Planetarium Celebrates 50th Anniversary

by Ryder Miller

Having survived the Cold War and a recent fire, the California Academy of Sciences in the Morrison Planetarium in Golden Gate Park will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary in November before undertaking a massive remodeling project.

When the Morrison Planetarium opened in 1952 it was the seventh largest planetarium in the United States and the Morrison projector was considered one of the most advanced in the world.

With a choice of millions of stars, the planetarium focused on the brightest 38,000. Using a microscope, a planetarium staffer placed carborundum crystals onto the projector's glass lenses and then coated them with vaporized aluminum. The crystals created an image that closely corresponded to the position of the 3,800 stars. Putting the crystals in place took six months and no one has since replicated the process.

The 13-foot-long projector cost $140,000, weighs some 5,000 pounds and includes 141 optical systems and 321 lenses. It has 25,000 parts and four miles of wire. It can show the position of the stars at any given moment within a span of 26,000 years.

In 1989 Steve Craig, the current chairman at the Planetarium, oversaw a crew that installed an automated system, which improved the capabilities of the projector for public shows.

"For a home-built planetarium, it is one of the finest starfields you are going to find in a planetarium anywhere," said Dr. Mike Reynolds, president of a foundation at the Chabot Space and Science Center, the recently built planetarium in the East Bay.

As staff at the Morrison recall, the opening of the planetarium with an American-made projector made national news.

"It was the best in the world at the time and is still working well today," said Bing Quock, assistant chairman at Morrison Planetarium and show producer.

"We have added computer controls and a few special effects, but the core of our Sky Show is still the star projector. It works just as well as it always has and is considered a classic of design in the world of astronomy," he said.

The Morrison Planetarium estimates that since its opening in 1952, 9.8 million people have seen a Morrison Planetarium Sky Show.

"I grew up at the Morrison Planetarium and worked there so I know it from two sides. Personally, the Morrison shaped my whole career," said Michael Bennet, executive director at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which has its headquarters in San Francisco.

"The Morrison has been a wonderful community resource for 50 years. Countless thousands of people enjoy and appreciate astronomy more because they visited the Morrison when they were young.

"The Morrison Planetarium is the only place in San Francisco where the sun stands still at the touch of a button and you can see the night-time sky go through 26,000 years of changes in the course of a 40 minute show," said Dr. Patrick Kociolek, curator and executive director at Academy.

The planetarium was named after prominent San Francisco attorney Alexander Francis Morrison, whose widow, May T. Morrison, donated $200,000 to the institution.

"I think this is a major milestone in the field of astronomy, especially public astronomy and one that is to be commended," Reynolds said. "The Morrison has for years been a leader in astronomy education, not only in the Bay Area, but internationally.

"They are to be commended for the work they have done," Reynolds said of the staff at the Academy.

The Morrison Planetarium will gain a new life after the remodeling of the Academy of Sciences, which will begin in the Fall of 2003. The plans for the new planetarium have not been finalized.

To mark the 50th anniversary, the Morrison Planetarium has planned a number of public activities, including a party with a birthday cake Nov. 9. There will also be behind the scenes tours and children activities planned throughout the day.

A special planetarium show, "Stars Over San Francisco-Then and Now," will show how the public's understanding of the universe has changed over the last 50 years, will be shown through Nov. 26. The planetarium also plans to roll back prices to 1952 rates (74 cents) for sky shows through Nov. 24.