History of the planetarium. Cultural and educational center named after

What is a planetarium, almost everyone knows since school days. But often this knowledge is more figurative than subjective. Few people visited it more than several times in their lives. However, the planetarium in each new city is fraught with a lot of interesting things.

This is not an ordinary space museum, but a room in which you get the opportunity to explore that huge, immense and inexplicable thing that has existed for billions of years and will always exist. The mysterious space, galaxies and questions about other civilizations excite everyone. And rumors about aliens leave many inexplicable phenomena and conjectures.

At least somehow get acquainted with the stellar world today is possible on the Internet, through the media and through a trip to the planetarium.

What is a planetarium

Many people ask this question. The word planetarium means "planet" in New Latin and comes from the late Latin - planeta.

Most often, this term refers to scientific and educational centers. They organize models of the celestial sphere with various space objects. In these establishments, there are quite ample opportunities to simulate such effects as a lunar or solar eclipse and much more.

However, the term "planetarium" has a different meaning of the word. It is also called the installation for projecting pictures of the starry sky onto a screen in the form of a dome.

A bit of history

The first sample of an optical planetarium was designed and built in 1923-1924 by the German engineer W. Bauersfeld.

And the very next year in the same museum - in Munich - the first planetary center was opened.

The USSR lagged behind Europe for a short while. In 1929, the first scientific institution was built and opened in the capital.

However, this idea was by then not new. Back in 1919, O. Miller expressed his intention to create a prototype on the territory of the German Museum he had created.

By the beginning of World War II, every Soviet schoolboy already knew what a planetarium was. During this period, development ceased for obvious reasons.

However, after the victory, the development of this branch of science resumed with renewed vigor; by 1974, stationary planetariums were already operating in 62 different cities of the USSR.

Planetariums in the world

What is a planetarium in the understanding of today's scientists? First of all, this is the use of digital technologies, to which most modern scientific institutions have switched today. They provide image quality that is comparable to modern cinemas, so today the concept of "full dome cinema" is becoming more and more common.

The oldest functioning planetarium is also the first in the world. The building, created on the basis of the German Museum, is still in operation and can accommodate more than 150 spectators.

The world's largest planetarium was built in Japan, and although it can accommodate the same 350 spectators as the Moscow one, its dome has a diameter of as much as 35 meters.

But the most visited planetarium is located in New York (USA) and takes more than 400 spectators at a time. It is possible to recreate a virtual digital universe using real astronomical data.

Well, the spherical museum in Estonia, located in the city of Tartu, is recognized as the most unusual planetarium. It is designed for only 19 seats, but the audience is surrounded by stars from all sides: both under their feet and above their heads.

Planetariums in our country

During the Soviet Union, the planetarium built in almost every major city, whose significance had lost its purely scientific and educational function, began to be used for propaganda and populist purposes. Along with the creation of unique demonstrative instruments of world significance, these institutions carried out active educational activities substantiating the ideas of scientific atheism.

To date, the oldest Moscow planetarium is still functioning, which is designed for more than 350 seats. It was opened after reconstruction in 2011.

The Space Museum even has its own holiday - International Planetarium Day, which falls on the closest Sunday to the vernal equinox (March 22).

On this holiday, many planetariums arrange an open day. They host many bright and exciting shows that will be interesting to visit for both children and adults.

The idea to build a Planetarium in Moscow belongs to David Ryazanov, the director of the K. Marx and F. Engels Institute at the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. On their initiative, the presidium of the new composition of the Moscow City Council (elected in 1927) decided to create a new type of scientific and educational institution in Moscow - the Planetarium. The equipment needed for this (the Planetarium projection apparatus) was at that time the latest world invention - it was first demonstrated in October 1923.

Construction of the Planetarium in the 20s

After that, Ryazanov went to Germany and held negotiations with Carl Zeiss on the manufacture of equipment for the planetarium. And in Moscow, two young architects M. Barshch and M. Sinyavsky took up the development of a planetarium project. When designing, the architects used the natural shape of the egg in geometric and tectonic terms. Constructivist theorist Alexei Gan called Planetarium"optical science theatre".

The construction of the planetarium began on the autumnal equinox on September 23, 1928. The Moscow City Council allocated 250,000 gold rubles for the construction of the planetarium. This amount included the cost of building not only the building itself, but also its equipment, a cinema auditorium, an astronomical museum, a library, auditoriums for circles, laboratory facilities, as well as an arrangement on a flat roof of an astronomical observatory for mass excursions.

In mid-February 1929, specialists from Germany arrived in Moscow to install an iron frame - a spherical dome - a screen. Apparatus " Planetarium”at that time was already in Moscow and was stored in packed boxes in the premises of the Moscow Department of Public Education.

Moscow Planetarium during the war years

At the end of May, when the auditorium was ready, the installation of the apparatus began. Planetarium» under the supervision of specialists from Zeiss.

On August 3, 1929, the installation of the apparatus was completed. On this day, the acceptance and demonstration of the work of the planetarium to the leadership of the Moscow City Council was scheduled. The show completely satisfied those present, the acceptance of the equipment was completed.

During August, September and October closed screenings took place.

Officially Moscow Planetarium was opened on November 5, 1929. It became the 13th planetarium in the world - of its twelve predecessors, ten were built in Germany, one in Italy and one in Austria. To this day, Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote a poem about the planetarium, ending with the words: “Every proletarian should look at Planetarium».

During the war in Moscow Planetarium in addition to holding the usual mass lectures, he provided practical assistance to the fighters and commanders of the Soviet army in the form of special lectures of the military cycle for intelligence officers and military pilots. In addition to the lectures held in the Star Hall, traveling lectures on astronomy were organized. These lectures were given in hospitals, sponsored military units, in the auditoriums of the City Military Commissariat, and in air defense propaganda centers. Moscow Planetarium worked throughout the war and only once was closed for a period of two months.

Planetarium in Soviet times

In 1946, the construction of the Astronomical Site began. For the first time in the history of planetariums, this complex of cognition tools, addressed to living luminaries, was conceived by the author of the first Soviet school textbook on astronomy, Mikhail Evgenievich Nabokov. And it was built as a public city of the sky by the works of Moscow astronomers and employees of the Planetarium K. L. Baev, R. I. Tsvetov, A. B. Polyakov, E. Z. Gindin. The astronomical platform recreated the tradition of ancient stellar abodes, such as the temple complex in Heliopolis, Stonehenge in England, the Observatory-Museum in Alexandria, the Nuremberg town of Regiomontana, Uranienborg Tycho Brahe, the Beijing Observatory, the Gdansk Observatory of Jan Hevelius, the celestial complex Samrat Yantra in Jaipur.

In the 1950s, from the side of Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street, the view of the Planetarium was blocked by residential high-rise buildings, and at present the dome of the planetarium can only be seen through a narrow passage between the houses.

In 1977 the Planetarium was reconstructed. Instead of the old apparatus "Planetarium" a new one was installed, made especially for Moscow at the people's enterprise "Carl Zeiss Jena" (GDR). It was a new generation device with program control. Along with regular lectures and themed evenings, automated audio-visual programs began to be held in the planetarium.

In the mid-1980s, the Planetarium was removed from direct subordination to the All-Union Society "Knowledge" and transferred to the Moscow city organization of this society, from the bowels of which a new director was appointed. For the first time he was a man without an astronomical education.

In 1987, all Soviet cosmonauts were trained in navigation in the planetarium, some of them gave lectures after returning from space.

In 1990, a public observatory was opened at the planetarium, in which the largest telescope in Moscow, available for mass observations, was installed.

Abandoned Planetarium in the mid-2000s
In 1994, the businessman and showman Igor Mikitasov decided to create a "science and entertainment center" on the basis of the Moscow Planetarium and addressed the director of the planetarium with this proposal. In the same year, on the initiative of the director of the planetarium, in order to attract investors and provide guarantees for the invested funds, the Moscow Planetarium CJSC was created, in the authorized capital of which the main building of the planetarium was included. The founders of CJSC were 30% of the planetarium staff, 20% - the Moscow City Organization of the Knowledge Society, and 50% - CJSC Twins Company (Twins), Mikitasov's company, specializing in show business.

In fact, the "Company of Twins" became the owner of the planetarium. In the same 1994, the planetarium building was declared unsafe and the Planetarium was closed for renovation. however, as soon as the reconstruction began. It revealed. Mikitasov doesn't have enough money.

In the spring of 1995, Mikitasov began looking for a source of funding. Through an intermediary, Vyacheslav Kovalev, the director of the Tekhnokom company, he tried to get a loan from Tveruniversalbank and draw up documents at the Moscow Property Committee and Moskomzem. The bank, however, refused to issue a loan, and the paperwork in the Moscow government was suspended. A conflict arose between the mediator and Mikitasov, which resulted in a criminal case, which was handled by the Prosecutor General's Office.

Funding was suspended due to the introduction of a new procedure for registering property in Moscow, requiring the mandatory issuance of a certificate of ownership. As a result of a four-year confrontation between CJSC Moscow Planetarium, the Moscow government, the prosecutor's office and the Moscow Property Committee, at 18 meetings of the Arbitration Court, five lawsuits were successively considered, which did not bring victory to either side.

All this time until August 1997, programs for schoolchildren were held in the dilapidated Star Hall. On May 1, 1998, the observatory was opened for visitors.

For several years, the new owners tried to organize the reconstruction of the planetarium at the expense of private investors, but the city authorities delayed the issuance of the relevant decree. In 1998, the owners donated 61% of the shares to the Moscow government in exchange for the obligation to fully pay for all design, construction and installation work. On October 1, 1998, the Moscow government received a controlling stake in Moscow Planetarium CJSC, and in March 1999 it issued a decree "On the comprehensive reconstruction, restoration and re-equipment of the Moscow Planetarium", according to which a comprehensive reconstruction, restoration and re-equipment of the architectural monument of the Moscow Planetarium building was carried out , and the investment programs for 1999-2006 provided funding for the reconstruction of the Moscow Planetarium at the expense of funds determined by the business plan.

In 1997, the creative workshop of the State Unitary Enterprise MNIIP "Mosproekt-4" under the leadership of Alexander Viktorovich Anisimov and Olga Sergeevna Semyonova began to develop a reconstruction project. It took almost three years for its approval and preliminary work: it took a lot of effort to justify the advantages of the reconstruction of the old planetarium, and not the construction of a new one. The history of the Moscow Planetarium and the world experience in designing such buildings were studied, four scientific papers were written on foreign technologies, on the typology of the modern planetarium and the study of its architectural appearance abroad. The architects personally visited a large number of planetariums in different countries: in Germany, Spain, France, England, on the West and East coasts of America, etc.
The reconstruction project of the Moscow Planetarium, developed by architects Alexander Anisimov and Olga Semyonova, received in 2000 a prize and a diploma of the 1st degree from the Union of Architects of Russia.

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This is the car at the entrance.

The reconstruction itself began only in 2002. In January 2003, the statue-allegory of the planets in front of the main entrance was removed for restoration. By 2003, the old building of the observatory was dismantled. Instead, it was planned to build two observatories, a small one and a large one. The city authorities solemnly promised to open the Planetarium by its 75th anniversary. However, it was noted by a narrow circle of people associated with the planetarium in November 2004 in a building under construction. By this time, the planetarium building, according to the reconstruction project, had already been raised by 6 meters, two new observatory towers had been erected; the area of the museum has increased from 3 to 17 thousand m². Over the past years CJSC "Moscow Planetarium" was successively transformed into CJSC "Moscow Planetarium" and OJSC "Moscow Planetarium". However, cooperation between the city authorities and private investors did not work out, and the implementation of the project was delayed.

In 2006, private investors asked the city to return their investment and thereby buy out their stake. In 2006, when Moscow once again stopped financing and began to squeeze private investors out of the project, an agreement was reached that investors themselves would give up their 39% stake in exchange for a return on their investment. Yuri Luzhkov agreed and instructed to prepare a buyout order.

In February 2008, the Moscow government, which owns a 61% stake in OAO Moscow Planetarium, stopped financing its reconstruction due to the fact that "the obligations of partners who own 39% of the shares were not fully fulfilled during the reconstruction." According to Igor Ignatov, deputy head of the Moscow city property department, the city was forced to stop the reconstruction when “new circumstances became known” - the Moscow Planetarium had a debt to the contractor Energomashconsulting in the amount of 9 million rubles.

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On March 11, an extraordinary meeting of shareholders was held, at which General Director Igor Mikitasov was removed from his post and a new management company with a 100% stake in the city, Pokrovskie Vorota, was appointed.

On May 4, 2009, with the participation of the Pokrovskie Vorota management company, a deal was made for the sale and purchase of the property of OAO Moscow Planetarium. At the last auction, two lots were sold: an object of construction in progress at Sadovo-Kudrinskaya Street, building 1, as well as all the movable property of the bankrupt. The purchaser of the property was JSC "Planetarium" represented by the executive body of the management company "Pokrovskie Vorota". 100% of the shares of OJSC Planetarium are owned by the Department of Property of the City of Moscow. To purchase the property complex, the shareholder contributed additional funds to the authorized capital of the company, provided for by the city budget for 2009. On May 29, First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Vladimir Resin during a press conference announced that the capital's Planetarium would begin its work in 2010.

On November 14, 2009, after a working meeting in the planetarium building, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov once again told reporters about the imminent opening of the Moscow Planetarium, this time in December 2010 (previously 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2009). He added that the work to open the planetarium to visitors will have two stages. The mayor called the completion of construction and installation works, which are scheduled for September 2010, the first stage. The second stage is related to the installation of the necessary equipment in December 2010. Design work was carried out by Mosproekt-4.

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The lifting of the building without dismantling began on December 27, 2003. The operation consisted of 20 intermediate stages, after each of which the planetarium was raised by 30 cm. The workers, using 24 powerful hydraulic jacks, gradually raised the structure weighing more than 3 thousand tons, fixing it with reliable piles. On February 10, 2004, the ascent was completed. As a result, the planetarium has two additional floors, and the area has increased from 3 to 15 thousand m².

10 million euros were allocated from the city budget for the purchase of equipment. These funds were used to purchase a full-dome projection system with a stereo projector and 14 dynamic chairs, as well as a 4D cinema, a Carl Zeiss Jena Universarium M9 planetarium projector, which in 2011 is the most powerful device for planetariums produced by the company, and other means with with the help of which you can observe a variety of celestial phenomena on the dome of the planetarium with a diameter of 25 meters.

Moscow State University has been appointed scientific curator of the planetarium.

In April 2010, Leonid Monosov, the head of the capital's city order department, announced that the opening had been postponed to early 2011. In November 2010, it was announced that the opening would take place on April 12, 2011 and would be timed to coincide with Cosmonautics Day. However, by March 2011 the building was "technically not quite ready", so the management postponed the opening to June 12, 2011, timed to coincide with the Day of Russia. Finally, on June 12, the opening of the planetarium took place.

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In general, the planetarium turned out to be a very "living museum". A huge number of kids. Tour guides are surrounded by schoolchildren and students. It's nice that such a scientific place is not left without attention.

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More about these units will be at the end of the post.

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Looks fantastic

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You can touch the “guest” from other worlds with your hands

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The children are very happy with what is happening.

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Fragments of meteorites.

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Everything is very interactive and modern.

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Here is such a "cosmic ladder"

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In the star hall of the planetarium for 400 seats, the most advanced projector of the starry sky to date is installed. Universarium M9 German company Karl Zeiss, heiress "Carl Zeiss Jena". It will project about nine thousand stars of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, all kinds of eclipses, nebulae and galaxies onto the largest dome in Europe. The device can be lowered by two meters on the elevator so as not to close the dome to the audience. The cost of the projector is €4.8 million, and including the entire set of equipment - more than €11 million.

A new astronomical site has appeared next to the planetarium. It has about 30 demonstration vehicles and instruments, a globe of the starry sky, models of planetariums and spaceships from different countries, a sundial, models of Stonehenge and the Cheops pyramid, which will be used to demonstrate the operation of ancient observatories. There are also two modern observatories.

Photo 39.

The projector that worked at MP from 1977 to 1994 was the 4th generation! True, it was a unique model with automation attached from the average Star Master apparatus (as in Star City).
The famous "Cosmorama" was the fifth generation. The 6th almost did not light up in the world at all. And from the 7th Starballs went. Universarium Mark IX is the ceiling. The Germans themselves say that there will be no tenth. True, they continue to tune it. Who knows where this will lead?

But let's find out more about this device:

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UNIVERSARIUM M IX This is definitely a very expensive car. Not every planetarium in the world can afford this. Not every dome, even in a well-equipped planetarium, is suitable for using this projection device.

For 23 years, only 21 Planetariums in the world have been honored with the great honor of having this device - less than a year, Carl Zeiss produces his Universariums M9 using the device.

The Universarium M9 can be installed in a hall with a spherical dome screen with a diameter ranging from 18 to 35 meters. At the same time, if the horizon of the dome is “littered” (this is practiced if the planetarium is combined with an I-MAX cinema), then the M9 Universarium allows a slope angle of up to 30 degrees and has an additional modification “UNIVERSARIUM M IX TD” corresponding to this situation. It is assumed that in the halls with the "Universarium M9" you can seat from 200 to 450 people on special reclining chairs. (Earlier in the Moscow Planetarium, the chairs did not recline their backs, because of this it was inconvenient for many to look up - the unbending Russian neck was not created to look at the zenith - but it was possible to seat up to 600 spectators. Now only 350.)

The basic equipment includes the so-called "Starball" ("Starball") - a spherical projector of stars based on fiber optics (which is much more economical than an Ilyich light bulb that heats the ball from the inside with 99 percent of its energy), so Starball stars show unsurpassedly bright and pointwise. It is claimed that their color is exclusively white and only the brightest stars have a unique hue - reddish, blue or yellow. The stars twinkle realistically.

In addition to Starball, an elevator can be installed (this “star ball” weighs one and a half tons), which allows you to remove the device during a full-dome projection so that it does not cast a shadow in several directions of the hall at once. Please note that the frequent incompatibility of the work of the Universarium with a full-dome projection is emphasized, because the Universarium falls into the coverage area of all projectors, but it is difficult to put it lower - for most domes, the geometric center is at the "horizon" level. Plus, additional planet projectors will then shield the projection coming from Starball.

The next major addition to Starball are the planetary projectors. Once they were an integral part of the entire projection apparatus, and now they are outside it, separate optional devices. And there may be different numbers.

Unlike the previous technologies of the Zeiss planetariums from the 1st to the 6th generation and the Cosmorama, the planetarium projectors of the Universarium do not have a mechanical reduction, but an electronic-computer control and allow solving many different problems based on a computer calculation of the positions of the projection of a particular planet on dome.

For example, these projectors can show the position and dynamics of the positions of the planets on the ecliptic, but also depict the view of the Solar System from the pole of the ecliptic - the Copernican Planetarium. The standard number of projectors is 8. Usually in such a set, projectors show the following luminaries and phenomena:

1 . The sun and solar eclipses in different, dynamically changing phases, corona or annular.
2 . Moon with phase change, lunar eclipses with phases and Earth's shadow of varying intensity.
3 . Mercury
4 . Venus
5 . Mars
6 . Jupiter
7 . Saturn
8 . Planet X - this can be any planet - for example, the Earth, to demonstrate the view of the sky from the Moon, but it is also possible to use this projector to image any hypothetical planet from Phaethon to Nibiru. To do this, you just need to upload a slide with an image of the surface of this planet to a special place.

All planetary projectors are equipped with a significant zoom that allows you to vary the apparent diameter of the planet from almost a point to several degrees. At the same time, surface details, phases and other features, such as the ring of Saturn, become substitutions. The brightness of the planets also changes, but by default it is correctly correlated with the brightness of the stars created by Starball.

The positions of the planets can be arbitrary, or they can be calculated exactly for any date from -10,000 years from the beginning of a new era to +10,000 years from the same time zero point. The movements of the projections of the planets can be accelerated.

But back to Starball.

The developers claim that the brightness of the stars created by this optical-wave system is so high that you can safely use any other projection system in parallel with its operation, for example, a full-dome video projection system from many components, and at the same time, the stars created by the Universarium will not be clogged with the illumination of projectors working simultaneously with Universarium. This is true, but it must be understood that this applies to the brightest points-stars of the Universarium and the weak ones, of course, will fade even if the full-dome projection idlely demonstrates a black background - we will get an analogue of the Moscow sky, which shows the Big Dipper, the stars of the Summer Triangle, Arcturus and Cassiopeia... Alas, although the Universarium shows the stars clearly and brightly, modern full-dome projection systems still emit a lot of light and do not give a really dark background.

On the other hand, the brightness of the stars, which the Universarium gives, fully corresponds to the gorgeous picture that can be seen in reality in the mountains. For several years in a row I went to the Crimea - to the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory - exactly the same picture of the starry sky that crumbles like a thousand-star fantasy over the low Crimean mountains, the Universarium M9 accurately conveys. Of course, the Universarium shows many more stars than can be seen with the eye of an inexperienced observer. It is believed that in the entire sky only 5-6 thousand are available to the eye of a "teapot" - an observer who has not yet mastered the idea that observing the stars, even with the eye, requires both concentration and relaxation, meditation and a good knowledge of the star map, and the most important thing is deep adaptation. And every experienced observer will confirm my words - an experienced, trained eye sees much more stars: not 5 or 6, but all 8 - 9 thousand. It is precisely so many of them (and precisely for this reason) that the M9 Universarium shows.

But Starball shows not only stars - nebulae, clusters, and even the brightest of galaxies that can be observed by a trained keen eye. But the creators of the Universarium went even further and created ultra-detailed matrices for depicting foggy, diffuse and multi-star objects - special glass plates with a sprayed ultra-thin layer of chromium, which conveys the smallest details of certain objects in the celestial sphere. For the first time, binoculars are useful for observing the starry sky in the Planetariums - viewing all these nebulous objects - galaxies, nebulae and star clusters, as well as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds will bring amazing pleasure.

The same applies to the Milky Way - now it's not just a dull stretching band of obscure light stretching across the sky, but a detailed map of our galaxy with all the details, dark dust clouds and bright clusters of millions of stars - the Milky Way is also interesting to observe with Binoculars. Its brightness, saturation is adjustable.

Special projectors located in the "Starball" show the ancient drawings of the constellations - the zodiacal ones are displayed in orange, the rest - in light yellow. Shapes can be included one at a time, in groups, or all at once. Their brightness changes, but by default the images, as it seemed to me, are too bright.

"Starball" displays a significant number of coordinate systems with their inherent main lines, circles and points. The coordinate systems can be horizontal, equatorial, ecliptic and even the galactic coordinate system can be reflected by special marked luminous lines among the stars.

By rotating along all the axes corresponding to these coordinate systems, the Universarium M9 makes it possible to demonstrate the daily apparent rotation of the celestial vault, the annual movement of the celestial vault, and even the precessional one. At the same time, the projectors of the planets, being separate and not involved in the general polysystemic rotation of Starball, nevertheless create an accurate projection of each object moving among the stars in accordance with its calculated position on the celestial sphere. That is, all Starball's rotations in various coordinate systems are programmatically tied to the operation of planetary projectors.

Also, "Universarium M9" clearly demonstrates the change in the visibility of the constellations associated with changes in the latitude of the observer and can even show a perspective (parallax) change in the position of the planets during an interplanetary flight. And of course, to demonstrate the view of the starry sky from different planets of the solar system.

It remains to add that a special lens on Starball demonstrates Donati's comet, somehow it seemed to me that it demonstrates a little faded and gray. I saw with my eye in 1996 two magnificent comets - Hyakutake-2 and Hale-Bopp. Both had bright colors and shades, and the new Zeiss comet is gray and does not make a splash. In addition, the image of Halley's comet in the Copernican Planetarium is not conceived. Previously, the Copernican Planetarium was a separate projection mechanism and worked independently of the main apparatus. Now it is implemented, as I wrote above, by the multifunctionality of ordinary planetary projectors. But Halley's Comet fell out of its capabilities, or maybe out of the developers' attention.

There is also a Meteor Shower projector, and it shows the shooting stars of August - the Perseids, in much the same way as the previous model transmitted the star shower. As I understand it, there hasn't been much improvement here.

In fact, this is everything. The Universarium has nothing more to show today.

It does not include a projector of clouds, aurora, evening or morning dawn, no fireballs and satellites crossing the sky in any direction (although a satellite can be created from Planet X, but this is inconvenient), there is not even a pointer arrow ... although ... the arrow is actually there is, but it is not manually controlled - it must be programmed in advance and separately, so that the arrow would automatically show a certain object in the sky synchronously with one or another explanation ...

Alas, the concept of the work of the "Universarium M9" is increasingly gravitating and pushing the lecturer to work on autopilot - Zeiss does not even apply pointers to his best planetarium now. It must be said that despite the developer's statement that everything and everything is available for real-time operation, nevertheless, the real-time remote control for the "Universarium M9" is not supplied - the system unit, monitor, software and a small special keyboard with which they enter a special script - a program for executing certain commands. There is no question of any, in the understanding of the IP lecturers of the 80s - 90s, work in real time, when the lecturer, as a spacecraft pilot, led his board with five hundred passengers to another galaxy with levers and toggle switches, there is no question now. All control comes down to the fact that the operator creates a command, saves the script and launches it from the beginning of processing this command on the timeline. This is work in a completely different way.

Special lamps create a stunning blue hue - this is how the blue skies are depicted in the Planetria before the start of the session, but the red, aggressive dawn in which the Sun sets is a little confusing. Obviously, here you can and should work on flowers for quite a long time - then you will be able to achieve a realistic sunset. But while the sky is blue, the crescent of the young moon looks happy in it, how attractive.

Of course, the Univesarium M9 is good in itself, but it doesn’t have as many opportunities as the entire arsenal of the Moscow Planetarium could demonstrate in the era of the 80s. The inclusion of additional projection tools in the lecture programs, such as a full-dome projection, can help out in some way and demonstrate a number of phenomena unattainable for the Universarium, but it will certainly affect the overall beauty of the starry sky - it will worsen the picture. But obviously, you will have to put up with something, and improve something or come up with new solutions.

This is such a technique.

In general, I expected from the Great Hall of the Planetarium to show stars on the dome and assumed that it would be rather boring. But in fact, real popular science films are shown there, and the effect of showing them on the dome is quite comparable to IMAX and even surpasses it in some ways. This is something new in general in the format of showing films. A huge dome over your head - you turn your head in all directions, excellent image and sound create unforgettable impressions and effects. A reclining chair…very comfortable. I would love to watch films in this format, even feature films :-)

Photo 41.

But I did not quite understand the purpose of the ramp in front of the building. No one is allowed in, everyone passes under it. This is probably, as usual, we open a couple of times a year, but it occupies a huge and such a scarce area. Who is in the know and will share the secret of the idea?

NOD “Journey to the planetarium. Solar system"

Equipment: slide projector, medals of the planets, various cereals for composing the solar system, yellow circles, cards with missing letters in the names of the planets.

Target: introduce children to the structure of the solar system.

Tasks: to acquaint children with the Sun and its significance, influence on the climate; promote the development of cognitive activity of children.

Develop imaginative thinking, creative imagination, coherent speech.

Lesson progress

1. Educator. Guys, today we will make an excursion to an unusual place. In order to find out where, you must guess the riddle (Slide 2 "Riddle")

(A riddle about space is being guessed. The answer “space” appears on the screen. Slide 3 “Space”)

2. Guys, there are no such devices so that we can go on an excursion into space. But we can go with you to the planetarium. Guys, what do you think, what is a planetarium and what can be seen there? (children's answers. 4-5 slides "Planetarium")

Question: Why does the planetarium building have a hemisphere roof? (children's answers)

Educator: The planetarium is a building with a domed roof. The starry sky is projected onto the dome with the help of the apparatus. This allows us to consider the planets and stars, to study them.

And here we are in the planetarium. We look at the dome - this is the universe, the starry sky. (6 slide "Starry sky")

Educator: Guys, what surrounds us in outer space? (stars, planets, sun, satellites, meteorites, comets) (7 slide)

3. Educator: What do you think the planets look like from Earth? (small, large, we don’t see ....)

Let's do an experiment to answer this question.

Take all circles.

Put it in front of your eyes. What do we see? (nothing)

Start slowly moving it away from your eyes.

What happens to the circle? (He seems smaller from a distance)

Conclusion: The circle appears smaller when moved away from the eyes, and when brought closer to the eyes, it seems to increase.

4. All items appear smaller when removed. The sun is very big, but it looks small because The sun is far away. The stars are very large, many of them are larger than the Sun, but they seem small because they are far away (8 slide)

The starry sky is so huge that we won't be able to explore it in just one trip to the planetarium. Today we will talk only about the solar system. And what is it, we will now try to understand.

5. And what is the solar system?

Children: This is the sun, around which nine planets revolve, many small planets - asteroids and comets. (9 slide "Solar system")

The sun is the most familiar astronomical object to all people. This is our star that gives us life. Because of it, during the day all other space objects become invisible. The sun gives off light and heat until it sets below the horizon. And only then the sky becomes dark enough to see the rest of the stars. The sun is the same star as all other stars, it's just closer to us. (10 slide "Sun")

The planet we live on is called "Earth" and it is friends with the sun. What does the sun give to our planet? (heat and light) (11 Slide "Earth")

6. We cannot live without the sun, so people have shown respect for the sun for a long time. They composed proverbs and sayings about the sun, poems. (12 - 13 slides "Proverbs and sayings")

The red sun on the white light warms the black earth.
What is gold to me, the sun would shine!

(ask how the children understood the meaning of the saying)

The poem is read by a child:

Sun

The cloud hides behind the forest,

The sun is watching from heaven.

And so pure

Good, radiant.

If we got him

We would kiss him.

7. Educator: But the Earth is not the only planet in space that is "friends" with the Sun. Earth is one of the planets of the large solar family. What planets do you know? (Slide 14 "Solar system")

Slide 15 "Planets"

Which planet is the largest? (Jupiter)

Which planet is the hottest? (Venus)

Which star gives us warmth? (Sun)

Which planet "rolls" like a ball on a saucer? (Uranus)

Which planet from the Sun is our planet Earth? (Third)

Educator: Please note that the sizes of the planets are different, but they are all much smaller than the sun

8. PHYSMINUTKA (music sounds, children stand on rugs).

Over the Earth late at night, Just stretch out your hand, ……… hands stretched up

You will grab onto the stars: ………………………………………………….. Hands up, sideways down

They seem nearby……………………………………………………………. clench hands into fists

You can take a peacock feather, …………………………………………. hands before eyes

Touch the hands on the Clock, ……………………………………………… Hands in front of the eyes

Ride a Dolphin,……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… with legs together, arms up, swing

Ride on the Scales. ………………………………….tilt down, hands wave tick-tock

Over the Earth late at night, …………………… tilt down, hands waving tick-tock

If you look at the sky,……………………………………… squat hands forward

You will see, like clusters,………… Feet shoulder-width apart, arms sway to the sides

There are constellations hanging…………………………………… hands down, raise your head up

stretched up, hands up. We take the constellations with our hands

9. Educator. To represent the dimensions of the solar system, we compose the solar system:

Take a sheet of paper with the image of the solar system, a cup with objects that will replace planets for us.

The sun is a ball (10 cm), then

1. Mercury - millet

2. Venus - rice

3. Earth - rice

4. Mars - peas

5. Jupiter - shell

6. Saturn - shell

7. Uranus - beans

8. Neptune - beans

9. Pluto - peas

The remaining bodies of the solar system cannot be depicted, since they are negligible. (Slides 16-18 "Planets")

Name the giant planets? (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)

Name the terrestrial planets? (Venus, Earth, Mars)

Name the smallest planet? (Mercury)

Now we can imagine the planets of the solar system.

10. Game

Orbits of different planets are depicted on the floor. Children are given paper medals depicting the planets (the colors of the planets and their orbits must match). In the center of the circles is a child depicting the Sun. Invite the other child planets to take their places in the orbits. If there are difficulties, once again return to the slide. Then the children are invited to disperse in different directions and, at the command "Planets - in places!", Build a model of the solar system. Which of the planets will take its place faster? Then each planet must make a circle around the Sun. At the same time, draw the attention of children: the closer the planet is to the Sun, the faster it will pass in a circle. The Earth goes all its way around the Sun in a year (from one New Year to another). To demonstrate this clearly, take a large calendar and, as you move around the circle of the child-Earth, turn over its pages, naming the months. Thus, the child will begin to move in January, and will return to his place in December.

11. To explore the universe, we have to go to space more than once, so we must fill the spacecraft with fuel. To do this, we need to complete the task.

You need to enter the missing letters in the names of the planets.

(children enter.)

VEN…RA

UP…TER

MA…S

…LUTON

NEPT…N

12. (Slides) In order, all the planets

Children. Call any of us:

Once - Mercury,

Two - Venus,

Three - Earth,

Four is Mars.

Five - Jupiter,

Six - Saturn,

Seven - Uranus,

Behind him is Neptune.

He is eighth in a row.

And after him already, then,

And the ninth planet

called Pluto.

13. Educator. Bottom line: guys, our first trip into space has come to an end, today we learned a lot, saw a lot. Tell us what new things we learned (what is a planetarium, solar system, orbit, planets). And how much more interesting and unknown awaits us ahead.

To see the stars on a clear sunny day, you need to go down to the bottom of the well. And you can admire the picture of the starry sky on a cloudy day only by taking the plane above the top edge of the clouds. To see one of the most beautiful constellations - the famous Southern Cross - we, the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, need to travel to the equator. The sun and stars can only be observed simultaneously from a spacecraft...

Halley's comet will make its next approach to Earth in 2060. The next solar eclipse in the European part of the country will be witnessed by our distant descendants - it will happen in 2126. And only in the XXXVIII century, earthlings will be able to see Donati's comet again - one of the brightest comets of the 19th century.

But all these and many other celestial phenomena can be seen on the artificial sky of the Moscow Planetarium any day. How did this become possible? The history of the Planetarium is a fascinating story about the thorny path to the stars.

Preparation for construction

In the middle of 1927 By decree of the Moscow Council, a Permanent Commission was created for the construction of a planetarium in Moscow. By that time, 12 planetariums had already been opened in the world - ten in Germany and two abroad, in Vienna and Rome. Moscow became the third planetarium outside of Germany and the thirteenth in the world.

By the spring of 1928, the USSR trade mission in Berlin finally agreed with the Zeiss firm on the supply of the Planetarium projection apparatus (serial number 13) and with the Dickerhoff firm on the construction of a fabric dome that serves as a screen for demonstrating the sky.

The Moscow City Council allocated 250,000 rubles for the construction of the planetarium.

This amount included the cost of building not only the building itself, but also its equipment, a cinema auditorium, an astronomical museum, a library, auditoriums for circles, laboratory facilities, as well as an arrangement on a flat roof of an astronomical observatory for mass excursions.

Meanwhile, the design of the building of the Moscow Planetarium was going on.

K. N. Shistovsky (first director) and architects M. O. Barshch, M. I. Sinyavsky

Young architects M.O. Barshch and M.I. Sinyavsky, later - professor at the Moscow Architectural Institute. They presented a project made in the then fashionable style - "constructivism". This style appeared in architecture in the 20s - 30s of the twentieth century, and its task was - "designing the environment by creating structures in clear external forms, formed from simple stereometric bodies and assembled on a reinforced concrete frame." The construction of the Moscow Planetarium was a significant event at that time. On September 23, 1928, Ogonyok magazine reported: “It is remarkable that, given our material poverty, with our strict import plan, we are importing and installing an expensive structure, which is not found in many capitals (...). The Moscow Planetarium, according to its organizers, will be something like a people's university (...). Attracting with external showiness, the planetarium will at the same time help the working people to broaden their mental horizons. Therefore, its construction should be hailed as an event of exceptional cultural importance.”

After appropriate comments, the Moscow City Council approved the project, on the basis of which the main, cylindrical building of the Moscow Planetarium was built on Sadovaya Kudrinskaya Street, 5.

first stone

in the foundation of the Moscow Planetarium was laid on the day of the autumn equinox - September 23, 1928.

In mid-February 1929, specialists from Germany arrived in Moscow to install an iron frame - a spherical dome - a screen. The Planetarium apparatus was already in Moscow at that time and was stored in packed boxes in the premises of the Moscow Department of Public Education.

At the end of May, when the auditorium was ready, the installation of the Planetarium apparatus began under the supervision of Zeiss specialists.

During August, September and October closed screenings took place.

Selection of museum materials

Scientific and methodological work at that time was in full swing. The main themes, the selection of material were carefully thought out, strictly scientific content was taken into account, as well as the methodology and form of presentation. Several main themes were developed, satisfying not only the needs of the mass audience, but also school programs. A plan was presented for organizing an astronomical library-reading room and an astronomical observatory serving visitors and capable of conducting scientific work.

However, the most important issue was the creation of a large astronomical museum. The discussion about how to be a museum of the planetarium was extremely heated, as two opinions fought: should there be a museum at the planetarium, or should the planetarium become at the museum. The majority voted for the second proposal, and the museum itself was supposed to be deployed on a grandiose scale, requiring a special, large cubic capacity of an extension, with laboratory rooms, large dynamic models, classrooms, etc. The planetarium was conceived as the final and generalizing spectacle seen in the museum. But the idea of creating a museum was never realized at that time.

Grand opening of the Moscow Planetarium

The opening of the planetarium to the general public was scheduled for the October holidays. November 5, 1929 is considered the birthday of the Moscow Planetarium.

Here is how the “Chronicle” wrote from the journal “World Studies” (vol. XVIII, No. 6):

“On November 5, the solemn opening of the Moscow Planetarium, the first in our Union and the 13th in the whole world, took place in Moscow. The opening was attended by t.t. Litvinov, Lunacharsky, Semashko and others.

Mayakovsky dedicated the poem “Proletarian, proletarian, come into the planetarium” to the opening of the planetarium, which ended with the words: “Every proletarian should look at the planetarium”

The evolution of scientific and educational programs

Apparatus "Flickering Stars", in the photo mechanic Lebedev. One of the first Soviet inventions to complement the Planetarium apparatus, author - K. N. Shistovsky

The planetarium began its activities with a small series of lectures. However, its subject matter grew from year to year. If in 1929-1930. there were only three themes in the repertoire, then already in 1939. their number reached 40. The structure of the Universe, the origin and development of the solar system, the structure of the Sun, the Moon and its movement, comets and meteors, eclipses - these are the topics covered in the Planetarium.

With the expansion of work, it became necessary to supplement the technical base of the Planetarium with new instruments and apparatus.

The great merit of the Moscow Star House is that it was here, almost immediately after the opening, with the blessing of K. G. Paustovsky, that the first design and production work began to create a “living sky”, to enhance the effect of presence. A group of experimenters for 45 years was headed by a talented designer, the first director and lecturer of the planetarium, Konstantin Nikolaevich Shistovsky.

By 1934, stars were already twinkling on the dome of the Moscow Planetarium, clouds were floating, a comet was walking across the sky, polar lights were swaying, the August meteor shower was going on, solar eclipses were happening, Tsiolkovsky's rocket was flying with a fiery tail. At the end of the session, a scarlet dawn was occupied in the hall, and to the music of R.M. Glier, specially arranged by him for the Planetarium, a large, bright “Soviet Sun” rose. None of this was in any planetarium in the world until the end of the 50s. So the planetarium ceased to be just an optical device, but became a domed theater, where the sky is reproduced in all its diversity by all means available to modern technology.

The beginning of the work of the astronomical circle

The year 1934 is also significant in that the first astronomical circle began its work at the Moscow Planetarium. Then, on the initiative of the Pionerskaya Pravda newspaper, two dozen children gathered within the walls of the Planetarium for their organizational meeting. The first leader of the circle was the well-known popularizer of astronomy Vitaly Alekseevich Shishakov. In those years, professors, prominent astronomers K.L. Up to 500 schoolchildren a year were engaged in astronomical circles of the Planetarium.

The leaders in different years were I.F. Shevlyakov, F.Yu. Zigel, R.I. Tsvetov, V.A. Bronshten, K.A. Bolt. There was no such youthful astronomical school, and there is none anywhere in the world. Many graduates of the astronomical circles of the Moscow Planetarium today are the color and pride of the national science of the stars.

In the same year, one of the world's first amateur groups for the observation of variable stars was created at the Planetarium under the guidance of Professor P.P. Parenago.

Planetarium and rocket and space technology

In 1934-1938. The Stratospheric Committee worked and met on the basis of the Moscow Planetarium. Its employees studied the upper layers of the atmosphere and dealt with the problems of jet propulsion. During the meeting of the Presidium of the Stratospheric Committee, here, in the Small Hall, one could see S. P. Korolev, V. P. Glushko, V. P. Vetchinkin, M. K. Tikhonravov, Yu. A. Pobedonostsev, G. E. Langemak.

At the Planetarium, there were engineering and design courses that the Stratospheric Committee inherited from the famous GIRD (a group for the study of jet propulsion). Lectures were given by V. P. Glushko, G. E. Langemak, M. K. Tikhonravov. Astronomical and geophysical questions were advised by professors B. A. Vorontsov-Velyaminov and P. P. Parenago. It was in the Moscow Planetarium that for the first time in the world a method for studying the dynamics of the stratosphere was developed and implemented using stratospheric probes with smoke bombs. In the basement of the Planetarium, the first liquid-propellant rockets designed by A.I. Polyarny, L.K. Korneev, and D.S. Dushkin were designed and manufactured. The first Soviet two-stage rocket designed by I. A. Merkulov was built here and tested in Ostankino. From a group of rocket scientists in the basement of the Moscow Planetarium, a world-famous design bureau (KB-7) has grown to develop liquid rockets.

Star theater at the Planetarium

In the prewar years, the Planetarium literally became the "Star Theater". It staged plays in which professional actors played. The performances of Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Copernicus were staged with great success in the domed hall. Already in the first performance, the characteristic features of the Planetarium Theater were clearly visible: the ability to create fascinating performances, organically weaving scientific statements into the fabric of the dialogue, as well as the ability to illustrate what was said, making extensive use of the starry sky and other capabilities of the Planetarium apparatus.

Galileo at the Cardinal. Galileo - artist A. I. Parkryshev, cardinal - Honored Artist of the RSFSR A. I. Bakhmetiev. Scene from the play Galileo

Planetarium and school

The Moscow Planetarium, thanks to the technical means at its disposal, is becoming a unique set of visual teaching aids. Under the starry sky of the Planetarium, students of Moscow schools conduct practical classes in astronomy and geography, making “round-the-world trips”, “travels to the North Pole”, receive visual evidence of the sphericity of the Earth, its daily and annual movement, etc. High school students are engaged in spherical astronomy. Lecture cycles for schoolchildren are coordinated with school programs and are an excellent addition to the knowledge that students receive at school.

As you know, astronomy is an observational science. An astronomical observatory is needed to observe celestial objects and phenomena. For these purposes, it was planned to create a special astronomical site in the Moscow Planetarium. For the first time the idea of its creation arose in 1939. It was decided to build the site in the early summer of 1941. However, the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War destroyed these plans. The astronomical site of the Moscow Planetarium was opened in 1947 for the 800th anniversary of Moscow.

During the war, the Moscow Planetarium, in addition to holding the usual mass lectures, provided practical assistance to the soldiers and commanders of the Soviet army in the form of special lectures of the military cycle for intelligence officers and military pilots. In addition to the lectures held in the Star Hall, traveling lectures on astronomy were organized. These lectures were given in hospitals, sponsored military units, in the auditoriums of the City Military Commissariat, and in air defense propaganda centers.

The Moscow Planetarium worked throughout the war and only once was closed for a period of two months.

Astronomy Site and Observatory

On the astronomical platform near Nabokov's globe

Planetarium - a center for the popularization of natural science knowledge

Since 1947, the Moscow Planetarium has been operating in the complex - the Star Hall, the lobby, the Astronomical Site and the Observatory. It becomes the country's largest center for the promotion and popularization of natural science knowledge. Thousands of lectures on astronomy and earth sciences are given every year not only in the Planetarium itself, but also at enterprises and institutions in Moscow and the region.

The Moscow Planetarium provides great scientific and methodological assistance to other planetariums. Its employees develop new demonstration devices, create a series of transparencies and annotations for them, and various teaching aids. Seminars, lecture schools, technical consultations are held on the basis of the Planetarium. All planetariums of the country began their activities with the direct assistance and participation of the Moscow Planetarium.

In the Moscow Planetarium, navigators of polar and long-range aviation are trained, those who subsequently laid air routes to Antarctica study the starry sky of the southern hemisphere.

Planetarium and astronautics

The Moscow Planetarium has made a considerable contribution to the development of national cosmonautics. It was here that, starting in 1960, for 15 years, astronavigation classes were held with future cosmonauts. Pilot-cosmonaut A.A. Leonov, once speaking in the Star Hall of the planetarium, said: “The path to Baikonur began here, in the Moscow Planetarium.”

In the seventies, in connection with the development and triumph of Soviet cosmonautics, there was an extraordinary interest in everything connected with space. The Moscow Planetarium covers all the most interesting events in this area, new lectures are being prepared promptly, telling about space flights and the results of space research. The planetarium is the only place where you can get objective and reliable information on space topics.

During these years, the popularity of the Moscow Planetarium is growing extraordinary. It becomes the most consistently visited in the world - from 800 thousand to a million visitors a year. Always well equipped, it exchanges experience on an equal footing with the capital planetariums of other countries. The history of the Planetarium reminds us that in many undertakings it was and remained the first.

The unique building of the Moscow Planetarium - a monument of the era of constructivism, the pride of Soviet architecture - is becoming an integral part of the architectural appearance of the capital - its silver elongated dome makes it look like a fantastic interplanetary rocket rushing into the sky.

Replacement of the apparatus "Planetarium"

Apparatus "Planetarium" No. 313

In 1977, the old apparatus "Planetarium" (serial number 13), installed in 1929, replaced the new apparatus "Planetarium" (serial number 313) with an automated control system. The new capabilities of the device made it possible to create a fundamentally new product for the Planetarium - an automated audiovisual program. The most interesting popular science programs, such as - "About Heaven and Earth" for children, "Myths about the great Hellenes" and "The sky of beautiful Hellas" based on ancient Greek myths, "Under the sky of the planetarium", "Newtoniana" were created by an honored worker of culture Russian Federation Stanislav Vasilievich Shirokov. He is rightfully considered an innovator in the development of a whole area of scientific and methodological technologies in the planetariums of our country.

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Moscow Planetarium was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In 1987, the 1X International Congress of Planetarium Directors was held at the Moscow Planetarium, which was attended by 139 delegates.

The history of the Moscow Planetarium contains many glorious pages, but there are truly dramatic moments and long years of oblivion.

Unfortunately, the general shadow of stagnation fell on the activities of the Moscow Planetarium. The installation of the new apparatus was, perhaps, the last tangible action aimed at its development.

In 1994, the Moscow Planetarium was closed for major repairs.

In preparing the material, articles by K.N. Shistovsky, V.A. Shishakov, K.A. Portsevsky, V.N. Komarov, S.V.

The buildings in which planetariums are located traditionally have a rather unusual architecture, which often reflects their functional purpose. In order not to be unfounded, we will show you today 10 most beautiful and extraordinary planetariums in the world.

Indira Gandhi Planetarium. Lucknow, India
In the Indian city of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, the Indira Gandhi Planetarium was opened in 1993 - one of the most unusual structures in all of India. This five-story building with a diameter of 21 meters has an appearance similar to the outlines of the "ringed" planet Saturn.

Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. Montreal, Canada

The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, which recently opened in the Canadian city of Montreal in the province of Quebec, consists of two symmetrical towers, each of which has a separate hall for scientific and educational shows. These structures, similar to cut cones, symbolize, on the one hand, craters on the Moon, and, on the other hand, telescopes directed into the sky.

L "Hemisfèric. Valencia, Spain

L "Hemisfèric, built in Valencia by the architect Santiago Calatrava, is one of the most beautiful, unusual and famous buildings on Earth. Within the walls of this building is a hall for laser shows and a planetarium. The building is part of the City of Arts and Sciences complex - a real architectural pearls of Spain and Europe in general.

Planetarium L "Hemisfèric in Valencia

At-Bristol. Bristol, UK

The authors of the project for the planetarium building in Bristol did not think long about the shape of this structure. They made it spherical, repeating the shape of the planets of the solar system. This building is just one of the pavilions of the At-Bristol complex - the largest research and educational center in the whole of the UK.

The planetarium hall in At-Bristol has a capacity of 80 people, and more than a thousand visitors pass through it every day. Perhaps one of the reasons for such popularity is the license for the sale of alcohol, which this scientific institution has.

Hayden Planetarium. New York, USA

The authors of the Hayden Planetarium building project, located in Central Park in New York, also decided to make a planetarium in the form of a ball. But, in order not to be too concise, they decided to “pack” one ideal figure into another. A cubic pavilion was also built around the spherical building of the planetarium.

The spherical hall of the Hayden Planetarium symbolizes the Sun, around which the small planets of our solar system revolve, up to three meters in diameter.

Planetarium Tycho Brahe. Copenhagen, Denmark

Astronomer Tycho Brahe is one of the most famous Danes in the world in the history of this nation. Therefore, it is not surprising that the planetarium in Copenhagen bears his name.

However, the building of this planetarium is not a building of the sixteenth century, when Brahe himself lived. This is a modern modern building that looks like a pipe truncated at an angle, looking into the sky.

Adler Planetarium. Chicago, USA

Built in the 1930s, the Adler Planetarium is considered one of the ugliest buildings in Chicago. The fact that outwardly the structure is very similar to the mosque of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem gives it a special "zest".

However, the Adler Planetarium is protected by the state. After all, this is the first planetarium in the United States of America.

Cultural and educational center. Valentina Tereshkova. Yaroslavl, Russia

In the Russian city of Yaroslavl, the planetarium is also one of the strangest and ugliest buildings. This building has an eclectic form, consisting of several volumes that are completely unrelated conceptually and visually.

Inside this cultural and educational center, named after the world's first female cosmonaut, there is a planetarium with the possibility of three-dimensional computer animation, an observatory, an exposition and exhibition hall "The History of Cosmonautics" and an educational and entertainment complex.

Planetarium Negara. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The last thing the Planetarium Negara building in Kuala Lumpur looks like is a planetarium. From the outside, the building looks like some kind of chic oriental-style palace, as if it had come to reality from the screensaver of the Prince of Persia game. However, Planetarium Negara is precisely a planetarium, a scientific and entertainment institution for telling visitors about the Cosmos and the Universe as a whole.

Planetarium in Nagoya. Nagoya, Japan

This review would not be complete without a planetarium in the Japanese city of Nagoya. This building is notable for two reasons. First, it is the largest planetarium in the world. The diameter of its dome is 35 meters.

Secondly, the spherical building of the planetarium in Nagoya does not stand on the ground, it hangs above it, using as a support two buildings of the City Science Museum, of which it is a part.

Portal for the student. Self-training