A Personal Historical Note:

Many threads have come together to make this planetarium possible. The Downing Planetarium is currently under construction because of the incredible generosity of Dr. Harold Downing, the coordination skills of Steve Schmeiser from the School of Natural Sciences, and the untiring efforts of Brandt Kehoe, Steve White (the Director of the Downing Planetarium) and Roger Key of the Physics Department, who have been planning for a planetarium for a very long time and trucked key components all the way from Kansas.

In a small way, I would like to think I helped bring this facility into being as well. In the middle 1980's I began designing a possible layout of a Science Center based on an idea proposed by Dean K.P. Wong of the School of Natural Sciences. While I was sketching out a Hall of Science, my daughter Kirsten looked over my shoulder and suggested, "Hey Dad, we should have a planetarium." So I put one in. From that time forward, a planetarium has been one of the possible components of the Science Center and has been included in all the proposals and presentations about this site. My daughter is far away at graduate school in marine geophysics at the University of Hawaii now, but I keep her apprised of progress on "her" (smile) planetarium via e-mail and the Internet.

The Downing Planetarium is being constructed right outside my office window. As interesting things happen, I often run outside with a digital camera and snap a few pictures. For Kirsten and all others interested in this site, I hope you enjoy the images.

David Zellmer
November 29, 1998