From the Archives – Winter 2024 – Oswego Alumni Magazine

From the Archives – Winter 2024

Physics Professor Shashi Kanbur talks with a visiting 5th grade class from Oswego’s Leighton Elementary School in the Piez Hall planetarium in October 2009.

SAVE THE DATE: April 8, 2024
Oswego will experience a very rare total eclipse of the sun. Learn more: oswego.edu/eclipse

Since 1962, SUNY Oswego has maintained a planetarium that provided access to knowledge and exploration of the skies to not only students and faculty but thousands of community members, as well. The original planetarium, founded by professor Dr. George Pitluga, was located atop Piez Hall and attracted more than 20,000 visitors a year. It was later named for professor Dr. Charles Jerred, who ran the Piez Hall planetarium for approximately 25 years.

Among its many claims to fame was the Summer Institute for Planetarium Directors, which Pitluga began in 1967 to help meet the need for planeteria directors as the United States was gearing up for the Space Race. In summer 1968, SUNY Oswego hosted the Summer Institute for Planetarium Directors for a group of 33 students who came from 14 states and British Columbia.

In 2010, the planetarium closed, as the university began to build what is now known as the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation. During the three years between its closure and the opening of the new planetarium in Shineman, faculty relied on software such as “Starry Night” to teach their courses, according to the late Dr. Scott Roby, who was the director of the planetarium from 2001 until his death in 2022.

Today, the planetarium in Shineman Center, under the direction of professor Dr. Natalia Lewandowski, is a fully digital Spitz planetarium with a 24-foot projection dome, 180-degree field of view and a built-in 5.1 surround sound system. Actively used in teaching and educational outreach, the facility seats 35 people and offers a wide variety of shows to the campus and surrounding community.

Sources: The Oswegonian, March 19, 1965; The Oswegonian, March 24, 1988; The Oswegonian, April 16, 2010; oswego.edu/physics/planetarium

Do you have a favorite photo from your college days that you’d like featured in an alumni communication? Send the photo and a description, along with your name and class year, to alumni@oswego.edu; or King Alumni Hall, Oswego, N.Y. 13126.

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