STAMFORD – In its 90-year history the Stamford Museum & Nature Center has gone through several transformations. On Thursday, Nov. 13, it entered its newest one with the opening of its $16.5 million Planetarium and Astronomy Center.
The 11,000-square-foot, 3 story building includes a 100-seat planetarium complete with a 40-foot dome and a top-floor, roll-back roof observatory, and classrooms for area students.
“In just the last six weeks, we have our first month of programming starting on Monday, Nov. 17,” said Melissa Mulrooney, Stamford Museum and Nature Center CEO at Thursday’s private premier on the Scofieldtown Road campus. “We have already booked 3,138 students. I mean, come on. And 1,500 of them are in here between Nov. 17 and Dec. 20.”
The astronomy center brings the planetarium and observatory programs under one roof for the first time in the museum’s history.
The Stamford Museum and Nature Center was founded in 1936 as the Stamford Museum in the Stamford Trust Co. building. A major turning point was receiving the former Henri Bendel estate in 1955, which provided the space for a permanent home and the expansion into a nature center with the establishment of Heckscher Farm and nature trails.
Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons, who joined such local luminaries as former Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele and his wife Carol, Museum President Douglas York and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, described the impact the new astronomy center will have on the Stamford School District.
“Thanks to our school district, this is an amazing partnership that students have with the Stamford Museum and Nature Center where thousands of students get to access the magic of the museum every year to visit the farm and learn about animals and nature,” Simmons said. “And now this just takes it to the next level.”
Charles Eder, the director of astronomy, is the one who gets to use the new tools to help teach those students.
“First, we have our planetarium. So, even if it’s cloudy out, we can still show you what the night sky is going to look like,” Eder said. “In our observatory, our optics are much more precise (than before). The original telescope was 22 inches in diameter; the new one is 14 inches in diameter. Yet, we still get a really good view of the night sky but with a much more easy-to-operate telescope.”
Just before he put on a 5-minute show for donors and officials on Thursday, Eder was all smiles when he described how soon the planetarium will add a live aspect to its shows. “That includes beaming the constellations, stars and anything else in the night sky from the observatory telescopes to the planetarium dome screen,” he said. “We just have to purchase the cameras and get the signal all set up.”
The planetarium includes 24K digital projectors, a 5.1 surround sound system and Digistar 2025 planetarium software. The observatory also has a 14-inch diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain reflecting telescope as its primary and a 152-mm-diameter Lunt H-alpha solar telescope.
“This building is almost like a fine watch,” said Whit Iglehart, one of two architects from TSKP Studios that designed the planetarium and observatory building. “It’s a very small building. We didn’t want it to overpower the (Hecksher) farm. The planetarium – they had one in the main (Bendel) mansion. And that worked very well. So, this replaces that.
“And then the rooftop observatory, which they had in the old planetarium, now has a rollback roof. Bringing those things together and then adding classroom space for education gives opportunities for students.”
He described the thinking behind constructing a whole new building vs. renovating the old one built in the 1960s.
“We looked if we could add on or renovate it, it was just not doable,” he added. “So, yes, it was demolished and we had to develop the whole site. There is also an accessible path, called the nature walk, which brings you from the farmhouse up the hill. It has the names of the planets on it. As you come up, you encounter the rings of the planets. It is all to scale.”
Founded in 1936 by Dr. George R.R. Hertzberg, the Stamford Museum has grown from a modest “cabinet of curiosities” within in the Stamford Trust Co. building to a boutique museum and cultural hub that sits within the Bendel Mansion. Once the summer home of famed New York retailer Henri Bendel, the mansion houses museum galleries, comprised of The Lynn & Stephen Cohen Gallery, The Leonhardt Gallery and our Mini Gallery.
And now with the opening of the new planetarium and observatory, the museum campus is nearly complete. There just some more fundraising and federal grants that may be necessary, according to Rep. Himes.
“We’re not entirely done,” Himes said. “I understand that the numbers are something like a $16 million project with another $3 million to go. I’m going to put my shoulder to the wheel on that and navigate a $600,000 earmark through the federal government.”
CEO Mulrooney considers the grand opening this past weekend the start of the next step in the Stamford Museum & Nature Center illustrious history.
“This building is such a simple answer to bringing back a fourth wheel to the mission of this institution,” she said. “We’ve been operating on fine art since our founding. We’ve been operating on environmental education, which is out the front door. We’ve been operating on a gorgeous agriculture piece with the Hecksher Farm. But the astronomy piece has been the stepchild. Tonight, we bring that to life.”
