planetarium

planetarium, theatre devoted to popular education and entertainment in astronomy and related fields, especially space science, and traditionally constructed with a hemispheric domed ceiling that is used as a screen onto which images of stars, planets, and other celestial objects are projected. The term planetarium may also refer to an institution in which such a theatre functions as the principal teaching arrangement or to the specialized projector employed. Planetarium is applied in yet another sense to describe computer software or Internet sites that allow the user to simulate views of the night sky and various celestial phenomena.

Permanent planetarium installations vary greatly. Those within a large supporting institution may coexist with extensive exhibit space and museum collections and have sizable professional and support staffs. Their projection theatres can be 25 metres (82 feet) or more in diameter and have capacities in excess of 600 persons. On the other hand, community or local college planetariums may accommodate only small groups of people. In a separate class are portable planetariums comprising inflatable domes and lightweight projectors that can be set up at schools and can hold several dozen students at a time.

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At the heart of every planetarium theatre is the projection instrument. The first modern electromechanical planetarium projector was built by the German optical firm Carl Zeiss in 1923 for the new Deutsches Museum in Munich. Current descendants of these instruments are technically complex, computer-controlled combinations of lamps, lenses, fibre optics, and motor drives designed to place the planets, Sun, and Moon in their correct locations among the stars for thousands of years past and future and to reproduce their motions through the sky, typically as seen from a selected latitude on Earth. The instruments also can add such details as horizon scenes, the Milky Way, nebulae, comets, meteors, and various reference lines and scales used for teaching descriptive astronomy and celestial navigation.

Increasingly, institution-based planetariums are complementing or replacing electromechanical projectors with other technologies, including all-digital projector systems equipped with fish-eye lenses and laser projection systems that scan their images on the screen with colour-controlled laser beams. Digital and laser systems allow a seamless blending of sky images, photos, artwork, video, and computer-generated animations. They also can simulate accurate views from any perspective in space and take viewers on virtual flights through and beyond the solar system and into interstellar and intergalactic space. Variations in screen configuration and seating arrangements also are becoming common, ranging from the traditional horizontal domed screen and concentric seating around a central projector to tilted or distorted domes or giant wraparound screens and auditorium-style seating.

In a typical planetarium theatre, programs—commonly called sky shows—are offered to the public on a regular schedule. Show themes may focus on straightforward astronomical and space topics or take up related issues such as the cosmologies of ancient cultures, the extinction of the dinosaurs, or the future of life on Earth. The trend, especially for large audiences and multiple daily shows, is toward total computer automation of the program, combining visual display, cued music and sound effects, and prerecorded narration. Large planetariums with technologically advanced multimedia installations often supplement their science programs with shows featuring pure entertainment based on light, video, and music. In significant ways, in both technology and public program content, the distinction has lessened between planetarium theatres and other giant-screen “total immersion” entertainment centres.

When the Deutsches Museum’s planetarium, featuring the Zeiss projector, was publicly unveiled in 1923 (two years before the museum’s formal opening), it was described as a “schoolroom under the vault of the heavens.” Special educational sky shows for schoolchildren remain an essential part of the program in most installations; astronomy lectures are given to college classes; and the facilities are commonly used for courses or lectures in adult continuing-education programs.

The term planetarium was originally used to describe a type of mechanical model designed to portray the orbital motions of the planets and their moons. Made for teaching and exhibition, such tabletop devices consisted of small globes, representing the Sun and planets, that were mounted on wire rods supported and geared at a central pedestal. Many included the major moons known at the time of construction. Also called orreries (after the English sponsor of one built in 1712), they could be quite elaborate and accurate.