Friends of the Zeiss

P.O. Box 1041

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041 U.S.A.

Telephone: 412-561-7876

Electronic Mail: < friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc >

Internet Web Site: < http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org >

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release: 2004 October 12

For more information -- Glenn A. Walsh:

Daytime: E-Mail < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >

Evening: Telephone 412-561-7876

3 MAJOR BUHL PLANETARIUM ARTIFACTS UNAFFECTED BY FLOOD;

CONDITION OF OTHER PLANETARIUM ARTIFACTS UNKNOWN

Pittsburgh, Oct. 12 – Three major historic artifacts of Pittsburgh’s original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science were unaffected by the major flood of September 17 and 18, according to a September 24 letter from The Carnegie Science Center to Pittsburgh General Services Director Dale Perrett. However, the letter did not indicate the condition of other City-owned Buhl Planetarium artifacts, which were moved to The Carnegie Science Center in 1991 or 1994.

According to the letter from the Science Center, the historic Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope, and large Mercator’s Projection Map of the World are in a storage compartment which received no water leakage from the heavy rains of September 17. Prior to its Oct., 2002 dismantling, the Zeiss II was the oldest operable major planetarium projector in the world!

However, the letter did not indicate the condition of other historic artifacts, including five classic Astronomy exhibits and eleven paintings. These paintings include portraits of Astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (commissioned by the Polish Arts League of Pittsburgh), as well as of Henry Buhl, Jr. and his wife Louise. Another painting, The Old Astronomer by Pennsylvania artist and architect Daniel Owen Stephens, has been published in Astronomy textbooks and in a 1961 filmstrip for schools called “The Race for Space.”

In an Oct. 12 letter to Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto, Friends of the Zeiss Project Director Glenn A. Walsh is asking that the City make a second inquiry, asking The Carnegie Science Center management particularly about these other City-owned Buhl Planetarium artifacts.

- 30 –
 
For a list of City-owned artifacts, from Buhl Planetarium, being stored by The Carnegie Science Center, click here:
 
< https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/CSC-CityAssets.htm >
 
To read the complete letter, click here:
 
< https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/L-PedutoB2.htm >
 
To read the companion statement, before Pittsburgh City Council, click here:
 
< https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/ST-PghIvanFlood2.htm >
 
To read the first letter, from Sept. 20, click here:
 
< https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/L-Peduto.htm >
 
To read the first statement on Sept. 21, before Pittsburgh City Council, click here:
 
< https://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/friendsofthezeiss/ST-PghIvanFlood.htm >
 
gaw
 
 
 
 
Glenn A. Walsh
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc > 
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh: 
 < http://www.planetarium.cc > 
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago: 
 < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer & Optician John A. Brashear: 
 < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com > 
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: 
 < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc > 
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh: 
 < http://www.incline.cc >