| |
| The Driving Force Behind Planetarium Construction |
| |
For many years, astronomers have attempted to convey the fascinating workings of the cosmos to mankind, but none of the early planetariums was effective enough to succeed in this endeavor. Oskar von Miller, the founder of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, was one of the pioneers who tried to find ways of presenting the mysterious processes of the heavens in a comprehensible, vivid way.
The very first idea to build a planetarium that would show the star-lit sky in the same way as it could be observed in nature came from Dr. Max Wolf (1863–1932), the director of Heidelberg Observatory. Using a perforated hollow sphere illuminated from the exterior, he aimed to imitate the apparent sphere of the heavens – the celestial sphere – and its daily rotation.
 |  |  |
| Walther Bauersfeld (1879–1959) designed the first projection planetarium. He was a member of management at Carl Zeiss for 50 years. | Sketch of a ”stellar sphere” made by Dr. Max Wolf on August 8, 1912. | Planetarium projector Model I from Carl Zeiss. |
| |
In the years 1912/1913 Oskar von Miller, who wished to install a heliocentric and a geocentric planetarium in the Deutsches Museum, also approached the firm Carl Zeiss with Wolf’s idea. For the heliocentric planetarium, Carl Zeiss had quickly found a workable solution. However, the initial attempts to create a geocentric planetarium did not immediately provide a solution. In further talks in April 1914, for which Oskar von Miller traveled to the headquarters of Carl Zeiss in Jena, he made the acquaintance of the member of the Board of Management responsible for the design, Walther Bauersfeld.
As Bauersfeld pointed out that technical reasons prevented any implementation of Wolf’s proposed construction, an attempt was made to find other possibilities for projection of the starlit sky. It was Walther Bauersfeld’s idea to transfer the motion of the stars, sun, moon and planets to a projector positioned in the center of a dome. However, it is to Oskar von Miller’s untiring determination and persistence that we owe the development of the planetarium projector (the planetarium in short) at Carl Zeiss. This was subsequently followed by a large number of ZEISS Planetariums
 |
Planetarium by David Hahn (Orrery, astronomical clock, celestial sphere),
manufactured for Herzog Ernst II of Gotha in 1780.
Photo courtesy of Schlossmuseum Gotha |
| |
Return to the top of the page | |
|