The other day, the Astronomy staff came across a cool bit of national news. There’s a fellow by the name of Frank Kovac who built a globe planetarium in his backyard. The Kovac Planetarium is in northern Wisconsin, in the small town of Monico. (I guess you could say it’s local to us in Milwaukee.) The Early Show on CBS featured the planetarium and Frank Kovac November 29 in its “Assignment America” series. And there’s a scene where Frank is reading through the October 2010 issue of Astronomy magazine. How cool is that?
The planetarium itself is pretty neat, too. It took Frank nearly 15 years to build. He hand-painted the stars on the inside of the globe to look like the night sky — not just the brightest ones, but all stars visible to the unaided eye, portraying their actual positions and magnitudes. (Now that’s dedication.)
Do you know of any other astronomy-lovers who go to such lengths to enjoy the hobby, and spread their interest it to others? We’d love to hear about them! Send your stories to letters@astronomy.com.