McLaughlin Planetarium
Encyclopedia
The McLaughlin Planetarium is a former working planetarium
whose building occupies a space immediately to the south of the Royal Ontario Museum
in Toronto
, at 100 Queen's Park. Founded by a grant from philanthropist Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin, the facility was opened to the public on October 26, 1968. It had, for its time, a state-of-the-art electro-mechanical Zeiss
planetarium projector that was used to project regular themed shows about the stars, planets, and cosmology for visitors. By the 1980s the planetarium's sound-system and domed ceiling were used to display dazzling music-themed laser-light shows. The lower levels of the planetarium contained a gallery called the "Astrocentre" that featured space-related exhibits, related artifacts on the history of astronomy
and was also home of the world's first commercial Stellarium
Starting in 1978 there was a decline in attendance that lasted for four years while major construction was being undertaken at its sibling institution, the Royal Ontario Museum
. This work also entailed the demolition of part of the Planetarium's facilities. Though attendance picked up when the adjacent Museum reopened in 1984, the Planetarium was forced to close on November 5, 1995, due to provincial budget cuts to the Museum. The Planetarium's exhibits, artifacts and theatre facilities were subsequently dismantled and dispersed. For a brief period it housed the Children's Own Museum. It is now used solely for offices and as a storage facility for the Museum.
Early in 2009 the R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and site to the University of Toronto, who plan to demolish the existing building to make way for additional facilities.
(RASC). In May 1964 the Chairman and the President of the University of Toronto
gave their support for the idea to the RASC, and suggested a site near the existing Royal Ontario Museum
, adding that significant financial support would have to come from outside the University to make it possible.
In November 1964 Canadian businessman Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin announced plans for donating money directly towards establishing a planetarium in Toronto. He was inspired by the recent construction of the Hayden Planetarium
in New York
, named after Charles Hayden
, who had been a friend and associate on the board of International Nickel. McLaughlin donated $2 million for the building's construction, and gave an additional $1.15 million as an ongoing endowment. The University of Toronto
, which owned and operated the Royal Ontario Museum prior to becoming a separate, provincially-funded body, donated land adjacent to the museum. The building was constructed in an area that had formerly been a park belonging to the museum, and also required the demolition of a mansion at 86 Queens Park that had been the residence for the President of the University of Toronto.
The building was designed by architects Allward & Gouinlock and by the engineering firm Stone and Webster Canada, Ltd. in 1965. Colonel McLaughlin unveiled a model of the building at his 94th birthday celebration, which was held in his honour at the museum in September of that year. It was hoped that the building would be open by Canada's centennial in 1967, but construction delays forced the opening to October 26, 1968.
In addition to what was built, the original plans also called for a multi-story parking garage, a 550-seat conventional movie theatre, and a direct underground link to the Museum
subway stop. These features were deemed too costly and were never built.
The building contained four floors:
4 centimeters (2.5 inches) thick, and an inner concrete dome that is insulated by a layer of urethane foam.
The projection dome was separate from the outer dome, and was 23 meters (75.4 ft) in diameter. Made of curved aluminum sheets, it was lap joint
ed to create a continuous spherical surface. The sheets were painted white and perforated with 2.5-millimeter (0.1 inch) holes, which were designed to let sound through and reduced echoes in the cavernous space.
The building had two main entrances: a main entrance at ground level that faced east onto Queen's Park Drive, and a connecting passageway from the Royal Ontario Museum from what used to be the Mineralogy Gallery. Admission to either facility allowed visitors to see exhibits in both buildings, though a Planetarium show cost extra.
The planetarium projector
was the focal piece of equipment at the planetarium. It was a Universal Projection Planetarium type 23/6, made by Kombinat VEB
Carl Zeiss
in Jena
, in what was then East Germany.
The planetarium projector was a 13 feet (4 m)-long dumbbell-shaped object, with 29 inches (736.6 mm)-diameter spheres attached at each end representing the night sky for the northern and southern hemispheres. Connecting the two spheres was a framework that held nearly 150 individual projectors, including those dedicated to the planets, the Sun, and specific stars.
Improvements were made to the original planetarium projector over the years, allowing for special effects that could show close-up displays of specific planets, and the Sun and Moon projectors could replicate the experience of a solar
or lunar eclipse
.
The projector could be controlled by a console where an individual presenter would provide specific talks or lectures. By the mid-1970s, automation features were added, which led to the creation of prerecorded shows. Most visitors to the facility would have seen an automated 40- to 45-minute audio/visual show on a particular space-related topic. Two types of shows were typically alternated on a daily basis: one aimed at families with young children and another aimed at older children and adults. Typical shows aimed at both audience types were built around themes such as space travel, the mythical stories behind the constellation
s, and around Christmas
-time, a show that investigated theories on stellar explanations for the Star of Bethlehem
. A listing from 1970 includes shows titled The Story of Eclipses, which looked at how solar eclipses occur and their scientific importance, Man and the Zodiac
which explored the history of mythology
and astrology
with regard to the night sky, and The Planet Venus
which surveyed the history of the planet in mythology, the planet's motion across the sky and featured imagined views from its surface.
Significant changes to the Planetarium were made during this time, including the addition of a new spiral staircase that led straight to the Theatre of the Stars, an adjacent elevator for the elderly and disabled, and a larger gallery space on the second floor.
The Planetarium remained at normal levels of service during this renovation period, but attendance dropped significantly, particularly when the adjacent Museum was closed for a period of two years during the most intensive phase of its second major expansion. In all, the construction phase lasted for four years, from 1978 to 1982. In particular, some school groups that could justify the expense of seeing the Museum and a Planetarium show in a single day's outing had difficulty justifying a visit solely to the Planetarium.
.
While the main attraction continued to be the astronomical shows put on during the day, in the early 1980s, regular laser light shows became a staple evening's entertainment in the city. Typical shows included "Laser Floyd
: Dark Side of the Moon", "Laser Zeppelin
", "Sgt. Peppers Laser Light Show" and later, such shows of more contemporary musical artists such as "Laser Depeche Mode
", "Laser NIN
" and "Laser Nirvana
". These shows were held under the name "Laserarium" rather than that of the Planetarium, though the laser-light and star shows were held in the same building. The laser shows were created by the Florida
-based firm Audio Visual Imagineering, whose shows are also seen at other planetaria.
Other exhibits in the revamped Astrocentre included a new 50-seat mini-theatre, wall murals illustrating the phases of the moon, plus an increasing number of hands-on exhibits and interactive computer-driven displays. There were also displays of astronomical globes, an orrery
and pictures of the planets, many taken by contemporary space probes. The Astrocentre also featured the world's first commercial Stellarium
, a slowly rotating display containing a 3D representation of almost a thousand stars in our immediate stellar neighbourhood.
Despite the ROM citing lowered attendance figures, proponents of the planetarium have alleged that the Conservative
Ontario
provincial government of the time, led by Mike Harris
, was looking for an instant and visible $600,000 cut to the ROM's operating budget.
Shortly after the announcement, the exhibits, seating and wiring were dismantled or removed. Some of the signs and paintings were recovered by the RASC, which had a permanent workspace located within the facility, and are now on display at the E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory and at David Dunlap Observatory
. The original Zeiss-Jena projector was bought as a museum piece by York University
for the sum of $1, subsequently dismantled, and placed into storage. More recently, the University has offered the mothballed projector to other planetaria seeking parts to repair their existing electro-mechanical planetarium projectors.
The planetarium has been reopened for other purposes since it closed its doors as a planetarium in 1995. On March 5, 1998, an initial three-year agreement was signed that brought the Children's Own Museum to the second floor of the planetarium, where the Astrocentre used to be. Due to impending construction at the adjacent Royal Ontario Museum, the contract was not renewed in late 2002, and the Children's Own Museum has been looking for a new location ever since. During its three-year tenure in that building, it hosted nearly a half-million visitors. The institution still exists, though it currently (as of 2009) has no physical home. It is currently seeking suitable space to use in future endeavours. In the meantime the organization has participated in various children's events around the city.
Later in 2002, a traveling exhibit of costumes, props and models used in the making of Peter Jackson
's Lord of the Rings trilogy ran for four weeks at the planetarium. This was the last public exhibition housed in the building. Up until 2007, the building has primarily served as office space and storage for exhibits that have been moved out of the R.O.M. while the Lee-Chin Crystal wing was under construction.
Ever since the planetarium's closing, there have been groups that have lobbied for its reopening. At first, efforts concentrated on reopening the existing facility, but in more recent years, the focus has shifted to establishing a wholly new permanent planetarium facility elsewhere in downtown Toronto. Smaller educational planetaria still exist in the Toronto region. At some time after 1995, Seneca College
closed their Roberta Bondar
Earth and Space Centre planetarium. The Ontario Science Centre
on Don Mills Road operates a high-resolution digital planetarium with funding from CA, Inc., and the Royal Ontario Museum also offers a small, portable, inflatable planetarium for school groups.
s on the space currently occupied by the planetarium. This proposal was dropped on November 7, 2005, due to extensive public opposition to the construction of a tall condominium in a district of low-rise public buildings., though it was reported that R.O.M. director William Thorsell
was planning to revive the scheme to place a residential tower on the site.
On January 26, 2009 the R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and the site for $22 million to the University of Toronto, who plan to demolish the existing building and build additional facilities for its Law and Business faculties.
Since the closing, the Ontario Science Centre has taken over the McLaughlin Planetarium's role as Toronto's public planetarium, though using a much smaller facility.
, the protagonist visits the Planetarium and takes in a show, and then goes on to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. She reports to her father, who is on his deathbed in a Toronto hospital, that she enjoyed the show but found the Planetarium to be "a slightly phony temple" to the stars.
In the opening chapter of Robert J. Sawyer
's science fiction novel Calculating God
, an alien spaceship lands directly in front of the McLaughlin Planetarium, prior to going on a tour of the exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum.
, CHIN
, and Virtual Museum of Canada
.
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
whose building occupies a space immediately to the south of the Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, at 100 Queen's Park. Founded by a grant from philanthropist Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin, the facility was opened to the public on October 26, 1968. It had, for its time, a state-of-the-art electro-mechanical Zeiss
Zeiss projector
A Zeiss projector is one of a line of planetarium projectors manufactured by the Carl Zeiss Company.The first modern planetarium projectors were designed and built in 1924 by the Zeiss Works of Jena, Germany in 1924. Zeiss projectors are designed to sit in the middle of a dark, dome-covered room...
planetarium projector that was used to project regular themed shows about the stars, planets, and cosmology for visitors. By the 1980s the planetarium's sound-system and domed ceiling were used to display dazzling music-themed laser-light shows. The lower levels of the planetarium contained a gallery called the "Astrocentre" that featured space-related exhibits, related artifacts on the history of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and was also home of the world's first commercial Stellarium
Stellarium
Stellarium is a free software planetarium, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It uses OpenGL to render a realistic sky in real time....
Starting in 1978 there was a decline in attendance that lasted for four years while major construction was being undertaken at its sibling institution, the Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
. This work also entailed the demolition of part of the Planetarium's facilities. Though attendance picked up when the adjacent Museum reopened in 1984, the Planetarium was forced to close on November 5, 1995, due to provincial budget cuts to the Museum. The Planetarium's exhibits, artifacts and theatre facilities were subsequently dismantled and dispersed. For a brief period it housed the Children's Own Museum. It is now used solely for offices and as a storage facility for the Museum.
Early in 2009 the R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and site to the University of Toronto, who plan to demolish the existing building to make way for additional facilities.
Beginnings
Proposals for building a planetarium in Toronto date back to 1944, but serious planning only started in 1962, thanks to a bequest made by a former member of the Royal Astronomical Society of CanadaRoyal Astronomical Society of Canada
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is a national, non-profit, charitable organization devoted to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences. At present, there are 29 local branches of the Society, called centres, located in towns and cities across the country from St. John's,...
(RASC). In May 1964 the Chairman and the President of the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
gave their support for the idea to the RASC, and suggested a site near the existing Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
, adding that significant financial support would have to come from outside the University to make it possible.
In November 1964 Canadian businessman Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin announced plans for donating money directly towards establishing a planetarium in Toronto. He was inspired by the recent construction of the Hayden Planetarium
Hayden Planetarium
The Hayden Planetarium is a public planetarium, part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, currently directed by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson....
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, named after Charles Hayden
Charles Hayden (banker)
Charles Hayden was an American financier and philanthropist. He was the senior partner of Hayden, Stone & Co. and his influence was such that James W...
, who had been a friend and associate on the board of International Nickel. McLaughlin donated $2 million for the building's construction, and gave an additional $1.15 million as an ongoing endowment. The University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, which owned and operated the Royal Ontario Museum prior to becoming a separate, provincially-funded body, donated land adjacent to the museum. The building was constructed in an area that had formerly been a park belonging to the museum, and also required the demolition of a mansion at 86 Queens Park that had been the residence for the President of the University of Toronto.
The building was designed by architects Allward & Gouinlock and by the engineering firm Stone and Webster Canada, Ltd. in 1965. Colonel McLaughlin unveiled a model of the building at his 94th birthday celebration, which was held in his honour at the museum in September of that year. It was hoped that the building would be open by Canada's centennial in 1967, but construction delays forced the opening to October 26, 1968.
In addition to what was built, the original plans also called for a multi-story parking garage, a 550-seat conventional movie theatre, and a direct underground link to the Museum
Museum (TTC)
Museum is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 75 Queen's Park at Charles Street West...
subway stop. These features were deemed too costly and were never built.
The building contained four floors:
- a basement containing a lecture hall that hosted meetings of the Toronto branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, as well as some general storage rooms;
- a ground floor that featured a small store selling space-themed merchandise, a small library, coat-check room, a prominent bronze bust of Colonel McLaughlin, and the box office and staff lounge (not accessible to the public);
- a second floor, called the "Astrocentre", which featured various astronomical exhibits and a line to the adjacent R.O.M; and
- a third floor, called "The Theatre of the Stars", was devoted wholly to astronomical shows, and featured a Zeiss planetarium projector along with 85 slide and video projectors used to recreate starry skies, along with two back rooms that housed computers, cooling systems, and audio/visual controllers. The public theatre could seat 340 people at a time, and contained a sound system of approximately 25,000 watts.
The Building
The dominant feature of the building is the dome, which rises 25.3 meters (83 ft) from the ground, and has an outer diameter of 27.7 meters (91 ft). The dome structure is layered, with an outer waterproofed casing of reinforced concreteReinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
4 centimeters (2.5 inches) thick, and an inner concrete dome that is insulated by a layer of urethane foam.
The projection dome was separate from the outer dome, and was 23 meters (75.4 ft) in diameter. Made of curved aluminum sheets, it was lap joint
Lap joint
In woodworking or metal fitting, a lap joint is a technique for joining two pieces of material by overlapping them. A lap may be a full lap or half lap....
ed to create a continuous spherical surface. The sheets were painted white and perforated with 2.5-millimeter (0.1 inch) holes, which were designed to let sound through and reduced echoes in the cavernous space.
The building had two main entrances: a main entrance at ground level that faced east onto Queen's Park Drive, and a connecting passageway from the Royal Ontario Museum from what used to be the Mineralogy Gallery. Admission to either facility allowed visitors to see exhibits in both buildings, though a Planetarium show cost extra.
Zeiss-Jena planetarium projector
Planetarium projector
A planetarium projector is a device used to project images of celestial objects onto the dome in a planetarium.The first modern planetarium projectors were designed and built by the Carl Zeiss Jena company in Germany between 1923 and 1925, and have since grown more complex. Smaller projectors...
was the focal piece of equipment at the planetarium. It was a Universal Projection Planetarium type 23/6, made by Kombinat VEB
Volkseigener Betrieb
The Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss was a German maker of optical instruments commonly known for the company he founded, Carl Zeiss Jena . Zeiss made contributions to lens manufacturing that have aided the modern production of lenses...
in Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
, in what was then East Germany.
The planetarium projector was a 13 feet (4 m)-long dumbbell-shaped object, with 29 inches (736.6 mm)-diameter spheres attached at each end representing the night sky for the northern and southern hemispheres. Connecting the two spheres was a framework that held nearly 150 individual projectors, including those dedicated to the planets, the Sun, and specific stars.
Improvements were made to the original planetarium projector over the years, allowing for special effects that could show close-up displays of specific planets, and the Sun and Moon projectors could replicate the experience of a solar
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
or lunar eclipse
Lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a...
.
The projector could be controlled by a console where an individual presenter would provide specific talks or lectures. By the mid-1970s, automation features were added, which led to the creation of prerecorded shows. Most visitors to the facility would have seen an automated 40- to 45-minute audio/visual show on a particular space-related topic. Two types of shows were typically alternated on a daily basis: one aimed at families with young children and another aimed at older children and adults. Typical shows aimed at both audience types were built around themes such as space travel, the mythical stories behind the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
s, and around Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
-time, a show that investigated theories on stellar explanations for the Star of Bethlehem
Star of Bethlehem
In Christian tradition, the Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi, or "wise men", and later led them to Bethlehem. The star appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew, where magi "from the east" are inspired by the star to travel to...
. A listing from 1970 includes shows titled The Story of Eclipses, which looked at how solar eclipses occur and their scientific importance, Man and the Zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
which explored the history of mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
and astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
with regard to the night sky, and The Planet Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
which surveyed the history of the planet in mythology, the planet's motion across the sky and featured imagined views from its surface.
Renovations in the late 1970s and early 1980s
When plans were drawn up for a major expansion of the adjacent Royal Ontario Museum in the mid-1970s, it was initially assumed that the Planetarium, then still a comparatively new facility, would be left untouched. As the scope of the expansion increased, it was realized that its north annex would need to be demolished in order to make way for the Museum's need for a wing devoted to curatorial facilities. As a result, a theatre entrance, sound studio, workshop, passenger elevator and a third of the existing gallery area of the Planetarium had to go. The remaining gallery area was removed in March 1978 to make space for temporary space to replace the workshop and studio.Significant changes to the Planetarium were made during this time, including the addition of a new spiral staircase that led straight to the Theatre of the Stars, an adjacent elevator for the elderly and disabled, and a larger gallery space on the second floor.
The Planetarium remained at normal levels of service during this renovation period, but attendance dropped significantly, particularly when the adjacent Museum was closed for a period of two years during the most intensive phase of its second major expansion. In all, the construction phase lasted for four years, from 1978 to 1982. In particular, some school groups that could justify the expense of seeing the Museum and a Planetarium show in a single day's outing had difficulty justifying a visit solely to the Planetarium.
The 1980s and early 1990s
Some of the automated "star shows" that appeared in this time interval include: "Planets, Stars, and Galaxies", a general show about our knowledge of astronomy at the time; "Mars, the Journey Begins", the story of the exploration of Mars (from prehistory to the then-present), and possible future plans for terraforming Mars; "Beyond the 4th Dimension", which explored, in layman's terms, the 4 dimensions of General Relativity, the Big Bang and inflation, and the new (at the time) theories of physics that postulated that space has up to 11 dimensions; some of these shows featured creative and novel sound tracks composed by composer-in-residence Mychael DannaMychael Danna
Mychael Danna is a Canadian film composer.-Life and career:Mychael Danna is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won...
.
While the main attraction continued to be the astronomical shows put on during the day, in the early 1980s, regular laser light shows became a staple evening's entertainment in the city. Typical shows included "Laser Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
: Dark Side of the Moon", "Laser Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
", "Sgt. Peppers Laser Light Show" and later, such shows of more contemporary musical artists such as "Laser Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
", "Laser NIN
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
" and "Laser Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
". These shows were held under the name "Laserarium" rather than that of the Planetarium, though the laser-light and star shows were held in the same building. The laser shows were created by the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
-based firm Audio Visual Imagineering, whose shows are also seen at other planetaria.
Other exhibits in the revamped Astrocentre included a new 50-seat mini-theatre, wall murals illustrating the phases of the moon, plus an increasing number of hands-on exhibits and interactive computer-driven displays. There were also displays of astronomical globes, an orrery
Orrery
An orrery is a mechanical device that illustrates the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the Solar System in a heliocentric model. Though the Greeks had working planetaria, the first orrery that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced in 1704, and one was presented...
and pictures of the planets, many taken by contemporary space probes. The Astrocentre also featured the world's first commercial Stellarium
Stellarium
Stellarium is a free software planetarium, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It uses OpenGL to render a realistic sky in real time....
, a slowly rotating display containing a 3D representation of almost a thousand stars in our immediate stellar neighbourhood.
Closure
The McLaughlin Planetarium was closed on November 5, 1995. The president of the ROM stated that the closure of the planetarium was due to a combination of falling attendance and a declining interest in space, and that the closure was necessitated by provincial budget cuts. The decision came as a surprise to many, as attendance had rebounded in recent years, and the planetarium was one of few in North America at the time that was turning a profit. The closure meant that 40 people lost their jobs.Despite the ROM citing lowered attendance figures, proponents of the planetarium have alleged that the Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
provincial government of the time, led by Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
, was looking for an instant and visible $600,000 cut to the ROM's operating budget.
Shortly after the announcement, the exhibits, seating and wiring were dismantled or removed. Some of the signs and paintings were recovered by the RASC, which had a permanent workspace located within the facility, and are now on display at the E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory and at David Dunlap Observatory
David Dunlap Observatory
The David Dunlap Observatory is a large astronomical observatory site once owned by the University of Toronto, located just north of the city in Richmond Hill, Ontario within a estate. Its primary instrument is a 74-inch reflector telescope, at one time the second largest telescope in the world,...
. The original Zeiss-Jena projector was bought as a museum piece by York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
for the sum of $1, subsequently dismantled, and placed into storage. More recently, the University has offered the mothballed projector to other planetaria seeking parts to repair their existing electro-mechanical planetarium projectors.
After the closure
Later in 2002, a traveling exhibit of costumes, props and models used in the making of Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's Lord of the Rings trilogy ran for four weeks at the planetarium. This was the last public exhibition housed in the building. Up until 2007, the building has primarily served as office space and storage for exhibits that have been moved out of the R.O.M. while the Lee-Chin Crystal wing was under construction.
Ever since the planetarium's closing, there have been groups that have lobbied for its reopening. At first, efforts concentrated on reopening the existing facility, but in more recent years, the focus has shifted to establishing a wholly new permanent planetarium facility elsewhere in downtown Toronto. Smaller educational planetaria still exist in the Toronto region. At some time after 1995, Seneca College
Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a Canadian public college in the greater Toronto area. Seneca College is currently Canada's largest college with approximately 108,000 students.-History:...
closed their Roberta Bondar
Roberta Bondar
Roberta Bondar,is OC, O.Ont, FRCP, FRSC is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space. Following more than a decade as NASA's head of space medicine, Bondar became a consultant and speaker in the business, scientific and medical communities.-Education:Roberta Bondar had...
Earth and Space Centre planetarium. The Ontario Science Centre
Ontario Science Centre
Ontario Science Centre is a science museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, near the Don Valley Parkway about northeast of downtown on Don Mills Road just south of Eglinton Avenue East...
on Don Mills Road operates a high-resolution digital planetarium with funding from CA, Inc., and the Royal Ontario Museum also offers a small, portable, inflatable planetarium for school groups.
Planned redevelopment
On April 14, 2004, the directors put out a call "for expressions of interest" to redevelop the space occupied by the planetarium. Seeking additional funding to cover the costs of the second phase of the expansion and redevelopment of the Museum, the directors of the museum had planned on erecting luxury CondominiumCondominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
s on the space currently occupied by the planetarium. This proposal was dropped on November 7, 2005, due to extensive public opposition to the construction of a tall condominium in a district of low-rise public buildings., though it was reported that R.O.M. director William Thorsell
William Thorsell
William Thorsell, O.Ont is a Canadian journalist, past Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Ontario Museum...
was planning to revive the scheme to place a residential tower on the site.
On January 26, 2009 the R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and the site for $22 million to the University of Toronto, who plan to demolish the existing building and build additional facilities for its Law and Business faculties.
Since the closing, the Ontario Science Centre has taken over the McLaughlin Planetarium's role as Toronto's public planetarium, though using a much smaller facility.
Literary references
In the eponymous short story in the collection The Moons of Jupiter by Alice MunroAlice Munro
Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short-story writer, the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction, and a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize...
, the protagonist visits the Planetarium and takes in a show, and then goes on to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. She reports to her father, who is on his deathbed in a Toronto hospital, that she enjoyed the show but found the Planetarium to be "a slightly phony temple" to the stars.
In the opening chapter of Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
's science fiction novel Calculating God
Calculating God
Calculating God is a 2000 science fiction novel by Robert J. Sawyer. It takes place in the present day and describes the arrival on Earth of sentient aliens. The bulk of the novel covers the many discussions and arguments on this topic, as well as about the nature of belief, religion, and science....
, an alien spaceship lands directly in front of the McLaughlin Planetarium, prior to going on a tour of the exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum.
External links
- Google Satellite image of The McLaughlin Planetarium, accessed December 20, 2005
- "Planning the McLaughlin Planetarium" The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, December 1965. Donald A. MacRae
- "Turning on the Stars" U. of T. – The Bulletin, Dec. 18/95, John Percy, accessed December 18, 2005
Affiliations
The Museum is affiliated with: CMACanadian Museums Association
The Canadian Museums Association is a national organization for the promotion of museums in Canada.The Canadian Museums Association is the national organization for the advancement of the Canadian museum sector, representing Canadian museum professionals both within Canada and internationally. The...
, CHIN
Canadian Heritage Information Network
The Canadian Heritage Information Network is a Canadian government-supported organization that provides a networked interface to Canada's heritage, largely through the World Wide Web. It aims to give access to Canada's heritage for both Canadians and a worldwide audience, by supporting the...
, and Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada
The Virtual Museum of Canada is Canada's national virtual museum. With a directory of over 3,000 Canadian heritage institutions and a database of over 600 virtual exhibits, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location.The VMC includes virtual exhibits,...
.