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Austin is the largest city in the United States without a planetarium. In fact, of the fifty largest cities in the US, Austin ranks sixteenth but is the only one currently without a planetarium. There are thirty-five planetariums in Texas, with thirteen in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone. If we use the DFW region as a guide, we would need a facility with approximately 350 - 400 seats to provide comparable per capita coverage. (Compare this to the IMAX Theater at the Bob Bullock Museum which boasts 400 seats.)
What is a Planetarium?A planetarium is a building housing an instrument for projecting images of the stars, constellations, planets and other astronomical phenomena onto a domed ceiling. The planetarium uses a projector to provide a high fidelity simulation of the night sky from any location on earth or the heavens, and at any point in time.
Unlike an observatory, which houses telescopes and needs clear skies to view the night sky, the planetarium brings the night sky inside and is independent of time of day and weather. In an observatory, you would step up to the telescope the view an object, as opposed to sitting in comfort in a theater seat to view a planetarium show.
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The closest planetariums to Austin are in San Antonio (Scobee Planetarium) and Killeen (Mayborn Planetarium). Both are about 90 minutes from downtown Austin and are not feasible or convenient for a school field trip or family excursion. The predictable result, supported by educational surveys we have conducted, is that most students (and many adults) in the Austin area have never experienced a planetarium.
There are several ingredients that make Austin’s situation positively unique, and allow us the opportunity to create something truly spectacular. Firstly, there is a complete lack of competition. Unlike in the DFW area, there is no facility close by offering anything similar. This significantly enhances the chances for a self-sustaining and profitable facility.
Secondly, Austin is truly a high-tech city. Our population is well-educated with an incredible interest among the public for the Austin Planetarium project. It is widely understood that the educational benefits a planetarium offers would be of great value to the Austin area and the future of its youth.
The Austin Planetarium
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| Carl Zeiss, Star Projector | Planetariums come in many sizes, both in terms of the dome diameter and the number of seats. With the advent of the digital planetarium, the most accepted seat configuration is unidirectional with a tilted dome. A larger dome does not necessarily mean more seats: for example, the Hayden Planetarium in New York has a dome of 63 feet and 440 seats, while the largest planetarium in the US at the new California Academy of Sciences is 90 feet in diameter with ‘only’ 290 seats. The largest planetarium in the world is in Niihama City, Japan and has 300 seats.
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| Megastar, Star projector | Currently, the largest planetarium in Texas is the 60-foot dome of the planetarium of UT-Arlington (one of two) which seats about 150. The planetarium in Texas with the most seating is the Burke Baker planetarium in Houston with 218 seats, although the dome size is only 50 feet across. It is therefore entirely feasible, and arguably even desired, to build the largest planetarium in Texas by a wide margin, an appropriate addition to Texas’ Capital City.
A planetarium with around 250 unidirectional seats would need to be in the range of 75 feet or more depending on the tilt of the dome. But a larger dome can be utilized if more space is reserved for other usages like an orchestra pit or a performance stage. We can therefore conclude that the dome of the Austin Planetarium will be at least 75 feet with a minimum of 250 seats. If an interested donor can be found, we could construct the largest planetarium in the world.
Additionally, the iconic Austin Planetarium will have the most modern three-dimensional projection system available, combined with a state-of-the-art opto-mechanical star projector.
Launceston Planetarium, Tasmania
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