Welcome to the East Tennessee State University Planetarium! This facility opened in late 1962. I am co-director of the planetarium. The director of the planetarium is Dr. Gary Henson of the ETSU Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The object you see in the middle of the room is a Spitz A3P projector capable of projecting all stars visible to the naked eye. The A3P produces images of over 6,000 stars. We can project each of the five planets visible to the naked eye, as well as the Sun and moon. We can also simulate a meteor shower and a low Earth orbiting satellite, so keep your eyes open for moving objects in the sky!
You are under a 24 foot diameter dome and we have seating for up to 50 visitors. We have a slide projector installed in the base of the planetarium pedestal but we will not be using it today. Today we will make extensive use of our newly installed video projector. Images will be projected on the dome just above the "horizon" over to my left where the red "N" is, so it is best to sit across the room from me or to my right near either the red "E" or the red "W."
Today's show is a bit different from our usual shows. This show will give an introduction to special and general relativity with a "side order" of black holes! We will state several equations and give you some idea of the type of problems addressed in ETSU's MATH 5310 class, Differential Geometry and Relativity. As we turn down the lights, it will get extremely dark. However, when we turn on the electronic projector, it will be fairly easy to see.
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