Show LIGHTS T tt OF rv NE W YORK by WALTER TRUMBULL I 1 had never seen a planetarium and except for ray my cifes ingli insistence auy aty would not have seen one yet in favi in preliminary co conversation on the subject I 1 inadvertently referred t to n it 1 as a solarium solar luni despite the fact that tile difference Is as that between day and night it does to be sure show the sun as well as tile the stars in their courses but it Is a dimmed sun which permits penults observation of the shining of the lesser lights in ordinary study of astronomy you look outdoors up into what omar khayyam designated as that inverted bowl they call taio sky in a planetarium they bring the sky indoors whoever created that woh weird d and wonderful machine which chic h looks like some nightmarish visitor from mars la Is to my mind entitled to rank with mer merlin in and all the ancient magicians although all complicated mechanical invention Is just so much mystery to one who considers the proper threading of a olm film in a movie camera an achievement it not only shows the entire solar eolar system in movement through its HB countless fields of stars but can make thousands of years race in either direction in the space of a few minutes in other words this dovice device can show you the moving heavens as they looked to anthony and cleopatra floating down the nile on some clear egyptian night or it can show you the sun moon stars and planets in the position they will occupy yours years from now something which even as an optimist I 1 never expected to see in that space ot of time I 1 understand the constellations will be distorted the big dipper will look as it if it had been through the war Casslo chair will look like a hammock As you gaze up at the interior of the dome upon which synchronized and moving objects of light are cast you have no feeling of being under a root roof it gives you the feeling of looking at the true sky when tile the machine Is run at speed you feel decided apprehension for venus desperately trying to keep ahead of the sun and considerable sid erable sympathy for little mercury trying just as desperately to catch up saturn a lonesome planet nods eagerly to venus as she flashes by but contrary to any mythological scandal she neither pauses nor notices him jupiter and stars mars must be tired bustness business men they stay out all night betelgeuse Is apparently a cop on fixed post one reason I 1 never had seen a planetarium Is that the only one in tile the united states Is the gift of max mas adler to the city of blit chicago cago it stands on a ahlo in ohp balce the flip museum and lias has the general form of an observatory atory I 1 believe there are several planetariums in germany and there la is soon to be one in philadelphia in spite of the cost which they tell me Is considerable I 1 cant sop see why there Is not a planetarium in every large city in the tha country it Is one of the greatest educational factors I 1 ever saw tile the institution in chicago Is consta constantly antly a place of pilgrimage for school children as well as adults and teaches them more about astronomy inon in an hour than they would learn from any ordinary course in m months 0 n if 19 it Is an impressive demonstration making an indelible impression never wa was s a scientific lesson more skillfully sugar coated why so rich a city as new york a planetarium I 1 cant imagine the head of tha chicago planetarium Is doctor foxx but frequently the there ro are visiting lecturers doctor baker professor of astronomy at the university of illinois lectured tile the day 1 I was present lie ile showed allowed mo me a board which had more gadgets on it than tho the control board of an all airplane and told ive roe that the speaker regulated the artif ar tindal leial heavens to suit himself by means of rows of what seemed to bo electric blit buttons tons and switches apparently patently ly the manipulator can place himself on any portion of the earths surface lie desires looking at the sky from a northern southern or equatorial rial angle As I 1 lefts left doctor baker was preparing to take a couple of his students on a trip south showing them the southern cruss I 1 once had to take a trip to south america to see that 0 bell SindI catel Se |