The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum was the first major planetarium constructed in the Western Hemisphere, by Max Adler in 1930. With more than 2,000 astronomical and other scientific artifacts, it is also the Western Hemisphere's largest museum of astronomical history.

The Western Hemisphere's first Zeiss planetarium projector, a Zeiss Model II, started providing star dramas to the public at Adler Planetarium in 1930. In 1959-1961, Adler Planetarium had this projector converted and upgraded from a Zeiss II to a Zeiss Model III. In 1969, Adler Planetarium's historic Zeiss II/III was sold, and Adler Planetarium acquired a Zeiss Model VI.

The Mystery of Adler Planetarium's Zeiss II/III Projector

1933 photograph of the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector used from 1930 to 1969 at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. This projector was replaced by a Zeiss VI in January of 1970.

In 1969, Adler Planetarium sold the historic Zeiss II/III to the City of Jackson, Mississippi. So, it appeared that this historic projector would get a new life educating the citizens of Mississippi, as the citizens of nearby Baton Rouge, Louisiana were being educated with a historic Zeiss II/III projector originally from the Griffith Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles. But, this was not to be.

In a 2002 May 16 telephone conversation, a retired Adler Planetarium technician (Hans Behrens, who had been involved in the disassembling of the Zeiss II Projector, for upgrading to a Zeiss III in 1961) related a story to the author, regarding events followng the transfer of the Zeiss II/III out of Chicago. According to this technician, the recipient in Mississippi refused to pay the truck driver for the Zeiss projector. Consequently, the truck driver refused to release the Zeiss projector to the recipient.

The truck driver, later, sold the Zeiss projector to a man in Ohio. There is a report that this man's father owned a machine-shop; apparently, the new owner believed work in the machine-shop could restore the projector.

The Adler Planetarium technician also mentioned that, once, he talked to the new owner of the Zeiss II/III on the telephone. The new owner was seeking further information about the projector. However, this new owner did not mention his name or contact information.

Also, there is a report that Adler Planetarium management once did contact the new owner of the Zeiss II/III (new owner's telephone number supplied by a professor at Arizona State University), in an attempt to bring the projector back to Chicago. However, nothing came of this attempt.

Another version of events surfaced recently, thanks to the investigations of planetarium collector and restorer (and Director of Acquistions and Restorations of the private Planetarium Projector & Space Museum in Big Bear Lake, California) Brent Sullivan. In a 2008 January 28 electronic mail correspondence Mr. Sullivan had with Gary Lazich, Manager of the Russell C. Davis Planetarium in Jackson, Mississippi, the following facts were stated:

"In 1965, a dinner meeting was held and [a group of] ladies [in the community] and business leaders agreed to work together toward a Mississippi Art Museum to be located somewhere in Downtown Jackson...As time was passing, a new element appeared when the Jackson Public Schools acquired a planetarium optical instrument. The inclusion of a planetarium with all its educational potential and appeal to students and adults was promptly approved. In 1972, the citizens of Jackson in a referendum approved $1.5 million for the project."
("Arts Center, Planetarium Was 15 Years in the Making," Bill Coppenbarger, *Jackson Daily News*, date unknown but probably 1978)

"It is interesting to note that the Jackson Separate School District just happened to have in storage a planetarium projector which was purchased some years ago from the famed Adler Planetarium in Chicago."
("Arts Center Complex and How It Happened," *Enterprise-Journal*, McComb, Mississippi, 4/25/1978)

"William T. Clark [owner of Observa-Dome Laboratories]...originally got Jackson interested in a planetarium back in the early 1960s...Clark had gotten the Jackson city schools interested in buying the old Zeiss planetarium project[or] from Chicago in the 1960s, when Chicago was replacing it with a later, more sophisticated Zeiss model. Jackson had bought the old Zeiss unit for $36,000, a fraction of its price, and was able to use federal funds to pay for half the amount. But when the City got ready to build its planetarium three or four years ago, the Zeiss would have had to be rebuilt and modernized, which would have cost $230,000 to do so. Instead, the city asked for bids on new projectors, and the [Viewlex-]Minolta [Series IV] came in some $100,000 or more below the price bid by Zeiss. [Planetarium Manager Dick] Knapp said he felt the city did the right thing in using the old Zeiss for a trade-in on the new projector, since it got $30,000 for the old unit. 'I feel if we had used the original projector, even with modifications we would still have an outdated projector,' he declared."
("Planetarium Projector: Will It Work?", Bill Minor, *The Capital Reporter*, Jackson, Mississippi, Vol. XXIII, No. 14, April 13, 1978)

As compensation for their efforts in the project, Jackson Public Schools received free admission to the Planetarium from its opening in 1978 until 1990.

Mr. Lazich also mentioned that some of this information came from former Russell C. Davis Planetarium Manager Dick Knapp, who retired in 2001 to become a Lutheran pastor, at St. James Lutheran Church in Gonzales, Louisiana.

Further research by Mr. Sullivan has resulted in additional information:

1) In a U.S. mail response on 2008 February 25, former Russell C. Davis Planetarium Manager Dick Knapp recommended contacting Mr. O. Richard Norton (who may now live in Tucson), who at that time was consulting on the Jackson, Mississippi museum project.

2) In an electronic mail response on 2008 February 25, Arizona State University Planetarium Coordinator Daniel Matlaga (who had worked at Adler Planetarium) stated that Arizona State University was considering purchasing the Zeiss II/III (he saw it in shipping crates). However, it was purchased by a gentelman from Baton Rouge, who purchased the projector from the trucker as money to ship the projector to Minolta ran out. The Zeiss II/III was being sent to Minolta, once the new Viewlex-Minolta Series IV Planetarium Projector was chosen for use in Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Matlaga also said that he saw the Zeiss II/III in Baton Rouge, and from there it went to someone in either Tennessee or Oklahoma. The purchaser of the projector owned an electronics manufacturing plant, grew up in Chicago, and he thought he could renovate the projector in his workshop (he was familiar with mechanical drawings and machining parts, as he grew-up assisting in his father's machine shop).

The author would be interested in receiving additional information, regarding the current status and location of Adler Planetarium's Zeiss II/III projector, which was the first major planetarium projector in the Western Hemisphere.

Inspiration for Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh

One of the people to visit this new institution, in its first year of operation, was Leo J. Scanlon of the Summer Hill neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side. The previous year (on June 9, 1929), Mr. Scanlon and Chester B. Roe co-founded the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh. Later in 1930, Mr. Scanlon would construct the world's first astronomical observatory with an all-aluminum dome, in the back yard of his property. The Valley View Observatory was razed in August of 1997. However, the historic observatory dome was kept and will be placed atop a new Valley View Observatory, to be constructed near the Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory in Deer Lakes Regional County Park (northeast of Pittsburgh), operated by the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh.

Leo Scanlon was so impressed with the Adler Planetarium, and with this new method of explaining Astronomy to the public, that he, and the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh, started lobbying Pittsburgh foundations, and the Pittsburgh City Government, to obtain funding for construction of a planetarium in Pittsburgh.

Their efforts were successful when, in 1937, the Buhl Foundation agreed to construct a planetarium and science institute for Pittsburgh. The City of Pittsburgh agreed to provide a prominent site on the City's North Side for the institution. The Buhl Foundation paid the entire cost of the $1,070,000 building -- then conveyed The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, and all of its contents, to the City of Pittsburgh at the building's dedication on 1939 October 24.

Leo Scanlon became one of the first two Planetarium Lecturers in Buhl's "Theater of the Stars." The other Planetarium Lecturer was Nicholas E. Wagman, Ph.D., then Director of the University of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory (located only three miles north of the Planetarium). Mr. Scanlon passed-away on 1999 November 27, at the age of 96 years.

Additional Adler Planetarium History

* Adler Planetarium Official Web Site

* Adler Planetarium's Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy

* Adler Planetarium's Zeiss Projector Collection, 1929-1986 Finding Aid

* 1933 Book:
Adler Planetarium and Astronomical Museum,
An Account of the Optical Planetarium and a Brief Guide to the Museum

* First Director of Adler Planetarium: Philip Fox

* The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh - Inspired by Adler Planetarium

* First Buhl Planetarium Lecturer (who visited Adler Planetarium in 1930): Leo Scanlon

* Other Planetarium History Links

* Rothstein, Edward. "Planetarium Review, Looking at the Stars From Angles Old and New."
The New York Times 2008 Feb. 16.
Regarding Adler Planetarium, Chicago.

First Director of Adler Planetarium: Philip Fox

Page 11

Page 12

Page 13

Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Page 21

Page 22

Page 23

Page 24

Page 25

Page 26

Page 27

Page 28

Page 29

Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 33

Page 34

Page 35

Page 36

Page 37

Page 38

Page 39

Page 40

Page 41

Page 42

Page 43

Page 44

Page 45

Page 46

Page 47

Page 48

Page 49

Page 50

Page 51

Page 52

Page 53

Page 54

Page 55

Page 56

Page 57

Page 58

Page 59

Page 60

Page 61

Page 62