Ingram Planetarium Kicks Off 2009 Season
By Lauren Poster
The Ingram Planetarium recently opened for its 2009 season with new technology and a lineup of cool shows to share with Brunswick County residents and visitors who are ready to get brainy.
The planetarium, opened in 2002 by Stuart Ingram, was intended to be an annex to another brain child, the Ocean Isle Museum of Coastal Carolina, which has been active since 1991. Together, the two form the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc., a privately funded non-profit organization. The hope was to place them side-by-side, but a failure to secure the land grant put Ingram Planetarium in Sunset Beach (thanks to a land donation from SeaTrail). Stuart Ingram conceived of the original museum as a way to teach people about the local environment. Serving as a navigator in World War II, he was fascinated by astronomy and eventually applied his interest to opening the planetarium. Unfortunately, Mr. Ingram died shortly before the facility opened. But now, things have changed a bit since those days.
For instance, this year Ingram Planetarium unveiled the new SciDome HD, a technology developed by Spitz Inc. This is an improvement on the original SciDome technology. Only three facilities in the country share the honor of its possession, with one in Albany, Georgia and another at Yale University. SciDome HD features two projectors with fisheye lenses, requiring no additional alignment once the system is in place. The result is a beautifully rendered image with the sharpness of 3 million pixels, (three times more than what the old system could provide).
SciDome HD, powered by Starry Night software, was developed with educators in mind. Starry Night features a real-time astronomical database, keeping up with new developments. The software allows educators to tailor their own displays and create custom shows. In the meantime, however, Ingram Planetarium offers four hour-long shows premade by Spitz, ranging in topics from our search for life in space to the wonders of the world we now inhabit. They feature stunning CGI and images from the Hubbel Telescope.
The experience is overwhelming. Graphically, the shows are marvelous, with images clearly and perfectly displayed over the half-sphere above. Gone are the days when staring at what should look like a heavenly firmament was reminiscent of looking into the distorted glass of a gumball machine. Images are relatively smooth, all considered, and the smaller size of the facility makes things all the more intimately enveloping. It also means that you get very personal attention from the staff.
Scott Kucera, executive director of the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, notes that the facility is still growing, and that funding is generated only on revenue earned from donations for show viewings and gift shop sales, as well as through private contributions. For a time Brunswick County was able to offer some funding, but due to budget constraints this has been cut in recent years. The shows available come at no small cost to the planetarium: purchase of lower end ones costs between $2,000 and $5,000, and the higher end runs between $10,000 and $15,000 all told. Still the planetarium is doing just fine, because attendance to the shows remains relatively steady, especially during summer months. Scott says that about 20 percent of their audience is school children on field trips, and the rest is typically vacationers.
Admission to the shows is $8 for adults, $6 for school children and seniors, and $4 for preschoolers. Special admittance rates for class trips are negotiable during the school months, but since the planetarium only seats 85, the summers are devoted more to regular visitors.
Ingram Planetarium is minimally staffed, and they are always looking for volunteers. There are availabilities for guest services and gift shop positions. Self-starters are welcomed to volunteer for audiovisual and laser equipment operation, but they must be autonomous and able to train themselves. Teachers are also invited to use self-purchased Starry Night software to design shows of their own for display at the facility.
The regular menu of shows is typically conducted (at 1, 2, 3, and 4 p.m.) by either Scott himself or by Senior Technician Mark Jankowski. Mark, a former robotics engineer, was hired to maintenance the equipment and has accrued an impressive amount of knowledge about astronomy in his work. He has studied under staff members of the museum - he fondly remembers one who insisted upon being called "Savik," a character from Star Trek lore - as well as taking continuing education courses online to make sure he is not only up-to-date on information, but also adept at relating the study of astronomy to laymen. At the end of each show, staffers usually take an opportunity to show us the night sky right in our area. They have taken a photographic image surrounding the Planetarium itself, and point out happenings visible to us here in the South.
Mark tells us that Ingram Planetarium has been voted the second-most popular attraction in Brunswick County. The first is, well, the beach. (He laughingly suggests that he's having 50,000 sponges flown in to soak up the ocean so they can make it to the top!) Those are pretty big goals, but settling for second isn't so bad when you're competing against nature's ultimate majesty, plus the looming possibility of mai tais and a tan.
This does not mean there isn't more visceral entertainment at the planetarium, too. There is an interactive play room featuring science games for people of all ages. Mike Towner and his daughter Eliza of Parkersburg, West Virginia can vouch for it. Regulars in the area, Mike found the planetarium driving by and brought his baby girl in for some fun. She was particularly fascinated by a lightning ball display, a la Mr. Wizard. Come by for one of the regularly occurring astronomical events, or stop in over the summer between June 18th and August 21st for one of the special Rock 'n Roll laser shows, happening Thursday and Friday nights at 5, 6, and 7 p.m. Visit ingramplanetarium.org for more information.
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