Science tourism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_tourism 

Science tourism is a travel topic grouping scientific attractions. It covers interests in visiting and exploring scientific landmarks, including museums, laboratories, observatories and universities. It also includes visits to see events of scientific interest, such as solar eclipses.

A laboratory is a workplace and many have ongoing scientific research. They may not be open to the general public, or may only offer occasional special opportunities for public access. Many observatories are open to the public at regular hours, and have tours showcasing their astronomical research.

Museums

Europe

Northern Europe

• Nobel Museum It has exhibitions about the Nobel Prize.
• Sweden Solar System in greater Stockholm, contains the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.
• Heureka in Vantaa is an interactive science museum, with different kinds of exhibitions about technology, physics, chemistry, medicine, astronomy and so on. Really exciting for children interested in science.

Central Europe

Deutsches Museum

• Peenemünde – A place where the Germans developed some of the world's first rockets before and during WW2.
• Marie Curie Museum– History of radioactivity
• Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg (southwestern Germany). Has interesting displays of many vintage and historic cars, motorcycles, other machinery, and an extensive collection of aircraft, including a Soviet Tu 144 and French/Britain Concorde.
• Deutsches Museum – A museum of "everything technology" and more. A scientific and technical museum and one of the most important sights in the Munich area, visited by roughly 1.5 million visitors per year. Topics include brewing, computer sciences and bridge building. There are guided tours on specific themes and in different languages. There is a planetarium and two branch offices in other locations, which show vehicles that found no place in downtown Munich.
• Zeppelin Museum in the city of Friedrichshafen offers a museum dedicated to zeppelins, and another to Dornier aircraft.

Western Europe

• Science Museum London
• The Down House – Charles Darwin lived here when he worked out the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin wrote 'On the Origin of Species' in this house. The house has also carnivorous plants and exotic orchids.
• James Clerk Maxwell's Birthplace and Museum – Edinburgh's answer to Newton and Einstein. His equations unified the forces of Electricity and Magnetism and paved the way for Einstein's theory of special relativity. Modern technology in electricity and electronics, derive from Maxwell's discovery of the laws of the electromagnetic field, bringing a fundamental change in concept that influenced greatly the modern scientific and industrial revolution."

Southern Europe

• Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology – Located in Milan. As the name tells, it is a museum to learn more about science and technology. Hosted in a former monastery, San Vittore al Corpo.
• South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Eastern Europe

• Memorial Museum of Astronautics in the outskirts of Moscow there are a couple of sites dedicated to the Soviet and Russian contributions to science and technology. These include the Memorial Museum of Astronautics, the All-Russia Exhibition Centre and the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.
• Ostankino Tower – 540 m (1,770 ft) high concrete transmission tower, Ostankino Tower.
• Akademgorodok – Out in the Siberian taiga near Novosibirsk, Akademgorodok (literally "academy town") was built during the Soviet era, so that the academic elite could conduct their research in relative freedom, prosperity, and isolation. The planned city with tree lined streets hosts several museums, institutes, as well as a beach on the Ob Sea, an artificial reservoir.

North America

• Exploratorium in San Francisco
• Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral - The launch site for NASA's space missions. All 12 persons who have traveled to the Moon so far have started their journeys from here.
• National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of Mathematics or MoMath in New York
• National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
• Space Center Houston in Webster, Texas - NASA space museum, plus tram tours of Johnson Space Center, including astronaut training facilities, Mission Control, and the actual Apollo and Mercury launch vehicles.

Oceania

• Powerhouse Museum – The Powerhouse Museum is a large museum, essentially of popular culture. It has displays on the history of fashion and transport, decorative arts, music, and space exploration exhibits. It also partly plays on a sci-tech theme, with interactive hands-on and discovery displays of technology, design and industry There is usually a special exhibition on as well. There are in-depth displays for all ages, but also displays especially created for young children to discover and play.
• Questacon – an interactive museum of science with exhibits illustrating scientific ideas from the principles of physics to the motion of an earthquake. Great for kids and excellent science books can be picked up here. Allow at least half a day.

South America

• Alcântara in Northeast Brazil, is the rocket launch site for the Brazilian Space Agency, and hosts a museum on the site
• Kourou in French Guiana hosts the Guyana Space Centre, the primary rocket launch site for the European Space Agency.
• Gold Museum in Bogotá, Colombia
• The Archeology Museum in Bogotá, Colombia
• Casa Marqués de San Jorge in Bogotá, Colombia

Laboratories

Europe

Many European countries participate on the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has his laboratories including the famous Large Hadron Collider on the French/Swiss border. Plus the bigger European countries like France, Germany, Italy and UK operate national laboratories. Most laboratories have open days for public visits.

CERN Aerial View of LHC accelerator and its experiments (Lake Geneva in the background)

• Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives – The CEA has 5 divisions: nuclear energy, technological research, life sciences, sciences of matter and military applications. It has one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world, the Tera-100.
  • CEA Saclay – The biggest research center of the CEA hosts nuclear research reactors.
• CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest experiment and most complex scientific accelerator. Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. The weak force got discovered here in 1973 and in 1983 subsequently the W and Z bosons. In 1995 it created the first Anti-Hydrogen atoms of which the ASACUSA experiment can since 2014 produce a beam of. In 2012 the ATLAS and CMS experiment announced the discovery of a boson with 125 GeV, whose properties got confirmed to be the long-sought Higgs boson.
  • Microcosm – In front of the entrance of the CERN laboratory there is a permanent exposition retracing its history.
  • CERN Guided Tours – Both as individual or as group it is possible from time to time to visit the experiments.
• DESY (Hamburg)
• FAIR
• Gran Sasso
• National Physical Laboratory – the birthplace of atomic timekeeping. In the 1950s, Louis Essen and John Parry constructed the atomic clock, Caesium Mk. 1. This new clock kept time more accurately. It paved the way for redefining the second in 1967, based on the fundamental properties of CS atoms, rather than the quite irregular Earth rotation. The facilities in Teddington are among the world's most extensive and sophisticated for measurement science. On 20 May 2014, NPL Open House will give people the chance to explore much of the science that goes on at NPL and the facilities that are used to do it: NPL Open House 2014. While children are allowed, the exhibits are aimed for adults, and children must be kept under adult supervision at all times.
• Rutherford Appleton Laboratory – a national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It is a multidisciplinary centre for research both in physical and life sciences. It had in 1957 a 50 MeV proton linear accelerator. RAL hosts ISIS, a spallation neutron source and the Central Laser Facility. RAL organises a monthly public scientific lecture: Talking Science.

North America

DOE Laboratories

In the United States of America overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) the Office of science operates ten national laboratories. In total there are 17 national laboratories funded by the DOE. Most of the sites hold open houses where the public can come in for free and see how American tax dollars are invested in research. This used to include nuclear facilities, but those have been restricted since 9/11.

• Ames Laboratory – conducts research into various areas, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration. The Ames Project purpose was to produce high purity uranium to accompany the Manhattan Project. Its most notable faculty member Dan Shechtman won the 2011 Chemistry Nobel prize. Contact the Lab in advance of your visit. Group tours can be arranged through the public affairs office.
• Argonne National Laboratory – founded in 1946 to carry out Enrico Fermi's work on nuclear reactors as part of the Manhattan Project. Today Argonne is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center, to address vital national challenges in clean energy, environment, technology and national security. Argonne welcomes all members of the public age 16 or older to take guided tours of the scientific and engineering facilities and grounds. Tours last about two and a half hours and are by reservation only (call or email).
• Brookhaven National Laboratory – a multipurpose research institution funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Located on the center of Long Island, New York, Brookhaven Lab operates large-scale facilities for studies in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and applied science. It is the home of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which first observed/created the Quark-Gluon-Plasma. Brookhaven scientists won 7 Nobel prices including the Ribosome discovery (2009). The lab is open to the public on Sundays during the summer for tours and special programs.
• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory – a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Hence many components of the Large Hadron Collider got engineered and tested here. The Top quark was discovered in 1995 by both the CDF and DØ experiments of the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab. The 2008 Nobel price was given for the prediction of the third generation of quarks (Bottom and Top quarks). Fermilab visitors are allowed to visit two buildings on their own: the first and ground floor of Wilson Hall and the Lederman Science Center, Groups of six or more must book a visit by calling the Center.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – founded in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. 13 Nobel prizes have been awarded to LBNL scientists, the most recent one (2011) for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. It started as a particle physics laboratory, became involved for the study of nuclear matter and discovered 16 chemical elements. It is today a multi-program research site. Visitors need special clearance or may take advantage of the open days. The site on top of the hill nicely overlooks the San Francisco Bay.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory – a multiprogram science and energy laboratory, with scientific and technical capabilities spanning from basic to applied research. ORNL is famous to host the Titan supercomputer. The Spallation Neutron Source is an accelerator-based neutron source facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Oak Ridge National Laboratory hosts thousands of visitors every year. It is very important, if you are not a DOE or DOE contractor employee, to arrange your visit to ORNL ahead of time.
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – has many research projects for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration. All PNNL visitors, regardless of nationality, will need to have visitor badges to go past the Lobby.
• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory – researches plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. PPPL is located on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus. The free tours are led by engineers and physicists who can answer questions about magnetic fusion. In order to visit email to request a tour and give PPPL two weekdays when you would like to visit and some background on your group, including where your group is from, how many people are in your group, the age-range and the educational background of your group.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – does experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams and a broad program of research in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using synchrotron radiation. It discovered the charm quark, the quark structure inside the protons and neutrons and the tau lepton (3 Nobel prizes). At this time, all public and educational tours of the laboratory have been suspended. SLAC hopes to have them back and asks to check their website periodically for updates.
• Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility – the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, which is 1400m in length and accelerates electrons up to 6 GeV. The most powerful free-electron laser in the world has an output of over 14 kilowatts. The lab has an open house once a year that includes a tour of the accelerator tunnel and the free electron laser. No registration of visitors is required during the open house. The open house tours involve extended periods of walking, and many tour stops include stairs. Also, much of the event is outdoors.

Other Laboratories

• Biosphere 2 – designed as an artificially closed complete ecology, and was the setting for research on human interaction with natural systems. The site is now owned and maintained by the University of Arizona, which conducts tours for the public. Beware that the scientific credentials of the initial project phase are quite unclear as it started as theatre group. For example no input was taken from the Antarctic research stations, where researchers experienced extreme confinement.

Observatories

Europe

• ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre – is an astronomy centre for the public located at the site of ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich.
• European Space Agency's Columbus Control Centre – used to control the Columbus research laboratory of the International Space Station, as well as a ground control centre for the Galileo satellite navigation system. It is located at a large research facility of the German Aerospace Centre. (DLR).
• Stjerneborg observatory on Hven Island, Sweden - Tycho Brahe's observatory.
• University Observatory Vienna – The Institute of Astronomy is part of the University of Vienna, located inside a fabulous historic building. The building and the Sternwartepark were closed for visitors up until recently. The park contains many rare trees. It has a mini observatory on the roof. Guided tours are available.

North America

• Mt Graham International Observatory – Operated by the University of Arizona and situated in the Pinaleño Mountains west of Safford, this observatory offers periodic tours for the public. Reservations required, preferably two or more weeks in advance. Tours depart from the Discovery Park Campus in Safford.
• Kitt Peak National Observatory – Operates several astronomical telescopes plus a large solar telescope. Several guided tours are available, as well as a nightly observation program (reservations required).
• McDonald Observatory
• Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory – Call ahead for tour information.
• Lowell Observatory – Among other historical achievements, this is the observatory where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, and you can still see the telescope he used to do it.
• NRAO Very Large Array – Huge, iconic radio telescope array featured in numerous films and TV shows, which still performs cutting edge observations. Self-guided tour allows you to walk around the base of one of the dishes and see into the maintenance facility. Occasional guided tours (see website) give you a closer look.
• Green Bank Observatory – Tucked away in the beautiful West Virginia Mountains, in the middle of the National Radio Quiet Zone, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable single dish radio telescope in the world.

South America

While the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory are in Garching near Munich, Germany the observatories are located in northern Chile.

• European Southern Observatory
  • La Silla Observatory, Atacama Desert, Coquimbo Region, Chile.
  • Paranal Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile.
  • Atacama Large Millimeter Array/submillimeter Array, Llano de Chajnantor, Chile.

Africa

South Africa

• Southern African Large Telescope – The SALT telescope is largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere and among the largest in the world.
• KAT-7, MeerKAT, PAPER, and SKA Africa – The SKA Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever conceived. Its precursor, MeerKAT, is already the most powerful telescope every built. Most of it is to be built in Africa under the auspices of SKA Africa. The African precursor, MeerKAT, is already the most powerful radio telescope every built. The core of the telescope is located near Carnarvon, on the Northern Cape, with more dishes located in Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Mauritius and Ghana.
• South African Astronomical Observatory – The national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. The Observatory has a fascinating history dating back to 1820, which is when our main building was constructed, making it one of the oldest permanent structures in Cape Town. Owing to light and air pollution in the city, most of the actual observing happens in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, about 380 km from Cape Town. Some of the telescopes in Cape Town are still used for outreach and public events.

Namibia

• H.E.S.S. Telescope – One of the leading observatories studying very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astrophysics.

Universities

The most prestigious universities generally attract excellent scientists and have fine science programs. University campuses are usually open to the public, though permission from guards is sometimes required, and there may be some café or cafeteria or mensa or restaurant or even a university shop on site. Universities usually offer public lectures about ongoing research. Otherwise, their seminars and buildings are reserved for the students and the working faculty including post-doctoral researchers or professors. On weekends or holidays, many universities require special permits to enter. Universities compete on a worldwide basis; hence, they are not ordered by geographical position or alphabetized. Below is a list of the 20 highest-ranked universities according to 2013/2014 QS world university ranking (of course rankings may differ according to year and specific subject).

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology – a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Harvard University – Established in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
• University of Cambridge – a collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. It was founded in 1209 making it the world's third-oldest university. It includes 31 constituent colleges and academic departments which are organised into six Schools. 90 Nobel laureates count as affiliated.
• University College London – a public research university in London, England. It is based in the heart of London. It was founded in 1826. There are 27 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medallists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff.
• Imperial College London – a public research university located in London, England specialised in science, engineering, medicine and business. The former constituent college of the federal University of London became independent in 2007. Imperial is locate in Central London. It lists currently 15 Nobel laureates and two Fields Medallists amongst Imperial's alumni and current and former faculty.
• University of Oxford – a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. Oxford publishes a leaflet Explore the University of Oxford, which contains a map and information on opening times of colleges, museums and other places of interest. The main places of interest are only a few minutes walk from the main rail and coach stations. Oxford open days in 2014 will be on the 2 July, 3 July and 19 September. Due to high demand, many colleges and some departments require advance booking for their events.
• Stanford University – a private research university in Stanford, California founded in 1885. 58 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university. The Stanford campus offers sightseeing and educational opportunities for tourists and first-time visitors. There are student led walking tours.
• Yale University – a private research university located in New Haven, Connecticut. Fifty-one Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the University as students, faculty, or staff.
• University of Chicago – a private research university in Chicago, Illinois.
• California Institute of Technology – a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech is a world-renowned research and education institution dedicated to advancing science and engineering. Tours are offered for prospective students on holidays or high school groups. Caltech also offers a self guided walking tour with booklet.
• Princeton University – a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1747.
• ETH Zürich – This Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university. Twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors, the most famous of which is Albert Einstein in 1921. It is currently the top-ranked university in continental Europe.
• University of Pennsylvania
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Johns Hopkins University
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Toronto
• Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• King's College London (KCL)

Other

• Boltzmann's grave – The Boltzmann equation was originally formulated by Ludwig Boltzmann between 1872 to 1875. It relates the entropy S of an ideal gas to the quantity W, which is the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate. In the ideal gas limit it exactly corresponds to the proper thermodynamic entropy.
• Schwinger's grave – The first order correction to the fine structure constant (alpha) is engraved on Julian Schwinger's headstone at the Mt Auburn Cemetery.
• Schrödinger's grave – The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that describes how the quantum state of some physical system evolves with time. It was formulated in late 1925. It is inscribed above his name on his grave site.
• Hofmeyr Skull, The Hofmeyr Skull is a specimen of a 36,000-year-old skull found in the 1950s near Hofmeyr, South Africa. The samples age supports the so-called "Out of Africa" theory that modern humans evolved from Africa.
  • Groote Schuur Hospital, On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Lewis Washkansky received the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The procedure was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard.

Observatory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observatory 

The Sphinx Observatory on a mountain top in the Swiss Alps at 3,571 m (11,716 ft)

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant (for measuring the distance between stars) or Stonehenge (which has some alignments on astronomical phenomena).

Astronomical observatories

Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based.

Ground-based observatories

Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Chile, at 5,058 m (16,594 ft)

 

Paranal Observatory, Chile, home of the VLT at 2,635 m (8,645 ft)

 

The Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, home of several of the world's largest optical telescopes at 4,205 m (13,796 ft)

Ground-based observatories, located on the surface of Earth, are used to make observations in the radio and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most optical telescopes are housed within a dome or similar structure, to protect the delicate instruments from the elements. Telescope domes have a slit or other opening in the roof that can be opened during observing, and closed when the telescope is not in use. In most cases, the entire upper portion of the telescope dome can be rotated to allow the instrument to observe different sections of the night sky. Radio telescopes usually do not have domes.

For optical telescopes, most ground-based observatories are located far from major centers of population, to avoid the effects of light pollution. The ideal locations for modern observatories are sites that have dark skies, a large percentage of clear nights per year, dry air, and are at high elevations. At high elevations, the Earth's atmosphere is thinner, thereby minimizing the effects of atmospheric turbulence and resulting in better astronomical "seeing". Sites that meet the above criteria for modern observatories include the southwestern United States, Hawaii, Canary Islands, the Andes, and high mountains in Mexico such as Sierra Negra. A newly emerging site which should be added to this list is Mount Gargash. With an elevation of 3600 m above sea level, it is the home to the Iranian National Observatory and its 3.4m INO340 telescope. Major optical observatories include Mauna Kea Observatory and Kitt Peak National Observatory in the US, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory and Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, and Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Specific research study performed in 2009 shows that the best possible location for ground-based observatory on Earth is Ridge A — a place in the central part of Eastern Antarctica. This location provides the least atmospheric disturbances and best visibility.

Radio observatories

Beginning in 1930s, radio telescopes have been built for use in the field of radio astronomy to observe the Universe in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Such an instrument, or collection of instruments, with supporting facilities such as control centres, visitor housing, data reduction centers, and/or maintenance facilities are called radio observatories. Radio observatories are similarly located far from major population centers to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI) from radio, TV, radar, and other EMI emitting devices, but unlike optical observatories, radio observatories can be placed in valleys for further EMI shielding. Some of the world's major radio observatories include the Socorro, in New Mexico, United States, Jodrell Bank in the UK, Arecibo in Puerto Rico, Parkes in New South Wales, Australia, and Chajnantor in Chile.

Highest astronomical observatories

Since the mid-20th century, a number of astronomical observatories have been constructed at very high altitudes, above 4,000–5,000 m (13,000–16,000 ft). The largest and most notable of these is the Mauna Kea Observatory, located near the summit of a 4,205 m (13,796 ft) volcano in Hawaiʻi. The Chacaltaya Astrophysical Observatory in Bolivia, at 5,230 m (17,160 ft), was the world's highest permanent astronomical observatory from the time of its construction during the 1940s until 2009. It has now been surpassed by the new University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, an optical-infrared telescope on a remote 5,640 m (18,500 ft) mountaintop in the Atacama Desert of Chile. 

Ancient Indian observatory at Delhi

 

"El Caracol" observatory temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico

 

Remains of the Maragheh observatory (under dome) at Maragheh, Iran

 

Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, India

 

The Estonian Tartu Observatory starting point of the Struve Geodetic Arc.

 

19th century Observatory Sydney, Australia (1872)

 

Ecuador's 1873-Quito Astronomical Observatory near the Equator

 

The 1962-built Solar observatory on Lomnický peak in Slovakia

Oldest astronomical observatories

The oldest proto-observatories, in the sense of a private observation post,

• Wurdi Youang, Australia
• Zorats Karer, Karahunj, Armenia
• Loughcrew, Ireland
• Newgrange, Ireland
• Stonehenge, Great Britain
• Quito Astronomical Observatory, located 12 minutes south of the Equator in Quito, Ecuador.
• Chankillo, Peru
• El Caracol, Mexico
• Abu Simbel, Egypt
• Kokino, Kumanovo, Republic of Macedonia
• Observatory at Rhodes, Greece
• Goseck circle, Germany
• Ujjain, India
• Arkaim, Russia
• Cheomseongdae, South Korea
• Angkor Wat, Cambodia

The oldest true observatories, in the sense of a specialized research institute, include:

• 825 AD: Al-Shammisiyyah observatory, Baghdad, Iraq
• 869: Mahodayapuram Observatory, Kerala, India
• 1259: Maragheh observatory, Azerbaijan, Iran
• 1276: Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory, China
• 1420: Ulugh Beg Observatory, Samarqand, Uzbekistan
• 1442: Beijing Ancient Observatory, China
• 1577: Constantinople Observatory of Taqi ad-Din, Turkey
• 1580: Uraniborg, Denmark
• 1581: Stjerneborg, Denmark
• 1642: Panzano Observatory, Italy
• 1642: Round Tower, Denmark
• 1633: Leiden Observatory, Netherlands
• 1667: Paris Observatory, France
• 1675: Royal Greenwich Observatory, England
• 1695: Sukharev Tower, Russia
• 1711: Berlin Observatory, Germany
• 1724: Jantar Mantar, India
• 1753: Stockholm Observatory, Sweden
• 1753: Vilnius University Observatory, Lithuania
• 1753: Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada, Spain
• 1759: Trieste Observatory, Italy
• 1757: Macfarlane Observatory, Scotland
• 1759: Turin Observatory, Italy
• 1764: Brera Astronomical Observatory, Italy
• 1765: Mohr Observatory, Indonesia
• 1774: Vatican Observatory, Vatican
• 1785: Dunsink Observatory, Ireland
• 1786: Madras Observatory, India
• 1789: Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland
• 1790: Royal Observatory of Madrid, Spain,
• 1803: National Astronomical Observatory (Colombia), Bogotá, Colombia.
• 1811: Tartu Old Observatory, Estonia
• 1812: Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
• 1830/1842: Depot of Charts & Instruments/US Naval Observatory, USA
• 1830: Yale University Observatory Atheneum, USA
• 1838: Hopkins Observatory, Williams College, USA
• 1838: Loomis Observatory, Western Reserve Academy, USA
• 1839: Pulkovo Observatory, Russia
• 1839/1847: Harvard College Observatory, USA
• 1842: Cincinnati Observatory, USA
• 1844: Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, USA
• 1873: Quito Astronomical Observatory, Ecuador
• 1878: Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, Portugal
• 1884: McCormick Observatory, USA
• 1888: Lick Observatory, USA
• 1890: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, USA
• 1894: Lowell Observatory, USA
• 1897: Yerkes Observatory, USA
• 1899: Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India

The Hubble Space Telescope in Earth's orbit

Space-based observatories

Space-based observatories are telescopes or other instruments that are located in outer space, many in orbit around the Earth. Space telescopes can be used to observe astronomical objects at wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that cannot penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and are thus impossible to observe using ground-based telescopes. The Earth's atmosphere is opaque to ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays and is partially opaque to infrared radiation so observations in these portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are best carried out from a location above the atmosphere of our planet. Another advantage of space-based telescopes is that, because of their location above the Earth's atmosphere, their images are free from the effects of atmospheric turbulence that plague ground-based observations. As a result, the angular resolution of space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope is often much smaller than a ground-based telescope with a similar aperture. However, all these advantages do come with a price. Space telescopes are much more expensive to build than ground-based telescopes. Due to their location, space telescopes are also extremely difficult to maintain. The Hubble Space Telescope was serviced by the Space Shuttle while many other space telescopes cannot be serviced at all. The James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2021.

SOFIA on board a Boeing 747SP

Airborne observatories

Airborne observatories have the advantage of height over ground installations, putting them above most of the Earth's atmosphere. They also have an advantage over space telescopes: The instruments can be deployed, repaired and updated much more quickly and inexpensively. The Kuiper Airborne Observatory and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy use airplanes to observe in the infrared, which is absorbed by water vapor in the atmosphere. High-altitude balloons for X-ray astronomy have been used in a variety of countries.

Volcano observatories

A volcano observatory is an institution that conducts research and monitoring of a volcano. Among the best known are the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the Vesuvius Observatory. Mobile volcano observatories exist with the USGS VDAP (Volcano Disaster Assistance Program), to be deployed on demand.

Planetarium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetarium 

Inside a planetarium projection hall.

Inside the same hall during projection.

A planetarium under construction in Nishapur, near the Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.

 

A planetarium (plural planetaria or planetariums) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.

A dominant feature of most planetaria is the large dome-shaped projection screen onto which scenes of stars, planets, and other celestial objects can be made to appear and move realistically to simulate the complex 'motions of the heavens'. The celestial scenes can be created using a wide variety of technologies, for example precision-engineered 'star balls' that combine optical and electro-mechanical technology, slide projector, video and fulldome projector systems, and lasers. Whatever technologies are used, the objective is normally to link them together to simulate an accurate relative motion of the sky. Typical systems can be set to simulate the sky at any point in time, past or present, and often to depict the night sky as it would appear from any point of latitude on Earth.

Planetariums range in size from the 37 meter dome in St. Petersburg, Russia (called “Planetarium No 1”) to three-meter inflatable portable domes where attendees sit on the floor. The largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere is the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey (27 meters in diameter). The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, India is the largest by seating capacity (630 seats). Thereafter, the China Science and Technology Museum Planetarium in Beijing, China has the largest seating capacity (442 seats). In North America, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City has the greatest number of seats (423).

The term planetarium is sometimes used generically to describe other devices which illustrate the solar system, such as a computer simulation or an orrery. Planetarium software refers to a software application that renders a three-dimensional image of the sky onto a two-dimensional computer screen. The term planetarian is used to describe a member of the professional staff of a planetarium.

History

For specific dates and events in the historical influences on and development of planetaria, see timeline of planetariums.

Early

The Eise Eisinga Planetarium

 

The Mark I projector installed in the Deutsches Museum in 1923 was the world's first planetarium projector.

 

The ancient Greek polymath Archimedes is attributed with creating a primitive planetarium device that could predict the movements of the Sun and the Moon and the planets. The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism proved that such devices already existed during antiquity, though likely after Archimedes' lifetime. Campanus of Novara (1220–1296) described a planetary equatorium in his Theorica Planetarum, and included instructions on how to build one. The Globe of Gottorf built around 1650 had constellations painted on the inside. These devices would today usually be referred to as orreries (named for the Earl of Orrery, an Irish peer: an 18th-century Earl of Orrery had one built). In fact, many planetaria today have what are called projection orreries, which project onto the dome a Sun with planets (usually limited to Mercury up to Saturn) going around it in something close to their correct relative periods.

The small size of typical 18th century orreries limited their impact, and towards the end of that century a number of educators attempted some larger scale simulations of the heavens. The efforts of Adam Walker (1730–1821) and his sons are noteworthy in their attempts to fuse theatrical illusions with educational aspirations. Walker's Eidouranion was the heart of his public lectures or theatrical presentations. Walker's son describes this "Elaborate Machine" as "twenty feet high, and twenty-seven in diameter: it stands vertically before the spectators, and its globes are so large, that they are distinctly seen in the most distant parts of the Theatre. Every Planet and Satellite seems suspended in space, without any support; performing their annual and diurnal revolutions without any apparent cause". Other lecturers promoted their own devices: R E Lloyd advertised his Dioastrodoxon, or Grand Transparent Orrery, and by 1825 William Kitchener was offering his Ouranologia, which was 42 feet (13 m) in diameter. These devices most probably sacrificed astronomical accuracy for crowd-pleasing spectacle and sensational and awe-provoking imagery.

The oldest, still working planetarium can be found in the Dutch town Franeker. It was built by Eise Eisinga (1744–1828) in the living room of his house. It took Eisinga seven years to build his planetarium, which was completed in 1781.

In 1905 Oskar von Miller (1855–1934) of the Deutsches Museum in Munich commissioned updated versions of a geared orrery and planetarium from M Sendtner, and later worked with Franz Meyer, chief engineer at the Carl Zeiss optical works in Jena, on the largest mechanical planetarium ever constructed, capable of displaying both heliocentric and geocentric motion. This was displayed at the Deutsches Museum in 1924, construction work having been interrupted by the war. The planets travelled along overhead rails, powered by electric motors: the orbit of Saturn was 11.25 m in diameter. 180 stars were projected onto the wall by electric bulbs.

While this was being constructed, von Miller was also working at the Zeiss factory with German astronomer Max Wolf, director of the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl observatory of the University of Heidelberg, on a new and novel design, inspired by Wallace W. Atwood's work at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and by the ideas of Walther Bauersfeld and Rudolf Straubel at Zeiss. The result was a planetarium design which would generate all the necessary movements of the stars and planets inside the optical projector, and would be mounted centrally in a room, projecting images onto the white surface of a hemisphere. In August 1923, the first (Model I) Zeiss planetarium projected images of the night sky onto the white plaster lining of a 16 m hemispherical concrete dome, erected on the roof of the Zeiss works. The first official public showing was at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on October 21, 1923.

After World War II

Opened in 1955, the Surveyor Germán Barbato Municipal Planetarium in Montevideo, Uruguay, is the oldest planetarium in Latin America and the southern hemisphere.

When Germany was divided into East and West Germany after the war, the Zeiss firm was also split. Part remained in its traditional headquarters at Jena, in East Germany, and part migrated to West Germany. The designer of the first planetaria for Zeiss, Walther Bauersfeld, also migrated to West Germany with the other members of the Zeiss management team. There he remained on the Zeiss West management team until his death in 1959.

The West German firm resumed making large planetaria in 1954, and the East German firm started making small planetaria a few years later. Meanwhile, the lack of planetarium manufacturers had led to several attempts at construction of unique models, such as one built by the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, which operated 1952–2003. The Korkosz brothers built a large projector for the Boston Museum of Science, which was unique in being the first (and for a very long time only) planetarium to project the planet Uranus. Most planetaria ignore Uranus as being at best marginally visible to the naked eye.

A great boost to the popularity of the planetarium worldwide was provided by the Space Race of the 1950s and 60s when fears that the United States might miss out on the opportunities of the new frontier in space stimulated a massive program to install over 1,200 planetaria in U.S. high schools.

Early Spitz star projector

Armand Spitz recognized that there was a viable market for small inexpensive planetaria. His first model, the Spitz A, was designed to project stars from a dodecahedron, thus reducing machining expenses in creating a globe. Planets were not mechanized, but could be shifted by hand. Several models followed with various upgraded capabilities, until the A3P, which projected well over a thousand stars, had motorized motions for latitude change, daily motion, and annual motion for Sun, Moon (including phases), and planets. This model was installed in hundreds of high schools, colleges, and even small museums from 1964 to the 1980s.

A Goto E-5 projector.

Japan entered the planetarium manufacturing business in the 1960s, with Goto and Minolta both successfully marketing a number of different models. Goto was particularly successful when the Japanese Ministry of Education put one of their smallest models, the E-3 or E-5 (the numbers refer to the metric diameter of the dome) in every elementary school in Japan.

Phillip Stern, as former lecturer at New York City's Hayden Planetarium, had the idea of creating a small planetarium which could be programmed. His Apollo model was introduced in 1967 with a plastic program board, recorded lecture, and film strip. Unable to pay for this himself, Stern became the head of the planetarium division of Viewlex, a mid-size audio-visual firm on Long Island. About thirty canned programs were created for various grade levels and the public, while operators could create their own or run the planetarium live. Purchasers of the Apollo were given their choice of two canned shows, and could purchase more. A few hundred were sold, but in the late 1970s Viewlex went bankrupt for reasons unrelated to the planetarium business.

During the 1970s, the OmniMax movie system (now known as IMAX Dome) was conceived to operate on planetarium screens. More recently, some planetaria have re-branded themselves as dome theaters, with broader offerings including wide-screen or "wraparound" films, fulldome video, and laser shows that combine music with laser-drawn patterns.

Learning Technologies Inc. in Massachusetts offered the first easily portable planetarium in 1977. Philip Sadler designed this patented system which projected stars, constellation figures from many mythologies, celestial coordinate systems, and much else, from removable cylinders (Viewlex and others followed with their own portable versions).

When Germany reunified in 1989, the two Zeiss firms did likewise, and expanded their offerings to cover many different size domes.

Computerized planetaria

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Planetarium (Est.2003), Dhaka, Bangladesh uses Astrotec perforated aluminum curtain, GSS-Helios Space Simulator, Astrovision-70 and many other special effects projectors

 

In 1983, Evans & Sutherland installed the first digital planetarium projector displaying computer graphics (Hansen planetarium, Salt Lake City, Utah)—the Digistar I projector used a vector graphics system to display starfields as well as line art. This gives the operator great flexibility in showing not only the modern night sky as visible from Earth, but as visible from points far distant in space and time. The newest generations of planetaria, beginning with Digistar 3, offer fulldome video technology. This allows projection of any image the operator wishes.

A Sega Homestar home planetarium projector

 

A new generation of home planetaria was released in Japan by Takayuki Ohira in cooperation with Sega. Ohira is known for building portable planetaria used at exhibitions and events such as the Aichi World Expo in 2005. Later, the Megastar star projectors released by Takayuki Ohira were installed in several science museums around the world. Meanwhile, Sega Toys continues to produce the Homestar series intended for home use; however, projecting 60,000 stars on the ceiling makes it semi-professional.

In 2009 Microsoft Research and Go-Dome partnered on the WorldWide Telescope project. The goal of the project is to bring sub-$1000 planetaria to small groups of school children as well as provide technology for large public planetaria.

Technology

Planetarium domes range in size from 3 to 35 m in diameter, accommodating from 1 to 500 people. They can be permanent or portable, depending on the application.

• Portable inflatable domes can be inflated in minutes. Such domes are often used for touring planetaria visiting, for example, schools and community centres.
• Temporary structures using glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) segments bolted together and mounted on a frame are possible. As they may take some hours to construct, they are more suitable for applications such as exhibition stands, where a dome will stay up for a period of at least several days.
• Negative-pressure inflated domes are suitable in some semi-permanent situations. They use a fan to extract air from behind the dome surface, allowing atmospheric pressure to push it into the correct shape.
• Smaller permanent domes are frequently constructed from glass reinforced plastic. This is inexpensive but, as the projection surface reflects sound as well as light, the acoustics inside this type of dome can detract from its utility. Such a solid dome also presents issues connected with heating and ventilation in a large-audience planetarium, as air cannot pass through it.
• Older planetarium domes were built using traditional construction materials and surfaced with plaster. This method is relatively expensive and suffers the same acoustic and ventilation issues as GRP.
• Most modern domes are built from thin aluminium sections with ribs providing a supporting structure behind. The use of aluminium makes it easy to perforate the dome with thousands of tiny holes. This reduces the reflectivity of sound back to the audience (providing better acoustic characteristics), lets a sound system project through the dome from behind (offering sound that seems to come from appropriate directions related to a show), and allows air circulation through the projection surface for climate control.

The realism of the viewing experience in a planetarium depends significantly on the dynamic range of the image, i.e., the contrast between dark and light. This can be a challenge in any domed projection environment, because a bright image projected on one side of the dome will tend to reflect light across to the opposite side, "lifting" the black level there and so making the whole image look less realistic. Since traditional planetarium shows consisted mainly of small points of light (i.e., stars) on a black background, this was not a significant issue, but it became an issue as digital projection systems started to fill large portions of the dome with bright objects (e.g., large images of the sun in context). For this reason, modern planetarium domes are often not painted white but rather a mid grey colour, reducing reflection to perhaps 35-50%. This increases the perceived level of contrast.

A major challenge in dome construction is to make seams as invisible as possible. Painting a dome after installation is a major task, and if done properly, the seams can be made almost to disappear.

Traditionally, planetarium domes were mounted horizontally, matching the natural horizon of the real night sky. However, because that configuration requires highly inclined chairs for comfortable viewing "straight up", increasingly domes are being built tilted from the horizontal by between 5 and 30 degrees to provide greater comfort. Tilted domes tend to create a favoured "sweet spot" for optimum viewing, centrally about a third of the way up the dome from the lowest point. Tilted domes generally have seating arranged stadium-style in straight, tiered rows; horizontal domes usually have seats in circular rows, arranged in concentric (facing center) or epicentric (facing front) arrays.

Planetaria occasionally include controls such as buttons or joysticks in the arm rests of seats to allow audience feedback that influences the show in real time.

Often around the edge of the dome (the "cove") are:

• Silhouette models of geography or buildings like those in the area round the planetarium building.
• Lighting to simulate the effect of twilight or urban light pollution.
• In one planetarium the horizon decor included a small model of a UFO flying.

Traditionally, planetaria needed many incandescent lamps around the cove of the dome to help audience entry and exit, to simulate sunrise and sunset, and to provide working light for dome cleaning. More recently, solid-state LED lighting has become available that significantly decreases power consumption and reduces the maintenance requirement as lamps no longer have to be changed on a regular basis.

The world's largest mechanical planetarium is located in Monico, Wisconsin. The Kovac Planetarium. It is 22 feet in diameter and weighs two tons. The globe is made of wood and is driven with a variable speed motor controller. This is the largest mechanical planetarium in the world, larger than the Atwood Globe in Chicago (15 feet in diameter) and one third the size of the Hayden.

Some new planetariums now feature a glass floor, which allows spectators to stand near the center of a sphere surrounded by projected images in all directions, giving the impression of floating in outer space. For example, a small planetarium at AHHAA in Tartu, Estonia features such an installation, with special projectors for images below the feet of the audience, as well as above their heads.

Traditional electromechanical/optical projectors

Traditional planetarium projection apparatus uses a hollow ball with a light inside, and a pinhole for each star, hence the name "star ball". With some of the brightest stars (e.g. Sirius, Canopus, Vega), the hole must be so big to let enough light through that there must be a small lens in the hole to focus the light to a sharp point on the dome. In later and modern planetarium star balls, the individual bright stars often have individual projectors, shaped like small hand-held torches, with focusing lenses for individual bright stars. Contact breakers prevent the projectors from projecting below the "horizon".

The star ball is usually mounted so it can rotate as a whole to simulate the Earth's daily rotation, and to change the simulated latitude on Earth. There is also usually a means of rotating to produce the effect of precession of the equinoxes. Often, one such ball is attached at its south ecliptic pole. In that case, the view cannot go so far south that any of the resulting blank area at the south is projected on the dome. Some star projectors have two balls at opposite ends of the projector like a dumbbell. In that case all stars can be shown and the view can go to either pole or anywhere between. But care must be taken that the projection fields of the two balls match where they meet or overlap.

Smaller planetarium projectors include a set of fixed stars, Sun, Moon, and planets, and various nebulae. Larger projectors also include comets and a far greater selection of stars. Additional projectors can be added to show twilight around the outside of the screen (complete with city or country scenes) as well as the Milky Way. Others add coordinate lines and constellations, photographic slides, laser displays, and other images.

Each planet is projected by a sharply focused spotlight that makes a spot of light on the dome. Planet projectors must have gearing to move their positioning and thereby simulate the planets' movements. These can be of these types:-

• Copernican. The axis represents the Sun. The rotating piece that represents each planet carries a light that must be arranged and guided to swivel so it always faces towards the rotating piece that represents the Earth. This presents mechanical problems including:

  The planet lights must be powered by wires, which have to bend about as the planets rotate, and repeatedly bending copper wire tends to cause wire breakage through metal fatigue.

  When a planet is at opposition to the Earth, its light is liable to be blocked by the mechanism's central axle. (If the planet mechanism is set 180° rotated from reality, the lights are carried by the Earth and shine towards each planet, and the blocking risk happens at conjunction with Earth.)

• Ptolemaic. Here the central axis represents the Earth. Each planet light is on a mount which rotates only about the central axis, and is aimed by a guide which is steered by a deferent and an epicycle (or whatever the planetarium maker calls them). Here Ptolemy's number values must be revised to remove the daily rotation, which in a planetarium is catered for otherwise. (In one planetarium, this needed Ptolemaic-type orbital constants for Uranus, which was unknown to Ptolemy.)
• Computer-controlled. Here all the planet lights are on mounts which rotate only about the central axis, and are aimed by a computer.

Despite offering a good viewer experience, traditional star ball projectors suffer several inherent limitations. From a practical point of view, the low light levels require several minutes for the audience to "dark adapt" its eyesight. "Star ball" projection is limited in education terms by its inability to move beyond an earth-bound view of the night sky. Finally, in most traditional projectors the various overlaid projection systems are incapable of proper occultation. This means that a planet image projected on top of a star field (for example) will still show the stars shining through the planet image, degrading the quality of the viewing experience. For related reasons, some planetaria show stars below the horizon projecting on the walls below the dome or on the floor, or (with a bright star or a planet) shining in the eyes of someone in the audience.

However, the new breed of Optical-Mechanical projectors using fiber-optic technology to display the stars show a much more realistic view of the sky.

Digital projectors

A fulldome laser projection.

An increasing number of planetaria are using digital technology to replace the entire system of interlinked projectors traditionally employed around a star ball to address some of their limitations. Digital planetarium manufacturers claim reduced maintenance costs and increased reliability from such systems compared with traditional "star balls" on the grounds that they employ few moving parts and do not generally require synchronisation of movement across the dome between several separate systems. Some planetaria mix both traditional opto-mechanical projection and digital technologies on the same dome.

In a fully digital planetarium, the dome image is generated by a computer and then projected onto the dome using a variety of technologies including cathode ray tube, LCD, DLP, or laser projectors. Sometimes a single projector mounted near the centre of the dome is employed with a fisheye lens to spread the light over the whole dome surface, while in other configurations several projectors around the horizon of the dome are arranged to blend together seamlessly.

Digital projection systems all work by creating the image of the night sky as a large array of pixels. Generally speaking, the more pixels a system can display, the better the viewing experience. While the first generation of digital projectors were unable to generate enough pixels to match the image quality of the best traditional "star ball" projectors, high-end systems now offer a resolution that approaches the limit of human visual acuity.

LCD projectors have fundamental limits on their ability to project true black as well as light, which has tended to limit their use in planetaria. LCOS and modified LCOS projectors have improved on LCD contrast ratios while also eliminating the “screen door” effect of small gaps between LCD pixels. “Dark chip” DLP projectors improve on the standard DLP design and can offer relatively inexpensive solution with bright images, but the black level requires physical baffling of the projectors. As the technology matures and reduces in price, laser projection looks promising for dome projection as it offers bright images, large dynamic range and a very wide color space.

Show content

Artistic representations of the constellations projected during a planetarium show.

Worldwide, most planetaria provide shows to the general public. Traditionally, shows for these audiences with themes such as "What's in the sky tonight?", or shows which pick up on topical issues such as a religious festival (often the Christmas star) linked to the night sky, have been popular. Pre-recorded and live presentation formats are possible. Live format are preferred by many venues because a live expert presenter can answer on-the-spot questions raised by the audience.

Since the early 1990s, fully featured 3-D digital planetaria have added an extra degree of freedom to a presenter giving a show because they allow simulation of the view from any point in space, not only the earth-bound view which we are most familiar with. This new virtual reality capability to travel through the universe provides important educational benefits because it vividly conveys that space has depth, helping audiences to leave behind the ancient misconception that the stars are stuck on the inside of a giant celestial sphere and instead to understand the true layout of the solar system and beyond. For example, a planetarium can now 'fly' the audience towards one of the familiar constellations such as Orion, revealing that the stars which appear to make up a co-ordinated shape from our earth-bound viewpoint are at vastly different distances from Earth and so not connected, except in human imagination and mythology. For especially visual or spatially aware people, this experience can be more educationally beneficial than other demonstrations.

Music is an important element to fill out the experience of a good planetarium show, often featuring forms of space-themed music, or music from the genres of space music, space rock, or classical music.