Projectors & Planetariums

The Charles Hayden Planetarium has been a beloved and engaging part of the Museum of Science since its opening in 1958.

Plans for the Planetarium date back to more than a decade earlier and predate the selection of Science Park as the site of the new Museum. In 1947, at the urging of Museum Director H. Bradford Washburn, Jr. the Board of Trustees resolved that a planetarium should be among the first features of the physical plant to be opened to the public. Lacking the immediate funds for a permanent planetarium, Museum leadership decided on a temporary means of bringing astronomy education to New England audiences: a small, portable theater that would be known as the Traveling Planetarium.

The Traveling Planetarium structure, which consisted of eight separate pieces that could be transported in a small trailer, was designed and fabricated by Museum staff member Clyde Albee. The setup was rounded out by a portable projector built by Armand Spitz, Director of Education at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Between November 1948 and May 1949 the Traveling Planetarium visited schools, churches, and other venues across New England, providing 148 shows for over 6,000 visitors. In 1950, the Traveling Planetarium was installed at Science Park, first in a temporary structure and later in the newly constructed East Building. There it operated as the Little Planetarium, using a projector built by the Peerless Planetarium Company, until the structure was sold to Natick High School in 1953.

While the Little Planetarium was in operation, plans began to take shape for a permanent Planetarium to be constructed at Science Park. To fund this project, the Museum approached the Charles Hayden Foundation, which had previously funded a variety of courses and programs. In 1950, the Foundation pledged $250,000 toward the construction of a planetarium. Supplemental gifts from the Foundation during the 1950s brought the total to $500,000, about half the cost of the new Planetarium. Additional funds were raised through a variety of means, including “The Sky’s for Sale” campaign, in which stars, planets, and other celestial objects were “sold” to patrons. With about half of the necessary funds secured, construction on the Planetarium building began in 1952.

To build the projector for the new Planetarium, the Museum enlisted Frank Korkosz, an engineer from Springfield, Massachusetts. Korkosz had designed and built a custom projector for the Springfield Museum of Natural History and had worked there as Director of the Planetarium since 1937. After settling on a design, Frank and his brother John began construction on the new projector in 1953. The projector was completed and installed in 1958 and the new Charles Hayden Planetarium opened on October 20th of that year.

In February 2011, the Planetarium reopened after a year of extensive renovations including new seating, a new dome, a new digital projection system that supplanted the slide-projection system, and a new Zeiss Starmaster projector. Once again, the Charles Hayden Foundation stepped in as a major source of funds for the renovations.

The staff of the Planetarium has always produced its full-dome shows, using star projectors, visual and audio effects, and both live and recorded narration. Early shows relied heavily on the Korkosz projector, although additional effects were regularly added to supplement the star field. Shows made extensive use of hand-painted images which were photographed, duplicated as 35mm slides, and projected onto the dome. Landscapes, astronomical objects, historical scenes, spacecraft, and many other subjects were painted by Planetarium staff until as late as the 1990s, when digital animation became the preferred means of creating images.

Beginning in the 1970s, more elaborate effects, including laser projectors, were added, allowing for the production of a wide variety of content. Automation also became an increasingly significant aspect of Planetarium shows during this period. “The Skies of Vasco de Gama” (1971) marked the first time a show was entirely pre-taped and included no live portions. As of 2020, the Planetarium produces a mix of shows: some are led by a live instructor while others are entirely pre-recorded full-dome movies.

In addition to full-dome star and video productions, the Planetarium has always been involved in a wide variety of educational programming. Multi-session astronomy courses for children and adult audiences were offered beginning in the 1950s. Courses offered from the 1950s through the 1990s included: “Introducing the Heavens,” “Astronomy for Teachers,” “Celestial Navigation,” “Naked-Eye Astronomy,” and many others.

The Planetarium also has a history of hosting public astronomy lectures by experts in the field. In 1975, the Planetarium cosponsored a lecture series, titled “Man and Cosmos” with the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard. When the Lowell Institute funded a repeat of the series in 1976, it became the Lowell Lectures on Astronomy, which continued until circa 2013. The Lowell Institute continues to sponsor periodic lectures at the Museum on a variety of topics.

Special events for solar and lunar eclipses been organized by Planetarium staff since 1949. These have included many eclipse-viewing events held at Science Park. Planetarium staff have also organized or participated in a number of eclipse-viewing trips to locations including: Kenya (1973); Baja, Mexico and Hawaii (1991); and India (1995).

The Planetarium dome has also been host to many non-astronomy shows. Laser music shows became a regular offering in the 1970s, as did live musical performances. This type of alternative offering has expanded in the 21st century as the Planetarium has partnered with other Museum departments and other local institutions to host a wide variety of live, multimedia performances that use traditional Planetarium technologies in nontraditional ways. The Planetarium continues to be a dynamic learning and art space that is celebrated by all Museum staff and visitors.

List of Directors of the Charles Hayden Planetarium:

1948-1952: Charles Federer, Jr.

1952-1968: John Patterson

1968-1987: John (Jack) Carr

1987-2000: Larry Schindler

2000-2010: Robin Symonds

2010-2017: David Rabkin

2017-Present: Danielle LeBlanc