Vol. 36, No. 2 June 2007 Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Vol. 36, No. 2 June 2007

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

The 3D Sun More images on pages 40-41

Articles 6 The Fulldome Action Flip Side: Retelling Romeo and Juliet ...... June 2007 Vol. 36 No. 2 ...... Harald Singer and Bettina Pfander Executive Editor 12 400 Years of the Telescope: Collaboration for IYA in 2009 . . . . . Sharon Shanks ...... Shawn Laatsch Ward Beecher Planetarium 15 The Universe: Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You...... Youngstown State University ...... Anna Hurst 17 From the AER: SABER Cuts to the Heart of Research ...... One University Plaza ...... David Bruning, Janelle M. Bailey, Gina Brissenden Youngstown, Ohio 44555 USA 39 Framtidsmuseet Visitor’s Questionnaire Survey...... Bilal Anwar (1) 330-941-3619 daytime phone 53 Get Set For WAC, Triple Conjunction...... multiple [email protected] Advertising Coordinator Columns Chuck Bueter 4 In Front of the Console ...... Sharon Shanks 15893 Ashville Lane 19 Forum: What would you do in space? ...... Steve Tidey Granger, Indiana 46530 USA 22 Reviews ...... April S. Whitt (1) 574-271-3150 24 Mobile News...... Susan Reynolds Button [email protected] 30 General Counsel: Government...... Christopher S. Reed www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ 32 Digital Frontiers...... Ed Lantz ratesheet.htm 34 President’s Message...... Susan Reynolds Button 38 Past President’s Message ...... Martin George Membership 40 NASA News...... Anita M. Sohus 42 International News...... Lars Broman Individual: $50 one year; $90 two years 49 Planetarian’s Calendar of Events...... Loris Ramponi Institutional: $200 first year; 50 What’s New...... John Schroer $100 annual renewal 54 Last Light ...... April S. Whitt Library Subscriptions: $36 one year Direct membership requests and changes of address to the Treasurer/Membership Chairman Index of Advertisers allsky.de ...... 48 Back Issues of the Planetarian Astro-Tec Mfg., Inc ...... 52 IPS Back Publications Repository Calgary Science Centre ...... 31 maintained by the Treasurer/Membership Clark Planetarium ...... 33 Chair; contact information is on next page Evans & Sutherland ...... outside back cover GOTO INC ...... 55 Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd ...... 27 Index Learning Technologies, Inc ...... 21 A cumulative index of major articles that have R.S.A. Cosmos ...... inside back cover appeared in the Planetarian from the first issue Rudinec & Associates ...... 26 through the current issue is available online at SEOS ...... 5 www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ Sky-Skan, Inc ...... centerfold, 14, 51 planetarian_index.pdf Spitz, Inc...... 11 Zeiss, Inc...... inside front cover Final Deadlines March: January 21 Associate Editors June: April 21 Digital Frontiers Gibbous Gazette Last Light Reviews September: July 21 Ed Lantz James Hughes April S. Whitt April S. Whitt December: October 21 Forum International Mobile News What’s New Steve Tidey News Susan Button John A. Schroer International Planetarium Society home page: Lars Broman www.ips-planetarium.org General Counsel NASA Space News Christopher Reed Anita Sohus Planetarian journal home page: http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian The Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is pub- Guidelines for Contributors and Advertisers: lished quarterly by the International http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/ Planetarium Society. ©2007, Inter- guidelines.html national Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights reserved. Opinions expressed by authors are personal opinions and are Cover: A spicule pokes out above the Sun’s North not necessarily the opinions of the International Planetarium Society, its of- Pole region on March 20, 2007. The 3D image was cre- ficers, or agents. Acceptance of advertisements, announcements, or other ated from two spacecraft by combining images in material does not imply endorsement by the International Planetarium Soci- three extreme ultraviolet wavelengths: 304, 171 and ety, its officers or agents. The Editor welcomes items for consideration for 195 angstroms from each. (Source: stereo.gsfc.nasa. publication. Please consult “Guidelines for Contributors” at www.ips-plan- gov/gallery/3dimages/preview/npole20070320.sht- etarium.org/planetarian/guidelines.html. The Editor reserves the right to edit ml) NASA/GSFC. any manuscript to suit this publication’s needs.

June 2007 Planetarian Officers

President [email protected] for Science and Technology Susan Reynolds Button 6560 Braddock Road Quarks to Clusters President-Elect Alexandria, Virginia 22312 USA 8793 Horseshoe Lane Dr. Tom Mason, Director (1) 703-750-8380 Chittenango, New York 13037 USA Armagh Planetarium (1) 703-750-5010 fax (1) 315-687-5371 College Hill [email protected] (1) 315-432-4523 fax Armagh BT61 9DB Northern Ireland [email protected] United Kingdom Treasurer and Membership Chair +44 (0)2837 524725 Shawn Laatsch +44 (0)2837 526187 fax ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai’i Past-President +44 (0)771 0013453 cell 600 Imiloa Place Martin George [email protected] Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Launceston Planetarium www.armaghplanet.com (1) 808-969-9735 Queen Victoria Museum (1) 808-969-9748 fax Wellington Street Executive Secretary [email protected] Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Lee Ann Hennig +61 3 6323 3777 Planetarium, Thomas Jefferson High School +61 3 6323 3776 fax Affiliate Representatives

Association of Dutch- +44 (0)2837 526187 fax [email protected] Planetarium Society of India Speaking Planetariums +44 (0)771 0013453 cell www.spacelaser.com/gppa Professor Gopinath Subramanian André Milis [email protected] Director-Astronomer Planetarium of the Royal www.armaghplanet.com Italian Planetaria’s Friends Department of Science Observatory of Belgium Association Ratchaborikanukroh School Boechoutlaan 10 Canadian Association Loris Ramponi Amper Muang, 1020 Brussels, Belgium of Science Centres National Archive of Planetaria Ratchaburi- 70000 Thailand +32 2 474 70 60 Ian C. McLennan c/o Centro Studi e Ricerche +66 32 326156 +32 2 478 30 26 fax #404 - 1275 Haro Street Serafino Zani +66 90 131081 [email protected] Vancouver, British Columbia via Bosca 24, C.P. 104 [email protected] V6E 1G1 I 25066 Lumezzane (Brescia) Italy [email protected] Association of French- Canada +39 30 872 164 Speaking Planetariums +1 604-681-4790 phone + fax +39 30 872 545 fax Rocky Mountain Planetarium Agnès Acker +1 604-240-0938 cell [email protected] Association Observatoire de Strasbourg [email protected] [email protected] Kevin Scott 11, rue de l’université [email protected] www.planetaritaliani.it Evans & Sutherland 67000 Strasbourg France www.ianmclennan.com 600 Komas Drive +03 90 24 24 67 Japan Planetarium Society Salt Lake City, Utah USA +03 90 24 24 17 fax Council of German Shoichi Itoh (1) 801-588-7416 ACKERAgnes@aol.com Planetariums Chief of Physics and Astronomy [email protected] [email protected] Thomas W. Kraupe, IPS contact Instruction www.rmpadomes.org Planetarium Hamburg Suginami Science Education Center Association of Mexican Hindenburgstraße 1 b 3-3-13 Shimizu, Suginami-ku Russian Planetariums Planetariums D-22303 Hamburg Tokyo 167-0033 Japan Association Ignacio Castro Pinal Deutschland +81 3-3396-4391 Zinaida P. Sitkova Torres de Mixcoac, A6-702 +49 40 - 428 86 52-21 +81 3-3396-4393 fax Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium C.P. 01490, México D.F. México +49 40 - 428 86 52-99 fax [email protected] Revolutsionnja Street, 20 +52 (55) 55 24 51 50 +49 40 - 4279 24-850 e-fax [email protected] 603002 Nizhny Novgorod Russia +52 (55) 55 24 01 40 fax +49 40 - 172-40 86 133 [email protected] +7 831 2 30 51 51 [email protected] thomas.kraupe@plan- +7 831 2 30 51 66 fax etarium-hamburg.de Middle Atlantic Planetarium [email protected] Association of Spanish www.rdp-planetrium.de Society [email protected] Planetariums Patty Seaton www.planet.nn.ru Javier Armentia European/Mediterranean H. B. Owens Science Center Planetario de Pamplona Planetarium Association 9601 Greenbelt Road Southeastern Planetarium Sancho Ramirez, 2 Dennis Simopoulos Lanham-Seabrook, Maryland Association E-31008 Pamplona Navarra Spain Eugenides Planetarium 20706 USA John Hare +34 948 260 004 Syngrou Avenue-Amfithea (1) 301-918-8750 Ash Enterprises +34 948 260 056 Athens Greece (1) 301-918-8753 fax 3602 23rd Avenue West +34 948 261 919 fax +30 1 941 1181 [email protected] Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA [email protected] +30 1 941 7372 fax www.maps-planetarium.org (1) 941-746-3522 gestion@pamplonetario. [email protected] (1) 941-750-9497 fax infonego-cio.com [email protected] Nordic Planetarium [email protected] Association www.sepadomes.org Australasian Planetarium Great Lakes Planetarium Lars Broman Society Association Dalarna University Southwestern Association of Martin Bush Dave Weinrich SE 791 88 Falun Sweden Planetariums Melbourne Planetarium Minnesota State University-Moorhead +46 2310 177 Tony Butterfield 2 Booker Street 1104 7th Avenue South +46 23 10 137 fax Houston Museum of Natural Science Spotswood 3015 Moorhead, Minnesota 56563 USA [email protected] One Hermann Circle Victoria, Australia (1) 218-477-2969 www.planetarium.se/npa Houston, Texas 77581 USA +61 3 93924503 [email protected] (1) 713 639-4637 [email protected] Pacific Planetarium (1) 713 639-4681 fax Great Plains Planetarium Association [email protected] British Association Association Gail Chaid of Planetaria Jack Dunn Independence Planetarium Ukranian Planetariums Tom Mason Ralph Mueller Planetarium 1776 Educational Park Drive Association Armagh Planetarium University of Nebraska- Lincoln San Jose, California 95133 USA Klim Churyumov College Hill 210 Morrill Hall (1) 408-928-9604 Kiev Republican Planetarium Armagh BT61 9DB Northern Ireland Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA (1) 408-926-9515 fax 57/3 Velyka Vasyikivska Street United Kingdom (1) 402-472-2641 [email protected] 03150 Kiev Ukraine +44 (0)2837 524725 (1) 402-475-8899 fax [email protected] +380 442 87 27 81 fax

2 Planetarian June 2007 Standing Committees

Awards Committee Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum Membership Committee Jon Bell, Chair 1300 South Lake Shore Drive Shawn Laatsch, Chair Hallstrom Planetarium Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii Indian River Community College (1) 312-922-7827 reception 600 Imiloa Place 3209 Virginia Avenue (1) 312-322-2257 fax Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA Fort Pierce, Florida 34981 USA [email protected] (1) 808-969-9735 (1) 772-462-4888 www.adlerplanetarium.org (1) 808-969-9748 fax [email protected] [email protected] Elections Committee Conference Committee Steve Mitch, Chair Susan Reynolds Button Benedum Planetarium Publications Committee Quarks to Clusters Oglebay Park Dr. Dale W. Smith, chair 8793 Horseshoe Lane Wheeling, West Virginia 26003 USA BGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman Hall Chittenango, New York 13037 USA (1) 304-243-4034 Physics &Astronomy Dept. (1) 315-687-5371 (1) 304-243-4110 fax Bowling Green State University (1) 315-432-4523 fax [email protected] Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA [email protected] (1) 419-372-8666 Finance Committee - President, Past-Presi- (1) 419-372-9938 fax Conference Host-2008 dent, President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary [email protected] Dr. Paul Knappenberger, President Ad Hoc Committees

Armand Spitz Planetarium Education Deutschland 110 South 400 West Fund +49 40 - 428 86 52-21 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA Finance Committee +49 40 - 428 86 52-99 fax (1) 801-456-4949 +49 40 - 4279 24-850 e-fax (1) 801-456-4928 fax Education Committee +49 40 - 172-40 86 133 [email protected] Dr. Brock Schroeder, Chair [email protected] Strickler Planetarium and Observatory Script Contest Committee Olivet Nazarene University Outreach Committee Steve Tidey, Coordinator One University Avenue Jon W. Elvert, Chair 58 Prince Avenue Bourbonnais, Illinois 60914 USA Irene W. Pennington Planetarium Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN England (1) 815-939-5361 Louisiana Art & Science Museum United Kingdom (1) 815-939-5071 fax 100 South River Road [email protected] [email protected] Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA (1) 225-344-5272 Strategic Planning Committee Full-Dome Video Committee (1) 225-214-4027 fax British Association of Planetaria Ryan Wyatt, Chair [email protected] Tom Mason, Chair California Academy of Sciences Armagh Planetarium 875 Howard Street Planetarium Development Group College Hill San Francisco, CA 94103 Ken Wilson, Chair Armagh BT61 9DB Northern Ireland (10 415-321-8156 Ethyl Universe Planetarium United Kingdom [email protected] Science Museum of Virginia +44 (0)2837 524725 [email protected] 2500 West Broad Street +44 (0)2837 526187 fax Richmond, Virginia 23220 USA +44 (0)771 0013453 cell History Committee (1) 804-864-1429 [email protected] John Hare, IPS Historian (1) 804-864-1560 fax www.armaghplanet.com Ash Enterprises [email protected] 3602 23rd Avenue West [email protected] Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA Technology Committee (1) 941-746-3522 Portable Planetarium Committee Vacant (1) 941-750-9497 fax Susan Reynolds Button, Chair [email protected] Quarks to Clusters Web Committee 8793 Horseshoe Lane Alan Gould, Chair International Relations Committee Chittenango, NY 13037 Holt Planetarium Martin George, Chair (1) 315-687-5371 Lawrence Hall of Science Launceston Planetarium [email protected] University of California Queen Victoria Museum Berkeley, California 94720-5200 USA Wellington Street Professional Services Committee (1) 510-643-5082 Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Mike Murray, Chair (1) 510-642-1055 fax +61 3 6323 3777 Clark Planetarium [email protected] +61 3 6323 3776 fax [email protected]

Job Information Service IPS Permanent Mailing Address Subcommittee (Professional Services Committee) International Planetarium Society Steve Fentress, Chair c/o Shawn Laatsch Strasenburgh Planetarium IPS Treasurer/Membership Chair Rochester Museum & Science Center 657 East Avenue Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii Rochester, New York 14607 USA 600 Imiloa Place (1) 585-271-4552 ext. 409 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA (1 )585-271-7146 fax [email protected] IPS Web Site: www.ips-planetarium.org Media Distribution Committee Please notify the Editor of any changes on these two pages. Thomas W. Kraupe, IPS contact person Planetarium Hamburg Hindenburgstraße 1 b Contact the Treasurer/Membership Chair for individual member address chang- D-22303 Hamburg es and general circulation and billing questions.

June 2007 Planetarian thing. I guess I could do original drawings, but my artwork runs more toward the style of a 2- In Front of the Console year-old than a Tucciarone. One “people” item is mentioned several I cheated to fill a little bit of white space at times in the pages that follow: the upcoming the end of April Whitt’s Last Light column move of Jim Manning from the Public Out- this month and popped in a picture I had on reach Office at the Space Telescope Science In- my computer. It fit the context and I didn’t stitute to the position of executive director of have to worry about copyright. Yes, the artist the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Jim, is my daughter, and she wanted me to clarify a past IPS president, has a long history under that she drew this example of methane pro- the dome, from Morehead Planetarium at the duction about eight years ago and that she’s University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a much better artist now. I’ve been using the North Carolina to the Staerkel Planetarium embarrassed cow to explain methane for that at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois long, and if anyone would like a copy, I’ll be and the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, glad to share. It makes a point and produces a Montana. It appears his migration westward laugh—and the kids who see it have no trou- is continuing (after a detour in Baltimore, of ble remembering what that gas is and where course). it comes from. The transition from retiring Michael Ben- Stephanie won’t be drawing either. She’ll nett, who has served as ASP chief since 2001, write things of interest to planetarians that I to Manning should be completed in July. can place where needed—the mortar for the Meanwhile, another familiar planetarium bricks, so to speak. name has already made the move to San Fran- Be sure to read the British Association of cisco, the California home of the ASP. Ryan Planetariums report in International News Wyatt has moved from the position of sci- (starting on page 42). Tom Mason, IPS presi- Sharon Shanks ence visualizer for the American Museum of dent elect, passes along the heartening news that astronomy and space science are being Ward Beecher Planetarium Natural History/Hayden Planetarium in New York City to that of director of the new Mor- written into the school curriculum in North- Youngstown State University rison Planetarium and Science Visualization ern Ireland. The work of Robert Hill from the Youngstown, OH 44555 at the California Academy of Sciences. He re- Northern Ireland Space Office, working col- ports that he now has a new assistant director, laboratively with space, science, and educa- USA Bing Quock. tion groups and the Armagh Planetarium, “is [email protected] I watched a program recently on the Dis- now being used as a best-practice model in covery Channel that featured some of the other European countries,” according to the It’s hard to believe this is my fourth issue of construction challenges of the new Academy story. the Planetarian already. That means one year building—construction that started in 2005 From the report: “What we’re doing here under my belt, and who knows how many to and is due for completion in 2008—and nev- is using astronomy as the hook to encourage go. I might have to let it out a notch or two. er imagined I’d know the person in charge children to take up the STEM activities—Sci- I know I won’t come close to the time giv- of the planetarium. The facility will be the ence, Technology, Engineering and Mathe- en to this publication by John Mosley. His 78 only combined aquarium, planetarium, and matics. They’re perceived as difficult, so we’re issues translates to 19 and a half years of re- natural history museum in the US, and I’m using space science as the tool for inspiration, minding writers of deadlines, editing other sure Ryan will be able to put his visualization because this is real science and real technolo- people’s prose, watching for widows and or- skills to good use to blend these topics under gy and there are careers in Europe for pupils phans, making sure it’s Sky-Skan and not Sky the dome. who take them up.” Skan, and staying up half the night on dead- Changes are also appearing within the pag- STEM is a word I hear daily at my univer- line printing pages and burning CDs. I think es of the Planetarium. Steve Tidey will debut sity. Our College of Arts and Sciences, one of of him often at 3 a.m. when the CD burner a new education column in the September is- the backbones of a traditional liberal arts uni- locks up my computer again and am glad he’s sue, which also will be the last appearance of versity, has just been split into a College of Sci- having such a great time exploring the coun- his Forum column. Steve has done a fine job ence, Technology, Engineering and Math and try in his RV. of keeping the discussion flowing within Fo- a College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The March issue was a record-breaking one rum for the past 10 years, but feels it’s time for The push to improve science and math ed- for length; this one is fairly short. The dead- a change and offered to tackle an education ucation has been expanded to include engi- line for the June issue falls at the end of April column, one that we’ve needed to resume for neering and technology—because that’s the and everyone in the planetarium world knows quite a while. This means the Forum associate direction we must go for the world, not just that’s prime field trip season. Our calendars, editor position will be vacant after Septem- one nation or a handful of nations, to pros- mine included, are jammed and the calls are ber. Anyone interested? per and thrive. I’m certainly not dismissing still coming in. James Hughes is caught up in Stephanie Parello, who also will be leav- the importance of liberal arts or the social the rush at the Buhl Planetarium at the Carn- ing the Hayden in New York soon for a new sciences (my degree is in English, after all)— egie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- position in Australia (she wins the distance study in all fields, i.e. a “liberal arts” education, nia—that and the installation of new equip- move, guys), has volunteered to fill gaps for makes one a well rounded, critically-think- ment and production of a new program have me. White space is an anathema to editors. ing citizen of the world—but I am applaud- him bogged down. We’ll have to catch up on But even though I hate it, I sometimes just ing anything that recognizes the importance the people side of our profession in September leave the space unfilled, especially when it’s of our field in inspiring students to look be- when Gibbous Gazette returns. after midnight and I can’t come up with any- yond themselves and into the future. I

Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian The Fulldome Action Flip Slide: Retelling Romeo and Juliet in Immersive Cinema

Harald Singer and Bettina Pfändner LivinGlobe Destouchesstr. 65 Rgb. 80796 München, Munich Germany +49 89-3229985-30 [email protected] www.livinglobe.com

Abstract: In this article Director Harald Singer and Creative Producer Bettina Pfaendner of LivinGlobe describe their experience with the production of R+J, the first immersive cinema movie worldwide. They delineate the insights they received from this project for the production of planetarium shows. In addition to the article in the March 2007 Planetarian by Ka Chun Yu, Matthew Brownell, Joslyn Shoemer, Daniel Neafus, Thomas Lucas and Zachary Zager, this text shall initiate a discussion on how real life

iStockphoto.com footage can be used in the dome.

Planetarian June 2007 R+J is the first immersive cinema fulldome deciding where to look and which aspect of in Tybalt challenges Romeo to a fight. Tybalt film worldwide, produced for ADLIP and Sky- the film to contemplate. The audience has the loses. In a wild ecstatic fist fight Romeo kills Vision. This modern adaptation of the famous freedom of view. Tybalt. Romeo escapes to Juliet. She is torn drama Romeo and Juliet by William Shake- We see a great opportunity, especially in between their love and his bloody deed. But speare was produced by LivinGlobe in coop- the production of planetarium shows. Only once more they are able to forget reality and, eration with Carl Zeiss and Sky-Skan Europe. by shooting live action is the “human factor” as if wrapped in a cocoon, they live out their R+J demonstrates various solutions of the use established in the show. Computer generat- love. They enjoy their first night together. of live action and computer generated images ed characters always look artificial and rath- When the new day dawns, Romeo has to flee (CGI) in fulldome programs and it proves that er stiff, and voice overs, even spoken by the because the prince has sentenced him to ex- today it is possible to project real film images most famous voices, cannot replace the real ile for his crime. Tragedy takes its course. The into a dome to tell narrative stories. actor. Computer animation, SFX, and creative priest resorts to a trick: he gives Juliet a potion, Initiated as a test film by a collaboration postproduction offer the possibility to show which will seem to kill her. Unaware of this of bold, innovative filmmakers, R+J now is invisible things, like far away galaxies, plan- subterfuge, Romeo secretly returns from ex- shown as a special interest film in planetar- ets, scientific correlation or imaginative spac- ile and finds the allegedly dead Juliet in her iums. It is not the usual planetarium pro- es, but only the actor can touch the audience crypt. In his desperation, he takes true poison gram, nor was it ever produced and market- and turn a film into an intense emotional ex- to be united with her in eternal love. While ed as such. The goal was completely different: perience. he is dying, Juliet wakes up from unconscious- to find an answer to the question “What does ness. She kisses him in joy, anger, and finally in and does not work in the dome?” The Story the desperate attempt to get some of the poi- The film was shot in 2003 in the Canary Is- For this first film we deliberately chose one son from his lips and die with him. She suc- lands. Postproduction took place in 2004 in of the most famous and best dramas of world ceeds. Romeo and Juliet are united in death. Munich, Germany and in the US at Wispir Stu- literature in order to demonstrate the con- But that’s only a play in a warm desert night. dios in Peterborough, New Hampshire. It was nection between classical story telling and After the tragic ending, the party goes on with produced like a normal feature film and shot modern visualization. The everlasting “boy dancing and celebrating. with an Arriflex 535 on 35 mm. In order to meets girl” story seemed to us to be the perfect achieve the best image quality, the complete choice. A science fiction story, a sheer mon- The Visual Language negative was used and exposed open-gate. A 6 tage film, an action story, or a typical “who In R+J we have tried to use the complete po- mm fisheye lens was used. After shooting and done it” were ruled out because we did not tential of visualization in a dome. Each scene rough cut, 29,500 frames of the 35 mm neg- want attraction to be derived from the story, is an experiment. Some have succeeded and ative were scanned in 4k. As a final product but to be created by a virtuosic composition others have demonstrated limits. The follow- we got a dome master with a 3.2k resolution. of new visual effects in the dome. ing short review reflects our approaches and That’s the best result to be achieved in a pro- The famous story of Romeo and Juliet is experiences. duction on film. shown in key scenes. Each scene was visually Cross-Reflection: The greatest challenge Some 80% consists of live action footage staged in a different way. of visualization in domes is cross-reflection, that includes 7 actors, 20 dancers, and a crew The “play in a play” starts in a desert. A i.e. the fact that light is reflected from one side of 50 people. group of young people pull a truck with of the dome to the opposite side. The bright- R+J premiered during IPS 2004 in Valencia, building materials through an empty lander the image, the more light is reflected, which Spain. Steven Savage of Sky-Skan gave a very scape until they discover the right spot. They inevitably leads to low contrast and visually moving introductory speech with the legend- stop the truck and start build- ary sentence, “You will see the very first kiss in ing a stage from wood and the dome.” R+J was first shown to the public fabric as a party space. A huge as a Valentine’s Day program at Exploration party gradually escalates into Place in Witchita, Kansas. a kaleidoscopically sensu- al orgy. Juliet moves around. The Planetarium and Immersive She is totally lost, pushed Cinema forward by the wild par- The planetarium has always been an imag- ty crowd, until she sudden- inative and virtual space for projection. Visi- ly ends up in the embrace of tors go on a trip to distant worlds and one can a young man–Romeo. Their move freely in space and time. These abili- eyes lock, but Juliet is pulled ties were improved by the new possibilities of away and has to continue to fulldome video projection. So far projection dance. Romeo is exhausted. in the dome has been limited to CGI. Expand- He backs out into a quiet cor- ed by the possibilities of digital art work, great ner. He leans against a large imaginative live action cinema can be creat- wooden ladder. Suddenly he ed with fantastic images and emotional sto- discovers the beautiful Juliet ries. The goal is not “unity of space and time,” up on the balcony. They are as in the presentation of the story in as realis- overwhelmed by tender love, tic a manner as possible on a seemingly real which leads to a first kiss. location (as in a classical feature film), but the But Romeo and Juliet are dramatic expansion into imaginative spaces only powerless pawns in a and into fantastic realms of images and associ- game between two hostile ations. The action is spread out over the whole families, the Capulets and The young people arrive with the construction materials. All images space. The audience becomes the director, by the Montagues. Juliet’s cous- provided by and © LivinGlobe

June 2007 Planetarian 7 bad images. Therefore, the goal trast. The most important goal has to be to create images which for the set design was to be able have as few bright spots as possi- to create real images which were ble. The starry sky with only pin- as rich in contrast and as colorful points of light is ideal. To get as as possible. close as possible to this ideal, we By constructing the stage in decided to keep the film as dark as different levels we gained the pos- possible and therefore shoot the sibility of filling the entire dome major part of the film at night. with action. For example, in the Sceneries: The film’s “estab- party scene the disc jockey danc- lishing shot” defined the site of the es on the balcony. The scene with story: empty desert scenery shot Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss does on a plateau at over 2.2 m (7200 not take place horizontally, but ft; it is above the clouds) around vertically. Romeo climbs up the the volcano Teide on Tenerife, ladder to Juliet, who sits dream- Canary Islands. It is extremely dif- ing on the balcony. Film makers ficult to depict sceneries in the have to use their imagination to dome because it is situated over create different, new, and unex- one’s head, while the view on pected levels of action to fill the scenery is usually directed into hemisphere. In the dome the au- the distance and downwards. In a dience has a permanent 360° view, 180° dome one would not see the which is one of the major differ- scenery when shot with a hori- ences with conventional film. It zontal direction of the camera. is important to carefully design Therefore, we slightly tilted the not only the location of the main camera and moved the scenery’s action, but also all the other parts horizon about 45° up. This can of the set. In the dome nothing is only be done with films for unidi- outside of the view. The audience rectional domes. In theaters with can let their eyes float; one will al- concentric seating, it would be a ways detect something new, like a disadvantage for the audience. In small altar in one corner or fruits R+J we tried to find a compromise hanging from the ceiling. and took great care in all scenes so that they can be shown in both The Actors types of theaters. The shooting of a dome film A further problem in shooting was a completely new experience, sceneries with daylight is the Sun. especially for the protagonists. We adjusted the exposure to the We decided to maintain the na- sunlight on the scenery and ac- ture of the stage play Romeo and cepted the outshining of the Sun. Juliet. The dome offers the possi- Interesting clouds were visibly bility to perform as if on a stage, but with a bonus. In classical film, enhanced during postproduction. Top: The contrast between the dark background at night and the colorful set; cuts are necessary to show the di- These help to fill the image. Bottom: A crane allowed action to be filmed from above and emphasize the alogue partner or other parts of We wanted to test as many dif- vertical composition. the set, whereas in a dome film ferent challenges as possible, so we one always sees both dialogue partners at the deliberately shot the introductory scene dur- the action with characters in the lower third same time. The audience decides whom to ing daylight. The Sun in the sky is the worst of the film. The impressive screen is reduced watch and thus becomes the director of the source of light for the composition of image to a postcard and the audience will ask why scene. This procedure naturally leads to rather because it results in a low-contrast, uniform- the film is projected into a dome. unhurried staging of the story. If the director ly bright lighting. The richer in contrast imag- For R+J we opted for a high round construc- wants to achieve a faster pace, conscious cuts es are, the better is their visual impression and tion which tapers off the zenith for the stage. will be necessary. the sharper they appear. The party people construct a stage in the des- Close-ups are more difficult. Due to the use We were surprised to find out that cross- ert, where they want to stage the play Romeo of the fisheye lens, during close-ups the cam- reflection does not downgrade the images as and Juliet. This stage, shaped as an open pavil- era has to get extremely close to the faces of much as we thought. We therefore concluded ion, consists of three levels: the ground, where the actors. Sometimes there will be only a that it is possible to shoot during daylight. few inches of distance. Therefore the acting most of the action takes place; a second level The Set: The design of the set is especially is more difficult and the range of action and for supporting action and the balcony scene; important. Sets for conventional films will not movement limited. Lighting can also become and the side walls ,which surge upwards. work in the dome. The set has to be designed a problem, because the camera will easily cast The walls were created by set designer in a way that the action can develop not only shadows on the scene. For the dialogue scenes Ralph Michels with colourful and high-con- horizontally (as in conventional film), but between Romeo and Juliet we selected the im- trast hanging panels of cloths that moved age segment in a way that the zenith is nev- also vertically. Only that way can the dome with the wind. Behind the panels one only er crossed, otherwise the character would be be filled with action. We believe that it is the sees the black night sky. This trick results in a upside down in the dome. Our experience has biggest mistake of most dome films to set all very light, lively image extremely rich in con- shown that within these limits, the compo-

Planetarian June 2007 sition of the image segment is at will. We do not regard the low camera position which we used primarily in R+J as necessary anymore.

Camera Work Our camera team met the biggest challenge in R+J: how to light a 360° set at night, without having the spotlights on-screen. Director of Photography Peter Mathes and his assistant, Mathias Schmettau, mastered that difficult task in a creative way, even though they only had very limited time for their complex preparations. During the day the set was built for the evening. In the afternoon, 11 gaffers and grips set up the lights at the planned locations, laid tracks and prepared the crane. At dusk, lighting could start in detail, which usually took until midnight. Meanwhile the director rehearsed the scenes and movements with the actors. After a meal at midnight, the shooting could start in the early hours of the morning and had to finish, sometimes pain- fully soon, at dawn. Does the camera always have to point up, To film the dancing from the lowest level possible, cameras were buried in the ground. Lights in the trench lit the scene from the camera axis. because the dome reaches over the audience’s heads, or can it be tilted? In R+J we tested sev- something really innovative. That’s exact- a kaleidoscopic picture. As if in a trance, the eral camera positions. For the party scene we ly our position: the overstepping of limits of single actors merge into a suggestive impres- buried the camera in the ground in order to composition for dramatic reasons emphasizes sion of movement and color. The club music, achieve the lowest possible position. Several the drama and meaning of the direction. which is very much dominated by bass, em- lights were put into the same trench to light phasizes the impressive effect of the scene. At the scene from the camera axis. These trench- Cuts in a Dome Film the end of the dance Romeo and Juliet meet es were secured with glass so the dancers could Another major question was how many for the first time—they seem electrified. The get very close to the camera. cuts and at what pace would they be accept- trance disappears and the view focuses on We knew that we essentially wanted to able in a dome. In conventional film, montage those two characters. avoid erratic camera movements because sequences are an important element of com- In this scene an important part of the im- these feel very uncomfortable to the audi- position. Would these also work in the dome? age composition was done in postproduction. ence in a dome. To get smooth and fluent To answer that question, we edited the first All “unimportant” elements of the image were camera movement it was mounted on a dolly scene (entrance of party people, construction made unfocussed and darkened. Only the two or a crane. We hold that the use of handheld of the stage) in a conventional slow pace. The protagonists are clearly visible, until the danc- cameras is impossible for dome films. The big actors arrive, unload the truck, and start building crowd tears Juliet from her contemplation Movie Tech crane with 10 m height proved es- ing the stage. and the scene continues in its kaleidoscopic pecially useful. With this crane we were able Our experience shows that cuts work. The intensity. to move freely around the entire high stage audience is so used to this way of composi- space, allowing us to emphasize the vertical in tion that they accept the change of scenes in Real Shooting and Computer our film composition. the dome. Our experience has thus refuted the Animation: Computer animation for the At the end of the film we staged the scene doctrine that in the dome one can use only dome is produced easily and at relatively eco- which was visually the biggest challenge: invisible changes of scene. This result offers a nomic costs. Many possibilities for composi- the final scene of Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths. much wider range of composition for future tion arise especially from the combination of Their dreams end in that tragedy; in effect, the projects. scenes with live action. world literally stands on its head. We staged In R+J we have tested different variations. this without paying attention to the zenith Special Effects Match-cuts: Based on the design plans and filled the whole hemisphere with im- We believe that the composition of immer- and photographs of the real set, our lead visual ages. The camera on the crane moves from a sive cinema allows much more innovation artist Kevin Beaulieu reconstructed the com- height of 10 m down to the two lovers and as and experimental work than in convention- plete stage in 3D in order to create the oppor- a natural result, Romeo hangs “head over” in al feature and documentary films. The dome tunity to transition from reality to comput- the dome while he is drinking the last drop of is an imaginative space and as such, demands er animation. The single poles and elements poison—as if he hangs on the gallows, the very the use of special effects. In the party scene, of the stage come flying through the air and image of pain and imminent death. where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first build the final stage, and then we return with This scene was a great risk: would the audi- time, we used these types of visible effects to a match-cut to the real stage. ence accept that in the dome? The reaction demonstrate the atmosphere and ecstasy of a The Enemy Groups: Romeo and Juliet was surprising. Although the first comments night of dancing. come from families who hate each other. We were negative (“one cannot do it that way”), The scene starts in a conventional way. The show this in the scene when Romeo and Juliet an increasing number of people have come party people dance, shot from a low position. wake up and take each other’s hands. The peo- to support the method and understand it as Gradually, these movements develop into ple in the background belong to the enemy

June 2007 Planetarian From left: The kaleidoscope effect of the dance scene, the “love bubble,” and the “fight of the colours,” all blends of live action and CGI. groups. Like boxers, they start wrapping rib- in order to guarantee that fine structures such for planetariums, science centers, exhibitions, bons around their hands. Each group is sym- as hair are maintained in keyed scenes. A lack and events with the goal to establish immer- bolized by a different color. Then, in postpro- of experience often results in ugly visible edg- sive cinema as a new film genre on the mar- duction, the people were removed and only es around the cut-out character. ket. After the production of R+J we developed red and green were left. In a computer animat- These examples show that with a creative an ultra high resolution fulldome production ed “fight of the colours,” the fight between the combination of images of live action and technique (fulldome UHR), which allows the groups is shown. computer animated elements, impressive digital production of fulldome video up to a Image montage: The visual collage of and comparatively economic results can be resolution of 6k. LivinGlobe is currently de- live actors and CGI background is another achieved for planetarium shows and immer- veloping its first immersive planetarium show possibility of image montage. The actors step sive cinema movies. about the life and work of Galileo Galilei. out of their role, to tell their view on the story. Harald Singer is a director, writer and pro- Thus we could tell the essential story despite The Partners ducer with 20 years of experience in the pro- the film’s short duration of 20 minutes. LivinGlobe was founded in 2003 by Betti- duction of over 400 commercials and fea- Love Bubble: For the love scene between na Pfändner and Harald Singer with compa- ture films. Bettina Pfändner has produced 500 Romeo and Juliet, a “love bubble,” we used ny offices in Berlin and Munich. LivinGlobe hours of TV films as creative producer and blue-box technology. Romeo and Juliet are ly- focuses on the production of fulldome films has written several feature film scripts. I ing on their love bed, which is shot in front of a green wall and easily cut out and insert- Credits ed into the computer generated set of the Title: R+J (Romeo and Juliet) love bubble. In the computer animation, the Duration: 20 min. complete montage is then moved around the Production: LivinGlobe dome. Warning: blue-box shooting sounds Coproduction: Carl Zeiss, Sky-Skan Europe much easier than it really is. The director of Producer: Bettina Pfändner photography has to have a lot of experience Director: Harald Singer Visual Design: Kevin Beaulieu Cast: Juliet Dietze, Florian Jahr Produced for ADLIP and SkyVision

Apart from the two protagonists, there were five supporting roles and 20 male and female dancers. Romeo and Juliet are played by Florian Jahr and Juliet Dietze from Germany. They are very talented young actors chosen during a casting session with Uwe Buenker casting in Berlin. The actors for the characters Tybalt (Medy Soul), Friar Laurence (Ruediger Reschke) and Mercutio (David Toeroek) are also from Germany. The Prince (Biama) and the Nurse (Tania Dinnery) were cast in Spain, where we also found the 20 dancers who were chosen from more than 100 candidates in a “you can dance contest.” For economic reasons some people have performed double-duty. Beside Pascal Mokros- ch and Guido Hieronymus, Medy (Tybalt) was also responsible for the music. Ruediger Re- schke is a professional dancer and choreographer. He created the choreography for the party scene. David Toeroek is a renowned martial artist who has participated in numerous action films. He developed the fighting scene between Romeo and Tybalt. Florian and Medy trav-

Harald Singer and Bettina Pfändner at IPS 2004 elled to Berlin weeks before shooting to be trained by David. The scene that looks so natural in Valencia, Spain in the film is the result of hard training and long preparation.

10 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 1 400 Years of the Telescope: Collaboration for IYA in 2009 Shawn Laatsch Planetarium Manager & IPS Treasurer Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai’i 600 Imiloa Place Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA (1) 808-969-9735 [email protected]

The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversa- um manager position for the Imiloa Astron- gave Interstellar Studios a call and started talk- ry of the astronomical telescope. In 1609, Gal- omy Center of Hawai‘i. James was hoping to ing with Kris regarding possible partnerships. ileo’s improved view of the Moon and the film areas here on the Big Island that have geo- Kris had David Levy and Don Goldsmith Milky Way started humanity down a new logic features similar to that of the red plan- lined up to write the PBS documentary and road toward understanding our cosmic envi- et. He mentioned that Brashear Optics, located was already assembling an advisory team of ronment. No other scientific instrument has in Pittsburgh, had supplied many of the opti- leading astronomers from the major observa- had such a profound impact on our view of the universe. The telescope’s influence continues to dominate our attempts to perceive Abstract: Most planetarium professionals know that 2009 is the the cosmos, as astronomers struggle to decode International Year of Astronomy (IYA). Planetariums and science the mysteries of newly discovered dark ener- centers around the world will be gearing up and looking for ways gy and matter in an accelerating universe. To quote from the IYA website: to share this celebration with patrons and raise awareness of as- The International Year of Astronomy tronomy. In March of 2007, a unique partnership was formed that 2009 (IYA2009) will be a global cele- will lead to a planetarium program celebrating the history of the bration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, stimulating telescope. This program will be produced in collaboration and con- worldwide interest not only in astron- junction with a PBS two-part documentary and unique educational omy, but in science in general, with a resources to provide an integrated way to celebrate the IYA in particular slant towards young people. IYA2009 will mark the monumental leap 2009. This article will take a look at how the project began and forward that followed Galileo Galilei’s how it will benefit IPS members. first use of the telescope for astronomical observations, and portray astronomy as a peaceful global scientific endeavor that cal components for the observatories located tories. I asked Kris to give me a couple of days unites astronomers in an international, on Mauna Kea and that he was interested in to make a few calls regarding the planetarium multicultural family of scientists work- visiting them if possible when filming here in side, and he agreed. We felt that the combina- ing together to find answers to some of Hawai‘i. This started us on a discussion regard- tion of the PBS special working with a plane- the most fundamental questions that hu- ing telescopes, and I mentioned the IYA com- tarium presentation would allow us to reach a mankind has ever asked. IYA2009 is, first ing up might be a good time for a planetarium large audience. and foremost, an activity for the citizens show on the history of telescopes. Buhl and the Adler Planetarium and Astron- of Planet Earth. It aims to convey the ex- Little did I know that about the same time, omy Museum in Chicago were on my mind. citement of personal discovery, the plea- Kris Koenig of Interstellar Studios was explor- Both facilities have produced and distribut- sure of sharing fundamental knowledge ing the idea of creating a PBS documenta- ed numerous planetarium programs. Alder about the Universe and our place in it ry special on this very topic. Kris had been in has an extensive historical astronomy depart- and the value of the scientific culture. contact with Peter Michaud, Public Informa- ment as well with numerous artifacts. Buhl From www.astronomy2009.org tion and Outreach manager at the Gemini Ob- has distributed planetarium programs to nu- servatories, and discussed this idea with him, merous facilities around the world. The most In early January of this year, James Hughes as one of the locations for filming was to be important thing, however, was the collabora- from the Buhl Planetarium at the Carnegie Sci- the summit of Mauna Kea. A week or so lat- tive spirit and the people at these institutions. ence Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I er Peter Michaud and I were catching up as I knew James Hughes from Buhl would be in- had a conversation regarding the Mauna Kea we were preparing for a planetarium presenta- terested given our earlier conversations, and I observatories and the Big Island of Hawai‘i. tion here at Imiloa. Peter told me he had been called Paul Knappenberger at Adler to see if he James was in the middle of producing a plan- in recent contact with Kris Koenig and that I and Susan Wagner could be persuaded to join etarium program based on the book A Travel- should give him a call as we seemed to have the group. Both Adler and Buhl were agreeable er’s Guide to Mars by William Hartmann. I had similar ideas in mind and that a partnership and from there, things started to and grow in just moved to Hawai‘i to take the planetari- might be possible. Following Peter’s advice, I wonderful ways.

12 Planetarian June 2007 cational components. of atmosphere has opened our eyes to a pre- The two-hour PBS documen- viously un-glimpsed cosmos. Emerging ad- tary will present three distinct vances in space-borne and ground-based in- historical periods in the devel- struments should reveal new phenomena, as opment of the telescope, its im- well as Earthlike planets orbiting other stars— pact in the study of astronomy, the likeliest sites for future explorers to detect and how both have influenced signs of life beyond the solar system. The se- the way humanity views itself ries will conclude with astronomers and phi- in the universe. losophers contemplating the impacts on our The first act will explore hu- civilizations if and when we determine we are manity’s pre-telescopic obser- not alone in the universe—and how our jour- vations of the skies and the phi- ney of discovery began with two small pol- losophies they inspired, from ished pieces of glass. ancient times to Hans Lipper- Adler, Buhl, and Imiloa have partnered with shey’s invention of the lens spy- Interstellar Studio to produce a companion glass and Galileo’s inauguration fulldome program to this series. The full dome of telescopic astronomy. The program will inspire audiences to explore their History of Telescope Project Flowchart. By Kris Koenig of Inter- program’s account of different universe with telescopes by leading the audi- stellar Studios, used with permission cultural views of the universe ence on a journey of discovery with a modern will culminate with Galileo’s student. It will use real imagery and historical A launch meeting was assembled at Adler 1630 work Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief locations to share how telescopes became a Planetarium in March. Interstellar Studios World Systems, which he based on his tele- major agent of change in the realm of the sci- and Adler Planetarium sponsored this meet- scopic observations, and how that book led to ences. Along the way the student will share ing to bring together planetarium profession- his confrontation with the Church about the how telescopes allow people to reveal more als with the advisory team to create the initial true nature of the cosmos. and more of the universe and how this chang- treatments for the planetarium program and The second act will open with the story of es our understanding of our place in the cos- PBS documentary as well as discuss education- Sir Isaac Newton’s invention of the reflecting mos. It will encourage the audience to explore al products being devised by the Astronomi- telescope, of his studies of light, and of the par- the universe through telescopes and imagery cal Society of the Pacific (ASP). adigm shift in astronomy that this work ini- by interacting with knowledgeable people at Advisory members in attendance at this tiated. planetariums, observatories, and star parties. meeting were Dr. Steven Beckwith from the The program will close with Edwin Hub- A preview of the program will be presented at Space Telescope Science Institute, Dr. Chris ble’s confirmation that our solar system re- IPS 2008 at Adler Planetarium Corbally, SJ, from the Vatican Observatory, Dr. sides within just one of the billions of gal- ASP will commit the appropriate resourc- Richard Fienberg of Sky&Telescope, Dr. Mark axies that populate an expanding universe. es and will collaborate with a wide variety Giampapa from the National Solar Observa- The final act also will look through the pres- of partners in the K-12 formal and informal tory, Dr. Owen Gingerich of Harvard Univer- ent to the future, to see how our ability to education communities to develop and im- sity, Dr. Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute, send instruments beyond the obscuring veil (Please see Telescope on page 16) and Dr. Michael Bennet from ASP. Lively discussions and debate were conducted regarding the historical elements and key elements for the programs. Out of the launch meeting, it was agreed that Interstellar Studios, Adler Planetarium, Buhl Planetarium, Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i, and the ASP will produce an integrated set of visual experiences celebrating the IYA. These include a high definition PBS television documentary, a fulldome planetarium presentation, and integrated educational materials. The video production and planetarium program will be translated into many of the world’s most commonly spoken languages for international distribution. IPS will be distributing the planetarium presentation to its members. The goal of these experiences is to encourage everyone to look at the skies and appreciate the journey of discovery that began with Galileo’s simple act of gazing through two small pieces of polished glass. The integrated set of materials will aid planetariums in reaching audiences both inside the dome through the show and outside with supplementary History of Telescope Team in Adler Planetarium’s Atrium; photo by Adler Photographer Craig Stillwell, materials such as the documentary and edu- used with permission.

June 2007 Planetarian 1 14 Planetarian June 2007 The Universe: Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You

Anna Hurst Editor, Universe in the Classroom Astronomical Society of the Pacific 390 Ashton Avenue San Francisco, CA 94112 (1) 415-337-1100 [email protected]

Written for teachers who would like to ing game that allows students to explore the fered assistance. Interest continued to grow share the excitement of astronomy with their variety of objects in the Solar System and the and the newsletter even attracted interna- students but perhaps are still in the process of process of categorizing them. tional attention, with educators around the learning about it themselves, each issue of Uni- world volunteering to translate and distribute verse in the Classroom (UITC) features accurate, Origins of the Universe the newsletter in their countries. At the height yet non-technical, information about a top- Publication of the UITC began in 1984 by of its distribution, the newsletter had a circu- ic of current astronomical interest. Following Andrew Fraknoi, with assistance from Dennis lation of 21,000 and was translated into 14 dif- each article are well-tested classroom activi- Schatz. These noted astronomy educators saw ferent languages. ties related to the topic and a list of quality, the creation of this resource as a much-need- Eventually, the cost of postage became pro- reliable resources, including many web links. ed response to requests for more information hibitive. Distribution was reduced and then Topics include upcoming sky events, such as and materials from participants of the teacher printing was discontinued entirely in favor transits, comets, and eclipses; fundamental as- workshops at the ASP’s annual meetings. Ex- of internet publication. Since the mid-90s, tronomy, such as the seasons, moon phases, and the planets; and the latest research, such as black holes, astrobiology, cosmology, and Abstract: Educators around the world, quasars. encompassing classroom teachers, in- For example, the Fall 2006 issue, written by long-time planetarian and current ASP educa- formal educators, and planetarians, have tion manager Suzanne Gurton, looked toward been opening their walls and letting in the the November transit of Mercury. It contained Universe for the past 23 years, thanks background on the tiny sun-scorched planet, tips for observing the transit with students, in- to the Universe in the Classroom. This formation on two NASA missions to Mercury, quarterly newsletter from the Astronomi- and two classroom activities to get students cal Society of the Pacific (ASP) has been up and moving while learning about the tran- a valuable resource for nearly a quarter sit. Transit sites all over the web linked to this article, as it was one of the few available re- century, and now, since its recent revital- Anna Hurst sources that contained hands-on activities for ization, it once again highlights upcoming discussing the transit. astronomical events as well as the latest research in the field, Another recent issue published in this winter looked at a current topic that has had making it transparent for teachers and relevant to their classroom many educators unsure of what to do in their curricula. With the help of the newsletter, teachers can take advan- lessons on the Solar System—the reduction of tage of the excitement students show over something they heard the number of planets to eight after the “de- motion” of Pluto to a dwarf planet. Written by in the news while covering the required science standards. Max Mutchler, a science instrument specialist for Hubble and a member of the Hubble Her- pecting a distribution of a few hundred cop- the newsletter has been available exclusive- itage Team, the article focused on Hubble ob- ies a year, Fraknoi was flooded with 10,000 re- ly on the web. Now its valuable information servations of Pluto and on Ceres. Rather than quests in the first year alone. Clearly, this new is just a mouse click away, provided in a ver- expressing disappointment at the change and resource was meeting a definite need. sion to print right off the website, as well as a need to update our text books and models, In order to keep the newsletter free of cost in the form of a PDF document to be down- Mutchler highlighted the two dwarves as pio- to its readers—educators who are too often loaded. As always, the newsletter is provided neers in their respective classes and as objects already short on resources—the ASP recruit- free of charge. that are still quite interesting to study, regard- ed co-sponsors for the overwhelmingly large less of their non-planet status. Also available mailing list. The American Astronomical Soci- Future of the Universe in the issue were two hands-on classroom ac- ety, the Canadian Astronomical Society, and Since last year, the continued publication tivities, including a newly-created card sort- the International Planetarium Society all of- of UITC has been made possible through a

June 2007 Planetarian 1 that takes place in museums and planetariums, and while teachers are the target audience for the newsletter, I’d like to see it adapted for use in a variety of educational settings.

Planetarians Can Be a Resource While I hope that the newsletter will remain a resource for planetarians, I also see planetarians as a resource for the newsletter. A major goal of this recent revitalization is a return to international distribution, with a focus on developing countries. This will go beyond simply translating each issue. We are currently recruiting a group of volunteers to serve on an international advisory board. These in-country representatives will assist with translation and distribution, making sure that this resource is reaching the teachers of their countries and meeting their needs. I would like to work personally with each in- country representative to tailor the newsletter to the needs of the teachers in that particular country. For example, for countries where

“OK. Now what do we do with Pluto?” Enthusiastic students at Rivendell School in Fort Collins, Colorado teachers may not have ready internet access, use solar system object cards to figure out for themselved where to place Pluto in the heirarchy of ob- we could make arrangements for the distri- jects orbiting the Sun. At right is Andrea Schweitzer, director of teacher education at the Little Thomp- bution of printed copies. I would like to reach son Observatory in Berthoud, Colorado. Image provided by author, courtesy of Rivendell School. out the the international membership of the IPS to assist in this worldwide effort. If you are generous gift from educator Donat Wentzel, all descriptions, not only classroom teachers. interested in making this resource easily avail- as well as additional support from the Thom- I began my career as an astronomy educator able to the teachers in your country, please ason Foundation and Al Whaley. These do- in the planetariums of the Schenectady Muse- contact me at [email protected] so that nations have enabled a revitalization for the um and the Troy Junior Museum, both in the we can discuss the specific needs of the educa- newsletter, including a return to the quarterly capital district of New York State, and I now tors in your part of the world. publication schedule and a new focus on in- work as an educator for the ASP’s “Astronomy After over two decades, UITC is here to ternational distribution. from the Ground Up” (AFGU), an astronomy- stay, and with your help, it will continue to Additionally, thanks to these donations, focused professional development program grow. Keep an eye out for upcoming issues, I have been named as the new editor of the for educators at small museums, science cen- including issues on dark matter and extraso- newsletter. I am thrilled to be able to help ters, and nature centers. lar planets. To read the current issue, browse teachers bring more science into the classroom Many planetarium educators also partici- the archives, or find out more about assisting by continuing the publication of this impor- pate in our AFGU workshops, and several of us in the newletter’s revitalization, visit the tant resource. The newsletter will continue to them have let us know that they are regular Universe in the Classroom webpage (www.as- highlight upcoming astronomical events as readers of UITC and have used many of the trosociety.org/uitc), where you can also sign well as the latest research in the field. hands-on activities in their teaching. So, my up to receive email notification when each But I see UITC as a resource for educators of heart really lies with the informal education new issue is available. I

(Telescope, continued from page 16) plement an integrated education and public etarium team, these toolkits will include dem- es to continue learning about the topic. The engagement program in support of the docu- onstrations, engaging activities, simple ma- planetarium program will encourage audienc- mentary and planetarium programs. Some of nipulatives, and DVD-based user-training es to view the documentary, and ASP activi- the items they will provide are: materials. And finally, ties will drive participants to both planetari- 1) Classroom Activities incorporating web- 4) “Outreach Amateur Astronomer” Sup- um and the documentary. based resources. Some activities will involve port Program—a two-year program of pub- IPS will play a part in distributing the plan- problem-solving through the use of web- licity, training, web-based support infrastruc- etarium program to its members. A simple based remote telescopes operated by SLOOH. ture, and materials, all designed to motivate, version will be made available to all mem- com. encourage, support, and train amateur astron- bers free of charge. Fulldome digital distribu- 2) Teachers Newsletters—Four dedicated omers who wish to conduct public outreach tion details will be available shortly. Watch quarterly issues of The Universe in the Class- programs and activities in support of the his- for updates in future Planetarian articles! I room teacher’s newsletter to be published tory of the telescope project. from mid-2008 to mid-2009 will be related The PBS documentary, full dome planetari- to themes and content developed in the pro- um show and educational materials will work grams. as an integrated package. The PBS documenta- 3) Science Center Toolkits—Developed and ry will promote visiting your local planetar- disseminated in collaboration with the plan- ium and using the ASP educational resourc-

16 Planetarian June 2007 From the

SABER Cuts to the Heart of Research

David Bruning University of Wisconsin-Parkside Janelle M. Bailey University of Nevada, Las Vegas Gina Brissenden University of Arizona

Although it is hard to pin down the first Abstract: Starting a new research project can research-oriented paper in astronomy education, we can see the beginnings of the cur- be a challenge, but especially so in education rent educational research era in the 1970s and research because the literature is scattered 1980s as scholars began to look at the efficacy throughout many journals. Relevant astrono- of planetarium programs (for example, Reed & Campbell 1972; Fletcher 1980; Sunal 1976) my education research may be in psychology and how children develop mental models of journals, science education journals, physics Earth and its motions (e.g., Nussbaum & No- Dave Bruning education journals, or even in science journals. vak 1976; Nussbaum 1979; Rollins, Denton, & Janke 1983). Tracking the vast realm of literature is difficult, The growth of astronomy education re- especially because libraries frequently do not search can be tracked by counting papers in subscribe to many of the relevant journals and the education journals. A search of the bibli- abstracting services. The Searchable Annotated ographic database described in this article re- veals 13 papers in the 1970s, 8 papers in the Bibliography of Education Research (SABER) is 1980s, 5 papers from 1990 through 1994, 12 pa- Janelle M. Bailey an online resource that was started to service pers from 1995 through 1999, and 38 papers the needs of the astronomy education com- from 2000 through 2004. Research published during the last five years alone has matched munity, specifically to reduce this “scatter” by that of the previous three decades. compiling an annotated bibliography of educa- Additional evidence for the recent growth tion research articles in one electronic location. in astronomy education research includes the establishment of an education office in Although SABER started in 2001, the database the American Astronomical Society in 1997; has a new URL—astronom- y.uwp.edu/saber— Gina Brissenden the roughly triennial colloquium on teach- and has recently undergone a major update. ing college-level astronomy called “Cosmos in the Classroom,” sponsored by the Astro- nomical Society of the Pacific and started in tronomy Education Review in 2001. en journals and produced a bibliography of 1996 (e.g., Fraknoi 2000 and Fraknoi & Waller In 2000, Gina Brissenden and Tim Slater roughly 40 papers. These papers formed the 2004); the introduction of astronomy educa- proposed that an annotated bibliography of start of SABER, the Searchable Annotated Bib- tion programs in universities such as Montana solely astronomy education research would liography of Education Research (in astron- State University and the University of Arizo- support researchers in this growing field. A omy) (Brissenden, Bruning, & Slater 2001). A na; and the introduction of the journal the As- handful of volunteers surveyed about a doz- consolidated effort to collect pertinent research into a single location was, and remains, Reprinted with permission from David Bruning and Astronomy Education Review, Issue 2, Volume 5, 2006- important because astronomy education re- 2007; ©2007, David Bruning. Copyright assigned to the Association of Universities for Research in As- search resides in so many different journals tronomy, Inc. and indexing services that many astronomers are not familiar with. The latest issue of Astronomy Education Review, the web-based journal/magazine for everyone involved in astronomy education and outreach, can be found at aer.noao.edu. AER actively solicits interesting pa- The SABER web site started as a project of pers and articles on all aspects of space science education and outreach. AER is particularly interested in the American Astronomical Society Educa- increasing the number of papers relating to education outside the formal classroom. The site gets be- tion Office, with additional funding from the tween 150,000 and 200,000 hits per month from 91 different countries. Editors are Sidney Wolff and Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. Origi- Andrew Fraknoi. nally, SABER was hosted at an education web

June 2007 Planetarian 1 7 server at the University of Wisconsin–Mad- publication date, volume and issue number, Acknowledgments ison for about two years. After the initial page references, and a short description of the The development of the annotated bibliog- grants expired, the site moved to the Universi- article. Its format is similar to most journal ref- raphy has resulted from the initial inspiration ty of Wisconsin–Parkside. erence formats, including AER, making devel- of Tim Slater, and the continued efforts of a The first UW-Parkside server was an instruc- opment of reference lists for papers easy. In devoted small group of astronomy educators tional course server and had issues with service addition to a complete listing of the entries in who, in addition to the authors of this paper, during the summer and academic holiday pe- the bibliography, SABER also has search capa- have volunteered their time: riods. In addition, the server name (shiva.uwp. bilities, permitting searches by author name, Ellen Howell, Arecibo Observatory; Bruce edu/saber) led to difficulty for some users be- year of publication, journal name, title key- Palmquist, Central Washington University; cause they often forgot part of the address. To words, and annotation keywords. ulia Plummer, University of Michigan; and avoid these problems, we recently moved SA- The SABER entries are neither reviews nor Alex Storrs, Towson University. I BER to its own server, where we hope it will critiques of the research. This annotated bib- permanently reside for many years. SABER’s liography intends merely to provide research- References new address is astronomy.uwp.edu/saber/. SA- ers with enough information about the litera- Brissenden, G., Bruning, D.H., & Slater, T.F. BER now includes more than 155 papers from ture to let them gauge whether an article may 2001, “SABER: A Searchable Annotated Bib- a recent updating of the bibliography. be germane to their research interests. liography of Education Research in Astron- omy,” Bulletin of the American Astronomical The Annotated Bibliography An Invitation to Contribute Society, 33(4), 660. Other resources exist for activities, lab ex- SABER started as, and remains, a volunteer Fletcher, J. K. 1980, “Traditional Planetarium ercises, syllabi, and course materials (e.g., Hud- effort. Regular, ongoing support and one-time Programming Versus Participatory Plane- son 2006 and the AstronomyCenter at Astron- contributions of annotations are both grate- tarium Programming,” School Science and omyCenter.org), so SABER concentrates on fully received. Sharing even one paper not Mathematics, 80(3), 227. astronomy education research. Relevant data- currently in the database is one more paper Fraknoi, A. 2000, Cosmos in the Classroom base entries are those refereed articles that de- that may help another researcher. Graduate 2000; A Symposium on Teaching Astronomy scribe quantitative and/or qualitative research students may share their thesis research bib- for Non-Science Majors, San Francisco: Astro- methods and results about teaching, learning, liographies with us. Authors of educational re- nomical Society of the Pacific. and assessment in astronomy and space sci- search, especially of works that appear in jour- Fraknoi, A., & Waller, W. 2004, Cosmos in the ence. Currently a dozen journals are regularly nals other than the regularly scanned ones, Classroom 2004; A Hands-on Symposium on searched by volunteers for articles on astrono- can help by notifying us of their papers to en- Teaching Introductory Astronomy, San Fran- my education research, including: sure their inclusion. Authors are also invited cisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific. American Journal of Physics to provide an annotation of the article. Hudson, R. 2006, “College Level Astronomy Astronomy Education Review The basic format for an annotation is: Courses [syllabus],” Eckerd College, home. International Journal of Science Education Author list: last name, initials and last name, eckerd.edu/%7Ehudsonrl/chn/sitescol. Journal of College Science Teaching initials, year. Title in lower case, journal name, html. Journal of Geoscience Education (previously ti- volume (issue), starting and ending pages. A Nussbaum, J. 1979, “Children’s Conception of tled Journal of Geological Education) brief, roughly 50-word description that de- the Earth as a Cosmic Body: A Cross Age Journal of Research in Science Teaching Study,” Science Education, 63(1), 83. Mercury scribes the population studied and the general The Physics Teacher topic area and results as appropriate. Nussbaum, J., & Novak, J. 1976, “An Assessment Publications of the Astronomical Society of Aus- of Children’s Concepts of the Earth Utiliz- tralia Example ing Structured Interviews,” Science Educa- School Science and Mathematics Zeilik, M., Schau, C., and Mattern, N. (1999). tion, 60(4), 685. Science Education “Conceptual astronomy. II. Replicating con- Reed, G., & Campbell, J. R. 1972, “A Compari- Science and Education ceptual gains, probing attitude changes across son of the Effectiveness of the Planetarium SABER also includes selected dissertations, three semesters,” Am. J. Phys., 67 (10), 923–927. and the Classroom Chalkboard and Celes- book chapters, and articles from other jour- Survey of 400 undergraduates in one-semester tial Globe in the Teaching of Specific Astro- nals, such as: course shows gains in conceptual understand- nomical Concepts,” School Science and Math- Australian Science Teachers Journal ing. No relationship between course achieve- ematics, 72(5), 368. Cognitive Science ment and prior science and math courses. Rollins, M. M., Denton, J. J., & Janke, D. L. 1983, EOS Transactions Small relationship between self-image and “Attainment of Selected Earth Science Con- European Journal of Science Education course achievement. cepts by Texas High School Seniors,” Jour- European Journal of Teacher Education If you are interested in contributing an an- nal of Educational Research, 77(5), 81. Human Development notation, we encourage you to look at the SA- Sunal, D. W. 1976, “Analysis of Research on the Innovative Higher Education BER web site. Read through some of the an- Educational Uses of a Planetarium,” Journal Journal of Educational Research notations, and then look at the link entitled of Research in Science Teaching, 13(4), 345. Journal of Science Education and Technology “Contribute.” It has more information for for- Learning and Instruction matting your annotation. Contact Information: Physics Education We would like to hear from users of SABER. David Bruning, University of Wisconsin-Park- The Planetarian Please let us know how the bibliography has side, 900 Wood Road, Kenosha, Wisconsin School Science Review been useful in your research or in the devel- USA 53141-2000, [email protected] Science and Children opment of classroom materials, or if you have Janelle M. Bailey, University of Nevada, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada USA Research in Science and any suggestions for making the bibliography 89154, [email protected] Technological Education more useful to you. SABER exists for the as- Gina Brissenden, University of Arizona, Tuc- Each entry in the annotated bibliography tronomy education community; we hope son, Arizona USA 85721, [email protected] includes the title of the article, author names, that it serves you well. na.edu

18 Planetarian June 2007 and wonder at the ideas so expounded. Would Museum of Science Forum that life were to give us such opportunities. Science Park Hark! That noble knight, Sir Scott of Miller, Boston, Massachusetts, 02114 USA doth approacheth upon his trusty horse, be- If I were a space tourist, what would I most decked in chain mail and suit of armour of the like to do in space? Here goes: finest English steel. But wait! What doth thee 10) While in Earth orbit, savour the ability to holdeth in thy hand? Lo! It is a laser pointer, crush entire continents on Earth between my mightier than a sword. fingers. I bid thee silence so the assembled masses 9) Trace out the words “LAND HERE” (with may, perchance, hear his words of wisdom. large, arena-sized letters) on the Moon with Whither thou sayest, Sir Miller? Pray, spake footprints near (but not on, obviously) the unto thy people, for they have been com- Apollo 11 site. Also visit one of the unmanned manded thither by the blowing of thy heralds Surveyor landers and write, “Wash Me” on the trumpets. side with my fingers. 8) Go to the “face” on Mars. Go to the gift HHH shop, and buy a T-shirt. Avoid joining any local cults. Go para-sailing in Mariner Valley What I would do as a space tourist would (mari-sailing?). likely be determined by where I would go. 7) Open the first extra-terrestrial ice arena on Sure, there are all the cute things, such as spin- the north pole of the Moon. Hockey for every- ning vertically or horizontally in zero g. And one! let’s not forget that zero g toilet! But depend- 6) Drop large, fake UFO-like saucers into Steve Tidey ing on where I was going, I might try differ- Earth’s atmosphere to really mess with peo- 58 Prince Avenue, ent things. For example, if I was going just to a ple’s minds. space station, I might want to wander outside 5) Make fake advertisement of me in orbit Southend, Essex, SS2 6NN and attempt to England space walk while Visit the Hubble Space Telescope and pay homage looking down at [email protected] Earth. If I went to the many astronauts who have helped keep that to the Moon, I wonderful instrument going. Have my picture taken would like to with the Hubble. Tape on a few AAA batteries just in I’m Steve Tidey, and I approve this column. take one of the Yeah, I know the IPS elections are over; I’m skeptics to the case. just gearing up for the next one… various landing This column comes to you from the knights sites from the Apollo era. I would want them holding a butterfly net, promoting a clean rescuing damsels in distress department of to see the play of shadow and light, to look up near-Earth orbital environment. No more Forum Towers. You see, I’ve recently read a and see the stars, and to stand in the shadow space junk! book about King Arthur and his Knights of of the lander’s base and show how I don’t dis- 4) Get run over by one of the Mars Explora- the Round Table, and so I sometimes find my- appear from the lack of light. Finally, I would tion Rovers. (Or at least make a picture show- self slipping into ye olde English. Let’s see if I take lots of pictures to be able to document ing I was run over.) Call insurance adjusters. can get through this before another slippage what would likely be a grand adventure. 3) Complain vehemently about just how comes along. Scott Miller much worse the food is on Mars than on Ve- I bid you welcome, fair maidens and sires Program Co-ordinator nus. (You did say “tourist”!) (oh dear, too late) to this, the humble scrib- Rauch Planetarium 2) Fly over Saturn’s moon Mimas with some- blings upon parchment of a mere servant of University of Louisville thing that looks oddly like an X-wing fighter. the Crown. 108 West Brandeis Avenue Call George Lucas. Collect. Verily, it is so. Louisville, Kentucky, 40292 USA 1) Visit the Hubble Space Telescope and pay Many moons ago in this, the 54th year of homage to the many astronauts who have the reign of our Queen, I commanded thee in HHH helped keep that wonderful instrument go- this wise: If, perchance, ye should be hurled ing. Have my picture taken with the Hubble. above the yonder clouds from the blow of If I became a space tourist, I would sit in Tape on a few AAA batteries just in case. a mighty sword in battle, what would thou an easy chair above Earth and watch our Dr. Patrick Durrell wishest to do up there, after thou hath slayest world slowly rotate. I would look at the swirl- Director, Ward Beecher Planetarium with might and vigour the demons and drag- ing clouds and blue oceans and gaze toward Youngstown State University ons that layeth in wait to hasten thy doom? the continents, trying to distinguish particu- One University Plaza (Translation): lar countries. I would think about the amaz- Youngstown, Ohio, 44555 USA If you ever become a space tourist ing diversity of environments and people on (hey, you never know!) what would this planet. I would look around the black- HHH you most like to do in space? (Keep it ness of space at orbs in the distance and won- clean!). der…about life elsewhere, about the future of As a “tourist”—keep it clean, you say? Well, Pray, I beseech thee, peruse below what technology and society…and I’d reflect on the other than “that” (keep it clean) I would have thou hast delivered of me in this wise. Lo! many wonderful experiences I have had on to say that I would be very interested in what They be fine and noble words, as befitting the our little blue marble in space. deep sky objects I could see visually, and even best of our esteemed profession, and I com- Noreen Grice have my own personal constellation shoot mend them to ye. My heart filleth with joy Charles Hayden Planetarium out! I would enjoy viewing Earth, its atmo-

June 2007 Planetarian 1 sphere and landmarks, moonrises and sets, HHH to behold. And the science museum would sunrises and sets, the brilliance of daytime be a real hoot, with hands-on exhibits dem- and the darkness of night, and the aurora at My first act aboard the Space Station would onstrating the many oddities of micro-gravi- the poles. I would conduct my own light pol- be to determine if I were in the 40% of the hu- ty. The kids will love the playroom, a gigantic lution survey of what areas are most affected man race that gets nauseous in zero g. Passing beach ball-like structure that they can bounce and where the darkest areas are located. Yes, I that test (or doping up), I would release one around inside of, kicking big balloons back know that I can look this information up, but of my cats, probably Jackie, who is the most and forth and shooting each other with squirt to see it first hand would be very enlightening athletic, to see how she handles zero g. Then guns, while their parents played 3D tennis in and depressing at the same time. I am an ob- I would try to enjoy floating around myself. an adjacent cubicle. The most popular attrac- server, so I guess observing would have to be After the fun, I would want to use the Space tion would be the honeymoon suites, special- near the top of the list. Station to observe near Earth asteroids, hope- ly designed to allow couples to experience the George Fleenor fully to be followed by the release of a probe widely rumored pleasures of weightless sex. GeoGraphics Imaging & Consulting to a couple. As far back as 1964, when I was Of course, in 2047 I’ll be almost 90 years old. 7803 25th Avenue West working on the Apollo Project, I urged using Thanks to medical breakthroughs in anti-ag- Bradenton, FL 34209 USA an Apollo for a landing on one of the eight (!) ing and tissue rejuvenation, my new bride and NEAs then known. (I just checked, and the to- I will have a blast! HHH tal is now 855.) Ideally, of course, I would like Ed Lantz to be aboard a manned probe sent from the Visual Bandwidth If I ever become a space tourist, the trip had Space Station to an NEA. 1290 Baltimore Pike, Suite111 better be headed for Mars. Okay, maybe not Thomas Hamilton Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 19317 USA what Steve had in mind when posting this HOSS Planetarium topic. Yeah, free fall would be fun, but I want Hamilton Outer Space Services HHH a little gravity for what I would like to do. The 153 Arlo Road images returned by the Spirit and Opportuni- Staten Island, New York, 10301 USA Thou all sayest well and wisely, methinks. ty rovers make me want to get out and explore Stop sniggering at the back, please; I have the surface of Mars. I feel the need to turn over HHH something important to say… rocks and do a little digging. Hiking across the Thank you. So, would you like the good surface might be fine for some, but not for me. If I somehow found myself as a space tour- news first or the bad news? The bad news? You see, I’m an avid cyclist who rides in the ist I’d take six or more HD video cameras, each OK. neighborhood of 7,000 miles a year. I cruise fixed-mounted to aim in a different direction The next Forum column will be my last. the roads of southern Idaho on my road bike towards Earth. I’d push record and leave them “So what’s the good news?” I hear you cry. running for the en- (Well, one of you, at least.) tire duration of the The next Forum column will be my last. Mountain biking on Mars, that’s the ticket. For- trip, and then spend Don’t go thinking it may be safe to read get motorized travel, just ride up and down the the rest of my time the Planetarian again. I’m simply moving my Columbia Hills exploring faster than Spirit ever just looking at Earth. chair sideways to the adjacent desk to author I’d even take binocu- a new column starting in the next issue. (The could. lars and try them out column’s so new I haven’t taken it out of the to help me see more wrapper yet.) So in the September Planetarian and race competitively. Of course there aren’t when I look down. Once home, I’d get an HD I’ll have two columns. (Who do I think I am? any roads on Mars, so I’d have to make the cable channel to play each video file non- April Whitt?) transition to a mountain bike, but that would stop. So, for the last time, my next, and final, Fo- be okay for this trip. Seth Jarvis rum topic will be: Mountain biking on Mars, that’s the ticket. Clark Planetarium A growing number of planetariums Forget motorized travel, just ride up and down 110 South 400 West are employing show presenters who the Columbia Hills exploring faster than Spir- Salt Lake City, Utah, 84101, USA are good at presenting material to an it ever could. Take a spin down into Victoria audience but don’t necessarily have Crater and just hoist the bike onto your shoul- HHH astronomy knowledge, except what der should you bog down. It’s a place that they learn for each show. What are looks like it was made for mountain biking. Well, if I hold out that long, I’d like to vis- the pros and cons of this approach for Ride to the top of Olympus Mons and then it Disney’s new orbiting theme park, Disney the future development of the profes- bomb down the slope for hours and hours. Of Spaceworld. My favorite ride would be the sion? course there would be many stopping points roller coaster that slings your transparent I’ll be as happy as the Buffalo Sabres will be to collect samples and do science, but what a spherical pod out of a rail gun while spinning in June when they win the Stanley Cup to re- way to do that science. A marriage of the pas- on all 3 axes, and bumps you around like a pin- ceive your contributions on the above topic. sion for cycling with the passion to explore. ball using magnetic bumpers and gas thrust- Please send it to me with some pucks signed The only way it could get better is if there ers mounted on remotely orbiting platforms. by all the Sabres players by the deadline of were roads on Mars. I’m a roadie at heart, but It would be quite a sight with hundreds of July 9. for Mars I’d ride knobbies and play in the dirt. spheres bouncing and criss-crossing each oth- Well, it’s happened again. You’ve read the Rick Greenawald er over miles of space. Imagine if you missed whole column and survived the experience. Manager, Faulkner Planetarium a bumper or collided with another sphere! So that’s it for now. I’m off to NASA to ask Herrett Center for Arts and Science The floating gardens, contained in massive them if they can turn HST around and have it College of Southern Idaho glass domes manufactured from moon dust look down on Earth, so I can use it to help me Twin Falls, Idaho USA and tended by robots, would be magnificent look for my lost sock… I

20 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 21 books. I’ll send you the list of what’s available, illustrations from early 20th century science Reviews and you get to choose. Such a deal! magazines, and images from most of the successful missions. The emphasis is on Spirit and Mars Opportunity, including their amazing landing photos. Pocket Space Guide Series Mars is one of a series of these small-sized Robert Godwin, 2005, Apogee Books, “Pocket Space Guides.” The others seem to Burlington, Ontario, Canada, 2005, ISBN concentrate more on spaceflight: Launch Ve- 1894959264, www.apogeespacebooks.com; hicles, Apollo 11, Project Mercury, and the like, softbound: US $9.95, Canada $12.95, UK £6.95 which explains why this little book, although Reviewed by Francine Jackson, Universi- named for a planet, is heavy into our attempts ty of Rhode Island Planetarium, Providence, to get there. But I did find Mars a very easy and Rhode Island, USA. interesting read. It was to the point, and written for any level wanting to learn more about When I first received this cute little book, the exploration of our neighbor planet. I thought it was more of a travelogue to Mars than anything else. In fact, its size is about that of a passport. However, instead, author Robert Deep Space Godwin concentrates on the history of Mars Pocket Space Guide Series and its guest spacecraft instead of “the sights.” Stephen Whitfield, 2005, Apogee Books, Bur- Open this book, and the first page is a quick lington, Ontario, Canada, ISBN 1894959299, fact sheet, including Martian features, envi- www.apogeespacebooks.com, softbound: US ronment, physical characteristics, etc. Turn $9.95, Canada $12.95, UK £6.95 the page, and the reader is immediately taken Reviewed by David Ritchey, Associate Di- to the first observations of the planet, when rector, James S. McDonnell Planetarium, Saint April S. Whitt Roman folklore originally saw Mars as the Louis Science Center, Saint Louis, Missouri Fernbank Science Center god of fertility and vegetation. From there we USA begin telescopic views, beginning with J.D. 156 Heaton Park Drive NE Maraldi’s confirmation of a 24-hour plus ro- This book is a guide to deep space that fits Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA tation, then on to the familiars: Herschel, Sec- in your pocket and, as such, its title is most ap- chi, Proctor, Hall, and Schiaparelli, complete propriate. Apogee Books has published a num- [email protected] with photos of many of those written about. ber of these handy little reference guides with We then veer to the other Mars, the ones in- their goal being “to provide the space aficio- habited in fiction by Wells, Welles and Bur- nado with a series of books covering the entire A quartet of new volumes for this issue, dear roughs, and finally to Mars the spacecraft tar- gamut of space exploration in a user-friend- readers. We’ll start in the inner solar system, get, where we find ourselves immersed in a ly format.” Coming from many different au- move through the realms of ice dwarfs, trav- history of spaceflight, again incorporating thors, the list includes: Launch Vehicles: Heri- el out into deep space, and end up back at the many of the known players, including God- tage of the Space Race, The Space Shuttle, Russian beginning. dard, von Braun and Sergei Korolev. Spacecraft, Apollo 11, Project Constellation, The Many thanks to our loyal reviewers, Bruce L. From there, we venture into the history of Hubble Space Telescope, and more. Dietrich, Francine Jackson, and David Ritchey. our attempts to reach Mars, from the earliest Each book in the “Pocket Reference Guide” And we’re always looking for more reviewers! unnamed Russian craft and US Mariner mis- series follows the same format: 96 pages mea- Drop me an e-line if you’re interested in free sions, straight through to Spirit and Oppor- suring 17.8 x 11.4 cm ( 7 x 4½ in) with the first tunity. In fact, half of the book in text and last half devot- we not only ed to color photographs. This particular en- have a table of try in the series takes a look at the spacecraft every one of that have ventured through our solar system Mars’ histori- to the outer gas giant planets and beyond. The cal missions, author chronicles the histories and objectives complete with of these missions with excellent “at-a-glance” each craft’s facts and figures of the planets of the outer so- purpose and lar system. result, but also In the first section of the book the author several pag- establishes the boundary line for deep space es of detailed as anything further from the Sun than the or- sketches of bit of Mars. Unfortunately this proves to be most of them. one of the book’s drawbacks, because you can The last part look up all sorts of data on Jupiter, Saturn, Ura- of the book is nus, Neptune, and Pluto, but there is no infor- the color sec- mation at all on any of the other planets. If tion, which you need to know the escape velocity of Nep- includes early tune, or the orbital circumference of Saturn, sketches from you can find it in this book. But, if you want Lowell and to compare these figures with those for Mer- Flammarion, cury, you’ll need another book.

22 Planetarian June 2007 tent and detail. Yet for the beginning space hobbyist, this could very well be the spark that ignites a lifetime of interest and wonder—and any publication that fuels the general public’s desire to learn more about space science is one that should be welcomed and promoted.

Is Pluto A Planet? A Historical Journey Through the Solar System David A. Weintraub, 2006, Princeton Uni- versity Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey, 08540, ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12348- 6, US $27.95.

Reviewed by Bruce L. Dietrich, Wyomiss- ing, Pennsylvania. Reviewed by April Whitt, Fernbank Science Good book titles are like smiles—they in- Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. form and engender expectations. This truly beautiful book’s cover asks “is Pluto a plan- I’ve been waiting for this third book in Jen- et?” We now know it isn’t, but the public roil- nifer Morgan’s wonderful trilogy. Reviews of For such a small book, it manages to touch ing of this apparently ephemeral question sur- the first two volumes—Born With A Bang: The on practically every deep space mission rounds us. Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story and From Lava from Giotto, Europe’s first deep space probe Students and friends used to ask, “What do to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story—ap- launched in 1986, through the Single Aperture you really know about UFO’s?” peared in the June 2003 issue of this journal. Far-Infrared Observatory scheduled to launch Now they ask, “What about Pluto?” Those two books told the story of the Uni- by 2020. There is information about Pioneer Dr. David A. Weintraub explains not only verse becoming stars, galaxies and Earth, and 10 & 11, Voyager 1 & 2, Galileo, Cassini-Huy- how such things are decided, but also how of Earth cooling, life flourishing, and dino- genes, NEAR, Deep Space One, New Horizons, we have come to understand the structure of saurs dying. In this book, “mammals rise and and many other missions. Additional sections our solar system. The oft repeated planetari- humans appear.” cover spacecraft whose goals are the detection um stories, i.e., past planetary hunts, abundant Mammals Who Morph has the same great of extrasolar planets, star formation, as well as asteroids, late appointments, patiently blink- features as the earlier works. Large full-color other probes helping astronomers in their at- ing the plates, are all here. The writing is clear, paintings face each page of easy-to-see text. tempts to understand the universe in which the physics presented at an appropriate lev- (The illustrations seem darker to me—there’s a we live. el for any serious high school student, the il- lot of activity at night.) A timeline at the top But keeping the text to just 48 pages (remem- lustrations are very good, the index well done, of each page of text tracks what is happening. ber, the last half of the 96-page guide is color and the appendix provides abundant physical A note at the bottom of each page links the photos) limits the amount of information on data about Pluto. content with the science concepts listed at the these missions to just one paragraph each. En- Although written before that fateful meet- back of the book. A glossary, book lists for stu- ing in August 2006, this dents, teachers and other adults, and video and “…for the beginning space hobbyist, this book could well have resource lists round out an excellent book. could very well be the spark that ignites a life- served as the briefing pa- The tale begins with the extinction of di- per for IAU resolution 5A, nosaurs and the mousy mini-mammals that time of interest and wonder—and any publi- that defined planets, and survived the catastrophe. They “scraped by cation that fuels the general public’s desire to 6A, that delineated Plu- on cockroaches and frozen dinosaur dinners,” learn more about space science is one that to-class objects. We will and over millions of years adapted to their en- just have to truncate our vironments, or their environments changed should be welcomed and promoted. “ mnemonics and get on them. To paraphrase the text, trees sculpted with cataloging extraso- hands for grasping branches. Land molded tire books have been written about some of lar planets. In any event, for an investment paws and hoofs. Water formed fins. Air shaped these unmanned explorations, so don’t ex- in a well-written solar system and intellectu- wings. pect too much depth here. The color photo- al history, we recommend Is Pluto a Planet? as Crustal plates moved, mountains rose, cli- graphs in the book’s last half show a variety a “buy and hold.” mate changed, rainforests shrank, and grass- of spacecraft being assembled in clean rooms, es took over the plains. Primates emerged, numerous launches, and detailed close-ups Mammals Who Morph: then hominids. Physical and social changes of the outer planets along with some of their The Universe Tells Our took place, tools were used, and language de- larger moons. There are also beautiful photo- veloped. “Humans mixed and morphed and graphs taken by the Spitzer and Hubble Space Evolution Story turned into another kind of human, one with Telescopes, as well as artists’ renderings of cut- Jennifer Morgan, Dawn Publications, 12402 a powerful imagination…Across the planet, away views of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. Bitney Springs Road, Nevada City, CA 95959, they told stories about how I, the Universe, I can’t help but imagine that the true “space USA, 2006, www.dawnpub.com/2DetailLinks/ was born.” aficionado” may find this book lacking in con- OrderingInfo.cfm, ISBN 1584690852, US $9.95. (Please see Reviews on page 26)

June 2007 Planetarian 23 (8-10 years old). A series of planetarium teach- was pushed over to the side of the dome and Mobile News ers were hired to teach these lessons at the in- the STARLAB projector was used as our main termediate grade levels. These teachers had projector. The school district and PTO pur- little or no training in planetarium presenta- chased the night sky and two of the constel- tion and none had any training in maintain- lation cylinders so that there is a total system ing the equipment. While I could present the in place. moon phases and some planet lessons, I decided I wanted to branch out and modify the ag- Tying the Concepts Together ing Spitz Nova II projector to receive STAR- “Our unit on historical geology ended by ty- LAB cylinders. The technology teacher and I ing all of its concepts together with the theo- designed a wooden plate that would fit inside ry of plate tectonics. We had students map the the support plate for the starball on the Nova features they saw in the dome onto flat maps. projector, but we never got it quite right. I This can present a centering or frame of refer- imagine if we had more time and more ad- ence problem. Most maps they used in their ministrative support we actually could have history/social studies classes were centered on made it work, but the projector was old and the Atlantic Ocean or North and South Amer- in poor repair. ica. The plate tectonic maps were centered on “I had decided to write a grant for cylin- the Pacific Ocean. Using the dome made it ders, so I added a projector into the request. much easier for the students to make the tran- The hardest part about writing the grant was sition, since neither ocean was split down the to come up with an idea and title that would middle. tie it all together. I finally came up with “Tet- “I used the other cylinders to teach the rasphere” and asked for the ocean current, physical geology section of our curriculum. Susan Reynolds Button wind and tectonic plate cylinders. The fourth I continued with the ocean current cylinder. Quarks to Clusters sphere was the biosphere; in the past we used a We had done flat maps in class that showed standard overhead projector for that one. Stu- the movement and temperature of various 8793 Horseshoe Lane dent groups were each assigned one biome. currents. I tied this into the exploration of the Chittenango, New York They filled in information on a transparency east coast of North America with a trade unit map. The maps were then stacked for a world- they studied in history/social studies class. 13037 USA wide map of all the biomes. We ordered the “Third, we studied global wind patterns. (1) 315-687-5371 transparent cylinder for that activity. Four This is the first time my students saw the cir- (1) 315-432-4523 (fax) cylinders to represent the atmosphere, hydro- cular nature of these moving air masses. All sphere, lithosphere, [email protected] and biosphere, a projector and a case Making use of a portable projection system were funded by a in a permanent dome: Some people using por- grant from Toshi- table projectors are using them in permanent ba America Founda- domes. There are advantages and disadvantag- tion. es to this. Kathy Michaels and Jeanne Bishop “Since we weren’t thought it would be good to explore people’s successful in design- experiences in this column and ask anyone ing an adaptor plate, else who is using portable technology in a sta- we now had to find tionery dome to send us a description of their or build a pedestal experiences. Your stories will be included in to hold the projec- the next few columns. Kathy volunteered to tor. Our library was start the ball rolling… getting rid of some old equipment Back Under the Dome and storage units. I “After teaching for many years, in many found a gray metal PIPS meeting participants experience a lesson about the Moon in Kathy Mi- chaels’ planetarium classroom. Photo by Susan Button subjects, and at several grade levels, I finally unit that had been returned to teaching Earth science at the mid- used to house 33 dle school level (students 11-13 years old). I was rpm records. It had three storage cubes, was on the other times they looked at maps the winds hired in 1970 as the assistant planetarium di- wheels, and stood about 1.5 m (5 ft) high. The started off the page, blew across the page, and rector, finally took over as planetarium direc- solid fiberglass dome had a 2 m (6 ft) horizon disappeared off the other side. With the plan- tor in 1987, and that position was phased out above floor level. This storage unit suited our etarium, they could actually see the cyclic na- as more and more classroom time was added need to raise the projector and gave us added ture of the pattern. to my schedule. The Maryvale Planetarium is storage space for pointers, flashlights, and oth- “As a review, we looked at the historical ex- a circa 1967 Spitz Nova in a solid 6 m (20 ft) er small lesson materials. The Nova II projec- ploration and trade routes they were study- dome. Finally, I was back into a position to tor plugged directly into the floor under the ing in their social studies/history class. They make more use of the intermediate/middle center of the dome, so it was easy to ‘install’ could finally see how the north and south mi- school planetarium. the new cylinder projector next to the origi- gration of these wind belts with the seasons, “Most ‘star, planet and constellation’ les- nal. We just plugged it in and were ready to combined with ocean currents, affected trav- sons were being taught to younger students teach lessons. Eventually, the Spitz Nova II el on the Atlantic.

24 Planetarian June 2007 “The final unit we did was be able to can choose a latitude the biosphere unit, tying into and the date, pick the constella- the physical topography and tions to show (with or without geography of an area. Students outlines of the constellations) could see that the higher they and show planet positions. Sev- went in altitude or latitude, eral replies bear collecting in one the more climates and biomes place as a fast reference for you. changed. We referred back Suggested were: to the plate tectonic cylin- • John Walker’s “Your Sky” at der and found mountains and www.fourmilab.ch/yourski; other high areas. To address • Kym Thalassoudis’ monthly some of the exceptions we star map at www.skymaps.com; saw, we moved on to a discus- museums and planetariums may sion of the moderating effect print and distribute up to 300 of ocean currents on coastal copies of this two-sided handout areas. We then tied in a discus- per month; sion of wind belts and their ef- • Finder charts from Starry fect on weather, climate, flora, Night; see pages 140-143 of the and fauna. Once again, a refer- Students exploring the universe under a Digital STARLAB sky. Photo provided by Starry Night Pro 6.0 Users’ Guide ence back to the plate tecton- LTI. to learn how to print star charts ic cylinder started to tie it all and screen shots; together to the point where students could astronomy education techniques using dig- • Stellarium, a free open source “planetari- make some prediction about the type of cli- ital technology and tools. Courses will cov- um for your computer,” at www.stellarium. mate in an area just by its location on a world er a broad range of digital planetarium top- org; map or globe.” ics, from basic techniques and terminology • Celestia, at www.shatters.net/celestia, Contact information: Kathy Michaels, to advanced lesson creation with Starry Night with add-ons found at www.celestia-mother- 103 Ontario Street, Lockport, NY 14094 USA; software. While attending, you can also expe- lode.net; phone: (1) 716-433-0570; email: kmichaels@ rience the attractions of the historic Brandy- • Partiview from the American Museum of adelphia.net. wine River Valley.” Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium; The institute will include workshops and find out more at haydenplanetarium.org/uni- News From LTI presentations from the Space Telescope Sci- verse. Learning Technologies is announcing that ence Institute, Imaginova/Starry Night Soft- Digital STARLAB now has enhanced resolu- ware, Spitz, Learning Technologies, and oth- More on Wireles Microphones tion (from 720 pixels to 1080 pixels) and con- ers. In January I sent out a plea on Dome-L. I was trast ratio (was 7,000:1, now 12,000:1), resulting For more information, visit the Learning seeking information from portable planetari- in what they say is “a truly breathtaking and Technologies’ website at www.starlab.com/ um directors and I would still like to know if realistic sky, unparalleled in its class.” slds.html to download a flyer and registration any of you can recommend a particular wire- Using a laptop interface powered by a cus- form or contact Trish Adamo at tadamo@star- less mike and amplification system, some- tomized version of Starry Night™ software lab.com. thing that has worked well for you under a called Starry Night Small Dome™, users can portable dome. Do you use one and if so, can create their own presentations or can choose News From Digitalis you give me details about it? from 12 pre-scripted lessons adaptable to any Karrie Berglund wrote to tell me, “We’re in- Below is some of the information I have grade, plus two full curriculum modules: one troducing a new Digitalis dome, and we ex- gathered so far; I hope it gives you some ideas. based on “Astronomy of the Americas” from pect to begin shipping it in late April. This Bob Hayward wrote, “Sorry, I can’t help you, Volume 11 of Planetarium Activities for Student dome provides a smooth, matte projection but we sure would like to know if you find Success and the other, “Orders of Magnitude” surface for high quality projection. The gray one. I’ve been using an Apollo 2000 sound based on The Powers of 10. projection surface enhances the black level of system since 2001. It has a cassette tape play- Find out for yourself if LTI’s claims are accu- digital projectors for a truer black night sky. er built in so I’ve had it close-by in the Starlab rate! They say that with their newly-designed There’s more information on the bottom half for that. It does have a built-in transmitter for custom fisheye lens (patent pending), “Digital of our domes webpage: digitaliseducation. a wireless mike and comes with one. But I’ve STARLAB creates precise and accurate small com/domes.html.” found the feedback objectionable. It works bright stars that remain spherical right down Kerrie also wants to let people know that better if the system is outside the Starlab, but to the horizon. Its superior contrast creates a they “now offer a lease-to-own program then you don’t have access to the controls, truly black background and it covers a full for qualified US customers, allowing them volume, tone, etc. We’ve been using a wired 180° on the dome.” to spread out payments over several bud- mike quite successfully, however. A grant from the National Science Foun- get years. People interested in learning more “Just this past year we have gone to a com- dation funded development of Digital STAR- about this program can contact us at (1) 360- puter for our recorded legends, etc. (one of LAB. 616-8915 or [email protected].” which is your write-up on the bears), so we don’t need to access to the cassette player. First Institute for Digital STARLAB Wrapping Up Star Charts “But we still need to control the volume, Learning Technologies, in partnership with Recently one of our colleagues posted to etc., and plug in the computer audio and the E&S Spitz, announces that they will be host- Dome-L to ask if anyone knew of a software wired mike. So the system remains inside in ing the first ever Digital STARLAB Institute. program that allows you to create your own the center of the Starlab next to the projector. “This five-day institute will explore diverse personalized star chart. This person wanted to “This all works quite well as long as you

June 2007 Planetarian 25 don’t trip over the wire to the mike. But we less UHF microphone and built-in receiver. learn from vendors about the latest develop- would be grateful of hearing of a wireless sys- For more details, go to www.francisav.com/ ments in equipment and programming. We tem that works. I trust you’ll publish your minivox.htm. look forward to seeing you in September. findings in the Planetarian or on Dome-L. Or Alan Hunter, OCM BOCES, uses the Apollo Also, please think about sharing your exper- send me the information. Good luck.” Portable Wireless Public Address System, also tise through presenting a paper and/or a work- (Robert R. Hayward, PhD, Astronomer/Ed- from Anchor. It is lightweight and the trans- shop at this conference. ucator, Pisgah Astronomical Research Insti- mitter clips onto the user’s belt. The clip-on Please look at the following website for tute, One PARI Drive, Rosman, North Carolina microphone can be attached to the user’s shirt more information and registration: www.suh. 28772 USA; phone, (1) 828-862-5554; website, pocket or lapel. sk/ips2007, and continue to watch the web- www.pari.edu/programs/K12Programs/star- (Alan Hunter, OCM BOCES Planetarium, site for further information. lab; email, [email protected]) 6820 Thompson Road, PO Box 4754, Syracuse, A post-conference tour (four days) is being Bob Summerfield, creator of the compa- New York 13221; phone (1) 315-488-3951; email: planned to the High Tatras with a lot of inter- ny called “Astronomy To Go,” often presents [email protected].) esting sites, including an observatory 2000 m STARLAB lessons in very noisy environments. above sea level and nice historical castles. He uses a VHF wireless microphone by Tel- European Meeting in Slovakia ex. (He says the Shure microphone is anoth- 4th European Meeting of Portable Plane- Other Conferences er good brand name.) He says that the Radio taria: This year’s conference will be held 6-8 There will be several workshops for those Shack clip-on version is not as good because September 2007 at Comenius University in interested in portable and small planetariums you get too much feedback and it picks up too Bratislava, Slovakia. Marian Vidovenec has ar- at the Western Alliance and Triple Conjunc- much extraneous noise. He told me that it is ranged for the Slovak Central Observatory in tion conferences (see page 53). The next PIPS best to be aware of the terms “true diversity” Hurbanovo, the Astronomical Observatory in (Powerful Interactive Planetarium Systems) (multiple channels) vs. “non-diversity” (one Levice, and the Comenius University faculty meeting for small and portable planetarium channel). He explained that it may cost more, of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics to directors will be held on July 23, 2007 in Sche- but two channels are better as they automati- host this exciting gathering. nectady, New York; contact Steve Russo at cally switch back and forth to avoid interfer- The registration fee is just €60. Transporta- [email protected] for more in- ence. tion for a Sunday trip to the Modra Observa- formation. I He also wrote, “Amplifiers can be purchased tory will be covered by support from the Min- inexpensively from a local pawn shop. A 25- istry of Culture. The hotel is quite reasonable watt keyboard amplifier is best and you will too. need to cover the dials with Plexiglas or fiber- This meeting is designed for those people (Reviews, continued from page 23) board to keep stray hands from experiment- who are primarily interested in using a porta- ing with the volume!” ble planetarium to present participatory les- “Humans became the most powerful Earth- (Bob Summerfield, phone (1) 215-831-0485; sons to school children, teachers, and the pub- lings of all” and are now faced with how to email, [email protected]) lic. Typically planetarium educators who are work together to solve the problems of pol- Steve Russo said, “Here at Suits-Bueche, we working full or part time in a small or porta- lution and extinctions. The book ends on a use a Shure wireless system which has both ble planetarium are isolated in their work. By hopeful note, with a reminder that we have the lapel and the hand held mikes. But I have attending this meeting you can become part the powers that we need. As the Universe used the Radio Shack ones before in the dome, of a network while sharing and learning with says in the opening pages, “Life hasn’t been and they work fine. Shure is probably a lot colleagues. smooth. In fact, I seem to go from crisis to more expensive than the Radio Shack model. We also invite all educators interested in as- crisis! There was the Great Particle War, the Website: www.shure.com/ProAudio/Where- tronomy and space science who would like to Massive Supernova, the Oxygen Poison Cri- ToBuy/index.htm. learn more about portable planetariums. We sis, and the Gigantic Meteor Crash—to name “As long as you have some kind of sound look forward to meeting and working with a few. But when things get chaotic, I get cre- system; amplifier, AM receiver, etc., that is you as we discuss techniques and lessons and ative. And so do you.” I hooked up to speakers, and you can plug the mike into some ‘aux’ jack in the back of the amplifier or receiver, you are in business. (Steven Russo, Planetarium Manager; Suits- Bueche Planetarium, Schenectady Museum, Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, New York 12308 USA; phone (1) 518-382-7890 ext. 253; [email protected]; www.schenectadymuseum.org.) And, from my own experience, I saw the Anchor MiniVox PA System at a conference a while back. It is still available. It’s very com- pact and lightweight and I liked it because you can stand it up on end so the speaker points to the top of the dome. It weighs just 1.7 kg (3.75 lbs). It has a 4” Neodymium woofer and 18 watt amplifier, an optional tape player, and an input jack that allows you to plug in a portable player. The MiniVox can be ordered with a wire-

26 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 27 28 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 29 third-party, and the copyright is transferred to the government. Such works require permis- General Counsel sion from the government to use. • Works prepared for the government by a scope of this column, Section 105 does not third-party, and the copyright is held by the exclude state government works from copy- third-party. Such works require permission right, nor does it affect works of international from the third-party to use. governments or intergovernmental agencies. • Works prepared for the government by a The law, then, seems quite simple: anything third party, and the copyright is abandoned, prepared by a government employee, while thereby committing the work to the public acting within the scope of employment, is not domain. Such works may be used freely and entitled to copyright protection and therefore without permission. falls into the public domain. But often, gov- Thus, as you can see, the general rule that ernment materials, although prepared at the government material is always free from the behest of a government agency, are actually chains of copyright is, unfortunately, an over- prepared by third-party contractors. And be- statement of the legal reality. Needless to say, cause the third-party contractors are not of- determining the copyright status of govern- ficers or employees of the government, the ment material can be vexing. Many agencies outsourced work does not fall within the Section 105 exclu- sion. Accordingly, the copyright in work prepared for the government by a third-party Christopher S. Reed contractor vests with the con- CSR Media, LLC tractor, and not the government. 12106 West 75th Lane In recognition of this enig- Arvada, Colorado matic result, it is not uncom- mon for government contracts 80005-5306 USA to include assignment provi- (1) 720-236-3007 sions that provide for an imme- diate transfer of the copyright (1) 760-466-6440 (fax) from the contractor to the gov- [email protected] ernment. But just because a work is protected by a govern- It is well known among planetarians that ment-owned copyright does NASA images are generally available for use not mean that the work falls free and clear of any copyright-related issues. into the public domain. To But like so many things in law, that gener- lawfully exploit such a work, Logos and other insignia are generally not included in copyright al premise carries with it a number of excep- you must seek permission from usage policies because, notwithstanding their status as copy- righted works, they primarily function as trademarks. NASA is es- the government agency that tions and caveats. This quarter’s column clar- pecially heedful of having its highly-identifiable “meatball” logo ifies some of the basic copyright rules relating owns the copyright, just as you appearing in advertisements or for commercial purposes. A clear to United States government works, paying would with a private copyright statement appears on the NASA web site at www.nasa.gov/multi- particular attention to the agencies of interest holder. Alternatively, some media/guidelines. The logo appears here by permission of NASA. to planetarium producers. government contracts simply require third-party contractors to abandon are getting better at ensuring that their ma- Legal Foundations any copyrights that may arise as a result of the terials are unencumbered by copyright re- Section 105 of the Copyright Act (the Act) contract, thereby committing the work to the strictions, or, at least, have started to note the provides that copyright protection “is not public domain. copyright status of their materials. But unfor- available for any work of the United States tunately, there still remain a substantial num- Government, but the United States Govern- Ownership Scenarios ber of government publications and resources ment is not precluded from receiving and There are, thus, four possible ownership sce- that, because of contractual arrangements, are holding copyrights transferred to it by assign- narios for apparent government works: protected by copyright. Fortunately, for most ment, bequest, or otherwise.” Section 101 of • True government works, that is, those that resources that are used in the planetarium, as the Act describes a “work of the United States are prepared by a government employee with- we will see below, the copyright status and use Government” as one that is “prepared by an in the scope of his or her employment. Such guidelines are clear, which can save consider- officer or employee of the United States Gov- works are in the public domain and may be able time and effort. ernment as part of that person’s official du- used freely without permission. ties.” Although the details are beyond the • Works prepared for the government by a Applications and Best Practices With the basic (and admittedly dry) legal foundation out of the way, let’s look at a spe- General Counsel is intended to serve as a source of general information on legal issues cific application in the context of planetari- of interest to the planetarium community. Planetarians seeking information on how the principles discussed in a General Counsel column apply to their own circumstances um show production. should seek the advice of their own attorneys. Take, for example, images from the Jet Pro-

30 Planetarian June 2007 pulsion Laboratory. Although JPL is consid- third-party materials, regardless of whether can vary), and remain mindful of prohibitions ered a division of NASA, it is operated under they were prepared by a government agency, on creating the impression that your produc- contract, and in association with, the Cali- or a private party. Specifically, consider the tion is sponsored or endorsed by a govern- fornia Institute of Technology. In view of following best practices: ment agency. the law that we articulated earlier, a red flag Carefully investigate the copyright status Logos and other insignia are generally not should go up at this point. While we know of government materials before using them in included in copyright usage policies. Al- that anything prepared by NASA employees your own productions. Many times govern- though logos are copyrightable works, their acting within the scope of their employment ment agencies post general copyright state- primary function is as a trademark. Accord- would fall into the public domain, Caltech is ments on their web sites, but in some instanc- ingly, using an agency’s logo or other identify- a private entity, and, accordingly, to the ex- es you may need to dig deeper. Never assume ing characteristics generally requires a height- tent that Caltech employees were involved you can use something just because it was pub- ened review process. Be extremely cautious in the preparation of JPL materials, there may lished by a government agency. If in doubt, when using government logos, logotypes, in- be copyright issues to consider. A similar dy- seek permission. signia, and other trademarks, and always seek namic exists with the Space Telescope Science Print and keep copies of the relevant web permission. Institute, which operates in association with sites, terms of use, and copyright policies that Provide credit where credit is due, even if NASA, but is, itself, a private entity. support your decision to use certain materi- it’s not specifically required by the agency’s Fortunately, both JPL and STScI provide als. Maintain these records just as you would a copyright policy or terms of use. detailed copyright information on their web copyright license issued directly by the copy- If you affix a copyright notice to your pro- sites (www.jpl.nasa.gov/copyrights.cfm and right holder. duction, be sure to disclaim rights in the gov- www.stsci.edu/institute/Copyright, respec- Never assume that just because a particular ernment work that you have used (“No claim tively), and both appear to grant liberal per- image or resource appears on a government- is made to original U.S. government works” is mission to use their images and other materi- sponsored web site, the image or resource is in fairly common language used for such purpos- als in a planetarium context. But it remains the public domain. Look deeper to determine es). Failure to do so can have adverse conse- important to remember that these liberal use who the true author and/or copyright owner quences for your own copyright protection. policies arise out of contractual relationships is and to determine whether you need to se- As always, these suggestions should be con- between NASA, JPL, and STScI, and not the of- cure permission. sidered only as general tips, and should not be ten overstated general principle that govern- Comply with use restrictions that the gov- taken as (nor are they intended to be) legal ad- ment works are excluded from copyright pro- ernment agency may have placed on the ma- vice. For advice specific to your circumstanc- tection. terials that you plan to use. Pay particular at- es, consult with a licensed attorney in your ju- In short, it is essential to fully investigate tention to restrictions on commercial use risdiction. I your rights and responsibilities with respect to (and the definition of “commercial,” which

June 2007 Planetarian 3 etarium profession. Digital Frontiers Barco recently brought digital 3D projection to the La Géode giant dome in Paris, one of the terns (the majority from schools and colleg- world’s largest geodesic domes and France’s es); see www.spitzinc.com/institute for more first Omnimax movie theater equipped with information. It includes attendee’s works, a a 1000-square-meter screen. Barco claims that showcase of E&S Spitz fulldome shows (for this exhibit is the largest 3D digital presenta- registered attendees), and a group production tion ever to be displayed on a spherical sur- activity and presentations. This year, Learning face. The grand opening was held on 6 March Technologies Inc. will also hold its first Digital and inaugurated by Renaud Donnedieu de Va- Starlab Institute at Spitz the same days. bre, French Minister of Culture and Commu- The fourth annual Association of Science- nication. Technology Centers Fulldome Showcase will La Géode plans to show 3D programs three to take place on Oc- tober 15 at the new Griffith Planetar- ium in Los Ange- les, California. The event is sponsored by E&S Spitz and features a screen- Ed Lantz ing of new and innovative fulldome Visual Bandwidth, Inc. video content 1290 Baltimore Pike, from producers around the world. Suite 111 Attendees will also Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania be able to tour the Griffith Observato- 19317 USA ry and exhibits and [email protected] see their new feature show, Centered As of April 2007, there were 273 theaters in the Universe. Bus- worldwide listed on Loch Ness Productions’ es will be available Graph by author THE FULLDOME THEATER COMPENDIUM (check with ASTC 1 ONLINE! At the current growth rate, the for exact bus location) for attendees ticket- four times a day, HD animated children’s pro- worldwide number of fulldome theaters will ed for this event. The ASTC conference runs grams, documentaries for special rendezvous exceed the number of IMAX branded the- from October 13-16, and is hosted by the Cal- of La Géode, music and video concerts, satellite aters this fall season. Within a couple years ifornia Science Center in Los Angeles (see video transmissions for sports and cultural/mu- fulldomes will surpass the world’s total of 465 www.ASTC.org). sical events, and sessions for graphic and new large-format theaters (all types), as tracked by I just saw the Griffith’s new fulldome the- digital image creators with schools and labs. 2 the LF Examiner. The table below shows the ater in April and it is quite impressive, in- The system consists of a multi-channel pas- long term annual IMAX3 versus Digital Dome cluding a seamless Spitz dome and new E&S sive stereo display system, a desktop work- 4 trend over the past decade. ESLP laser projector. Be sure to catch Leonard station, and a collection of high-resolution Nimoy’s pre-show when you visit the new sources, including video servers, satellite feeds, Fulldome Meetings, Screenings Griffith. and VJ interfaces. The system supports up to Albuquerque’s acclaimed DomeFest is hap- Sky-Skan is also featuring their new definiti 16 video sources up to HD resolution in multi- pening this year from July 20-22 in New Mex- 3D at ASTC, with a 40-minute session demon- ple windows, as well as multiple stereo sourc- ico, again hosted by the Lode Star Astronomy strating fulldome 3D stereo visualization. es and internal dome master server with high definition real-time record capability. Center. DomeFest seeks to offer the world’s Regional planetarium conferences are a Please send new fulldome theater releases best and most innovative fulldome produc- great way to see the latest fulldome technolo- with photos to [email protected]. I tions, including a 40-minute juried show and gies and shows in action, and to connect with others in the field. Consult your local IPS af- the Domie Award presentations. In addition Endnotes to the usual immersive experience fest, Sky- filiate chapter for more information and the 1 www.lochnessproductions.com/lfco/lfco.html Planetarian’s Calendar of Events on page 49. Skan will be demonstrating definiti 3D, and 2LF Examiner LFX Database (based on LFX Database search the audience will be treated to J. Walt Adamc- for all theaters) web: lfexaminer.com/searchtheater.asp/ 3 zyk’s real-time art performance, “Spontaneous Theater Openings IMAX estimated from the LFX database in note 2 above Fantasia.” Anyone who saw J. Walt’s live visu- Sky-Skan announces the opening of Artis (based on cumulatively subtracting annual IMAX theater openings from 2006 total). al animation performance at Siggraph knows Royal Zoo Amsterdam’s Artis Planetarium, a 4 2005-6 Digital Dome data are from Fulldome Compendi- that this will be a real treat. See the DomeFest definiti theater with two Sony SXRD 4K pro- um in note 1 above. List of older Digital Dome theater web site www.domefest.com for more infor- jectors and definiti HD lenses. This is the first openings may be found at: Ed Lantz & Brad Thompson, permanent installation of a fulldome SXRD mation. “Large-Scale Immersive Theaters,” published in Course 25, The Spitz Digital Institute is July 16-20 in in Europe in fulldome! Sky-Skan actually re- Computer Graphics for Large-Scale Immersive Theaters, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and is drawing ceived an excellence award from Sony for SIGGRAPH 2003; extranet.spitzinc.com/reference/papers/ about 30 fulldome professionals and two in- their introduction of the SXRD into the plan- Siggraph_IntroPaper_03.pdf.

32 Planetarian June 2007 CLARK PLANETARIUM ORIGINAL FULL DOME VIDEO CONTENT

NOW AVAILABLE:

• Black Holes

• Secret of the Cardboard Rocket

• Destination Saturn

• Music Entertainment Shows

AVAILABLE SUMMER 2007:

• Extreme Planets

Juneclarkplanetarium.org/distribution 2007 • 801-456-4949 Planetarian 3 phone (1) 815-939-5361; fax (1) 815-939-5071; President’s Message email: [email protected]; website: www. olivet.edu. ence education, and supports the continuing professional education of both staff members Outreach Committee and other educators. Education encompasses Jon Elvert, chair of the Outreach Com- technical, creative, and developmental stud- mittee, graciously agreed to send the follow- ies in curricular areas affecting planetariums. ing update about this newly reorganized and The mission of the committee is to improve powerful committee. Past IPS presidents have the quality of educational programming in exerted a great deal of effort to solidify profes- planetariums at all levels: pre-school, grades K- sional relationships with a varied assortment 12, pre-college, college, adult, and the general of relevant organizations. Jon is working hard public. to sustain existing relationships and to build Brock is full of ideas and is ready to lead the an even bigger network that provides essential work of this committee. He writes, “As the support for our work. Please contact Jon with new Education Committee chair, I am inter- any suggestions you may have for this com- ested in pursuing the development of work in mittee or to volunteer your time and exper- the following areas of planetarium education: tise. For example, you could be the liaison be- “1. Planetariums as learning environments tween a specific organization that you already “2. Research in the use of the planetarium belong to and the Outreach Committee. You in education can be instrumental in bringing more needed “3. Education/inspiration: educating the resources and information to IPS members by Susan Reynolds Button general public making that kind of connection! Quarks to Clusters “4. Enhancing teaching and learning in the Jon writes, “The primary purpose of the traditional classroom Outreach Committee is to facilitate, or make 8793 Horseshoe Lane “5. Working with local astronomy clubs connections to available sources of informa- Chittenango, NY 13037 USA “6. Compiling the sources of research in the tion, recommend partnerships with which planetariums can collaborate on activities (1) 315-687-5371 use of the planetarium in education “7. Professional development of planetari- or events, and provide media resource con- (1) 315-263-1985 (cell) ans as science educators tacts. This committee update is intended to share some of the current resources available, [email protected] “The Education Committee should be a tre- mendous resource to the planetarium com- or that will be available to our membership. munity in providing meaningful information I hope that future partnership opportunities I am extremely proud of the work of vol- on the role and purpose of the planetarium in and resources can be posted on the IPS web- unteers in the International Planetarium So- the educational community, as well as its role site to be accessed when needed. ciety. As I see it, our work will continue to in the communication of the vision for space “Regarding the 2007-08 International Po- be supported primarily by the extraordinary exploration.” lar Year (IPY) and International Heliophys- volunteerism that exists in this organization Please contact Brock with any suggestions ical Year (IHY), the message for both the IPY today. This volunteer network not only gets you may have for this committee or to volun- and IHY focuses on linking the Earth with the work done, it also provides members with teer your time and expertise. There are many space itself, particularly solar processes that a strong sense of influence and ownership in small and large tasks associated with this com- impact Earth’s outer atmosphere (and auro- the organization. The work of three vital IPS mittee’s objectives. If you can take ownership ras, solar variations, polarizations of the cos- committees is highlighted below. Perhaps you of just one small segment, you could provide mic microwave radiation). Both the IPY and will be inspired to contribute to their efforts an invaluable service to IPS and to your col- IHY are setting up sites to encourage organiza- in some way. leagues. How about something like just being tions like the IPS to become involved global- in charge of keeping an up-to-date list of pro- ly by teaching or supporting these linkages in Education Committee fessional development opportunities posted local schools, science museums, and planetar- This is an extremely important committee on the IPS Education Committee web page? iums programs. to the future of IPS and its members. The com- Think small and specific…many hands make “The Burke-Baker Planetarium in Houston mittee has been operating without a chair for light work! has a pending grant that will, if accepted, de- some time now and as a result little progress There has been some concern that the Edu- velop a planetarium show emphasizing global has been made recently. I am pleased to an- cation Committee would duplicate efforts of linkage between polar regions and the rest of nounce that Dr. Brock Schroeder has volun- the Outreach Committee. There is some cross- the globe, and the processes controlling these teered to serve as the new chair of this com- over between the two committees, but only links. If fully developed, this show will be dis- mittee. As a member of this committee in the in distribution and connection to other edu- tributed to planetariums for free, or for a min- past, he is familiar with the job at hand and cational organizations. I think the two com- imum fee. The IHY will have an Internation- has some specific projects in mind. I am famil- mittees can work together on that, without al Open Doors day in June and will encourage iar with his fine work at the Strickler Planetar- duplicating efforts, by setting up procedural coordinated collaboration in which planetari- ium and Observatory and his passion for fa- boundaries. Jon Elvert and Brock agree that ums worldwide could be useful. I will commu- cilitating support for colleagues. Thank you, they are ready to do that. nicate more on this after that IHY event.” Brock, for accepting this challenge. Contact information: Brock Schroeder, “In recognition of the International Year of The Education Committee fosters the de- PhD, Strickler Planetarium and Observato- Astronomy and the 400th year of the inven- velopment of academic programs in plane- ry, Olivet Nazarene University, One Univer- tion of the telescope in 2009, the IPS, along tariums, encourages student pursuit of sci- sity Avenue, Bourbonnais, Illinois 60914 USA; with partners in Canada and Mexico, the Hub-

34 Planetarian June 2007 ble Space Telescope Institute, Sky & Telescope west: Lynn Narasimhan (cnarasim@condor. never seen this. Maybe I lead a sheltered dome magazine, the Astronomical Society of the Pa- depaul.edu), Lower Midwest: Stephanie Slipp life. cific (ASP), the Harvard-Smithsonian Center ([email protected]), Upper Northwest (Julie “A little girl in front of me, about 4 years old, for Astrophysics, and representation from the Lutz ([email protected]), Upper Mid- reached up with both arms, hands open, as if International Astronomical Union, are in the west: Sherri Marrow (camorrow@colorado. to catch a ball, maybe a beach ball. I thought planning process of developing worldwide edu). that was pretty cool at the time, and it sat in participation in outreach programs to en- “The European Space Agency (ESA) and my mind for some days. I thought about the gage the public in astronomical activities and NASA offer a multimedia gallery that can be ability of a child her age to accept the Moon events that include dark skies awareness, tele- used to help build presentations and planetar- as a ball, and how I’d never seen that response scope making and sky observations, lectur- ium shows from some of the best images tak- before when showing flat, 2D images of the ers, and possibly a five-minute mini planetar- en during the past four decades, especially of Moon. Then I got to wondering about why ium show emphasizing the invention of the solar system exploration. Here are three top- she reached up as if to catch the Moon. Could telescope. A 25-minute “traditional” and full- ics and their sites: structure and evolution of it be that she saw the 3D effect (hard to miss at dome planetarium show on the history of the universe (cfa-ww.harvard.edu/sentform), the that size and it was dramatic) and recognized telescope, Galileo, and ways the public can ex- Sun-Earth connections (sunearth.gsfc.nasa. the shape as a ball, which she has undoubted- plore the universe with telescopes is currently gov/) and solar system exploration (solarsys- ly caught before. Did she really see the Moon in the works by a consortium of planetariums tem.nasa.gov/educ/). Both NASA’s and ESA’s as a sphere? (Adler, Buhl, Imiloa) and is intended to be dis- multimedia sites now contain video galler- “If she did, then what did that say about an tributed through the IPS to its members. (See ies, podcasts, animation downloads, and inter- all dome system’s ability to help a young child story on page 12.) active features that are accessible and should reach the perception of a sphere in the sky? Is “Since the 2001 Sri Lanka conference, the be eventually listed on the IPS web site. These there a way to develop that functionality to IPS is becoming involved in a project to do two multimedia sites are: www.nasa.gov/mul- reach younger children than many think pos- more for planetariums in developing coun- timedia/highlights/index.html and www.esa. sible and get them to recognize that the sky is tries. Dave Weinrich, Joanne Young, Dale int/esaSC/index.html. full of 3D objects?” Smith, and April Whitt are currently formu- “Future Outreach Committee updates will Reprinted with permission of author; con- lating plans to develop ways to reach out appear on Dome-L, in the Planetarian, and, tact Matt Linke at Exhibit Museum Planetari- more to planetariums in developing coun- hopefully, on the IPS website.” um, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Av- tries. One idea is to use the international rec- Contact Information: Jon Elvert, Irene W. enue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079 USA; ognition of the IPS, in particular its contribu- Pennington Planetarium, Louisiana Art & Sci- phone (1) 734-764-0478: email: mlinke@umich. tions to space science education and alliances ence Museum, 100 South River Road, Baton edu. to projects worldwide, with media coverage Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA; phone (1) 225- Another fascinating aspect of this revolu- as lending support and recognition to plane- 344-5272. tion is the increasing interest in immersive tarians in third world countries. Another idea technologies for an unending variety of top- for reaching out to planetarium-interested Full-Dome Video Committee ics under a dome. What does that imply for folks in developing countries is inviting non- I am also so grateful to have this committee planetariums? Will there be “planetariums” IPS people to conferences where they could available for our members. Ryan Wyatt, chair, and other “virtual reality chambers” side by participate in events such as vendor sessions, and his committee members have developed side, or will they become one? some selected paper sessions, and hear guest a valuable and easy way for members to net- If you are contemplating an upgrade or speakers. These offerings may also apply to in- work with knowledgeable people in this new would just like to gain further insight into viting the general public. field. The pace of change has accelerated fast- this technological revolution, keep reading “The ASP will host their annual conference er than I would have ever imagined and there Ed Lantz’s column “Digital Frontiers” (see this year in Chicago, 5–7 September. At this are hundreds of planetarians getting involved page 32) and also go to www.ips-planetarium. meeting, the IPS will co-host a panel session with this exciting new technology. I appreci- org/or/comms/fulldomecom.html to connect with the ASP. I will encourage the ASP to co- ate the discussions on Dome-L as we struggle with what is happening in the Full–Dome Vid- host future workshops at IPS meetings or re- to get a grip on how to use our new and old eo Committee. gional conferences, as well as co-sharing mate- tools to the best advantage. I am excited by Contact: Ryan Wyatt, California Academy rials with our members. questions that are arising with regard to the of Sciences, 875 Howard Street, San Francisco, “One particular opportunity to develop effects that 3D imaging has on the learner. California, USA 94103; phone (1) 415-321-8156; meaningful partnerships and provide resourc- Here’s one thoughtful question posed by [email protected] and ryan@ryanwy- es is to involve scientists and workshop fa- Matt Linke on Dome-L: “I have read a lot on att.net. cilitators, especially from NASA. Within the the subject of whether or not very young United States, there are a series of NASA “Bro- children can recognize the fact that celestial The Universe in the Classroom kers/Facilitators” whose specific focus is to bodies, like the Moon, are spherical three-di- The ASP has announced that its free online create partnerships between space scientists mensional objects-balls, if you will. I saw publication, The Universe in the Classroom, and educators to carry out activities and facil- something recently that makes me wonder if will soon be available in many different lan- itate the dissemination of space science mate- they in fact can make that distinction under guages and distributed around the world. It rials that are normally free. Listed below are certain circumstances… is currently available in English, Spanish, and regions of the US and their designated Bro- “I recently visited the Gates Planetarium in French. To access it just go to www.astroso- ker/Facilitator. Contact the Facilitator in your Denver, and saw a lot of shows. In one, a huge ciety.org and scroll down to the section titled area for available guest speakers, workshop 3D model of the Moon came rolling into the “For Educators” and click on “The Universe in presenters, and materials. New England: Cary scene, moving up and over, then toward the the Classroom.” To read the Spanish or French Sneider ([email protected]), Mid-Atlantic: Stan- audience as if dropping on them. I was told version, click on “Around the World” in the ley Jones ([email protected]), Southeast: Cas- that what I saw next has happened before, but left column and then click on the preferred sandra Runyon ([email protected]), Upper Mid- in my nearly 30 years with slide projectors, I’d language.

June 2007 Planetarian 3 ASP is asking asks IPS members to help. They ask, “Would you like to write an article for Universe in the Classroom? Translate the newsletter? Suggest a topic for an upcoming issue? Do you have some other question or suggestion?” If so, contact Anna Hurst, the editor of Universe in the Classroom, at www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/contact.html. Also be sure to check Anna’s article on page 15.

New Planetarium in Bangkok I met Salin Weerabutra in Osaka, Japan at the 1996 IPS Conference and she told me of some of her work and new ideas. When I learned that, after all these years, Salin’s dream finally came true, the most modern planetarium in Thailand was completed, I wrote to tell her how happy we all are. Salin wrote, “Actually, I finished my role of managing Rangsit Planetarium after the opening in February. Now I let the Rangsit Plane- tarium’s staff learn how to continue and manage themselves. “As a new and a modern planetarium of the province of Pathumthani, close to Bangkok, it is very crowded with an average of 1,000 persons a day. Mainly children and students attend on working days and family groups on weekends. We hope that the new planetarium can stimulate young people to enter a scientific career. “For a short period of two months now, two fulldome video shows have been presented, The Infinity Express and Thai Astrono- my. After the staff has learned how to manage with the two systems of Starmaster and Digi- talSky, I hope they can make more stories. “The project of Rangsit Planetarium took many years to be finished. As a member of IPS, I would like to give a deep thanks to Mar- tin George and Dr. Dale Smith, the past presidents, who had given me lots of help. They gave me some comments and advice in answer to my requests on many points. Now I am happy to make the project of Rangsit Plan- etarium complete and to see it become pop- Top: Inside the dome with 160 seats, six shows are given each weekday and eight shows on weekends. ular to the public now. I appreciate the IPS’s The average attendance is 1,000 people a day. Bottom: Salin Weerabutra (middle) and the projection strength and friendship very much and hope installation team, Hansjurgen Thieme from Carl Zeiss (left) and Glenn Smith from Sky-Skan (right), in that in the term of the First Lady’s Presidency, front of Rangsit Planetarium on the day of the opening ceremony. Photos by and courtesy of Rangsit the IPS will play an important role in the as- Planetarium staff tronomical world.” Contact: Salin Weerabutra, Director, Sci- inations. might interest someone else. ence Centre for Education, Bangkok, Thai- A planetarium director from Russia once Planetariums and science centers need to land; phone 662-7124256; email salin@loxin- told me, “Yes, we need materials and equip- become enmeshed in the community fabric fo.co.th. ment but what is more important is ideas.” So through yearly events that people look for- I will offer some ideas. Many of you already ward to and we must continue to “blow our Keeping the Momentum do all these things or at least some of them. So, own horns” by being visible in the news ev- We are all pleased when a new facility take what you like and leave the rest! If you ery chance we can get. We can’t wait for op- opens and does well. Sometimes they contin- are doing something that is especially success- portunities to arise; we must create them. The ue to do well and other times they lose mo- ful, please let me know. If it is mentioned be- time is certainly ripe for us to “seize the day”; mentum and get into trouble. We must allow, write me a paragraph about what you every nation in the world is trying to inter- ways keep light on our feet and think of new are doing anyway. You may have approached est students in the serious study of science and interesting ways to capture people’s imag- one of those activities in a unique way that and mathematics. There is a dire shortage of

36 Planetarian June 2007 young scientists and mathemati- show images of the Earth taken cians, and especially creative minds from space and spacecraft. Our in those fields. NASA Space Place bulletin board It takes enthusiasm, time, and will feature the Earth.” Check out sometimes money to incorporate more at his website: www.sche- this philosophy into your mission, nectadymuseum.org. but the payoffs are invaluable. Your • Celebrate Special Days/ institution will become a shining Years Some people say there are beacon in your community and too many special days already. if anyone tries to close you down, But you can make them each there will be a public outcry be- unique and your community can cause you have made yourself indis- network with others around the pensable! world on the Day of Planetaria, It always shocks me when I go to Astronomy Day, Earth Day, Inter- a city or village and there is no ad- national Polar Year; Internation- vertising in tourist brochures or any al Heliophysical Year, the Inter- signs on the street to direct you to national Year of Astronomy, and the planetarium. Many times I go to the 400th year of the invention the city site on the web and don’t of the telescope. find the planetarium advertised as a • Contests, Competitions wonderful place to visit. If I did not and Science Fairs You can have the IPS Directory I would not certainly think of ways to enable even know if there was a planetari- The Environmental Challenge is a science fair and career exploration oppor- members of your community to um in that place! tunity designed especially for all Syracuse City School District seventh and compete and achieve recognition eighth grade students. These girls enjoyed sharing their projects with judg- Once people know that you exist es at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and through yearly events that chal- and where you are, you can entice Forestry during this year’s Science Fair. Photo by Susan Button lenge them to submit and present them to visit and experience the projects of their own. planetarium and all the wonderful programs could hold meetings at your location and/or • Teacher Training Providing continu- you have to offer. Here are a few events that you could provide special programs for them. ing education for teachers in your commu- can be replicated: For instance, you can provide activities that nity will be viewed as a valuable service and • The Interplanetary Bicycle Ride assist the Boy and Girls Scouts in fulfilling re- help them to make science fun and interest- Every year the Lakeview Museum in Peoria, quirements to earn merit badges. ing for students in their classrooms. Illinois, holds this event. This year it is on 11- • Webcasts You can plan events around You can also and offer trainings to scientists 12 August. special events that repeat, such as the Hubble and even businesses (corporate team-build- According to the museum’s website, Public Talks at the Space Telescope Science In- ing training). Bring in experts from local ed- “Lakeview Museum’s Community Solar Sys- stitute. If you’re in the Baltimore area, then ucational institutions and businesses to assist tem is a model of the sun and nine planets, be sure to check for the availability of one of you. where size and distance are represented on these public lectures, held the first Tuesday of • Community Forums You can provide the same scale. Since the space between the every month at 8 p.m. in the STScI Auditori- a venue for community forums to promote planets is enormous relative to the sizes of the um, located at 3700 San Martin Drive on the dialogue on controversial science topics or planets, few models exist in the world which Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins Univer- you can bring together business, industry, and show the true scale of our solar system. In our sity in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Admission educators to brainstorm how you can work model, the Sun is 36 feet across and the orbits is free and free parking is available in the lot together to further encourage young people of the planets span 60 miles of central Illinois. across the street. to enter the fields of mathematics, science and In addition to the planets, there are more than And even if you’re not physically there, you technology. 150 unnamed comets located throughout the can take part and share the lecture with your • Network with Community Insti- world.” For more, go to www.lakeview-muse- local audience. The lectures are typically we- tutions Develop a relationship with the tele- um.org/iplanet/iplanet.html. bcast live, and the recorded webcast is made vision weather person in you area. Some sci- • Science Club Marc Rouleau mentioned available for viewing online the following ence centers actually have a weather station recently on Dome-L that “I am going to start a day. You might need to download and install where a meteorologist broadcasts the weather Science Club for Girls this summer. It will be software to view the webcast. More informa- from a studio to the local television station. Or with our parent institution, Hibbing Commu- tion can be found at hubblesite.org/about_ you can host events featuring special speakers nity College. My goal will be to reach those us/public-talks.shtml. Thanks to Frank Sum- or music from the community. girls who start out interested in science but mers at [email protected] for reminding us • Fund Raisers Money can be raised for lose interest during the teen years.” Reprinted of these events on Dome-L. your institution or another’s while you cre- with permission; for more, contact Marc Rou- • Astronomy Topic of the Month ate good will with the community. The Indi- leau at Paulucci Space Theatre, 1502 East 23rd Steve Russo chooses an astronomy topic for anapolis Children’s Museum raises all kinds of Street, Hibbing, Minnesota, 55746 USA; email the month at his planetarium. For instance, money by having a giant party on Halloween. [email protected]. the topic for April was Earth, to connect with They provide a variety of entertaining activi- • Other Club Programs Your communi- Earth Day. On his website Steve advertises the ties for families in a safe environment. ty probably has all kinds of clubs you can de- topic, gives some brief and specific informa- Do you have more suggestions? Please velop a relationship with, like Girl Scouts, Boy tion about the topic, and then says something email them to me while you are thinking Scouts, Explorers, amateur radio groups, and like this for each month: “During April, the about a successful event or approach that amateur astronomers, to name a few. They Suits-Bueche Planetarium live programs will works for you! I

June 2007 Planetarian 3 7 nication amongst the officers, have included a Past President’s Message continuation of my role as chair of the Inter- national Relations Committee (formerly the Language Committee). the pleasure of meeting up with presenters Da- Firstly, I am pleased to report that progress vid Nakamoto, Julie Silverman, and Nicholas is still being made with the formation of a na- Read. I was impressed by the entirely live pre- tional planetarium group in China. In early sentation, narrated excellently by Nicholas. April, the China Association for Science and Such experiences never fail to remind me Technology (CAST) approved the formation of the value of a live presenter for at least part of the Chinese Planetarium Professional Com- of the show. At Griffith, their shows have al- mittee, which would become effective when ways been entirely live. Of course, most of us placed on the records of the Chinese Minis- use at least a partly recorded showmyself try of Civil Affairs. At the time of writing this includedbut I have always felt that the staff message, it was expected that there would be are a planetarium's main asset. One of the best a preliminary meeting of the Committee on uses of that asset is to interact with the audi- April 27-28, followed by a general meeting in ence! September. It appears that they are well on Some people have commented that a live track towards a national association, which presentation is traditional but old-fashioned. I hope will be able to affiliate very soon. They liken this style to describing the narrator Thanks once again to Dr. Jin Zhu and to Ms as the “lecturer,” and so on, which was com- Guo Xia of the Beijing planetarium for their mon a long time ago. We certainly wouldn't assistance and enthusiasm in this matter and use the term “lecturer” to describe planetar- towards the IPS. ium staff todayI agree that this would not Martin George, Curator Secondly, I am also still optimistic about be the best way to attract audiences! However, the possible formation of a Brazilian group, Launceston Planetarium what Griffith is doing is good, and it works. I and I feel especially positive about this owing admire their resolve to continue with live pre- Queen Victoria Museum to the fact that the next IPS Council meeting sentations. Wellington Street will be held in Rio de Janeiro. I have continued to discuss the issue with Alexandre Cher- Congratulations Launceston, Tasmania man, especially, and I look forward to having Speaking of California, congratulations to more to report on this topic in the next issue Australia former IPS President Jim Manning on recent- of the Planetarian. ly being appointed to the role of chief execu- +61 (3) 63233777 I rarely talk about what is happening with tive officer of the Astronomical Society of the me on the home front, but it’s time I gave you +61 (3) 63233776 fax Pacific, which is based in San Francisco. IPS all an update. My planetariumthe Launces- members will be aware of the close associa- [email protected] ton Planetarium in Tasmania, Australiahas tion we have had with the ASP over the years, While on a visit to California in March, I faced a very uncertain future of late. The insti- and I am sure we can look forward to this con- had the great pleasure of visiting the Griffith tution in which it is housed, the Queen Victo- tinuing with Jim at the helm. Not long before Observatory in Los Angeles, back for the first ria Museum, suffered a considerable loss dur- my visit to Los Angeles, I also paid a visit to time since its reopening in 2006. The exhib- ing March 2007, with 18% of its workforce San Francisco and dropped in to see outgo- its are excellent, and it was great of course, to being made redundant owing to budget cuts ing CEO Mike Bennett. I also had a delightful meet up with Dr. Ed Krupp and the Griffith imposed by the local City Council. The build- meeting with Anna Hurst, who is keen for IPS staff and take in the famous views of down- ing containing the Planetarium will be con- members to contribute to The Universe in the town Los Angeles in one direction and the verted into a visual arts centre, but it appears, Classroom. A message from Anna appears else- “Hollywood” sign in another. if all goes well, that the Planetarium will be where in this issue of the Planetarian. While there, I took inof coursea show moved to the Museum's “second” site, which In the first few months of 2007, my IPS ac- at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium and had tivities, apart from the usual constant commu- (Please see George on page 49)

Left: Staff at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium at the Griffith Observatory. From left to right: David Nakamoto, Julie Silverman and Nicholas Read. Right: A view of the impressive Griffith Observatory. All photos by Martin George.

38 Planetarian June 2007 Master Student from Pakistan, Information Gathering in Sweden Report from the Armand Spitz Scholarship Recipient

Lars Broman Dalarna University SE 791 88 Falun, Sweden

Since 2004, students at Dalarna University in Sweden who study Two scholarships have been awarded annually. Reports from previous the Master’s Program in Science Communication have been award- scholarship studies have been published in Planetarian in December ed scholarships from IPS’ Armand Spitz Fund for Planetarium Educa- 2004, 2005, and 2006. This spring the second scholarship for 2006 has tion. To be eligible for a scholarship, the student should do fieldwork been awarded to Bilal Anwar from Pakistan. The IPS Council has gra- in a planetarium and write a thesis on a subject related to planetariums. ciously decided to give two more scholarships to students in 2007.

Framtidsmuseet Visitor’s Questionnaire Survey By Bilal Anwar

I am a student in the Master’s Program in hibit units related to the Science Communication and currently I am science which gets the working on my masters thesis. I was assigned most number of posi- to make a touch-screen visitor’s questionnaire tive responses from the survey for Framtidsmuseet (the Futures’ Muse- users. um) in Borlange, Sweden. The fourth and last First of all, there were complications— section contains ques- like how many and what kind of questions tions about the muse- should we ask in the questionnaire. The ques- um, particularly about tionnaire shouldn’t be so long that the visi- the planetarium, the tors didn’t have enough time to fill it out. To museum shop, and the lure visitors into filling out the questionnaire entire museum experi- form, we would give them a souvenir. ence. The visitor has to We divided the questionnaire into four sec- grade the planetarium tions, but we don’t mention the sections on show, the museum shop, the form itself. The first section contains ques- and the over all muse- tions about the visitor, like what is his/her age, um experience. The vis- sex, and home location. The second section in- itor also is given a ques- cludes questions related to the visit to the mu- tion on which topics of seum. The questions ask if they had been to planetarium shows they the museum before, how they learned about like best. the museum, and with whom they were vis- As far as technical Elisabet Eronn, director of Framtidsmuseet and Bilal Anwar, student iting the museum. Each question has multiple specifications are con- at Dalarna University, standing in front of visitor questionnaire touch screen. Photo by Håkan Sandin. choice answers and the visitor selects one of cerned, I have used Hy- them for each answer. perText Markup Language (HTML) and classic nir from the museum. The third section contains questions relat- Active Server Pages (ASP) along with Micro- The visitor’s questionnaire survey was put ed to the exhibit units at the museums. I have soft’s Access database to design the question- on display for the first time on 12 April 2007. put six photos of different exhibit units on naire. There are a total of five pages, two de- The museum chief, Elisabet Eronn, was the the questionnaire so it’s easier, even for the signed and coded in HTML and the remaining first person to fill out the visitor’s question- kids, to decide which exhibit they liked the three in ASP. The visitor’s survey questionnaire survey. We have plans to change the best. I am also changing the exhibits units on naire consists of two pages, with two pages questionnaire from time to time so we, at the questionnaire from time to time so we get in Swedish and two in the English (asking the Framtidsmuseet, can improve almost all the a response for most of the exhibit units at the same questions). The last page displays that aspects of the museum. museum. We also added another question in the questionnaire is filled correctly and pro- Acknowledgement: I gratefully acknowl- the section on which kind of science the user vides a special code. The visitor tells this spe- edge the grant from Armand Spitz Fund for likes the most. So, depending on the results cial code to the reception desk at the museum Planetarium Education that helped financing of this question, we try to make the new ex- along with his/her name to get a small souve- my master thesis work. I

June 2007 Planetarian 3 ly Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.) NASA Space Science News Also quoting liberally from the Phoenix website: Phoenix will land on the icy northern pole of Mars between 65- and 75-north teroid belt.” Speaking of the asteroid belt, the latitude. Interesting work is going on now to Dawn education team has developed a num- select a landing site…images from Mars Recon- ber of activities that include making…ta da… naissance Orbiter showed that an early candi- an asteroid belt. Instructions for this and oth- date site is extremely rugged, which did not er activities can be found in the Kids section bode well for a safe landing. During its three- of the Dawn website (dawn.jpl.nasa.gov). month mission, Phoenix will dig trench- es up to half a meter into the layers of water It’s Been 10 Years Already ice. These layers could contain organic com- July 4 marks the 10-year anniversary of the pounds that are necessary for life. Selected landing of Mars Pathfinder and its sidekick, samples will be heated to release vapors to de- the Sojourner rover. It’s hard to believe it has termine their chemical composition and oth- been 10 years since we sat listening for the er characteristics. I’m wondering how hard tones from the spacecraft to tell us that each it will be for the rover-savvy public to un- Anita M. Sohus step of the landing sequence had been accom- derstand that Phoenix is strictly a lander . . . NASA/Jet Propulsion plished. Some months before that, I was pres- it works where it lands, with no capability to Laboratory ent when the then-NASA associate administra- move to other sites. For more information on tor for space science first saw the now-famous the Phoenix mission, visit phoenix.lpl.arizo- California Institute of “entry, descent, and landing” animation. His na.edu. Technology eyes got as big as saucers when he saw those 15-story airbag bounces. Fairly new in his job STS-118 to Fly in August 4800 Oak Grove Drive at that time, I’m not sure he fully realized un- The STS-118 shuttle mission is currently Pasadena, California 91109 til just then exactly how JPL planned to land scheduled to launch no earlier than August 9. that multimillion dollar baby. And that he Educator astronaut/mission specialist Barbara USA would be the one at the news podium deliv- Morgan will be on board to operate the robotic (1) 818-354-6613 ering the news, good or bad. Fortunately, it arm as part of the assembly of the Internation- was good news and the rover went on to cap- al Space Station. STS-118 mission information (1) 818-354-7586 fax ture hearts around the world with its explora- is on-line at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ [email protected] tion of its little piece of Ares Vallis. The origi- shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/index. The best nal Mars Pathfinder website is still accessible if way to stay informed about the STS-118 edu- Summer looms, and with it a number of anyone wants to take a waltz down memory cational activities is to subscribe to the NASA much anticipated space events and several lane (mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov). Education Express listserve at www.nasa.gov/ milestone anniversaries. education/express. Dawn, which will explore the asteroids Ves- The Next Scout to Mars Late summer also marks the 30-year an- ta and Ceres, is now scheduled to launch no Fast forward, and the next Mars scout, Phoe- niversary of the launch of the twin Voyager earlier than June 30, 2007. The spacecraft ar- nix, which will land near Mars’ northern polar spacecraft (Voyager 2 on August 20, 1977; Voy- rived in Florida on April 10 of this year to un- cap, is scheduled for launch no earlier than Au- ager 1, September 5, 1977). After their historic dergo final preparations for launch. Quot- gust 3. It is scheduled to land on May 25, 2008, visits to Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 went ing project manager Keyur Patel of JPL on which is Sunday of the US’s annual Memori- on to Uranus and Neptune and both space- the Dawn website, “Dawn only has two more al Day weekend. Principal Investigator Peter craft are now exiting our solar system. Voy- trips to make. One will be in mid-June, when Smith is at the University of Arizona in Tuc- ager 1 became the most distant human-made it makes the 15-mile journey from the process- son (I often need to remind myself that “Phoe- object in the cosmos in 1998, and in August ing facility to the launch pad. The second will nix is in Tucson, Phoenix is in Tucson,” as op- 2006 it passed the 100 AU mark. Traveling at be when Dawn rises to begin its eight-year, 3.2- posed to other Mars research teams at Arizona about 1.61 million kilometers per day (1 mil- billion-mile odyssey into the heart of the as- State University, which is in Phoenix…actual- lion miles), Voyager 1 is now in an area called

40 Planetarian June 2007 the heliosheath, the zone at the edge of our solar system where the Sun’s influence wanes. Cared for by a skeleton crew of about 10 people, Voyager 1 is expected to enter true interstellar space sometime in the next 10 years. Of course, this fall marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, counted by some as the beginning of the Space Age. What an exciting time of exploration to have wit- nessed!

STEREO: Big in 3D Causing a big buzz this spring are the 3D images returned by NASA’s twin Solar Terrestri- al Relations Observatories (STEREO); see www. nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo. The timing is excellent since it seems that 3D is making a comeback from its geeky early days. The STE- REO team has listened to many of you in the museum and planetarium world and is making the images available in a variety of formats to accommodate as many viewing systems as possible, from homemade red/cyan glasses to polarized to high-tech computer-synchronized liquid crystal glasses. Full frames for both right and left eyes are available, as well as anaglyphs. According to Solar System Visualization lead Eric de Jong at JPL, the very best way to experience these images is using liquid crystal glasses that shutter at 120 Hertz, so there’s no flickering whatsoever, and even better if projected at full resolution by an IMAX projector. Galleries of 3-D images from around the solar system include NASA’s Planetary Photo- journal: Apollo 12 lunar astronaut Alan Bean performs scientific tasks in November 1969 in eastern Oceanus Pro- photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/feature/ana- cellarum. (Source: www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/stereo_atlas/HTDOCS/A2AS.HTM) Credit: NASA/LPI glyph photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/feature/3D this is actually a full-text search of the site. So With that, I wish you a good summer. I photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/feature/3-D say you want an image of dunes, just type in BELOW: NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Op- (By the way, if you haven’t discovered it al- “dune,” and you will get thumbnails of every portunity used its navigation camera to take ready, a neat trick for searching the Photojour- image in the database that has the text “dune” the images combined into this stereo view nal is to go to the top page (photojournal.jpl. associated with it. Great for doing compara- of the rover’s surroundings at Victoria Cra- nasa.gov), then click on “Other Query Meth- tive planetology! ter on sol (or Martian day) 959 of its surface ods” at the bottom of the page. That will take The Lunar and Planetary Institute also put mission. This view is presented as a cylindrical- perspective projection with geometric seam out a “3D Tour of the Solar System” CD sever- you to the detailed query page, which gives correction. Right and left-eye views are also you several search options. My favorite is the al years ago. A demo tour is online at www.lpi. available. Source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/ fifth one, “Search by Feature Name,” because usra.edu/resources/stereo_atlas/SS3D.HTM. tiff/PIA01893.tif Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

June 2007 Planetarian 4 ry he told the fascinated public. More info at International News www.planetariumrotterdam.nl. British Associations of [email protected] is taking care of the Plan- Planetariums etarians’ Calendar of Events without my in- Armagh Planetarium was pleased to wel- terference, so just continue to submit your en- come a famous visitor in February this year, tries to the calendar directly to him. when they hosted Professor Jocelyn Bell-Bur- nell, the first person to discover pulsars. The Association of Dutch-Speaking BBC was making a TV programme about her Planetariums life, including her pulsar work when she was a The Europlanetarium premiered on 23 research student. A local girl, she was born not March their new high definition film, Dawn far from the Planetarium. Her architect father of the Space Age, made by Mirage 3D. The pro- designed the primary building of the Armagh gram brings back the excitement of the early Planetarium complex, which opened in 1968. days of space exploration, from the launch of She is an enthusiastic science communica- the first artificial satellite Sputnik to the mag- tor and often works with schools, telling the nificent lunar landings, and looks to a future story of her discovery of the first pulsars. She with privately operated space flights. This is provided an interview for Astronotes, Armagh the first of many events celebrating 50 years Planetarium’s in-house publication, which is of space exploration planned in the Europlan- sent out to many friends around the world. etarium. For more information see www.euro- Also, on 12-14 May, Armagh hosted Da- planetarium.be or animation.mirage3d.nl. vid Malin, famous for his astronomical imag- The opening ceremony of the new observa- es of deep space objects. Malin met with local tory of the planetarium in Ridderkerk on 10 Astrogazers school astronomy clubs and also Lars Broman February was attended by the Russian Cosmo- with the amateurs and public, telling them naut Alexei Leonov. Leonov was the first per- about his imaging work using the Anglo-Aus- Dalarna University son ever to leave his space capsule during or- tralian Telescope over the past 30 years. This SE 791 88 Falun, Sweden bit around the Earth, on 18 March 1965. was part of a visit sponsored by Armagh Plan- The new observatory in Ridderkerk is one etarium that saw Malin speak to audiences at +46 2377710 more step in the process of creating a scien- other venues in Ireland as he traveled around [email protected] tific exhibition in Museum Johannes Post- during May. school. The museum has been equipped with Katy McDonald writes from At-Bristol’s www.sciencecommunication.se a hybrid planetarium system in its 6.5 m (22 Planetarium that they reopened in June 2006 ft) dome for the past two years. One part of with newly-refurbished décor and a whole In mid-April, just days before finalizing this the system is formed by a Zeiss ZKP projector, new program of shows. The planetarium’s column, I visited the Finnish Lapland capi- the other by a digital fulldome projection sys- beautiful mirrored sphere houses an 86-seat tal Rovaniemi, situated right at the northern tem from Zeiss and Sky-Skan. At the same oc- planetarium which, in the nine months since polar circle. The occasion was the conference casion, the world pre- “Knowledge and Power in the Arctic” and the miere of the Mirage inauguration at the Arctic Center of a beauti- 3D show Dawn of the ful new major exhibition on the people of the Space Age took place. polar region. In a fascinating Rovaniemi is probably most well-known speech for a very si- as the home (or one of the homes) of one of lent full house, Mr. Le- our times’ most cherished mythical figures. onov told about his Appropriately, I stayed in Hotel Santa Claus. space walk in 1965. He I was surprised by the already very short and told that after leav- pale night, already two months before mid- ing his space capsule summer, when the midnight sun in Rovanie- there was a complete mi will touch the northern horizon. silence, except for his The International News column is depen- own heartbeat. When dent on contributions from IPS affiliate associ- he was overhead the ations all over the world. Many thanks to Bart Black Sea, he could see Benjamin, Tony Butterfield, Gail Chaid, Kevin all over Europe and Conod, Alex Delivorias, Jack Dunn, John Hare, even England was vis- Erik Koelemeyer, Tom Mason, André Milis, ible from his position. Loris Ramponi, and Zinaida Sitkova for your Within that 30-min- contributions. You are welcome back with ute presentation, Mr. new reports, and I look forward to contribu- Leonov experienced tions from other associations as well. Upcom- his space walk again ing deadlines are 1 July 2007 for the September in the dome of the Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the honored speaker at the opening Planetarian and 1 October for December. planetarium, and it ceremony of the new observatory of the planetarium in Ridderkerk. Photo Starting with this issue, Loris Ramponi at matched with the sto- by/Courtesy of NN; courtesy of Ad Los, Rotterdam Planetarium

42 Planetarian June 2007 re-opening, has received over 65,000 visitors. The planetarium now runs presenter-led seasonal star shows for school groups and family visitors to Bristol’s very own 21st century hands-on science center. As well as the star shows, the venue is an invaluable tool for space education events, including a program of astronomy courses for teachers, “Meet the Astronomer” sessions for the public, and summer schools for teenagers. With the spring night sky showing and the first anniversary of the reopening fast approaching, At-Bristol has well and truly put its planetarium back on the map. Paul England and Andrew Rowe from the Island Planetarium at Fort Victoria on the Isle of Wight say that they have been busy during the winter with lots of rebuilding. They have altered their seating and have built a new multi-function display unit for quick change of exhibit/function for schools and general public. Their exhibit area is now home to a display about Robert Hooke. They report that Bristol’s shiny sphere houses its 86 seat planetarium. Courtesy of At-Bristol. they now have a new home-grown video projection system which gives them full motion a fascination for children, but with resources ed Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre. They ran video across half of their mobile dome and like the Faulkes Telescope now available, its two fulldome shows: A Search for Life: Are We hope to have a similar system operating in the power to inspire is greater than ever.” Alone? and Infinity Express during the month fixed planetarium at Fort Victoria. Teacher Jacquie Milligan is delighted that of March 2006 and used the Digital Universe Local Northern Ireland BBC freelance re- space science has found a niche in the new content to perform live sky shows which took porter Laura Haydon has written that space, curriculum. She mentions that her pupils are patrons from the night sky as seen from their famously referred to as the final frontier, is learning transferable skills—using a high-qual- backyards to the edge of the observable uni- about to become a lot more central to the edu- ity instrument, exploiting their IT skills, and verse. They continued to offer Infinity Express cation of school children in Northern Ireland. manipulating real data. “They’re presenting and the live sky show using the Sky-Skan Dig- Until now, space science has mainly been their results at conferences, and some pupils italSky 2 system through the summer of 2006. taught as an off-curriculum fringe activity, of- who used the telescope to image an asteroid The feedback received was very positive and ten by teachers running after-school astron- had their findings published in the Bulletin many people wanted to know when the new omy clubs. But now, astronomy and space of the Minor Planets Centre, published by Har- theater will be opening. science are being written into the school cur- vard University. They’ve now opted to take Current plans for the new theater include riculum. The initiative is the brainchild of physics at GCSE.” expanding the lobby space and building a 23.5° Robert Hill, who runs the Northern Ireland Hill’s work at the Northern Ireland Space Of- tilted dome theater off that area that may seat Space Office at Armagh Planetarium. He is fice is now being used as a best-practice model up to 400 people. The technology used in the working with the Council for the Curriculum, in other European countries. “What we’re do- theater will be one of the last components to Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and the ing here is using astronomy as the hook to en- be added, given the state of change in the full- Yorkshire Forward Space Connections group courage children to take up the STEM activ- dome digital technology. In addition to the to align space science resources to the new, re- ities—Science, Technology, Engineering and digital theater, plans are in the works for ex- vised Northern Ireland curriculum. Mathematics. They’re perceived as difficult, panding the current facility in the near future Hill reports that “Armagh Planetarium is so we’re using space science as the tool for in- to offer more exhibit and program space to ac- one of the first science centres to have active- spiration, because this is real science and real commodate the growing number of school ly influenced curriculum content. Working technology and there are careers in Europe for groups and public visitations. For more infor- with our partner organisations, astronomy pupils who take them up.” mation, contact Frank Florian at Frank.Flori- and space science resources are now includ- Richard Everiss is the director of the new [email protected]. ed in the curriculum. This allows teachers to Yorkshire Planetarium and he has told that The production staff at the Montreal Plan- spend time in the classroom on these topics this venue will be opening soon. Rumors are etarium is busy working on the production instead of being limited to after school time, heard of new installations of fixed planetari- of its new show for kids 8-10 years old titled and that’s a quantum leap forward. Pupils are ums in the UK being considered, set up or or- Looking for Galactium. Focus groups in schools already accessing the Hawaiian- and Austra- dered, so it looks like the industry is growing. were conducted in May and June to probe lian-based Faulkes Telescopes through their kids about the storyline, the characters, and school computers.” He continues “if you go to Canadian Association of Science the music and sound effects intended to be Hawaii, it’s 11 hours behind us and if you go to Centres used in the production. The children’s input Australia it’s nine hours ahead of us, so it’s al- At the TELUS World of Science-Edmon- was invaluable and allowed staff to tweak a ways night-time when it’s daytime here. You ton, staff has been very fortunate to test a full- few things and iron out several wrinkles in just open up the website, book your session dome projection system from Sky-Skan last the plot. They feel that they have a much bet- and you can take over a school bus-sized, re- year to gain support in the vision of creat- ter show because they listened to the princi- search-grade telescope. Space has always held ing a new digital theatre to replace their dat- ple audience and were able to make neces-

June 2007 Planetarian 4 sary changes before installing the show in the The book launched in October 2006 at the dome. Looking for Galactium is scheduled to Space Centre. open to the public and school groups in late Robinson also will prepare a column for the November. For more information, contact Space Centre’s website called “Spider Robin- Pierre Chastenay at [email protected] son Responds” in which he will comment on treal.ca. various space and astronomy issues from his At the TELUS World of Science in Calgary, special perspective. His articles address issues work is underway, in coordination with sim- on space tourism, sustaining the planet, spir- ilar efforts in Edmonton, to better define ituality of space, militarization of space, space the programming and design requirements art, and space law. They are available on the for two major theaters in a new science cen- Centre Web site www.hrmacmillanspacecen- ter now in the planning stages. Current plans tre.com. For more information, contact Erik for Calgary’s facility call for a tilt-dome the- Koelemeyer at ekoeleme@hrmacmillanspace- atre equipped with digital planetarium and centre.com. digital “film” projection capabilities, including 3D projection, complemented by a flexi- European/Mediterranean ble flat-screen theater for elaborate live “su- Planetarium Association per-demos” augmented by video, 4D effects For some time now the Eugenides Planetar- and re-configurable seating. A program of ium in Athens, Greece has been seriously con- consulting community stakeholders will help sidering an upgrade of its planetarium soft- narrow down the vision for new theaters at a ware and hardware that would safeguard its time of rapidly changing technologies and au- status as one of the best-equipped digital plan- dience expectations. In the short run, Calgary etariums in the world for the next few years. plans to introduce a new series of Friday eve- To this end, the Evans & Sutherland Digistar3 ning “Family Fun Nights” modeled after sim- system has already been upgraded to the latest ilar programs offered by many planetariums version, while a complete hardware and soft- Dr. James Rice Jr. speaking at WAC2006 ban- and science centers. These would combine ware upgrade of the Sky-Skan DigitalSky sys- quet in Lincoln. Photo by Jack Dunn. (See Great live, informal space news/sky tonight shows tem has been scheduled for August. Both of Plains Planetarium Association on page 45) in the current Discovery Dome with telescope these upgrades expand the programming ca- viewing on the observing deck and other fa- pabilities of the Eugenides Planetarium even as a new sign for Pluto. Eris is at Western Illi- cility-wide activities for all ages. For more in- more, especially in the direction or real time nois University in Macomb and Ceres is at the formation, contact Alan Dyer at alan.dyer@ shows. For the first time since its opening, the Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria. calgaryscience.ca. new digital Eugenides Planetarium is plan- Michigan The Chaffee Planetarium of The big news out of Victoria is that the ning to introduce, in its regular program, full the Public Museum in Grand Rapids has de- planetarium is undergoing a re-branding. The real time shows, starting with the coming sea- buted its new children’s show titled Solar Sys- aim is to have better ties with and do more son. tem Safari. The staff has also entered the vid- outreach for the Herzberg Institute of Astro- eo production business, recently creating a physics, so it was decided that a better name Great Lakes Planetarium DVD about the history of the space program than The Centre of the Universe is needed. Association titled Rocket Riders—A Half Century of Space Tired of all the bad jokes, a new name will Illinois The William M. Staerkel Plane- Exploration. On 18 April, the Chaffee Planetar- soon be decided upon. Along with the new tarium at Parkland College in Champaign re- ium co-sponsored a public presentation about name will also be a new logo that better iden- cently concluded its “World of Science” lec- the New Horizons space probe to Pluto by tifies what the planetarium is all about. Hope- ture series with a talk titled “Bird Flu and lead guidance engineer and Grand Rapids na- fully, for the next International News, there Other Pandemics.” The planetarium contin- tive Dr. Thomas Strikwerda. On National As- should be some information regarding the ues to offer merit badge seminars for both Girl tronomy Day, the planetarium staff and local new name and logo. Until then, there is a sum- and Boy Scouts. Birthday party packages have amateur astronomers hosted activities in the mer full of exciting programs to look forward been popular during the winter months, and museum’s galleria that included hands-on ac- to, including Exo Planets, running 12-16 June, the staff continues to raise funds for a full- tivities for kids, a tune-up clinic for personal and The Physics of Star Trek, from14-18 August. dome system. telescopes, and public observing at the Veen The complete list of summer programs can be Strickler Planetarium at Olivet Nazarene Observatory. viewed on www.hia.nrc.ca/cu. For more infor- University in Bourbonnais, Illinois hosts The Cranbrook Institute of Science Plane- mation, contact Steve Ewald at steve.ewald@ monthly meetings of the Kankakee Area Star- tarium in Bloomfield Hills ran a wonderful- nrc-cnrc.gc.ca. gazers. Planetarium Director Dr. Brock Schro- ly successful Telescope Users Workshop a few The H. R. MacMillan Space Centre in Van- eder notes that having a local astronomy club weeks into the new year that introduced the couver is pleased to have international- continues to be a valuable asset to a planetar- wonders of the night sky to over 60 enthusias- ly-acclaimed science fiction writer Spider ium. tic new amateur astronomers. Michael J. Nar- Robinson appointed as their first Writer-in- The Lakeview Museum Planetarium is pre- lock, head of Astronomy, continues to host Residence. Spider Robinson is the author of senting its own productions titled Stella Re- an astronomy-themed internet radio show over 30 books and has been honored with one turns and From the Void (a show all about noth- in conjunction with SLOOH.com, which op- of the most exciting science fiction projects in ing). The Interplanetary 5K Race/1 Mile Walk erates several observatories atop Mt. Teide in years: completing Robert A. Heinlein’s Vari- through portions of Peoria’s community solar the Canary Islands. able Star manuscript. The work is based on a system was held on 7 April. The solar system In celebration of its fifth anniversary, the detailed outline and notes completed by Mr. model has recently been expanded with the Dassault Systemes Planetarium brought back Heinlein in 1955 and recently rediscovered. addition of the two new dwarf planets, as well their premiere show with a fresh new look

44 Planetarian June 2007 and renamed it New Views of the Universe. This lighting system and show now includes new panoramas from Spir- an Elumenati digi- it and Opportunity, images from the Hubble tal planetarium pro- Space Telescope, and newly-released shots jector to supplement from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. On their Spitz A3P pro- the production side, a working script has been jector. The Allen F. completed for the new show Bad Astrono- Blocher Planetarium my: Myths and Misconceptions, in cooperation at the University of with author Dr. Phil Plait and the team from Wisconsin-Stevens the Cranbrook Institute of Science Planetari- Point has premiered um. Bad Astronomy is currently scheduled to its new show Into the open in early summer. Universe, which uni- February marked the 10th anniversary of versity student Amy the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City. Wilder produced There were numerous special events that with Dave DeRemer month, including a teacher workshop featur- of the Charles Hor- ing Dr. Henry Ferguson from HST. Mysteries witz Planetarium. from the Depths of Space, written by Bill Gutsch The Charles Hor- and scored by Mark Mercury, recently opened witz Planetarium in The image of Marina di Carrara Planetarium. Courtesy of Gruppo Astrofili in the planetarium theater. This spring the Waukesha recently Massesi. staff also hosted the Bay City Schools Science featured its own pro- Fair and a children’s camp called Explore and duction of Winter Sky Legends. utes. Named after the planetarium’s former ra- Experience. There is a new face at the University of Wis- dio show, Skywatch discusses a topic of cur- On 11 May, The Volbrecht Planetarium in consin-Milwaukee. Jean Creighton is the new rent interest with the topic changing every Southfield gave away a telescope valued at director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium four to six weeks. Together, the two shows $450 during Mike Best’s presentation “So You following the retirement of longtime direc- have a total length of no longer than 30 min- Want to Buy a Telescope.” The staff is also tor John Harmon. Acting director of the Uni- utes (another frequent request from visitors, pleased to announce the arrival of a Toshiba versity of Wisconsin-La Crosse planetarium, especially families with young children). The TDP-S8 digital projector. Gordon Stewart, reports that the future of the first Skywatch installment is called “A Celestial Ohio Joann Ballbach reports a series of planetarium facility is still in limbo, pending Shadow,” about upcoming lunar eclipse of 28 family events at The Wilderness Center’s Fred a decision by the university on hiring a full- August. Silk Planetarium and Observatory in Wilmot. time director. Plans for the new planetarium at Universi- Most of these included a planetarium show ty of Nebraska at Kearney are well underway. followed by outdoor observing if weather Great Planes Planetarium At www.unk.edu/news/columns/volume01/ permitted. Their calendar featured a Lunar Association issue03/news.php?id=20868 you can see de- Eclipse Watch on 3 March, Saturn events on 6 A DVD of the talk by Dr. James Rice Jr. from tails. Dr. Jose Mena-Werth, planetarium direc- April and 4 May, and a Blue Moon walk on 31 last fall’s WAC conference in Lincoln, Nebras- tor, says “Students who learn to use the plane- May topped off with afternoon programs on ka, is now available from Jack Dunn at jdunn@ tarium have an edge on science jobs. The new the spring sky and star stories. spacelaser.com. All you need to do is to send a planetarium will give students a better feel The BGSU Planetarium in Bowling Green self-addressed mailer for a DVD and $1 to cov- and knowledge of the skies and stars.” The cur- recently ran the Sudekum show Nine Planets er the cost of a blank DVD. Dr. Rice, a mem- rent planetarium sits in the basement of Brun- and Counting. Audience polls before and after ber of the Mars Rover scientific team, is also er Hall, where its accessibility is more difficult. each show revealed that between one-third available for speaking engagements. You can The new facility will be part of a new class- and one-half of the audience thought Pluto contact him at Dr. James W. Rice Jr., Mars room building for the sciences. should still be considered a planet. Few minds Space Flight Facility, Arizona State University, were changed by seeing the show. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Moeur Italian Planetaria’s Friends Wisconsin/Minnesota The Paulucci Building, Room 131, PO Box 876305, Tem- Association Space Theater in Hibbing, Minnesota is now pe, Arizona 85287-6305, email [email protected], Marina di Carrara Planetarium in Tuscany selling show packages of its new show Desti- phone (1) 480-965-3205, fax (1) 480-965-1787. reports an increase in its activities, thanks to nation: Pluto. The staff is working on a new They are experimenting with mirrors at the new management of the local amateur as- show about water, which is based on the Min- Mueller Planetarium. Jack Dunn is now col- tronomer group Gruppo Astrofili Massesi. Un- nesota science standards. laborator with Paul Bourke to do testing and der a dome of 6 m, an Italian model Sindel P.L. The St. Cloud State University Planetarium research on projecting with spherical mirrors 6000 projects more than 1000 stars. The plan- has obtained funding to replace its 34-year-old for fulldome. Mueller celebrates the 50th an- etarium is named “Alberto Masani.” See also Spitz 512 projector with a GOTO Chronos pro- niversary of its opening in 1958 next year. The www.planetariocarrara.it. jector. They also plan to add a new sound sys- current show is Mars: The Search for Water, an The city of Potenza in the south of Italy, tem, new cove lighting, and a new automation in-house production. without a planetarium until now, has a small system. The entire renovation will take place The J. M. McDonald Planetarium in Hast- model situated in Torre Guevara. It is a model this summer, with the planetarium scheduled ings, Nebraska, is offering a new format of GOTO Ex-3 managed by Associazione Lucana to reopen in September. show this spring. The presentation consists di Astronomia. In the site is also available an Renovations are also taking place at the of two parts: first, The Sky Tonight, a live tour Observatory with a Ritchey Cretien telescope planetarium at Mayo High School in Roches- of the current sky, lasting a maximum of 20 of 400 mm. ter, Minnesota. They are installing new chairs, minutes, followed by a short pre-recorded The next meeting of Italian planetarians a student feedback system, a new cove LED show, Skywatch, which will last up to 10 min- will be held on 7 October in Milan at the Ul-

June 2007 Planetarian 4 rico Hoepli Planetarium, the biggest in Italy. ed to participant presentations of own plan- ent Framtidsmuseet staff. Here the 1990 IPS The new standing rules of the National Asso- etariums and activities, discussion of the rap- Conference took place. ciation of Italian Planetariums will be present- idly changing planetarium world, and a short The Nordic Planetarium Association is ed during this 22nd meeting. See also www. membership meeting. On Sunday afternoon, growing and has recently welcomed its first planetaritaliani.it. an optional trip is planned to the pedestrian member from Latvia, Tehnoannas Pagra- park (the Bear Park) in Grönklitt in the town bi, the Children’s Science Center, in Riga. In Middle Atlantic Planetarium of Orsa. A new science center and a planetar- charge of the center’s planetarium is Dace Society ium at Skeer called Backyard Cosmos is pres- Balode, who reports: “Yes, we have a plane- MAPS members are eagerly looking for- ently planned. It will not be completed for the tarium—the only planetarium in Latvia. It is ward to the joint meeting of MAPS, SEPA, and conference, but there will be a 5 m Eurodome a small one with a projector from Japan and GLPA 9-13 October 2007 at the Oglebay Resort planetarium present at the conference site. inflatable dome from Spain. In a container, & Conference Center in Wheeling, West Vir- The conference language is English. we are still keeping the big and old planetar- ginia. See page 53 for complete details. Registration cost is €110 and includes all ium, which worked in Soviet times in a place The passing of two important MAPS mem- meals, the NPA membership fee for 2007 (€10), that is now the orthodox church. We are plan- bers is sadly noted. The end of January saw the passing of Helmut K. Wimmer, art coordinator for the American Museum-Hayden Plan- etarium, and Dr. R. Erik Zimmerman, former director of the Novins Planetarium. An excellent obituary for Helmut Wimmer written by Ken Franklin appeared in the March Plan- etarian and also is available on the MAPS website. A memorial service for Erik Zimmermann was held 19 May at Ocean County College in Tom’s River, New Jersey. Dr. Zimmerman, the long time director of the Novins Planetarium, held various important MAPS positions and was awarded the society’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 2006. A one-day PIPS Meeting (Powerful Interac- tive Planetarium Systems) is being planned for 23 July at the Suits-Bueche Planetarium at the Schenectady Museum. The tentative agenda includes a demonstration of the GOTO Chro- nos star projector, a planetarium show, Star- lab lessons, classroom activities, tours of the museum, and a guest speaker. For more information, contact Steven Russo, planetarium manager, Suits-Bueche Planetarium, Schenect- The planetarium of Tehnoannas Pagrabi, Riga, Latvia. Courtesy of Technoannas Pagrabi. ady Museum, Schenectady, New York 12308, phone (1) 518-382-7890 ext. 253, www.schenectadymuseum.org, russo@schenectadymu- and VAT. Early registration is encouraged, but ning to make a museum for this old one. There seum.org. please don’t submit your registration form are regular sessions in our small planetarium.” later than 27 August. After registration, an in- Ms. Balode is co-opted onto the board of NPA. Nordic Planetarium Association voice will be sent to you and should be paid See also www.pagrabi.lv. Per Broman and Eva Berg invite you to this no later than 6 September. Correspondence year’s NPA Conference in Skeer, Orsa, Sweden is by means of email with Per Broman, pbr@ Pacific Planetarium Association 7-9 September. Skeer is a place of great astro- planetarium.se. Those wishing to give a 15- Pacific Planetarium Association cordial- nomical and geological interest, since it is sit- minute presentation should send a short ab- ly invites everyone to the Great Western Al- uated inside the remains of the largest mete- stract with their registration. For travel, near- liance Conference in Fairbanks, Alaska 20-22 orite impact crater in Europe, the Siljan Ring by Mora is connected with direct trains from September 2007. For complete details, see page in the heart of the province Dalarna. The cra- Stockholm-Arlanda International Airport and 53. ter itself has a diameter of 65 km, and Skeer is transportation from Mora will be provided. Going north in the Bay Area, Darryl Stan- situated on the side of the recoil mountain in Local nearby hotels start at €50 per night. ford reports that the College of San Mateo has the middle of the crater. From there you have On 29 November 2006, Framtidsmuseet— entered a whole new world of technology on a wonderful view of a big portion of the Cra- the Futures’ Museum—in Borlänge, Sweden, 23 February in their newly-refurbished plan- ter Mountains towards west. The meteorite commemorated its 20th anniversary. From etarium. Their planetarium increased in seat- impact took place about 365 million years ago the original project group who created the ing by eight seats. They also have a new GOTO at the end of the Devon era. At that time there museum, three members were present: Mar- Chronos and E&S D3 SP-Hybrid. All of Stan- was a mass extinction of life on Earth. iana Back, Lars Broman, and Mats Rönnelid. ford’s classes, over 300 students, have a class The conference will start out rather infor- The leader of the project group, Erik Hofrén, in the planetarium. CSM has an outreach pro- mally in the evening 7 September. The actual was also present, but in the form of a taped gram where elementary students may partici- conference runs all day 8 September and until message. Over 100 persons participated in the pate through fieldtrips. The San Mateo Coun- noon on 9 September. Sessions will be devot- joyous event, very well directed by the pres- ty Astronomical Society meets there once a

46 Planetarian June 2007 Children participating in the Ama- of one of the eclipse phases. Perm inhabitants teur Astronomer Coterie of the Nizh- were aware of the solar eclipse from the infor- ny Novgorod Planetarium are star- mation by the Perm Planetarium staff on ra- ring in the planet discussion show. dio and TV. Some brought their pictures of Each of them delivered a short pre- the eclipse to be posted on the planetarium sentation on one of the solar system web site. planets. One of the old-established tradi- Southeastern Planetarium tions is to organize amateur astrono- Association mer conferences twice a year at the Effective with the spring 2007 issue of the time of equinox. The vernal equinox SEPA Journal, Southern Skies, advertising was conference was held on 21 March. included. This is the first time in more than As usual, schoolteachers, school- three decades of publication that the journal children, and amateur astronomers contained paid advertising. The following in- were invited. The conference sched- formation is furnished to vendors wishing ule included lectures on ebb and to place advertising in the quarterly journal: flow phenomena, evolution of the Rates US $100 full-page, $50 half-page, and $25 Earth-Moon system, contemporary quarter-page. Rates are per issue and in black & model of the Universe, and “AE Aqr- white copy. The entire back cover rate is $150, the Unique Binary,” delivered by Ni- which appears in color. A 10% discount to any zhny Novgorod physicists and astro- size ad can be offered only with a year’s (four physicists. issues) commitment of advertising. At Kirov Planetarium, the first run Ad copy may be sent to James Sullivan, of the new fairy-tale show The New Southern Skies Editor, [email protected], Year Adventures of Numie and Nick address Buehler Planetarium, 3501 SW Da- was delivered at the very beginning vie Road, Davie, Florida 33314, USA. Payment of 2007. The show began under the may be sent to Mickey Jo Sorrell, SEPA Sec- dome as a story about the cosmic retary/Treasurer, [email protected], ad- journey of the earthen boy Nick and dress Morehead Planetarium & Science Cen- the alien girl Numie. Then they re- ter, CB#3480 UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Photo caption: College of San Mateo planetarium. Courte- turned to Earth and got in the New Deadlines for copy and payment are the same sy of Darryl Stanford. Year ball. Then the action proceeded as for submission of articles. Further informa- month, and on the first Friday of the month, on the stage, where children from the tion regarding SEPA is available at the website scientists from the Bay Area speak to the gen- dance group Zabava (Amusement) were star- sepadomes.org. eral public. There is also a state-of-the-art ob- ring as actors and dancers, followed by Santa servatory that can be used for Astronomy Day Claus and the Princess of the Ball. Southwestern Association of and other astronomical events. There were excellent conditions to observe Planetariums Going south in California to San Diego, it is the partial solar eclipse at Perm Region on 19 The Brazoport Center for the Arts & Science heard from the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center March. The rising Sun was already eclipsed. Museum and Planetarium, located in Brazoria that they have converted its automation sys- Engineer Vladimir Kamalov took a picture County, was fortunate to receive a large dona- tem to a Sky-Skan SPICE system. New device controllers and a new dimmer system for theatre lighting were also installed, along with a touch screen interface at the console. More upgrades are planned in the months ahead. Thanks to a partnership with San Diego Gas and Electric and the City of San Diego, Fleet Science Center installed over 1300 square me- ters (13,000 square feet) of solar panels on its roof that are capable of generating over 100 kilowatts at peak production. Besides providing clean energy, this will also be a centerpiece for an upcoming interactive exhibition on al- ternative energy called “So, Watt!” scheduled to open in August 2007. The Fleet will eventually be certified as a Green Building.

Russian Planetarium Association International Planetarium Day was celebrated at the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium on 18 March 2007. That day their visitors enjoyed both first-run shows, Looking for a Blue Planet and Children Discussing the Planets, and the best shows from the current repertoire. Children at Kirov Planetarium. Photo by T. Zhbannikova.

June 2007 Planetarian 4 7 tion of dinosaur artifacts which doubled their will be returned back to the state. the future of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of total collection. Since then, they have remod- The Burke Baker Planetarium at the Hous- Knowledge and Skills) test. The preparation for eled the lobby and displays in front of the ton Museum of Natural Science staff is work- the TAKS effects many educators at museums planetarium and exhibit halls. On a different ing with Paul Bourke from Australia in devel- and planetariums in Texas. As of 20 March, note, Brazoria County Commissioners voted oping new ways of playing fulldome movies the Senate version of the bill was considered to discontinue development of a space port using a spherical mirror projection system. in a public hearing and testimony was taken for fears of having a negative environmental These new advances bring down the operat- in committee. At press time the session is in impact on the surrounding countryside. The ing cost of fulldome movie playback for plan- a break and more information will be updat- Texas Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport was vot- etariums. ed later. Please contact Butterfield at tbutter- ed down 4-1. The project had received two In a previous article, Tony Butterfield had [email protected] for detailed information. I state grants for a total of $700,000. By shutting mentioned the Texas Legislation was in ses- down the project, $100,000 of unused money sion and one of the items to be discussed was

Filling In: What I Didn’t Learn in Kindergarten, I Learned From Robert’s Rules I’ve been perusing the 10th edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly everyone knows what to do. This system would be like a yacht that Revised (published by Perseus Books Group, 2000). Why isn’t this stuff won’t get knocked over if people stand up. taught in school? The IPS By-Laws and Rules are available on the IPS website, at www. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for bending a rule or two. Of course, ips-planetarium.org/or/rules/bylaws.html and www.ips-planetarium. it’s essential to know what the rules are in the first place in order to org/or/rules/rules.html know if, how, and when to bend them (and by how much). I recommend getting yourself a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly When there are no rules—or they are unidentified or inaccessible— Revised. At a cost between $25 and $18, it’s a great investment. It’s chock then no one knows what to do. The whole system is like a canoe set full of interesting stuff, and despite its 800 pages, it is quite readable. adrift at sea in a precarious state of balance. The craft and its crew may There’s even a separate handy In Brief guide that can be had for about do fine for a long long time, even making their way from place to place. seven bucks, and contains a fabulous overview. Yet if someone should dare to rise to their feet, there’s a good chance Periodically, I’ll pull out an idea from this manual of parliamentary that simple action would unwittingly rock the boat. procedure so we can all learn more. I When there is a firm foundation of rules and guidelines, then Stephanie Parello

48 Planetarian June 2007 Planetarians’ Calendar of Events

2007 ference (all planetariums west of the Missis- 23 March. International Day of Plane- 16-20 July. Spitz Digital Institute, Chadds sippi River), Fairbanks, Alaska. Contact: Gail taria Ford, Pennsylvania, USA, Contact: Joyce Chaid [email protected] 15-19 June. 5th Science Centre World Con- Towne at [email protected] or www. 7 October. XXII National Meeting of Ital- gress, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. spitzinc.com/institute ian Planetaria, Ulrico Hoepli Planetarium, 15-20 June. 19th International Planetari- 16-20 July. STARLAB Digital Institute, Milan, Italy, www.planetaritaliani.it um Society Conference, Adler Planetarium, Chadds Ford, PA, USA, Trish Adamo at tada- 9-13 October. Triple Conjunction Plan- Chicago. [email protected] or www.starlab.com/slds et-arium Conference with the Mid-Atlantic 22-26 July, Southeastern Planetarium As- 20-22 July. DomeFest, Albuquerque, New Planetarium Society (MAPS), Southeastern sociation (SEPA) annual conference, The La- Mexico, USA. Showcase of world’s best and Planetarium Association (SEPA), and Great fayette Natural History Museum & Plane- innovative fulldome productions. More in- Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA). Host: tarium, Lafayette, Louisianna, USA. Contact: formation at www.domefest.com Benedum Planetarium, Benedum Natural [email protected]. 23 July. PIPS meeting for small and por- Science Center, Oglebay Resort, Wheeling, 18-21 October. Association of Science- table planetarium directors in Schenecta- West Virginia USA. Contact: Steve Mitch, Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Confer- dy, New Jork. Contact Steve Russo at russo@ [email protected], www.oglebay- ence, The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, schenectadymuseum.org. resort.com/goodzoo/planetarium.htm Pennsylvania, USA. www.astc.org 4-5 August. International Planetarium So- 13-16 October. Association of Science- ciety Council Meeting, Rio de Janeiro Plane- Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Confer- Deadlines for “A Week in Italy” tarium, Brazil. Host: Alexandre Cherman. ence, California Science Center, Los Angeles, 31 August 2007, planetarians from France 6-8 September. Forth European Meeting California, USA. www.astc.org 30 September 2007, planetarians from for Itinerant Planetaria: Bratislava, Slovaki. 15 October. ASTC Fulldome Showcase, Spain Contact Vidovenec Marian at emails mari- Griffith Planetarium, Los Angeles For more information on the “Week in It- [email protected] and marianvi- 31 December. Deadline for entries for the aly, go to: www.astrofilibresciani.it/Plane- [email protected]; see also www.suh. 2007 IPS/Eugenides Foundation Scriptwrit- tari/Week_in_Italy/-Week_Italy.htm sk/ips2007 ing Competition. 7-9 September. Nordic Planetarium Asso- ciation Biennal Conference in Orsa, Sweden. 2008 Information from Per Broman at pbr@plan- January. Nordic Planetarium Conference, For corrections and new information for etarium.se. Jaermuseet, Stavanger, Norway. Host Ivar the Calendar of Events, please send a message 20-22 September. Western Alliance Con- Nakken, [email protected]. to Loris Ramponi at [email protected]. I

Left: The Zeiss IX projector at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium at Griffith. The Planetarium also uses an Evans and Sutherland D3 system. Right: Exhibits inside the Griffith Observatory.

(George, continued from page 49) Coming Up: will also see the installation of a new interac- 119th Annual Meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and tive science centre. More later, but for now ASP EPO Conference the Planetarium is continuing to operate in September 5-7, 2007 at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL its original location. So, if any of you are plan- Co-hosted with the Adler Planetarium ning a visit to Tasmania, do let me know! At a For complete details: latitude of 41.5 degrees south, ours is one of the southernmost planetariums in the world. I www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html

June 2007 Planetarian 4 to be precise to avoid single color spillover in that Amsterdam’s Artis Planetarium, located the projection. No masking technology was in the Artis Royal Zoo, was set to open a defin- What’s New available, which wasn’t a problem since CRT iti theater with two Sony SXRD projectors and systems have an easier time avoiding GROD. definiti HD lenses—the first permanent instal- But with manufacturers switching from CRT lation of SXRD in Europe—in May 2007! And to liquid crystal display, digital light process- following up on a successful demo last year ing, or liquid crystal on silicon projectors, in Athens, Sky-Skan is debuting definiti 3D. planetarians now have a problem in replacing This theater has stereo 3D from Infitec, and of or installing video projectors in their theaters. course the usual software and hardware up- These new, less expensive projectors have grades needed to make it work in a dome. The GROD issues. effect, according to Sky-Skan, is full color and SEOS seems to have numbered the days of very smooth. GROD, thanks to a fix already familiar to any For more information, contact Sky-Skan at planetarian who uses slide film projectors—an 51 Lake Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060 active masking system inside the video pro- USA; phone (1) 603-880-8500, fax (1) 603-882- jector! 6522; USA toll-free 1-800-880-8500; email of- This is the basis for the SEOS Zorro® pro- [email protected]; web www.skyskan.com. jector. Developed to fill a client’s need to sim- ulate a dark environment for night vision NanoSeam: Seamless Dome training, SEOS came up with a masked vid- Technology eo projector with high contrast and the ca- The folks in Chadds Ford have been talk- pability to project ultra black. Unlike video ing about a different type of all-dome: not black, which to many planetarians is like an projectors, but the dome itself. They call it John Schroer unmasked text slide, ultra black is the video NanoSeam, which gives your theater a seam- Dassault Systèmes equal of a well-masked slide. There is nothing less screen. NanoSeam has a uniform appear- seen on the dome. ance because each panel of the dome is com- Planetarium The Zorro, based on LCoS technology, has (Please see What’s New on page 54) The New Detroit Science four panels. All three color sources or panels (red, green, and blue) are passed Center through to a fourth LCoS chip that 5020 John R Street serves as an active mask. Each pixel not above a certain brightness is actively Detroit, Michigan 48202 blocked, giving the Zorro its amazing USA capability for black. I was very impressed by the Zorro [email protected] projector. The recent technology dem- [email protected] onstration I attended started with the (1) 313-577-8400, Ext. 435 audience sitting in the dark for five minutes. Then we were informed that the Zorro projector had been on the en- Zorro Battles GROD tire time! It truly produces spectacular Since video projectors entered the plane- black levels within a dome. Many of tarium field, they have had one problem: the the planetarians on hand described the Grey Rectangle of Death (GROD)! Whenever projection as being equal to a text slide a video projector was not being fed a signal, made with Kodalith. this apparition would stain the pristine sky of By the way, in case the name sounds the planetarium. Methods such as motorized familiar to you, Zorro is a registered masks to block GROD have been discussed in trademark of Zorro Productions, Inc., the pages of this journal, but this is not the and SEOS has licensed its use. cure for GROD. For more information, contact: Before the arrival of video, planetarians Alan Caskey, Visualization Sales Di- projected still images with slide projectors. To rector, Americas SEOS Limited, office eliminate any grayness from the slide, a mask- (1) 519-746-2147; cell (1) 519-635-3243; ing fluid was used, and today, many planetar- and fax (1) 407-262-002; email alan.cas- ians use two film chips stacked into a single [email protected] or visit them on the web slide mount, either as a double chip or as an at www.seos.com. image with mask. Digital images permit the use of software such as Adobe Photoshop to definiti and definiti 3D create perfect masks. But how does one create Sky-Skan has been busy lately show- a mask for video? ing off its new fulldome systems—defin- Most video projectors found in planetar- iti and definiti 3D. Sky-Skan renamed its iums use three cathode ray tubes to produce theater product definiti, so theaters that red, green, and blue images. The three images used to be referred to as a DigitalSky Top: An image of the output of the new difiniti system are mixed when the light hits the dome. The digital theater or other names are now to the dome; courtesy Sky-Skan. Bottom: Spitz’s new alignment (or collimation) of these tubes had definiti theaters. Sky-Skan announced NanoSeam dome; photo by author

50 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 5 52 Planetarian June 2007 Get Set For:

Great Western Alliance Triple Conjunction in Conference in Alaska West Virginia September 20-22 October 9-13

istockphoto.com

The Pacific Planetarium Association cordially invites every- The Benedum Planetarium, located at the Oglebay Resort and one to the Great Western Alliance Conference in Fairbanks, Alas- Conference Center in Wheeling, West Virginia will be the host ka 20-22 September 2007. Formal registration packets have already planetarium for the “Triple Conjunction” Conference of the Middle gone out to all members of the WAC: the Pacific Planetarium As- Atlantic Planetarium Society, the Great Lakes Planetarium Associa- sociation, the Rocky Mountain Planetarium Association, the Great tion and the Southeastern Planetarium Association, October 9-13. Plains Planetarium Association, and the Southwestern Association This “Triple Conjunction” conference is setting history for these of Planetariums, plus some interested members of IPS and other re- three regions, as it is the first time that all have joined together for gions. Everyone is invited and welcome. Information and registra- one conference. The three regions are home to more than 900 plan- tion forms are on a new website, wap-con.org. etariums and represent every state east of the Mississippi River. Registration is $175, and includes the September 19 evening re- Host for the conference is Steven Mitch, director of the Benedum ception, bus transportation to Poker Flats Thursday night, and bus Planetarium, who says “we are anticipating an excellent turn out transportation to/from the University of Alaska on Friday plus for this conference, which be held, hopefully, during the peak of breakfast, lunch, and dinner through Friday night’s banquet and the fall foliage season in northern West Virginia.” Saturday morning’s box breakfast. Thursday dinner will be “on your own” depending on the option you choose for that evening. A Rustic Lodge in Wheeling, West Virginia Two of the three days of the conference will be based at the con- Wheeling is located at 40° north latitude on the eastern bank of ference hotel, the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks. The conference rate the Ohio River, the natural border between all three regions. Ogle- for the Westmark is $68 per room per night. Register for the confer- bay Resort is a 1,800-acre family resort with many recreational and ence rate with our event planner, Susan Kramer. Instructions, forms, educational activities. The host hotel will be the rustic Wilson and a calendar are online at wap-con.org. Deadline for the discount Lodge (www.oglebay-resort.com). registration rate is August 1, 2007. After that date, registration goes The lodge has blocked 185 rooms for the conference, and rates up and hotel rooms may not be available at that conference rate. are $99 per night for the standard rooms and $129 per night for the Alaska Airlines is offering a 10% discount to conference participants intermediate rooms. Premium rooms are available, if requested, (see the conference website for details). The website will be updated starting at $216 per night and up. Please note that the deadline for to reflect the agenda, speakers, and time schedule as we get closer to guaranteed room reservations at Wilson Lodge is August 9, 2007. Re- the conference dates and we receive requests from participants for maining rooms will be released after that date. The locations of oth- their presentations, workshops and talks. er hotels in the area will be posted with the conference registration materials online. A Trip to Poker Flat The conference registration fee is $225, which includes opening The third day, Saturday, will take place at the Museum of the reception, four breakfasts, three lunches, Thursday dinner and Fri- North on the University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus. Dr. Neal day banquet. Conference registrations materials and forms to mem- Brown, chairperson, has made arrangements for participants take a bers of the three regions and conference vendors were been mailed free bus to the university on Saturday morning. He has also made ar- in mid-May. rangements for participants to see Poker Flat Research Range, where Conference registration materials are posted online in PDF for- sounding rockets are launched to study aurora. That bus excursion mat on each of the three regional websites: MAPS at www.maps- is on Thursday night, September 20. planetarium.org, then scroll to “triple conjunction conference”; The WAC 2007 conference includes special invited speakers. Dr. GLPA at www.glpaweb.org, then select the conference button; and Scott Sandford, senior member of NASA-Ames Astrochemistry Lab- SEPA, www.sepadomes.org/conference. Each of these sites has a ten- oratory and associate editor of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary tative conference agenda listed or a link to a site. The agenda is sub- Science, will speak and give a workshop. He is a co-investigator on ject to change. the Stardust Discovery mission that collected samples from Comet Speakers for the conference include: David Levy, renowned com- Wild-2 using aerogel. The sample return capsule landed in Salt Flats, et hunter and author; Charles Wood, author of Sky & Telescope’s “Ex- Utah and Dr. Sandford was one of the first off the helicopter at the ploring the Moon” articles and a member of the Cassini Imaging return site. He is also a co-investigator on the Japanese-led Hayabusa Team; and James B. Kaler, author and astronomy professor emeritus, Mission and the principal investigator on several concept missions University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Dr. James Switzer will be

(Please see WAC on page 54.) (Please see Triple on page 54.)

June 2007 Planetarian 5 (WAC, continued from page 53)

designed to determine the nature, abundance, and distribution of organic materials in space. Dr. Sandford will be at the conference for all three days and will be available to answer questions and have informal conversations about his many projects. For more information about him, go to his biography at www.astro- chem.org/scottbio.html. Dr. David Koch, deputy principal investigator for the Kepler Mission, will speak about extrasolar planets and the Kepler Mis- sion (kepler.nasa.gov). Former PPA presidents Edna DeVore, deputy Chief Executive Officer at SETI, and Alan Gould from Law- rence Hall of Science will also be in attendance to talk about the Kepler Mission.

Focus on Climate Change Here is a sample of Jeff Bowen’s new 16-bit LED cove lights. One of the many Many scientists from the University of Alaska Geophysical In- features in this system is the capability to display the spectrum or rainbow! This wowed the crowd at the Adler Planetarium’s recent Technology Day. Along stitute and the International Arctic Research Center will speak with the ability to produce pure colors and do chases and other lighting ef- about Global Climate Change. The presentations will help at- fects, this new system can be faded up or down very smoothly. A 30-second tendees understand the scientifically documentable changes in fade up to 20 percent brightness and a 30-second fade down to black was silky climate, particularly in the circumpolar regions of Earth. These smooth. Photo by author. presentations will involve computerized virtual material that can be adapted for digital and video planetarium shows. (What’s New, continued from page 50) There is a pre-conference tour from Anchorage to Denali Na- pletely flush with the other panels around it. The panels are mounted in tional Park. The 6-hour bus trip for Denali leaves from Anchor- the frame with rivets that are countersunk to match the smooth surface. age at 11 a.m. on 16 September. Participants will stay two nights E&S Spitz recently installed a 19.5 m (64 ft) NanoSeam projection dome in Denali before continuing on the 2-hour trip to Fairbanks on in Europe at an undisclosed military simulator location. Spitz reports that 18 September. Within the park, participants may take the 7-hour it is pleased to be able to share this extraordinary seaming technology Tundra Tour. Night skies in the park should be as spectacular as with the planetarium/fulldome projection community. the wildlife. Another pre-conference option is the trip outside For more information on NanoSeam: contact: Allan Wells at Spitz, Inc., Fairbanks to the famous Chena Hot Springs Ice Hotel. Viewing 700 Brandywine Drive, Chadds Ford Pennsylvania 19317 USA; phone (1) of the spectacular Alaska skies and auroras is possible here, along 610-459-5200. fax (1).610-459-3830; email [email protected]. with the tour of the Ice Museum. This tour is possible at 6 p.m. all week 18-23 September. AstroFX Commander Update Of course, it is hoped that auroras will be seen in the dark sky Bowen Technovation reports it has updated the AstroFX Commander places around Fairbanks. Also celebrated at this conference will control system. Among the upgrades, Commander can now control light- be the International Polar Year, International Heliophysical ing systems without the aid of any external devices. An upgrade path for Year, and the International Geophysical Year, as well as the 50th your AstroFX Commander is available through Bowen Technovation. anniversary of Sputnik. People and scientists in Fairbanks were All of Bowen Technovation’s planetarium shows are now available in the first to make visual and radio interferometer observations of full dome format, as well as being available for traditionally-equipped the- Sputnik after its launch 4 October 1957. aters. For more information or for a formal registration packet, call Gail For more information, contact Bowen Technovation, 7999 East 88th Chaid, Independence Planetarium, San Jose, California, (1) 408-928- Street, Indianapolis, Indiana USA 46256; phone (1) 317-863-0525; email 9604 or email [email protected]. A registration packet can also be [email protected]. requested at the website along with PDF forms, at wap-con.org. I

Fulldome Night Sky (Triple, continued from page 54) Mark and Carolyn Petersen have something new for fulldome theaters that is a staple for traditional planetariums: shows that give your fulldome the banquet speaker. Dr. Switzer is with Science Communica- audiences a tour of the night sky. These shows are narrated by either a tions Consultants and formerly worked with the Adler Planetar- male or female voice, and each come in two lengths. The mini shows are ium in Chicago and the American Museum of Natural History, seven minutes in length and concentrate on the sky view from the city. Rose Center in New York City. The full shows are twice as long (14 minutes each) and include the view of Sue Reynolds Button, IPS president and author of the “Mobile the evening sky from the city and a darker countryside location. News” column article in the Planetarian, is organizing a portable The show package offers 16 versions: a show for each season featur- dome workshop as part of the conference. Four inflatable domes ing either the female or male narrator and both mini or full versions. will be on hand for activities and demonstrations. You may preview Loch Ness’s seasonal STARGAZING by visiting lochness- A trip to the Buhl Planetarium at the Carnegie Science Cen- productions.com/shows/ssg/ssg.html. Here you may download a 10-min- ter in Pittsburgh is planned for Thursday, October 11. Talks and ute show demo, access print-friendly flyers, and place your order online. vendor demonstrations will continue there and those attend- For more information, contact Loch Ness Productions, Carolyn Collins ing will have a chance to explore the science center. A dinner is Petersen at [email protected]; Post Office Box 1159, Gro- planned at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Thurs- ton, Massachusetts 01450-3159 USA; phone (1) 978-448-3666; fax (1) 978-448- day evening. 3799; USA toll-free 1-888-4-NESSIE. The nearest major airport is Pittsburgh International Airport, Happy Winter Solstice to everyone in the Southern Hemisphere, and 60 minutes from Wheeling. The airport has all of the major car Happy Summer Solstice to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere! I rental companies on or close to the property. I

54 Planetarian June 2007 June 2007 Planetarian 5 Whenever I found myself in the dome with that you fry your sausages on it.” Last Light an unknown class, I started off with a quick “Yes, but what is it?” and simple quiz, so that the pupils could show She had four years before she would go to off with their knowledge. I gradually made the big school and do chemistry. the questions more searching. “It is a gas we call methane.” Sometimes I ended up by saying, “You “Yes, but what IS it?” she insisted. “What is know it all. Why am I here?” methane?” The response was usually a satisfied giggle. I was stumped. How do you explain what This relaxed the class and a brilliant session methane is so that she could understand and ensued. be satisfied? All this preparation, of course, pre-supposed “Well,” I said again, deep in thought. “It is that the class was homogeneous and that the sometimes called natural gas.” general development level was similar. Was she satisfied? No, she was not. Now, consider this situation: a primary “What’s natural gas?” she persisted. school situated in the Vale of York. The area is Now, I was stuck. “Where do I go from rural and the village small, so small that the lo- here?” I thought. But in for a penny, in for a cal education authority and the village coun- pound. I waded in. cil were constantly warring about the pro- “You know how little Johnny at the back posed school closure. One consequence of this of the class makes a rude noise with his bot- small size was that the class was a “family unit” tom?” I asked. The class was by now sitting and instead of all being roughly the same age, up and paying very close attention. This was April S. Whitt the pupils were of mixed ages and had reached their territory. You did not have to be an Ein- Fernbank Science Center different stages of development. stein for this. I decided to aim at the level of the young- “Yes,” she said. “We have a little Johnny and 156 Heaton Park Drive NE est and invited the older ones to chip in from he is always making rude noises.” Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA time to time and try to keep everyone on “Well then, that’s natural gas. It comes from board. animals and plants.” [email protected] The teacher wanted a programme which She was truly puzzled but the class was included a show about the planets, so I gave buzzing. Happy solstice, dear readers. This issue’s col- them my number one lecture. I went through “But what’s that got to do with the icing on umn is about education. All of us are involved how the stars were formed from their nebulae that moon?” she demanded. with education some way. Maybe our plan- and explained that probably most stars would “What am I getting into here?” I asked my- etarium is part of a school or school system. have a family of planets. Then, in some detail, self. “Where are we going?” Maybe we’re the local expert on matters astro- I went through the planets one by one, with But bravely, I answered, “If little Johnny nomical, answering the phone calls from the a quick addendum about their moons, some- was sitting on that moon, it would be so cold public who want to know what that bright thing most of you will have done time after that the gas which comes out would freeze light is in the night sky. Many of us write col- time. The intelligence level of the pupils was and make that pink icing.” umns for local newspapers and magazines, or quite high and they paid close attention to ev- “That should do it,” I thought, but I was sad- develop programming for school or public erything I said. Towards the end of the plan- ly mistaken. The class dissolved into hilarious groups. et series, we came to the amazing picture of laughter, but the poor girl burst into a genuine A local university professor works with one of Neptune’s moons, Triton. I explained flood of tears, so that her teacher and I became groups of in-service and pre-service teachers, that the temperature was so low that if it went very concerned. and uses Fernbank’s telescope as part of the much lower it would reach a point where it “What is the matter, love?” I asked. “What class. At the end of each semester, the teach- could be no lower. The kids had never heard have I said to upset you?” ers give presentations about their projects, and of the concept of absolute zero. No answer came for quite some, time whilst the science center staff is invited to listen. The image showed the frozen surface and the rest of the class was rolling around the One teacher began her presentation with, the pole covered with a frozen pinkish ice floor in merriment. “What is it love? Why are “We really didn’t know much about astrology and black smoke coming away from various you crying?” before this class,” to which her instructor re- points on the ice cap. The answer came through, punctuated by plied, “I hope you know even less now.” “Where are the clouds?” asked one student, her sobs, and I had to explain that the temperature was “It’s me berfday tomorrow and I am having HHH so low that all the material which could make pink icing on me cake!” what we would consider normal clouds was And an offering from Ray Worthy, with a frozen into solid matter. tale from The Tiny School: There was an 8-year-old girl on the floor Any experienced teacher or planetarium next to me. She had taken an avid interest all operator will tell you that one of the most the way through, constantly asking pertinent important aspects of programme prepara- questions. At this point however, her already tion is getting the intellectual level of the pro- high interest was cranked up a few gears. gramme matched with the mental develop- “What is that stuff?” she asked. ment of the class. I have seen several instances “What particular stuff do you mean?” where the matching was either poor or non- “That icing stuff.” existent and there was absolutely no rapport “Well,” said I, “It is a stuff which on Earth One source of Earth’s methane. Drawing by between the operator and the class. would be a gas; a gas which you could burn so Jessie Shanks, used with permission.

56 Planetarian June 2007

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The_Power_of_Experience_AD_ONEPA1 1 4/20/2007 5:13:36 PM