Wisconsin Life

>> I grew up in Chicago. I remember I could not see the sky real well from the city because of all the lights. Trips to Wisconsin is where I was able to start seeing the skies and enjoy it. >> It was around the age of 12. My dad had a telescope that he showed me the moon through. That's where my interest piqued, When I started learning about astronomy. From about the age of 12 I would find any book I could from there on and read about astronomy or space. I was able to find a job in Rhinelander at a paper company. I would like sharing my view of the sky with scout groups or just families. After I had a scout group presentation at a local town hall, we were going to come out and look at the stars through the telescope and it clouded over. I though, that's it. I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to build a planetarium. You tell that to people, they think you're crazy. I started drawing pictures on scratch paper. There were no blueprints, there was no book telling me what to do here. I had an idea of a star map. I did it over ten to 12 years with whatever I had left over from my local paper mill job. I used that money to buy material. And by doing it over time, I could afford it. The first thing I had to do was I had to have a shelter. I had to have a place out of the weather. The globe is built chiefly out of plywood, 3/4" and 1/2" thick plywood. Eventually, I had the shape of a globe. When I laid out the stars I used maps that I had from books to look up at night outside. I was able to put the stars in there with the best glow-in-the-dark paint I could find. I had many times where I wanted to quit, because I had times where something would not work.

gears clicking

I opened the planetarium in the year 2007, the month of June. The planetarium is powered by a half-horsepower gear motor. The planetarium has to rotate in order to show the different seasonal stars. If the planetarium did not rotate, the only thing people would see would be the stars that are currently visible, which might be the springtime sky. Welcome to the Kovac Planetarium. I have approximately 3000 people per year coming through here. When people arrive I explain to them what this thing is. I do about an hour program inside the planetarium. I explain where the planets are. They learn about how big the planets, stars and moon and sun are compared to earth. And of course where we live in the galaxy. So the show consists of basics of astronomy, and that is what people enjoy. I sometimes can't believe this thing works. I am totally amazed at not just the globe itself, but the beauty of the stars inside. it looks so realistic. It's unbelievable. I tell many people, it's nothing short of a miracle that this thing is here. The planetarium is dedicated in my dad's memory for his sharing the sky with me. Many people sometimes will ask me, "Wow," you know, "you never quit on this. You must have wanted it to happen." I said, "I wanted it for you, for others to learn about the stars."