Dome, Sweet, (Portable) Dome

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend WAC – Western Alliance Conference – in Fairbanks, Alaska, and connect with many people from my former career as a planetarium director. Yep, I?m an ex-planetarium director. For more than 2 decades, I taught astronomy and presented planetarium shows under the dome for people from K to gray – students, teachers and the public. In the early 1990s I moved to Lawrence Hall of Science for a year, and then on to the SETI Institute where I direct education and outreach today. I have a fond spot in my heart for people who share their love of science under the dome, and enjoyed attending the meeting.

But, like all technology, things have changed radically since the early 1970?s when I got my start as an assistant at the Sierra College Planetarium in Rocklin, CA. Sierra had a "cutting edge" planetarium: the latest Spitz A-4 optical-mechanical projector, dual back-projection screens, built-in student response systems, and a nice sound system. A few years after I began work there, we added six 35 mm slide projectors around the dome that would cross fade images for the hot, new 3-screen "multimedia" experience. Our offerings expanded from astronomy to nature programming that took people on photographic trips to the redwoods, the California coast, and other scenic areas. College astronomy classes, field-trip groups from schools, and the public all used the planetarium.

In 1977, I graduated, so to speak, and became the director of the Independence High School Planetarium in San Jose, CA. It had the latest "cutting edge" planetarium from Spitz: the 512 ATM-2 which offered automation for shows. And, there were at least 12 35 mm slide projectors, special effects projectors, and such to choreograph. I won?t go into the amount of time spent preparing the visuals for each program (via clever photographic masking techniques and tiny paint brushes used under microscopes ? computer animation was not then available) but I?m getting ahead of my story. After a few years, I added video projection and amassed a collection of laser video disks (the size of LP records) that allowed me to integrate motion video into planetarium programming. We flew over Olympus Mons, and down through Valles Marineris. We crashed into icy moons orbiting Uranus, and peered beneath the clouds that cover Venus. I had video projected on about one-fourth of my dome, just in front of all visitors. It was the "cutting edge" in planetarium programming.