Electric Fishwrap

But astronomy students at Mount Vernon High School don’t have to travel far to see the night sky during any weather or time of day. Instead of trudging outside, 27 students armed with notebooks and self-made cutouts of star charts recently shuffled into the school’s planetarium on the third floor of New Main.

Teacher John Sullivan runs the district’s planetarium — for now. He said the school needs to hire a parttime planetarian to run more school and community shows. The district is applying for a grant to pay for a half-time planetarian and for upgrades to the existing planetarium.

Moving the planetarium into New Main from its old building — now demolished — was a stretch, Sullivan said. The planetarium’s Spitz A3P Planetarium Projector first came to the school in about 1963 and was originally housed in a 24-foot dome. Students sat in a circle to watch the planetarium show, but that restricted lecturer interaction with the audience, Sullivan said.

When the planetarium moved to New Main’s third floor, Sullivan made sure to get an upgrade for the dome, a 30-footer from a defunct planetarium in Ohio.

During class in mid-March, students plopped into the upholstered, reclining seats in the dim, circular room. When Sullivan dimmed the cove lights, oohs and aahs echoed through the chamber. As students found seats in the darkened interior, whistles and catcalls reverberated around the dark, circular room.

Students squinted at their star charts, and Sullivan granted a temporary reprieve from the school’s no cell phone policy so students could use them for a soft light source. He turned it into a teaching moment. It can take up to 20 minutes for some people’s eyes to adjust to a dark night sky in a remote area, he said.

“If you’re outside and you’re using a white flashlight, it makes your night vision go away,” he said.

Use red lights, Sullivan said, to preserve night vision.

One student asked where the signs of the zodiac came from.

Sullivan’s clear voice reverberated in the chamber, and he outlined constellations along the ecliptic (the sun’s path across the sky) with his laser pointer.

“A long time ago, when there was no electricity,” he began.

But a door opened, and white light flooded the room. A student was on an errand to deliver a note for another student. Sullivan and the students shielded their eyes. It illustrated another item Sullivan said would improve the planetarium: a light trap to preserve night vision.

Mount Vernon High is one of two high schools in the state with its own planetarium. Inglemoor High School in Kenmore also has one. But the planetarium could do more if the school had more money to put into it, Sullivan said.

For now, he scrounges upgrades from hardware stores. Cove lighting, which simulates sunrises, sunsets and air pollution, usually costs about $15,000. He rigged a set of rope lights from Home Depot for $100. It will do for now.

Sullivan also wants enough seats to fit two classrooms of students and a full-dome projector to replace an ancient slide projector and dozens of slide carousels.

In all, the school is applying for grants to pay for about $75,000 in upgrades.

Science department Chairman Craig Harpel said the upgrades are necessary for the planetarium’s future.

“We don’t want laser shows and rock music,” Harpel said. “That’s entertainment. We want to improve formal instruction.”

Harpel said if the district had the staff to run it, they could sell subscriptions to the planetarium for educational and community groups. In past years, they’ve hosted planetarium shows in Spanish.

“The planetarium is awesome,” said student Ryan Squires, 16. “I’ve always been interested in stars and what’s up there, but I never knew what was going on.”

Squires, who wants to join the Navy’s space program, said he now has a much better idea of the workings of the cosmos.

Sullivan said people are losing touch with the nighttime sky as areas become more populated, and truly dark spaces are lost to light pollution.

“It’s painful to watch,” he said. “What once were dark skies have turned light.”

Sullivan said he wants to see the planetarium evolve into an integral part of the community. But maybe it’s slowly working toward that anyway. Last year, he hosted 28 off-campus groups in the planetarium, including every seventh-grade science class in the district, a La Conner High School physics class, and a few service clubs from around the county.

“We’ve got to fit them all in,” he said.

(Read the sidebar on the history of the school’s planetarium, School’s facility born out of the Cold War)

Originally published April 1, 2008.