To Whom it
Concerns,
I am
writing out of concern for the fate of Buhl Planetarium and the Zeiss
Projector. I grew up in
Many of my
best childhood memories are of Buhl. In addition to the planetarium, I remember
the Hall of the Universe, the BioCorner, the Hall of Mirrors, and the
Siderostat refractor telescope. I especially loved the Foucault’s Pendulum, the
dignity of its measured procession, and the sense of majesty and permanence
imparted by its carved marble floor and elegant brass rail.
My father
always tried to inspire a special love and appreciation for science and nature
in my sister and me. For our bedtime stories, he often told us the mythologies
of the constellations. We would act out the tales, using our stuffed animals as
stand-ins for the celestial actors, Raggedy Ann for Cassiopeia, a stuffed horse
for Pegasus, Kermit the Frog as Perseus, et cetera.
But these
stories reclaimed their epic proportions during the star shows at Buhl
Planetarium. I remember watching the strange, insectoid silhouette of the
projector rise from the floor, like some bizarre creature emerging from the
underworld, bearing explanations for stellar parallax, retrograde motion, and
Kepler’s first law. I remember the thrill and fascination of watching the stars
shift across the dome, smiling at the giddy vertigo of that momentary doubt
whether it was the stars or I that moved. I loved the sense that mystery could
be explained, that the universe could become accessible, having been lovingly
mapped over the centuries, transposed onto the celestial sphere, and then
precisely projected onto the dome of the planetarium, like a gift from
scientists and historians to laymen, so we could all marvel at the beauty of
the universe together.
I am now
taking an astronomy class at
(More,
page 2)
Historic Designation of Buhl Planetarium
It
distresses me that such an elegant and educational piece of scientific
equipment as the Zeiss projector could be discarded, as though it were not
representative of humankind’s most brilliant and astonishing
accomplishments. There’s no other way to
say it: People don’t make things like this anymore.
The Zeiss is from an era of durable craftsmanship, when technology was
both precise and human, before post-war technologies
made things lighter, cheaper - and more expendable. It is a relic, certainly,
but a useful relic, all the more worthy of appreciation and respect because it
still works. The sum of centuries of knowledge and effort are distilled in a
machine like the Zeiss projector: it is the embodiment of why people learn,
study, teach; it is the best humanity has to offer itself.
But the
greatest value of the Zeiss, I believe, is its potential as an educational
tool. I hope the curators of the
Children’s Museum will find a way to incorporate the Zeiss projector into their
exhibits in the old planetarium building; I cannot imagine how anyone
purporting to be concerned with the scientific education of children could
decide to put the Zeiss projector in a warehouse instead of making an effort to
use it. It defies common sense, as well as proper reverence for both the
scientific legacy of humankind and the more recent history of the city of
Also, I urge
the Historic Review Commission and the City Planning Commission to recommend
historical landmark status for the old Buhl Planetarium building, and that
Best regards,
Katherine Roolf