Day 300: Chicago's First Glimpse of the Heavens

     On October 27, 1913, the Chicago Academy of Sciences opened up Chicago's first Planetarium. Wallace Atwood(the Secretary of the Academy) had commissioned the sphere so that Chicagoans could glimpse the night sky at any time.  The sphere itself was a 15-foot diameter, 500-pound ball of galvanized steel.  Once it opened up, the sphere was a huge hit, and it remained that way for the next 20 years.  However, when the Adler Planetarium opened up in 1930, it generated some competition with the Atwood, and the fact that the Planetarium featured a state of the art Zeiss projection system.

     By 1938, the future of the sphere was coming into question, because the attendance was way down due to the Adler's competition.  A few years later though, the Army came calling.  For somewhat obvious reasons, the Army all of a sudden had a need for new pilots, and means to train them.  To further this goal, in 1941 they started using the sphere as a training aid for pilots.  Every month 900 new recruits would enter the sphere and learn important lessons about navigation and flying planes.  This arrangement continued into the 1950s, but by 1956 the sphere was in danger of being mothballed once again.  This time the Russians came through with a 184 pound satellite that made noise.  The Space Race was on.

     All of a sudden, people couldn't get enough of space stuff, and this newfound popularity propelled the Atwood right along with it.  In 1959, the Academy opened up an entirely new space exhibit, with the sphere as its centerpiece.  This newfound popularity was the Sphere's second wind, but also was its ultimate undoing.  by the 1960s, the Sphere had become so unbelievably popular that lines to experience it would be hours long at any given time.(remember, the interior could only hold 17 people at a time.)  At some point, the Academy reached its breaking point, and the Atwood Sphere was closed down in the early '60s.  For the next 15 years, the sphere was dark.

     Then in the early 80s, the Sphere was reopened for small groups of the public.  It served in that capacity through 1995, when the Sphere was once again closed down, except this time for good.  The Sphere was then donated to the Adler Planetarium, chopped into six pieces, packed away, and mothballed for two years.  In 1997, the Sphere was transported to the Planetarium, reassembled, and placed into the new Sky Pavilion, which was under construction.  On January 8, 1999, the Sky Pavilion opened, and the Atwood Sphere once again welcomed guests inside of its star-filled maw.  The Atwood Sphere has given Chicago area guests a glimpse into the heavens above for 100 years, and it looks like it will keep on doing so for many more years to come.