The Flandrau Planetarium and Science Center on the University of Arizona campus celebrates its golden anniversary this weekend.
The planetarium welcomed Tucsonans on December 13, 1975. By that time, the University of Arizona had already established itself as one of the country’s focal points for astronomy research. Flandrau Planetarium served as a link between space scientists and the local community, and people filled the theater for lectures and presentations from professors and instructors.
Michael Magee remembers his days as a new UA student drawn to the happenings in and around the gleaming white dome. He notes the university had to find creative ways to dim the streetlights around Flandrau during the early years.
“It meant when we had viewing through our telescope, or special events going on right outside our building, we had a much better, darker area to view our sky,” he said.
The large apparatus in the middle of the indoor theater – lovingly nicknamed “Hector Vector the Star Projector” - displayed 8,000 stars on the ceiling above the seats. Planetarium producers used banks of special effect and slide projectors to supplement the show. A spectacular sound system and automated imagery took public schoolchildren and university astronomy majors on journeys across the cosmos.
Planetarium shows have stirred the imagination of tens of thousands of students during Flandrau’s 50 years. Today’s UA star watchers view classroom presentations about the rings of Saturn and the planet’s many moons.
With new technology came a series of improvements at Flandrau. Through the years, it’s evolved into a place where young visitors learn about bees, bugs, and butterflies.
Amy Zubia explored Flandrau’s downstairs exhibits with her family. These displays incorporate science that isn’t related to the planets or the stars.
“I wasn’t expecting the aquarium and marine biology down here. That was surprising,” she said.
The planetarium switched to a 4K Fulldome format in 2014. Instead of using projectors, Flandrau presenters now use data visualization to take visitors on a ride from planet Earth to the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and back.
The tall-screen shows can perch viewers on the slopes of a volcano, or send them swimming above coral reefs alongside undersea explorers. Laser light shows set to the sounds of popular music draw some of the building’s biggest crowds.
Long-time staffer Michael Magee estimates he’s seen almost all of the planetarium’s 50-year history. Sometimes, he ran the massive projector that placed the stars in the Flandrau sky.
“And you’d fade the lights to darkness and nothing could be seen except the exit signs,” Magee recalled. “And then you would start bringing up the stars slowly, and as you did, inevitably people would say ‘Ooooo,’ and they didn’t know what to do. You were out in the night sky.”
Magee says watching a presentation at Flandrau today sends visitors on the same journey it did 50 years ago, to inspire people to step outside and spend an evening scanning Tucson’s real horizon.
Planetarium staffers have organized a celebration for Saturday, December 13, including astrobiology demonstrations and activities that explore exoplanets, gravity wells, and eclipses on the exhibit floor at various times during the day.
Free planetarium shows will play every hour.
