Let's get the planetarium going again!

[Grant Nicholson]

The planetarium and observatory is a great public asset. So many
people, especially school kids, have been exposed to the wonders of
the universe and seen for themselves the unique and fragile nature of
Earth.

That's why it is such a shame that it closed in January 2008.
Thousands of school kids now visit Canberra and have almost no
educational activities to do at night. Sure, there are lots of
activites they can do while in Canberra, such as ten pin bowling and
movies etc, but these are hardly educational.

Mt Stromlo is willing to re-establish the planetarium, which would be
a great location and makes a lot of sense. I know that more than once
in the past a bus load of kids has ended up at Mt Stromlo thinking
that is where the planetarium is located.

Lets all get behind <a href="http://www.poac.org.au">POAC</a> so that
we can get the planetarium operating again!

[Diminutive Demigod]

Hi Grant

I was fortunate enough to live near the Downer Observatory when I was
doing a bit of 'baby-physics' at Uni, and really appreciated having
public access to the telescopes - with an appropriately trained
astronomer at the helm of course!

I was initially a bit disappointed when the Planetarium was added to
the complex, as it meant that the Tradies started charging people to
come to the Observatory. However, over time, I came to see what a
fantastic resource a Planetarium was/is. The shows at the CSDO were so
interesting, inspiring and educational, especially the ones written
specifically for the Southern Hemisphere. I really liked that the
Planetarium could still operate during rotten weather or the daytime.
Also, after the motel was built next door and the light pollution
round the CSDO increased dramatically, the Planetarium was all the
more valuable as it was harder to see faint objects such as galaxies
and nebula in the telescopes. I made it a point to always take friends
and family there for special occasions or when they were visiting
Canberra from afar. It never failed to impress people. And they ALWAYS
said "I didn't even know it was HERE".

My biggest complaint about the way it was run was that there were only
two nights a week that it was open to the general public. Those nights
were normally always fully booked and impossible to visit unless you
planned weeks in advance for the visit, which isn't always possible.
Also, there are a lot of older people or people with younger children
who don't want to be out at night. As the Planetarium wasn't open
during the day, these people missed out on using the facility as a
tourist or educational venue.

Relocation to Mt Stromlo would be a dream come true.

DD



On Dec 3, 5:42 am, Grant Nicholson