Projection Planetarium Celebrates 100th Anniversary at the Deutsches Museum

(eap) Last weekend, the Deutsches Museum in Munich celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the world’s first public demonstration of a projection planetarium in the Deutsches Museum. The star projector, a completely new technical innovation at the time, had been developed on the initiative of museum founder Oskar von Miller in collaboration with the Zeiss company in Jena. The special anniversary was celebrated on October 21 at parallel ceremonies with two fulldome film premieres in Munich and Jena. Furthermore, the event was the starting point for numerous projects planned by the International Planetarium Society (IPS) and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Planetarien e.V. (GDP) with the support of the Carl Zeiss Foundation until May 7, 2025, together with planetariums all over the world. The patron for the anniversary is German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

There are now about 4,000 planetariums worldwide that entertain visitors and impart knowledge to them at the same time. “Every year, around 100 million people still go to a planetarium,” says Christian Sicka, astronomy curator at the Deutsches Museum. “Because despite the Internet and virtual reality, the experience under the dome simply remains something very special.” Visitors can experience the special exhibition “100 Years Planetarium”, including regular star shows, in the entrance hall of the Deutsches Museum until January 28, 2024. ■