PLANETARIUM OPENING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29233, 17 June 1960, Page 14

PLANETARIUM OPENING

Date And Charges Fixed

The Christchurch planetarium in the Canterbury Museum will be officially opened on the evening of Tuesday, July 26, and 158 official guests will be invited to see demonstrations in two capacity sittings of 79 persons each. After that a planetarium display will be given for the public one evening a week—there will be a charge of 2s for adults and Is for children —and consideration is being given to holding public sessions at the week-ends. Three sessions on Saturdays and two on Sundays are under consideration. The Christchurch City Council will be asked for permission to hold and charge for shows on Sundays. During school holidays there may be two shows a day. These arrangements were generally approved yesterday when the Museum Trust Board received the first recommendations of its new Planetarium Advisory Committee.

At the moment the board is inclined to favour advance reservations at the museum so that nobody will be disappointed on arrival for a display. Evening Openings

The chairman (Mr W. S. MacGibbon) said he was pleased the committee recommended at least one evening showing. There were hundreds of the public who could not attend in the museum’s normal week-day hours. This added weight to his contention that the museum must soon open all its galleries on at least some evenings. More than 30 of the 40 candidates for training in planetarium demonstrations and lectures had been awarded operator's “tickets." it was reported. They would receive a fee of £2 2s for each session they conducted. The programme in view would give each one session a month.

Meanwhile work is proceeding rapidly on the completion of the planetarium. The Director (Dr. Roger Duff) reported a silhouette showing the main features of the Christchurch skyline would soon be mounted as a freize inside the dome. They would be set so that the Cathedral spire would be in its proper relative position to the museum and there would be other buildings and distant hills. Stars projected in the planetarium would also appear in their proper relationship to this backirop.

The silhouette had involved a lot of research for Mr Arthur Lush, who was making the freize in sheet iron which would be appropriately painted. New Transport Displays

As a surround to the exterior of the planetarium theatre, two 30ft showcases were being set up. In these Mr Ralph Riccalton planned one display on the development of European sailing ships (illustrated with models and background maps) and another on the Polynesian sailing traditions and canoes (including a diagram of the Polynesian method of direct star navigation). Ships of this century would be represented by the builder’s model of the Union Steam Ship Company’s Rangatira. The planetarium has been set up in a corner of the hall of transport. Exhibits there range from a coach to a whaling vessel.