Star Theatre

"Star Theatre offers fascinating insights into how astronomy has, through planetariums, evolved over the past century from a tool for education and personal improvement to a crowd-pleasing public spectacle."

"A masterful and well-researched examination of the architectural heritage and cultural significance of planetariums, such as the role of the Zeiss projector in fostering relations between Soviet-controlled East Germany and the rest of the world. It also contemplates how the development of planetariums has been influenced—indeed, challenged—by discoveries in astronomy such as black holes, gravitational waves, and the theory of dark matter, as well as the growing capabilities of projection technology. . . . Excellent images."

"A well-illustrated examination of the planetarium. From its origins in static and moving models of the night sky to its current incarnation in large hemispheric domes, the planetarium has sometimes served as a temple to science and sometimes as a link to cultural values of its local community. Early models showed an earth-centered universe meant to illustrate the relative motions of the planets, sun, and moon. Star ball planetaria originated in the 1920s, using a hollow ball with a light inside to project stars and planets. More recent manifestations use computer projections and a wide range of special effects to simulate traveling through space and time. Much of the text describes how local culture affects the designs of planetarium buildings and their programming. For example, Soviet era installations differ markedly from those in the US during the early space race and Cold War. Interesting descriptions of various authors’ memories of planetarium visits, settings in films, and poetry enhance the cultural examination. Overall, Firebrace's focus is more historical and cultural than scientific, making it best suited to general readers—though a decent bibliography is included. Recommended."

"As a historian of science who works in a major planetarium, I was frankly captivated by many of the illustrations, anecdotes, and literary and artistic references with which Firebrace adorns his account."

"William Firebrace’s book provides interesting insight. In short, it gives us a fascinating 'outsider’s' look at our workplaces, their history, science, art, and architecture . . . as a planetarian and show producer with more than forty years’ experience in our field, I found his look at our community and its theaters to be a refreshing one. It shows us set against a much larger backdrop of societal and cultural expectations about science, space travel, and entertainment. It’s where we’ve always been, but I suspect we don’t always have time to appreciate the nuances. . . . Star Theatre is thoughtfully written, nicely illustrated, and provides good references, and is well worth reading."

“Firebrace is at once keen dragoman, critic, poet, constantly astonished spectator, and informal reporter. His curiosity is boundless.”