Planetarium History

Historical Illustration of the First Planetarium Demonstrations

More than 30,000 visitors experienced the first planetarium shows on a roof of the Zeiss factory in 1924.


Historical Illustration of the First Planetarium Demonstrations on a Roof of the ZEISS Factory in Jena

Historical illustration of the first planetarium demonstrations © ZEISS Archive

Presentations of the first planetarium projector in Munich were completed by the end of 2023. After the device was returned to ZEISS in Jena, it was completed. Minor errors that were still apparent during the demonstrations in Munich were also corrected.

For further development and demonstration purposes, ZEISS erected a temporary dome with a diameter of 16 m on the roof of the factory. On July 22, 1924, the "Zeisshimmel" (Zeiss starry sky) shone for the first time in front of a large audience. From July to September, 1924, demonstrations mostly occurred hourly on a regular daily basis. In this brief time, more than 30,000 visitors experienced the first artificial starry sky created by projection. The experience with visitors was also used to plan improvements and extensions of the planetarium projector. 

The non-scale graphic served to generate further interest in the demonstrations and the first planetarium projector. The photographic counterpart is also available for download (image czj1024: The Very First Planetarium Visitors).

Credit:

ZEISS Archive

About the Image

Image ID

czj1016

Category

Planetarium History

Release

1924

Related product

n.a.

Size

9757 x 7175 px

Author

unknown

Source

ZEISS

Credit

ZEISS Archive

License

CC BY-NC-SA

About the Content

Title

First planetarium demonstrations on a roof of the Zeiss factory

Object

Historical illustration of the first planetarium demonstrations on a roof of the Zeiss factory in Jena

Location

Jena, Germany

Keywords

jena, zeiss-planetarium, planetarium history

Date

1924

Image Download