Vol. 41, No. 4 December 2012

Journal of the International Society

Neil Armstrong 1930-2012

Articles 6 Guest Editorial: When Teaching Astronomy, Keep Your December 2012 Vol. 41 No. 4 Feet on the Ground Ray Worthy 14 Can lessons designed with Gestalt laws of visual Executive Editor perception improve students’ understanding Sharon Shanks of phases of the moon? Michele Wistisen Ward Beecher Planetarium 24 Re-imagining the Realm of Light Dan Neafus Youngstown State University 28 Bringing fulldome world to Rio One University Plaza Luís Guilherme, Haun Rafael Drelich Youngstown, 44555 USA 30 The trouble is in your set after all Jeff Bowen +1 330-941-3619 [email protected] IPS Special Section 32 Minutes of the IPS Council Meeting, Baton Rouge Advertising Coordinator Lee Ann Henning Dr. Dale Smith, Interim Coordinator 35 The New IPS Website Alan Gould (See Publications Committee on page 3) 41 Call for IPS Award and Fellow Nominations Lars Broman 45 Under One Dome: Erie Planetarium Jim Gavio Membership 49 Triad Categories Adam Thanz Individual: $65 one year; $100 two years 54 Bugs help tell the story of trees Christoph Brandl Institutional: $250 first year; $125 annual renewal 43 Preserving manuscripts that preserve the roots of African Library Subscriptions: $45 one year; $80 two years astronomy All amounts in US currency 72 George David Millard, 1961-2012 Direct membership requests and changes of 72 Linton Pitluga, 1943-2012 address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman

Back Issues of the Planetarian Columns IPS Back Publications Repository 68 Book Reviews ...... April S. Whitt maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Chair; 74 Calendar of Events ...... Loris Ramponi contact information is on next page 48 Educational Horizons ...... Jack L. Northrup 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks Index 50 IMERSA News ...... Judith Rubin A cumulative index of major articles that have 56 International News...... Lars Broman appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue 76 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt through the current issue is available online at 66 Mobile News ...... Susan Reynolds Button www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/planetarian_ 54 Partycles ...... Alex Cherman index.pdf 42 Past President’s Message ...... Tom Mason 10 President’s Message ...... David Weinrich 70 Waxing New ...... Sharon Shanks Final Deadlines March: January 21 June: April 21 September: July 21 Index of Advertisers December: October 21 Astro-Tec ...... 75 Audio Visual Imagineering ...... 23, 53 Clark Planetarium/Hansen Dome ...... 51 Associate Editors Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc...... 61 Evans & Sutherland ...... 29, outside back cover Book Reviews Editor-at-Large International Global Immersion ...... 5 April S. Whitt Steve Tidey Lars Broman GOTO INC ...... inside front cover Calendar Education Last Light Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 43 Loris Ramponi Jack Northrup April S. Whitt Museum of Science, ...... 11 Cartoons IMERSANews Mobile News Navitar ...... 21 Alexandre Judith Rubin Susan Button Cherman NSC Creative ...... 47 Planetarium ...... 33 R.S.A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover Softmachine ...... 9, 31 On the Cover: Sky-Skan, Inc ...... 37, centerfold, 40 “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of Spitz, Inc...... 19, 27, 44, 71, 73 service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next You Can Do Astronomy ...... 42 time you walk outside on a clear night and see the Zeiss, Inc ...... 55 moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.” International Planetarium Society home page: “I think we're going to the moon because it's in the www.ips-planetarium.org nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul...we're required to do Planetarian home page: these things just as salmon swim upstream.” www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012 Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/guidelines.html

December 2012 Planetarian 1 Affiliate Representatives

Association of Brazilian British Association Italian Association Russian Planetariums of Planetaria of Planetaria Association Officers Alexandre Cherman Jenny Shipway Loris Ramponi Zinaida P. Sitkova Planetário do Planetarium Manager National Archive of Planetaria President R. Vice-Governador INTECH Science Centre & c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Planetarium Dave Weinrich Rubens Berardo, 100 Planetarium Serafino Zani Revolutsionnja Street 20 Planetarium Rio de Janeiro RJ Telegraph Way, Morn Hill via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 603002 Nizhny Minnesota State 22451-070 , SO2 11H I 25066 Lumezzane Novgorod, University-Moorhead +55 (21) 2274-0046 ext. 264 (Brescia) +7 831 246-78-80 1104 7th Avenue South +55 (21) 2529-2149 fax +44 1 962 891916 +39 30 872 164 +7 831 246-77-89 fax Moorhead alexandre.cherman@ +44 1 962 868524 fax +39 30 872 545 fax [email protected] Minnesota 56563 USA planetario.rio.rj.gov.br JennyShipway@ [email protected] www.apr.planetariums.ru +1 218-477-2969 planetarios.org.br intech-uk.com [email protected] +1 218-477-5864 fax www.rio.rj.gov. www.intech-uk.com www.planetari.org Society of German- [email protected] br/planetario www.planetarium.org.uk Speaking Planetaria Christian Theis Past-President Association of Canadian Association Planetarium Society Planetarium Dutch-Speaking of Science Centres Kaoru Kimura Dr. Tom Mason, Director Wilhelm-Varnholt-Allee 1 Planetariums/PLANed Japan Science Foundation Planetarium Ian C. McLennan D-68165 Mannheim Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku College Hill Andre Milis #404 - 1275 Haro Street , 102-0091 Japan Armagh BT61 9DB Planetarium Royal Ob- , +49 621 419 4220 (phone); [email protected] Northern servatory of V6E 1G1 Canada +49 621 412 411 (fax); www.shin-pla.info United Kingdom Boechoutlaan 10 +1 604-681-4790 ct@planetarium- +44 (0)2837 524725 1020 , Belgium phone + fax mannheim.de (email); Middle Atlantic +44 (0)2837 526187 fax +324747030 [email protected] www.gdp-planetarium.org Planetarium +44 (0)771 0013453 cell +324783026 fax [email protected] Society Southeastern [email protected] [email protected] www.ianmclennan.com Patty Seaton Planetarium www.armaghplanet.com Association of French- Chinese Planetarium H.B. Owens Science Center Association Speaking Planetariums President-Elect Society 9601 Greenbelt Road John Hare Lanham-Seabrook, Thomas W. 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Moellers Alle 2 Rachel Thompson Planetariums Association University of Portable Universe Man- Ignacio Castro Pinal Manos Kitsonas DK-8000 Aarhus C ager & Presenter Executive Secretary Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 Eugenides Planetarium Perot Museum of Na- Lee Ann Hennig C.P. 01490, México City 387 Syngrou Avenue +45 89423975 ture and Science Planetarium, Thomas D.F. México 17564 P. 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Box 4451 +34 948 260 004 +1 440-899-3075 x2058 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +34 948 260 056 +1 440-835-5572 fax Rocky Mountain +34 948 261 919 fax jeanneebishop@ Planetarium All other correspondence: [email protected] wowway.com Association ‘Imiloa Astronomy gestion@pamplonetario. www.glpaweb.org Mike George Center of Hawai’i infonego-cio.com 600 East Washington Street 600 ‘Imiloa Place Great Plains Planetarium Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Australasian Planetarium Association +1 602-716-2079 Society Jack Dunn +1 602-716-2099 fax +1 808-969-9735 Warik Lawrance Ralph Mueller Planetarium [email protected] +1 808-969-9748 fax Planetarium University of Nebraska-Lincoln [email protected] Scienceworks/Museum 210 Morrill Hall Victoria Lincoln, Nebraska 2 Booker Street 68588-0375 USA Spotswood (Melbourne) +1 402-472-2641 Victoria +1 402-475-8899 fax 3015 [email protected] +61 3 9392 4503 www.spacelaser.com/gppa +61 3 9391 0100 fax wlawrance@mu- seum.vic.gov.au www.aps-planetarium.org

2 Planetarian December 2012 Standing Committees IPS Permanent Awards Committee Conference Host- 2014 Membership Committee Prof. Lars Broman, Chair Dr. Jin Zhu, Director Shawn Laatsch, Chair Mailing Address Teknoland Beijing Planetarium ‘Imiloa Astronomy Cen- Stångtjärnsv 132 138 Xizhimenwai Street ter of Hawaii International Planetarium Society SE-791 74 Beijing 100044 China 600 ‘Imiloa Place +86 10-5158-3007 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA c/o Shawn Laatsch +46 2310177 +86 10-5158-3312 fax +1 808-969-9735 Treasurer/Membership Chair [email protected] [email protected] +1 808-969-9748 fax www.teknoland.se [email protected] All fiscal business: Elections Committee P.O. Box 4451 Conference Committee Martin George, Chair Publications Committee Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Dave Weinrich Launceston Planetarium Dr. Dale W. Smith, Chair Planetarium Queen Victoria Museum BGSU Planetarium All other correspondence: Minnesota State Street 104 Overman Hall ‘Imiloa Astronomy University-Moorhead Launceston Tasmania 7250 Physics &Astronomy Department Center of Hawai’i 1104 7th Avenue South Australia Bowling Green State University Moorhead +61 3 6323 3777 Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA 600 ‘Imiloa Place Minnesota 56563 USA +61 3 6323 3776 fax +1 419-372-8666 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA +1 218-477-2969 [email protected] +1 419-372-9938 fax +1 808-969-9735 +1 218-477-5864 fax [email protected] [email protected] Finance Committee +1 808-969-9748 fax President, Past President, Presi- [email protected] dent Elect, Treasurer, Secretary IPS Web Site: Ad Hoc Committees www.ips-planetarium.org Armand Spitz Planetar- International IPS Professional Please notify the Editor of any ium Education Fund Relations Committee Services Committee changes on these two pages. Finance Committee Martin George, Chair Shaaron Leverment Launceston Planetarium Explorer Dome Hands On Education Committee Queen Victoria Museum Science Outreach Contact the Treasurer/Membership Jack L. Northrup Wellington Street Mailbox 42, 179 Whiteladies Chair for individual member address Dr. Martin Luther King, Launceston, Tasma- Road, BS8 2AG Jr. Planetarium nia 7250 Australia +44 117 9141526 changes and general circulation and King Science and Technology +61 3 6323 3777 [email protected] billing questions. Magnet Center +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected] 3720 Blvd. [email protected] www.explorerdome.co.uk Omaha, NE 68110 USA Outreach Committee +1 402-557-4494 Jon W. Elvert, Chair Technology Committee [email protected] Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Jack Dunn webmail.ops.org/~jack.northrup Louisiana Art & Science Museum Ralph Mueller Planetarium 100 South River Road University of Nebraska- Lincoln Full-Dome Video Committee Baton Rouge, Louisi- 210 Morrill Hall Antonio Pedrosa, Chair ana 70802 USA Lincoln, Nebraska Navegar Foundation +1 225-344-5272 68588-0375 USA Centro Multimeios Espinho +1 225-214-4027 fax +1 402-472-2641 Av. 24, nº800, [email protected] +1 402-475-8899 fax 4500-202 Espinho [email protected] Portable www.spacelaser.com/gppa +351 22 7331190 Planetarium Committee +351 22 7331191 fax Susan Reynolds Button, Chair [email protected] Quarks to Clusters Web Committee 8793 Horseshoe Lane Alan Gould, Chair History Committee Chittenango, NY 13037 Holt Planetarium The Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is pub- John Hare, IPS Historian +1 315-687-5371 Lawrence Hall of Science lished quarterly by the International Ash Enterprises [email protected] University of California 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] Berkeley, California Planetarium Society. ©2012 Interna- Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA 94720-5200 USA tional Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights +1 941-746-3522 +1 510-643-5082 reserved. 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December 2012 Planetarian 3 in education journals that I probably would never find on my own. Think of bibliogra- In Front of the Console phies as the search engines of the pre-comput- er world. Michele’s research, as is appropriate for a Sharon Shanks master’s thesis, states the question, reviews the Ward Beecher Planetarium literature and current methods, analyses data, Youngstown State University and reaches a conclusion (to tip you off: that Youngstown, OH 44555 USA teaching moon phases should be delayed un- til high school; be sure to read the rest of her [email protected] paper on the IPS website). I have on my desk an article from the Na- tional Science Teacher’s Association journal In this issue I’ve written a review of the To write my review correctly, I should have Science Scope (their middle school science movie The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu. said that the ancient manuscripts are also un- publication) from January 2011 that gives just We have been showing Clark Planetarium’s der attack by the pervasive of destruc- as much space to an 8th grade lesson plan on Skywatchers of Ancient in my dome, tive factors: humans. Or, more correctly, hu- moon phase modeling. The title is “A High- and while watching the movie again for the mans under the influence of religion. Stakes-Test Invervention: Moon-Phase Mod- review, I kept remembering two lines from I hate to use “that” word because it is one of els as Viewed from Earth and Space.” Skywatchers: the two things I run away from in public. The “We found among them a great number other, of course, is politics (and, in the United The title tells the tale of books written with their characters, and States, those two words are become more in- The title should tip you off: the focus is how because they contained nothing but super- tertwined). OK, enough of those nasty words. to teach for the high-stakes tests that “grade” stitions and falsehoods about the devil, we The message of the movie is upbeat: that schools and their teachers. The authors right- burned them all, which they felt most deeply, knowledge must be preserved, and a new era ly suggest that what a student sees in the sky, and over which they showed much sorrow.” of understanding astronomy in Africa has be- the “3-D version,” isn’t easily transferred to 2-D Earlier in the program, in discussing the gun. concepts presented on paper on the tests, and three Maya books that had survived, “Imag- Where would the world’s science of astron- recommend using a variety of teaching strate- ine what we might know if more Maya books omy be today if the Muslim world had not gies, including manipulating moon phase pa- had survived.” preserved that hard-won knowledge and then per plates, as intervention lessons. Any time I write about a topic, I do basic re- shared it again? After reading it, I was left, like Oliver Twist, search. In looking for the movie’s web site, I And, even though in today’s world we wanting more than “teachers who taught this also stumbled across news from Mali and the know the painful lesson of the Maya and their invervention lesson thought it engaged stu- fact that Timbuktu is now the in hands of re- destroyed books, imaging what we might dents and fostered creativity” and that stu- ligious extremists. know if more Maya books had survived, it dents reported “that this activity was fun and Not that I believe everything I read on seems that people really haven’t learned a helped them understand the Moon phase ‘dia- the internet (because, of course, it claims the thing. grams and pictures better.’” Note that they did world is going to end soon), but I’d like to By the way, Skywatchers of Ancient Mexi- not report understanding moon phases, and share an item. co was produced in 1980. This show, written I wonder how many of these students a year It is from www.theartnewspaper.com from by Mark Littman, retains its valid science and later can explain why the phases occur. June, 2012, noting that Mali has been “in a ability to enthrall audiences today, shown by The three references are from curriculum state of crisis since a military coup seized pow- consistent good attendance under my dome. and lesson design. None are from astronomy er in March.” or science sources. Concern for the cultural heritage of Speaking of research I’m not really cutting down the paper; it Mali is growing after militant Islamic I noted that I research before I write. That is, indeed, a lesson plan. But I see no real argu- fundamentalists desecrated a 15th-centu- habit has been with me through college (Eng- ment supporting that this method works, and ry tomb of a Muslim saint in Timbuktu lish major), at my first positions at newspa- if it does, why it works. But the paper is now in May, and threatened to destroy other pers, and now as a script writer and editor. out there, in the literature, waiting to be cit- tombs as well as anything else they per- That’s why I decided to devote many pages ed by others looking for research on teaching ceive as being idolatrous or contrary to to Michele Wistisen’s master’s thesis in this is- moon phases. their version of Islam. The northern Ma- sue, and, even though I didn’t print the entire The planetarium community needs more lian city, a Unesco World Heritage Site, paper I did include her references. research like Michele’s, and we need to make is home to several other such tombs and Anyone who’s done basic research knows the research available to the wider education- three historic mosques as well as many to look at a paper’s citations and references al community, either through publication in small museums. Timbuktu also has be- for leads to more sources of information. The the Planetarian and/or the AER, through an- tween 600,000 and one million ancient value of a bibliography, especially the prized noted bibliographies, and through, simply, manuscripts housed in public and pri- annotated bibliography, is something often sharing. vate collections that are vulnerable to overlooked. A paper that contains valuable information acts of destruction from the occupying That’s why I look forward to Andrew does no one a service if it’s sitting dusty on a rebel forces as well as from those looking Fraknoi’s annual “Good Reading from Oth- shelf or confined to one hard drive. to profit from the political unrest.1 er Sources on Astronomy Education and Out- There will be more on this topic in the fu- reach” in Astronomy Education Review. Well, ture and on the IPS website, but for now, I’m 1 www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Priceless- OK, I’ll admit to checking first to see if the out of space. I heritage-at-risk-from-extremists/26505, accessed Planetarian is cited, but I also look for research November 8, 2012

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41832 GLO] Advert_New size.indd 1 26/10/2012 10:43 stuff so he just listened and absorbed it. When I showed him the dark lines that Guest Editorial Fraunhofer discovered in the spectrum of a star, this amazing boy suggested the correct explanation, that a cloud of cold gas came between us and the star and it contained at- When Teaching Astronomy, Keep Your Feet on the Ground oms whose electrons were ready to shoot up to their previous high energy orbitals and this Editor’s Note: “I certainly am,” he said. “Could I come absorbed the light at that particular frequen- Occasionally I feel that some submissions round tomorrow afternoon for a session?” Ten cy. Philip just saw it as the reverse of that pat- should be given more prominence, or that some- years old and he talked like an adult. I assured tern of nature, nothing special. I had to pinch thing I’ve read needs to be shared. This is one of him that I would be available and would be myself as I introduced him to the ideas behind those times. ready at two o’clock. some simple Feynman diagrams. Ray Worthy delivered this talk at the recent “Good!” he said quite formally. “I look for- This boy was 10. At this rate, I would soon British Association of Planetaria Conference, ward to it.” exhaust my own repertoire, so I amused him held at the National Space Centre in . I am recording my meeting with young by telling him stories about the most intelli- Susan Button, who included the paper with Philip in this detail because it paints the back- gent man on Earth, when he was alive, Rich- her Mobile News, said “I would have loved to ground to what followed that next afternoon. ard Feynman. We were still laughing over have heard him ‘perform’ the paper in person. It turned out to be the most remarkable and some of Feynman’s anecdotes when his gran- Yes, I mean perform, because he is one of the best rewarding teaching session that I have ever dad came to collect him. presenters I have ever had to pleasure to witness!” experienced. After reading this, I, too, wish I could have It was a beautiful summer’s day so I set up At the other end of the spectrum heard this talk. -Sharon Shanks shop outside on the patio, seated at a large The example I have shown with young Caution: Adult language used. Keep out of round garden table. Not knowing quite what Philip presents to us something which rarely reach of children, the narrow-minded, and to expect, I provided myself with various falls to us as teachers of astronomy or lecturers dour people without humor props such as balls of various sizes and plenty in planetariums. Let me show you something of sheets of paper. At this particular date, my from the other end of the spectrum, some- eyesight was rather poor so I could not offer By Ray Worthy thing which more usually falls to our lot. photos in books. I planned to start with basic Thirteen years old, Jason was a member of a Hartlepool, concepts and see how far we progressed. Retired class in the school where I taught for 30 years. I would have to be guided by his respons- The headmaster had seen the success of my [email protected] es. There were times when that circular table newly-built inflatable planetarium. Indeed, When you reach a certain age, you tend stood in for the Earth, the sun, the Earth’s or- he had been in it and had witnessed the en- to beware of a friend who sports a wallet full bit, and I deployed various balls to represent thusiasm of the pupils as they surveyed the of pictures of grandchildren. That could be a planets. I kept having to remind myself that stars going slowly about the heavens. whole evening gone! So when, some four sum- this boy was only 10. In his wisdom, he asked if I would incorpo- mers ago, a friend I stayed away from mathematics, but we rate the use of the planetarium into the sci- announced that he raided my workshop in my garage in which ence syllabus for the third year. In particular, was going to bring I kept some long cylinders of polystyrene. he wished to encourage the more laggardly a favourite child to These were sawn up and sliced at various an- streams by increasing their stimulation. That perform on our pia- gles and Philip soon got a grasp of the relation- was the theory anyway. no, I resigned myself ship between circles and ellipses. Concept af- Jason’s class was full of pupils whom the sci- to spending an after- ter concept, he swallowed up without batting entific world seemed to have passed by. They noon framing polite an eyelid. Philip seemed to have no notion of were to be taught in nine-week modules be- phrases of appreci- how precocious he was. He brought a power- cause it was thought that their brains would ation while we lis- ful concentration to bear on the topics I pre- not retain much if they had to wait until the tened to “Bluebells sented to him. of .” Was I It was not long before we moved away from end of the school year. in for a surprise! Ray Worthy the solar system and out to the stars, the Milky Jason had studied a course which included A boy of 10 ap- Way and the galaxies. I realised that he had no the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and peared and sat down at the keyboard. A hush idea of what light was, so I started on the atom others. He had been in the planetarium at least descended upon the company. What fol- and its constituent parts. Once again, he took four times. lowed was a bravura performance of sonatas in all the ideas I presented to him. The discov- His test paper had asked him to, “Name by Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Chopin ery of the moons of Jupiter, how the time ta- three famous astronomers and write a few such as would have graced any concert hall. ble of their occultations led to the discovery lines showing why they were famous.” Young Philip was a veritable prodigy who ex- of the speed of light and Newton’s ideas were Jason’s answer read, and I quote verbatim, hibited his talent with an overriding inno- meat and drink to this amazing boy. “The only famous astronomer that I know cence. is Mr. Raymond Worthy. He knows EVERY- I was in awe of this young lad and when he Charged topics, for a child THING!!! (and this word took up the space of approached me after tea, I paid him full atten- One thing that stood out in my memo- three lines) about astronomy. tion. ry was when I was explaining how the elec- He has even got his own crematorium.” “Granddad tells me you teach astronomy,” trons moving from one energy level to anoth- What creates the difference between Philip he began. er within an atom gave rise to the emission of and Jason? “That’s right,” I answered. “Are you interest- quanta of light at particular frequencies. No- The most obvious answer to this question ed?” body had told Philip that this was advanced is the disparity in their IQs, the general intel-

6 Planetarian December 2012 ligence level, but in fact, there is much, much litical situation prevailing at that time, Vy- tain proportion showed what we could call more to the puzzle than might be first sup- gotsky’s work was not translated, but, after scientific logic in their adopted method. Some posed. the war, his papers became available to aca- subjects, and I included many teachers in my demics in the west. There were many disciples victims, whilst to all intents and purposes ap- Now about Jamie of his work but, unfortunately, Vygotsky had peared to be “Intelligent,” could not, for the In 1962, I was a mature student at a teach- died when still a young man. life of them, use a logical process. This inabil- er training college in Weymouth, Dorset. In Vygotsky did many experiments trying to ity appeared to be deeply intrinsic in their one of my classes in a local school, I made establish the routes by which a young mind character. I came across many surprises. To- the acquaintance of a boy called Jamie. Rath- began to acquire concepts. His most famous day, it is possible to witness some of these tests er, I should say that Jamie made acquaintance tests involved using a special set of 16 blocks being carried out on Google. with me because, once he had discovered that which included varying shapes, sizes and co- I was interested in astronomy, he followed me lours. Under each block was one of four three- Limited language use around. He was passionate about the subject letter words, having no meaning in ordinary Vygotsky investigated the reasons why and talked about it on all occasions when we English. It is only when the blocks are placed many people could not follow a logical pro- met. in their correct groups does the meaning of gression of concepts. The main thrust of his One Saturday afternoon, he saw me walk- each word become apparent. later papers was that he considered that the ing along the promenade and made a bee line During the attempts, the words are hid- early use of a kind of limited language used for me. We walked on the beach and I took den by being under- in particular social groups him down to where the beach was wetted by neath the blocks. Af- was the cause. As Vygotsky the tide. There, with a stick, we used the beach ter each attempt at put it, “Higher mental pro- like a blackboard, discussing the orbits of the placing the blocks cesses in the individual solar system. in their appropri- have their origins in their The trouble was that he could not get his ate groups, the tester social processes.” ideas down on paper. He was one of the worst turns over one block Sometime around the cases of dyslexia that I have ever seen. I re- in each group to re- year 1970 an East member one of his written answers to a histo- veal the word under- social worker called Basil ry paper asking what had killed Alexander the neath. Bernstein developed a sim- Great. Jamie had written, “He did of a moytot- A subject who ilar theme. He noticed that wwow.” possesses a logical in a social clinic there was Even in his science paper dealing with as- mind can see the ev- a distinct difference be- tronomy, his score was almost zero. tween the language of the I approached the headmaster and staff and the language of asked why Jamie could not have an the clients. In the language amanuensis. His reply was that Dorset of his clients, there seemed was an agricultural rural county and Lev Vygotsky to be what Bernstein de- had no funds. They could not afford scribed as “An understand- to acknowledge a boy with dyslexia. ing within a mutual con- This anecdote about Jamie serves to text.” underline the statement that there is I have investigated this more to the solving of the puzzle than idea among the folks in straightforward IQ levels. Jamie was the North East, and I am intelligent, but could not surmount sure that Bernstein’s ideas his particular problem of expressing had a basis in fact. Unfor- himself in writing. When examined tunately, his choice of no- verbally, he showed that he had no menclature does not help difficulty in constructing a hierarchy in clarifying the situation. of scientific concepts. He was just un- block: istockphoto.com, Vygotsky: creative commons He called the two language able to put his ideas on paper. codes “elaborated” and “restricted.” Many people Language codes idence and act accordingly, and in a few at- took this to mean upper or educated class and In 1974 I attended Newcastle University, tempts arrives at the logical conclusion and working class. This blurring did not help the where I studied in the education department. can state the meaning of each word. Some situation. Political attitudes were triggered off My thesis was titled “Early Cognition Pro- people, whom many would categorize as in- and tempers flew. cesses and The Acquisition of Scientific Con- telligent, are seemingly completely unable to It was supposed that the classification of cepts.” finish the task, no matter how often they try. “elaborated code” meant the kind of lan- There, I got into very deep considerations Believe me, I do understand that absorbing guage and thought which was so explicit in indeed, but I remember rebelling against all exactly what I have described is not easy and I the meaning of items and concepts that to the esoteric jargon which obscured so many sympathise with you. What I advocate is that move from a lower concept level to a high- articles. I shall cut this stuff out and give a con- you get the instructions from the web or me er one was relatively easy. The users of the so cise account of what I remember. and you make yourself a set of these blocks called “restricted code,” however, were operat- Standing head and shoulders above the ear- and carry out the exercise with some volun- ing within a section of society in which the ly pioneers studying the topic was a Russian teers who have never done it before. points of reference within a community were who did most of his work in the 1930. His I made myself a set of these “Vygotsky’s not only shared but assumed to be the same, name was Lev Vygotsky. Because of the po- blocks” and tested all and sundry. Only a cer- both in the speaker and the listener.

December 2012 Planetarian 7 If you Google under the heading Basil Bern- “Right then. Tell me how to get from the In a pub, I met a physics teacher from one stein, you will find many examples of the use school gate to your house.” academy in Middlesbrough. After quizzing of the restricted code. It is in common use in “OK! You turn left at the gate and go as far him about what he taught, I took him to task. my home town and indeed in Tyneside, and I as the doctor’s.” “Listen!” he said. “If they are willing to pay me have no doubt it is common elsewhere. I have Back at the university it was decided that extra money to teach this rubbish, then I will heard many conversations ending in the sen- I should compile a card indexed set of such do it.” tence “you know what I mean,” or variations interviews (this was long before computers There was no answer to that. on that theme. It is so common that the sen- came into our lives), including map references tence is often reduced and shortened almost of similar request for directions. In each case, I Fairy tale science into one continuous sound. was to try to ensure that the interviewee was a One beautiful cloudless morning, I arrived member of a particular local community. The with my dome at a primary school in a small Reducing vocabulary idea was that once we correlated the answers West Yorkshire village. I set up my dome in This reduction of vocabulary to the level with particular areas, we might be able to give the hall and opened a door to give a supply where they have meaning only in context is numerical substance to Bernstein’s idea. of fresh air to the air intake. There, in obvious often taken into the extreme by the included Nothing daunted, I entered into the spirit view, was the moon, sharply defined against use of words which in other contexts are well of the enterprise with gusto and even “broke” the deep blue of the morning sky. known swear words. Let me give you an ex- my arm for the cause. In those days the ulti- When the dome was ready, I went to col- treme illustration. mate in miniature tape recorders was a cas- lect my first class whose room adjoined the The scene was a pine wood in northern Ger- sette machine the size of a cigar case with a hall. The teacher met me with a welcoming many in 1951. There was an army exercise go- microphone about the size of a cigar. This smile and invited me to sit down for a couple ing on in which units of the British army were equipment had to be concealed. The recorder of minutes whilst she finished her introducto- pitted against units of the American army. was slung around my back whilst the micro- ry quiz. There was some innocuous stuff, but American armour was entering the wood at phone was hidden by a mock plaster cast. The what brought me up sharp was when she talk- one end and at the other, British infantry were whole assembly was hidden by a duffel coat. ed about the moon. hurriedly trying to vacate the place. With this get up draped around me I pa- “Now children,” she cooed, “When do we We could hear the screech of the tank raded around various well defined areas of see the moon?” tracks coming louder, but we were held up by the North East. It was astonishing how many “At night Miss. The moon comes out at the inability to extricate a truck towing an an- people could not express themselves well night,” the children recited obediently like a ti-tank gun from between the tightly packed enough to give explicit directions to a com- pack of zombies. tree trunks. plete “stranger.” I reacted instantly and stood up. “Would A sergeant driver was backing and filling his Bernstein gained followers in many other you excuse us children for a minute? I need to vehicle to no avail until the axle of the gun parts of the world and I remember being told show your teacher something in the hall.” Be- became firmly fixed. There was no time to do that his ideas had currency in the Spanish lan- fore she knew what it was all about, I got her any more as the American tanks drew closer. guage in South America, in Russia of course, out into the hall and immediately marched The company commander came running to and many other language areas. her over to that open door. find out the cause of the delay. In his bitter an- “Look up there!” I demanded. “What do you ger, frustration and utter humiliation, the ser- Religion see?” geant came out with this sentence which has In the days of Shakespeare and King James “It’s the moon,” she replied, mystified by long been engraved in my memory, “Sir!” he the First of England, there was a protestant my attitude. shouted. “The fucking fucker’s fucked.” Bishop of Armagh called Ussher who took “But you have just told your pupils that it There you have it. The ultimate in Bern- immense trouble and used the Old Testa- only comes out at night,” I said indignantly. stein’s restricted code. The sentence was full of ment histories to calculate the exact age of “Yes, but that’s what they like to hear,” she meaning to those present, those who shared the Earth. He used all the series of who begat explained. the immediate context, but has no mean- whom and added them up. His date of “cre- I am afraid that I lost my temper with the ing at all to anyone outside of that particular ation” was calculated as “the nightfall before lady, who happened to be the teacher in community. the 23rd October, 4004 B.C.” charge of science in the school. This astonishing calculation has caused re- “Who wrote your science text books?” I See from another’s perspective verberations through the ages. Ussher’s dates snarled. “Enid Blyton?”1 I must have overdone My professor and I, in Newcastle, reasoned were often included in editions of the King it a bit because she looked shocked. I calmed that if someone was a member of a communi- James Version of the Bible in English. They down a bit and explained. “Think of that boy ty in which the use of the restricted code was were even included in the Gideon Bible which who is sitting next to the window. He looks prevalent, he or she would be unable to see was left in hotel rooms right up into the 1970s. outside and sees the moon and listens to you. things from another’s perspective and there- There is a very powerful movement of “cre- You have just destroyed his notion of what fore would be unable to give satisfactory di- ationism” all over the English-speaking world. science is.” rections to a complete stranger to an area. In the United States, members of this move- Professor James Flynn of Otago University I tried this idea out on a pupil at my school ment are even framing laws which intend to in has been working in the field in Billigham. allow “creationism” to be taught in schools of intelligence quotients. It seems to me that, “Imagine” I said,” that I am a visitor from a in direct opposition to scientific knowledge. although Professor Flynn is writing about IQ planet somewhere out in space.” This movement is gaining ground in Britain. and how it seems to be changing from genera- “OK Sir!” In my area of the North East of England, there tion to generation, his assertions seem to have “Can you imagine that?” I asked him. is a millionaire who made his money in sell- a remarkable similarity to the work of Vy- “Yes Sir! No problem.” ing cars. He has used his financial muscle to (Continues on Page 26) “You are sure?” fund at least two “academies” in which cre- 1 Well-known British children’s fiction writer also “Yeah. Fine.” ationism is taught. known as Mary Pollock.

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ReefDecember Distribution 2012 • [email protected] • www.reef-distribution.comPlanetarian www.softmachine.de9 of ideas and in [sic] information between planetarium institutions. President’s Message • To improve the professional standards of Dave Weinrich planetarium education through publica- Planetarium, Minnesota State University-Moorhead tions and conferences. 1104 7th Avenue South • To support and strengthen the activities of Moorhead, Minnesota 56563 USA planetarium orientated groups, especially the affiliates defined within these bylaws. +1 218-477-2969 • To improve free co-operation and contin- +1 218-477-5864 fax ual dialogue between planetarium educa- [email protected] tion and professional related individuals and groups. This document is as relevant today as when Dear Friends and Fellow Planetarians, ity of forming a Korean planetarium group. it was drafted. Most of these points apply to This week reminds me why I love my job I spoke to them about the history of IPS and our regional affiliates as well as to IPS. For ex- so much. I have been giving school shows to how they might benefit from affiliation with ample, many of our regional affiliate meet- some enthusiastic 8- and 9-year olds. They are us. I am quite sure that they will form their ings have some type of astronomy update, so curious and have so many questions after own local group and perhaps, in a few years, fulfilling purpose number two. There was an the show. Their delight as they learn about we will have a Korean IPS affiliate. astronomy update at the South Korean meet- the universe inspires me! As I spoke to the group in , I was ing. Every year at the Great Lakes Planetarium I remember discovering astronomy when I reminded of the goals of our Society. As you Association (GLPA) conference that I attend, was just a few years older than they are. But it’s can read on our website, “the primary goal the astronomy update is one of the highlights not just the young that can be awed by space. of the Society is to encourage the sharing of of the meeting. I shared the six parts of the A grandmother came to our public show and ideas among its members through conferenc- original IPS purpose with our colleagues in it was evident that she was just as fascinated as es, publications, and networking. By sharing South Korea and emphasized the benefits that some of the children. Often adults will not re- their insights and creative work, IPS members a national organization would bring to them, spond to questions that I ask during my live become better planetarians.” even if they never become affiliated with IPS. presentation, but this visitor was just as re- This goal is a distillation of the original pur- sponsive as the children and afterward asked poses that our founders wrote 41 years ago. Passing time, and the baton question after question. As she left she kept re- Last year I did some research on the origin of This is my last President’s Message. It has peating, “How fascinating it all is!” the International Society of Planetarium Ed- been a pleasure to serve all of you in this ca- I had the opportunity to participate in the ucators (ISPE), which was later renamed IPS. pacity. The time has passed quickly. Four Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium In our historical archives, I found the original years ago, as I assumed the office of president (LIPS) at the University of Notre Dame in Au- guidelines that the constitutional committee elect, December 2012 seemed a long ways off. gust. The focus of LIPS is on live, interactive formulated in March 1971 at their meeting in Now it is time for the baton to be passed to the planetarium lessons that can be used in any Baton Rouge. They are six in number. Let me next president. planetarium, regardless of size or projector. list them just as they were typed on the origi- I especially agree with the sentiments of Some of the themes of this year’s LIPS were nal copy that I held in my hands last year. Ron Hartman, one of the Planetarian’s ear- connecting with your audience, enhancing The purpose of this Society shall be: ly editors. In the December 1981 issue he performance skills, and managing classrooms. • To promote the spread of knowledge wrote “In any professional society, the work One of my favorite quotes by presenter John through planetarium education. is shared. One makes his contribution, then Kaufmann was “It’s not canned versus live, • To improve the quality of instruction in as- turns over those duties to the next genera- but rather there is a scale between the two ex- tronomy and related sciences. tion.” tremes.” Notes from 2011 and 2012 LIPS ses- • To promote and co-ordinate free exchange (Continues on Page 26) sions can be accessed at lipsymposium.org/ LIPS/node/48.

Colleagues in South Korea In October, I was invited to address the In- ternational Planetarium Movie Festival at the Gwacheon National Science Museum in Seoul, South Korea. In conjunction with the event, Dr. Kang Hwan Lee, the director of the planetarium, decided to host a meeting for South Korean planetarians. Many new facilities are being built in the country. It’s great to have a planetarium, but the staff may not know the best way to use it. Planetariums in the United States faced simi- lar problems during the decades of the sixties and the seventies. At this time the U.S. region- al affiliates and IPS were forming, in large part, to address these issues. Planetarians attended professional devel- South Korean planetarians at a regional meeting at the Gwacheon National Science Museum near Seoul. opment activities and discussed the possibil- Photo provided by author.

10 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 11 The moon is the only other celestial body that bears the footprints of humans. It is the symbol of our desire for exploration. It has been our constant companion, there when the first humans looked to the sky and wondered.

So, after all these millenia, why can’t we teach others to understand its movement?

12 Planetarian December 2012 Teaching the inconstant moon

Oh, those plagued moon phases. If there’s one thing in our educa- tional endeavours that gives us the most concern, it’s trying to teach this 3-dimensional concept to young minds not yet able to grasp it.

There are so many prerequisites to being able to understand why the moon changes its shape: the fact that it’s a sphere, that it orbits the Earth while the Earth is orbiting the sun, that its orbital plane is tipped, that Earth is tilted, that sunlight moves in direct lines, and so much more. Our 2-dimensional diagrams try to cram everything into one picture and only succeed in confusing, and, as shown in the paper that follows, our 3-dimensional lessons also may not work.

We can’t give you the moon phase solution, but we can provide you with more information. Because, after all, knowledge is a pow- erful tool.

More importantly, we can urge you to share your research, your first-hand knowledge, your successes and your failures with others around the world so that we, collectively, can work toward a meth- od that works. We’ll have suggestions on how to do this in the next Planetarian.

Michele Wistisen shares her master’s thesis with us here. Its length prohibits printing the entire document, so we’ve placed the pdf ver- sion on the IPS website at www.www.ips-planetarium.org/default.asp?page=edresources

December 2012 Planetarian 13 Can lessons designed with Gestalt laws of visual perception improve students' understanding of phases of the moon?

Several years ago, I learned that many ele- this learning dilemma. I examined books from mentary teachers in our district wanted help our public library and searched the internet As a science educator working in teaching their students about the phases for ideas from other astronomy teachers and in a small Wyoming city, I have of the moon. To fulfill their request, I began noticed one reoccurring activity. In this ac- a preliminary investigation of our district sci- tivity, children were invited to hold a ball at the opportunity to work with ence textbooks and learned that the primary arm’s length in front of them and make one textbooks had a simplified description of how complete turn in front of a light source in a many levels of school groups. the phases occur and pictures that showed the darkened room. As the children turned their My primary position is the su- sequence of the phases. bodies, they saw the amount of light change The upper elementary or intermediate text- on the ball held directly in front of them. pervisor of a school district books had a more detailed description of the I knew that students benefited from using planetarium. One of my duties sun, Earth, moon system and extremely com- models and personal observation so this activ- plex drawings that depicted the appearance ity as well as the information from our district at the planetarium is to devel- of the moon from a space or bird’s-eye view science books became the body of my lesson along with what the phases would look like design. op and present lessons for stu- from the Earth. The important facts were pres- During my lesson, the students learned the dents in classrooms throughout ent in the textbooks, but teachers expressed sequence of the phases, their names, and mod- that they still struggled to help students com- eled how the phases occur with the ball and our district. prehend the phases. lamp. After each of my presentations, I ob- I wondered what could be done to change served that most students could identify the

14 Planetarian December 2012 Michele Wistisen Casper Planetarium Natrona County School District 904 North Poplar Street Casper, Wyoming 82601-1317 USA [email protected]

eight common phases, put the phases in order, on the open plain; he marveled at such a tiny ic for my master’s research arose. I resolved to and determine if the phase was waxing (light creature. He did not comprehend that the im- find out what could be done to improve or increasing) or waning (light decreasing). mense distance made the creature only appear change the way that students perceived the However, few, if any, of the students could to be small. He had never seen anything so far visual information about the phases. give a scientific explanation of why the phas- away. From my reading I learned that age may be es occurred and many held onto prior mis- The bushman story made me wonder if, a contributing factor to why elementary stu- conceptions. Even with a model, students did conceptually, the phases of the moon were so dents struggle to comprehend the phases of not appear to comprehend what was occur- foreign to elementary students that they were the moon. ring or what they saw. I wondered how they unable to interpret the diagrams and the visu- The National Research Council (1996) rec- could observe how the light changed on the al experiences that were provided for them. ommends that lessons about the phases of the ball as it went around them and still believe This realization guided my initial research. moon should be reserved until students are at such things as: 1) the moon turns to show us During a review of the literature, I came to the least in ninth grade. I also learned how impor- its dark side, 2) the sun’s movement makes the conclusion that the methods found in most tant past experience, or the lack thereof, is to moon look different, and 3) the Earth’s shad- textbooks and those I was using did not ade- our perception (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, ow causes the phases. quately help elementary students confront 1993) and that studies about improving per- I discussed this problem with a vision spe- their misconceptions about the phases; stu- ception are broad and varied. cialist from our school district. She shared a dents appeared to need more than what was However, there are studies in the field of story with me about an aborigine who, when currently available to teachers in order to un- visual perception I felt could use to improve removed from his home in the dense jungle, derstand how the phases of the moon occur. students’ understanding of the phases of the saw a water buffalo hundreds of yards away It is from these observations that the top- moon. Researchers such as Wertheimer, Koff-

©Gary Thurman Photography December 2012 Planetarian used with permission15 ka, and Kohler (Torrans, 1999; Soegaard, 2003) believed Gestalt laws of visual organization are a way to explain how visual information Table 1 is interpreted by the brain. Based on principles Well Known Resources for Lessons about the Phases of the Moon of their research, I made the following predic- tion: Resource Method If lessons about the phases of the moon are StarChild, NASA , 1998 Diagrams designed using Gestalt laws of visual organiza- Modeling with manipulatives tion, • students would have sufficient schema to Project Astro, Astronomical So- Diagrams properly perceive the scientific concepts ciety of the Pacific, 1995 Direct observation that are necessary to understand how the Modeling with manipulatives phases occur; Earth, Moon and Stars, Lawrence Diagrams • students would confront their current mis- Hall of Science GEMS, Direct observation conceptions about the phases; 1986 Modeling with manipulatives • students would demonstrate a greater un- derstanding of the phases than students who are taught using traditional methods. (Callison & Wright, 1993; Wood, 1988). and disadvantages of these methods. Second I The purpose of this study, therefore, was to Even adults demonstrate a lack of under- looked at studies about visual perception that create lessons that included three of the Ge- standing of the phases. In my district, nearly a could help me redesign my lessons to make stalt laws of visual organization, and to test dozen teachers confessed that they struggled it easier for students to understand how the the effect they had on students’ understand- to understand the phases and asked if I could phases of the moon occur. ing of the phases of the moon. help them by giving presentations in their classroom. Current methods Literature review My school district is not unique. Sadler and Ten years ago, when I began working at the There is little disagreement among re- Schneps (1987) shocked the educational com- planetarium, I could find only a few resources searchers that the phases of the moon are dif- munity with their documentary about Har- that provided any lessons about the phases of ficult to understand. Even though students, vard graduates’ misconceptions of the phases the moon. Technology and access to the Inter- by middle school, may know the relative mo- of the moon in the video A Private Universe- net has changed information availability. To- tion of the Earth, sun, and moon, more than Preconceptions that Block Learning. In addi- day, a Google search for lessons about “phases half of the students are not able to use mod- tion, Kavanagh (2005) looked at a dozen of the moon” would give the user thousands els to explain the phases of the moon (Nation- studies involving college students and pre-ser- of links to choose from. Though the number al Research Council, 1996; Rider, 2002; Taylor, vice teachers and noted that misconceptions of published lessons has increased, my litera- 1996). about the phases of the moon commonly per- ture review revealed the method of teaching A number of explanations have been of- sist into adulthood. the phases has remained essentially the same. fered as to why students find the phases dif- The fact that organizations such as the Na- The phases of the moon are a visual expe- ficult. It may be related to students’ lack of tional Research Council (1996) and the Amer- rience. Therefore, it is important to exam- thinking and cognitive deficiencies (Black, ican Association for the Advancement of ine how the visual information is presented. 2005; Cohen, 2003), and naïve thoughts (Bax- Science (1993) suggested students should be in- Many of the publication that I read, which ad- ter, 1989; Engestrom, 1991; Keeley, Eberle, & structed about the phases in the ninth grade dressed student instruction about the phases Farrin, 2005). or later is irrelevant within the context of this of the moon, incorporated some sort of visu- The American Association for Advance- study since a number of elementary schools al device to help the learner see how the phas- ment of Science states that it may be associ- in my district as in other states continue to es occur (Dove, 2002; Hanes, 2006; Hickman, ated with students’ unfamiliarity with the ge- teach phases of the moon from kindergarten 1993; Kavanagh, 2005; Miyamoto, 1999 Taylor, ometry of light and seeing (1993). Dai (as cited to sixth grade. 1996). For this literature review I drew on three in Kavanagh, 2005) in her doctorial thesis al- Therefore, in an effort to help the teachers well known astronomy resources, and exam- leges that inadequate teaching methods and in my district, I constructed lessons to present ined their methods of instruction (see Table 1). misleading illustrations may prevent students in their classrooms. After giving presentations While these are only three resources, they from comprehending how the phases occur. to fourth grade students in my school district represent the mainstream approaches to how Or the reason the phases are hard to un- for over five years, I felt frustrated that over the phases are taught. What follows are de- derstand is because there are concepts within half of the students could not correctly ex- scriptions of each of these methods of instruc- concepts which require an individual to have plain how the phases occur following my les- tion: diagrams, direct observation, and indi- a depth of understanding about the relation- sons. vidual models. ships of the Earth-sun-moon. When students Even though I was using activities from learn about the phases, they are trying to orga- reputable sources, student behavior during Method 1: Diagrams nize information about a complicated model the lessons caused me to believe that students Diagrams, or images such as the ones found composed of three celestial objects, namely were not seeing what they were supposed to on the NASA web site StarChild, depict the the Earth, sun, and moon. see. I wondered if there was a connection be- Earth, moon, sun system viewed from some- The phases are also about light and shadow tween students’ comprehension of the phases where in space. Both diagrams have arrowed as well as position and perspective. In addi- and their ability to see how the phases occur. lines to indicate the path of the moon’s orbit. tion, one must be able to simultaneously cat- The purpose of this literature review was One diagram indicates what the moon would egorize information from a space view as well twofold. First I examined the predominant look like if viewed from above the North Pole as an Earth view. This type of perceptual ac- methods used to teach students about the during its orbit (see Figure 1). tivity requires advanced mental gymnastics phases of the moon and looked at the benefits The second diagram on the NASA web site

16 Planetarian December 2012 Figure 1. Top. View of Earth, moon, and sun from space. Figure 2. Complete cycle of the moon as viewed from Earth. Figure 3. Right. The moon as viewed from the Earth and space. All images from NASA’s StarChild web site. is a diagram of what the moon would look In the GEMS teacher’s guide called Earth, like from Earth at various positions in its or- Moon, and Stars from the Lawrence Hall of bit and gives the name for each of the phas- Science, students are instructed to record es (see Figure 2). their observations in a different manner. Us- A third diagram found at StarChild is an ing their fists as a standard, students measure amalgamation of an Earth perspective with how far the moon is from the sun each day. a space perspective. It shows the path of the Students create a chart from the data collect- moon’s orbit, the portion of the moon and ed for about two weeks of the cycle when the Earth that would be illuminated by the sun, moon is visible during the day (see Figure 7). the proportion of the illuminated moon we could see from Earth and corresponding im- Modeling with manipulatives ages of what that phase would look like from All three publications listed in Table 1 in- Earth (see Figure 3). clude an activity where students individual- The Astronomical Society of the Pacific ly model how the phases occur. Each student also uses diagrams to illustrate how the phas- holds a ball in front of a lamp in a darkened es occur in their Project ASTRO resource note- room. While holding a ball in front of them, book. Their diagrams show the Earth, moon, students turn their bodies until they make and sun system, the moon’s orbital path, the one complete rotation. By doing so, they can names for each of the phases, and what the see the amount of reflected light on the ball moon would look like from a person’s per- change as they rotate. This activity replicates spective on Earth if viewed at various times what someone on Earth would see during the during its 29.5 day orbit (see Figure 4). 29.5 day period of the moons orbit (see Figure An additional diagram is also available of 8). Figure 4. Above. The eight phases of the moon as viewed from Earth. Figure 5. Below. The the Earth, moon, and sun system, the path The three methods: diagrams, personal ob- moon as viewed from space for one complete of the moon’s monthly orbit, and what the servations, and modeling, can be found in nu- cycle. Images sourced from Project Astro, The moon would look like if viewed from space merous publications. They are the standard Universe at Your Fingertips (1995/2000), Astro- above the Earth’s North Pole (see Figure 5). approach recommended for teaching the nomical Society of the Pacific. Copyright and used by permission from Pacific Science Cen- phases. I, too, built my presentations around ter. Direct observation them. However, after using these approaches A lengthier method of instruction, direct for two years I came to the conclusions that Therefore, as part of the literature review, I ex- observation, is found in the Project ASTRO students were still not giving up their naïve amined research about each of the approaches guide. This method suggests students make conceptions about the moon. to determine their strengths and weaknesses. daily observations of the moon for a month When students continue to maintain al- and record their observations. By observing ternative or incorrect ideas about the phas- Analysis of methods: diagrams and recording their data, students experience es of the moon after standard lessons, as my Diagrams of the phases allow students to see how the moon changes appearance through- students did, I had to wonder if there is some- a perspective of the moon that they cannot out its cycle (see Figure 6). thing lacking in my method of instruction. experience from Earth. Diagrams are meant

December 2012 Planetarian 17 Figure 6. Left. Chart used to record a month of moon observations. Figure 7 was not used for the Planetarian. Figure 8. Above. Illustration of students modeling how the phases occur. Images sourced from Project Astro, The Universe at Your Fingertips (1995/2000), Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Copyright and used by permission from Pacific Science Center. to be simplified representations of a complex system. However, diagrams may simplify real- ity to a point that students develop miscon- as these, they could conclude that the moon that direct observation should be the limit of ceptions (Black, 2005; Dove, 2002). and Earth are much bigger than they really elementary students’ exposure to the phas- Diagrams such as Figure 2 and Figure 5 are are and much closer to the sun according to es; the abstract nature of the phases is great- representations of what the Earth, moon, and placement in the images (Lowe, 2000). er than elementary students’ abilities. Direct sun system would look like from above the Another example of distortion can be observation gives students an opportunity to Earth’s pole. These types of diagrams are mis- found in Figure 1 and Figure 4. Imagine a per- personally experience the pattern of the phas- leading because the moon’s orbit is shown son is standing on the representation of the es and the movement of the moon. aligned with the ecliptic rather than at its true Earth and looking at the moon in its orbit. Dove (2002) supports direct observation inclination. From the new moon to the full moon, the and states that when students make person- If the representation of the moon’s orbit person would see the exact representation of al observations they are less likely to revert to occurred as it is drawn in the diagram, “there how the moon would look from an Earth per- incorrect ideas about the moon. Both Project would be a solar eclipse every new moon and spective, and the illuminated portion of the Astro and Earth, Moon, and Stars include di- a lunar eclipse every full moon” (Dove, 2002, figure of the moon is toward the sun. rect observations as part of their curriculum. p. 831). The illustrations draw a reader’s atten- However, the images of phases after the full When personal observations are correlated tion to two of the conditions that lead us to moon, those from the waning gibbous to the with a measured distance from the sun, as sug- see the phases, but leave out the part about waning crescent, may confuse a reader be- gested by the Lawrence Hall of Science, stu- the inclination of the orbit of the moon. cause the illustrations continue to show what dents can see that the lighted portion of the Many students may not be aware that when the observer would see from Earth, but now moon is always on the side facing the sun and the moon passes directly between the Earth show the illuminated portion of the moon the illuminated portion of the moon increas- and the sun it is positioned either above or facing away from the sun. es as the distance between the sun and moon below the sun from Earth’s perspective. This Ultimately, for students to understand increases. piece of information is necessary for students what is happening in the diagrams, they must Unfortunately, direct observation does not to understand why it is not the Earth’s shad- already have a grasp of the relative move- allow students to manipulate or subject the ow that causes the phases. In addition, Dai (as ments of the Earth, moon, and sun (Dove, Earth, moon, and sun to experimentation. Di- quoted by Kavanagh) came to the conclusion 2002; Lowe, 2000). Students must be able to si- rect observation only gives the students an that diagrams such as the bird’s eye view of multaneously perceive the moon from more Earth perspective of how the moon appears to the sun, Earth, moon system is “too abstract than one perspective (Yair,2001); they must be change; it does not allow students to observe and far beyond the daily living experiences of able to imagine what the moon would look why it happens. If students only observe and elementary pupils” (Kavanagh, 2005, Teach- like from Earth as well as from space. Howev- create a calendar of the phases there is no way ing and Learning the Phases of the Moon: El- er, Stahly, Krockover, and Shepardson (1999) for the students to see the geometric relation- ementary School, 8). found this kind of illustration to be too com- ship that occurs between the Earth, moon, Scientific visuals like Figure 1 and Figure 4 plex for students before the age of seven. and sun which Callison and Wright (1993) and are not meant to be taken literally; the graph- Nissani (1994) believe is a critical piece to un- ics are manipulated and even grossly distort- Analysis: direct observation derstand how the phases occur (see Figure 6). ed. When novice students view images such Authors such as Keeley et al. (2005) believe (Continues on Page 20)

18 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 19 Phases of the moon, as seen looking southward from the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere will see each phase rotated through 180°. Creative Commons. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase.

Day (2001) also noted that students without For instance, when students model the phas- (2000). Conceptual change through build- prior experience have difficulty interpreting es with the ball and a lamp, they may devel- ing three-dimensional virtual models. In what they see and Dove (2002) further indi- op the idea that the moon is only seen during B. Fishman & S. O’Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), cated that some students have problems rec- the night. Proceedings of the Fourth International Con- onciling their everyday experiences with ab- Modeling the phases this way is also con- ference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 134-141). stract models of the Earth, moon, and sun. fusing to students because they do not under- Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Personally, for years I saw the moon go stand why they can see the shadowed side of Barry, A..M., (2002). “Perception and visual through its monthly pattern and never con- the ball during the activity but they cannot communication theory.” Journal of Visual fronted my misconception that it was not the see the shadowed side of the moon in the sky. Literacy 22(1) 91-106. Earth’s shadow that caused the phases. Diagrams, personal observations, and mod- Baxter, J. H. (1989). Children’s understanding of Direct observation may provide students eling with manipulatives provide opportuni- familiar astronomical events. International with valuable experiences with which to ties for students to see why the phases occur. Journal of Science Education, 11, 502-513. build upon, but there are limitations. Direct However, research shows that many students Black, A. A. (2005). Relationship of Earth sci- observation does not give students the oppor- retain unscientific explanations for the phas- ence misconceptions and conceptual un- tunity to correlate the geometric relationship es even after participating in these activi- derstanding with three types of spatial that occurs between the Earth, moon, and sun ties (Dove, 2002; Kavanagh, 2005; Keeley et abilities in university non-science ma- with the phases of the moon that they see. In al., 2005). When all the visible information jors. Journal of GeoScience Education 53 (4) addition, students may not understand that is presented for the students to observe how 402-414. nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/ though the appearance of the moon appears the phases occur, why do they not see what is Black_v53p402.pdf to change from our perspective, half of the happening? This dilemma led me to the next Boeree, G. (2000). Gestalt psychology. Re- moon is always illuminated by the sun. part of my literature review; a modest explo- trieved October, 21, 2006 from webspace. ration of what has been written about visual ship.edu/cgboer/gestalt.html Analysis: manipulatives perception and student leaning. Callison, P. L., & Wright, E. L. (1993). The Ef- Modeling the phases with a ball and light For the rest of this paper, please go fect of Teaching Strategies Using Mod- was the third and final method mentioned in to www.ips-planetarium.org/default. els on Preservice Elementary Teachers’ the literature I reviewed. Several authors (Bar- asp?page=edresources Conceptions about Earth-Sun-Moon Re- nett, Keating, Barab, & Hay, 2000; Callison lationships, Paper presented at the Annu- & Wright, 1993; Gilbert, 2004; Thompson & References al Meeting of the National Association for Marvin, 1997) believe models help students de- Because this thesis dates from 2008, and be- Research in Science Teaching, April, Atlan- velop a proper mental representation of how cause the internet is a constantly changing enti- ta, GA. www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/ the phases occur. ty, some of the web addresses are no longer valid. detail?accno=ED360171 When using a ball and lamp, students can I have attempted to find and provide the correct Chandler, D. (1997). Visual perception lec- see that there is a correlation between the po- link to papers that were still available online as tures 1-9. Retrieved November 30, 2005 sition of the moon and the amount of light of November 1, 2012. Those I was unable to ver- from www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/ that is visible. They may also observe that the ify have been deleted. The unedited list can be MC10220/visindex.html Earth’s shadow does not cause the phases. found on the IPS website.- Ed. Chang, D., Dooley, L., & Tuovinen J.E. (2002). But, it is important to remember that even American Association for the Advancement Gestalt theory in visual screen design– though these models are good for teaching of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science lit- A new look at an old subject. Retrieved specific concepts about the phases, they are eracy: project 2061. New York, NY: Oxford April 8, 2007 from crpit.com/confpapers/ not perfect and may lead students to devel- University Press. CRPITV8Chang.pdf op incorrect perceptions (Miyamoto, 1999). Barnett, M., Keating, T., Barab, S.A., & Hay, K.E. (Continues on Page 22)

20 Planetarian December 2012 Projection Optics

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585.359.4000 • 800.828.6778 200 Commerce Drive • Rochester, NY 14623 [email protected] • navitar.com December 2012 Planetarian 21 Clements, D. H., & Battista, M. T. (1992). Geom- Keeley, P., Eberle, F., & Farrin, L. (2005). Gazing www.ips-planetarium.org/ etry and spatial reasoning. In D. A. Grouws at the moon. In J. Cusick (Ed.), Uncovering default.asp?page=edresources (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Mathematics student ideas in science, 1, ( pp. ii-189). Arling- Teaching and Learning (pp. 420-464). New ton: National Science Teachers Association. York: Macmillan. Lawson, A. E. (1995). Science teaching and the de- nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/ Cohen, J. (2003). Student ideas about the moon velopment of thinking. Belmont, CA: Wad- abstracts/Black_v53p402.pdf and its phases and the impact of a real 3D sworth. model of the sun/Earth/moon system in an Lowe, R. (2000). Visual Literacy and Learning introductory astronomy lab course. Uni- in Science. Columbus, OH: Science Math- versity of Maine. www.umaine.edu/center/ ematics and Environmental Education. webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ files/2009/12/Cohen_thesis.pdf (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. gestalt.html Condly, S. J. (2004). The psychologies of Ge- ED463945) Retrieved October 8, 2005 from stalt principles of visual perception and www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/visual.htm domain expertise: Interactions and impli- Mathewson, J. H. (1999). Visual-spatial think- www.eric.ed.gov/ cations for instructional practice. FATE e- ing: An aspect of science overlooked by ed- ERICWebPortal/ Journal, 2(1). ucators. Science Education, 83(1), 33+. detail?accno=ED360171 Day, R. (2001). What are we supposed to see? Miyamoto, K. L. (1999). Student spatial abilities Visual perception of small aquatic animals and the use of models in teaching phases of the www.aber.ac.uk/media/ by non-science majors and biology grad- moon. Unpublished Plan B, University of Modules/MC10220/visindex. uate students; comparisons, correlations Wyoming, Laramie. html and implications. Symposium conducted at Morgan,G. A., Leech N. L., Gloeckner, G. W. & 2001 International Conference of the Asso- Barrett, K. C. (2004). SPSS for introductory ciation for the Education of Teachers of Sci- statistics: Use and interpretation (2nd ed.). crpit.com/confpapers/ ence, Costa Mesa, California. Retrieved Feb- Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum CRPITV8Chang.pdf ruary 23, 2006 from www.angelfire.com/ri/ Associates. skibizniz/AETSsynopsis.htm National Research Council. (1996). The nation- Dove, J. (2002). Does the man in the moon al science education standards. Washington, www.umaine.edu/center/ ever sleep? Analysis of student answer DC: National Academy Press. files/2009/12/Cohen_thesis.pdf about simple astronomical events: A case Nissani, M. (1994). Phases of the moon. Science study. International Journal of Science Edu- Activities, 3(3), 26-29. cation, 24(8), 823-834. Project Astro. (1995). The universe at your finger- www.angelfire.com/ri/ Duckworth, E. (1987). Teaching as research in tips: An astronomy activity and resource note- skibizniz/AETSsynopsis.htm the having of wonderful ideas and other es- book. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. says on teaching and learning (pp. 122-145). , CA New York: Teachers College. Rider, S. (2002). Perceptions about moon phas- scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/ Engestrom, Y. (1991). Non scolae sed vitae dis- es. Science Scope, 26(3), 48 -51. AERSCZ-ft/vol_4/iss_1/19_1. cimus: Toward overcoming the encap- Sadler, P.M., & Schneps, M. H., (1987). A Private html sulation of school learning. Learning and Universe. Video. Washington, DC: Annen- instruction: the journal of the European Asso- berg/CPB: Pyramid Film and Video. www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/ ciation for Research on Learning and Instruc- Sacks, O. (1993). To see and not see: A neurol- visual.htm tion, 1(3), 243+. ogist’s notebook. The New Yorker, pp. 59-73 Gilbert, J. K. (2004). Models and modeling: Shimojo, S., Paradiso, M., & Fujita, I. (2001). routes to more authentic science education. What visual perception tells us about mind www.interaction-design. International Journal of Science and Mathe- and brain. Paper presented at the Proceed- org/encyclopedia/gestalt_ matics Education, 2(2), 115-130. ings of the National Academy of Sciences principles_of_form_ Gregory, R. L. (1990). Eye and brain (4th Ed.). of the United States of America, Irvine Cal- perception.html Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ifornia. starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ Hickman, J. (1993). Moon dance: A handy way Smith, J.P., diSessa, A., & Roschelle, J. (1993). StarChild/teachers/moonglow. to teach moon phases. The Physics Teacher, Misconceptions reconceived; A construc- html 31, 178-179. tivist analysis of knowledge in transition. Jensen, E. (2001). Visual arts. In Arts with the Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(2), 115-163. brain in mind (pp. 118). Alexandria, Virgin- Soegaard, M. (2003). Gestalt principles of form gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/teachers/ ia: Association for Supervision and Curricu- perception. www.interaction-design.org/ moonglow.html) lum Development. encyclopedia/gestalt_principles_of_ Taylor, I. J. (1996). Illuminating lunar phases. Jones, B. L., & Lynch, P. (1987). Children’s con- form_perception.html Science Teacher, 63(8), 39-41. ceptions of the Earth, sun and moon. Inter- Stahly, L., Krockover, G., & Shepardson, D., Thompson, K. W. H., & Marvin E. (1997). Ge- national Journal of Science Education, 9(1), (1999) Third grade students’ ideas about the ometry and moon phases. Science Scope, 43+. lunar phases. Journal of Research in Science 21(2), 35-37. Kavanagh, C. (2005). Learning about phases of Teaching, 36(2), 159-177. Wood, D. (1988). How children think and learn. the moon and eclipses: A guide for teach- StarChild question of the month for No- New York, NY: Basil Blackwell. ers and curriculum developers [Electron- vember 1998. StarChild. Retrieved Octo- Yair, Y. (2001). 3-D virtual reality in science ic Version]. Astronomy Education Review, 4. ber 28, 2005 from starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/ education: an implication for astronomy scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/AERSCZ-ft/ docs/StarChild/ questions/question3.html* teaching. Computers in Mathematics and Sci- vol_4/iss_1/19_1.html (Diagrams can now be found at starchild. ence Teaching, 20(3), 293-305. I

22 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 23 Matching educational needs to stunning visuals Re-imagining the Realm of Light

Denver’s Gates Planetarium and show producer collaborate to make a product that succeeds in different realms

Dan Neafus Planetarium Director Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) Denver, CO 80205 [email protected]

Remembering Domefest 2007 and be- Here are some excerpts from the original sive Film Festival 2009. Peter is a delightful ing transported through space and time as I script: German, with keen insight into film mak- viewed the hypnotic visual and sonic mas- • The early Earth was an… inhospitable ing for the dome. Our friendship grew while terpiece Realm of Light-A Brief History of Life, place… For millions of years ago, Mother sightseeing in and when we crossed it was clear to me that this inspiring program Earth was getting ready for the brew of life… paths again in 2010, late at night, in a boister- needed to be shared with a larger audience. • Life is a wondrous miracle. It speaks to us ous and cramped café in Germany. After The show took away honors for best use of every day in millions of ways. Like now… It sampling the local brew and cuisine, I shared dome that year and went on to gain recogni- is time to open your eyes… the feedback from our test screening of Realm tion at Immersive Film Festival 09, and again Certainly there are audiences that appre- of Light in Denver. at the Fulldome Festival 2009. ciate this original wording. I was concerned Peter looked me straight in the eye and said At the screening in Albuquerque, I was in- that the original story, however, might con- “what do we need to do? How can we make troduced to the program’s champion, Rita fuse the typical Denver Museum visitor, who the show work in the Denver Museum”? I Werner. Realm of Light is the realization of would be expecting a more informative pre- boldly replied—American style—straight and her idea and was produced by Peter Popp of sentation. to the point “the narration does not work for Softmachine. Erik Frimannslund Brede, Rita Following customary procedures, I went us at the Denver Museum.” I went on to sug- Werner, Gerry Winter, and Peter Popp are ahead and screened the show for DMNS staff gest some changes, pointing out that our au- credited for the original script. and volunteers and gathered their impres- diences expect a more descriptive approach to I fell in love with Realm of Light and was sions through written surveys. This rating sys- the narration. I also suggested that any such determined to bring it our dome theater in tem provides valuable feedback about the au- undertaking would be difficult because we Denver. It was a grandiose and poetic work, dience experience and the comments that we would not want to change the visuals or the featuring some of the best sonic and visual received supported my suspicions. The muse- magnificent score. choreography ever created for the dome the- um curators and staff have specific preconcep- Peter reflected on my critique for a few mo- ater. tions for all DMNS offerings. They shared that ments and then said “can you do this work? I I had some trepidation however, about run- the original wording was “poetic,” but offered want you to bring the show to Denver. I want ning the original program for the Museum re- little substance. I received a resounding no-go you to do what is necessary.” A rare and hum- view group. Not because of the visuals or the from the review team. bling opportunity was now before me. In- score; I was concerned about the lack of scien- Pondering what to do, I had the opportuni- spired by Peter’s faith in my production skills, tific explanation in the narrative. ty to meet Peter Pop in Portugal at the Immer- I accepted the challenge.

24 Planetarian December 2012 An agreement is born instance we had the luxury of rehearsing in Peter wanted to distribute the “re-imag- the dome, well in advance of recording, while ined” version to dome theaters worldwide. experiencing the visuals and music. We drafted an agreement a few months later I hired the right talent for the job. Gillian over breakfast in Alexandria, Egypt. I outlined enthusiastically embraced the task and sug- the benefits and presented our draft propos- gested a few important revisions. After clar- al to the museum team and received support ifying subtle pronunciation differences (ee- to proceed. The proposed script would better thereal or ah-thereal), we ventured into the meet scientific and viewer expectations for studio. It was now her script. She could imag- audiences at museums and science centers . ine exactly what the audience was seeing as It was now time to get to work. We were she guided them through a Realm of Light . careful to craft a narration that would not ruin the fluid choreography of the original Keeping the magic in sync program. Since immersive cinema can trigger The studio engineer and my colleagues a strong emotional response from audiences, from the museum paid close attention to her it is often what is felt that this aspect is more Above: Audio engineer Gannon Kashiwa, shown cadence and phrasing. Every word had been important than what is said. We wanted to ex- in Denver’s Gates Planetarium, puts the final scripted to work with the existing score and press only what must be described, as simply touches on the soundtrack of Realm of Light re- the momentum of each scene. Any mistake re- imagined. Image copyright DMNS, used with as possible. corded at this stage could sound odd or out of permission. At left: Pillars of Creation scene, context. Because of our advance planning, the While pondering my notes and relaxing provided by Reef Distribution GmbH. in the nearby mountains, the words came to session went lightning fast, finishing the re- me in a rush. Perhaps the high mountain air cording in about an hour. had jolted my brain and awakened my muse. back from space, at the wonders of our plan- Once recorded, we edited our preferred In a flurry of writing, I penned most of the re- et Earth. We have the capacity to decide…be- narration segments to the existing video. By imagined script in one afternoon. tween insight, or darkness. It is time now, to watching the video and listening to the score, Here are some excerpts from the original re-imagine our role on our home world. we could place each phrase into their precise and revised narration. location on the timeline. The track was then Original: The author’s process ready for final editing in the dome. And like everything else, stars also have a Any author that has poured heart and soul I am very fortunate to work with a master beginning… Nebulae are the wombs where into a manuscript knows that writing is a very re-mix engineer. Without his skills and criti- stars are born… Everything that exists goes personal, exposing task. The last 5% of any cal ear the project would have never worked. through the cycle of life… stars are born, project is often the most challenging. I strug- Provided with the international (no narra- evolve and die… gled to finalize the script by reading it out- tion) version of the original 5.1 mix and our Re-imagined: loud along with the visuals and reading to new narration track, he prepared for the final The largest stars mature into convuls- friends and critics alike. mix by cleaning up any remaining recording ing powerhouses, thermonuclear cauldrons, I shared the draft with respected colleagues errors. cooking up a stew of heavy elements. For a and tortured my dear wife with lengthy de- Once all 7 channels of audio were complet- time, gravity restrains these swelling giants, bates about the perfect word (ethereal or lu- ed, we set up a sophisticated mixing system in until unstoppable forces within doom them minescent?) to describe a glowing nebula. I the planetarium dome. Our Pro Tools system to cataclysm. honed the words further by subjecting them sent time code to the fulldome video serv- Original: to critical review of the museum scientists. ers. The audio tracks were balanced and rout- The early Earth was an… inhospitable I also found it beneficial to allow some time ed through a Lake Huron aural spacialization place… For millions of years ago, Mother Earth to pass between editing sessions. Often it is system, which generated 3D audio over our was getting ready for the brew of life… good to walk away from a project for a week 15.1 loudspeaker array. With this set up in the Re-imagined: or two and then revisit it through fresh eyes dome theater we use the Pro Tools editing in- The earliest Earth was lifeless and molten. before calling it done. terface to jump to any point in the program The weight of our new world pressed inward, and listen to each edit in synchronization heating the center into a forge, filled with Finding the right voice with the fulldome video. This fluid, real-time dense metals that had sunk to its core. Light- We auditioned 21 voice-over profession- workflow is fantastic fun. er material pushed to the surface and flowed als and narrowed the choice down to Gillian This system has served us well and ensures onto a glowing landscape. Lava gushed over Martin, a local talent with a British accent. She that what we mix will be exactly what the au- our planet, spewing acrid vapors. Our new gave the story just what I was listening for, a dience hears in the dome. We carefully adjust- world cooled. Seawater and organic molecules tone of friendly, worldly authenticity. ed the level balance between voice, music and concentrated in the oceans, readying the in- I feel that it is very important for a perform- sound effects as we listened and watched. We gredients for the emergence of life. er to own their part. If they are not engaged also made some final adjustments to the narra- Original finale: in their dialogue, the audience will certainly tion timing against the video and soundtrack. How often do we wonder where we come not become engaged in the program. I also feel We added a new opening title video, updat- from and where are we going? Why are we that a narrator should be a participant in the ed the credits and removed the last scene of here? There are as many answers as there a final phrasing of the voice over. Their person- the show, which no longer fit with the revised stars in the heavens… Life is a wondrous mir- al language skills are finely honed and they script. We verified everything one last time acle. It speaks to us every day in millions of know what sounds comfortable or contrived. while sitting in various seats in the planetari- ways. Like now… It is time to open your eyes… It also helps if a narrator can understand the um and then made the final recording. Re-imagined finale: medium we are working in and what the audi- We record the signal for each of the 16 Unrestricted… orbiting, …we are free to gaze ence will be experiencing as they speak. In this (Continues on Page 26)

December 2012 Planetarian 25 (Ray Worthy, continued from Page 8 (President, continued from Page 10) gotsky and Bernstein. He writes about “utili- have to keep our feet on the ground. There are still challenges and opportunities tarian spectacles and scientific spectacles.” ahead for the planetarium community. We Flynn postulates that basic intelligence Tail piece need more research to show the efficacy of in any particular community is roughly the I belong to a club called the Hartlepool Re- planetariums in education, both formal and same the world over. However, the environ- tired Men’s Forum. The membership is most- informal. Our Planetarian editor wrote about ment a particular community faces modifies ly made up of retired professionals, engineers, this in the March 2010 issue and later pre- the kind of intelligence which successful liv- businessmen and similar people. I gave a short sented a paper on the subject at a GLPA con- ing in that community requires. series of lectures there, each about one hour ference. Yes, planetariums are inspiring, but He cites some interviews with some vil- long, but, because my sight was limited, I of- administrators want hard data in order to pro- lage headmen in farming communities in the fered no visual aids. vide continued funding. steppes of Russia. They were told that where The last one of the series was on the subject IPS should take a lead in refining the ques- bears lived in ice and snow, they were all of light. As I moved along the historical frame- tions that need to be asked about the educa- white. Then they were told that, in the Arc- work, from the discovery of one concept to tional efficacy of planetariums and to encour- tic regions, it was all snow and ice. And then another, I presented all the logical steps, ask- age the research necessary to determine the asked, “What colour would the bears be?” ing for questions along the way to clarify any answers. They said they did not know. If a wise man particular point. There are also opportunities for IPS to reach came from there and told them, then they Questions did not come, at least during the out to colleagues in developing countries and would accept that fact. They would not allow talk, but many followed when someone got to find ways to do more collaborative proj- their brains to take the logical step. me in a corner somewhere. I realised that no- ects. Jim Sweitzer was deputized to serve as If the same questions were asked today, the body wanted to betray their lack of under- the IPS representative to an IAU Office of As- answers would be different and “logic” would standing. They were not children whose role tronomy for Development workshop in Cape have been used. Flynn talks of “utilitarian in life is to ask questions. This audience in- Town, South Africa last December. As this IAU spectacles” and “scientific spectacles” and ac- cluded the like of former headmasters, doc- program progresses there are important ways tive and passive vocabularies. Underlying all tors and so on. Some even arranged to visit in which planetariums and IPS can help. of this, I feel that Flynn and Vygotsky were my home and take up various points of dis- I want to especially thank my fellow offi- reaching for the same fundamental truths. cussion. cers. They have been a wonderful team to Whereas Vygotsky and Bernstein talk As I was being taken home as a passenger in work with and so much of the work of our So- about social groups and how these impinge a neighbour’s car, instead of being congratu- ciety depends upon their contributions. On upon the development of limited language lated on the success of my talk, inside the car January 1, 2013 Thomas Kraupe will assume codes, Flynn develops a parallel case in which was all silence. My impatience won and I fi- the presidency, we will have a new president the size of family has an effect upon a child’s nally asked what the others thought about elect, and I will serve as past president. Lee language skills. It works like this: the talk. Ann Hennig and Shawn Laatsch will continue A single child with two parents will grow They were a bit embarrassed, but the con- as secretary and treasurer/membership chair, up with the parents’ language dominating the sensus was that I had “gone on a bit.” When, respectively. home, whereas a child growing up in a fami- finally the other passengers had been deliv- I also thank our affiliate representatives, ly with five children will grow up in an envi- ered home and I was left with my neighbor, committee chairs and committee members. ronment in which he or she hears children’s the driver, the conversation turned to the fact And finally, thank you to each of you, the speech all around. that I had been suffering with cramp in my members of IPS. I am so impressed by the left leg. wonderful work that you are doing, especial- Conclusion “Oh!” my neighbour said. “There is no need ly what I heard from many of you at the IPS In our so called “modern” society, we highly for you to suffer from cramp ever again.” conference and what I read in the Planetari- prize a mind which can apply analytical and “Why is that?” I asked innocently. an, Dome-L and other sources. I have enjoyed forensic thought to a problem. We see this as “No,” he answered. “All you have to do is meeting many of you during my term as presi- a means by which our society or nation can sleep with a new bar of Palmolive soap under dent and look forward to visiting and learning compete in the modern world of technology. your pillow.” from you in the future. I extend best wishes to However, there are many amongst us who He was absolutely serious. I you for a productive 2013. I will never get their brains to take the neces- sary logical steps. I have listed some of the agencies which can cause this inability. If you (Denver, continued from Page 25) know of others, please let me know. speakers as well as the 5.1 master mix. This 5.1 and challenges of our medium. Customizing With regard to the teaching and learning distribution mix is no longer international, any program for specific audiences or cultur- about astronomy, formal education in mathe- as it contains the voice mixed over the front al preferences should be done in concert with matics is essential. However, before this can be channels along with the music. regional professionals. accepted by the brain, a mindset occasioned We opened the show in Denver with an en- I am very grateful to Peter for allowing me to by the social background with its influence thusiastic response from audiences and the play a part in this great project. The re-imagin- on the development of what we like to call a program continues to run here at DMNS. At ing of Realm of Light was not a trivial task, but logical framework is essential. IPS Peter and I were, at long last, able to en- it has been a very rewarding experience. I There is a large section within our society joy this re-imagined work together and then which contains people whose brains, of de- share it with the world. Realm of Light–re-imagined: monstrable intelligence, can never accept As I enter my second decade of fulldome www.reef-distribution.com/ what we like to call a scientific construction production, I understand that regionalizing shows/realm-of-light.ht of concepts. As educators of astronomy, we a program is one of the great opportunities

26 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 27 Successes from Workshop on Fulldome production Bringing fulldome world to Rio

Luís Guilherme Haun Rafael Drelich Fundação Planetário da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro Rua Vice Governador Rubens Berardo, 100 - Gávea Rio de Janeiro, Brazil www.planetariodorio.com.br

2012. we had the N.A.D.A. team talk about their tri- The workshop was a full-day closed event, als and tribulations in this process. aimed at planetarians (we had eight plane- N.A.D.A. (which is the Portuguese word for tariums from around Brazil send representa- “nothing”) is the acronym for Animation and tives to attend; that is roughly 20% of all fixed Digital Art Center. Amateur photographer domes in the country), designers, computer Carlos Carvalho (known as Cartola) gave us The city of Rio de Janeiro is well known artists and other professionals interested in a whole week of a hands-on coursework on around the world as a great tourist destina- learning fulldome techniques. Our main goal “Immersive Digital Photography and Image tion. Few large cities have such natural beau- with this workshop was to create some critical Manipulation through Free Software.” ties as Rio, with its beaches and rainforests, all mass in Brazil so we can start developing our Following last year’s successful model, we within the city limits. This exact, and unique, own shows, customized to our needs, focused added to the short courses a series of stand- landscape was recently declared by UNESCO on the “right” side a “World Heritage Site” named “Rio de Janei- of the sky (we are ro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain in the Southern and the Sea.” Hemisphere, after Rio has a lot of history, being one of the all). oldest cities in Brazil. It was the nation’s cap- As keynote lec- ital until 1960. And it is the signature name turers, we had the for Brazil around the world. In the next few honor to have years, Rio will host the Soccer Confederation Steve Savage (Sky- Cup (2013), the FIFA World Cup (2014) and the Skan, Inc.) and Olympic and Paralympic Games (2016). Spanish animation This is the cultural environment that com- artist Jordi Grangel pelled the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium Founda- (Grangel Studios). tion to host its first Workshop on Fulldome Steve is a living Production, in November 2011. We had two legend in our busi- keynote lecturers, Shawn Laatsch (Imiloa As- ness and shared tronomy Center of Hawaii) and Antonio Pe- with us, through- drosa (Navegar Foundation), who are both out four days, his well known to Planetarian readers. We also personal recollec- Introducing the puppets from the next Rio Planetarium production, a had some local lecturers, ranging from college tions on the histo- fulldome show made in partnership with the Catholic University called Who is Afraid of the Dark? Photo by Filipe Mourão, Rio Planetarium Staff. professors and planetarians to television pro- ry of fulldome and ducers. his experiences in The success of this first event lead us to shooting real im- dream higher, and plan for a second one. In ages for fulldome productions. alone lectures given by Brazilian profession- association with the largest private univer- Jordi comes from a different background, als. World-famous graphic designer Hans sity in Rio, (Pontifical Catholic University having worked with big Hollywood produc- Donner (from Globo Network Television), La- of Rio de Janeiro, often abbreviated as PUC- tions such as Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and bareda Studios and Luiz Velho (from IMPA) Rio), which is just across the street from our DreamWorks’ Madagascar; he gave us an over- shared their knowledge on the field. main building, we promoted the II Workshop view on how to design characters. The big news happened after class, howev- on Fulldome Production. It happened in Sep- Doubling the offer from last year, we had er. Every night, from 7 til 9 p.m., we opened tember, 2012, and this time around we added two other short courses, given by Brazilian our digital dome to the public, free of charge, an extra flavor to it: we planned a Showcase professionals. From PUC, which is helping us and showed some of the best fulldome con- on Fulldome Production, the Rio ShowDome develop our first brand new fulldome show, (Continues on Page 46)

28 Planetarian December 2012 Now Available for Digital Fulldome Theaters

Digital fulldome conversion distributed exclusively by

www.es.com [email protected]

December 2012 Planetarian 29 Why your video may not work after 2013: Part II The trouble is in your set after all!

Jeff Bowen Bowen Technovation 7999 E. 88th St. , Indiana 46256 USA [email protected]

Pre-requisite: Read the first installment of use very low cost, small diameter Ethernet ca- this in the June 2012 Planetarian. bles. These are available for all audio, video Briefly, the first installment we discussed and control types, such a HDMI, DisplayPort, Degraded video signal (left) vs. important subjects such as: DVI, VGA (RGBHV), serial, 232, etc. correct signal. • The immediate phase out of computer RG- They typically use one or two CAT5 or BHV (VGA) connections beginning in 2013 CAT6 cables, depending on the manufactur- with the technology to be off product lines er and the extended distance between devices. by 2015 at the latest. An extender “kit” consists of a “sender/ • Analog Sunset–2010. All Bluray players, transmitter” and also a receiver. You select the HDTV tuners, etc. have utilities burned into extender kit based on the resolution of your their chipsets that will automatically turn video and the length of the proposed cabling. off the component, composite, VGA and S- Extenders are also used for USB, keyboard, video outputs on December 31, 2013. mouse and other signals when they are run • Proper installation of a new DVD player, long distances. Blu-ray player, HDTV tuner, or computer. Decoders • Why using a little adapter to convert your Cable types HDMI/DP port to VGA won’t work. The rea- One thing to keep in mind is that for audio/ son is HDCP. video work, CAT6 is not better than CAT5. • Adding a video source converter or scaler/ You must use the cable type that the extend- switcher. er manufacturer recommends. Period. If you • Mismatched projector and device resolu- want to know why, just contact Mark Trotter tions. or me and we’ll explain it to you. Now, let’s move onward. Audio Cables: Most of you know that 2-conductor unbalanced audio (typically Cable length and lxtenders RCA connectors) is only reliable for up to 15 If you review the distance limitation ta- feet (4.6 meters) Very low cost CAT5/6 extend- ble (Table 1) in the first article, you see quick- ers are also available for unbalanced audio ly that video signals are not designed for use that can extend the signal hundreds of feet. with long cables. Some only work accurately However, in a modern HDCP compliant with distance as short as 6 feet (1.8 meters). The video system, most of the audio is digital and minute you exceed these lengths you are de- is carried along on the same HDMI or Display- UTP converter system grading the video signal. Port cable and connectors as the HD video. So How much degradation of the picture qual- how do you get it into your audio system? all the various formats of DTS, Dolby, PCM… ity is acceptable is up to you, but be assured but not all do. A good decoder can also be con- any length above what is shown in the table Decoders and audio trolled via your theater control system and introduces degradation. What we do is run the digital video signal should provide professional three-wire bal- The most modern and most popular way to thru a decoder, often built into a switcher. anced outputs. protect the signal is via the use of UTP (Uni- The decoder breaks out stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 audio There’s more to this topic, as always. Your versal Twisted Pair) extenders, or also thru streams from HDMI and DisplayPort signals are invited to study this topic more on any of some less common, more expensive fiber or and converts them into the proper signal to the numerous websites out there, or just con- co-ax extender systems. The little UTP con- be routed to your stereo or surround sound tact any of us at Bowen Technovation for verter systems are the industry standard and audio system. The best decoders will decode more information and advice. I

30 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 31 Minutes of the IPS Council Meeting Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. Board Room Shaw Center for the Arts, LSU Museum of Art Baton Rouge, Louisiana July 21 - 22, 2012

* indicates action items Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) presentation and update regarding the con- In attendance: - John Hare ference. At the time of Council there were 663 President Dave Weinrich Southwestern Association of Planetariums participants, which set a record for IPS Confer- President Elect Thomas Kraupe (SWAP) – Rachel Thompson ences. On behalf of Council, President Dave Past President Tom Mason Weinrich thanked Jon and his staff for their Treasurer Shawn Laatsch Guests: hard work and planning on this historic con- Secretary Lee Ann Hennig Jon Elvert - Chair, IPS Outreach Committee, ference. and Pennington Planetarium, Baton Rouge, The Secretary’s Report on the Minutes of Affiliate Representatives: Louisiana, USA, IPS 2012 Conference Host the 2011 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia Council Association of Brazilian Planetariums (ABP) – Dr. Jin Zhu – IPS 2014 Conference Host, Direc- Meeting had been previously published in the Dr. Alexandre Cherman tor, Beijing Planetarium, Beijing China March 2012 Planetarian. Association of Dutch Speaking Planetariums Yaroslav Gubchenko - Executive Director, The Minutes were approved. (ADSP) – Anne-Lize Kochuyt for Andre Milis Fulldome Film Society, Russia Treasurer Shawn Laatsch presented the Association of French Speaking Planetariums Filippova Iryna - Donetsu Digital Planetarium, Treasurer’s Report. Council reviewed and (APLF) – Marc Moutin discussed specifics of the 2011 Financial Re- Association of Mexican Planetariums (AM- Vitally Slyusarenko - Kiev Planetarium, port, the mid-year 2012 Budget, and the pro- PAC) – Eduardo Hernández for Ignacio Cas- Ukraine posed 2013 budget. The Audit Report of 2011 tro Pinal Gianluca Ranzini - IAP confirmed that the treasury is in good stand- Association of Spanish Planetariums (APLE) – Fernando Jaurequi - APLE ing and the document has been posted on Nieves Gordon for Javier Armentia Dr. Björn Voss - GDP the Council Group Site. Shawn recognized Australasian Planetarium Society (APS) – Alex Delivorias - EMPA Ash Enterprises and Digitalis for their con- Warik Lawrance Francisco Alcaraz – AMPAC tributions to promoting membership in IPS. British Association of Planetaria (BAP) – Jenny Carmen Gonzalez - AMPAC Shawn encouraged others to consider similar Shipway Dr. Dale Smith - Chair, IPS Publications Com- initiatives and pointed out exemplary efforts, Canadian Association of Science Centres mittee such as GLPA’s request as check box on their (CASC) - Ian McLennan Martin George - Chair, IPS International Rela- membership application asking if you are an Chinese Planetarium Society (CPS) – Jin Zhu tions Committee & Elections Committee IPS member, Thomas Hamilton’s scholarships European/Mediterranean Planetarium Associ- Susan Button - Chair, IPS Portable Planetarium for IPS memberships, and Jeff and Linda Bow- ation (EMPA) - Manos Kitsonas Committee en’s planned gift for IPS. Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) – Alan Gould - Chair, IPS Web Committee The Treasurer’s Report was filed. Jeanne Bishop Celso Cunha - President of Rio Planetarium As Membership Chair, Shawn reported that Great Plains Planetarium Association (GPPA) Foundation, Rio de Janeiro Brazil the total membership as of June 2012 was 719. – Jack Dunn Steve Baker and Frank Florian – IPS 2016 Con- Shawn also provided an overview of the As- Italian Association of Planetaria (IAP) – Sim- ference Bid, TELUS World of Science sociate Membership initiative to date. The en- onetta Ercoli for Loris Ramponi via Skype Marc Moutin- IPS 2016 Conference Bid- Cité rollment is down by 10 from last year. Japan Planetarium Association (JPA) - Kaoru de l’espace The Membership Report was filed. Kimura Dr. Maciej Ligowski and Dr. Kamil Zloczews- Past President Tom Mason presented his Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS) – ki- IPS 2016 Conference Bid, Copernicus Sci- Past President’s Report, which will be print- Patty Seaton ence Center ed in the September 2012 issue of the Planetar- Nordic Planetarium Association (NPA) – Aase ian. (Editor’s insertion: printed in the December Roland Jacobsen The meeting was called to order at 9 a.m. 2012 issue). Tom spoke of his rich experiences Pacific Planetarium Association (PPA) – Gail by President Dave Weinrich. Dave welcomed during the 6 years he fulfilled the duties of the Chaid the Council Members and guests and opened office: the friendships he enjoyed, the work on Rocky Mountain Planetarium Association the meeting with introductions from ev- behalf of IPS he shared with Council, and his (RMPA) – Mike George eryone in attendance. Dave recognized new dreams for continued success and goals for the Russian Planetarium Association (RPA) – Lars Council members and reviewed the format organization. Tom will receive the President’s Broman for Zinaida P. Sitkova for the Council meeting as well as changes in Award at the IPS Banquet at this conference. Society of German Speaking Planetaria (GDP) the agenda. Jon Elvert, Host of IPS 2012, wel- President Dave Weinrich delivered the – Christian Theis comed Council to Baton Rouge and gave a (Continues on Page 34)

32 Planetarian December 2012 & proudly present

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“LICHTMOND sets standards in terms of technology and content. The Fulldome production will deeply impress visitors of planetariums around the globe!”

Thomas W. Kraupe, Director of Planetarium Hamburg

3 spectacular 360° digital production

3 7.1 + 5.1 surround sound 3 4k state-of-art animation 3 feat. Alan Parsons and more

Intoxicating audio-visual poetry in a Gold & Platinum award winning project World Premiere March 14, 2013 at Planetarium Hamburg

More information: www.planetarium-hamburg.de/lichtmond • Planetarium Hamburg, Hindenburgstr. 1b, D 22303 Hamburg December 2012 Planetarian 33 contact: Maja Prus and Silke Damerow • phone: + 49 40 428 86 52 51 • mail: [email protected]

LM_PlanetariumAZ_216x279_RZ_121012.indd 2 12.10.12 16:36 President’s Report. This report will also be endar issue. Affiliates were reminded to use Standing Committee Reports published in the September 2012 issue of the the updated template to file their reports and Standing Committee Reports were present- Planetarian. Dave continues to work on be- include the Affiliate logo on the IPS Affili- ed, reviewed, and discussed. The full commit- half of updating the status of IPS Affiliates and ate webpage. The IPS Affiliate Reports will be tee reports will be posted on the individual promoting new applications. He stressed the posted on the IPS Website. Committee Webpages on the IPS Website. importance of service to IPS and realizing the The Affiliate Reports were filed. opportunities that our organization has to of- Affiliate Reports not submitted: Awards Committee fer to planetarians. The Past President’s and Association of Brazilian Planetariums (ABP) Chair Lars Broman presented the IPS President’s Reports were filed. Canadian Association of Science Centres Awards Committee Report. The President’s (CASC) Award, the IPS Fellows, and the IPS Ser- Affiliate Reports vice Award honorees will be presented to As a review and because of the presence of Conferences the membership at the IPS Luncheon. A re- many new Council representatives, President IPS 2012 Conference view of the Awards presented will be pub- Dave Weinrich discussed the responsibilities Jon Elvert, Conference Host for the IPS 2012 lished in the December 2012 issue of the Plan- of Affiliate Representatives. He also encour- Conference, presented an update at the begin- etarian. The 2012 IPS Award recipients are: aged our members to become more involved ning of the Council Meeting. IPS Service Award: Sharon Shanks and April in the duties and activities associated with Whitt representing their Affiliates. We have seen an IPS 2014 Conference President’s Award: Past President Tom Ma- increase in Council business throughout the Dr. Jin Zhu, IPS 2014 Conference Host, pre- son year, not just limited to traditional Council sented a report on the plans for the conference 2012 IPS Fellows: Bart Benjamin, Gail Chaid, Meeting, and it is important for all out affili- in Beijing China. The Conference is scheduled Alex Cherman, Alex Delivorias, Bjorn Heiden, ates to be represented at all times. for June 23-27, 2014, preceded by the Coun- Tom Mason, Christopher Reid, John Schroer, Written Affiliate Reports were reviewed cil Meeting on June 21-22. Details and updates Sharon Shanks, Dave Weinrich and Affiliate Representatives highlighted are posted on the Conference Website www. Technology and Innovation Award: none events and concerns from their respective re- ips2014.org and will be published in the Plan- awarded this cycle ports. In news from the floor, ADSP Represen- etarian. Lars suggested that previous recipients of tative Anne-Lize Kochuyt reported that her the Service Award (who were presented with colleagues are having difficulty recognizing IPS 2016 Conference Bids Plaques) be offered the opportunity to up- the benefit of being an affiliate of IPS. Coun- Council reviewed proposed bids for the IPS date to the crystal version. *Thomas Kraupe cil Members discussed their feelings related to 2016 Conference from three sites: moved that Council allow any recipient of the topic of conference attendance (network- 1. TELUS World of Science, , Al- the Service Award to replace the older ver- ing, renewed enthusiasm, energy, and passion, berta (Canada) - presented by Ian McLennan, sion of the award with the crystal version at the benefit of sharing these experiences with Steve Baker and Frank Florian the recipient’s own expense, seconded by Pat- other cultures, etc.). 2. Cité de l’espace, Toulouse () - pre- ty Seaton and approved by Council. Affiliates GDP Representative Christian Theis report- sented by Marc Moutin are encouraged to submit nominations for IPS ed that restructuring for a new organization 3. Copernicus Science Center, (Po- Awards to the Awards Committee. of the Society of German-Speaking Planetar- land) – presented by Dr. Maciej Ligowski and ia, replacing the former Council of German Dr. Kamil Zloczewski Elections Committee Planetaria (RDP) and widening its scope, was Council will be monitoring the bid propos- Elections Committee Chair Martin George complete. Formal recognition of the organiza- als as they formalize their plans for final bid presented the IPS Elections Committee report. tion as an affiliate was approved by Council presentations at the 2013 IPS Council Meet- Several individuals have expressed interest in in May 2012. ing. Information on the three bid propos- running for the office of President Elect. For RMPA Representative Mike George spoke als will be posted on the conference websites the offices of Executive Secretary and Trea- about the declining membership in his affil- linked to the IPS Web Site. There will be arti- surer/Membership Chair, Lee Ann Hennig iate’s region and efforts involved in address- cles published in the March 2013 Planetarian and Shawn Laatsch were contacted and asked ing the issue. containing information regarding each po- if they would consider running as incum- SEPA Representative John Hare reminded tential conference site so that the member- bents for the offices they currently hold; they Council that helping defray conference costs ship can compare the bids. Affiliate Represen- agreed. Martin expects to have the candidate was a major goal for SEPA. One of their initia- tatives will be working with their members to list ready by the General Business Meeting, at tives is to offer stipends (20) to members for inform them about which site is most desir- which time additional nominations will be conference attendance. SEPA also designates able. Each of the bids will be presented at the entertained from the floor and the candidates 10% of vendor donations to finance the sti- General Business Meeting during this confer- will give brief statements. Affiliate Represen- pend fund. ence. On behalf of Council, President Dave tatives are urged to encourage their member- Throughout the Affiliate Report discussion Weinrich thanked the bid presenters for their ship to consider running for an IPS office.** Council addressed the need to focus on trans- efforts in planning and preparing the propos- ABP Alex Cherman suggested that the actu- lation services and other methods to be more als and for their willingness to host an IPS al vote count for elections be announced and inclusive of cultural differences among our Conference. published. The present Standing Rules would members. The first day of the Council Meeting was have to be amended to allow for that change Many Affiliates reported on their outreach adjourned at 5:30 p.m. in procedure. After discussion by Council, efforts regarding the June 2012 Transit of Ve- The second day of the Council Meeting was *John Hare moved to change the last sentence nus and addressing the 12/21/12 Mayan Cal- called to order at 9 a.m. on July 22, 2012. in Standing Rule Appendix B. IX. to read: “The

34 Planetarian December 2012 actual count of the votes will be published.”, completing the scanning of slides and pho- drafted some ideas and objectives for the mis- seconded by Alex Cherman and approved by tographs of archival material (approximate- sion of the committee. Council. ly 10,000 images are in the archive). There will be a Memorial Presentation during this Script Contest Committee Publications Committee conference for IPS members who have passed Chair Thomas Kraupe reported that despite IPS Publications Committee Chair Dale away during the last 4 years. Ian McLennan the efforts to broaden the participation in the Smith presented his report. Executive Editor and Thomas Kraupe are also involved with contest and revise the rules, there was still Sharon Shanks continues to bring outstand- John’s efforts to maintain a database and cre- only one entry and hence no award can be ing quality and content to our journal along ate a digital memorial as a mechanism to rec- handed out. Thomas thanked the Eugenides with seasoned editorial oversight and a dis- ognize recently passed members. Foundation for its support. Manos Kitsonas tinguished roster of columns and advertis- commented that the Foundation will keep ers. Two new types of articles have been in- International Relations Committee supporting IPS and will target alternative ar- troduced in the past year: “Under One Dome,” Chair Martin George and his commit- eas of creative work in the planetarium area. showcasing an individual planetarium, and tee have vigorously promoted IPS across the The Committee’s suggestion to work with Eu- “How We Do It,” describing methods and globe in several venues. Yaroslav Gubchen- genides Foundation on replacing the current tricks of the trade. ko demonstrated a portable dome and Chair award with a production award or by support- The 2011 edition of the IPS Directory (which Martin presented a talk “Planetariums of the ing professional development or workshops includes the IPS Directory of the World’s Plan- World” at the IAU Asia-Pacific Regional Meet- in the area of scriptwriting and storytelling at etariums, the “white pages,” and the IPS Re- ing in Chiang Mai, . Other efforts future IPS conferences or between conferenc- source Directory, the “yellow pages,” was dis- reached into Beijing, China and the Philip- es had already been approved by the Officers. tributed to all members in December in CD pines. The committee’s scholarship docu- A new proposal relating to that partnership format. Serving as Editor of this publica- ments were put into practice for the 2012 IPS with the Eugenides Foundation will be put tion for 15 years, Dale’s process for gather- Conference in Baton Rouge and a number forward to Council. As a first signal towards ing updates is Herculean. He walked Council of applications were processed and awarded. that goal, prize money for 2012 will be used to through the steps involved. Eventually the There will be an evaluation of the application honor the best of the “best creative fulldome Directory will be available on the redesigned procedure to make improvements on the doc- productions” at the domefest held at this IPS IPS web site. umentation for future conferences. The Com- 2012 Conference in Baton Rouge. Council Standing Committee Reports were filed. mittee will continue its investigation into looks forward to a new proposal relating to a providing translation services at conferences. partnership with the Eugenides Foundation. Ad Hoc Committee Reports Ad Hoc Committee Reports were pre- Outreach Committee Technology Committee sented, reviewed and discussed. Complete re- Chair Jon Elvert presented the report on Chair Jack Dunn reported on efforts of the ports will be posted on the IPS Web Site Com- Outreach efforts. As a recipient to a NASA- Committee to provide information to plane- mittee Pages. funded grant, all IPS members attending the tarians on software for converting video for- IPS2012 conference will receive a DVD of the mats that is free, considering that budgets are Education Committee fulldome show We Choose Space! As IPS 2012 tight. Articles will be published in the Plane- The written Education Committee Report Conference Host, Jon personally communi- tarian and made available on the IPS Website. from Chair Jack Northrup was reviewed. The cated with individuals, vendors, and facilities The committee sees its main function as being Committee continues to focus on updating that should benefit the IPS community by be- helpful to personnel of various types of facil- links and adding a section on blogs and pod- coming more involved and sharing resources. ities who are faced with using more technol- casting. There is a focus on working with re- The committee continues to pursue partner- ogy in their normal routines. Since this com- gional groups on the development and im- ships and exchange of resources with other or- mittee has “absorbed” the duties of the former plementation of the U.S. national and state ganizations. Planetarium Development Group Committee standards for science and astronomy. A new (chaired by Ken Wilson), an update of the ba- initiative will be to create lessons that utilize Portable Planetarium Committee sic document “So You Want to Build a Plane- IPS’s membership to assist in establishing in- Chair Susan Button presented her report on tarium” is overdue and will be an important ternational cooperative activities. Portable Planetariums. The Committee has in- task. tensified its emphasis on live interactive les- Fulldome Committee sons, especially in small and portable domes, Strategic Planning Committee Shawn Laatsch reported that Antonio Pe- which has resulted in a renewed interest in President Dave Weinrich requested Council drosa, Chair of the committee, is working on that aspect of presentations. “Live Interactive to submit any items/suggestions for consider- efforts to identify goals and objectives of the Planetarium Symposium” (LIPS) are meetings ation to the Officers. committee. The issue of establishing standards devoted to this trend. Look for an update on for this aspect of the planetarium community the documents for the Committee’s work on Web Committee is challenging. Chair Antonio’s report empha- the redesigned IPS website. Chair Alan Gould’s presented his Commit- sized that this conference will host a number tee’s report, which focused on the redesign of activities related to fulldome activities. Professional Services Committee and migration of the entire IPS site to its new President Dave Weinrich reported that he home. The site went live a few months before History Committee has had several conversations with Shaar- the IPS 2012 Conference and although there Historian John Hare reported that his com- on Leverment, who will be the new Chair of is a steep learning curve, the new site will al- mittee is continuing to make progress on the Professional Services Committee. She had (Continues on Page 46)

December 2012 Planetarian 35 The New IPS Website: More features for interaction

Alan Gould rums. Committees also can setup up groups. [email protected] • Resources, where there is a new submenu Chair, IPS Web Committee called “Free Media,” where music and visuals Lawrence Hall of Science may be found that are offered for free to any- one. It is a good place for even commercial art- University of California ists and media professionals to display sample Berkeley, California, USA works. This may be viewed as “free” advertis- ing in exchange for offering valuable resourc- IPS has had a website since the late 1990s, 1998 es to the planetarium community. There is not that long after the Internet as we know also a “members only” free resources area, ac- it developed. We acquired the domain name cessible only to IPS members. www.ips-planetarium.org in 1998 and Tom In the upper right, you can see a conven- Callen became webmaster as well as IPS Web tional “sign in” feature that allows members Committee chair. access to the members-only pages. Once one Tom held that chair signs in, a new left navigation item appears, until August of 2006, Members Only, which currently has these when I became the submenus: Web Committee chair • Issues of Planetarian online and webmaster. I wast- 2006 • Full IPS Membership Directory files and Re- ed no time returning source Directory files to the old knobs and • Free music switches in the left As one might expect in a modern organiza- navigation that I was tion website, members can change their own so proud of. passwords in the new IPS site. When the new We owe many site launched, Shawn Laatsch announced, via thanks to Ken Wilson Alan Gould membership email, a generic password, with and Jim Peck of the Sci- encouragement for members to sign in and ence Museum of Vir- customize their password. ginia for the years that the IPS website was 2012 hosted there at no charge to IPS. The site had New features for members some shortcomings, however. The members- Renew Your Membership (under Mem- only pages did have password access, but it bership Info): This is one of a number of new was the same password for everyone, which features that are highly useful to our beloved was not terribly secure. It had no special tools treasurer. The new site offers a highly us- or features and no sophisticated communica- er-friendly and powerful database for serv- tion functions that could be used by groups, ing membership functions. This feature also committees, or Council. serves our IPS Directory curator, Dale Smith. To overcome these shortcomings, the IPS Career Center. This area has a lot more Executive Committee and Council tasked the member functionality than the old jobs area. IPS Web Committee to design a new site with Any member can log in and post a job or more modern look and functionality. We ex- search the listings for jobs available. plored a few ideas, but the breakthrough came Surveys. The site has a nice survey func- in 2011 when IPS Treasurer Shawn Laatsch in- tion that we have already used for the latest vestigated possibilities and recommended IPS election as well as a feedback form for the that IPS contract with a professional website IPS 2012 Conference in Baton Rouge. Survey host company: yourmembership.com. The results can be restricted to certain members new IPS website was launched in April 2012, or made available to all IPS members—or even Table showing how content from the old site aligns with the new site. with the bulk of the content transferred over the public. Visualization without compromise. from the previous website. Forums. Forums are, in some ways, similar In the screenshot of the upper part of the to groups. A group and a forum are both com- centered (e.g. Technology Committee). new IPS home page (Figure 3) note that sever- posed of IPS members, and there are function- Groups can be formed from any subset of al left navigation categories are carried over al similarities in that they are both means of IPS members, and can share information and For 45 years, Sky-Skan innovations have defined from the previous site, but some are new. In sharing information. Perhaps we can think conduct business right on the website. The particular, new items are: immersive theater. We create award-winning of a forum as more topic-centered (e.g. shar- first groups to be formed are the IPS Council • Career Center ing fulldome production techniques or edu- and IPS Officers. The Education Committee technology and content for planetariums, science • Groups, where the IPS Executive Com- cational strategies), while a group is more task- (Continues on Page 46) mittee and Council have communication fo- centers, attractions, and multidisciplinary installations

36 Planetarian December 2012 across the globe. Visualization without compromise.

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38 SkySkan.com | Americas/Pacific tel +1 603-880-8500, [email protected] | Europe tel +49 89-6428-9231 [email protected] | Australia/Asia tel +613-9372-6444,December [email protected] 2012 THIS IS YOUR WORLD.

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Lars Broman, Award Committee chair [email protected] Every second year, at the IPS Conference, it is the time to give Awards and to name Fel- lows of IPS. Next time will thus be in Beijing, China in 2014. It is IPS Council that decides which persons should thus be honored, and it is the task of IPS Awards Committee to prepare the back- ground material from which the Council can decide. It is a rather long process, since the Bart Benjamin Gail Chaid Alex Cherman Alex Delivorias time when Council meets is a whole year in advance, the next time in Balzano, Italy 9-10 August 2013. Therefore, now is the time to nominate! Your nominations should reach the Awards Committee no later than 1 June 2013 so we can prepare a recommendation for Council’s decision. You can send your nomination to any of the Award Committee members. We are Jeanne Bishop, Susan Button, and Lars Bro- man, and our addresses are jeanneebishop@ Björn Hedén Tom Mason Chris Reed John Schroer wowway.com, [email protected], and [email protected], respectively. Please include the reasons why you think your nominee should be awarded or named a Fellow. IPS has three kinds of awards. First is the classic IPS Service Award, on which our Stand- ing Rules say: “An IPS Service Award shall be bestowed, from time to time, by the Society upon an individual or institution whose pres- ence and work in the planetarium field has been, through the years, an inspiration to the profession and its members.” Between 1982 David Weinrich April Whitt and 2012, twenty-three Service Awards have been given. substantial contributions in at least two of each the classical Fellow diploma, used since The second award is the IPS Technology the following respects: (1) Serving IPS in elec- the 1980s. and Innovation Award which, according to tive office, diligent and/or devoted commit- The President Award was given to our Past the Standing Rules, “shall be bestowed, from tee work, and the organization of conferenc- President Tom Mason. This year, no Technol- time to time, by the Society upon an individ- es and meetings. (2) Relevant and significant ogy and Innovation Award was given. ual, institution or commercial vendor whose publications and/or conference presentations. So, concluding the awards ceremony, the technology and/or innovations in the plane- (3) Cooperation with professional societies, or- prestigous Service Award was given to two tarium field have been, through the years, uti- ganizations and groups which bring attention well-deserving planetarians, both well-known lized or replicated by other members and/or to the importance of planetariums’ existence. to the readers of Planetarian: Planetarian Edi- planetariums.” This is a rather new award, and (4) The development of new methods in the tor Sharon Shanks and long-time Planetarian it has so far been given only twice, in 2008 planetarium field.” Since the mid-1980s, 242 Associate Editor and Columnist April S. Whitt. and 2010. IPS members have been named Fellows of IPS. Since 2008, awards are engraved heavy piec- The IPS President Award is given to the lat- During the awards luncheon in Baton es of crystal glass, hand-made at Nybro Crys- est IPS Past President; no nomination is thus Rouge 25 July 2012, first the following ten tal, Sweden. required. planetarians were named Fellows: Alexandre The names of all previous Awardees and Deserving members of IPS can be named Cherman, Brazil; Alex Delivorias, Greece; Tom Fellows are found at www.ips-planetarium. IPS Fellows. In order to be named a Fellow of Mason, , UK; Björn Hedén, org/?page=awardees. The complete rules are IPS, the Standing Rules say that “a member Sweden; and Bart Benjamin, Gail Chaid, Chris- found on page 16 in IPS Bylaws and Stand- must have continuous active membership in topher S. Reed, John Schroer, Sharon Shanks ing Rules. You can download a pdf version at good standing in IPS for at least five years, and and David Weinrich, USA. They were given www.ips-planetarium.org/?page=rules. I

December 2012 Planetarian 41 Past President’s Message Dr. Tom Mason College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DB Northern Ireland, United Kingdom +44 (0)2837 524725 +44 (0)2837 526187 fax, +44 (0)771 0013453 cell [email protected]

Dear colleagues and friends: languages, and their forebears, stone age carv- stop now, lest my short note becomes a no- This is my last report to the IPS Council ings and engravings bears this out. vella. as an elected office bearer. At the end of this I also strongly believe in two things: teach- My final message to you all is that you can- year, when the new president is elected, the ers are born, not made, and learning by stealth not do any wrong by offering yourself to past president slips quietly back into the plan- is the best way to impart knowledge. Any serve as an officer of IPS. We are a very broad etarium sea of ordinary members. This means learner does better when they do it for them- church, and have many opinions and sects, a change from trying to be a beach master, selves: hands on is the gold standard. And the but in my view we are all consumed with the keeping up with the myriad things that IPS learning beds in even better when the “lesson” same passion: excellence of communication. presidents need to attend to. is craftily concealed in the “doing.” This is the My time in office has been enriched by The first thing to say to you is that I was essence of stealthy instruction. my fellow officers and friends, first amongst more than a little surprised when I was asked equals must be the national treasure known to to put my name forward as a presidential can- A beneficial combination you as Lee Ann Hennig, IPS secretary. Cherish didate at the Melbourne conference. I was a So astronomy, with constellation picto- her contribution, it is hyper-important. She late convert to the planetarium scene. There graphs and the incredible images from all is abetted by Mr IPS Finance, Shawn Laatsch, seemed to me to be many better qualified parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, is per- and their stable foundation is the bedrock on and more knowledgeable candidates and I fectly positioned to exploit how we all learn. which presidents are made to look good. They thought that I would simply be adding to the I am enthralled by the stream of beautiful art save us from blunders and promote decisions, democratic process permitting a wider choice that flows from the satellites that orbit not edicts and much common sense. My thanks to the members. So I was quite surprised when only own planet, but also Mars and Saturn. and compliments on a job done better than I was elected. Assuming that the membership This feeds my need to see for myself the imag- well, I would say it is exemplary. knew what they were doing, I picked up the es of sand dunes and impact craters that pat- I also must mention the collective wisdom baton of president elect and joined the officer tern Martian deserts, as well as the instanta- of many past presidents, whom I choose not class. neous modification by dust devils captured to name, as to miss any out would be unin- as they scurry across the dusty landscape. The tentionally invidious. I have valued their wis- A difference in focus symmetry of the vortices created by small Sa- dom, advice and background knowledge. I have been an office bearer in many oth- turnian moonlets, and the vastness of Jupiter’s And lastly, the rank and file of the IPS mem- er organisations relating to my first career as weather patterns bring the unifying physics bership. What general in the past was blessed a geology professor in South Africa. The pri- of matter and fluids into my ken. with the breadth of knowledge, the willing- mary difference is that those organisations This fires my enthusiasm and makes me ness to share and collaborate, and the sheer concentrated on tangible objects rather than seek ways to explain using analogy and lo- good humouredness of this happy band of the fabulous untouchable cosmic images that cal examples, and these are objects in my cos- brothers (and sisters) all striving for what I technology delivers to my computer on a dai- mic back yard. The Hubble Deep Field image have tried to enunciate here. And Council ly basis. Despite this fundamental difference releases the mathematics of humungous and members, if you have not already thought of of tangibility, the common ground is that all the statistics of other worlds around other it, think how you might offer to serve as an of- of the organisations I have worked for were stars. Mind numbing, and humbling. ficer of the IPS. Actions are much more effec- driven by the need to communicate. So I build little robots, show meteorites tive than good intentions. Planetarians are story tellers, pure and sim- and tektites, symmetrical young impact cra- Thanks to you all for the experience: it has ple. They communicate by example and deed, ters on the Earth and the Moon and the small- been salutary and hugely rewarding for me. I and also by oiling the gears of the communi- pox of ancient scars on cation machine with the lubricant of bound- parts of the Earth’s plan- less enthusiasm. etary crust that are hun- “...a marvel of encouragement I have been a professional communicator dreds of billions of years and practical advice.” and teacher all of my adult life, and like me, old. And I use my enthu- -­Dr. E.C. Krupp, Griffith Observatory you all know that there is no greater pleasure siasm for these stunning than seeing the knowledge and awareness things to light a fire in grow in students and audiences as you ex- young people. We run plain something to them. I call it the light of special shows for nurs- Everyone’s Universe knowledge. You can see it dawn in their eyes ery age children, as I (Second Edition) as the jigsaw pieces click and the blurry, partly agree with the Jesuitical formed image swims into focus. We humans injunction to catch their by Noreen Grice are hard wired to learn in pictures; the occur- enthusiasm when they rence of ancient and modern pictographic are young. But I must www.youcandoastronomy.comwww.YouCanDoAstronomy.com

42 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 43 BlackHoles_FullPageAd_04-25-2012.pdf 1 4/25/2012 3:12:36 PM

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44 Planetarian December 2012 Erie Planetarium Erie County Historical Society 419 State Street Erie, 16501 USA

Pennsylvania Astronaut Mike Fincke (left) with Jim Gavio

Jim Gavio Erie Planetarium The Erie Planetarium’s early history started in the 1950’s. The Junior League of Erie thought that the Erie Public Mu- seum, which was a Natural History Museum, should have a planetarium. The Erie Public Museum itself was started in the late 1800’s and had acquired a large collection of artifacts from around the world. In the 1940’s it was relocated from the public library to one of the largest mansions in the city, which was donated to and run by the Erie School District. A delegation from Erie was then sent to the Natural History Museum to gather information and see a planetarium first hand. After a few years and much plan- ning, it was decided that a Spitz A2 would then be in- stalled under 20-ft dome in the carriage house of the man- sion/museum. A 20-ft dome was the largest that could be used. The grand opening of the new Erie Planetarium was in 1959, attended by Mr. Armand Spitz. The doors opened to the public in the winter of 1959-60. The Erie School District operated the planetarium for about 40 years. During the 1970’s the mission of the muse- um changed to become the “Erie Historical Museum,” and also around that time, in 1969, the planetarium exchanged its A2 Spitz for an A3P. Currently, the Erie County Historical Society operates the Museum and the planetarium, which is now in its 52nd year. I

December 2012 Planetarian 45 (Council minutes, continued from Page 35) low us more flexibility and options for mem- bership that the previous situation. Alan and Treasurer/Membership Chair Shawn Laatsch have been instrumental in moving this proj- ect forward. Workshops for Affiliate Repre- sentatives and Committee Chairs will be set up, and on-line instructions, as well as an in- troductory article in the Planetarian, should help introduce some of the nuances of the site. Council thanked Alan and his Committee for their hard work and dedication in the tremen- dous task that they have accomplished and for what lies ahead. The Ad Hoc Committee Reports were filed.

Constitution Matters Secretary Lee Ann Hennig reported that (IPS Web, continued from Page 36) revisions to the Standing Rules Appendix C: also has a group on the website. We anticipate can start a discussion forum or, if you are on Conference Guidelines, which were approved other IPS Committees to set up group areas as a committee, form a group for the committee by Council via electronic vote since the 2011 well. Groups have a number of communica- and start conducting discussions online right Council Meeting, were incorporated into the tion tools available to them, including e-mail on the IPS website. document. Additional wording regarding oth- lists and areas to post documents. So take a spin on the IPS website—www.ips- er revisions will be discussed by Council in If you are a committee chair or member of planetarium.org. See what’s there and while September. a committee and have ideas for adding mate- you’re doing that, think about what you’d rial relevant to your committee, by all means like to see there in the future. Things I already Unfinished Business form a group. Feel free to contact me about know we could use more of: multimedia. The A Survey of the Membership will be draft- how to put material on the IPS website. site is rich in a sense, but not yet what it could ed and passed to Council for comment and ap- I’m currently in the process of loading IPS be, especially for a planetarium organization. proval in September. publications into the Resources area. Soon to I welcome suggestions and feedback. And, come are complete archives of the Planetari- of course, help. I New Business an, archives of directories, special publications There was no new business. and reports. [email protected] It’s your website, and you can help deter- Project Reports mine what it has in it! If you are looking for a Shawn Laatsch reported on the status of the way to participate in IPS in a new and mean- production and distribution of a short (6-8 ingful way, consider helping with the website. minutes) fulldome and traditional program You can join the IPS Web Committee (contact www.ips-planetarium.org “trailer” relating to light pollution. Versions me) and be in charge an any part of the web- in different languages are being prepared. site that is of interest to you. Or, start a totally new area of the site. You For the Good of the Order President Dave Weinrich thanked Coun- (Rio Fulldome, continued from Page 46) cil for their dedication and attention to their work on behalf of the membership. tent from all over the world. That was the Rio Planetarium Productions); Natural Selection With business completed, Jeanne Bishop ShowDome 2012. We had more than 100 peo- (Mirage 3D); Planètes (RSA Cosmos); Two Small moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by ple attend our sessions! Pieces of Glass (IPS/Imiloa); and two of our own Patty Seaton, and approved by Council. The whole team (actually, three people, one productions: Céu: histórias e estrelas (Fundação Respectfully submitted, of which our brave intern Rafael, co-author of Planetário da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro); and Lee Ann A. Hennig this paper) was completely dedicated to the O Aniversário do Pingo (Labareda & Fundação Executive Secretary, IPS task of slicing and encoding over 15 terabytes Planetário da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro). July 22, 2012 of data using a single computer. By the end We also showed some short clips, like the of the week, we had shown to our audiences IPS 2012 Introduction from Mirage 3D, some ** Addendum to the Minutes: productions from the U.S., France, the Neth- material from DomeFest, and a few trailers At the IPS General Meeting, IPS Elections erlands, Japan, England and Brazil. And we from various producers. Committee Chair Martin George announced would like to thank all the producers that sent So, coming full circle to the beginning of the nominees for President Elect, and all of us hard drives with content for our event: Sky- this article: Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful tourist the candidates for IPS office presented state- Skan, Mirage 3D, NSC Creative, Clark Planetar- destination. In February (or sometimes March) ments supporting their candidacy. The nom- ium, and the nice folks from DomeFest. we have Carnaval. And now, in September (or inees for the office of President Elect are: This is what we presented during that week: October) we have the Rio ShowDome. We Gail Chaid, Paul Knappenberger, Marc Mou- Awesome Light 1, 2 & 3 (Sky-Skan); Cell! Cell! know our planetarium event is not in the tin, and Joanne Young I Cell! (NSC Creative); Hayabusa: Back to the same league—yet— but we are giving you a Earth (Goto Inc.); Perfect Little Planet (Clark brand new reason to visit us. I

46 Planetarian December 2012 L!! LLL ! CECE LL! CELL LL!! CE CECELL

December 2012 Planetarian 47 pick up more bulbs. It takes two weeks Educational Horizons to get back to the moon. The oldest bulbs burn out first so they always go out in Jack L. Northrup the same order. When he gets back to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planetarium moon all the bulbs have burned out and King Science and Technology Magnet Center he has to start over again.” –I.B. 8th Grade 3720 Florence Blvd., Omaha, Nebraska 68110 USA This is a fun way for the students to make +1 402-557-4494 a personal connection to a topic, and a cou- [email protected] ple of my teachers have taken the stories back home and read them during the school an- nouncements. I had fun pulling the ideas for this edition’s dressing two or three at a time. education article from my idea wall. Not be- Be sure to check this column in future issues Calendars and time cause they are horribly profound, but because for more. The second lesson set is tied into the num- they do a great job of catching the student’s Now for the lessons for this article, moon ber of questions that the students have asked interest and guiding them to deeper under- phases, are generally some of your bread and me about the Mayan calendar. We don’t use standing. butter presentations. Another is calendars and it as a moment to address apocalyptic mania However, I first have a little education busi- time, where you have the audience interpret (that is another lesson). Instead, we start to dis- ness to cover. At IPS 2012 I collected a great information about how our calendar is linked cuss the purpose, function and key points of deal of information from participants at the to astronomy. a calendar system as the start of a three-day Education Committee Panel, on topics cov- unit. ered and areas that are lacking in support. Moon phases Have the students make a list of their top One of the areas that I noticed was a lynch- I start the lesson with SkyTellers’ moon three reasons to have a calendar. Then com- pin to many of topics was vocabulary and ter- phases section (www.lpi.usra.edu/education/ minology. I met with our school district’s lit- skytellers/moon_phases) up to the science bine them together into a master list and doc- eracy and language guru and she helped create explanation. This first act of the show is the ument repeats. Here are a few from my most this list of instructional strategies. Many of the Native American story “The Girl Who Mar- recent run of this lesson: “Calendars let us strategies are able to be done in the planetari- ried the Moon.” At the end of the act I have know when Mondays are so we can avoid um, but others may work best as pre- and post- the students write their own story for why we them.” “We need them so we don’t go to visit activities. have the phases of the moon. You get some in- school on the weekend.” “Without calendars • Marzano’s Six Step Vocabulary teresting stories, like “The moon is made of we would never have birthdays.” • Think aloud cheese and is the center of an age-old battle I like to ask, “What is the most basic unit • Reciprocal teaching between the black rats and white mice.” The of our calendar?” (Days) “Great, what kind of • Note making and graphic organizers story went on to explain that the phases are grouping is used to organize the calendar?” • Preview of text features the moving battle fronts, and it keeps repeat- This is where you can have the students start • Preview of text structures ing because mice and rats are not that bright. debating on answers and it can spiral into an • Question-Answer-Relationship Here’s another: argument. • Comparison matrix The man in the moon is a real person, The most popular grouping the last couple • Nonlinguistic representation and he is the custodian for the moon. Ev- of years has been days are grouped to weeks, • Oral discussion eryday he walks all over the moon clean- weeks to months, and months to years. • Quick writes ing the dust in to piles. The cleared off ar- However, you may get a variation of this • Summary writing eas are the mare. He digs holes all over sequence, such as when I had a group insert • Think-Ink-Pair-Share to see how deep the dust has gotten. His “months are grouped into seasons and seasons • Structured writing biggest problem is keeping all the light to years.” This is perfectly fine and you can use • R.A.F.T. bulbs working. They are always burning this as a connection to other vocabulary, but • Analogies and Metaphors out and he only has time to fix one at a an interesting question to pose to students is This is a great deal of information to be time. Once a month he gets all the lights “How many days are in a week? Does it ever included in a single article (a 5-page article on, but that only lasts a couple of days. change?” The students will be confident in would make Sharon very cross with me), so I When all the lights are on and working their answer that there are seven days in ev- am going break it up into smaller chunks ad- he gets in a rocket and flies to Earth to ery week.

Topic Success

Calendar represents 365 days (where leap day occurs is noted)

Days of week are named or coded

Months or seasons are named or coded

Seven holidays marked.

Calendar is repeatable

Calendar is location specific or world wide

Instructions for use

**Calendars that are facsimiles of the Western Calendar will be graded at a Basic Level**

48 Planetarian December 2012 www.lpi.usra.edu/education/ skytellers/moon_phases

www.carhenge.com

Stonehenge:vimeo. com/49571193

Sun Dagger: vimeo. com/49524194

Next: “How many days are in are large and meant to be used a month?” This is when the stu- by many people at once. Here dents will go just a little nuts, you in Nebraska we have a replica Use each three letter group once per blank to spell the name of a category and some of it!s members. will have a divided camps saying of Stonehenge called Carhenge 30 or 31 with a few saying 28 ex- (www.carhenge.com), and when Triad Categories 2 cept on leap year. You can now I ask my students about monu- have a couple kids go and check ments that can be used as calen- the web for the reason for the dars there is at least one student ADO AET APH APO ATH CHA CHI CRO difference in length of month, or in each class who has made the leave that as a future expansion trek to see this car-based version DAP DES EBE EKG ENA EOS GRE HEL activity. of Stonehenge. I like to use this point as spring- The second most popular is HER HER HES HNE HYA HYS IOS ITE board for them to be posed with Chichen Itza’s serpent shadow, the question “What would a cal- but that is because it was men- LAS LLO MED MER MES NIA NIS NUS endar look like if you were to de- tioned in social studies. NUS ODS OPE PAL PAN PHO ROD RON sign it?” I then have the students After they are familiarized draw names from a hat of oth- with the different types of calen- RON TET TIA TON TRI URA URA USA er calendars, such as Sun Dagger, dars, I present them with the ru- Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu, Islam- bric for this project. ic, Jewish, Aztec and Greek. You will have some students Category: ______They don’t have to become model a massive variety, from experts, but will need to make a 3-day weeks (more weekend quick informational flyer for the time per year) to 10-day weeks (12 ______calendar. This gives them oppor- months with three weeks each tunity to compare different cal- and a 5-day holiday at the end of ______endars quickly, including some the year). ______that have months that are the Some will explore 3-dimen- ______same length and others that have sional representations, such as no months at all. a solar calendar on the equator ______A resource book I have the stu- that looks like the Sun Dagger. ______dents check out is Echoes of the Another student was very ______Ancient Skies: The Astronomy of interested in how the sun ris- Lost Civilizations by E.C. Krupp es at specific locations at Stone- ______(Dover Publications, 2003). It is henge and decided to move it ______definitely upper level reading to the equator and make heel- skill, but the students are able to stone a large grooved stone in ______get a great deal of information the center. Both of these anima- ______from specific passages on their tions were collaborations with ______topic calendar. the students after they built I like to mention that not all physical models; the Sun Dag- calendars are small enough to be ger was made of toast and Nutel- by Adam Thanz carried in your pocket, and some la® so it did not hold up well. I (Answers on page xx)

December 2012 Planetarian 49 used the results of an economic impact assess- ment conducted 5 years ago to attract more IMERSA News government funding and more than double the proportion of earned income relative to total budget (from 30% to 70%). The study re- Judith Rubin vealed the true extent of the museum’s role in the community and of its contributions. “We Communications Director, IMERSA.org found that Science North is a main driver of [email protected] the city’s economic tourism engine,” he said.

Hayden takes fulldome honors AAM’s big tent Satisfying the many Held on alternate years with the Jackson We visited Orlando in November for the Ike Kwon, director of guest operations at Hole Wildlife Film Festival, the JHWFF Sym- IAAPA Expo and attended Museum & Sci- San Francisco’s California Academy of Sci- posium 2012 took place at the Denver Muse- ence Center Day. IAAPA (International Asso- ences (home of the Morrison Planetarium) um of Nature & Science on Sept 5-7. Sufficient ciation of Amusement Parks and Attractions) talked about strategies that the museum had fulldome submissions were received for the has long hosted the largest trade event for the employed in order to maintain visitor satis- new Science Media Awards to create a discreet attractions industry, and in the past 10 years faction in the enviable position of huge atten- category, Best Immersive–Fulldome, which has expanded its reach beyond the realm of dance numbers. was sponsored by Global Immersion. parks into educational attractions and muse- Before the museum was rebuilt (the previ- Finalists were Dynamic Earth: Exploring ums. A Zoo & Aquarium Day is also part of the ous structure was damaged by earthquake), its Earth’s Climate Engine (Spitz Creative Media, program. average yearly attendance was 80,000, report- the Advanced Visualization Lab at the Na- This year’s Museum & Science Center Day ed Kwon. “Now we do 8,000 in 3 weeks and tional Center for Supercomputing Applica- had a completely full house. Among the at- are creeping up on 7 million attendance since tions, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, tendees were designers, architects, media pro- opening [in 2008],” he said. Thomas Lucas Productions and Denver Mu- ducers, economic analysts, event producers, He illustrated the problem with an exam- seum of Nature & Science) and Cell! Cell! Cell! exhibit fabricators, museum operators and ple from the planetarium: the bundled tick- (NSC Creative and INTECH Science Centre theme park operators. et option covers a visit to the Morrison, but and Planetarium). The winning title was Un- The opening address was from Ford Bell, throughput in the dome wasn’t sufficient to discovered Worlds: The Search Beyond our Sun president of the American Alliance of Mu- meet demand, meaning that some visitors (Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum seums (AAM). The organization recently would not get the full value of their ticket. of Science, Boston). The show is about the dis- changed its name, swapping out Association They analyzed the load/unload pace and covery of exoplanets and the subsequent rede- for Alliance. Why? Bell explained that the ter- created a shorter planetarium show to facil- fining of our understanding of planets and so- minology change signaled a change in the itate a 30-minute cycle. This adjustment was lar systems, and the relative place of Earth in structure of the organization, retooling itself one of many implemented in a full-scale over- the universe. to spread a “bigger tent,” be more inclusive. haul of operations with the goal of improving The intention is not just to add more mem- the guest experience, based on a model Kwon IMERSA Fulldome Workshops & bers, but to deepen relationships with other had learned in his days in the hospitality in- Summit set for Feb 13-17, 2013 groups having similar interests and magnify dustry. The process relies heavily on input The Denver Museum of Nature & Science the visibility and lobbying power in the face and suggestions from staff who deal with day- will again be the setting for the IMERSA Sum- of shrunken federal assistance. to-day issues. mit, preceded by two and a half days of full- dome workshops, under the theme The Art & Measurements Know your value Science of Immersive Storytelling. Delegates In a subsequent session, John Robinett of Guy Labine, CEO of Science North in Sud- are encouraged to plan for the full five days AECOM, which has done numerous atten- bury, Canada, talked about how the museum (Continues on Page 52) dance studies for museums and cultural insti- tutions, showed ways to obtain meaningful statistics that can be used to make peer com- parisons and examine such things as the dif- fering behavior patterns of residential mar- kets to tourist markets, the ratio of visitation to exhibit square footage, the operations cost per square foot (most museums come in about $80-$100 per square foot) and evaluate admis- sion prices. Robinett’s fundamental graph showed the declining attendance curve of the museum that fails to reinvest on a regular basis—he maintains that museums should follow the practice of successful theme parks by rein- vesting yearly and taking a close look at how to maximize earned income (“retail perfor- mance is a missed opportunity for a lot of mu- seums”), enhance the perceived value to the visitor and increase per-capita spending. An alien beach from Undiscovered Worlds. Courtesy Hayden Planetarium.

50 Planetarian December 2012 Join a family of aliens searching for the perfect vacation spot in the solar system. Now available. Contact Mike Murray at [email protected] 385-468-1237 • clarkplanetarium.org/distribution December 2012 Planetarian 51

5032-3_Clark_PerfectLittlePlanet_OCT_8.5x11.indd 1 10/25/12 3:56 PM (IMERSA, continued from Page 50) if possible, as many of the workshop subjects cludes Dan Neafus, Ryan Wyatt, Ed Lantz, Mi- Semel Institute. Other speakers included Di- and speakers will reappear in the Summit ses- chael Daut, Mark Petersen, Mark Slater, Caro- ana Winston, director of MARC: Mindfulness sions, allowing for deeper levels of explora- lyn Petersen, Matt Mascheri, Jay Heinz, Ken Awareness Research Clinic at UCLA, who led tion and discussion. Scott, Claudia Cumbie-Jones, Lance Ford the audience in an exercise in creativity and Areas of focus will include sound design Jones, Jane Crayton, John Jacobsen, Paul Fra- mindfulness with Michael Perricone playing and audio, cross-platforming from fulldome ser, Markus Beyr, Judith Rubin and Karen Tibetan bells and Joanne Warfield performing to giant screen and vice versa, designing a full- Roney. Please email [email protected] if you fulldome visual imagery. dome curriculum in schools, scripting and would like to volunteer in any capacity, or to Thanks to sponsor support from Zeiss, story for fulldome shows, and setting up full- inquire about sponsorship. Registration will IMERSA presented an evening fulldome show- dome theaters as multipurpose spaces. There be live shortly at www.imersa.org. case featuring the premiere of “Blue Apple,” a will be a series of curated screenings, a Full- dome ballet created by collaboration between dome Innovation Salon for networking, prod- Creative immersion at LA event choreographer Stefan Wenta and visual artist uct demonstrations and content sharing, a On 22 September 2012, IMERSA co-spon- Audri Phillips, followed by “BollyDoll,” a mul- Creative Video Lab and the IMERSA Fulldome sored State of the Arts 2012: AMPLIFY! an im- tifaceted performance created and performed Standards Committee will address audio as mersive symposium in the Vortex Dome at LA by visual artist and singer Amrita Sen with the next phase of its work. Workshops will Center Studios in downtown . The composer and musician Anthony Marinelli. range from beginner to advanced levels. keynote, “The Neuroscience of Creativity,” The Summit organizing committee in- was presented by Dr. Robert Bilder of UCLA’s New FDDB website Dario Tiveron reported 9000+ visits from 73 countries in less than 24 hours since the new version of FDDB.org (the Fulldome Data- Bugs help tell the story of trees base) went live on 9 November. Private com- panies, planetariums, independent filmmak- ers, students as well as anyone else can freely From the creators of Kaluoka’hina and Realm of Light comes The Life of Trees, a high-end animated fulldome show telling a charming and enduring story about trees and conser- add their content to FDDB. With more than vation. 200 shows listed – and more being added ev- ery month – FDDB is achieving its goal to pro- In The Life of Trees, a cheeky ladybug called Dolores and a quirky firefly called Mike take the audience on a journey of exploration into the wondrous world of trees. As seen vide a comprehensive and accurate online re- through the perspective of insects, the film reveals the magic of the microcosm. source of fulldome content. Dario Tiveron, On their excursion, these two creepy-crawlies zip around a tree, and in doing so, play- based in Padova, Italy, is a former science proj- fully learn its se- ect director of a digital planetarium. crets: How do plants get their food from Upcoming Events the sun? How do ‘Imiloa Fulldome Film Festival, 7-9 Febru- they grow? How ary 2013, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo, Ha- does water get from waii. An international line up of 25 new dig- the roots to the top ital planetarium films will be showcased. All of the crown? And entries to the festival will be new planetari- how does all this um fulldome content since October of 2012. make life on our www.imiloahawaii.org/168/IFFF2013 earth possible? IMERSA Fulldome Workshops & Summit, The produces de- 13-17 February, Denver, Colorado, USA; see de- scription above. scribe The Life of Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA), Trees as a new kind of fulldome show. 2013 Film Expo and Digital Symposium, 18-21 “By following the Still from The Life of Trees. Courtesy Softmachine March 2013. Moody Gardens, Galveston, Tex- concept of edutain- as, USA, www.giantscreencinema.com ment, the plot in- Immersive Film Festival, IFF ’13, 3-5 May tertwines entertainment with education. Exciting and informative at the same time, this 2013 at Centro Multimeios Espinho, Portugal. combination creates the best learning effect.” Navegar Foundation invites producers, ani- The United Nations declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests, which prompted mators, filmmakers, artists, students, teachers the production of the program. and planetarium professionals to participate. To this end, the Word Wildlife Fund (WWF) was gained as partner in Germany. The film The competitive section will award the best is dedicated to the global conservation of trees, and aims to support the protection of the in fulldome productions by juried selection. environment by giving insight into the extraordinary connectivity in nature. With its im- iff.multimeios.pt pressive presentation of complex processes, the program is not only suited for children AAM Annual Meeting & Museum Expo, over the age of 6, but also is a fascinating and educational joyride for adults. 19-22 May 2013, , Maryland, USA. The adventures of Dolores and Mike came to life in the studios of Softmachine, the third www.aam-us.org production from the company in Munich. Over the course of over one year, they created one SIGGRAPH 2013, The 40th annual confer- of the most ambitious 360° film project ever. Its global premiere took place in October at the ence and exhibition on computer graphics and Planetarium of Hamburg. - Christoph Brandl interactive techniques. 21-25 July, 2013, Ana- heim California USA. s2013.siggraph.org I

52 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 53 led to placing the sun in the center of the so- lar system. Image of manuscripts The cinematography is beautiful. The cam- from the movie. Courte- era’s connection to the people telling the sto- sy of The Ancient Astron- omers of Timbuktu ry brings them alive; subtitles are provided when necessary but are not universally used. I found that listening to a discourse in a lan- guage I did not understand did not detract from my understanding of the message. And the message? That knowledge must be preserved, and a new era of understanding as- tronomy in Africa has begun. You can learn more about this film at its website, www.scribesoftimbuktu.com. It was produced in English and subtitled in French and Arabic, and is available for purchase from Preserving manuscripts the Planetarium at the Univer- sity of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South that preserve the roots Africa. I had a bit of difficulty ordering using my credit card, but once I assured the compa- of African astronomy ny that I was the legitimate originator of the order, it processed without problem. Go to www.planetarium.co.za. I’ve loaned the movie for use in my uni- versity’s Black Studies program, and watch it Sharon Shanks underway to conserve and preserve these frag- from time to time for my own edification. It Planetarian Editor ile leather-bound documents, which are un- reminds me that all knowledge, like all people, The Arabic world preserved the founda- der attack by time and the climate’s sand and are important. I tions of today’s astronomy at a time when it high temperatures. could have easily disappeared after the fall of Dr. Thebe Medupe, arguably Africa’s best on.fb.me/PlanetariumTweets the Roman Empire. It was given back, along known astronomer, is featured as he travels with their own learning, when the darkness across the continent looking for ancient doc- lifted. Contributions to knowledge from peo- uments and teasing out their connection with Real tweets about real planetariums Mario DiMaggio ple like Copernicus and Galileo, and all the astrology, the roots of astronomy. others upon whose shoulders we stand, would Astronomy and astronomical observation • Sudden urge to watch a planetarium show. not have happened without the assistance of survived because of the large country’s Mus- Starrrrrs. African Medieval astronomers. lim population. Islamic rituals require prayers • I need to go to the planetarium IT IS A The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu beau- at certain times while facing in a certain direc- MUST! tifully tells this story. The documentary film, tion, both established by the position of the • Ayye. You are always welcome in my make- released in 2009, recounts how Timbuktu was sun and the length of shadows, by angles mea- shift planetarium. the center of learning in West Africa, where sured by quadrants, and other celestial means. • Astronomy lab is siq. Sweet ass planetarium. it sat in the midst of trade routes and on the Holy days are based on a lunar calendar; the • I get to go to the planetarium today and edge of the Sahara. Today, it houses treasured time at night is measured by the movement of that's like number five on my favorite plac- hand-written manuscripts that are providing the 28 Lunar Mansions through the ecliptic. es to sleep holla the basis for research to understand how and What’s more, observations of the planets • If I take you to a planetarium or a museum, why astronomy survived. led to a desire to know the mechanics of the I plan on being w/ you for a while. This family wealth, handed down through solar system, a “struggle to know one’s place in • Tomorrow, one from a tons of my dreams generations, dates back to the early 11th cen- the great cosmos,” Medupe says in the movie. will come true. Go to a planetarium ! tury. Many of the manuscripts are still held Trying to explain and understand retrograde • Falling asleep to John Serrie and Kevin Bra- by private families, some in locked chests and motion in an Earth-centered universe led to heny's planetarium music. Because I'm 10. others in private museums. Massive efforts are an explosion in mathematics and clues that (Galaxies and Stargazer's Journey) • I'm so in love with space. I'm going to like break in a planetarium somewhere oneday • There's a planetarium here and nobody even said anything • I'm too arrogant, fly as a planetarium • Sorry in advance to everyone in the plan- etarium, but i don't blow my nose so have fun listening to me sniffle. • Ok I'm not going to the planetarium be- cause I have to deal with other people's boy- friend issues! • Even though I didn't get to go to the plane- tarium... I guess it was a pretty good day

54 Planetarian December 2012 The moment science and wonderment merge. This is the moment we work for.

// PLANETARIUMS M ADE BY

We have been bringing the stars down to earth since 1923. Millions of people have discovered the magic and fascination of the night sky in planetariums from Carl Zeiss. With solid technology and simple operation, we aim to play our part in ensuring that science and wonderment continue to merge in the future.

www.zeiss.de/planetariums December 2012 Planetarian 55 er planetarium directors from all over Ger- International News many and astronomers of the Astronomische Gesellschaft being present. Lars Broman The show was introduced by a live-link to Teknoland and Strömstad Academy ESO’s Public Information Officer Lars Lind- Stångtjärnsv 132 berg Christensen at the ESO Headquarter in SE 791 74 Falun, Sweden Garching, and a special welcome via Skype +46 2310 177 by Prof. Agnes Acker on behalf of APLF, high- [email protected], [email protected] lighting this co-production, which made a www.teknoland.se, www.stromstadakademi.se strong impression on the guests at this launch event in Hamburg. The Swedish fall has this year been disap- well. It is linked this year with the Stratoscript The show is now playing on a regular dai- pointing from an astronomical point of view, creation contest. ly schedule in Hamburg and also in other Ger- with clouds most of the time covering the The annual Stratoscript Compendium Ring man theaters, like in Osnabrück, using the evening sky. No stars, no planets, no aurora contest involves countries from around the German soundtrack provided by Planetarium borealis to watch. world sharing their best creations. The com- Hamburg. It is then comforting to sit and edit the In- petitors receive, at the end, all the scripts of The French premiere took place in Octo- ternational News column and take part in so the people who participated and the right ber at the 20m Astralia Planetarium at La Cité many exciting things that happen all around to use them in their planetariums. The win- de l’Espace in Toulouse, with the assistance of the globe. Of special interest is the news from ners, sorted in different categories, receive 520 visitors and the presence of Norbert Hu- Ukraine. The Ukrainian Planetarium Asso- small shows, collections of ciation was an IPS Affiliate Association until scripts, or fulldome videos some years ago, when the number of Ukrai- for their dome. It’s open nian IPS members dropped. But now, mem- to everyone using Night- bership is on its way back up and activities shade; the deadline this also are increasing in other cities than Kiev. year is 12 December 2012. Thanks to Nataliya Kovalenko for your Ukrai- The planetarium show nian news, presented in a special section. I Water, a cosmic adventure, hope UPA soon will be affiliated to IPS again. produced for the 50th an- The International News column is built on niversary of the European contributions from IPS Affiliate Associations. Southern Observatory by If you have news that you want colleagues APLF in collaboration with worldwide to read, please send them to your Planetarium Hamburg, is IPS representative (see page 3). Their deadlines a very successful interna- are 1 January 2013 for Planetarian 1/2013 and tional collaborative pro- 1 April for 2/2013, so they need your news duction. ahead of those dates. It is an unique combina- Those of you who want to contribute news tion of real fulldome foot- from parts of the world where IPS has no Af- age with actors, using the filiate Association are more than welcome to new Red Epic camera at send it to Martin George, martingeorge3@ho- Paranal Observatory, and tmail.com. state-of-the-art computer For contributions to this International animations created by Di- News column, I sincerely thank Agnès Acker, dier GrosJean, Masterfilms, Vadim Belov, Bart Benjamin, Ignacio Castro, in Toulouse, along with Gail Chaid, Alex Delivorias, John Hare, Ian beautiful music and the McLennan, Loris Ramponi, Aase Roland Ja- wonderful voice of “wa- cobsen, Jenny Shipway, Christian Theis, and ter” telling its own story. Michele Wistisen. I wish you and other repre- Trailers of the show sentatives back with news for upcoming Plan- can be found on the ESO etarian issues. website at www.eso.org/ public/outreach/50years/ Association of French-Speaking water_cosmic_adventure. AFP: Top: Interactive meeting for small digital planetariums. Courtesy Planetariums html. For informa- of Lionel Ruiz. Below: Premiere of the APLF/ESO show Water, a Cosmic The rise of small digital planetariums has tion, please contact aplf- Adventure in Hamburg. Thomas Kraupe interacts via Skype with Agnes created a strong interest in mastering new planetariums@orange. Acker (APLF). Courtesy of Hamburg Planetarium. technologies for creating content. An annu- fr and agnes.acker@astro. al meeting is being organized each December unistra.fr. for French-speaking planetarians to strength- The premiere of the 50th anniversary ESO bin (from ESO, Garching), Didier GrosJean en the bonds between users involved with show took place in September at Planetarium and colleagues from MasterFilms, and Julien Nightshade, the powerful open-source plane- Hamburg, where it is called Der Stoff der von Jaouen, music composer of the show. In addi- tarium software. It will gather 30 planetarians den Sternen kam (literally, The Stuff that Came tion, visitors were invited to discover the ESO from France, Belgium and and in- from the Stars), under the direction of Thom- exhibition and the cloud chamber devoted to terested Italian and Spanish planetarians as as Kraupe, IPS president-elect, with many oth- cosmic rays, and to follow conferences on as-

56 Planetarian December 2012 trophysics, cosmology, and planetology done by Toulouse researchers.

Association of Mexican Planetariums The National Council of Science and Tech- nology sponsored the 19th National Sci- ence and Technology Week throughout the country in September, with many sci- ence museums, planetariums and education- al institutions participating. In ’s downtown main square, a large science fair was installed, drawing thousands of children and youths who were attracted to its many hands-on experiments, workshops, lectures, science demos and other activities, many re- lated to astronomy. Other news worth mentioning is that Chi- apas, Mexico´s southernmost state, now has CASC: Host Carolyn Brown presents a planetarium show in Calgary’s new Digital Dome theatre. Present- three digital projection planetariums: Tapa- ers control the E&S Digistar system via an iPad to provide an interactive show where the audience se- chula, a Digistar 3 in a 10-m dome, inaugurat- lects the spaceflight destination. Photo by TELUS Spark, Calgary. ed in 2008; Tuxtla Gutierrez, a Digistar 4 un- der a 15-m dome, still pending inauguration; meal, where delegates were challenged to mersive Video and Audio for Digital Domes is and Comitán, with a Digistar Outreach and an build space-stations between courses. the first in the country to study the mobile 8-m dome. At the business meeting, delegates agreed dome on an academic level. Covering a wide Also in the news, Mexico City’s Papalote to run a members training day in spring 2013, range of topics, including content production Children´s Museum has installed a Digistar 5 and for BAP to provide a bursary to help those and sound set-up, it is hoped that the project Projection System, to be inaugurated proba- on low incomes to attend such an event. They has sparked interest in fulldome study for fu- bly this year. also voted to create a “Special Contribution ture students and members of the UK dome Award,” awarded to Glenn Smith (as an indi- community. British Association of vidual) in acknowledgement of his strong and Planetariums continued support of BAP and the planetari- Canadian Association of Science The British Association of Planetaria’s an- um community in the UK and Ireland over Centres nual conference took place at the National the past years. . As you read these lines, the new Space Centre, Leicester. This was a superb ven- The Centre for Life in Newcastle-upon- Montreal Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium is near- ue, having a 17-m digital dome, great organi- Tyne has been working with comedian-in- ing completion. The staff is eager to move in zation, and technical expertise from in-house residence Helen Keen on a fulldome show and start playing with all the wonderful new production team NSC Creative. called Moonstruck. Helen is an excellent per- toys that it will feature: two 18-m domes, one The conference went extremely well, with former known from her BBC radio series It IS equipped with a Sky-Skan/Konica Minolta particularly good feedback for a session where Rocket Science. She narrates in a rapid-fire style hybrid system, the other with a state-of-the- mobile dome operators shared best practice in what the local press headlined as “One gi- art full dome system, also from Sky-Skan. and a session where Pete Bassett (Astronomy ant laugh for mankind.” Illustrator Dr Tom The next three months will be devoted to Roadshow) showed footage of satellites re- Whyntie is a particle physicist with a side-line training personnel to use the navigation sys- corded using image-intensification binocu- in cartoons that deftly communicate com- tems and complete the production of their lars. The legendary Ray Worthy, now retired plex ideas. This mix of fun and solid science first show (produced by multimedia artists from his mobile dome business, regaled us is an innovative style of show that allows the Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon) so that staff with entertaining anecdotes to remind us to audience to learn more through laughter. are ready to greet Montrealers in their new “keep our feet on the ground” (see page 6 for NSC Creative has produced two shows home of the stars in the spring of 2013. Con- his full talk) and appreciate that not everyone this year with funding that offers free licens- tact: Pierre Chastenay at chastenay@astro. can leap quickly to understanding new con- ing within the UK. Cell! Cell! Cell! and We are umontreal.ca. cepts. Aliens have taken the group-funding model . The Museum’s Plane- The Silly Presenter Game closed proceed- of We are Astronomers (which was part-funded tarium has installed a Digistar 5 fulldome sys- ings with a chance for members to show off for a consortium) to a national level. We hope tem, which opened in October 2012. Instead of their presenting style and ability to talk total to see more shows with this funding model in replacing the existing Zeiss Mark V, they kept codswallop (points deducted for technical ac- future, as it offers excellent impact for funders it in the planetarium “as is” and added Digistar curacy) under an eccentric and ever-changing but is also an enormous support for organiza- 5 on top. While the focus is on fulldome video sky. Congratulations to the winner, Richard tions who often struggle to afford licensing and new shows to the external world, initially Lake (Polestar Planetarium). fees. the staff viewed this upgrade as a “transition- Generous sponsorship from a record eleven Daniel Hodgkinson (English student at Staf- al” system, getting the theatre into fulldome vendors allowed us to retain our traditional fordshire University) completed a final year technology at a low price-point and prepar- absurdly low registration fee. Thanks so much dissertation on the nature of mobile planetar- ing for a full refit in three to five years, which to all involved, and especially to Zeiss, who iums, achieving a first class honors and nom- will include major architectural changes, tilt- treated us to the famous local curry, and to ination for a graduate prize. It is thought that ed dome, and unidirectional seating. Sky-Skan, who sponsored the Saturday night the dissertation titled An Investigation into Im- The system uses two Projection Design F35

December 2012 Planetarian 57 science demos and do exhibit gallery interpre- tation. The single-ticket combination of 20-min- ute movie and 20-minute live show has prov- en to be the most popular of the initial show offerings. Also on the current schedule are the 40-minute large-format movies The Last Reef and Tornado Alley, both rendered for the Dome by E&S. All shows carry the same ticket price. Contact: Alan Dyer at alan.dyer@spark- science.ca or Barry Thorson at barry.thorson@ sparkscience.ca. Edmonton. As many IPS members will now be aware, TELUS World of Science-Ed- monton (TWoSE) has been put forward by the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC) as the official Canadian bidding city for the IPS biennial conference in 2016. Ed- monton is one of three locations, including Toulouse and Warsaw, bidding for the 2016 event. CASC: Montreal Planetarium under construction in April 2012. Photo by Ian McLennan. The first formal presentation about the 2016 Edmonton bid was given at the Baton projectors mounted on the central pedestal placing the 1996-vintage Discovery Dome at Rouge IPS meeting by Steve Baker, chief oper- (to avoid shadows from the fixed Zeiss) at a the old and now-closed science center, which ating officer of TWoSE, and Frank Florian, sci- resolution of 2.5k. Site preparation, wiring, in- in turn had replaced the original Calgary Cen- ence director, as well as Ian McLennan as the stallation, training, and pre-opening events tennial Planetarium built in 1967. The latest project coordinator. Ian also acts as the CASC were accomplished in a total of 30 days (21 theatre features a 246-seat, 23-m dome tilted representative to IPS. business days). at 25° equipped with an Evans & Sutherland The final decision will be made by the IPS Despite being “too small” of a system for Digistar 4 system. Bowen Technovation sup- Council at its regular meeting in Italy in Au- the 18.3-m dome on paper, the results are im- plied the lighting and sound systems. gust 2013. A full account of all three bids will pressive. The images are bright and colorful, Calgary’s Digital Dome employs Sony be included in the next issue of the Planetari- and the old dome seams are visible only dur- T-420 4K projectors, configured in pairs north an. Contact: [email protected]. ing very bright, white scenes without motion. and south with a single east-west seam. Two (They chose to not clean the dome, and it projectors per screen allow for stereo 3D or European/Mediterranean seems the dust helps to blend the dome seams for double brightness projection when need- Planetarium Association somewhat.) ed. The theatre was designed with these mas- The Eugenides Planetarium in Athens, This transitional system was selected rath- sive projectors in mind, with air-conditioned Greece, celebrated the Fall Equinox with a er than waiting for the larger refit because of rooms for both pairs of projectors incorporat- fulldome show featuring live musical impro- the time delay, the lack of available tradition- ed into the cove. The Sonys’ image quality has visations by three young and much promis- al shows for purchase, the non-availability of proven superb. A fifth projector, a 2K Christie ing artist-composers of electronic music: Lu- slides to feed the slide-based panorama and Mirage, is used for special events and rentals nar Miasma, Electroware and Medras. Public all-sky projectors, and the impatience of the when only a standard, though still impressive, attendance was so large that on top of the production staff to “get on with it!” They also video image is required. three performances scheduled, a fourth had to wanted to ramp up the production capabili- Selecting the hefty 20,000-lumen Sony be performed on the same evening. ty for fulldome shows so that they can con- projectors was essential for the intended pro- On Monday 15 October, the planetarium tribute content to the planetarium commu- gramming in the new theatre, which consists (an ESO Outreach Partner Organization) par- nity again after a production hiatus of several of a mix of live planetarium shows and ren- ticipated in the worldwide activities to cel- years. dered movies, with many titles coming from ebrate the 50th anniversary of the European The staff looks forward to increasing pro- the large-format film community. The Digital Southern Observatory. jector brightness and resolution in future up- Dome serves as both the science center’s plan- Invited speakers were Panos A. Patsis, act- grades, as well as moving from concentric etarium and giant screen movie theatre. ing director of the Research Center for Astron- seating to an epicentric, tilted-dome config- The theatre opened with National Geo- omy and Applied Mathematics of the Acad- uration. By ignoring conventional wisdom, graphic’s Wildest Weather in the Solar System, emy of Athens, who briefly introduced ESO they have entered a new era of planetari- complemented by a 20-minute live star show to a packed audience, before giving the floor um experiences for their audience, and have featuring the current night sky and an inter- to Jason Spyromilios, the main speaker of the proved the truth of the old Russian proverb, active tour of the solar system, making for a event. Psyromilios, senior astronomer at ESO “Better is the enemy of good enough.” Con- single 40-minute show offering. and director in 2005 of the merged La Silla Pa- tact: Scott Young at scyoung@manitobamu- Programmed buttons on the Digistar’s re- ranal Observatory, captivated his audience seum.ca. mote iPad controller allow the host at the with a presentation of the E-ELT, the Europe- Calgary. In May 2012 the Digital Dome front of the theatre to “fly” the audience to an Extremely Large Telescope. opened at the new TELUS Spark Science Cen- the solar system destination of their choice. The very successful astronomy evening tre (www.sparkscience.ca). This theatre rep- Presenters come from the science center’s ros- concluded with the official opening of The resents the third planetarium for Calgary, re- ter of energetic floor staff, who also present Awesome Universe–The Cosmos Through the

58 Planetarian December 2012 Eyes of the European South- A new live presentation for ern Observatory. This is ESO’s schools and kindergartens is being stunning astrophotography introduced and featured every Sat- exhibition that celebrates 50 urday morning explaining the im- years of ESO’s quest to explore portance of energy from the sun for the southern skies. life on Earth and other information Two days later the Hellenic about our star. The centre is orga- Physics Society honored Den- nizing a new exhibition for World nis Simopoulos, director of the Mountain Day (11 December 2012) Eugenides Planetarium and is presening a live program about the recipient of the 1996 IPS the Bethlehem star throughout the Service Award, for his lifetime month. dedication in science educa- tion and the dissemination of Great Lakes Planetarium science to the general public. Association Numerous invited speakers Illinois. The Lakeview Museum from the academic and plane- of Arts & Sciences is now a mem- tarium fields presented Dennis ory, reborn on October 20 as the to the audience, each in their Peoria Riverfront Museum at its own unique way, including new downtown location. The new Tom Mason, IPS past president. 12-m (40-ft), 186-degree dome was Also in October, the plan- installed by AstroTec in June and etarium premiered its lat- began housing the Zeiss Powerdo- est production titled Ancient me Planetarium as it was moved in Skies, and uploaded on its web- July and August. The latest version page, as customary by now, a of Uniview and East Coast Control guide book with the same title, Systems LED cove lights were in- which expands on the theme stalled in August. The Peoria Riv- of the show. erfront Museum will be hosting Ancient Skies is a voyage GLPA and co-hosting the Illinois through space and time to un- Association of Museums in Octo- cover the ideas and the knowl- ber of 2013. edge that ancient civilizations The William M. Staerkel Planetar- had for the heavens. Invit- EMPA: Top: Guests, mostly professional and amateur photographers from all ium at Parkland College in Cham- ed speaker for that event was over , travelled to the Astronomical Centre to visit the Crome- paign celebrated its 25th anniversa- Professor Xenophon Mous- teo Croatia exhibition, which displayed the photographs of many well-known ry in October. Dr. William Staerkel, national photographers. Courtesy of Rijeka Sport Ltd.Bottom: Representatives sas, director of the Astrono- of Rijeka Sport, City of Rijeka and Association Crometeo, as well as guests dur- Parkland’s first president, dedicat- my Laboratory of the Univer- ing the opening ceremony of the exhibition “Meteorological Contrasts,” orga- ed the building 25 years ago this sity of Athens and member of nized by the Astronomical Centre Rijeka in collaboration with the Association October. The celebration was mut- the Research Team of the Anti- Crometeo Croatia. Courtesy of Rijeka Sport Ltd ed by the recent passing of his wid- kythera Mechanism Research ow, Mary Lou Staerkel, who sup- Project. ported the planetarium until her In November (and as the deadline for the ute live presentation Artificial satellites in the last days. In October, they premiered the dig- 2012 doomsday nonsense approaches), the service of humanity. ital remake of the first show that ever played Eugenides Planetarium screened three perfor- The centre, with the Croatian Association on their 15-m (50-ft) dome, Odyssey. The plane- mances of the Chabot Space and Science Cen- of Meteorology CROMETEO, organized a lec- tarium’s own “World of Science” lecture series ter planetarium show Tales of the Maya Skies. ture by Ivan Toman, professor of physics and commenced in October, with Dr. James Kaler The planetarium will celebrate the Winter nautics from Zadar. He talked about the pre- returning in December for a talk on water in Solstice with yet another fulldome show, this diction of dangerous meteorological phe- the universe. time with live music provided by the group nomena. The Cernan Earth & Space Center at Triton Gravity Says I. In November, citizens had opportunity to College hosted Vatican Observatory astron- Croatia: In October, the digital planetar- watch Mission: Mars and Planets in Sight, and omer Guy Consolmagno as its “Big Event” ium of the Astronomical Centre Rijeka fea- on the Day of Science, 8 November, the cen- speaker in September. GLPA members will re- tured the programs Touching the Edge of the tre organized the opening with CROMETEO member Brother Guy as one of the featured Universe and Kaluoka´hina–the Enchanted called Meteorological Contrasts. The exhib- speakers at the 2003 GLPA Conference in Reef. Besides watching the programs, visitors it was open during one month for the occa- Cleveland. The Cernan Center staff continues had the opportunity to attend the live presen- sion of World Science Day for Peace and De- its ongoing project to convert its collection of tation A Guide to the Dark Sky–Fall and enjoy velopment. slide-based programs to its new digital, three- the observatory during clear weather (once a December brings along new activities be- screen video system. week). cause of the holidays. The regular program for Indiana. Mitch Luman of the Koch Plane- The centre organized a program for Chil- December once again includes Kaluoka´hina, tarium in Evansville reports that his institu- dren Week (2-6 October) with the live presen- which received support from the Croatian tion recently received a donation of a very tation Safari Through the Solar System and, for Ministry of Science, Education and Sports in unique telescope, a 12-inch Questar, only one World Space Week (4-10 October), the 10-min- 2012. of 13 ever manufactured by the Questar Cor-

December 2012 Planetarian 59 poration. The new telescope will be used at evening astronomical events held through- out the year. Ball State University in Muncie has an- nounced that they recently received a near- ly $2.2 million contribution towards the $4.6 million construction plan for a new Ball State Planetarium. The new planetarium will fea- ture a 16-m (52-ft) dome and a GOTO Chro- nos II Hybrid. The new facility should open in 2014. Michigan. The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History planetarium con- tinued its “shows every day” schedule through August. Director Matt Linke attended a pre-IPS workshop with SCISS in Baton Rouge to pre- view new features in the upcoming Uniview version upgrade. The Robinson Planetarium at Adrian Col- lege recently completed a series of renovations that were funded by generous grants from the Maurice and Dorothy Stubnitz Foundation. Renovations in the spring were cosmetic and IAP: Top: Reconstruction of Galileo’s telescope included the repainting of dome and walls, fixed on a Newtonian telescope. Courtesy of new flooring, and the installation of new Ignazio Danti Planetarium. Right: In August, a Greystone seats by Ash Enterprises. This sum- group from the Astronomical Observatory of mer Ash Enterprises returned and installed a Laval, France visited Serafino Zani Observato- ry in Lumezzane, Italy. Photo by Emma Bellini. new stereo system and their new High Defini- tion Warped Media projector. Re-opening oc- curred in August with new fulldome shows. At the Eastern Michigan University Plan- reflector. The student workers ran the tele- Planetarium was awarded a grant from NA- etarium, improvements continued through scopes while faculty answered questions in SA’s Competitive Program for Science Muse- the summer. A custom curved whiteboard the planetarium, where a live internet feed of ums and Planetariums for its CREATE (Cre- was installed, and their 1.8x1.2-m (6x4-ft ) the transit was shown. ating Relevant Education in Astronomy smartboard is now wall-mounted. This ar- At the Shaker Heights High School Plane- through Experience) program. This three-year rangement frees up presentation space in the tarium, Gene Zajac, Bryan Child, Joe Maren- project establishes a new out-of-school pro- front of the room and results in a cleaner, less cik, and Kelly Jons organized a transit view- gram for underserved high school students. cluttered look. Soon to arrive are new plane- ing that attracted 1,400 people. Thankfully, The Soref Planetarium will work with the tarium-correct seatbacks from American Seat- the skies cleared two minutes before first con- Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater . One ing. The EMU Department of Physics and As- tact! They had about 2,000 individual viewers of the features of CREATE is having students tronomy was a co-sponsor, along with other ready, along with telescopes and activities for create their own planetarium show after six regional astronomy clubs and planetariums, children. In August, Joe and Bryan ran their months of astronomy immersion. for the “Astronomy at the Beach” event at annual space camp, with students learning In September, the Charles Horwitz Planetar- Kensington Metropark in September. This about and building rockets, using the space ium celebrated the Apple Harvest Festival by year’s keynote speaker was Michigan native bus, going to the Science Center, and doing a presenting 3-2-1 Blastoff. and NASA astronaut Dr. Drew Fuestal. NASA challenge activity. In October, the UW-LaCrosse Planetarium Ohio. Most planetariums across Ohio were At the Ward Beecher Planetarium in presented the program Let There Be Night. GL- blessed with good weather for the Transit of Youngstown, recently upgraded cove light- PA’s Cosmic Colors was shown in November. Venus in June and held well-attended pub- ing has been complemented by an upgraded Each Friday during first semester, the plane- lic events. At the Sidney Frohman Planetari- sound system, with Ohio-based ChromaCove tarium offered the Album Encounters multi- um in Sandusky, Lois Wolf arranged a simul- installing new LED lighting and comput- media light and laser shows. taneous feed from Hawaii in the planetarium er control and Ash Enterprises installing the and live viewing in the rooftop observatory. sound upgrade. Cosmic Castaways, the plan- Italian Association of Planetaria Mike Smith, an old friend and Boy Scout lead- etarium’s own fulldome production about In September, the Ignazio Danti Planetar- er, kept things going in the observatory, while gravitationally-ejected galactic stars, pre- ium, at ITT, A. Volta in , participated helpful Boy Scouts passed out commemora- miered during a fund-raising gala to local au- in the International Observe the Moon Night tive cards and directed people to the domes. diences in September. Dr. Pamela Gay narrates event with a performance titled The Moon At the Bowling Green State University Plan- the program. Seen with Galileo’s Eyes. etarium, Dale Smith, along with his student Wisconsin/Minnesota. At the Soref Plan- At the beginning some members of the workers and faculty colleagues, ran a well-at- etarium in Milwaukee, GLPA’s own Cosmic staff— Simonetta Ercoli, Marco Magliocchetti, tended observatory open house for the Tran- Colors continued into the fall after a great re- and Silvia Mazzoni—read a piece taken from sit of Venus. Visitors saw the transit through sponse this summer. A new insert 3D projec- Sidereus Nuncius by Galileo Galilei and a dia- 8-in telescopes on the outdoor sky deck and tion that can show giant screen films produc- logue from Galileo’s life by Berthold Brecht in got a rare daylight look at BGSU’s half-meter tions was installed in September. The Soref front a reconstruction of Galileo’s telescope

60 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 61 and photos about different can watch stars and planets and “travel” in the facilities that has been pro- universe. jected before the beginning They can also choose to build a Galileo- of public programs. The scope and borrow this telescope for some first slide contains the name months so that they can study the night sky of the day against light pol- at home. Guidelines are to found at www. lution, and the following, boernafgalileo.dk and at www.boernafgali- a night image from space leo.dk/english.htm. Here you can also find ex- of the European continent. periments in English. For more information A similar initiative will be please visit Stjernekammeret at www.bella- prepared for the next Day hoej.kk.dk. of Planetaria, using the logo At this year’s Summer School 2012 at The of the day, followed by the Steno Museum, University of Aarhus, 30 stu- slides of different planetar- dents from grades 4 to 6 spent the first week iums, including those out- of their summer holidays learning about sci- side of Italy. ence. The attendance to this year’s school sur- In order to improve the passed expectations; the possibility to sign up IAP: Walter Risolo shows a PowerPoint frame about the moon in the conference room of Ignazio Danti Planetarium. Photo by/Courtesy of participation of small facili- electronically was only open for 7 minutes be- Ignazio Danti Planetarium. ties and young planetarians fore the course was over-subscribed. during the annual meeting Like the previous years, the purpose of the of Italian planetariums, the summer school was to build upon the stu- fixed on a Newtonian telescope. Then anoth- National Association PlanIt intends to sup- dents’ interest for science as well as to give er member, Abdelhalim El hilali, explained port, with a prize, communications presented them a social experience and an impression of the differences in structure and the kind of at the occasion of the National Conference in what happens behind the yellow walls of the images which could be observed using the planning for April 2013 in Cagliari. The people university. This year the topic was designing two instruments. interested in participating in the contest need their vacation center on space. For a week the Walter Risolo showed a PowerPoint presen- to send their complete presentation before students had opportunities to work in depth tation about images taken from some astron- the end of the year. A committee, established with microgravity, a rock planet, a gas plan- omers from the 1600s to today, introducing a by PlanIt will select the winner that receives et, temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and virtual exploration of our satellite by Virtual a financial help to cover travel and hotel ex- stars. Moon Atlas Expert. In this way the public was penses. This was done in collaboration with Cen- prepared to observe the moon directly using PlanIt plans a revised census of Italian plan- ter of iNANO and Department of Comput- various instruments: their eyes, the Galileo etariums, collected through a data form, that er Science students. At iNANO the students telescope, astronomical binoculars and two will also be the information published in the Newtonian telescopes (100mm and 150mm). IPS Directory. In this way the national cen- At the end Luca di Bitonto ran a projection sus of Italian planetariums will be useful also in the dome to show stars in a dark sky (out- for the next issue of the Directory. Loris Ram- side there was light pollution) and explain the poni suggests that it would be a good choice particular day, which was the September equi- that each national list of planetariums repro- nox. duces the same structure of IPS data form. The The participants were enthusiastic, especial- same result could be very interesting using, at ly the children, and they wrote many com- international level, the same program to pre- ments in the planetarium’s memory book. pare a detailed word map of planetariums In August, a group of 15 peoples from Astro- around the continents. Each regional or na- nomical Observatory of Laval, France visited tional planetariums association could update the Museum of Constellation in Lumezzane, the part of the map concerning the respective and in particular Serafino Zani Astronomi- geographic area. cal Observatory. The two observatories have developed a close collaboration, in particu- Nordic Planetarium Association lar about the use of Skype as tool to promote Carsten Andersen from Stjernekammeret at lessons between students of different ages, in- Bellahøj Skole in volving French and Italian schools connected has great news. Thanks to kind using the web. donations from 15 Juni Fond- The next international Day of Planetaria en and Friluftsrådets Tips-og will be held on 17 March 2013. It is easier to Lottomidler, it has now got collaborate and to promote the day for plan- a digital Starlab projector, so etariums usually open on Sunday. An exam- school classes in the morning ple is the latest Italian Day against light pollu- tion, which has been taking place since 1993 NPA: Right, below: Students in October. from Kastrup built Galileo- A group of planetariums prepared a com- scopes, and it was possible mon PowerPoint presentation that includ- (Right, above) to borrow a Galileoscope do do obser- ed three images for each planetarium. The fi- vations at home. Photos: nal result was a short presentation with logo Carsten Andersen

62 Planetarian December 2012 programs have been to laser shows, planetarium directors are al- well received. Contact: ways looking for something amazing to draw tkomatsu@berkeley. in audiences. edu. Sometimes the price tag for amazement is John Young from high, in some cases prohibitively high. How- Reuben H. Fleet Science ever, there is a unique audience experience Center in Balboa Park, that harkens back to the days when tech- , California nology was simpler, and entertainment cen- continues to work with tered around the smooth sounds of the hu- the new equipment in- man voice. The Casper Planetarium calls this stalled and explained experience the “Theatre of the Mind,” or read- in the blog spacethe- er’s theatre. ater.wordpress.com. Theatre of the Mind is a collaboration be- In-house productions tween the Casper Planetarium and Stage III include Worlds of the Community Theatre in Casper. Stage III pro- Solar System; other pro- vides the script, actors and folly artists. The grams include Clark planetarium provides the venue, the visuals Planetarium’s Secret of and the lighting effects. the Cardboard Rocket Unlike regular theatre, where actors mem- NPA: There was lots of excitement doing experiments with water rockets. and Rock on Demand. orize their lines and move about a stage, The- Photo by The Steno Museum. Contact: johnyoung@ atre of the Mind places the actors behind the rhfleet.org. planetarium dome. A small light above each worked with solar cells capable of delivering The College of Southern Nevada Planetar- actor’s head fades on for each character’s cue, electricity to their vacation center. Among ium continues its tradition of being a NASA and the actors read their lines from the script. other things, the students measured the out- Regional Educator Resource Center. This time As the actors read their lines, folly artists use a put of the solar cells in order to find out how the NRERC and the Las Vegas Astronomi- variety of household items to create sound ef- efficient they were. cal Society will provide training in the use fects. This is how old time radio dramas such At the Department for Computer Science, of telescopes. The telescopes were obtained as The Shadow and The Inner Sanctum were the students worked with programming through a generous grant from the Wells Far- performed. LEGO® robots that were driven by electric- go Foundation. The grant provided financing Theatre of the Mind began at the Casper ity from solar cells. The robots had various for 10 telescopes for the Telecope Loan Pro- Planetarium in 2002 with an adaptation of tasks at the vacation center, such as transport- gram designed to foster scientific lit- Ray Bradbury’s The ing guests around, cleaning the solar cells and eracy and to stimulate interest in as- Martian Chronicles. helping to run the aqua park. tronomy and promote excitement Back then, a simple star The museum guides worked with astron- and discovery for children in Clark field served as back- omy and physics at the museum and in the County, Nevada. Contact: drdale@ ground, a few slides planetarium, including how to find exoplan- nevada.edu. provided basic imag- ets. A LEGO construction was used to illus- West Valley College Planetarium ery and manually-con- trate how this can be done. In this way it was in Saratoga, California has been re- trolled cove lights add- possible for the students to get an impression modeled with the help of Phil Groce, ed atmosphere. of how scientists work in practice. In addition consultant, and John Hare and Jason As technology ad- to this, they made spectacular experiments Statham from Ash Enterprises. There vanced, still images with water rockets. were many problems to overcome as were replaced with im- Benjamin Mendelsohn, planetarium ages and animations Pacific Planetarium Association teacher at West Valley and PPS Pres- projected with CRT The Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, ident, found out, as the many teams projectors. Two col- California, is showing a revised version of the of contractors and workers had dif- ors of cove lights gave Transit of Venus show originally produced ficulty coordinating. Mark Trotter way to three color, by the Great Lakes Planetarium Association and Mike Grznar from Bowen Tech- programmable cove in 2004. True to the tradition of Lawrence novision directed the reinstallation of LED lights, and eventually background settings be- Hall of Science, it was adapted as an interac- lighting and installation of a new sound sys- came fulldome images with masks to avoid tive program with audience participation ac- tem and conducted training of the upgrad- hiding the actors. tivities. The program was converted to run ed control system. The planetarium is ready This year, the Casper Planetarium and Stage on the DigitalSky 2 fulldome system. Using a for the new classes. Contact: benjamin_men- III produced their 9th collaborative radio play, light pole and a volunteer “Venus,” the entire [email protected]. The Mission of the Vega. This radio play was audience acts as the Earth, rotating on their written in the 1950’s by the Swiss author and own axis to observe Venus rise and set in rela- Rocky Mountain Planetarium playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The Mission tion to the sun’s rising and setting. It is a kin- Association of the Vega describes a future where the planet esthetic model of Venus as Morning and Eve- Rod Kennedy has reported on how commu- Venus is a penal colony and a third world war ning Star. nity collaboration brought a new audience to is looming. Diplomats from the Free States of LHS is the lead institution on the Education Wyoming’s Casper Planetarium: Europe and America are dispatched to Venus and Public Outreach for the Kepler Mission, so Today’s planetariums are always trying to to enlist the aid of the colonists in a war with other programs have been developed to help come up with the next big thing. From 3D the Russians. audiences relate to exoplanet detection. The planetarium shows to audience participation The diplomats discover a population that is

December 2012 Planetarian 63 not at all interested in joining in a war for land demonstrated to all and property. Not even the threat of annihila- the guests. This film tion can persuade them to return home. Para- is dedicated to two noia rears its ugly head and the diplomats re- people from Nizh- turn to Earth, convinced that the convicts are ny Novgorod, the secretly planning to strike a treaty with the winners of time and hated Russians. The outcome is as sobering as speed, Ace Valeriy it is inevitable; the colony must be destroyed. Chkalov and The Mission of the Vega was a first for Direc- Rostislav Alekseev, tor Dob Wallace, who teaches German at Na- engineer of hover- trona County High School. It was also a first crafts. On the dome for his students, who themselves gave a pub- of the planetarium lic performance entirely in German. “These the film glided the kids have never done anything like this,” Wal- audience over the lace said, “most of them have done short, in- water’s surface, fly- class skits, but this is beyond anything they’ve ing on the coastal done before.” Reader’s theatre is not the same scale as a RPA: Top: In the hall stage drama or musical. To some, the media of Vladimir plane- may seem quaint, or even archaic. Yet reader’s tarium. To the right theatre in the planetarium is a unique blend can be seen the P-2 of old and new technologies, one that doesn’t projector made 50 years ago in the involve thousands of hours of rendering or workshop of Mos- meticulous soundtrack editing. Reader’s the- cow Planetarium. atre is a simpler form of entertainment, one in Photo by Viktoria which the human voice and story take center Stepanova. Left: At Sibastro-2012, the stage. For the Casper Planetarium, reader’s the- lecture by Professor atre is an opportunity to draw in an audience Palchikov is interest- that might not have visited the planetarium ing for both pupils otherwise. and adults. Below: High flying at Sibas- tro. Photos by Ser- Russian Planetarium Association guey Maslikov. Nizhny Novgorod. In July, V. Shancev, the governor of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, greeted the veterans of the aviation industry in the shelf with Ekrano- main hall of the planetarium and congratulat- plan Lun (Drag- ed them upon the 100th anniversary of Rus- on), and trembling sian aviation, the history of which began with in the roar of the the establishment of a small avian squadron engines under the by decree of Nicholas II on 12 August 1912. clouds with Russian Shancev also congratulated everyone with MiGs, fighters of the the occasion of the 75 anniversary of the plant Sokol. three-day transpolar flight without landing Vladimir. In Sep- from Moscow to Vancouver on 18-20 June, tember, Vladimir 1937, which was performed by Chkalov, Baid- Planetarium cele- ukov and Belyakov. brated its 50th an- In return, on behest of the veterans of avi- niversary. All these ation industry, V. Rakhmanov, The Hero of years the plane- Russia, honored test pilot of the Aircraft Plant tarium has been of Nizhny Novgrod Sokol, presented the gov- housed in the build- ernor with the book dedicated to the 80th an- ing of the Orthodox niversary of the Aircraft Plant Sokol: “Thirty Church and now expects the move to a new cal Forum, attended by 520 participants, took years of my life are connected with the sky… building, which has been almost completed. place 21-23 September. The opening was held Over twenty years I tested more than 200 Colleagues from , Kirov, Kostroma, on the site of the new planetarium. It was planes and I consider these years to be the best. Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, St. Pe- very symbolic, because the idea to establish However in the life of a test pilot there are tersburg, Yaroslavl, and in Ukraine the planetarium was born on the first SibAs- some tragic events, when your close friends solemnly congratulated anniversaries. They tro event in 2006. Now, to the union of Sibe- do not return from the flights. Unfortunately, exchanged impressions and opinions about rian State Academy of Geodesy and Novosi- many aces forever will stay in the deserts of their work, visited the city of Vladimir and Su- birsk Instrument-Making Plant is added a new Egypt, in the jungles of Korea and Vietnam…” zdal, the medieval city of Russia, located near- astronomical team, the new planetarium. No- All the present honored the memory of test by. Both cities have been regenerated after de- vosibirsk, established in 1905, is a leading op- pilots who did not return with a minute of si- struction committed by the Mongol Khan tical equipment and telescope manufacturer. lence. Batu in 1238. Leaders welcomed the deputy mayor of Later, the documentary film Speed was . The VII Siberian Astronomi- the city of Novosibirsk, A. Titkov, and chair-

64 Planetarian December 2012 man of the board of trustees of the planetari- sessions on Sunday. um and member of the city council A. Alexan- All costs were underwritten by SEPA. Ad- drov. After the festive opening, all the guests ditionally, 20 scholarships of $200 each were went to the camp Chkalovets, located 100 km awarded to the first 20 SEPA members who south of Novosibirsk. registered for the IPS conference. Despite the fact that the weather was not The SEPA business meeting was held dur- conducive to astronomical observations, rep- ing the IPS regional breakout sessions with resentatives of many cities of Russia arrived: 33 members in attendance. Plans for the 2013 from Moscow, , Taganrog, Kemerovo, SEPA conference were discussed. The confer- Tomsk, , Tyumen, Novokuznetsk, Bar- ence will be held 25-29 June at the Bryan-Goo- naul, Biysk, etc. Besides scientists and amateur dling Planetarium at the Museum of Science astronomers, school students from Novosi- and History in Jacksonville, Florida. Details birsk, Omsk and Novosibirsk region took part will be furnished in the next issue of The Plan- in the forum actively. etarian. Educational institutions have become par- A new slate of officers was elected and will ticipants of an “astromarathon” in which chil- assume office January 1, 2013: President Elect dren demonstrate their knowledge of the his- Ken Brandt, Secretary/Treasurer Patsy Wilson, tory of astronomy and deep-sky objects. All and IPS Council Representative John Hare. participants of the astromarathon have be- Continuing officers include David Dundee, come winners in various categories. The ab- who will move from president elect to presi- solute winner was the team of Aerospace Ly- dent and April Whitt, who will move from ceum of Novosibirsk. but the main prize was president to past president. SEPA: SEPA president-elect and incoming pres- won by the team of the school No. 6 of Berdsk. Further information regarding SEPA is ident, David Dundee, presenting the SEPA con- The main prize was the telescope TAL-75R, a available at sepadomes.org. I ference host plaque to Sheree Westerhaus of the LASM. Photo by John Hare gift by Novosibirsk Instrument-Making Plant. All the participants were able to make a flight on a tethered hot air balloon, to visit a mobile planetarium, and to survey the neigh- News from Dnepropetrovsk Planetarium, Ukraine borhood with night vision devices and ther- mal imagers. Interesting lectures were given Submitted by Nataliya Kovalenko 2012. The meeting was dedicated to occulta- by well-known scientists S.Popov (Moscow), Dnepropetrovsk Planetarium and astrono- tions, especially because of the occultation of S.Yazev (Irkutsk), and E.Palchikov V.Blinov my amateur club AstroDnepr organized ob- Jupiter by the moon on 15 July. The meeting (Novosibirsk), and astrophotographer servations of the Venus transit on 6 June 2012. gathered about 60 persons from Kharkiv, Pol- I.Chekalin (Taganrog). Activities began the day be- At the close of SibAstro-2012, the most ac- fore with telescopic observations tive participants were recognized: in the cat- of Saturn, globular clusters, and egory “the big telescope,” Alexander Dimov double stars. Under the planetar- was named; in the nomination “the most ac- ium dome two talks were deliv- tive group Sibastro,” participants from the ered, about the history of Venus city of Omsk; in the category “the youngest transit observations, by Dnepro- family,” three couples, students and graduates petrovsk Planetarium lecturer of the Siberian Academy, who got acquaint- Ludmila Marchenko, and about ed with each other a year ago during “Sibas- the orbital peculiarities of Venus tro-2011.” transits by Oleg Shilov, honorary Finally,welcome to the new RPA website at member of AstroDnepr club. www.apr.planetariums.ru. Observations of first contact were observed via live trans- Society of the German-Speaking mission from Hawaii, under the UPA: Fun with the telescope at Dnepropetrovsk city day. Photo dome of the planetarium. Later, Planetariums by Alexandr Prokofyev. The next annual meeting of the GDP will attendees went out to observe be held in Klagenfurt, , from Saturday the sunrise and Venus in transit 4 May to Monday 6 May 2013. Details on the at the Dniper quay. Inhabitants of Dneprope- tava, Dnepropetrovsk, and Kiev, who brought conference will be given later. trovsk joined. Four telescopes were used: one with them 12 telescopes. telescope was used for photography, one for The weather was favorable for observations Southeastern Planetarium demonstration on the screen, and two others of the sun, and during the evening lectures Association were equipped with light filters. were delivered on occultations. As if there wasn’t enough to do with hosting Just two periods of time, in total up to 15 Nighttime observing followed (Saturn, the 2012 IPS conference, Pennington Planetar- minutes, were favorable for observations be- deep space objects in the night), and finished ium Director Jon Elvert and staff organized a cause of the cloudy weather. In total, up to early in the morning with the occultation. mini-conference for SEPA. The mini-confer- 70 people came to observe the transit, includ- Morning sessions included an archeoastrono- ence took place on the two days immediately ing AstroDnepr club members and the gener- my presentation about total solar eclipses in prior to the IPS conference. Highlights includ- al public. the Abazins tales (The Caucasus region). ed a reception at the Belle of Baton Rouge on The fourth open meeting of amateur as- The third event in which the AstroDnepr Saturday evening, and paper and workshop tronomers took place in Krasnograd, 14-15 July (Continues on Page 67)

December 2012 Planetarian 65 es for those interested in live programming. Mobile News Congratulations go to Alan Davenport, president elect of the Middle Atlantic Plane- tarium Society (MAPS), because he is the first to act on this idea. He requested that the MAPS Susan Reynolds Button officers and I work with the 2013 MAPS con- Quarks to Clusters ference hosts, Jeffrey Grills and Mark Bowman 8793 Horseshoe Lane at the Ausherman Planetarium at the Earth Chittenango, New York 13037 USA and Space Science Laboratory, Fredrick Coun- ty Public Schools, Frederick, Maryland. As a re- +1 315-687-5371 sult, Jeff and Mark have graciously arranged to [email protected], [email protected] hold two pre-conference events: “LiveFest” on Tuesday, July 16 from 9 a.m. IPS 2012: strate how, through real and virtual travel, ex- to 5 p.m. This event will be organized by PIPS What an awesome conference was IPS-Ba- periences can be enriched. The entire work- (Powerful Interactive Planetarium Systems) ton Rouge. Thank you Jon Elvert, the staff shop and activities discussed will be in the and will feature tons of ideas for live lessons, of the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium and 2012 Conference Proceedings. I really look for- the use of several portable domes, the ESSL IPS officers for all your work! The conference ward to reading the proceedings to refresh my planetarium and classrooms. If you are inter- theme, ”Bridge to New Beginnings,” was so memory and learn about the papers, work- ested in presenting at this “LiveFest,” please perfect too, because the planetarium field has shops and panels I missed. contact me at [email protected]. matured beyond the new technologies driv- A visit to the Robinson Nature Center in ing the programming and now we can begin Live Interactive Programming Columbia, Maryland on Wednesday, July to view these technologies as the tools that The second LIPS Conference took place Au- 17 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Participants will they are and begin to use the old and the new gust 7-9, 2012 at the University of Notre Dame tour the facility and grounds and see the Spitz lessons and knowledge we have learned to in Indiana. A good summary of this and last SciDome in action with a focus on interactive make us the best that we can be! year’s conferences and other interesting docu- planetarium lessons. Lunch will be sponsored From my perspective as an educator, I was ments can be found at lipsymposium.org. LIPS by Spitz. thrilled with and awed by the invited speak- 2013 will be held at Seminole State College For more information about “Live- ers and the number of sessions devoted to edu- in Sanford, Florida, hosted by Derek Demeter Fest” and MAPS 2013, look for updates at cation and live programming. As a cheerlead- and Michael McConville. The dates will be an- www.mapsplanetarium.org/category/ er for portable planetariums, I was really in nounced. conference/2013-conference. my element on the vendor floor with all those Quotable quotes from LIPS 2012: unique domes! Mark Webb, ”Imagination can be as power- Audio Files as a Final Report It was wonderful to network face to face ful as visuals during a show.” Here is another excellent idea from Loris with colleagues from my huge IPS “family” John Kaufmann: “It’s not canned vs. live, Ramponi, our Italian colleague, to gather feed- during the conference and on the tours to but rather there is a scale between the two ex- back from students. Loris writes, “To record New Orleans and . tremes.” student voices is very easy and fast. Using a However, this conference was the first to digital microphone it is possible to record stu- promote significant remote participation “LiveFest” dent impressions at the end of a projection or with colleagues who could not physically at- It has become common that at conclusion a workshop or other experiences with schools. tend through webcasts of sessions from Baton of an IPS Conference that a “DomeFest” be Usually we ask to the students to prepare a fi- Rouge of the business meeting and other sig- held. This is an occasion strictly for presenta- nal report or a drawing about the experience nificant sessions. As another first, we were also tion of pre-recorded digital dome shows or ex- under the planetarium dome or at the end of please to include, through a Skype connec- erts and Domie Awards are given for the most a workshop, but only in a few cases do we re- tion, Loris Ramponi as part of a workshop ti- creative of the presentations. This is a wonder- ceive these materials. tled “Astronomical Experiences with Real and ful event and a good way to expand imagina- “Therefore, we started another way to col- Virtual Travels.” tions about what digital projectors can pro- lect the final impressions of the students. We Loris was in Italy while Simonetta Ercoli, vide. invite students to write, at the end of the pro- Michele Wistisen, Joseph E. Ciotti and I were And some of us want more. jection or during a workshop, a sentence that in Baton Rouge and we were able to demon- At IPS and other conferences many col- describes one of the topics of the projection or leagues have expressed disap- one of the activities of the workshop. When pointment that there are not students are ready, we check the texts with enough sessions for people the collaborations of teachers. Then the stu- who are interested in “live” dents are asked to form a line and each one, at planetarium programs using his turn, reads the sentence. both analog and digital pro- “All the sentences are recorded using a digi- jection systems. IPS 2012 was tal microphone. That activity requires only a exceptional in that there were few minutes and we obtain an audio file usu- several sessions dedicated ally of 3-5 minutes. It is very fast to share this to addressing this need. Peo- file and to send it by mail to the teacher. Then ple enjoyed these sessions so the teacher can send the file to parents or the much that the idea of having students. a “LiveFest” attached to con- “Sometimes we propose the listening of ferences emerged as a way to these files during activities for families in the Susan in her element! Credit: Photo by Tom Button provide even more experienc- science museum. Parents are invited to join us

66 Planetarian December 2012 during these events, and they are more likely to attend because they like to follow a public initiative where the experience in the class- room will be described. In this case, the pub- lic can listen to the sound (student voices) and see and exhibition of photos, instruments or drawings devoted to the contents of the work- shop. “We also can organize similar experienc- es in schools of different countries and share these audio files between students that learn a foreign language. “We also include these audio files on our web pages. Students and parents are invited to visit our web pages and to listen to or copy the file.” Go to www.astrofilibresciani.it/Attivita/ Bambini_raccontano.htm. I

www.mapsplanetarium.org/ During IPS, Loris Ramponi was in Italy and, through Skype, demonstrates simple objects that can be used category/conference/2013- during a lesson with young children. At the beginning of the lesson materials are presented in a fun way conference using the web cam through Skype. Each material becomes a “character,” like the puppets in a puppet theatre. The children are asked to name each item. In this case, students will then be asked to arrange some buttons to match one of the constellation patterns shown on an astronomical map. At right, when www.astrofilibresciani. given a picture of a celestial object, each student describes his hypothesis about what the picture rep- it/Attivita/Bambini_ resents. The Skype operator describes the celestial object through a short talk (confirming the hypoth- raccontano.htm esis and expanding on it or enlightening the student). Photos provided by Loris Ramponi

UPA: Waiting for Venus transit. Photo by Alexandr Prokofyev.

(Ukraine, continued from Page 65) took part was the celebration of the Dneprop- UPA: Above right and right: there were many etrovsk City Day on 8 September. It was one of activities for the public at Dnepropetrovsk city day. Photo by Alexandr Prokofyev. Be- the usual collaborations by the astroclub and low: Krasnograd meeting. Courtesy of Vasil- the planetarium. The planetarium conducted iy Koutja. plays about the sun and its planets, made por- traits of extraterrestrials, had games with plas- ticine, exhibited stands about the solar system and the stellar sky. The AstroDnepr club conducted telescop- ic observations of the sun. Pictures of the sun from the previous day were provided so the audience could compare the distribution of sunspots they saw with those from the day before and see for themselves that the sun is rotating. About 300 visitors looked at the sun through three telescopes. In total, about 2,000 attended the exhibition presented by the Dnepropetrovsk Planetarium. I

December 2012 Planetarian 67 liam Herschel, you think of a purely obser- Book Reviews vational astronomer. However, after reading The Construction of the Heavens by Michael Hoskins, I have discovered that there was much more to Herschel than I originally thought. April S. Whitt The book itself is divided into two parts. Fernbank Science Center The first section provides a brief biography 156 Heaton Park Drive NE of Herschel, but primarily focuses on his as- tronomical research. The second half of the , Georgia 30307 USA book is a sampling of papers Herschel wrote [email protected] from 1783-1814. From the biography, you get a glimpse of Herschel’s observational side, with The History of Radio Astronomy through personal interviews. Photographs, mentions of his discovery of Uranus, large many by the author, provide excellent visual telescopes, and catalogues of celestial wonders and the National Radio support to the text. found in the night sky. This is the side of Her- Astronomy Observatory: Good descriptions of the discoveries made schel that most readily comes to mind. Evolution Toward Big Science by NRAO include pictures and diagrams. Ex- The remainder of the book exposed me to Benjamin K. Malphrus, Krieger Publishing planations of the science and engineering new insights regarding Herschel. His interest Company, Malabar, Florida, 1996 involved in those discoveries convey the in cataloging deep sky objects went beyond Reviewed by Elizabeth Wasilek, Berkeley difficulty in detecting objects in radio wave- purely amassing a collection of discoveries. County Planetarium, Hedgesville, West Vir- lengths. An extensive glossary helps readers Herschel was trying to understand the nature ginia, USA with the science, radio astronomy and engi- of the universe. His quest for ever larger tele- When April Whitt contacted me and asked neering terms. scopes was more than “aperture fever.” He was me about reviewing this book, I was skeptical The History of Radio Astronomy would make hoping to resolve these objects with greater at first. Although I had heard of the book and an excellent textbook for a short course for clarity in order to better understand what he wanted to read it, I felt conflicted, as I had met college students or elder hostel participants, was observing. or people who may want a bit more from a the author, Ben Malphrus, on my very first He reasoned, at first, that all nebulae would visit to any of the NRAO observatories. trip to the National Radio Astronomy Obser- resolve into collections of stars, if only he My only complaint is that the book ends in vatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, could see them in more detail. However, he 1996 (its publishing date) and barely mentions back in 1988. When I mentioned this to April, later decided that some nebulae were com- the ground-breaking Robert C. Byrd Green she said it wasn’t a conflict of interest, so here posed of some substance other than stars, al- Bank Radio Telescope. The Atacama Large are my thoughts on it. though he could not understand what would Millimeter Array (ALMA), due for completion This book is an intriguing look at the for- make them glow. This discovery led Herschel of its first phase by the end of 2012, is missing mation of the NRAO, along with the de- to conclude that the objects he catalogued, as well, of course. Finishing this book made velopment of radio astronomy itself. This from nebulae to star clusters, were represent- me crave a second edition with these two tele- well-researched volume describes the per- ing various stages in the development and scopes included. sonalities and characteristics of the individ- life of stars. Surprisingly close to the truth, in ual telescopes that are now part of the three some cases. NRAO sites: Green Bank, West Virginia; Socor- The Construction of the Heavens: While the book covers a very interest- ro, New Mexico; and Charlottesville, Virginia. William Herschel’s Cosmology ing subject, I was slightly disappointed by 1988 was a unique time at Green Bank. Michael Hoskins, Cambridge University Press, Hoskin’s writing style. In particular, when Many of the original staff from the 1950s were 2012 summarizing Herschel’s writings, Hoskins still there, and they had wonderful stories to Reviewed by Robin Byrne, Northeast State chose to use Herschel’s original terminology, tell of the early days at the observatory. The Community College, Blountville, Tennessee, rather than more current wording. author captures these stories of the build- USA As an example, when Herschel described ing and operating of telescopes If you are like me, when you think of Wil- his telescopes, he referenced them by their

68 Planetarian December 2012 length, rather than their aperture, as is the miliar Solar System objects” with new awe, ing experience, and is almost equal to many modern standard. Rather than including their understanding and joy. The next time I am executives spending time observing aquaria: apertures, Hoskins perpetuated Herschel’s asked what book would I recommend for a very soothing. style and primarily included only the length. beginning astronomy hobbyist, I will add this The book in itself was rather dry and hard In another instance, Herschel explains why book to my list. to keep an interest in, but, as I stated earlier, stars in a cluster don’t all gravitationally co- because I became aware of the importance of alesce due to “projectile forces” keeping them Psychology of Space Exploration: psychologists in preparing people for space, in motion. Once again, Hoskins duplicates Contemporary Research in Psychology of Space Exploration did take on this strangely archaic terminology, instead of new meaning. I may read it again, just as a a more accurate description of the stars’ mo- Historical Perspective way to better learn the type of activities being tions. Douglas A. Vakoch, ed., published by the done to assure the health, both physical and Reading Herschel’s original papers, on the NASA Office of Communications, History mental, of our astronauts. It may change my other hand, was fascinating. Although not re- Program Office, Washington, DC, 2011 opinion of it. produced in their entirety (some of the papers Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- were originally over 100 pages in length), each ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, Everyone’s Universe Rhode Island, USA. one helps to illuminate Herschel’s thought second edition processes. I was really hoping this book would be more Noreen Grice, published by You Can Do As- It was also interesting to see which ideas re- of an expose of how astronauts have coped tronomy LLC, New Britain, Connecticut, USA, quired extensive explanations, rather than be- in space, but instead learned it was mainly a 2012 ing considered common knowledge. Some- primer on how to avoid problems. However, I Reviewed by April Whitt, Fernbank Science thing as simple as concluding that stars in a recently was fortunate to hear a talk by an ac- Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. cluster are truly associated with each other in tual psychologist who told us that they have The first of edition of this excellent book space, rather than being a random alignment the power to ground astronauts, making this was reviewed in the Summer 2011 issue of the of disparate bodies, required an extensive sta- book a little more relevant than at first glance. Planetarian. I was tistical analysis to support the conclusion. The space environment is very unusu- delighted to re- All in all, if you enjoy the historical devel- al and quite challenging. Apparently, as- ceive the second opment of ideas in astronomy and don’t mind tronauts can and do have a lot to consid- edition in the slogging through some difficult reading, you er. From the first rides above the Earth, mail, and even will likely appreciate The Construction of the the psychological health of astronauts more delight- Heavens by Michael Hoskins. has been taken into account, as they have to keep good interpersonal relation- ed to receive the ships with their fellow travelers, often large print ver- Exploring the Solar System With people of differing cultures, countries, sion (these eyes Binoculars: A Beginner’s Guide to and training. All must be able to adapt to aren’t getting any the Sun, Moon, and Planets everyone they are pushed in to live with younger). Stephen James O’Meara, Cambridge Universi- in relatively cramped quarters for a sig- Noreen Grice is ty Press, 2010 nificant period of time. an incredible re- Reviewed by Warren Hart, Mayborn Plan- One of the ways to confirm the psy- source in our pro- etarium & Space Theater, Central Texas Col- chological health of an astronaut is to fession. Her lat- lege, Killeen, Texas, USA. simulate long-term conditions by plac- est book reminds This is James O’Meara’s second “observing ing them in unique Earth environments all of us that one with binoculars” book, and it’s another good for long periods of time: Antarctica, the in five Ameri- one. middle of the desert, under water. This dif- cans has a disabil- This book is organized by subject/object fering communal experiment often shows ity, and the World Bank estimates those same into six chapters: (1) The Sun: angel of light; the temperament of these potential travelers, numbers are planet-wide. (2) The Moon: the lovely dead; (3) Eclipses: de- hopefully to the good of the group. This second edition of her book lists plan- scents into darkness; (4) The Planets: worlds of So far, both American and Russian space etariums, museums and observatories that wonder; (5) Comets: divine elegance; and (6) programs have shown that astronauts of dif- provide mobility access, low vision and tac- Meteors: when the heavens weep. There is an ferent national and ethnic groups can live and tile access, specialized environments for vis- added Appendix A: The 100+ brightest objects work together for modest periods of time. But itors with neurological disorders (including in the Main Asteroid Belt. what about a full-fledged voyage, such as a autism), assistive technology for nonverbal O’Meara points out in the preface: “Of all multi-year trek to, for example, Mars? Is this a communication, and non-hearing access for the things in the universe, Solar System ob- viable possibility? Psychologists are still look- people who are deaf or hearing impaired. jects were, and still are, the most accessible ing into the many problems that a trip of this The book opens with each of those “ac- to anyone beginning in astronomy. All these duration could encounter. cesses” spotlighted in venues around the U.S. wonders we can still appreciate today with Each of the chapters concern differing po- including interviews with some educators nothing more than our unaided eyes and a tentials: gender composition, which hasn’t who already serve audiences with disabilities. pair of binoculars...binocular observing is half been as much of a problem as originally be- There are tips and ideas for working with all reality, half imagination. I want you to ap- lieved; flying with strangers, again not a ma- visitors. preciate the wonders that you see, not only jor problem; behavioral health, which also A state-by-state listing of accessible sci- with your eyes, but also with your mind and proved rather negligible. ence museums and planetariums in the U.S. heart...” But one of the most important aspects of follows, then one listing each in Canada and I am very impressed with O’Meara’s book any trip taken by any astronaut has been the England. The list of resources is excellent and and am looking forward to many nights out- ability to look out a window and see the Earth. wide-ranging. side with both of his books seeing those “fa- For all space travelers, this has been a ground- (Continues on Page 72)

December 2012 Planetarian 69 Now a combo deal Waxing New Now let’s combine the news from Noreen Grice and Digitalis: because both are passion- An eclectic collection about planetariums, products and people ate about making science and astronomy ac- compiled by Sharon Shanks cessible to everyone, Digitalis is including a copy of the second edition of Everyone’s Uni- More dark skies ence. “Our new vision is ‘a scientifically lit- verse with U.S. purchases of a planetarium sys- tem. The book also is available from Digitalis’ Namibia’s NamibRand Nature Reserve, one erate community sparking innovation’ and online store. of Africa’s largest private nature reserves, has our new mission is to ‘celebrate, explore and expanded its conservation role to include pre- inspire science and technology, past, present serving the star-filled nighttime skies that and future,’” according to the press release an- Defining the astronomical unit Planetarians all know that the Internation- shine above its dunes and mountains. These nouncing the change. al Astronomy Union works hard to make efforts in night sky conservation have earned The center is clear definitions of objects in space. After hav- the reserve high honors as the Internation- partnering with ing dealt with the definition of a planet (and al Dark-Sky Association has just announced San Francisco- thus demoting Pluto) in 2006, it tackled an- that NamibRand Nature Reserve is the world’s based Explorato- other one we use frequently: what exactly is newest International Dark Sky Reserve. rium to bring in- an astronomical unit? In the core of the new reserve is the Na- teractive science At the IAU meeting in August this year in mib Desert Environmental Education Trust and technology Beijing, China, members unanimously vot- (NaDEET) Centre, which runs environmen- exhibits to New ed to define the AU as exactly 149,597,870,700 tal education programs that teach about the York. The first meters. In miles, that’s exactly 92,955,806 Earth and sky. Astronomy programs do more of these exhibits, miles and 1728 yards. The official notation is than explain about the physical universe: “Seeing,” opened au. Previously, it could be AU, au, a.u., or ua. they focus on the importance of the night sky in October and will run through June 2, 2013. The reasoning behind the exactitude, ap- in the cultural heritage of Namibians. Founded in 1934, the museum is the only parently, is it’s easier to use a definitive figure Over 1,600 square miles of New Zealand’s science center in the “tech valley” region of- than to explain it is “the length of the semi- South Island also have been proclaimed as an fering a multimedia experience for visitors of major axis of the Earth’s orbit around the International Dark Sky Reserve, making it the all ages. It serves school children from north- sun,” or, even worse in the 1976 revised def- largest in the world. The Aoraki Mackenzie eastern New York, western Massachusetts, and inition, that it is “the length for which the International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR), com- southern Vermont. The Suits-Bueche Plane- Gaussian gravitational constant takes the val- prised of the Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park tarium at miSci houses the only GOTO Star ue 0.01720209895 when the units of measure- and the Mackenzie Basin, is the fourth such Projector in the northeast and is an official ment are the astronomical units of length, dark sky reserve in the world. NASA Space Place. mass, and time.” Because, of course, the sun Thanks for the assist Second edition of Everyone’s loses mass and having a variable in the equa- tion was quite the problem. Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colo- Noreen Grice’s Everyone’s Universe: A Guide We’ll take a vote: how many of us will con- rado in Boulder wanted to thank the firefight- to Accessible Astronomy Places came out in a tinue to say “approximately 150 thousand ers for their service and hard work during this second edition in July. April Whitt’s review kilometers” or “approximately 93 million past fall’s tough fire season in the US west. In- of the new version appears on page 69, but we miles,” and explain it as “the average distance stead of just words, the planetarium offered aren’t the first to give it the stamp of approv- between the Earth and sun? I free admission to all firefighters and their fam- al; Astronomy magazine beat us to it in its Au- ilies. Way to go, Fiske. gust 2012 issue. Specific chapters explore how to make the Wagner College gets an upgrade night sky accessible through mobility access, David Richard Chaid, 1937- The Wagner College Planetarium, Stat- low vision and tactile access, specialized en- 2012 vironments for people with neurological dis- en Island, New York, is in the midst of a mas- A resident of San Jose, California, orders (including autism spectrum disorder), sive renovation of its 43-year-old facility. The David Richard Chaid, 75, passed away assistive technology for nonverbal communi- Spitz AP3 is being replaced by a Spitz SciDome October 31, 2012 after a long battle with cation, and non-hearing access. HD, and the dome also will get a new sound cancer. You can read more about Everyone’s Uni- system and seating. He was born on January 16, 1937 in Bal- verse at www.youcandoastronomy.com. A grant from the office of New York State timore, Maryland, served a tour with the Senator Martin J. Golden (R-) is Air Force in Hawaii, and then moved to Production close to home the impetus behind the renovation. There California. Digitalis has announced that its inflat- are only three public planetariums in New His passion for football was realized as able dome production is moving from South York City. In addition to Wagner, they are a player for Vallejo Junior College, San America to its headquarters in Bremerton, the American Museum of Natural History in Jose State University, and the semi-pro- Washington. The company said that mov- Manhattan, and at Columbia University. fessional team, the Apaches. He went ing production of the Digitalis™ Domes, made on to teach, coach, as well as administer specifically for use with digital systems, will A name change in Schenectady at Overfelt, Santa Teresa, and Indepen- reduce risk and cost from the internation- The Schenectady Museum (New York) is dence high schools. al supply chain, among other benefits. At the transforming to a regional science center, He is survived by wife, Gail, IPS Affil- same prices are being reduced by approxi- complete with a new name, a new logo, and iate Representative for Pacific Planetari- mately 25 percent. For more details, go to digi- a new vision statement. Say hello to miSci um Association, and their children. (my sigh), the Museum of Innovation and Sci- taliseducation.com/press-20120604.html.

70 Planetarian December 2012 FULLDOME www.spitzinc.com/fulldome_shows

December 2012 Planetarian SHOW DISTRIBUTION71 © 2011 Zula® USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Contact: Mike Bruno [email protected] T: 610.459.5200

Spitz_Zula_FullPage_11.07.11_v2.indd 1 11/7/11 2:11:33 PM George David Millard, 1961–2012 (Book Reviews, continued from Page 69) Our community lost a brilliant and kind man with the passing of George David Mil- Many of us world-wide are offering pro- lard, 51, this fall. David passed away on September 8, 2012 after a lengthy battle with colon grams for a variety of audiences. Contact Nor- cancer. He is survived by his wife Cheiko, and his daughters Kyo- een, and let her know about your program. ka, and Mika. Get your program in the next edition! David began his planetarium career as a show operator and A banner on the front cover of this book technician at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul in the proclaims it a “Next Generation Indie Book early 1980s. Because of his unique technical skills, he was hired Awards Finalist.”1 When I checked the ama- by Spitz Inc., in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, as the on-site techni- zon.com web site, there were only four copies cian for the science museum. He later moved to Chadds Ford in left (more to come). You might want to order 1984, when he became a key member of the development team your copy soon. for the Spitz Space Voyager Planetarium. David left Spitz after a few years to work in diverse companies like Sonics, Visual Cir- David Millard cuits, and Sky-Skan. David returned to Spitz in 2003 as director of Digital Products. He led the technical development of all Spitz’ products, includ- ing the SciDome planetarium. Under Dave’s leadership, Spitz advanced its digital display capabilities immensely, and forged key relationships with software and technology part- ners. Dave was responsible for dozens of technical innovations at Spitz, including auto- mation control of Starry Night software, two-projector auto-calibration, and the infrared laser control pointer used in SciDome systems today. He was a passionate advocate of ed- ucation, and strove to make Spitz products valuable for teaching planetariums whenev- er possible. Dave was a kind, patient person who laughed easily, worked tirelessly, and cared deeply about friends, family and coworkers. We’ll miss him dearly. -Contributed by Scott Huggins

Linton Pitluga, 1943-2012 Linton Pitluga began his career in the planetarium field after attending the 1967 six- The Year in Space 2013 Steve Cariddi, published in cooperation with week summer institute for Teaching Astronomy in the Planetarium, a course developed The Planetary Society, Starry Messenger Press, by his late father, Dr. George Pitluga, who himself was a noted planetarian and astronomy Ithaca, New York; order from www.YearInS- educator. It was held at the State University of New York, Oswego and was funded by the pace.com National Science Foundation (a couple more institutes were offered in subsequent years). Reviewed by April Whitt. Linton and his future wife, Phyllis (who also attended this summer institute) created—with Andy Oliver—the Southern Ca- While this isn’t a book or software, I’m yuga Atmospherium-Planetarium near Ithaca, New York. To- squeezing this review in here at the end (of gether they developed a day-long program presenting various the column, year, or world—take your pick). I concepts in the planetarium (day-night, moon phases, seasons, wish Fernbank Science Center had a gift shop, etc.) followed by experimentation in a laboratory, where pairs of just so we could offer this calendar. students manipulated 3-D models to recreate what they had ob- It’s big: 41 x 56 cm (16 x 22 inches), it’s col- served in the planetarium. orful, it’s full of information, with a differ- Later, the group would view an inspirational show about sig- ent topic each month. Described as “fact-filled nificant discoveries in the universe. The teachers selected books Linton Pitluga and lavishly illustrated,” it is also “education- and audio-visual materials to use back in the classroom for fol- ally appropriate for ages 10 to adult.” low-up. The ground-breaking “atmospherium” used day-time all- Each month is packed with daily moon sky images to teach weather patterns and concepts. A sky newsletter was produced each phases, sky events and space history. Color month. photographs throughout make this different Linton and Phyllis moved on to the two planetariums in Cecil County, Maryland. There, from a one-picture per month calendar. they developed materials used while travelling with the students on the school bus, com- Among the monthly fun facts are biogra- ing and going, for motivation and follow-up. In Suffern, New York, similar materials were phies of prominent people associated with developed to enhance the sky show experience. each topic. I was pleased to see that seven of Later, Linton developed the Gene Cernan Planetarium at Triton College, Illinois, us- them are women. While I wish it was com- ing equipment for all-sky motion pictures to accompany the planetarium star projector. monplace to see women’s contributions high- Again, supplementary materials were a part of the enhanced experience. lighted, I’m delighted with these. I’d highly Linton and Phyllis retired eight years ago in , and moved to San Miguel de Al- recommend this publication. I lende, Mexico, where they jointly presented telescope observing opportunities at the local botanic garden outside of town. Soon after the Venus transit-observing event on June 5, 1 See www.indiebookawards.com; Noreen’s book Linton became ill. He was identified with stage-4 cancer and died in Houston at the MDAn- was a finalist in the SCIENCE/NATURE/ENVIRON- derson Cancer Clinic on August 17, 2012. MENT category. The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest Not-for-Profit book awards -Contributed by Phyllis Pitluga and Ian McLennan program for independent authors and independent publishers.

72 Planetarian December 2012 8.5X11_AD.pdf 1 11/9/2011 12:17:42 PM

NARRATED BY LIAM NEESON

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December 2012 Planetarian 73 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events

2 0 1 3 13-17 February. IMERSA Summit 2013. Denver Museum Aru, margus.aru@.ee of Nature & Science, Colorado, USA. www.imersa.org 14-18 October. Communicating Astronomy with the 17 March. International Day of Planetaria. www.dayof- Public 2013 (CAP 2013), Challenges in Communi- planetaria.org cation of Astronomy and Space Exploration, War- 13-14 April. Italian Association of Planetaria (PlanIt), saw, . www.communicatingastronomy.org/ XXVIII National Conference, Cagliari Planetarium, cap2013/index.html Italy, and 3rd Full-Dome Italian Festival. During the 15 September. Deadline for the applicants of "A Week conference Skype session for planetarians from oth- in Italy for an American Planetarium Operator", in er countries. www.planetaritaliani.it. Contact: osser- collaboration with IPS Portable Planetarium Com- [email protected] mittee. www.astrofilibresciani.it/Planetari/Week_ May. Canadian Association of Science Centres, 11th An- in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm nual Conference. http://www.canadiansciencecen- 16-19 October. Great Lakes Planetarium Association

tres.ca/main.htm; Contact: [email protected] (GLPA), annual conference, Peoria Riverfront Mu- URANUS 3rd-5th May. IFF’13, Immersive Film Festival, Third edi- seum, Peoria, Illinois, USA. Contact: Sheldon Shafer. URANIA tion, Centro Multimeios, Espinho, Portugal. Organi- www.glpaweb.org

zation Navegar Foundation. iff.multimeios.pt 19-22 October. Association of Science-Technology TRITON 4-6 May. GDP 2013, Annual meeting of German speak- Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference, Albuquerque, TETHYS ing planetaria, Planetarium Klagenfurt, Austria. New Mexico, USA. www.astc.org

www.gdp-planetarium.org www.planetarium-kla- November. XVIII Meeting of the Association of Brazil- PHOEBE

genfurt.at ian Planetarium. www.planetarios.org.br. Contact: PAN 9-12 May. Association of French Speaking Planetariums [email protected] PALLAS (APLF), Yearly Meeting, St. Michel l’Observatoire,

France. www.aplf-planetariums.org 2 0 1 4 MEROPE 6-8 June. “Dreams, the spirit of innovation”, ECSITE An- 17-19 March. 7th Science Center World Summit, Tech- MEDUSA

nual Conference (European Network of Science Cen- nopolis, Mechelen and Brussels, Belgium. Partners: HYADES

tres and Museums), www.ecsite.net Technopolis, Flemish science center, Mechelen, 24-28 June. 8th World Conference of Science Journalist Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels. HESTIA

(WCSJ), , . www.wcsj2013.org www.technopolis.be HERMES 25-29 June. Southeastern Planetarium Association 31 March. Deadline for application for scholarship

(SEPA), Annual conference, Jacksonville, Florida, funds (IPS support Beijing Conference attendance by HELIOS

USA. www.sepadomes.org individuals). www.ips-planetarium.org EOS 17-20 July. Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society 1-5 May. Three languages - The same sky, Symposium

(MAPS), Annual Conference. Ausherman Planetar- of Planetariums 2014 , Switzerland (in plan- DAPHNE

ium, Earth and Space Science Laboratory, Frederick ning). CRONUS County Public Schools in Frederick, Maryland, USA. June. International Planetarium Society Council Meet-

www.mapsplanetarium.org ing, Beijing, China. CHIRON

20-24 July. Annual meeting of the Astronomical So- 23-27 June. 22nd International Planetarium Soci- CHARON

ciety of the Pacific (ASP), San Jose, California, USA. ety Conference, Beijing Planetarium, China. www. Contact: Andrew Fraknoi, [email protected]; ips2014.org, contact mail Dr. Zhu Jin, [email protected]. ATHENA

www.astrosociety.org cn 31 July – 2 August. Digistar Users Group Conference, 18-21 October. Association of Science-Technology Cen- APOLLO Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA. ters (ASTC) Annual Conference, North Carolina Mu-

departments.colgate.edu/vislab/dug2013.asp seum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, APHRODITE

9-10 August. International Planetarium Society Coun- USA. www.astc.org cil Meeting, Bolzano, Italy. AETHER

31 August. Deadline for the applicants of "An experience For corrections and new information for the Calen- ADONIS in Italy for a French Speaking Planetarium Operator", dar of Events, please send a message to Loris Ramponi in collaboration with APLF. www.astrofilibresciani. at [email protected].

it/Planetari/Week_in_Italy/Week_Italy.htm More details about several of these upcoming events September. British Association of Planetaria (BAP), 2013 are included in the International News column and GODS GREEK annual meeting. Contact: Dr Jenny Shipway, presi- elsewhere in the Planetarian. [email protected] The most up-to-date information also is avail-

6-8 September. Nordic Planetarium Association Bienni- able online at the International Planetarian’s Calen-

al Conference, AHHAA Science Center, , Esto- 2 Categories dar of Events at www.ips-planetarium.org/events/ Triad

nia. Conference language English. Contact: Margus conferences.html to Answer

74 Planetarian December 2012 December 2012 Planetarian 75 Last Light

April S. Whitt Fernbank Science Center 156 Heaton Park Drive NE Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA [email protected] From Tom Mason: This image shows a new, evolving IPS tradition. It was started when a In last issue’s column, there was mention ternexusCon, and All I Got Was This Lousy small perspex box containing a colourful ce- of the popular American television series Big Universe ramic bird was presented to the society at Bang Theory. Several alert readers respond- • Honey, I Blew Up the Cosmic Egg the conference in Spain. The idea was ed, and I located some information from the • “Oops!” that it was to be passed from one host organ- Cheap Thoughts web site at www.angelo.edu/ • Universes ‘R Us isation to the other as one conference ended, and the two-year deadline for the next one faculty/kboudrea/cheap/cheap4_physics. • What the heck was THAT!!!? commenced. It has become a sort of mascot htm#Other. • Ready or not, here I come of the conference. Inside it are small memen- In the ongoing search for better names for • Bursting Star Sack tos that characterise the host city, region or the Big Bang, we have: • Hey, Looky There at That country: they are added to the collection. The latest addition from Baton Rouge is a voodoo • The Bottom Turtle • Jiffy Pop doll. It also contains contributions from Alex- • “That Point In Time When the Volume of • Let There Be Stuff andria, Chicago, and Melbourne:a pyramid, a the Universe Decreases to Approximate- • OK, Fine Chicago Cubs helmet and a footie scarf. The ly Zero, and Density Approaches Infinity, • Stupendous Space Spawning memento box is now held by Dr JIn Zhu in Bei- and the Combination of the Strong Nucle- • The Primal Billowing jing China. Photo by Dale Smith. ar Force and Electromagnetic Attraction Be- • The Whole Enchilada tween Red and Blue Colored Quar — hey • A Steven Spielberg-George Lucas Produc- that fly on huge helium filled balloons today. Steve, can’t we think up a nickname for tion One of his instruments measures Cosmic this?!?” • Well, I’ll Be Ray Energetics and Mass and carries the acro- • The Best Of Times, The First Of Times nym CREAM. After successful launches and • The Grand Opening Sale It’s all about the ice cream recoveries, CREAM is being readied to travel • *Pop* Goes Existence! At the Great Lakes Planetarium Associa- to the International Space Station (ISS) about • The Time, Space & Energy Factory Outlet tion’s annual meeting in October, Stephane a SpaceEx flight. That makes it ISS-CREAM, Sale Coutu, currently a faculty member in phys- right? Sweet. • Dude, Where’s My Void? ics, astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State One of the many clever touches to the GLPA • The Horrendous Space Kablooey (from the University, shared “Particle Astrophysics at conference was a series of cards on our supper comic strip Calvin & Hobbes) 100: A Century of Adventures and Discovery” tables at North Hills High School. Hosts Sue • The Colossal Kaboom from the earliest hot air balloons carrying cos- and Buck Batson asked teachers in their district • My Parents Went to PanDimensional In- mic-ray detectors to the complex instruments to share a writing activity with their students. Cards were printed with an astronomical im- age on one side and a “prompt” on the other: “My favorite planet is ______,” “My favorite constellation is______,” “Astron- omy is ______because______.” The results served as table decorations. Among my favorites: “At night when I look at the stars I think I see a shooting star. I make a wish but will it come true? It did because I got ice cream and stew.” “My favorite constellation is Leo the lion because it is one of the earliest recognized con- stellations. As of 2002 the Sun appeared in Leo. I think it is so interesting how the sun is not considered a sign of Leo. In the constellation, Leo is walking.” “I like thinking about space because you can see new things (planet, stars). There are so many rocks.” I

www.angelo.edu/faculty/ Dr. Cherilynn Morrow (left) celebrated the June transit of Venus with Dr. Lou Mayo’s daughters atop kboudrea/cheap/cheap4_ Mauna Kea in Hawai’i. Hooray for astronomy! And hooray for the technology and people to share it with physics.htm#Other. the world! Photo by Ron Beard

76 Planetarian December 2012

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