sault The planetarium in Shaker Heights recent­ Italian astronomer Giovanni Latino .rUllU' ..'," Saint Marie sometime in mid-June. The ly ran a successful fourth space camp with in the occasion of the centenary Cranbrook Institute of Science Planetarium twelve students, including exchange stu­ (1901). Andrissi was director for twenty in Bloomfield Hills recently debuted a new dents from Israel, China, Switzerland, and of the old Rome Zeiss Planetarium, astronomy program entitled Awesome Kosovo. Amateur rocket builders demon­ dome was installed inside the Autumn Skies. The show features an audi­ strated the principles of rocketry and Thermal Baths of Diodeziano. From ence-interactive Digistar starmap, as well as showed video of some amateur launches, 1948. He was lecturer of 9000 an educational tour of the current night sky, including a large scale model of the 1\/1<,,1''''''11''' Milky Way galaxy and zodiac. In addition, capsule which carried Alan Shepard in 1961. they hosted a four-week course entitled Shepard's daughter was at the amateur conducted lessons for ...... ",U'F,U' ...HILU Astronomy for Inquiring Minds beginning in launch. Meanwhile, the Shaker Planetarium like queens, and The October, and they will host a telescope users is being redone. A room for AV is final part of the was devoted to a workshop in January. The Shiras Planetari­ being put in, the star machine console is concert-conference mSPlI'eC1 um in Marquette displayed a Lunar Disc dur­ being redone by Jon Frantz, and new cove ing June and July. This year marks Director lighting was installed. The facility now has Scott Stobbelaar's last school year of regular six slide projectors and a new control system teaching, but he will stay on with the plane­ that features automation and editing capa­ tarium in retirement. bility. The biennial NPA Conference was hosted The Exhibit Museum of Natural History in This summer, the Ritter Planetarium and Ann Arbor is in the final stages of their in­ Brooks Observatory offered a very successful house production of Women In Astronomy: A Parent/Child Space Academy in July and hope History. The program, funded through a to add this new workshop to their set of Boy from five countries. grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Girl Scout and Telescope workshops. In presented the coxnplllCate'C1 and Cultural Affairs and private donors, will August, Ritter bid farewell to long time stu­ cess of Cosmonova's (Stockholm, open in Ann Arbor in January. This show dent employees Meredith Gray and William new show UFO - The Truth is focuses on twenty women spanning the Fischer. Both are now at the University of strom n""><;:Plnt,::,rl time from A.D. 400 to the present. Massachusetts pursuing graduate degrees. cational school show Stars and Planets their show in the ","""',,,,]';,

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian Space. Lars Broman the new one­ 2002-3: Lars Broman, President; Hans Lund­ stains and odors of smoke and soot semester course Communicating Science at strom, Timo Rahunen removed Dalarnas University - contact him at Vice-President with Sakari Lehtinen, Fun "n", .. ~,tl.rH'C for more information on that - Aase Roland Jacobsen, Director with Lars as well as the financial problems of Tekno­ Peterson as Deputy; Helle Jaaniste, Director the absence of an land (both in Falun, Sweden). Teknoland's with Jaak Jaaniste as Deputy; and Ivar Reed store, and astronomy exhibit area Spitz star ball has been sold to Mariestad's Nakken, Director with Urke as The Morrison Planetarium should Astronomical Club (Sweden) and their giant Deputy. NPA received an invitation to celebrate its 50th on 8 '",-''''0'''''''''''''_ Starlab dome to Science Circus/Teknoteket to hold its next conference in 2003 in Tartu, her. It is hoped that the exhibit hall in Oslo, Norway. Estonia. repaired and refurbished to Eva Mezey reported that Lund's pl<::metaI'i­ Nineteen years ago, Chalmers University public access in December. A new urn in southernmost Sweden is moving from of Technology bought a Starlab, actually the show, What's at the the old observatory building in central Lund first in Scandinavia. Since then, first Marie summer, featuring a cartoon character to a new location near the Department of Radbo and later also Ann-Marie Gronkvist the Ist-3rd school show who asks Astronomy at the University of Lund. Johan have given hundreds of thousands of chil­ Hons and offers wisecracks about the Gijsenbergs presented Sky-Skan with dren the opportunity to see the stars, and it is sky. This and an other shows were offices in Miinchen, Germany and Amster­ still going strong. But now Radbo has decid­ and produced in-house. dam, Netherlands (where Gijsenberg is). Aase ed that it is time for a change. She has been An all-dome video system was installed Roland Jacobsen presented The Aarhus invited by FEST, the Foundation for Educa­ the Lane Planetarium in LuJ;;. ... J'n_ ...... ,. ... "'" ••. Meteorite and other events at the Steno tion, Science and Technology in South The hi-def system Museum planetarium, Aarhus, Denmark. Africa, to share her experiences. the installed under its current 12.2-meter Aslaug Norden-Ott talked on her eX1Jeriences she will visit science centers, observato­ but will be moved to the pl2metaI'imn's when presenting Harry Martinson's epic ries, universities, etc., and talk to learners, IS-meter theater upon completion. A Aniara in a Starlab planetarium at Lerum teachers, and the public about her ideas digital, 5.1 surround sound system, two senior high school in GOteborg, Sweden - about science communication and about players and a MPEG video player were also some readers may remember Aniara from astronomy. She will also take Chalmers' installed. Mariana Back's planetarium show at Fram­ Starlab and leave it there as a gift to FEST. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific tidsmuseet's Kosmorama Space Theater dur­ Radbo is sure this is an excellent future for (ASP) has a new web address at ing the IPS'90 Conference or from John the planetarium and she will also try sup­ astrosociety.org>. All other addresses on Hare's American Aniara show. (More about porting them as much as she can. Society's educational web site have also Aniara and Martinson in the Planetarian Per Broman, Broman Planetarium, has two Uld.n:ge~u. We apologize for """"""'''6 2/98.) new products for the Nordic market. One is work, but would be most Lars Petersen presented the activities of the computer program Plot Formula, used to could change references and links in Orio'n Planetarium, JeIs, Denmark, which increase understanding of functions, equa­ publications and on your web sites. For runs as a sister planetarium of the planetari­ tions, and graphs. A demo version of the pro­ information, contact the um in Aarhus. A few years ago, there was a gram is available at . webmaster, Leslie Wolber at . astrologers, but was saved by intervention foolproof solar telescope Sunspotter, also pre­ from the University of Aarhus. Jaak Jaaniste sented at Broman Planetarium's site. presented the first year's activities of the new Starlab at the Science Center AHHAA, Tartu The recent Western Alliance Conference University, Estonia. Ilgonis Vilks from the A two-alarm fire at the California Aca­ in Eugene, was strong. sched­ Institute of Astronomy in Riga talked about demy of Sciences in San Francisco occurred uled in the wake of 11 September, it aptJealred. the situation in Latvia - not yet a planetari­ late on the evening of 30 August 30, consum­ to have effected our attendance um, but the Estonian Starlab would be bor­ the museum's main gift shop and about 10-15%. Business was much rowed later this year. heat and smoke damage to the usual. Ann-Gerd Eriksson talked about Sweden's exhibit area adjoining the Morrison One of the announcements northernmost planetarium activities, the Planetarium. The theater itself RMPA as a group is the new web site, small planetarium at Teknikens Hus in Lulea and the historic star were sUiJje1cted are very and their nowadays two Starlabs, used in to a slight, cleanable accumulation of ed to offer, to the members of RMPA, access outreach programs in Norrbotten and Lap­ soot, thanks to the response of the San to a of useful slides, panoramas, land. Ann-Marie Gronkvist from Chalmers Francisco Fire A NASA lunar skies and just about else folks University of Technology, Goteborg, told sample was undamaged. Most notable, to share. In order to of this service, that Chalmers' Starlab program will close though, was the melting of the Academy's one needs to become a member of RMP A. down - more on that below. Guest lecturer famous models of the which order for this service to become successful, Prof. J. E. Mountain talked on An epoch-mak­ were made of - these were so we need members to submit material. So, ing invention in the field of portable mini­ deformed by the heat that they ended up you see, this is sort of a group effort. If more domes - Prof. Mountain is remembered from looking like from a Salvador DaB get involved, then more get his lecture on black holes during IPS'90, exhibit. The hall's element, the for RMPA is which came to a sudden end when he sud­ Foucault pendulum, suffered heat-damage to $IS/year) Here is where the NON RMP Nns, denly was physically absorbed his inven­ its control electronics and was temporarily come in. Our is not limited to tion that time, a black hole generator. removed. The Academy was closed to the just the Rocky Mountain Region. So, RMPA A new board was elected for the two years public for 21/2 weeks in September as the invites the world to in this

44 Planetarian Vol. becoming a member, making submissions tary training facility, and that the Air Force 23 August. Over a month later officials are and getting the benefits of the shared visual is involved in many aspects of space trans­ still uncertain as to the cause. The plGmetaI~i­ resources. portation, earth sensing, weather observa­ um projector and most of the other Submissions for this service have already tions, and other activities that contribute to, ment including the dome have been begun. The Air Force Academy, Colorado or rely heavily upon, our national space declared a total loss. All staff except director Springs, Colorado, has submitted all of their capabilities. They are also looking at ways to George Fleenor have been let go by the par­ panoramas for the library. Hansen Planetar­ deliver appropriate Air Force messages in ent organization, the South Florida Museum. ium has also submitted a few all-skies from each of their programs dealing with naViga­ The future of the planetarium remains their recent productions. After the announc­ tion, aviation, space, astronomy, and solar or uncertain. ement at our conference, others began to terrestrial information to explain any con­ Plans are moving forward for the 2002 talk about what they had to submit and that nection between those topiCS and Air Force SEP A conference, which will be hosted by they will indeed become a member. and Academy programs. the new planetarium at the Louisiana Arts Obviously, this will turn into something and Sciences Center in Baton Rouge. Con­ that we all can use. Southeastern Planetarium Associ­ ference dates are 25-29 June 2002. The site For the moment, the website will host a ation for the 2003 SEP A conference is still undecid­ catalog with thumbnails to show what is ed. For up-to-date information on SEPA, visit Bradenton's Bishop Planetarium suffered a available. When members find what they their website at . devastating fire early on the morning of * looking for, they will need to place their order to the librarian via e-mail. The librari­ an, for the time being, will burn the data onto a CD-ROM and send it off. You may be asking, who is this individual? For now, Hansen Planetarium will manage, scan, host, and mail the data. Hansen Planetarium con­ tinues their efforts to build a new facility by the end of the year 2002. Soon they will know much more about the financial aspect of the project. Feelings are good. They feel that they are supported and will get what they need in order to do what they are plan­ ning, All-Dome Video! The Faulkner Planetarium is making progress with plans to build a research-grade observatory. This facility will be on the University Campus, most likely, in a separate building from the museum. It will be a Classical Cassegrain mount, boasting a 60-cm (24 inch) Torus Instrument, with a coude focus and Springfield Moun t. Plans are to have construction complete as early as January 2003. The USAF Academy Planetari­ um is getting a new sound system. Installa­ tion should be in late November. The con­ tract was awarded on 30 September to Bowen Productions of Indianapolis. The sound system will replace components that range in age from 10 to 30 years old. They hope to have a sound system that will rival any other facility. A new staff member is coming on board at USAF Academy Planetarium (Center for Educational Multimedia). He is Technical Sgt. Vito Loguidice, and he'll replace TSgt Charles (Chuck) Stringham, who will be moving to Georgia later this year. TSgt Stringham has been at the Academy Plane­ tarium more than three years. With the stepped up security at Air Force Bases, includ­ ing the Air Force Academy, they have tem­ porarily discontinued public and school pre­ sentations. They are making changes to the lobby displays in an attempt to show visitors that the planetarium is part of a larger mili-

Vol. 30, No.4, December 2001 Planetarian 45 tion for Science-Technology Centers confer- from the Science Access site, ence in Phoenix, where we enjoyed for them there. ing the Arizona Science Center and Hst:enmg to Christine Shupla narrate Cosmic Joyride, a showcase of the capabilities of their plane­ tarium. We're also working with IPS members to represent IPS at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences annual meeting, which will be in New Orleans, Louisiana, from November 27 - December 1, 2001. A highlight should be the arrives at Saturn and special session on Deep Space l's findings at probe, which will 1-'u."~~"A~'''' Comet Borrelly. The abstracts are online at face 2005. http://www.boulder.swrLedu/dpsOl (the edu­ The 2001 version of the NASA cation posters are Session 13). A new resource especially for ums, museums, and science centers went live on October 5, just in time for ASTC and WPA. The Space Science Access website at http://mo-www.harvard.edu/spacescience access has been created as a "watering hole" In September and October, we received for planetariums, science centers and muse­ many applications for the 2002 Solar System mns to access NASA resources, share ideas, new educational material is available Ambassador program, through which com­ and share best practices in informal science NASA. petitively selected volunteers from across education. Kudos to Mary Dussault of the Three new Broker/Facilitators the country bring the wonders of space sci­ Structure and Evolution of the Universe selected, with their contracts ence to the public in many non-traditional Forum at Harvard-Smithsonian and to January 1, 2001. Contact info for all venues. As usual, we received a number of Kathryn Treml and Craig Anthony of the kers is below. applications from other countries. Unfor­ SouthEast Regional Clearinghouse broker/ The quickest way for us to get tunately, because our funding comes from facilitators for putting this site together, formation to you is your n<.:t<;:PfVP<; US. taxpayer dollars, we can only select US. with the help of the Informal education so until next issue, citizens. Kay Ferrari, the program coordina­ working group of NASA's Office of Space tor, shared a particularly pOignant applica­ Science Education and public outreach sup­ tion from a citizen of Bosnia Herzegovenia, port network. We solicit your feedback and Lunar and however. His reason for wanting to be a Solar participation in this site. Every page has a Point of Contact: Dr. """,.UA'_'-U IOrmson System Ambassador? "I live in a country link to an evaluation form. We'll be making Houston, TX where we have forgotten to look at the this site known to the space scientists Phone Number: (281) 244-2014 stars." Perhaps by understanding the sheer around the country, too, as a meeting scale and wonders of the Universe, people for those wanting to find experts in Website: might learn to put their differences aside and science areas or in science education. /EPO/broker.html work together to protect our own beautiful Another tool that we plan to expand is the and fragile planet. (Kay has put our new NASA Solar System Exploration Mission SouthEast Regional ,-" ...., .. ,u"-"'6' friend in touch with a group, which includes Launches and Events calendar, at http://sse Point of Contact Dr. Cassandra I.} 11l'H'r>n a former Ambassador, in England who are .jpl.nasa.gov/whatsnew/calendar.html. I put cn"me:ston, SC discussing setting up an Ambassadors-like together this "decade at a glance" in direct Phone Number: (843) 953-5437 program there.) response to complaints I heard at ASTC sev­ Mars Odyssey arrived at Mars and went eral years ago, that folks don't know what Website: into orbit on October 23, 2001. After several NASA is doing and when they are doing it. months of aero braking to achieve the This obviously had made it hard for you to Science desired orbit, look for the first images around plan programs and events around exciting for Education and Outreach the first part of February 2002. Keep in touch NASA events. This calendar shows launch Point of Contact: Dr. Narasimhan through the Mars Exploration Program site dates and the mission events such as flybys, Chicago,IL http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov. orbit insertions, landings, and sample returns Phone Number: (773) 325-1854 A number of conferences went on as for US. missions exploring the solar system. scheduled this fall, despite the uncertainties It also includes foreign missions in which Website: and the hassles of increased security at air­ NASA is participating, such as Rosetta and broker ports. Cheri Morrow, broker from the Space Mars Express. Each item is hot-linked to Science Institute, conducted a workshop at more information. Since this clickable calen­ Space Science Institute (SSI) the Western Planetarium Alliance in Eugene, dar includes only solar system exploration Point of Contact: Dr. Cheri M()rn'JW Oregon, hosted by Jon Elvert. John Stoke, information, plans are underway to create Boulder, CO Anita Sohus, and Mary Dussault presented at similar calendars for NASA's other space sci­ Phone Number: (303) 492-7321 the Space Science Showcase at the Associa- ence activities. The calendars will be linked Email Address: [email protected]

46 Planetarian Vol. Website: http://ssibroker.colorado.edu /Broker 1ookih9 for a Space Science Network Northwest Point of Contact: Dr. Julie H. Lutz popula~ · University of Washington, Seattle Phone Number: (206) 543-0214 Email Address: [email protected]

The Center for Educational Technologies Point of Contact: Dr. Nitin Naik Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV Phone Number: (304) 243-2388 Email Address: [email protected]

New England Space Science Initiative in Education (NESSIE) Point of Contact: Dr. Cary I. Sneider Museum of Science, Boston, MA Phone Number: (617) 589-0359 Email Address: [email protected] Charlie Smith was describing the negotia­ From Rich Dreiser, at Yerkes nrl<,:pv'V::Itn!'v tions with Evans and Sutherland before the in Williams Wisconsin, USA: installation of the very first Digistar projec­ "Por generations, astronomers ~~~'~hA>U~~~ tor in the Richmond Universe (or any uni­ verse, for that matter) in the early '80s. He very much wanted a comet projector, and argued forcefully that with P-Halley return­ eighth, L He refers to, but ing soon, everyone needed a comet projec­ specifically mention, the mnemonic tor. generations of astronomers used "When I arrived in their offices for the to memorize the seven main classes next meeting," Charlie recalls, "they had a "Can I be less correct small gift-wrapped package waiting for me. Kaler? Absolutely. I recall a conversation And there in a box was a can of Comet had twenty years ago with an astronomer cleanser. I knew we had our comet!" who thought the was sexist. To which I responded, "What's Director of the South African Museum with Oh Be A Fine Kiss Me?" Planetarium, Tony Fairall had the good for­ astronomer nr,ptprrl"(1 to remain tune (?) of new seating installed during the are still friends./I "Just listen at meetings," Jane said, after winter months. Alas, the course of true seat­ she'd asked if I would consider writing this ing never does run smooth: Mike preSident-elect of the column. "Ask people for stories. People "Date: Mon,2Ju1200l eastern Planetarium Association, remarked always have great stories. And you don't liTo all those concerned with the plane­ at the last conference, "I don't think of have to do it forever. Just give it a try." tarium seating: paycheck. I think of it as further (Y oda's words came back to me: "There is no liOn the positive side, the new seating I'm eligible for food stamps." try. Only do. Or do not.") looks very nice and is a great improvement Jane and I tossed around ideas for what to over the old broken down tattered seats. With the of summer to our call this column. There could only be one "Unfortunately there is quite a bit of neg­ ern hemisphere members, here's a bit of cele­ Corner, of course. She thought perhaps ative side. bratory verse, Michael Harrison and April's Attic (too precious). Or Whitt's End "After the very first ad ult show on in their Year Full of (too ghastly). Or The Column Mater (too Saturday, a number of the seat backs were Poems, published by Oxford obscure). Or End Notes (sounds like musical found to be bent backwards, one in particu­ Press. John Smith writes: production). Or First Light (telescopic, but lar was bent almost flat. Presumably the Have you ever heard the sun in the column's at the end of the journal) brackets supporting the backs are not strong Man have you heard it? What do you think? Should we have a enough. The seats have been straightened Have you heard it break the black contest? Best column title wins a prize? but this obviously requires urgent attention. Man have you heard it? What would constitute a good prize? Let me "Since young children cannot get the seat Have you heard it shouting its song, know if you would, please. Address is above. backs to recline, we had put in a specific you heard It scorch up the air like request that the seat backs be set in an initial nix bird, Have you heard the sun Thank you to all of the IPS members who position 15 degrees off the vertical. This has have sent their sympathy and support dur­ not been done, so the seats are currently Byron Herbert Reece was a poet, ing these last few months. Your messages and uncomfortable for children. referred to as a mountain Singer. His "Winter kind thoughts are much appreciated by all "The seats are set too high. No allowance Solstice" poem, published in 1955 as part of of us here. was made for the tilt back mechanism in set­ the book A Season ofFZesh, is offered here for I remember, as a teenager, suddenly realiz­ ting the height of the rail on to which the northern hemisphere readers, courtesy P. ing that "people in other countries" were just seats are bolted. It means that a person of Dutton Publishers. like us. Everyone loves their children,likes to average height, who leans back in one of the When the land is white with snow visit with their neighbors, enjoys playing chairs, has his feet lifted off the floor. Something chills the moonlit scene, games and talking with others ... and on and "I also note that the original plan in Janu­ Cold so strange no mercury on. I feel blessed in being able to meet and ary, with 162 seats, was based on a seat width Apprehends it by degree, talk with the creative, generous, caring and (arm included) of 500 mm. It happens this is As iffeathered fearshouldgo delightful members of IPS at conferences. the width used in Economy class aircraft Like a condor wing between seating, so it would have been possible. Heaven and earth; and all oftime Kelly Quinn shared this quote from her liThe present compromise was to allow Lay defined in whitest rime. paper at the Southeastern Planetarium Asso­ standard office chairs to be used. While I And always the wild wind comes on to blow. ciation/Great lakes Planetarium Association agree that this allows a well tested tilt mech­ meeting this past June. anism to be used (rather than the custom Let the tJ'lackguard wind affright Choose to have fun. mechanism that plagued the previous seats), Fox and owl that wake at night. Fun creates enjoyment. I still feel that taking office chairs, unbolting Should it rouse a sleeping man Enjoyment invites participation. one of their arms and sawing off their lock­ Though it shrink his bones to hear Participation focuses attention. ing levers was not the ideal solution. How it shrills the solstice air Attention expands awareness. "I do hope something satisfactory can be Let him turn to sleep again, A wareness promotes insight. sorted out." Turn to peace, remembering Insightgenerates knowledge. Last word was that forty new seat backs That the twice-divided year Knowledge facilitates action. had been delivered. All tilted at the wrong Is quartered toward the spring. Action yields results. angle. - Oswald B. Shallow A blessed and peaceful solstice to each of you.

48 Planetarian Vol. No.4, December * Just like a A planetanum grown-up on the road