
Armand Neustadter Spitz (July 7, 1904 – April 14, 1971) was an American
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
designer.
Biography
Armand Spitz, the son of Louis Spitz and Rose (Neustadter), was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
and was educated at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
and the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
, without receiving a degree from either. In 1926 he began working as a journalist, and within two years purchased a newspaper in
Haverford, Pennsylvania
Haverford is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community located in both Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, and Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvan ...
. This went bankrupt in 1934, and Spitz traveled to France, discovering an interest in
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
on the voyage to Europe. On his return to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, he became a lecturer on astronomical topics at
Haverford College. As a side effort he made a papier-mache model of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...
, which is on display to this day at the
Academy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natu ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
Spitz became a volunteer at the new
Fels Planetarium in Philadelphia, doing publicity, but soon was allowed to do planetarium lectures. He also created a series of
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...
programs in which he covered scientific topics, with an emphasis on astronomy. His first book, ''The Pinpoint Planetarium'', appeared in 1940. The first half of the book described the sky and legends attached to it. The last half of the book contained star charts to be punched out and held in front of lamps, projecting stars in their proper relationships onto a wall or other smooth clear surface.

Only five planetariums existed in the United States before 1940. Concerned that the only planetariums then available were so expensive that few institutions could have them and few people would live near enough to visit, in 1947 Spitz completed design work on a very inexpensive planetarium model. The main problem, he discovered, was that creating a globe for stellar projection was very complex and expensive. Spitz used a
dodecahedron
In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentag ...
as the "globe" equivalent for his star projector,
a suggestion from
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
.
Following a demonstration at an astronomical conference at the
Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, Spitz received considerable publicity, and began marketing his Model A planetarium for $500. These were sold to the various American military academies, small museums, schools, and even to
King Farouk
Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936 ...
of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
.
Within a few years, Spitz introduced the model A-1, which incorporated the
Sun, Moon, and five naked eye
planets
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...
, still using the dodecahedron shape for the star projector. Later a model A-2 came out, projecting more stars (the model A only gave stars brighter than magnitude 4.3). Just at the time that
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
caused the United States government to provide considerably enhanced funding for
science education
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some ...
, Spitz produced his model A3P. This had a spherical star projector, and mechanized motions for the Sun, Moon and planets, and
lunar phases
Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the ...
. Well over a thousand of this model were ultimately sold, and in fact, when the Spitz company stopped making this model for a few years, had to bring it back due to continuing demand.
By 1964 Spitz estimated that 300 to 400 planetariums existed in the United States. His company was developing the Space Transit Planetarium, a model with additional motion capabilities and more stars, when he suffered the first of a series of strokes in 1967. He went into semi-retirement after this, and died in
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. At the 2010 census the p ...
.
Projector models and advances
The A Series As noted, Spitz wanted to create a projector more affordable than the German Zeiss "all optical" projectors. Thus, all of his projectors used large "star balls" that relied on the pinhole lens principle, where star images became smaller (more realistic) as the starlight source (in center of the star ball) was more distant from the star-ball surface. Larger holes drilled into the star ball resulted in larger dots on the dome; thus practically all such projectors used lenses for the larger holes (brighter stars) to condense the dot. The earlier mentioned A series used a dodecahedron star "ball" for easier manufacture. Cherokee, Iowa had an A-1 in service from 1951, with Spitz helping with the opening, until a major digital renovation in 2016 (i.e. retired at 65 years). One improvement were additional, dimmer, stars.
The A3/A3P Series used a true 18" diameter "star sphere" and vastly improved planet projectors that included motions at the proper orbital tilts and retrograde motion via his elegant "planet analogs", that is, analog computers. It also had a driven precessional axis and auxiliary projectors for a projected orrery and a simple meteorite projector. Some could be mounted on an elevator to accommodate other presentation modes. These models originally used an incandescent bulb for starlight source, which produced fuzzy images resembling the glowing filament.
The A4 Series had a better starlight source: a unique
xenon-arc lamp topped with a fisheye lens for dispersal across the top half of the starball. Due to the 180° limitation, the power-supply/lamp/lens assembly was mounted on leveling gimbals and incorporated a horizon cutoff mask to avoid projecting below-horizon stars. Another improvement is that control voltages were no longer at line (120VAC) levels, but at low voltages. It also improved the RA and declination axes projector, switching to optical projectors. It also had an azimuthal drive so that the star field could be rotated to the part of the dome facing patrons, avoiding neck-craning.
The 512 Series resembled the A4, but with a major advancement: use of digital control voltages to the projector. This enabled the use of programmed sequences.
The Big Model B Spitz departed from his earlier designs with the Model B, now using two very large star hemispheres in the Zeiss "dumbbell" configuration. Only 10 were installed in unique mounts.
With very large star hemispheres, the star field would be expected to be very attractive.
The STP Models The Space Transit Planetarium (variants in
Miami, FL,
US Air Force Academy,
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
, and
East Lansing, MI) used digital computers to move planets to different positions. As the name implies, the STP's could simulate POVs from any location within our solar system.
Honors
* Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from
Otterbein College, 1956
* President, ''Rittenhouse Astronomical Society''
* Organizer of
Project Moonwatch
* Editor, American Weatherman
* Editor, Weatherwise
* Editor, The Pointer
* Editor and Publisher, ''Review of Popular Astronomy'', 1958-1969
* The outer
main-belt asteroid
10996 Armandspitz
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
, discovered by American astronomer
Schelte Bus at the Californian
Palomar Observatory
Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
in 1978, was named in his memory on 30 January 2010 ().
Partial bibliography
* Armand N. Spitz, The Pinpoint Planetarium.
Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...
, New York, 1940.
* Armand N. Spitz Dies, Designed Planetariums; ''
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin'', April 17, 1971.
* Observers Plan Satellite Posts, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', June 10, 1958, page 38
* Armand N. Spitz, Planetarium Inventor; Charles Federer, ''Sky & Telescope'', June 1971, page 354
Armand Spitz -- Seller of Stars-
International Planetarium Society
The International Planetarium Society, Inc. (IPS) is the global association of planetarium professionals. Its more than 600 members come from 42 countries around the world. They represent schools, colleges and universities, museums, and public fac ...
*
References
:Planetarium projection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spitz, Armand
University of Pennsylvania alumni
University of Cincinnati alumni
1904 births
1971 deaths
People from Philadelphia
20th-century American inventors