The following pages are from an Internet web site describing the history and 1996 restoration of the Korkosz Projector, which started operation at the Springfield Museum of Science in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1937. The Korkosz Projector is two years older than the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector in Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium.

Even though the Korkosz Projector is referred to as a planetarium projector, it is not actually a planetarium. By definition, a planetarium displays the planets, in addition to displaying stars. The Korkosz Projector was not designed to display the much more complex motions of the planets, only the simple motion of stars; it is really a stellarium. This web site does admit that the Korkosz Projector cannot display planetary motions.

Hence, Buhl Planetarium's Zeiss II Planetarium Projector is the oldest operable major planetarium projector in the world!

However, this web site information clearly illustrates that restoration of a pre-World War II star projector, for continued use before the public as a star projector, is quite doable without extravagant expenditures.

gaw