Armagh Planetarium facts for kids

Armagh Planetarium

The Armagh Planetarium is a special place in Armagh, Northern Ireland, where you can learn all about space! It's like a giant cinema that shows you the stars, planets, and galaxies. The planetarium is located near the city center, right next to the Armagh Observatory. It sits in a beautiful area of about fourteen acres called the Armagh Astropark.

Exploring the Universe: A Look at the Planetarium's History

The Armagh Planetarium was created by Dr. Eric Mervyn Lindsay, who was the seventh director of the Armagh Observatory. He worked for twenty-five years to get enough money for it! Finally, in 1965, he secured funding from local councils and the government of Northern Ireland.

Building a Star-Gazing Hub

In 1965, a famous astronomer named Patrick Moore was chosen to be the director. He helped make sure the planetarium was built correctly. It cost about £120,000 to build, which included £12,000 for its very first projector. The planetarium officially opened on May 1, 1968, though people could visit it a few months before that.

Growing Bigger and Better

Over the years, the planetarium has changed and grown.

• In 1974, the main building got bigger. It added the Lindsay Hall of astronomy, which is a special exhibition area.
• A dome was also built to hold a large telescope. This telescope is 16 inches (406 mm) wide and is the biggest public telescope in Ireland. You can use it to look at the night sky!
• In 1994, a new exhibition hall called the Eartharium was added. This part focuses on Earth Science, helping visitors learn about our own planet.
• The Armagh Astropark also opened in 1994. It's a model of our Solar System and the universe, spread out in the grounds of the Armagh Observatory. It has cool stainless steel models of the Sun and planets, all scaled down to size.

The planetarium celebrated its 50th birthday in 2018, showing how long it has been teaching people about space!

Amazing Technology: How the Planetarium Shows Space

The Armagh Planetarium has always been a leader in using new technology to make its shows exciting.

Pioneering Video Projection

In the 1970s, under the director Terence Murtagh, the planetarium started using video projectors. This was a big deal because it meant they didn't need lots of different slide projectors for special effects. Video recorders were very new back then, and it was hard to make them work perfectly. They had to change the video projectors to make the images of stars and planets look natural on the dome. This system stayed in place until the 1980s when computer-controlled laserdisc players took over. Armagh Planetarium was the first in the world to project video onto its dome, and other planetariums soon followed!

Interactive Shows: You Control the Journey!

Armagh Planetarium also led the way in creating interactive shows. They added an electronic audience participation system. This meant that people in the audience could control parts of the show themselves! Each seat had a small keypad. Visitors could use their buttons to answer quizzes, vote on their favorite topics, and even choose what to explore next. The show Space Odyssey, made in Armagh in the 1980s, was the world's first fully interactive planetarium show. This cool idea has also spread to other planetariums around the world.

Modern Updates: A Refurbished Planetarium

Before it reopened on July 31, 2006, the Armagh Planetarium got a big makeover. The building was completely updated to make it more comfortable and better for the environment.

New Digital Theatre Experience

These improvements included rebuilding the digital theatre. It can now hold 93 visitors. They also installed a new Bose Corporation stereo sound system, updated LED lights, and a Digistar 3 fulldome video projection system. This new system makes the shows even more immersive and exciting!

Reaching Out to Everyone

The planetarium also has a program where its staff travel to different places. They visit schools and science festivals to give presentations about astronomy and other sciences. They even have a thirty-seat inflatable planetarium that they use for many of these visits.

On December 7, 2006, the Armagh Planetarium building was officially named in memory of Eric Lindsay. This was a special ceremony led by Archbishop Robin Eames.

Projectors: Bringing the Stars to Life

Over the years, Armagh Planetarium has used many different projectors, each one more advanced than the last.

• The first projector was the Goto Mars (used from 1968 to 1977). It had separate lamps to project images of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
• Next came a Viewlex-Minolta Roman IIb (used from 1977 to 1994). This projector is now used at the South Downs Planetarium in England.
• The first digital projector at Armagh was an Evans and Sutherland Digistar 1 (used from 1994 to 1995). Armagh was the first planetarium in the UK to use this new digital technology.
• It was quickly replaced by the more advanced Digistar 2 (used from 1995 to 2006).
• Today, the planetarium uses the Digistar 7. This is a very advanced computer system that projects full-color, fulldome video across the entire dome, making you feel like you're really in space!

Leaders of the Planetarium

Here are the people who have led the Armagh Planetarium:

Since 2016, Michael G. Burton has been the director of both the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.

See Also

• List of science centers#Europe