Our Place in the Universe

CHAPTER 8 — SPACE SCIENCES Our Place in the Universe CHAPTER 8 SPACE SCIENCES Our Place in the Universe Carol Cochran, The Colorado Museum of Natural History, with its collections and exhibits Kim Evans, of natural history specimens, primarily insects, birds, and mammals, David Grinspoon, originally focused on Colorado. Rather quickly it added other disciplines, a Dimitri Klebe, function of collecting or the interests of its visitors. This is how zoology and Steve Lee, earth sciences became Museum core competencies. Space sciences came to Marta Lindsay, be a Museum core competency in a different way. It officially debuted with Dan Neafus, and the hiring of a curator in 1998, followed by a new exhibition, Space Odyssey, Ka Chun Yu which opened in mid-2003. Although this may seem a rather sudden appearance for a new discipline at a century-old museum, space sciences truly entered the scene nearly 50 years earlier in an ordinary room on the Museum’s third floor. The Planetarium The story of space sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science begins with chapters on its Planetarium and its many transformations. Creating an Audience for Space Science, 1955–2000 In 1955, with the cooperation of the Denver Astronomical Society, the Museum installed a planetarium inside a room equipped with chairs, a Spitz Model A-1 “star-ball” type projector, and a 20-foot metal fabric dome (Fig. 8.1). Today, this Planetarium would seem tiny, its technology primitive and obtrusive. Planetariums were relatively new to museums then; only one in five visitors had ever seen a planetarium show.1 Director Alfred M. Bailey intended it as a test of public interest in space, hoping that the Planetarium might prove so popular that eventually a larger one would be built in its own wing of the Museum.2 Bailey did not need to wait long for signs of success. By the next year, weekday shows had been added to those on week- ends, and the total number of performances was exceeded only by New York’s Hayden Planetarium.3 In 1957 the Russians launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik, and the public’s interest in space took off as well. DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE ANNALS | No. 4, December 31, 2013 337 Carol Cochran, Kim Evans, David Grinspoon, Dimitri Klebe, Steve Lee, Marta Lindsay, Dan Neafus, and Ka Chun Yu The Planetarium was remodeled in 1957 and again in 1958, at which time 55,226 visitors had attended a demonstration. Although admission to the rest of the Museum was free, visitors paid a small fee ($.25 for adults and $.10 for children) to enter the Planetarium, thus beginning the tradi- tion of that venue as a revenue source. This first Planetarium established an important, ongoing relationship between the Museum and the Denver Astronomical Society, whose members erected the Planetarium, maintained the equipment, and delivered programs for several years. Entrepreneurs, Showmen, and Educators A number of interesting and talented individuals have managed the Planetarium over the years: William R. Van Nattan (1956–1959), Robert E. Samples (1959–1962), Donald Lunetta (1962–1969), Mark B. Peterson (1969–1982), Larry Sessions (1982–1983), Robert Wallace (1984–1993), Don Asquin (1993–1997), Marta Lindsay (as acting manager 1997–2001), Larry Sessions (as acting manager 1982–1983)m and Dan Neafus (2004–present). Typical of many managerial positions in museums, often these managers were called curators, although there were no collections to take care of (“I was curator of two-dimensional dots on the dome?” joked Peterson).4 Nor did they have extensive backgrounds or advanced degrees in any of the space sciences. But all were Figure 8.1. Star machine in the Museum’s original Planetarium on the knowledgeable and committed amateur astronomers and educators. Judging third floor. from their accomplishments, they were creative, energetic individuals, unafraid to take risks in their efforts to push the boundaries of the contem- porary planetarium and its programming. Until 2000 the Museum had a classic, or analog, planetarium in which a large star projector realistically re-created the appearance of the night sky on the dome above. Visitors looked up at the dome while a narrator operated the machine and talked about the constellations projected there. The view was stunning, but the experience was limited by the capabilities of the technology. From the beginning, Planetarium staff invented ways to overcome those limitations to make the shows more realistic and entertaining. In 1960, for example, Lunetta and his staff recorded natural sounds—nocturnal animals of the Sonoran Desert for A Desert Night and 338 DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE ANNALS | No. 4, December 31, 2013 CHAPTER 8 — SPACE SCIENCES Our Place in the Universe wind, rockfall, a gurgling stream, and dawn birdsong on Mount Evans for A Mountain Night. They created new shows that changed each month. But only so much could be done with the small Planetarium and a small staff whose responsibilities included giving Museum tours to school groups. Lunetta had a much grander vision and was able to sell it to Museum leadership. In 1965 the Museum began planning a new planetarium, to be located, as Bailey had hoped, in its own wing. In 1968 the Charles C. Gates Plan- etarium was dedicated. It was, according to Peterson, “a quantum leap.”5 The theater consisted of a 50-foot-diameter dome with 236 front-facing seats and a computer-controlled star machine. A 22-inch telescope was mounted on the roof; it contained a television camera, allowing the real sky, in real time, to be projected onto the dome below—a first for any planetarium. (Although a good idea, in reality the telescope proved impractical as it was weather dependent and dimmed by the city’s lights and smog; eventually it was transferred to Jefferson County School District’s Mount Evans Outdoor Education Laboratory near Evergreen, Colorado, where it is still in use.) In a little over a year, annual attendance at the new Gates Planetarium had more than tripled that of the old third-floor facility, an increase from about 30,000 to over 100,000.6 In that first year the Planetarium received national attention when Lunetta and NBC-TV commentator John Palmer broadcast live during the flight of Apollo 8 as it journeyed to the moon. A little more than 10 years later, the Planetarium was renovated again, with seats now in a concentric arrangement and a Minolta star projector that could be lowered out of the way if needed. Again, the system was state of the art. Because technology varied from site to site, shows for big planetariums such as Gates were not typically interchangeable, so each planetarium had to custom-design its own programming. That situation suited the free-spirited Planetarium staff, who then as now delighted in pushing the limits of their own and the equipment’s capabilities. They loved technology and they loved production. Especially during the early days in Gates, they produced just about everything in-house: their own art, photography, special effects, and music (on a synthesizer with the help of the University of Denver). Peterson wanted something to happen every 10 seconds in a show, and that required a lot of equipment. At one point the Planetarium had a bank of 72 slide projec- tors and more than 100 other devices for special effects. Often staff designed and built their own equipment or modified existing devices. According to current Planetarium manager Dan Neafus, even today staff often welcome a new piece of equipment by opening it to see what is inside and what might be improved, ignoring the warning “Warranty voided if seal is broken.”7 Planetarium staff also ran their own gift shop and admissions, created their own lobby exhibits, and handled most of their own marketing. One consequence was that the Planetarium became somewhat insular, thought of by both Planetarium and Museum staff as quite separate from the rest DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE ANNALS | No. 4, December 31, 2013 339 Carol Cochran, Kim Evans, David Grinspoon, Dimitri Klebe, Steve Lee, Marta Lindsay, Dan Neafus, and Ka Chun Yu of the Museum. At times this feeling was exaggerated into an “us vs. them” attitude, with the perception that the Planetarium was underappreciated, underfunded, and undersupported. This attitude culminated in a confrontation between Peterson and Museum Director Roy Coy in 1971. Because funding for the Planetarium had diminished, Peterson felt he had to run a show developed by an outside production company. Right up to the preview night for media and VIPs, techni- cians had trouble getting the program to work on the Museum’s system. That night it apparently did not work well, and Coy stopped the show, cleared out the audience, and fired Peterson on the spot. Persuaded by Peterson’s protests, the trustees soon reversed the situation, firing Coy and rehiring Peterson. Gates staff produced excellent programs: in 1977 The Last Question, based on an Isaac Asimov short story and narrated by Leonard Nimoy; Vision Beyond Time, narrated by Orson Wells; and UFOs: Strangers in the Night?, which was distributed to 40 planetariums in the United States and Canada. In 1984, staff presented Zap, a “live” show featuring educational demonstra- Figure 8.2. A young participant dons tions using a large high-voltage Tesla coil which produced lightning-like protective glasses to view a solar electrical discharges. eclipse at a Museum-sponsored event. In 1987 Stars of the Pharaohs was created in support of the Ramses II exhibition; others include Aztec Skywatchers and Dinosaurs. Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego was a collaborative program that had actors interacting with animated video characters.

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