History of the planetarium
In
1972 the then South Australian Institute of Technology installed a Zeiss
ZKP1 Planetarium projector in an 8 meter diameter dome to teach students
from the School of Surveying, field astronomy at its Levels Campus. The
School of Surveying opened up the Planetarium to the general public, primary
and secondary schools and tour groups.
In 1997 the School of Environmental and Recreation Management relocated to Building P at The Levels campus and took over the operations of the Planetarium, and in 2002 the Planetarium celebrated thirty years of operation and over 8,000 people have attend yearly the various sessions conducted at the facility.
In 2003 a new School (School of Natural and Built Environments) was formed within the Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment. For more detailed information on the new school please read on.
Zeiss star projector
The Zeiss star projector was built in Jena, East Germany probably around 1960, unfortunately records have not been kept so no firm date is available. It is hoped that an all-sky projection system can be installed in the near future.
The Zeiss can show the relative position of about 5,000 stars. Where as the dome at the Adelaide Planetarium is a plasterboard construction, most modern planetariums have a perforated aluminium dome which enables operators to hide projectors and sound systems behind the dome.