Planetarium Transformation Steps

  1. New moveable stackable chairs with writing desk on arm if possible, otherwise writing boards. Probably like the North Museum, Lancaster, PA planetarium stackable chairs from seating. Base made rectangular steel tubing. Seat and back out of form pressed veneer. Seat and back upholstered. With armrests. A folding writing level is available as an accessory, and attaches to the arm. This would replace the more than 20 year old worn permanently mounted red chairs in the current planetarium room SS130. They would be black in color. Many planetariums and colleges use these chairs like Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Yale University, Northern Oklahoma College in Enid, Southern Minnesota State University in Marshal, Starry Hill Planetarium in Eatonville, WA, and Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD.
  2. Work with the Montgomery College foundation, Carol Rognrud, to raise some money from rich donors for a new planetarium projector system useable in the current room and bright enough to go into the future room in the new building. Naming right for the projector system and current planetarium room.
  3. Purchase new digital computer controlled planetarium projector with audio and 3D high resolutionsystem using a mirrored surface in the center of the planetarium room. Paint the inside of the current dome with white mirrored polarization preserving paint, like the STOP on a stop sign.
  4. Raise much more money for new larger planetarium room in the new much Larger Science, LS, Building. At least a million dollars or more should be raised with the help of the foundation. Have parties in the old planetarium room, which will have moveable stackable chairs. Receptions can be held under the stars.
  5. Complete and move into the New Planetarium, NP, room with a diameter or around 40 feet and a tilted dome in the LS building, which will have an observatory with optical telescopes outside around the NP room, which will be higher up above most of the light pollution of downtown Silver Spring. Have undergraduate very low frequency radio with notch filter (one version already built last century by the “Science Adventure Club” and medium frequency radio telescopes to explore even during the daytime the radio universe. Radio astronomy firsts where done in Montgomery County and we can do it again from downtown Silver Spring.