ERIC Number: EJ1236355
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Dec
Pages: 4
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-921X
EISSN: N/A
A PVC Geodesic Dome Planetarium
Regester, Jeff; McGahee, Courtney
Physics Teacher, v57 n9 p582-585 Dec 2019
A planetarium is an invaluable tool for teaching introductory astronomy, but one that few astronomy educators have ready access to. Here we describe a do-it-yourself planetarium that can be built with modest funding. There have been other planetarium construction projects described in the literature and online, most of which use cardboard to make multiple faces, which are then fastened together to form a dome that serves as the planetarium projection surface. Our design uses a skeletal dome that supports a hemispherical cloth projection screen. A computer LCD projector, reflecting off a diverging half-dome security mirror on the interior edge of the dome base, serves as the starfield projector. The open-source sky simulation software Stellarium has the necessary features to pre-distort the sky image appropriately so that, after reflection from the diverging mirror, the dome is properly filled.
Descriptors: Physics, Science Instruction, Astronomy, Introductory Courses, Computer Peripherals, Science Experiments, Computer Software, Computer Simulation
American Association of Physics Teachers. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740. Tel: 301-209-3300; Fax: 301-209-0845; e-mail: pubs@aapt.org; Web site: http://aapt.scitation.org/journal/pte
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A