International Planetarium Day (13/03)

International Day of Planetaria is celebrated annually in many countries around the world. This holiday has European «corni», it was first held in Italy in 1990 on the initiative of the Association of Italian Planetariums (Associazione Amici dei Planetari).

Initially, International Planetarium Day was held the next Sunday before the vernal equinox; later the date of celebration was set for the second Sunday in March. But in 2023-2025, it was decided to move the date of the celebration to May 7 so that it could be tied to a significant date in the history of planetariums: the start of regular operation of the first planetarium at the German Museum in Munich on May 7, 1925.

Planetarium Day acquired international status in 1994, when it was supported by the French «temples of astronomy». And a year later, this holiday began to be celebrated in six more countries: Belgium, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. Currently, the Day is supported by the International Planetarium Society.

The purpose of the holiday — is to introduce the public to the activities of planetariums and promote astronomical knowledge. The venues, of course, are urban planetariums.

Planetarium — is a scientific and educational institution that demonstrates the celestial sphere with various celestial bodies and astronomical phenomena, and gives lectures on astronomy, astronautics, and earth sciences. To demonstrate the artificial starry sky on a screen shaped like a hemisphere, a special device is used, which is also called a planetarium.

As you know, the championship in creating a device similar to a modern planetarium belongs to German scientists — in 1923 in Jena, at the Carl Zeiss optical plant, the first universal projection module «Planetarium» was developed and built. In 1925, the world's first planetarium, built by the same company, began operating in Munich.

Traditionally, a planetarium refers to a building with a round hall and a «hemispherical dome». But at first there were no specially built buildings, so buildings intended for other purposes were used as planetariums. For example, a water tower, baths (baths), and later dome churches. Closer to the 1990s, the architectural form of the planetariums changed dramatically; architects use original solutions, creating buildings in the form of giant pipes, balls and other bizarre geometric structures.

Currently, there are more than two thousand planetariums in the world, of which more than 40 are in Russia —. By the way, the first planetarium in the USSR opened on November 5, 1929 in Moscow.

It must be said that these « temples of astronomy» play an extremely important role in the modern world. They are used not only for educational purposes and research, but also for training military aviation specialists and astronauts, and biologists are studying the ability of birds to navigate by the stars during flights.

Many planetariums are trying to coincide with their professional holiday with the premieres of new programs, organize meetings with interesting people and various competitions and quizzes.



• Infographics – poster «International Planetarium Day»

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