In June 2012, OSU will begin a major renovation of the OSU Planetarium located in Smith Laboratory. Among other things, we will be retiring our 1965-vintage Spitz A3P star projector and replacing it with a state-of-the-art Spitz SciDome XD high-definition digital projection system.

But our venerable A3P will not be headed to the junk yard.

Instead we will be donating the projector to the Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio.  There, director Tom Burns and his team will start plans to setup the A3P at Perkins and incorporate it into their public education programs.  With the continuing degradation of dark sky conditions near the Perkins Observatory due to increasing development making night-time programs more difficult, the A3P will add a new dimension to Perkins' programs.

A team of specialists from Ash Enterprises will arrive at OSU on June 4 to carefully dismantle and pack the A3P and its control console for shipment to Perkins.

Watch this space for news and pictures as we bid a fond farewell to our faithful old A3P.