Our guest of hounor this month is Kirsten Vanstone presenting “Space Place Canada and 100 years of the Planetarium”In 1923, a magic machine was unveiled at Zeiss headquarters in Jena, Germany. The ‘optical-mechanical’ planetarium projector, capable of projecting the stars and moving planets onto a domed ceiling was the latest in a long-line of humanity’s efforts to replicate the sky, from mechanical models of the solar system to moon phases scratched into ancient bones. Just two years after this unveiling, the first public planetarium opened at Munich’s Deutsches Museum, and ten years after that, the Adler Planetarium became the first major such theatre in North America. Planetariums proliferated in lock step with the space race, with many popping up around Canada and the United States. Though many of us hold fond planetarium memories, the old optical mechanical projectors are more and more rare. At this, the start of the centennial of the planetarium, explore the curious history of these theatres and learn about a project to (finally) bring a major planetarium back to the City of Toronto.
Kirsten is a long-time member of the RASC Toronto Centre and sits on the National Education and Public Outreach Commmittee. By day, she’s a not-for-profit manager specialising in organizations connected with science and STEM and has more than 20 years’ experience working in museums, planetariums and science centres. She has a BSc in Astronomy & Physics and a Masters degree in Science Communication. Kirsten is from Toronto, where her first job was working the elevators at the CNTower.