I remember the excitement back in 1969 when the Morehead Planetarium was upgrading its older Zeiss II to the thoroughly modern Zeiss VI. Looking like some spaceship bound for a distant star, the projector put the stars and planets and innumerable other heavenly highlights onto the domed screen of the Planetarium. It precisely spun those images around the pseudo-sky mimicking any place or time you chose.

It was a heady time for space nerd hippies. The astronauts trained in astronavigation at the Planetarium. That meant regular space exhibits that pushed multimedia boundaries. Our friend Andy was a projectionist in the domed theater.

Now, the beautiful machine is soon to be relegated to an object to be dusted and lit instead of lighting a universe of its own. While the new digital projection may well produce superior results, I’ll miss seeing the dumbbell-shaped, bumpy spheres rotating , bobbing, and weaving while gifting me a view of distant galaxies. Click here.