The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science Building, also known as the "People's Observatory", is located at 10 Children's Way in the

Allegheny Center Allegheny Center is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side. Its zip code is 15212, and it has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both council members for District 6 (Downtown, North Shore) and District 1 (Northside). History In ...

neighborhood of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Construction and opening

The planetarium opened on October 24, 1939, and was the fifth major planetarium in the United States. The Buhl Foundation completely funded the construction and furnishing of the Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science building at a cost of $1.07 million. The building was named after

Henry Buhl, Jr. Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

and was designed by architects Ingham, Pratt & Boyd in the " stripped Classical style" and featured an octagonal copper dome that housed the projector.

Equipment

Equipment in the Buhl Planetarium included a Zeiss II Planetarium projector with 106 lenses capable of producing 9000 images of stars. The projector was manufactured by the Zeiss Optical Works in Jena, Germany, at a cost of $135,000. The planetarium had a 492-seat “Theater of the Stars” with a 65-foot-diameter dome. This projector was officially retired in 1994. The Buhl Planetarium was the first building of its type to have a special sound system for the hearing-impaired in its operating theater. The planetarium also housed a thirty-five foot long

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. If a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circu ...

and a ten-inch,

Siderostat A heliostat () is a device that reflects sunlight toward a target, turning to compensate for the Sun's apparent motion. The reflector is usually a plane mirror. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a directi ...

-type, refractor telescope (now the second largest of its type). The planetarium also housed the Miniature Railroad and Village from 1954.

Closing and historic landmark designation

The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science closed as a general public venue on August 31, 1991, but continued to hold science classes, camps and teacher workshops in the building as an annex of its successor,

Kamin Science Center The Carnegie Science Center, soon to be The Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center, is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Chateau neighborhood. It is located across the street from Acrisure ...

, which opened in 1991. In 1994, the Annex closed and all programming moved to the CSC, while the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh sought a new use or owner for the building. In April 2002, Pittsburgh City Council approved the lease of the building and it is now part of the

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is a hands-on interactive children's museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is in the Allegheny Center neighborhood in Pittsburgh's Northside. History The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh was founded in 19 ...

. It was added to the

List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) Historic Landmark plaque program was begun in 1968 in order to identify architecturally significant structures and significant pieces of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States's local herit ...

in 2001, and the

List of City of Pittsburgh historic designations Historic designations in the City of Pittsburgh are awarded following nominations for districts and individual structures that are reviewed and recommended to Pittsburgh City Council, which makes the final decision, by the city's Historic Review ...

on July 29, 2005.

References

{{Pittsburgh Educational buildings in Pittsburgh Buildings and structures completed in 1939 1939 establishments in Pennsylvania