A Planetarium for the New Millenium

Chabot Observatory & Science Center (located in Oakland, California on the east side of San Francisco Bay and only a bridge away from San Francisco) will open in the year 2000 with one of thle first Zeiss Universarium fiber-optic planetariums in North America. With a 70-foot dome, it will also be the largest planetarium in California. Complementing the Zeiss projector will be a full array of special effects projectors including a laser system by OmniScan, video projectors, and a magnificent sound system. Installation of the Zeiss Universarium will begin in January 2000.

The Universarium projects 9,100 stars down to magnitude 6.5. It also projects 24 deep-sky objects and three active variable stars. The Milky Way is greatly improved. The data base from which it was created included 256 brightness levels that gives the projection a highly detailed look. The visual result is truly beautiful. Another outstanding capability of the Zeiss Universarium is the projection of the phenomena of Jupiter's four bright satellites as seen from the surface of Jupiter! The Universarium was not cheap and it is a mechanical-optical device, but it was the most appropriate projector choice for Chabot to achieve its new mission. Chabot needed the most realistic, most beautiful starry sky possible and Zeiss filled the need. But why did Chabot seek the most realistic and most beautiful starry sky possible? The sky should touch the soul.

I did not title my talk "A Planetarium For The New Millennium" simply to sing the praises of our new star projector and its accessories although, to my mind, Zeiss has indeed reinvented the planetarium with its impressive fiber-optic technology. I titled my talk as I did because of Chabot's intention to reinvent the planetarium program. Today, many planetariums strive to compete with Hollywood's special effects, or emulate the popular rock concert with laser light shows as a way to draw crowds while others are content to only give out information about the stars. But Chabot intends to go further. Chabot Observatory & Science Center's planetarium intends to do planetarium shows that touch people in other words, shows whose contents touch the soul. At new Chabot, visitors will be taken on excursions into space to encounter the cosmos in a very human way with art, music and poetry added to personalize the journey. Why this way? Because we are citizens of the universe who are also artists, musicians and poets. Our visitors will discover that the cosmos is but a mirror image of themselves. We will make them feel at home among the stars and they will want to take celestial excursions with us again and again. As famed "Star Gazer" Jack Horkheimer put it in the October 1999 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine "There are millions of people dying to know about themselves. They are looking for answers. One of the places you look to find the ultimate answer is in the stars. To contemplate the cosmos is the ultimate voyage of the inner voyage. We look outside ourselves to find what's inside ourselves." And that is what Chabot hopes to achieve with its millennium planetarium to help people discover the "sky within" themselves. We are minds in the universe and the universe is in our minds. We feel that this realization may truly make a difference in people's lives. This is why Chabot Observatory & Science Center is also taking a leadership role in teaching science through astronomy. The grandest and most mythical of the sciences will be our base for teaching science. Chabot's world-class planetarium, large observatories, MegaSystems Film Theater, and laboratories are designed to engage the visitor in a quest for science literacy through the science of the Universe. All who visit will discover the interconnectedness of the sciences through the unifying power of astronomy. They will discover the universe and its unified sciences and see it all as a mirror image of themselves.