The Barlow’s Platinum Anniversary
Mind Bending | March 1, 2018
By Alan J Peche, Director, Barlow Planetarium
The Barlow Planetarium 20th Anniversary is March 24-25, 2018!
On the evening of Friday, October 4, 1957, at around 10:30pm Moscow time, Sputnik was launched. A 22-inch sphere weighing 185 pounds ushered in the “Space Age”. Since this feat was accomplished by the Soviet Union, the United States increased funding to train future scientists, mathematicians and engineers to win what was called the “Space Race.” That is when planetariums started popping up at universities, colleges and high/middle schools around the country.
Early History
The history of UW-Fox Valley actually dates back to 1933 when university classes were held at the Menasha High School. After several years of challenges (like World War II), the campus moved to its current location on Midway Road in 1960. In 1961 the original planetarium opened and served the area residents nearly continuously until 1997.
A lot things happened during those 36 years. . .
Interplanetary spacecraft visited almost every planet in our solar system (1961-97)
- Mercury (1961-63), Gemini (1964-66),
- Apollo (1967-72), Skylab (1973-79), Apollo-Soyuz (1975) and Space Shuttle (1981-2011) human spaceflight programs.
- 12 Astronauts walked on the Moon (1969-1972)
- Skylab – our first space station – was launched (1974)
Voyager I & II – the greatest space probes ever – were launched and visited the outer planets (1977-Present - Hubble Space Telescope was launched (1993)
- 51 Pegasi 51 – the first exoplanet – was discovered (1995)
- Pathfinder/Sojourner – first rover – landed on Mars (1997)
During those formative years, the small planetarium on Midway Road was one of the most accessible planetariums in Wisconsin. You can still see the original dome near the entrance of the Barlow (looks like a Jiffy Pop Popcorn container; Google it) and the original star projector is on display near the entrance of the Barlow.
Expansion and F. John Barlow
As the campus expanded, it was suggested that the original planetarium was too small and a larger planetarium capable of serving more students should be built.
Thanks to the generosity of local business man F. John Barlow, the Barlow was built in memory of his wife Dorothy. Dorothy was F. John Barlow’s high school sweetheart and mother of his eight daughters. The first public programs were offered on March 20, 1998 to sold-out audiences. Although the original planetarium in Menasha was a front row witness to space history, the Barlow continued on that mission. . .
- International Space Station was started and completed (1998-2010)
- Spirit (2004-10), Opportunity (2004-Present) Curiosity (2012-Present) – roved Mars
Venus transits the Sun twice (2004 and 2012). The rarest of astronomical events won’t occur again until December 10, 2117 (but happens after our sunset) and then again on December 8, 2125 just after sunrise - New Horizons visited Pluto (2015)
- CERN’s Large Hadron Collider discovery of the Higgs Boson (2012)
- Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detects gravity waves – predicted by Albert Einstein a century earlier – from the collision of two super-massive black holes (2017)
Not everything was awesome – the original planetarium had to witness human spaceflight tragedies with the Apollo I fire in January 27, 1967 and the Challenger accident on January 28, 1986. The Barlow also witnessed the Columbia accident on February 1, 2003. In each and every one of those incidents, human space exploration came back stronger, better and safer than ever.
Today
The Barlow was the first major planetarium in Wisconsin and has served over 750,000 visitors in the past 20 years. Currently, the Barlow is the second largest planetarium in Wisconsin and the largest planetarium in the UW System. It serves seven UW campus communities in northeast Wisconsin and it ranks as one of the busiest university/college planetariums in the Midwest and the U.S. When compared to other similar-sized U.S. planetariums, the Barlow serves three times the annual average. With future upgrades, the Barlow might serve as many as six times the national average.
JOIN US!
On the occasion of the Barlow’s 20th Anniversary, the Barlow has arranged to bring in a Digistar 6 – the great, great, granddaughter of Barlow’s Digistar II projector, to give the Fox Valley (and beyond) a glimpse of what the future holds. On Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, the future arrives at the Barlow with a system that is capable of filling the Barlow’s 3,600 square foot screen with full color and high-resolution video. See BarlowPlanetarium.org for more information.
