News Regarding the
Historic Building, Equipment, and Artifacts of
The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- News Archives Page

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History of Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh

Amateur Science Clubs at Buhl Planetarium

News Reports, News Releases and Notices,
Public Statements, and Correspondence --
Years A.D. 2004 and After:

A.D. 2004 *** A.D. 2005 *** A.D. 2006

Additionally - News Reports For Specific Topics

Astronomical Calendar

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News Reports, News Releases and Notices,
Public Statements, and Correspondence --
Years A.D. 1939 to 2005:

News Reports *** Additionally - News Reports For Specific Topics

News Releases and Notices *** Public Statements *** Correspondence *** E-Mail Listservers

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Friends of the Zeiss Internet Listservers/E-Mail Lists (3) --

Listserver for Employees & Volunteers from the original Buhl Planetarium
[BPstaff] (begun 2005 Aug. 6):
General Information *** Message Archives

News Media Listserver [FOTZnews] (begun 2005 July 11):
General Information *** Message Archives

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ALSO - Web Site & E-Mail Group of the South Hills Backyard Astronomers [SHBAstronomers]
(Organization Founded 1973; List Begun 2003 Nov. 13) -- Hosted by Yahoo! Groups

News Reports:

(Click here for years after 2005)

A.D. 1939 to A.D. 1940 *** A.D. 1941

A.D. 1978 to A.D. 2001 *** A.D. 2002 *** A.D. 2003 *** A.D. 2004 *** A.D. 2005

Additionally -- News Reports For Specific Topics:

Articles From the "Forum" Column of The Planetarian,
Quarterly Journal of the International Planetarium Society

Special Carnegie Science Center Topics and News *** Current News: Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

***

* 2008 Jan. 7 - Reuse, by The Carnegie Science Center (beginning in 2007) of original Buhl Planetarium
"Snowballs on Summer Solstice Day" promotion (from 1985).

* 2007 Dec. 27 - NOTICE:
Pittsburgh City Council votes to allow abandonment of America's first publicly-funded
Carnegie Library, Allegheny Regional Branch, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
(formerly Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny), next-door to Pittsburgh's original
Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science.

* 2007 Sept. 21 - PAT will purchase and raze Carnegie Science Center warehouse
where historic Buhl Planetarium artifacts are currently in storage.

* 2007 July 21 - Allegheny Square Plaza Rehabilitation Proposals
Earlier known as Diamond Square and Ober Park, Allegheny Public Square
is the site of the original town square of Allegheny City, in front of the
original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science and caddy-corner to America's
first publicly-funded Carnegie Library, Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny.
** GIANT SUNDIAL SCULPTURE
** RESTORATION OF HISTORIC ASTRONOMICAL INSCRIPTION, FROM THE BIBLE,
ORIGINALLY ON BUHL PLANETARIUM'S EAST EXTERIOR WALL
** ALLEGHENY SQUARE FOUNTAIN AND AMPHITHEATER

News of Controversy Regarding 2007-2008 Exhibit
of Human Cadavers at The Carnegie Science Center Carnegie Science Center Education Division employee Elaine Catz resigned
her employment due to unanswered questions regarding a traveling exhibit
of human cadavers, from China, which will be displayed in
The Carnegie Science Center for a seven-month run beginning in 2007 October.

News Related to Casino Development Next to Carnegie Science Center (2007 April, May) Carnegie Science Center has complained that light from new casino, which will be next-door to Science Center, might harm viewing at Science Center's rooftop observatory.

In the case of many periodicals, these news articles would then be available only from a specific free-of-charge or a pay-per-view archive sponsored by that periodical [or the periodical's commercial archive service]. Hence, those articles which cannot be read from this web page could be accessed by accessing the archive of the particular newspaper or magazine of interest.

In the case of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a pay-per-view archive is used for articles written more than three years ago, back to 1990 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette articles date back to 1993; articles from The Pittsburgh Press, which suspended publication permanently in 1992, date from 1990 to 1992). Check
< http://www.newslibrary.com/nlsite/region_pgs/pa_search.htm > for this archive. HOWEVER, if you have an Electronic Information Network public library card issued by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh or one of the suburban libraries in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania [with the possible exception of the Monroeville, Northland, or Upper Saint Clair Public Libraries], you may receive free-of-charge access to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news archive by going to the following web page and entering your library card number: < http://infoweb.newsbank.com/cgi-bin/welcome/libcard.pl/einetwork >. More recent articles are accessible for no charge; hence the articles below, less than three years old, should have active links.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is one of the few major metropolitan daily newspapers which has a free-of-charge archive, back to 1988. Check the following Internet address for the archive page: < http://library.triblive.com >.

Otherwise, these articles could be read from microfilm archives, for no charge, at many of the Carnegie Libraries in the Pittsburgh region.

However, there are active links to the majority of articles cited.

The Amateur Transmitters' Association of Western Pennsylvania was one of the amateur Science groups which regularly met at The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. Other amateur Science groups, which met during the 1980s, included the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh [founded in 1929; instrumental in the creation of Buhl Planetarium] and the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society [which sponsored an annual Tropical Fish Show at Buhl Planetarium for more than 40 years--the longest such relationship, at that time, between a Science museum and an amateur fish club]. In earlier years, other clubs, such as the Mineral and Lapidary Society of Pittsburgh [which created an exhibit of minerals, rocks, and fossils from the quad-state area, displayed for many years at Buhl Planetarium; this exhibit was also displayed, for a few years, on the third floor of The Carnegie Science Center] also met at Buhl Planetarium.

The Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh was permitted to hold their monthly meetings [first Friday of the month, 7:30 p.m.], for several months of the year, at Buhl Planetarium, in the 250-seat Little Science Theater/Lecture Hall [on rare occasions, when the Little Science Theater was needed for a youth overnight program or other special event, the meeting would take place in the Wherrett Memorial Classroom [originally known as the Club Room, the original meeting place for such clubs], which was the home of Buhl Planetarium's sex-education program, "Wonder of Wonders" [which was primarily presented to school groups, attendance to which required parental approval (and several evening sessions of the program were held each year, specifically so parents could preview the program)]. The months the club met at Buhl Planetarium were primarily September, October, April, and May--months when it was not possible to meet at the Allegheny Observatory Lecture Hall [the other primary meeting place], due to the Observatory's Frick Public Nights Program [which allowed free-of-charge tours of Allegheny Observatory, then-sponsored by the Henry Clay Frick Educational Commission (arranged, originally by the Commission's first Executive Director, John A. Brashear); when the Frick Educational Commission merged with the Buhl Foundation, in the 1990s, funding of these tours was assumed by the University of Pittsburgh.] which took place at the same time in warm-weather months.

The Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh also often met at Buhl Planetarium in January, or sometimes in February, when the club members would see a planetarium show for no charge; the club was permitted free admission to one sky show per year. The free sky show, and no charge meeting space, was due to the fact that the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh was instrumental in the creation of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science.

The Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society met at Buhl Planetarium on the last Friday of the month in the Little Science Theater [250-seat lecture hall]. Buhl Planetarium allowed this club to meet free-of-charge, in exchange for the annual Tropical Fish Show held by the club for two weeks each Autumn in one of the Buhl Planetarium exhibit galleries [usually the Mezzanine, but sometimes the Octagon Gallery or the East Gallery].

The Amateur Transmitters' Association of Western Pennsylvania adopted their constitution on 1926 February 19. They met at Buhl Planetarium in one of the classrooms on the lower level, just off of the Mezzanine, originally known as "Lab 1," but later known as the "Discovery Lab." They kept their coffee pot, and a few other pieces of club property, in their own locker, located near this classroom. When Buhl Planetarium closed as a public museum, on 1991 August 31, the Amateur Transmitters' Association had no where else to meet [they were not invited to meet at the new Carnegie Science Center, without paying a huge rental fee; they paid a very nominal rental fee for the Friday evening monthly meetings at Buhl Planetarium.] and stopped regular meetings.

The Amateur Transmitters' Association continued sponsoring quarterly amateur radio tests, for people wishing to obtain an amateur ["ham"] radio license, in the third floor lecture hall of the Allegheny Regional Branch of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, next-door to Buhl Planetarium. This continued through the mid-to-late 1990s. However, as the average age of club members continued to increase, and there were few young people joining the club, the quarterly radio tests were eventually phased-out--the last official function of the Amateur Transmitters' Association of Western Pennsylvania.

Here is the constitution of the Amateur Transmitters' Association of Western Pennsylvania:

In the case of many daily newspapers, these news articles would then be available only from a pay-per-view archive sponsored by that newspaper[or the newspaper's commercial archive service]. Hence, those articles which cannot be read from this web page could be accessed by accessing the archive of the particular newspaper of interest.

In the case of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a pay-per-view archive is used for articles written more than three years ago, back to 1990. Check http://www.newslibrary.com/nlsite/region_pgs/pa_search.htm for this archive. More recent articles are accessible for no charge; hence the articles below, less than three years old, should have active links.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is one of the few major metropolitan daily newspapers which has a free-of-charge archive, back to 1988. Check the following Internet address for the archive page: http://library.triblive.com/.

Otherwise, these articles could be read from microfilm archives, for no charge, at many of the Carnegie Libraries in the Pittsburgh region.

However, there are active links to the majority of articles cited.

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