When I was assembling quotes for my recent article, “Planetariums as 21st Century Digital Dioramas” (printed in Informal Learning Review No. 126 and available as a stand-alone article here), I dug up numerous original sources and several quotes that I thought might be of interest to the planetarium community. In particular, I was interested in quotes that reflected contemporary reactions to planetarium experiences—about the verisimilitude of the night sky, etc. So I’ve gathered many of them here, in chronological order. Enjoy!
The first couple of quotes come from a 1927 issue of Natural History, a publication of the American Museum of Natural History, which featured two articles about planetariums. The first, by Willem J. Luyten of the Harvard College Observatory, describes the value of the new projection planetarium; the second, by the Museum’s own astronomy curator Clyde Fisher, takes the form of a short sales pitch.
W.J. Luyten, “The New Projection Planetarium,” Natural History 27 (1927): 383–390
“The New Projection Planetarium,” p. 383:
This “Miracle of Jena,” as Professor Strömgren, director of the Copenhagen Observatory, aptly called the planetarium, at once a school, a theater, and a moving picture, presents to the interested public not only the whole great field of astronomy, but the whole conception of the universe as revealed by many centuries of painstaking labor and study of the astronomers, and it does this in simple, comprehensive form, in the silent language of the stars themselves.
Clyde Fisher, “An Opportunity,” Natural History 27 (1927): 390–391
“An Opportunity,” p. 391:
What field of science offers so great an opportunity to enjoy majestic beauty? What subject helps us more in our natural struggle to comprehend the infinite? What science does most to lift one out of the petty things of everyday life, thus allowing the soul to expand?
Consequently, what greater educational project can be conceived than building and installing the proposed astronomical hall at the American Museum of Natural History? At present, the greatest thing of the kind is in Munich. What an opportunity for some great philanthropist to establish in our metropolis an institution whose educational and inspirational effect upon the people of America would be immeasurable!
I found a variety of quotes in the giant two-page spread that the New York Times devoted to the opening of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium—the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Coincidentally, the author, Waldemar Kaempffert, moved to Chicago around the same time to become the first director of the Museum of Science and Industry. I’m intrigued by his attempts to describe the experience, and I love the Strömgren quote!
Waldemar Kaempffert, “Now America Will Have a Planetarium,” New York Times (June 24, 1928): 115–123
The crowding of hundreds of thousands into large industrial centres is chiefly responsible for the decline of popular interest in the noblest of sciences.
[…]
But as Professor Strömgren, the famous director of the Copenhagen Observatory, has said, “never before has a means of entertainment been provided that is so instructive as this, never one so fascinating, never one with so wide an appeal. It is a school, a theatre, a cinema in one; a schoolroom under the vault of heaven, a drama with celestial bodies as actors.”
[…]
The patient attention to accuracy and detail may be conceived when we remember that nearly five thousand stars can be projected, and that each star is shown in its miniature artificial sky in the proper relative brightness.
[…]
The lights are turned down gradually, just as in a theatre before the curtain rises on a play. Gradually, your eyes accustom themselves to the darkness. You lose all sense of confinement. In some incomprehensible optical way you have been transported out into the open on a marvelously pellucid night. What was once a naked white vault is now the deep blue nocturnal sky, but strangely orbless. A miracle happens. A switch has been thrown, and that cerulean vault suddenly becomes a firmament of twinkling stars. Even trained astronomers who know exactly what to expect cannot suppress a long-drawn “Ah-h-h!” of astonishment and pleasure when they behold this dramatically presented counterfeit of the heavens for the first time.
A hush falls over the spectators. No play is ever more intently followed than this in which constellations, stars, planets, sun and moon enact their parts. The voice of the lecturer is heard from the reading desk, behind which a switchboard is concealed that gives him absolute control over that weird projection apparatus in the middle of the planetarium.
[…]
And this god of the machine makes the heavens do his bidding.
[…]
In presenting Chicago with the first American planetarium Mr. Adler has a deeper purpose than that of teaching astronomy by dramatizing the skies. He realized the need of scientific education, but he realized even more keenly the sense of kindship that underlies research, whether it is conducted by a Hindu or by an American. And so, in donating a planetarium to Chicago, he said: “I wish to emphasize that through this instrument that all mankind, rich and poop, here and abroad, constitute part of one universe, and that, under the vast firmament, there is no division or cleavage but rather interdependence and unity.”
Although I couldn’t find any juicy quotes from it, a 1934 article by the aforementioned Clyde Fisher gives a great, brief overview of the history of planetariums as well as a detailed description of the (at that point) forthcoming Hayden Planetarium. The whole thing is available online:
Clyde Fisher, “The Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History,” Popular Astronomy 42 (1934): 233
The next few quotes come from a special issue of Pacific Discovery magazine, published by the California Academy of Sciences, devoted the newly-opened Morrison Planetarium. The Academy had designed and built its own star projector (the first major American-built instrument of its kind), so in addition to the typical hyperbole about planetariums as presentation spaces, the issue also presented somewhat technical articles that described the fabrication of the projector.
George W. Bunton, “The Heavens in Our Hands,” Pacific Discovery, Vol. 5, No. 6 (1952): 4–9
“The Heavens in Our Hands,” p. 4:
The effect of realism is the keynote of the modern planetarium. In the Planetarium Theater with the waning of the room illumination and the appearance of the starry heavens, the watcher is transported magically to the out-of-doors. His senses interpret the spectacle as the real thing. Tiny spots of light, projected onto the white dome ceiling, resemble the stars themselves to such an extent that one can easily be carried away with the illusion till he feels the chill of the night air.
Leon E. Salanave, “Putting the Stars in the Sky,” Pacific Discovery, Vol. 5, No. 6 (1952): 26–31
“Putting Stars in the Sky,” p. 27:
The large projection lamps are displaced 21.5 inches from the center of the 65–foot dome; it is therefore clear that, as the lenses are projecting off-center, a certain amount of distortion will be produced. The remedy is to displace the plates in their projectors by a calculated amount which will locate the stars in their proper places on the dome.
One of the big jobs in the building of our star projector involved sorting out the stars to be assigned to each of the 32 fields, and then computing the stars’ positions thereon. The vast amount of labor involved in this work was carried out on International Business Machines sorting and calculating devices in the Computing Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.
In connection with the mathematical work, much valuable assistance was given by Dr. Lei and E. Cunningham, associate professor of Astronomy, University of California, and Dr. Paid Morton, professor of electrical engineering in charge of the Computing Laboratory.
Early on in the writing process, I looked to Charles Hagar’s Window to the Universe, published as a promotional piece for Zeiss but containing a priceless snapshot of the planetarium profession circa 1980.
Charles F. Hagar, Window to the Universe, Zeiss (1980)
Window to the Universe, p. 112:
What is the purpose of a planetarium? Man is no longer bound to earth. He walks upon the moon, searches the galaxies, and contemplates the edge of the universe. Yet many people, in their cosmological thinking, are still back in the Middle Ages. Evidence abounds on every side. Consider the current fascination for astrology: that study of supposed planetary influence where one seeks, as Shakespeare said, “…to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!” The planetarium has the obligation to loose man’s mind from the chains of medieval thought, from a geocentric and self-centered view of himself. Man needs the perspective of the astronomer. The great challenge of the planetarium today is to present to people, to the public at large, something of the immensity, the majesty, the order and wonder of the architecture of the cosmos. Its programs must go beyond the restrictions of the naked eye and present the exciting discoveries of contemporary astronomy.
Window to the Universe, p. 112:
There is something about a planetarium environment that is unique, save for the real out-of-doors under nature’s sky. It is this uniqueness that makes the planetarium experience potentially superior to the documentary Film. What is this mysterious quality? From the physical point of view, it is the dimension of space. Under the realistic stars, one soon forgets that he is looking at a projection on a curved surface, for the planetarium sky adds the impression of the third dimension. On a more inspirational level, the planetarium setting, with stars gliding slowly overhead, affords the viewer an opportunity to contemplate the mysteries of creation, to consider the vastness of space, and at the same time to gain some insight into his own relation to time, space, and eternity.
Robert Moses expressed this aspect of the planetarium experience during his remarks at the reopening ceremonies of The American Museum–Hayden Planetarium, New York in 1960 when he said:
“This is an awesome place. Here, as in some vast cathedral, we should experience profound humility in the face of revelation of the supreme work of God… Here the skeptic finds chaos and the believer evidence that the hand that made us is divine.”
I then wanted to leap forward to the opening of the remodeled Rose Center for Earth & Space, and once again, the New York Times provided a quotable snippet.
Malcolm W. Browne, “Where the Sky Is Not the Limit,” New York Times (February 18, 2000)
The domed Space Theater, which is the centerpiece of the Rose Center, the latest branch of the American Museum of Natural History, offers synthetic views of the cosmos far more detailed than the most elaborate Hollywood productions. With the help of a supercomputer, a state-of-the-art Zeiss star projector, an advanced laser system, a gigantic data base (in which the motions and distances of thousands of stars are catalogued) and, of course, the hemispheric Space Theater itself, the builders have created a marvelous celestial playhouse.
More to come…