Planetarium History

The Very First Planetarium Visitors

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


The Very First Planetarium Visitors

The very first planetarium visitors © 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. The concrete dome was built according to construction plans by Walther Bauersfeld. For the first time, the network of steel rods he developed was used as a support structure for domes.
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. 

Between October, 1924 and March, 1925, numerous demonstrations were held for astronomers and city representatives. This was the starting point for the first plans for planetariums in other cities. At the same time, ZEISS manufactured a twin projector which, after delivery of the device for the Deutsches Museum to Munich in March, 1925, served for further demonstrations in the temporary concrete dome until spring 1926.
 

Credit:

ZEISS Archive

About the Image

Image ID

czj1024

Category

Planetarium History

Release

August 1924

Related product

Planetarium domes

Size

8034 x 5657 px

Author

unknown

Source

ZEISS

Credit

ZEISS Archive

License

CC BY-NC-SA

About the Content

Title

The very first visitors

Object

Visitors on the roof of the ZEISS works to experience the first planetarium performances

Location

Jena, Germany

Keywords

jena, zeiss-planetarium, dome, steel rod network, planetarium history, planetarium construction, planetarium visitors

Date

1924

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