Renegade Rip

Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Jose Vega

Bakersfield College's newly refurbished planetarium is celestial. That's how Nick Strobel, BC astronomy professor and director of the newly remodeled BC planetarium, feels.
"Other planetarium directors are envious of what I've done," Strobel boasted.
The cost for the planetarium was celestial as well, Strobel said.
Strobel said the planetarium features that students and visitors can see in Math Science 112 cost $750, 000.
This includes the cost of the SciDome, an all dome video system from Spitz installed under a new Spitz premium-seam 36-foot dome and Chronos star projector from the Japanese company Goto. And it includes 72 new seats from the American Seating Company, new lights and the upgraded Dolby 5.1 sound automation system from Spitz. The remodeling, including knocked-out walls, a raised roof, a relocated column and various electrical wiring cost a staggering 1.2 million.
Construction started May 2005. On May 13, 2005, the original seats were removed. May 16, 2005, the old star projector was removed. The new planetarium was finished in May 2006.
The reconstruction was time-consuming and required the expertise of several professionals.
"There were several different vendors that I was working with," Strobel said. "As well as two different Bakersfield-based construction companies, Maas, and Chris Addington companies."
The main construction company was Omega, another Bakersfield-based company, Strobel said. An architect from the Bakersfield-based Klassen Company was also conscripted.
The original BC planetarium opened in 1962, and it had a 24-foot dome and a "1950's-era star projector," Strobel said. "The seats were benches arranged in a concentric circle fashion."
The planetarium is open to not only BC astronomy students, but also to grades K-12 for field trips upon reservation.
Strobel expressed a desire to open the planetarium to the public, including the general BC student population; however, to do so he said he would need additional help running the planetarium equipment.
"I'm it for the staff," Strobel said. "But if my astronomy students want to help me, I'd be glad to teach them how to run the equipment."

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