NEW YORK’S NEW HAYDEN PLANETARIUM
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 John Pazmino
 Amateur Astronomers Association
 1998 November 1

[ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
AAVSO, HELD IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 1, 1998[ 

    The Hayden Planetarium in New York City is under replacement by an 
entirely new facility, to open by New Year's Eve of 1999. Ground was 
broken for the new Hayden Planetarium in May of 1997, after demolition 
of the old edifice on the same site. In the early 1990’s the American 
Museum of Natural History, operator of the Planetarium, studied ways 
to update and improve the Planetarium, but in the end found it 
simplest and cheapest essentially to start all over again. This is 
America's first major planetarium in a full generation! 
    Because of the layout of the Museum's campus on Manhattan's Upper 
West Side, the new structure had to occupy the exact same plot as the 
old. Yet, being that it is the equivalent of a nine-floor tower, it 
has many times the work, office, and exhibit space as the old. It is 
probably the largest planetarium by volume in the world. In addition 
to the Hayden Planetarium, the Museum is building several new halls 
along its north flank. 
    These open in sequence during 1999 with the Planetarium being the 
last. In design, the Hayden Planetarium is a gigantic brushed steel 
sphere, 27m in diameter, 'floating' in a glass cube about 40m square. 
It is supported by a tripod of struts hidden by stonework on the lower 
floors. The upper two thirds of the ball — the Hayden Sphere — is the 
theatre of the stars, powered by a Zeiss Mark VIII projector. The 
lower third is a theater for demonstrating the Big Bang and evolution 
of the universe. 
    The Planetarium communicates with the Museum along common walls, 
to a new bus garage adjacent to it, and the street by the traditional 
circular drive, completely rebuilt, that served the old building. 
Besides the physical apparatus, the Hayden Planetarium houses a new 
department of astrophysics for the Museum, now recruiting astronomers 
for its inaugural crew. This department includes a seamless melding of 
the news media and the universities and observatories. 
    It also is assembling new programs of public astronomy with the 
Amateur Astronomers Association, restoring the unique system 
instituted in the 1920s of a 'civilian' corps of astronomers. The 
Planetarium restored the tradition that its director should be an 
active member of the Association and that instructor and auxiliary 
staff jobs be offered to the Association. 
    The Planetarium project is on schedule and within time and budget. 
There was only one stoppage, to allow the construction workers to 
march in a sympathy demonstration for an unrelated labor dispute. The 
total cost of the project is not quite $150 million, raised by the 
City of New York, federal agencies, and major corporations. Where to 
be on New Year's Eve of 1999? New York!