Abrams Planetarium
Coordinates: 42°43′32″N 84°28′34″W / 42.7256°N 84.476°W Abrams Planetarium is the planetarium on the campus of Michigan State University, Michigan, United States.
The Abrams Planetarium opened in 1963, and has had an estimated one million visitors since then. As a branch of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at MSU, the Abrams Planetarium is dedicated to teaching astronomy to the public. The planetarium is named after Talbert "Ted" Abrams and his wife Leota. Ted was a pioneer in aerial photography and Leota made donations to the university. The building was designed by Ralph Calder Associates from Detroit. It has been renovated numerous times both inside and out; the most recent change is the addition of windows in 1995.
Talbert Abrams was born on August 17, 1896 in Tekonsha, Michigan. During his youth, Abrams had aviation related jobs in Michigan, Ohio, and New York. While in New York, he attended Curtiss Aviation School and graduated in 1916. He received his Federation Aeronautique Internationale Pilot's which was signed by Orville Wright. He joined the US Marines in 1917 and worked on taking aerial photographs of enemy activity. In 1920, he left the Marines to create his own business, ABC Airlines, later the Abrams Aerial Survey Corporation. He later founded Abrams Instrument Corporation, which specialized in designing high-tech aerial photography equipment. During World War II he designed the Abrams P-1 Explorer and Explorer II. After his retirement in 1961, he and his wife traveled around the world several times and visited 96 countries. Abrams died on August 16, 1990.
The planetarium has three main areas: the exhibit hall, the black light gallery, and the sky theater. The main entrance opens into the exhibit hall which is 3000 square feet and has displays including pictures, telescopes, and Earth and moon globes. It also serves as a waiting area for the shows and has a gift shop. The black light gallery is a curved gallery featuring astronomical images painted in fluorescent paint and lit by ultraviolet lights. The sky theater is fifty feet in diameter with a fifty-foot dome. The inside of the dome is made of perforated aluminum and is painted white, it serves as the projection screen. The theater holds one hundred and fifty people and each seat has a different angle of tilt so each viewer has the same view of the projection. The control console is located in the rear of the theater.
...
Wikipedia