A Brief History of the World’s First Planetarium

In 1912, Oskar von Miller, {an electrical} engineer and founding father of the Deutsches Museum, had an thought: Could you challenge a synthetic starry sky onto a dome, as a means of demonstrating astronomical rules to the general public?

It was such a novel idea that when von Miller approached the Carl Zeiss firm in Jena, Germany, to fabricate such a projector, they initially rebuffed him. Eventually, they agreed, and beneath the steerage of lead engineer Walther Bauersfeld, Zeiss created one thing superb.

The use of fashions to point out the actions of the planets and stars goes again centuries, beginning with mechanical orreries that used clockwork mechanisms to depict our photo voltaic system. A contemporary improve was Clair Omar Musser’s desktop electrical orrery, which he designed for the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.

The projector that Zeiss deliberate for the Deutsches Museum could be way more elaborate. For starters, there could be two planetariums. One would showcase the Copernican, or heliocentric, sky, displaying the celebrities and planets as they revolved across the solar. The different would present the Ptolemaic, or geocentric, sky, with the viewer totally immersed within the view, as if standing on the floor of the Earth, seemingly on the heart of the universe.

The activity of realizing these concepts fell to Bauersfeld, a mechanical engineer by coaching and a managing director at Zeiss.

Zeiss engineer Walther Bauersfeld labored out the electromechanical particulars of the planetarium. In this May 1920 entry from his lab pocket book [right], he sketched the two-axis system for displaying the day by day and annual motions of the celebrities.ZEISS Archive

At first, Bauersfeld targeted on projecting simply the solar, moon, and planets of our photo voltaic system. At the suggestion of his boss, Rudolf Straubel, he added stars. World War I interrupted the work, however by 1920 Bauersfeld was again at it. One entry in May 1920 in Bauersfeld’s meticulous lab pocket book confirmed the earliest depiction of the two-axis design that allowed for the show of the day by day in addition to the annual motions of the celebrities. (The pocket book is preserved within the Zeiss Archive.)

The planetarium projector was the truth is a concatenation of many smaller projectors and a bunch of gears. According to the Zeiss Archive, a big sphere held all the projectors for the mounted stars in addition to a “planet cage” that held projectors for the solar, the moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The fixed-star sphere was positioned in order that it projected outward from the precise heart of the dome. The planetarium additionally had projectors for the Milky Way and the names of main constellations.

The projectors inside the planet cage had been organized in tiers with advanced gearing that allowed a motorized drive to maneuver them round one axis to simulate the annual rotations of those celestial objects towards the backdrop of the celebrities. The total projector may additionally rotate round a second axis, simulating the Earth’s polar axis, to point out the rising and setting of the solar, moon, and planets over the horizon.

The Zeiss planetarium projected onto a spherical floor, which consisted of a geodesic metal lattice overlaid with concrete.Zeiss Archive

Bauersfeld additionally contributed to the design of the encircling projection dome, which achieved its precisely spherical floor by the use of a geodesic community of metal rods coated by a skinny layer of concrete.

Planetariums catch on worldwide

The first demonstration of what grew to become often called the Zeiss Model I projector came about on 21 October 1923 earlier than the Deutsches Museum committee of their not-yet-completed constructing, in Munich. “This planetarium is a marvel,” von Miller declared in an administrative report.

In 1924, public demonstrations of the Zeiss planetarium came about on the roof of the corporate’s manufacturing unit in Jena, Germany.ZEISS Archive

The projector then returned north to Jena for additional changes and testing. The firm additionally started providing demonstrations of the projector in a makeshift dome on the roof of its manufacturing unit. From July to September 1924, greater than 30,000 guests skilled the Zeisshimmel (Zeiss sky) this manner. These demonstrations grew to become casual visitor-experience research and allowed Zeiss and the museum to make refinements and enhancements.

On 7 May 1925, the world’s first projection planetarium formally opened to the general public on the Deutsches Museum. The Zeiss Model I displayed 4,500 stars, the band of the Milky Way, the solar, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Gears and motors moved the projector to duplicate the adjustments within the sky as Earth rotated on its axis and revolved across the solar. Visitors seen this simulation of the night time sky from the latitude of Munich and within the consolation of a climate-controlled constructing, though at first chairs weren’t supplied. (I get a crick within the neck simply fascinated by it.) The projector was bolted to the ground, however later variations had been mounted on rails to maneuver them backwards and forwards. A presenter operated the machine and lectured on astronomical matters, declaring constellations and the orbits of the planets.

Word of the Zeiss planetarium unfold shortly, by postcards and pictures.ZEISS Archive

The planetarium’s affect shortly prolonged far past Germany, as museums and faculties world wide integrated the expertise into immersive experiences for science schooling and public outreach. Each new planetarium was greeted with curiosity and pleasure. Postcards and photos of planetariums (each the distinctive domed buildings and the difficult machines) circulated broadly.

In 1926, Zeiss opened its personal planetarium in Jena based mostly on Bauersfeld’s specs. The first metropolis outdoors of Germany to amass a Zeiss planetarium was Vienna. It opened in a short lived construction on 7 May 1927 and in a everlasting construction 4 years later, solely to be destroyed throughout World War II.

The Zeiss planetarium in Rome, which opened in 1928, projected the celebrities onto the domed vault of the Third-century Aula Ottagona, a part of the traditional Baths of Diocletian.

The first planetarium within the western hemisphere opened in Chicago in May 1930. Philanthropist Max Adler, a former govt at Sears, contributed funds to the constructing that now bears his title. He known as it a “classroom under the heavens.”

Japan’s first planetarium, a Zeiss Model II, opened in Osaka in 1937 on the Osaka City Electricity Science Museum. As its title suggests, the museum showcased displays on electrical energy, funded by the municipal energy firm. The metropolis council needed to be satisfied of the academic worth of the planetarium. But the mayor and different lovers supported it. The planetarium operated for 50 years.

Who doesn’t love a planetarium?

After World War II and the division of Germany, the Zeiss firm additionally cut up in two, with operations persevering with at Oberkochen within the west and Jena within the east. Both branches continued to develop the planetarium by the Zeiss Model VI earlier than shifting the nomenclature to extra unique names, such because the Spacemaster, Skymaster, and Cosmorama.

The two giant spheres of the Zeiss Model II, launched in 1926, displayed the skies of the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Each sphere contained quite a few smaller projectors.ZEISS Archive

Over the years, refinements included elevated precision, the addition of extra stars, computerized controls that allowed the programming of full exhibits, and a shift to fiber optics and LED lighting. Zeiss nonetheless produces planetariums in a wide range of configurations for various measurement domes.

Today greater than 4,000 planetariums are in operation globally. A planetarium is usually the primary place the place youngsters join what they see within the night time sky to a broader science and an understanding of the universe. My hometown of Richmond, Va., opened its first planetarium in April 1983 on the Science Museum of Virginia. That was a bit late within the huge scheme of issues, however simply in time to wow me as a child. I nonetheless bear in mind the primary present I noticed, narrated by an animatronic Mark Twain with a give attention to the 1986 go to of Halley’s Comet.

By then the museum additionally had an enormous OmniMax display screen that allow me soar over the Grand Canyon, watch beavers rework the panorama, and swim with whale sharks, all from the consolation of my reclining seat. No marvel the museum is the place I acquired my begin as a public historian of science and expertise. I started volunteering there at age 14 and have by no means seemed again.

Part of a persevering with collection historic artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of expertise.

An abridged model of this text seems within the May 2024 print problem as “A Planetarium Is Born.”