About the Planetarium

From 'Oh No' to 'Oh Boy!'

Renovated Planetarium Offers Quite a Show

Characterizing it as an astronomical challenge may be a bit of a stretch, but operating the John C. Wells Planetarium before its $1.3 million renovation in 2007 was anything but easy.

"For instance," said planetarium director William Alexander, "the milky way didn't work, so I couldn't talk about the milky way. Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky, was no longer the brightest star in the sky. I would have to use the projector for Saturn to project Jupiter because the Jupiter projector was broken. So I just hoped that no one asked to see the position of Jupiter and Saturn at the same time. There were all these little quirky things that had to go on to keep things running."

Fixing the broken parts was not possible in a lot of cases because the parts had become obsolete. "Once equipment gets to be 30 years old, no one wants to work on it," Alexander said, noting the old system dated back to the mid-1970s.

Now running a state-of-the art hybrid projection system, those concerns seem light years in the past. When the planetarium reopened in September 2008, it offered visitors a total-immersion-in-space-experience available at only three other planetariums in the United States.

"I think a lot of people are amazed by the full-dome video," Alexander said. "I think what they're expecting is some slides and a lot of stars on the dome and they don't understand the immersiveness of the full-dome video. A lot of people compare it to an IMAX experience."

While the new system is different than IMAX technology, the new GOTO Chronos instrument and Digistar 3 projection system can provide some eye-opening effects along with some advanced teaching tools. Using the Digistar 3, Alexander can project planetary tracks across the sky along with many deep-sky objects. Among features he really likes are being able to label objects and show outlines of constellations.

"A lot of astronomy seems really unapproachable or unreachable, but in an environment like this, even Einstein's relativity can seem approachable and understandable from a layman's point of view," Alexander said.

A few JMU classes are taught in the planetarium, but Alexander said he keeps it open as much as possible for the general public. Although the planetarium was closed for three years due to its renovation and the renovation of Miller Hall, where the planetarium is located, visitation is picking up.

"A lot of the teachers learn about us through parents or other people they know that have come to the public shows," Alexander said.

Public shows are provided free of charge on Saturdays throughout the JMU school year. School groups, and others, can schedule visits at other times by calling 540-568-2312 or e-mailing alexanwr@jmu.edu.