Humans’ desire to look up and chart the night sky is as old as time. At the State University of New York at Oneonta, students and visitors can do so from the college’s 28-seat planetarium.
The planetarium, according to suny.oneonta.edu, is “used in a variety of science classes across campus, and offers a fun and enriching experience for all students.” The space, the site says, was updated in August 2019, when the college introduced an Evans & Sutherland Digistar 6 system, one of “the world’s most advanced full-dome digital theater systems.” The system, the site says, “features a digital projector capable of bringing you sharp views of the stars, planets and constellations visible in the night sky (and) … can show 3-D, IMAX-style movies and animations.”
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Valerie Rapson said, along with Dr. Josh Nollenberg, she manages planetarium use.
“We are the two astronomy faculty in the Physics and Astronomy Department, so we are the coordinators for the planetarium,” she said, noting that she has been at the college for three years, and Nollenberg for about eight.
Rapson said the facility, in the Perna Science Building, has been around for decades, though its recent updates make it a distinct asset.
“It used to have an optomechanical system that wasn’t digital, and it was in 2012 that we got the digital (system), but the latest version of that system was 2019,” she said. “The planetarium is like an indoor stargazing facility with two projectors that fill this domed room with views of the night sky, and people can come for live shows, and we occasionally do preprogrammed videos of scientific content, but it is intended to be an indoor experience.
“We use it for a lot of things,” Rapson continued. “Josh and I use it in all the astronomy courses and supplement the content we teach with content we can show in the planetarium. Students absolutely love having the ability to use the planetarium; it’s a really powerful tool that enhances their technological skills and their scientific knowledge, and it’s not something that most SUNY schools can offer. We’re really unique in that aspect. We’re not the only one, but one of only a few in New York state.”
Students belonging to the Nebula Society, Rapson said, make special use of the space.
“They teach themselves how to use the planetarium and present shows every other week to the student population,” she said. “They develop their own content, and we have interns that will do scientific modeling or music for the planetarium, or do some sonifications and use scientific data and represent it through sound and music.”
Skyler Reed, a SUNY Oneonta junior and president of the roughly 14-member group, said he and other astronomy students “use it almost every day.” Reed is a communications major with an astronomy minor, and a founding member of the Nebula Society, in its first “official” year. Reed said that he has been president of the group since his sophomore year, though he began conceptualizing it as a freshman.
“We use the planetarium to give astronomy-based shows, we do shows about stellar evolution and we did one that was a tour of the solar system,” he said. “So, very astronomy-based topics, but we venture off into different aspects. We’ve done mythology of the stars — Greek, Norse and part of an African tribe and their mythology, and it was really fun — and we even dip into music here and there.
“Before I came here, I did tour a few other SUNY campuses and a lot of them don’t really have planetariums,” Reed continued. “So, it is very unique, and it’s part of the reason I was drawn here and ended up applying. It’s something that really draws astronomy students.”
While SUNY Oneonta students benefit chiefly from the planetarium, Rapson said, its “couple thousand visitors” annually represent a mix.
“We’re doing public nights every other week throughout the school year … and we’re hoping to grow that visitorship now that COVID precautions are gone,” she said. “We do a lot of planetarium shows for local K through 12 schools, so that’s where a lot of our visitorship comes from. We do a couple hundred shows (a year).”
And the public shows, Rapson and Reed said, are proving to be a hit.
“We sell out every single time, because it’s a small theater, and we’re working toward increasing the number of shows we’re able to offer,” she said. “We’re hoping to have some more internships and we’re getting a new director at the A.J. Read Science Discovery Center, so that will help us expand what we can offer at the planetarium. The level of demand always rises to whatever we can offer. People really enjoy this experience and we’re the only science center-type thing that’s available in about an hour’s drive, so us, combined with the discovery center, really serve that need and fill that niche.
“It’s all funded by the college and the shows are free at the moment,” Rapson continued. “If we do a private show, we might ask for a donation, but in general, the public shows are always free. We always have a couple families with younger children that visit, but also adults or families with students that are interested in coming to Oneonta … and we adapt the show, depending on if it’s 6-year-olds or a bunch of adults in the audience. So, we do everything — shows for little kids all the way up to simulated scientific modeling.”
“I know, even for us, most of our shows are kind of geared toward SUNY Oneonta students, but we still get a lot of public people that come in and enjoy our shows, even though those aren’t tailored to the public … so we have decent outreach,” Reed said. “Before the Nebula Society was a thing, I worked with the discovery center on the planetarium, and all the shows were packed with people from the public, so that’s really nice to see.”
Though Rapson said facility usage is still recovering from the pandemic, the popularity of planetariums is nothing new. According to an August 2022 University of Washington article on wondriumdaily.com, “there are more than 1,000 planetariums in the United States, hosting more than 20 million annual visitors.” The country’s oldest planetarium, Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, was built in 1930.
“Right before COVID, there was a big push to get the word out and we were on track to do 400 shows and have thousands of people in a school year, and then, with COVID, we had to tone it back because it is a small room, so we’re really trying to get the word out again,” she said. “Around the 1970s, planetariums in general became very popular, because the moon landing was in 1969, so a lot of colleges and high schools all across the country built planetariums. That kind of kickstarted a lot of these smaller planetariums.”
“The history of the Oneonta University Planetarium extends to the early 1960s, with the acquisition of a Spitz A3P center-mounted optomechanical projector, sound system and 24-foot dome from Spitz, Inc. of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania,” suny.oneonta.edu says. “Over the next two decades the facility’s founding director, Mr. John (“Jack”) F. Maier, established a rich tradition of astronomical collegiate teaching and public service, including area schools and Scout groups. Particularly popular were his annual Christmas shows.
“The second director, Dr. Michael P. Merilan, continued the facility’s tradition of extensive use for university astronomy classes and public outreach,” the site continues. “Crossing into the 21st century, these ranged from training for K-12 student science competitions to unique enrichment experiences for specialized youth and adult groups. Under the guidance of its third director, Dr. Jason P. Smolinski, the planetarium is well-outfitted to bring gripping views of outer space to students and members of the community for years to come.”
Rapson said she and Nollenberg have plans in place to do just that.
“At the moment, we kind of do things live based on what’s exciting and happening in astronomy,” she said, “So, lately, we’ve talked a lot about the James Webb Space Telescope and shown some of the latest images and linked that back to content we can show in the planetarium. We try to incorporate all the current astronomy info that’s out there and shows generally consist of constellations and what’s up in the night sky, tours of the solar system and exploring other interesting objects — black holes, other galaxies — and we ask the audience what they want to see and show the content they’re interested in.
“We’re trying to reach out to the community more; the K through 12 (schools) were more familiar with it than the general public for a while, but everybody should come,” Rapson continued. “Our hope is that we will be able to offer some public planetarium shows over the summer, which will be attractive to families with kids at home, but we don’t have details yet. That would be different; usually we’re only able to offer shows to school groups through June. and we are hoping to have a partnership with the Cooperstown Graduate Program to help us get an intern to run planetarium shows, and that’s new and that will broaden our reach.”
Reed, too, credited current events with fueling interest.
“(The Nebula Society) has been growing lately,” he said. “We’ve done better with advertising the planetarium and stating that you don’t need to be a full-time, professional astronomer in order to enjoy astronomy. We have this really cheesy saying — ‘The cosmos is for everybody’ — because, if you have an interest, even not related to the Nebula Society, you can just enjoy learning more about what’s around us and what’s out there.
“(Interest is rising), especially with what’s going on in astronomy with the Artemis missions and all the interesting stuff with the James Webb Telescope,” Reed continued. “Before, you got a few people talking here and there and doing something every lunar eclipse … but lately, it’s like every week something new in astronomy is coming out and it’s really helping people open their minds about what’s out there. and it’s a lot less intimidating than it seems. I have a lot of people come up to me and think of astronomy as purely math, and all these hard concepts, but then you go to a show and realize you don’t need to be Einstein to understand what’s out there. You can easily grasp a lot of the major concepts without needing a math or a science background.”
Public planetarium shows are scheduled for April 7, April 21 and May 5. Shows begin at 7 p.m. and tickets, Rapson said, can be reserved through Eventbrite.com.
For more information, visit suny.oneonta.edu/planetarium or call 607-436-2620.