Welcome to the East Tennessee State University Planetarium! This facility opened in late 1962. My name is Dr. Bob Gardner. I am co-director of the planetarium. The director of the planetarium is Dr. Gary Henson of the ETSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. I am an associate professor in the ETSU Department of Mathematics, an adjunct member of the ETSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, and a member of the ETSU Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. I am not an astronomer by training, but I have a deep interest in astronomy and I have been an amateur astronomer for almost 20 years now. I am, therefore, semi-competent in astronomy and I can entertain general questions at the end of the show.

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.

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 tonight. Tonight we will, for the first time in a public planetarium show here at ETSU, 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." Since this is our first truly multimedia presentation, we may have a few technical difficulties, but let's hope for the best!

We will be turning the lights down shortly. It will be extremely dark and may be a bit scary to small children. However, once we turn on the electronic projector, it will be fairly easy to see. SO I DON'T THINK THERE'LL BE ANY PROBLEMS! Therefore let's begin...

Go to next section.