See the stars in Ti

TICONDEROGA | The planetarium at Ticonderoga High School is lighting up the dome at the school with star displays that have become a hit in numerous classes. High School Principal John Donohue said the planetarium can recreate the night sky at any time in history. "It's being used a lot: earth-science, social studies, biology, music," he said. "It goes back thousands of years. We have a lot of curriculum that uses it, right up from elementary through high school." Eastern University professor Dr. David Bradstreet, a renowned astronomer, has done shows for them. "We're really fortunate," Donahue said. "Dr. Bradstreet has let us use his curriculum." That includes things like a cross-section of the Milky Way, Halley's Comet, stellar sizes and other one-of-a-kind visualizations. The planetarium uses a Spitz SCIDome laser-phosphor projector as the base for its dome shows. The planetarium even has chairs that recline, and students are enthusiastic about programs there. Fort Ticonderoga has helped with a show of the starry sky during various historic events that took place there, Donohue said. "They've provided panoramas for the parade grounds,"he said. "We have a program called Starry Night; we can advance time and you can fly directly into the stars. "We can go through Jupiter, our largest planet, or Mercury, the smallest planet. There are a lot of different things we can do." The school has an earth-science program for the planetarium that shows tectonic plate boundaries, mountain ranges, volcanoes, earthquakes, mineral resources, biomes and more. "We can turn on political boundaries, get live earthquake data, population density, oceans," Donohue said. "We can fly through the Grand Canyon or the Khyber Pass." They did a show with the Boston Tea Party night sky from 1773. "They (colonists) were able to do it (dump the tea) because it was a full moon," he said. "We have shows for the community, too." "We're really proud of it," he said. "It was a lot of people working together. As we get more comfortable, we'll expand the offerings."

Signup for our newsletter

See the stars in Ti

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS