SEEING STARS; PLANETARIUM BRINGS GALAXY CLOSER TO HOME.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Thousands of stars, the sun and moon, planets, nebulae and other celestial bodies will come indoors for Antelope Valley schoolchildren.

After more than a decade in the planning, the Palmdale School District's $1.2 million planetarium is complete, promising to give students a close-up view of the heavens - projected by special equipment onto a 40-foot dome-shape screen suspended over the 114-seat auditorium.

``It certainly is one of the state-of-the-art facilities of its size in the state,'' said John Shobbrook, the planetarium's director, recently hired from Australia. ``It's extremely modern in the equipment and very impressive in what it will do.''

The planetarium, located on the Cactus School campus, had a coming-out party worthy of the wait Saturday: dinner and dancing at the Cactus School gymnasium for 300 invited guests, who were then treated to a sneak preview of what the facility has to offer.

In a program called More Than Meets the Eye, the audience got an overview of objects as seen through the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes. They looked at Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, star clusters, galaxies and nebulae.

Dominating the center of the room is the 10-foot-tall main projector, a dull brown apparatus with an orb on one end to project the stars, and clockwork-geared mechanisms and small cylinder-shape parts on the other to project the planets.

The planetarium also features four slide projectors - two that project images on the dome and two that do rear projection behind two screens on the front wall - and a professional sound system for audiovisual presentations.

There also are nine special-effects devices that project animations of astronomical events such as supernovae, the paths of traveling asteriods, solar and lunar eclipses, eclipsing binary stars, and bolides, or exploding meteors, Shobbrook said.

``This is one of my favorites,'' said Shobbrook, standing at the back of the room at a bank of switches and knobs that make up the control console. He makes the image of an asteroid hurtle through space on the domed screen.

The celestial coordinate system will allow students to chart objects in the sky using right ascension and declination, the equivalents of longitude and latitude on Earth.

``You can find any object in the sky at will. The night sky has no international boundaries. It's free for all to use,'' Shobbrook said.

The console allows a program to be run automatically through a computer or manually, or a combination of both, Shobbrook said.

``Once we have taught teachers and students the basics, we can take them outside with quality telescopes and let them demonstrate the skills acquired in the planetarium,'' Shobbrook said. ``It's much more meaningful if you can apply theory.''

Before coming to the Palmdale district, Shobbrook worked at the Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran, Australia, known as the astronomy capital of that country.

He was involved in astronomy research projects, scanning the skies for supernovae, near-Earth asteroids, and the optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts, high forms of radiation detected by orbiting spacecraft but whose cause is not known.

Prior to working at Siding, Shobbrook worked as a director of an observatory at a college in Brisbane, Australia.

He found out about the Palmdale job from Palmdale trustee Larry Logsdon, who went to Australia earlier this year to explore the possibility of the school district owning and operating a telescope in Australia that would be remotely controlled by computer.

``It's a wonderful challenge,'' Shobbrook said. ``The planetarium itself is absolutely magnificent in getting students involved in the first step and will give them a sound foundation in astronomy.''

The idea for the planetarium began about a decade ago to eliminate busing Palmdale students more than 60 miles each way to the Griffith Park Observatory.

The planetarium building was finished in 1993 as part of a $5 million Cactus School renovation project, which was financed by state funds, but completing the planetarium had been stalled for lack of funding.

Under state regulations, the renovation construction funding could not be used for purchasing the projection equipment and other gear needed to put on planetarium shows.

Efforts to complete the planetarium were slowed by tight finances, officials said. While awaiting money to install the planetarium gear, the building had been used as a classroom and for meetings, officials said.

To help raise money, the district sold planetarium seats at $250 each. About 20 remain to be sold. Donors' names are inscribed on gold plates on armchair rests.

With the help of community donations and $150,000 in one-time state funds, the board approved paying $366,625 last November to Pennsylvania-based Spitz Inc. for the dome and other instruments.

The planetarium will be available for use by other school districts and the general community.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--ran in SAC and AV editions only--color in AV only) John Shobbrook, director of the planetarium at Cactus School in Palmdale, demonstrates the controls for projecting images from space.

(2--ran in SAC and AV editions only--color in AV only) Planetarium director John Shobbrook looks up at the new facility's main projector.

(3--ran in AV edition only) The new planetarium is located on the grounds of Cactus School in Palmdale, and is expected to be available for use by the community.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News