The University of Washington Planetarium is an active planetarium located in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, WA. The dome is 30 feet in diameter and utilizes six digital projectors to create an interactive display using the Worldwide Telescope planetarium software. [1]
The planetarium was constructed in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium in 1994. It initially featured a Minolta MS-8 starball projector, but in 2009, the University of Washington partnered with the Microsoft Research division to bring the WorldWide Telescope software to the planetarium. The upgrade was completed in 2011, and the transition from physical to digital technology gave the planetarium "a rich and truly interactive experience," according to team member Jonathan Fay at the 2010 Astronomical Society of the Pacific in Boulder, CO. [2] The projector configuration creates an 8-million pixel digital display. [3]
The University of Washington also constructed a mobile planetarium available to faculty and students which is used as an outreach tool to bring astronomy to schools in the Seattle area. [4] The University purchased a Go-Dome mobile planetarium dome and a fish-eye projection lens. [5] Philip Rosenfield, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, wrote a guide for constructing a mobile planetarium with based on the construction of the University of Washington mobile planetarium titled "The University of Washington Mobile Planetarium Do-it-Yourself Guide." [6]
Boyden Observatory is an astronomical research observatory and science education centre located in Maselspoort, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of the city of Bloemfontein in Free State, South Africa. The observatory is managed by the Physics Department of the University of the Free State (UFS). The Friends of Boyden assist the observatory as a public support group, organising open evenings and protecting its public interest. Boyden also makes use of members of ASSA Bloemfontein Centre, the amateur astronomy club of the city, for presenters and telescope assistants.
Stardome Observatory is a public astronomical observatory situated in Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill Domain in Auckland, New Zealand.
UNA Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of North Alabama. It is located in Florence, Alabama (USA). It has 2 telescopes, a Celestron 0.35 m Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. The UNA Planetarium is a 65-seat planetarium with a Spitz A3P projector and East Cost Control Systems controller.
Sommers–Bausch Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on and owned by University of Colorado Boulder. The building was initially completed in 1953 and named after Elmer E. Sommers and Carl L. Bausch.
Armagh Planetarium is a planetarium in Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is located close to the city centre and neighbouring Armagh Observatory in approximately fourteen acres of landscaped grounds known as the Armagh Astropark.
The Theodor Jacobsen Observatory is the on-campus observatory of the University of Washington. Built in 1895, it is the second oldest building on campus and was constructed using the remaining Tenino sandstone blocks from Denny Hall, the oldest and first building on campus. The refracting telescope, enclosed within the dome, has a 6-inch Brashear objective lens of a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount. The observatory also includes a transit room on the west side and a -seat classroom, which was built later, on the south side.
Chabot Space and Science Center, located in Oakland, California, is a center for learning in Earth and space science, which features interactive exhibits, planetariums, a large screen theater, hands-on activities, and three powerful telescopes.
The Rose Center for Earth and Space is a part of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Center's complete name is The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. The main entrance is located on the northern side of the museum on 81st Street near Central Park West in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Completed in 2000, it includes the new Hayden Planetarium, the original of which was opened in 1935 and closed in 1997. Neil deGrasse Tyson is its first and, to date, only director.
Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium is a part of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is an open-source set of applications, data and cloud services, originally created by Microsoft Research but now an open source project hosted on GitHub. The .NET Foundation holds the copyright and the project is managed by the American Astronomical Society and has been supported by grants from the Moore Foundation and National Science Foundation. WWT displays astronomical, earth and planetary data allowing visual navigation through the 3-dimensional (3D) Universe. Users are able to navigate the sky by panning and zooming, or explore the 3D universe from the surface of Earth to past the Cosmic microwave background (CMB), viewing both visual imagery and scientific data about that area and the objects in it. Data is curated from hundreds of different data sources, but its open data nature allows users to explore any third party data that conforms to a WWT supported format. With the rich source of multi-spectral all-sky images it is possible to view the sky in many wavelengths of light. The software utilizes Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine technologies to function. WWT can also be used to visualize arbitrary or abstract data sets and time series data.
In 2011, Chile was home to 42% of the world's astronomical infrastructure, consisting principally of telescopes. In 2015, it was estimated that Chile would contain more than 50% of the global astronomical infrastructure by 2030. In the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days of the year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop highly ambitious astronomical projects in the Atacama desert.
The Nantes Planetarium is a public planetarium that opened on 18 June 1981. It operates as an auditorium that presents astronomy shows for all audiences.
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand or NARIT is a research institute under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, headquartered in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The main missions of the institute are to carry out, support, and promote the development of astronomy and astrophysics in Thailand through research, public outreach, and educational activities.
The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is a single-storeyed circular structure designed in the typical Indian style, whose architecture is loosely styled on the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi. Situated at Chowringhee Road adjacent to the Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Maidan in Central Kolkata, it is the largest planetarium in Asia and the second largest planetarium in the world. There are two other Birla Planetariums in India: B.M. Birla Planetarium in Chennai and the Birla Planetarium in Hyderabad.
The John C. Wells Planetarium is located on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The planetarium first opened at JMU in 1956 under the direction of Dr. John C. Wells, head of the Physics Department. The facility was then moved to Miller Hall and renovated in 1975, later named in honor of Wells on the occasion of his retirement in 1980.
The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is an astronomy centre located at the site of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Headquarters in Garching bei München. It offers exhibitions, guided tours and planetarium shows that feature observations made by the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory.
The Professor Aristóteles Orsini Planetarium, also known as the Ibirapuera Planetarium, is a planetarium in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo. It opened in January 1957, and was the first planetarium in Brazil and Latin America. It is one of three planetaria in São Paulo, with the others being Carmo Planetarium and the Johannes Kepler Planetarium at Sabina Escola Parque do Conhecimento.
Tom Quinn is a professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. He is the leader of the N-Body Shop, a faculty member of the astrobiology program at UW, and an affiliate member at the eScience Institute. He assisted in generating the cosmological simulation code called ChaNGA.