Zeiss Planetarium Bochum
The Bochum Planetarium is one of the most popular star theaters in Europe. It stands on the northeastern edge of downtown Bochum in the Ruhr area . The planetarium was built in 1964 as the first large German planetarium of the post-war period. It is now a listed building.
The round building houses a large auditorium in which the rows of chairs are arranged around a main projector. The ceiling of the hall is the projection surface. There is a kind of gallery outside the hall. In an adjoining building there are further facilities for the operation of the planetarium.
Every year over 2,400 scientific and artistic events take place in the planetarium. This includes lectures, presentations on astronomical and other topics, as well as children's shows. In 2019, the Bochum planetarium was visited by around 304,000 people.
history
The initiative to build a planetarium in Bochum goes back to the founder of the Bochum observatory, Heinz Kaminski . The successes of chemical engineer Kaminski as observatory director and space and environmental researcher include receiving the signals from the first Sputnik satellite outside the Soviet Union at a very early stage and making early contributions to satellite-based climate research. He has served frequently as an expert on satellite and space exploration in the media.
Plans for the construction of a large planetarium in Bochum were concretized at the instigation of Kaminski, who was also active in local politics in the early 1960s. The planetarium building, built according to a design by the city's building officer Karl Heinz Schwarz, was opened in 1964. Kaminski served as the planetarium director until his retirement in 1986.
He was succeeded by astrophysicist Johannes Feitzinger , who ran the Bochum planetarium until 2004. In 1995 the “Freundeskreis Planetarium e. V. ”was founded by Feitzinger for the ideal and material support of the planetarium. In 2001 the Universarium IV star projector was replaced by the technically much more advanced Universarium Starball IX model .
The astrophysicist Susanne Hüttemeister has been running the planetarium since 2004. Significant technical improvements were made in 2010 and a digital full-dome projection system was installed. In the recent history of the house, the range of programs has been expanded considerably. The annual number of visitors to the planetarium has more than doubled since 2004.
Technical Equipment
The Bochum planetarium has extensive technical equipment for audiovisual display of the 260-seat dome with a diameter of 20 meters.
The central star projector Universarium IX was last technically refurbished in 2018 and its central lighting unit was replaced by bright LEDs. By means of the projector, the starry sky is displayed so faithfully that the Bochum planetarium was also used by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the astronaut training.
The digital dome projection (so-called. FullDome ) by means of eight Zeiss realized -Velvet projectors. These projectors are characterized by a particularly high contrast range, which enables the analog star projector and the digital projection to work together without impairing the star projection.
In 2017 the planetarium was expanded to include a spatial sound system of the type "Spatial Sound Wave" from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) . In addition to being used in part of the regular planetarium shows, the system is also used, among other things, to perform radio plays that have been elaborately produced for this system.
There is a corridor around the projection room in which permanent and temporary exhibitions are housed.
Program
In the beginning, the program of the planetarium, which was primarily geared towards the starry sky, has in the course of time been diversified in terms of the scientific topics dealt with in the planetarium. Topics from astrophysics, geosciences and biology completed the program. Events that did not primarily serve science education were held comparatively rarely.
Today the planetarium shows a diverse scientific educational program that still focuses on the universe, but also on the earth and environmental education. At the same time, an equally wide-ranging cultural program is offered, which, in addition to music shows and radio plays, also regularly includes live performances such as concerts, readings and performances. This corresponds to a modern interpretation of the planetarium as a meeting place for science and art.
The Planetarium Bochum is the coordination point in the Bochum MINT education cluster, a network whose aim is to bring together (extra) school learning locations along the entire educational chain with partners from universities and industry. The Planetarium Bochum is also part of the ESERO Germany Consortium, an association of several partners organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR) , the Ruhr University Bochum , the University of Bonn and others. a. young in the via appropriate outreach activities for people MINT Studies and careers are to be won.
As a “hotspot of immersive live culture”, the planetarium is part of the strategic development of the city of Bochum. In this context, the planetarium is used as an immersive media space to carry out mainly cultural events from the point of view of artistic media immersion and virtual reality that can be experienced collectively .
Numerous well-known scientists and artists have lectured or performed in the Bochum Planetarium. These include: Jesco von Puttkamer , Harald Lesch , Samantha Cristoforetti , Frank Schätzing , ATB , Tangerine Dream and Dr. Moth .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Gerhäußer: 50 Years of the Planetarium - A dome for eternity. In: lokalkompass.de. November 5, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Jürgen Boebers-Süßmann: Bochum: Planetarium records new visitor record. January 3, 2020, accessed January 19, 2020 .
- ↑ https://www.bochum.de/C125830C0038F229/CurrentBaseLink/W2BGAACD268BOCMDE?open&tqu=PresseAktuell&next=&j=1&q=2&dbgen=GKD_Base%7CC125830C0038F229&col=8&layout=teaser&sortcol=2&lg=DE&tkd=KD&u=%2FC125830C0038F229%2FCurrentBaseLink%2FW2BGAACD268BOCMDE&NoCacheLookup&s=13
- ↑ https://geodatenportal.bochum.de/bogeo/web/61/Denkmalliste/Begruendung/A599.pdf
- ↑ https://www.waz.de/staedte/bochum/astronaut-im-planetarium-id209527119.html
- ↑ https://www.zeiss.de/planetariums/produkte/products/velvet.html
- ↑ http://www.ruhr-guide.de/kultur/buehne-und-musik/die-drei-planetarium-bochum-wird-zum-hoerraum/23786,0,0.html
- ↑ https://www.esa.int/ger/ESA_in_your_country/Germany/Der_Weltraum_landet_im_Klassenzimmer_-_ESERO_Deutschland_haben_ab
- ↑ https://www.lokalkompass.de/bochum/c-politik/bochum-strategie-25-aktivitaeten-die-die-stadt-veraendern-haben_a994308
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 8 ″ N , 7 ° 13 ′ 40 ″ E