Charles Hayden Planetarium Records

Since its opening in 1958, the Charles Hayden Planetarium has been a beloved and engaging part of the Museum of Science. Plans for the Planetarium date over a decade prior and predate the selection of Science Park. At the urging of Museum Director H. Bradford Washburn, Jr. in 1947, the Board of Trustees resolved that a planetarium should be among the first features of the physical location to be opened to the public. Lacking the immediate funds for a permanent planetarium, Museum leadership decided on a temporary solution to bring astronomy education to New England audiences: a small, portable theater known as the Traveling Planetarium. Museum staff member Clyde Albee designed and fabricated the Traveling Planetarium as eight separate pieces that were transported in a small trailer. The setup was completed with 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 at first in a temporary structure and later in the newly constructed East Building. At Science Park, it was renamed the Little Planetarium and operated with a projector built by the Peerless Planetarium Company, until the structure was sold to Natick High School in 1953.

While continuing to operate the Little Planetarium, the Museum began to plan for a permanent Planetarium to be constructed at Science Park. To fund this project, the Museum approached the Charles Hayden Foundation, which had previously supported 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 the public. With about half of the necessary funds secured, construction on the Planetarium building began in 1952. In 1951, the Museum contacted Frank Korkosz, an engineer from Springfield, Massachusetts, to build the projector for the new Planetarium. Korkosz previously designed and built a custom projector for the Springfield Museum of Natural History, where he worked as the Director of the Planetarium since 1937. Korkosz and his brother John began construction on the new projector in 1953 then completed and installed it in 1958.

On October 20, 1958, the new Charles Hayden Planetarium opened to the public. Over the years, the Charles Hayden Planetarium has undergone several major renovations and equipment upgrades. After years of waiting for the Korkosz brothers to complete a functioning planetary projection system, the Museum contracted with Carl Zeiss, Inc. in 1968 for a new projector to better suit the Planetarium’s needs. The Charles Hayden Foundation largely funded this new projector in the 1950s. After a 13-week closure in 1970, the Planetarium reopened with a new Zeiss Model VI projector and new seating. From 1981 to 1982, the Charles Hayden Foundation again greatly funded the next major renovations. During this time, an automated all-sky projection system was installed which consisted of over one hundred slide projectors centrally controlled, along with other audiovisual equipment, by computer. Another extended closure in 1995 allowed for extensive interior renovations and new audio and video equipment. The 1995 project also included the construction of the Gilliland Observatory atop the Museum parking garage. The Planetarium Department managed the Observatory until 2018, when Exhibit Hall Interpretation absorb the responsibility. 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 funded largely by the Charles Hayden Foundation.

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. Planetarium staff designed and fabricated some, while other effects were produced with equipment purchased from manufacturers. These shows extensively relied on paintings that were photographed and transformed into 35mm slides that were then projected onto the dome. Planetarium staff painted landscapes, astronomical objects, historical scenes, spacecraft, and many other subjects until as late as the 1990s, when digital animation became the preferred imaging medium. 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 2018, the Planetarium produces a mix of shows: some are led by a live instructor while others are entirely pre-recorded full-dome movies.

Planetarium shows have explored a wide variety of astronomy topics. Manned space exploration has been a common theme that connects early shows like “Man on the Moon” (1962) to modern offerings like “Destination Mars: The New Frontier” (2018). Other commonly explored topics featured include the search for extraterrestrial life, the structure and composition of other planets, seasonal changes in the night sky, and the ties between modern astronomy and ancient cultures and mythologies. 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. In 1976, the Lowell Institute funded a repeating series which became the Lowell Lectures on Astronomy until 2013. The Lowell Institute continues to sponsor periodic lectures at the Museum on a variety of topics. Since 1949, the Planetarium staff hosted special events for solar and lunar eclipses including eclipse-viewing events at Science Park. In addition, the staff organized or participated in eclipse-viewing trips to locations such as Kenya (1973); Baja, Mexico and Hawaii (1991); and India (1995).

Lastly, the Planetarium dome has hosted many non-astronomy shows. Laser music shows and live musical performances became a regular offering in the 1970s. 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. Explore the Planetarium's timeline history at: https://www.mos.org/planetarium60/history.

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