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Wednesday, May 22, 1996

Planetarium re-opens during Engineering Week for a series

of laser shows after being adopted as a student projectBy Vinayaka Pandit

Daily Bruin Contributor

When they first turned on the projector, they expected a laser light show. Instead, they were left in the smoky darkness of their surroundings.

Electrical engineering students have spent the last three months repairing the planetarium equipment. The building shutdown in 1992 because the astronomy department was unable to afford its maintenance.

But this week, coinciding with Engineering Week, the planetarium atop of the Math Sciences Building was reopened to offer students a free chance to gaze skyward.

The road to the re-opening was one that began in January of this year, when Laurie Liles, program administrator in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, learned about a $500,000 grant Santa Monica College received for its earthquake-damaged planetarium.

Not wanting to be outshined by another planetarium, Liles immediately asked Mark Ross, a graduate electrical engineering student, whether he could fix UCLA's equipment, which the astronomy department was unable to upkeep.

Ross convinced Alice Yip, the president of the undergraduate engineering honors society, Eta Kappa Nu, to take on fixing the planetarium as its project for Engineering Week 1996. About 10 honors society students, led by Ross, worked on the repairs for more than three months.

"We put hundreds of hours into this," Ross said. "(In the beginning) when you turned it on, smoke was coming out of the projector and light bulbs were not turning on."

After the donation of speakers by Infiniti Corporation and the purchase of an amplifier system by the physics and astronomy department, the planetarium is now fully functioning. During Engineering Week, the entire UCLA community can come hear students explain the heavens above.

"I think that this is a good way to promote awareness of astronomy," Yip said.

Varoujan Gorjian, a fourth-year astronomy graduate student, added, "Astronomy is relevant to our everyday lives, for example, the reason why days are shorter in winter. The planetarium will give students the opportunity to see a night sky even though that is usually not possible in a city like L.A."

Shows this week continue through Thursday, and organizers said they hope to arrange regular shows in the future. In addition, Astronomy 3 students will have the opportunity to experience the planetarium during their first discussion section.

There are also plans to include laser shows.

For more information, call the astronomy division of the physics and astronomy department at (310) 825-4434 or stop by the information table in the Court of Sciences.

Photos by FRED HE/Daily Bruin

The planetarium equipment was repaired by electrical engineering honors students after

it remained idle for

several years.

Top: Mark Ross, an electrical engineering graduate student,

prepares a sky show presented free to students through Thursday.