The WITS Planetarium will be undergoing something of an upgrade soon, but before that, it’s giving South Africans one final chance to experience the views of space as others have for over 60 years.
While the Planetarium isn’t going away, it will have a name change and its Star Projector is being retired. As an aside, if you’ve ever had an interest in how Planetarium’s project the night sky with such clarity, we highly recommend this blog post from B&H Photo, Video and Audio.
So what makes retiring a projector such a big deal?
The Zeiss Star Projector started life in Hamburg where it served for 30 years. The projector was then brought to South Africa and it has been in operation at the WITS campus until today marking nearly 100 years of operation.
“The history of the Wits Planetarium begins in the year 1956, when the Festival Committee, instituted to organise the celebrations in that year of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the city, decided that it would be most fitting to mark the occasion by raising the funds needed to buy and house a Zeiss Planetarium. Plans for the building were drawn in 1958, and building commenced in 1959. On 12 October 1960 the first full-sized planetarium in Africa, opened its doors to the public,” WITS explains.
The upgrade to the Planetarium will see a switch to digital. This will allow the Planetarium to make use of modern solutions to give us a look at the universe like we’ve never seen before.
Before that happens, the WITS Planetarium is hosting a number of viewings throughout June. WITS students and staff can attend these shows for free with a valid WITS student/staff number and those individuals can book their ticket here.
For the general public, there are shows happening in the evening and afternoon with prices ranging from R50 for teenagers and children and R70 for adults. Tickets for general public shows can be purchased on WebTickets.
All public shows conclude on 25th June and seats are limited to 50 per show.
We highly recommend taking advantage of this offer. While we don’t doubt the digital experience will be fantastic, there’s just something special about gazing up at stars projected by a piece of tech that’s older than the building it’s housed in.
[Image – WITS Planetarium]
