HAYDEN PLANETARIUM

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 September 1947, Page 8

HAYDEN PLANETARIUM

American Museum of NATURAL HISTORY (By "Sky Pilot.”) Night falls, unclouded and beautiful, in the Hayden Planetarium. The wall s an d ceilings of what a moment ago was a great domed room have disappeared and we are out z of doors with the darkening sky above us. We recognise the dim outlines of familar towers in the skyline of the great city. Suddenly, taking our breath with their beauty the stars come out. The air is filled with low, far-off music, recalling to our minds the ancient belief in the "music of the spheres.” There they shine above us —thousands of stars as brilliant and glorious as they appear on the clearest of nights from mountain Or coun-try-side—above us the old familiar constellations shining down. What a place of interest is this great building in which the heavens are studied! Here the thousands of people who gather beneath the great dome come to understand why the moon is sometimes as a crescent and sometimes in the full, why the planets “wander” among the stars, why the •stars pass nightly above our heads and many other interesting features of the night sky. It i s th e place de luxe to study the structure and movements of the heavens, and to get a grasp of the great universe. Dr. Clyde Fisher and his able assistants stop at nothing to unfold in this graphic way the mysteries of the univeise. And it matters not whether the sky is clouded and rain is failing. Here for an hour the busy world can be forgotten, its anxieties, and its cares and the greatness and the grandeur of a master mind appreciated. Under the great dome the lecturer, with a system of complicated buttons and switches, and with over two thousand possible combinations at hit control, controls the great universe. The observer in the Hall of the Sun has the unique opportunity of seeing how the planet s move about the sun and receive their light, warmth and motion from it. A fascinating model illustrates how the Copernican system of Astronomy works. HALL OF’ THE SUN

On the first floor is the Hall of the Sun with its animated model of the solar system, 40 feet across. Here the sun and six of the nine planets are seen as if we were viewing them from a great distance. The sun is represented by a large luminous globe suspended from the ceiling. At appropriate distances are the small globes of the planets nearest, little Mercury closest of all, Venu s veiled in clouds, Earth with its seas and continents. Mars, Jupiter, the largest of all the planets, and Saturn, surrounded by its unique and beautiful rings. These miniature worlds not only revolve about the sun but rotate on their axis, as the real planets do moving always at the correct relative speeds. The earth has the moon moving around it whilst around Mars revolve its two small satillites. Four of Jupiter s moons are seen about that planet and five of Saturn’s revolving about it. , Day-time on one side of the planets and night on the other are seen as they move about the sun. As we watch the model in action th e moon runs through its cycle pf phases, now being “full,” now “new”, now in the “quarters.” Eclipses of the moon occur when it enters the earth's tapering shadow and eclipses of the sun when the moon passes between it and the earth. The tilt of the earth s axis is seen to produce the seasons. Before and after each Planetarium performance Dr. Clyde Fisher, by means of an electrical transcription, I L’ivre a short lecture on these oodles. I The floor of the Hall of the Sun is j enriched by a reproduction in terrazo lot the famous Aztec Calendar Stone in Mexico City. The sun was to the Aztecs the most important of the heavenly bodies. The face of the sun occupies the centre of the great disc. It fe a very elaborate piece of woik. full of symbolic significance. The Haydon Planetarium i s the culmination of much thought and effort to secure for the American Museum of Natural History in New York a projection planetarium. Dr. Clyde Fisher, who journeyed to Germany to inspect apparatus, returned with great enthusiasm for the possibilities of a projection planetarium. When a corporation was formed in 1933 to forward the project, Mr. Chas. Hayden, of New York, became interested and made the generous public-spirited offer to donate both the Zeiss pro.iection planetarium instrument and a large Copernican Planetarium. The building was named after him. It Is another of the great gifts of American citizens to the furtherance of knowledge in the realm of astronomy, for which the people of New York are deeply grateful. There are other famous planetariurns in U.S.A., such ,as the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the els Planetarium in Philadelphia, the Griifl th Planetarium in Los Angeles. In New Zealand we have no such building. Some time ago the Editor of the “Chronicle" advocated a planetarium for New Zealand. If such a worthy idea could be realised it would be a great thing for our Dominion. Publicspirited men of wealth, if interested, could make such a venture possible. The inscription at the entrace of the Hayden Planetarium building is as follows: — “I believe the Planetarium is not only a place of interest and Instruction. but that it should give a more lively and sincere appreciation of the magnitude of the Universe and of the belief that there must be a greater power than man responsible for the wonderful things which are daily occurring in the Universe."