Fulldome space films, Mars’ soil and Lunarium. Moscow Planetarium is celebrating its 95 th anniversary

The Moscow Planetarium is celebrating its 95 th anniversary. The first in Russia and the 13 th in the world, the planetarium opened on November 5, 1929. At that time, the planetarium consisted of only a stellar hall and a projector. Visitors to the celestial house are now encouraged to see a full-dome film about the mysteries of the universe, touch meteorites and watch a transit of Mercury across the Sun.

Aleksandr Perkhnyak, Member of the Methodological Department, Head of the Astronomical Complex and Observatory, told mos.ru about the past and present of the planetarium.

“The road to Baikonur began at the Moscow Planetarium”

— The Moscow Planetarium is the oldest in Russia and one of the largest in the world. What did it look like in the first years after its opening?

— There were vegetable gardens around and horse-drawn carriages on the Garden Ring. The Space Age had not yet begun, and the exhibition did not include any models of satellites or the Solar System. An auditorium and a special device were all that the planetarium consisted of. But people were always curious about it. Where else can you see the starry sky in any weather?

The first device was optical and mechanical, with two spheres for the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Inside there was a powerful lamp, and on the sides there were windows that projected stars onto the dome. The stars were equally bright, and most importantly, they did not twinkle. Engineers upgraded the device evolving the Moscow Planetarium into the first planetarium in the world to see stars twinkling. In the 1970s, the planetarium got a second model with electronic control systems.

Both artifacts now welcome guests at the Urania Museum, and the latest fiber-optic projector, Universarium M9, is installed in the Great Stellar Hall. The stars appear to have different brightness. The sky it reproduces looks like the real one.

— How did the operation of the planetarium change during the Great Patriotic War?

— There was an air defense system nearby and trenches. But the planetarium was not closed. Moreover, it trained combat pilots and intelligence officers, as they can navigate not only by maps, but also by the Sun, the Moon and the stars. The stars are eternal; their light calms down and inspires people in difficult times.

— Did the first Soviet cosmonauts also study celestial navigation with you?

— From 1960 to 1975, cosmonauts trained at the Moscow Planetarium, including those from the first group: Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Alexei Leonov. They wore civilian clothes, and the classes were secret so the lecturers did not even know who was in front of them. They realized it only after Gagarin’s flight.

Ship orientation in space is automated, but if it fails, a cosmonaut will have to control it themselves. In this case, celestial navigation knowledge is required. Imagine that you need to understand where you are by looking at the stars through a porthole with a field of view of two or three degrees. Meanwhile, the ship rotates around the Earth at a speed of more than 20,000 kilometers per hour.

Learning the sky is challenging. Lecturers suggested different methods, for example, poems with rhymed names of constellations. Remembering them, the cosmonaut “jumped” from star to star and thus found their bearings. 15 years later, Star City opened its own planetarium. But one day Alexey Leonov said, “The road to Baikonur began at the Moscow Planetarium”.

Mars’ soil, Foucault’s pendulum and virtual asteroid attack

— What is the mission of the planetarium?

— The center aimed to popularize natural science. Our visitors are able to find out about the latest reliable research about what happened in space and on Earth thousands, millions, billions of years ago and what is happening now. The programs are designed for both children and adults. There is no concept of age in astronomy: a three-year-old child can ask why the sky is blue and why the Moon and the Sun move. The planetarium does not have such a concept either.

— The planetarium was closed for renovations from 1994 to 2011. What did it become after its rebirth?

— The historic building was raised onto a new substructure with a ramp. New premises were built under and near the planetarium to house a multi-format scientific and an educational center. In the Urania Museum, visitors can touch meteorites, see old telescopes, a model of the Solar System and even soil samples from the Moon and Mars. These are fragments of rock that are knocked out by impacts from other celestial bodies. Due to low gravity, they fall into space and eventually reach Earth. On Mars, rocks are likely to be erupted, some of which are more than 20 kilometers high and about 600 kilometers in diameter.

The Lunarium interactive museum is an experimental space. Using buttons, control panels and levers, visitors can trigger an earthquake, tsunami, tornado and lightning, turn on a power plant and repel an attack by virtual asteroids. Foucault’s pendulum proves that the Earth rotates on its axis. The Sky Park astronomical site contains a collection of sundials and ancient instruments for understanding the universe: Nabokov’s polar umbrella and a geoscope. The 4D cinema shows films about the evolution of the Earth, and the Small Stellar Hall shows films about the legendary ship Buran. The seats create swaying and shaking effects.

But the heart of the planetarium is certainly the Great Stellar Hall, where, in addition to the starry sky, full-dome films are shown.

— Do you produce them?

— We have our own film studio with artists, directors and scriptwriters. I was skeptical about the latter as they are not astronomers. But later I realized that if the script was written by a scientist, the film would last 40 hours, because they wanted to tell about everything. Besides, scripts undergo rigorous scientific editing, reviewed by planetarium staff and scientists. Experts make corrections even if there are only the slightest flaws: not quite correct ratios of the sizes of stars or shades of the planet. Our films are both spectacular and scientifically accurate. The Great Stellar Hall shows films about the planets of the Solar System and other stars, the space exploration in different ranges of electromagnetic waves and dark matter.

Galaxy mirrored on the capital’s map. Exploring the most spectacular space museums in Moscow

Place where a textbook picture gets shape and relief

— How do you tell the younger generation about astronomy?

— There is no astronomy in the school curriculum, so children get acquainted with this science in the planetarium. Flat pictures from textbooks acquire form and relief in the Lunarium. During Stellar Lessons, younger children, starting from the 3 rd grade, learn the basic laws of the universe, while older students attend lectures on planets, stars and celestial phenomena. Young viewers aged five to eight are also welcome to the theater of fascinating science to study nature, constellations and the Moon.

The astronomy club has been an integral part of the planetarium since 1934. We educate future scientists. Over the course of three years, students explore the basics of astronomy, the evolution of stars and galaxies. The club members as we call them are a big close-knit family. Several graduates are members of our academic board.

— So the astronomy club is already the planetarium’s tradition.

— That’s right. It itself has traditions: every graduate signs a book that has been kept since the 1960s. It contains the names of academics and professors. A white rose is presented along with the diploma.

Eclipse viewing and science film festival

— Why do we need to view the sky from an observatory at least once in our life?

— There are two of them in the Moscow Planetarium: a small one, needed to take high-quality photos of deep space objects, and a large one, accessible to everyone. The big one is open from May to October. During warm months, it is safe to view the Sun. September sees the biggest plunge in daylight hours so we launch night observations. We also show rare phenomena such as eclipses and the transit of Mercury across the Sun. Since Mercury is far away and its diameter is three times smaller than the Earth’s, the celestial body crawling across the star is small and cannot be seen with the naked eye. By the way, my astronomy path began with a telescope. As a child, I looked at birds through it, and then I pointed it at the sky. I have been looking there for over 20 years.

— How is the planetarium celebrating its anniversary?

— Marking the 95 th anniversary of the Moscow Planetarium, the Moscow International Science Films Festival will took place from November 8 to 10. The program includes premieres from major film producers in Russia, Latin America, India, China and neighboring countries. Guests will be able to see more than 70 fulldome and widescreen films as well as new immersive video art formats and works by scientific artists.

The festival’s business program will involve public talks, lectures, and masterclasses from the leading science films production studio of the Moscow Planetarium and the heads of planetariums from other countries. They will cover the production of full-dome films, the visualization of scientific data in computer graphics, the accurate display of space phenomena, animation making and other topics.