BGSU Planetarium shows the magic of the cosmos on campus
The planetarium can recreate the view of the sky from anywhere — or any time — on Earth.
The planetarium played host to a speaker series on various eclipse-related topics, and during BGSU English professor Stephannie Gearhart’s talk, the planetarium was able to show an eclipse that happened during the life of William Shakespeare as part of the presentation.
“When we’re talking about the sky, we can do a full recreation at virtually any time or place on Earth,” Dellenbusch said. “When Dr. Gearhart talked about Shakespeare and eclipses during the speaker series, we were actually able to show an eclipse from Shakespeare’s time, from 1605, that he might have seen, and show how the view from London would have looked.”
The planetarium also can demonstrate accurately the scale of various items within the solar system. Dellenbusch said one of the most fun demonstrations is to project planets, then ask the gathered audience — which can range from school-aged kids to adults — to guess how big the sun actually is compared to the other planets.
The big reveal, when the sun fills the dome, always gets a big reaction, she said.
“We have a full-scale model of the sun and the planets that we project, so we name the planets as they come up, then ask how big the sun would be on the scale once you’ve seen Earth and Jupiter. Once we actually show it, that always gets ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs,’” Dellenbusch said.
The planetarium is also home to astronomy and solar system classes, which provides an invaluable teaching tool for BGSU students.
Rather than simply listening to a lecture, Layden said students can experience astronomy or the solar system course material in real-time.
“When we’re teaching a solar system class, it’s particularly useful because we can show sky motions, the lunar phases, eclipses and the seasons, and we can simulate those so they are easier to see with the planetarium than with a flat screen or a book,” Layden said. “It’s a very dynamic sensory experience.”