PLANETARIUM OF THE FUTURE 

The new science building will boast both an observatory and planetarium. Their design emphasizes a visible public entrance and community access, including genuine access for the disabled, with at-grade access to convenient parking. The design is also consistent with the prominent architectural features of the campus.

Today CSM has the only planetarium though aged! in San Mateo County and one of few in the wider San Francisco Bay Area that is used for community star shows and astronomy days. With its new planetarium, scheduled for completion in Spring 2006, CSM becomes the only college on the San Francisco peninsula with both an observatory and a planetarium.

Features of the New Planetarium

With both interior and exterior access, the new planetarium will comfortably seat 100. It will contain a 40’ suspended dome onto which the proposed new star projector, the GOTO Chronos, will project images of the sky.

One of the many planned features include the capability to display images from external sources, such as the internet, onto the interior dome. These sources can include the display of real-time images from one or more telescopes mounted on the observatory and controlled by the presentor directly onto the dome screen.

Features of the Proposed New Star Projector

The Reach for the Stars campaign goal of $750,000 will underwrite the GOTO Chronos star projector and its related projection equipment. It will provide rich educational opportunities for not only dedicated astronomers and CSM science students, but K-12 teachers, their students, and the community at large.

The star projector can project up to 8,500 stars—far more than a dark, adapted eye can see, even in the desert. It can display the moon, planets, and sun as well as fainter objects such as galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae. It can simultaneously project 24 different constellation outlines. Most of the 88 constellations, with the possible exception of five, look nothing like their namesakes, but the star projector allows constellation patterns to be traced on the dome. It also accurately simulates a sunrise and sunset and can display the sky in the distant past and then in only seconds change to the distant future, among the many features.

Features of the New Observatory

The observatory design includes a roof top deck for students and the public designed for a capacity of 100. Four fixed telescopes will sit on fixed piers under a motorized roof that will retract for open sky viewing. The fixed telescopes will be shielded from campus and city lights, sitting at 360 degrees horizontal viewing with 20-27 degree minimum viewing angle above the telescope horizon. The view of Polaris will be unobstructed from all telescope positions and the observation direction is South-West. The telescope piers are designed to reduce vibration as is the roll-back roof itself.

The observatory will also house numerous movable telescopes, stored in the observatory storage areas, which will be mounted on the observation deck during operating hours. A wireless data infrastructure will also be installed at the observation deck.