Successful opening of Ghana Planetarium

We had a successful opening of the first public planetarium in West Africa, and the first digital planetarium in sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps the whole continent. Many of the guests had never been in a planetarium in their lives and they were just blown away by what the Mediaglobe could do. Then when we did a domecast with Uniview, they almost went supernova!

It was quite a festive day and the planetarium building and surrounding area were festooned with brightly colored cloth and balloons. Astronomical posters and displays showing the construction of the planetarium were set up and guests enjoyed drinks and finger food while waiting for the appointed hour. His Excellency, the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Dr Nicholas Westcott, cut the ribbon and made some congratulatory remarks.

Most of you are members of IPS and on your behalf and the rest of our Society, I passed on your best wishes. "We heartily congratulate Dr. and Mrs. Ashong and other staff members on the official inauguration of your facility and look forward to cooperative ventures in the future between the Ghana Planetarium and our colleagues around the world. We have much to share and learn from each other. Outside of South Africa, there have been no public planetariums in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, we have a shining star in Ghana and we hope that we will soon have a whole constellation of planetariums in West Africa and beyond."

The next order of business was to conduct the group into the planetarium and give them a short ten-minute demo of the Mediaglobe, followed by a domecast with participants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Caroline, New York City, Columbia and Accra. It was very special that people from three different continents could "gather" together as one family to celebrate this special occasion for the Ghana Planetarium. We laughed, and ooh and awed as introductions were made and Carter Emmart of the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History took all of us, at our individual sites, out to the edge of the universe. It's wonderful technology that has to be seen to be believed.

I will try and post some pictures of the occasion soon. Special thanks to Joanne Young and the folks at AVI, Jon Elvert, the Eluminati company, SCISS, and my Dean and my Director at Minn. State Univ. Moorhead who have all helped make this project possible.