Look up to the Stars

October marks the opening of the Cultural Center at Parkland. Completed in 1987, the Planetarium and Theatre were actually phase five of Parkland’s original design from 1967.

 

Staerkel Planetarium under construction, 1986. (from Parkland Archives collection)

 It was worth the twenty year wait for its completion. The Planetarium was one of 37 major planetariums (that is having a dome base diameter of fifty feet or greater) in the United States, and the second largest planetarium in Illinois.  The wait also afforded advancements in technology. Parkland was the first in the world to install the newly designed Zeiss M1015 Star Projector.  

This was Wiliam Staerkel’s last major project before retiring and the one for which he may have had the most excitement. From an article written by William Staerkel, December 3, 1985:

At Parkland the Planetarium’s primary purpose will be to broaden the educational opportunities of its students. Additionally, it is expected to provide a major educational resource for thousands of the district’s’ elementary and secondary school students and for the general public as well.

A September 16, 1987, article from the News Gazette reported that the board voted unanimously to honor Dr. Staerkel by naming the Planetarium after him in recognition of his contribution to Parkland. So great was his enthusiasm for the Planetarium, that, in hopes for an endowment, Staerkel had once offered the honor to Marajen Stevick Chinigo, longtime owner of the News Gazette.  In a letter to her, dated September 17, 1985, he wrote, “I honestly believe that the Planetarium will attract as much attention and as many visitors as the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. It will be a beautiful facility, worthy of the name I hope it bears.”  With the letter, he included a speech he drafted for the dedication ceremony.

Presentations began at the Planetarium on October 22, 1987. To mark the occasion, a time capsule was buried.  It is scheduled to be unearthed in 2061, upon the return of Halley’s Comet.  According to Parkland Works: a 1966-2001 History, the time capsule contains letters from Dr. Staerkel and Dr. Paul Magelli (Parkland President, 1987-1989) to the 2061 Parkland President, personal letters to descendants, a wedding dress that had been worn in 1910 and again in 1985, and various everyday objects, including a parking meter that accepted pennies.

Dr. Staerkel passed away December 10, 1987, but his contribution was again honored on October 13, 1991, by the unveiling of the painting Cosmic Blink, by Billy Morrow Jackson. If you visit the Planetarium, you’ll see that the artist included a portrait of William Staerkel in the corner of the painting.

Also of note in the lobby is the stained glass solar window, created by artist Arthur Stern. This was a gift of Dr. and Mrs. William Staerkel, presented in memory of their parents and as a tribute to the Parkland College faculty and staff. The window is an abstract representation of the changing daily path of the sun across the sky. When the sun shines through the multicolored embedded prisms of the window, it splits into the window’s component colors and casts rainbow patterns, called spectra, inside the building. The patterns change position as the earth rotates around the sun.

 

Solar window in the Planetarium Lobby (photo, Parkland Archives Collection)

 

In 2011, the Staerkel Planetarium added a full dome digital projector, making the shows bigger and better than ever. To find out more about Staerkel Planetarium and view the program schedule, click here.

If you have a question you’d like to see featured in our Wayback Wednesday series, drop us a line at archives@parkland.edu.