Buhl Planetarium

Clouds Covering Your Meteor Shower? Here's How To Check Out The Perseids

By • Aug 9, 2016
NASA

The Perseid meteor shower is back for its annual mid-summer show, but with more force this year.

Stargazers can catch a glimpse of 100 to 150 meteors – remnants of the Swift Tuttle comet – flying by Earth every hour when celestial activity peaks between late Thursday evening and early Friday. The annual pass usually takes place each year from mid-July to mid-August. 

“All of these little particles of rock burn up in our atmosphere and put on a pretty spectacular show,” said Charissa Sedor, planetarium producer of the Carnegie Science Center’s Buhl Planetarium.

Pittsburgh To See 'Superblood' Lunar Eclipse Sunday

By • Sep 24, 2015
Karissa / Flickr

Pittsburgh will witness a rare lunar eclipse Sunday.

The "superblood" moon will feature a rare marriage of several lunar phenomena: a harvest moon, which occurs in the late summer or fall; a supermoon, much closer to the Earth at about 225,000 miles away; and a blood moon, noted by its red-copper coloring during the eclipse.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes within the Earth’s shadow. It's regarded as safer to view than a solar eclipse, which requires indirect viewing to prevent damage to the observer’s eyes.

Passing Pluto: What We Know About The 'Dwarf Planet'

By Essential Pittsburgh • Jul 14, 2015
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute / Flickr

This morning NASA's New Horizons space craft is expected to pass fewer than 7,800 miles above Pluto's surface and send back pictures. Images have already revealed plenty of surprises about the mysterious "dwarf planet." Charissa Sedor, assistant manager of the Buhl Planetarium at the Carnegie Science Center, tells us what these latest finds reveal. 

The Buhl Planetarium's 75th Anniversary Celebration

By Essential Pittsburgh • Oct 22, 2014
German Federal Archive

Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium opened to great fanfare in October of 1939. The Buhl's Zeiss II Planetarium Projector was the first such projector to be placed on an elevator, and the Theatre of the Stars was the first planetarium theatre to include a permanent theatrical stage and a special sound system for the hearing-impaired.

We talk with Glenn Walsh, Project Director of Friends of the Zeiss, and Former Astronomical Observatory Coordinator and Planetarium Lecturer for the Original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in Pittsburgh.

Look Skyward, Pittsburgh: Meteor Shower, Partial Solar Eclipse Expected This Week

By • Oct 20, 2014

The Pittsburgh sky has a busy schedule this week, with a meteor shower tonight and a partial solar eclipse Thursday.

That’s according to Dan Malerbo, Buhl Planetarium and Observatory program development coordinator, who said the best time to watch the Orionid meteor shower is between midnight and dawn Tuesday and away from the city lights.

“Under some clear skies you could probably see up to 20 meteors per hour,” Malerbo said. “These meteors radiate, they come out of direction from Orion the Hunter, up by his bright star, Betelgeuse, from that area of the sky.”

Area 51 Questions Persist

By Heather McClain • Sep 4, 2013
NASA Landsat / Wikipedia

Late last month, the CIA released a classified report on the U2 spy plane. The report confirmed what many people have believed for decades. A secret military facility known as Area 51 does indeed exist.

Robert Marshall, program development coordinator of the Buhl Planetarium and Observatory says Area 51 is essentially a Department of Defense studio, where prototypes are tested.