Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium


The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium is a combination natural science museum, history museum, and planetarium located in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It was founded in 1890 by businessman, politician, and collector Franklin Fairbanks. The museum and its buildings are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Eye on the Sky Weather Station is a meteorology and weather forecasting department operated regularly at the site since 1893. Meteorologists broadcast their unique weather forecasts for Vermont, and the areas immediately around the state, on Vermont Public Radio and Magic 97.7 daily. The museum also produces daily weather forecasts for three newspapers: The Caledonian Record, the Times Argus, and the Rutland Herald.
The Lyman Spitzer Jr. Planetarium, first opened in 1961, is located at the museum, and produces public astronomy shows, as well as educational classes on various space science topics, and is named after famed scientist Lyman Spitzer Jr., a pioneer of modern astrophysics and astronomical observation. Displayed in the planetarium lobby are astrophotographs from the Northern Skies Observatory in nearby Peacham, Vermont and images from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers and educational presenters from the planetarium, along with members of the Vermont Astronomical Society, regularly contribute to and appear on science segments for local news stations, notably WCAX, and produce the Eye on the Night Sky astronomy program for radio broadcast.

History

Construction on the museum building began on July 4, 1890 when the cornerstone was laid and was finished in June 1891. Designed by Lambert Packard, the building features red sandstone and limestone laid in Richardsonian-Romanesque style. The museum was opened in December 1891 and was expanded in 1895 to hold Franklin Fairbanks' full collection
In part, the museum's tradition of reporting the weather and atmospheric conditions comes from Fairbanks's own practice of doing so. Much of the main collection in the museum comes from Fairbanks's own collection, for which the museum was originally built to house.

Planetarium

The Lyman Spitzer Jr. Planetarium and Vinton Space Science Gallery, located on the second floor overhanging the front entrance, was built between 1958-1960 following the International Geophysical Year, and first opened in 1961. The section of the museum now occupied by the planetarium previously contained a historical exhibit about Vermont during the colonial period. During the earlier years of its operation, the planetarium originally used simple folding chairs situated around a projection module, but in the 1980s the chairs were replaced by rows of curved benches arranged in semicircles on either side.
In 2012, the planetarium was upgraded with the installation of digital hardware and software, greatly increasing capabilities, and allowing for the projection of specialized 360° video. However, the analog hardware originally used in the 1960s, including a control panel and a dodecahedron with optical pinholes used for star projection, are on permanent display on the main floor of the museum.
The planetarium was further renovated between 2018–2019, including the replacement of the benches with modern seating in a more traditional theater arrangement, and rotating the hemispherical projection screen forward, both expanding audience capacity and improving comfortability of the domed theater.
It is one of only two public planetaria in northern New England, along with the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center.
Notable recent space themed events hosted by the museum include observations of the 2012 Transit of Venus, the 2017 North American Solar Eclipse, and a 2018 world record astronomy observation. From July 16–24, 2019, the museum displayed exhibits celebrating the semicentennial of Apollo 11, and on July 20, it hosted an event which featured a real-time rebroadcast of the mission, showings of contemporary documentaries from 1969, model rocket construction and launching, spaceflight simulations, planetarium shows focused on the Moon and both past and future human lunar exploration, as well as lunar regolith and rock samples from various Apollo missions obtained by the museum for temporary display by NASA as part of a public science outreach initiative by the agency in observation of the event.
The planetarium regularly coordinates with the Northern Skies Observatory, an astronomy research, observation, and image and data processing center located in Peacham, Vermont, and the Vermont Astronomical Society, to host public outdoor astronomy events at the site and across the state. In more recent years, Spitzer Planetarium presenters also utilize a smaller, inflatable dome, called a "portable planetarium", featuring the same projection software as the main planetarium, for presentations at schools and other indoor event spaces in the region.

Contemporary collection

The museum is organized into 4 different departments: Natural, Historical, Ethnological, and Astronomical. The entire collection includes roughly 175,000 objects, and storage and archive spaces are maintained for many of the items when not on display.
The Museum's exhibits include natural specimens, a seasonal wildflower table, a native butterfly house, an observation beehive, artistic pieces made out of insects, taxidermy dioramas, endangered and extinct species, dinosaurs and fossils, as well as geological displays, ethnographic displays, and various historical and cultural artifacts from around the world. Also displayed are 19th and 20th century manufacturing hardware and scales from the E & T Fairbanks Scales Company, founded by Franklin's father and uncle, Erastus and Thaddeus Fairbanks. Educational classes are regularly provided for local schools and tour groups. An audio tour of the exhibits is available to visitors as well.

Praise and recognition

The museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The listing included one contributing building and two contributing objects.
In 2010, Yankee magazine named Fairbanks as the second best history museum in New England.
On August 10, 2018, the museum obtained the world record for the largest astronomy observation event, with over 1500 people attending a live night sky astronomy lesson, as well as telescope demonstrations and other educational displays. The event was certified by Guinness World Records and was covered by Vermont Public Radio and local news media.
In 2019, the museum's weather station surpassed its 125th anniversary, and was recognized by the World Meteorological Organization, National Weather Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as the second oldest regular meteorological observation station in North America, after the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, having begun a continuous streak of weather observations in early 1894.