Ward Beecher Planetarium marks 50 years with special show, dinner, exhibit

Youngstown State University’s Ward Beecher Planetarium commemorates 50 years of sharing the stars with a special show and dinner Saturday, March 18, as well as a new historical exhibit celebrating the facility’s milestone year.

Over a half century, the planetarium in Ward Beecher Hall on the YSU campus has hosted field trips for tens of thousands of school children throughout the region, as well as classroom activities for YSU Astronomy classes and regular weekend shows open to the public.

The exhibit in the David C. Sweet Exhibition Gallery on the fifth floor of Maag Library contains information about the opening of the planetarium in 1967, the different equipment that has been used in it, some of the special programs it has created, and the faculty and staff of the astronomy department.

The display, which will be on exhibit through the end of 2017, also includes photographs, special effects equipment and video footage.

The anniversary will be celebrated in full on Saturday, March 18, starting at 4 p.m. with a show entitled “The Planetarium at 50: Then and Now.” Following the show in the planetarium, attendees will move the Sweet Exhibition Gallery in Maag Library for cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dinner.

The dinner features a presentation by Warren Young, faculty emeritus in the Physics and Astronomy Department and retired director of the planetarium.

Reservations are required by Monday, March 13. Attendees can register online at www.ysu.edu/alumni/planetarium. The cost is $50 per person, or $25 for students. All proceeds fund programming at the planetarium.

Also in recognition of its 50^th anniversary, the planetarium partnered with the YSU Center for Innovation in Additive Manufacturing for a new display called “NASA Missions to the Solar System” outside the planetarium in Ward Beecher Hall.

The display features eight 3D-printed models of some of the most influential spacecraft that have visited nearly every major body in the solar system over the past 60 years. The missions have radically changed the understanding of astronomy.

Jay Wargacki, manager of the CIAM, and his students, Mechanical Engineering majors Ryan Betts, Mike Manginelli and Dean Jaric, converted and 3D-printed models in the CIAM based on CAD model plans provided by NASA.

And, also in recognition of the 50^th anniversary, the planetarium has launched a new lecture series. The next lecture is 8 p.m. Friday, March 17, titled “Our Place in the Universe,” featuring a presentation by Jason Kalirai from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The planetarium opened in March 1967, thanks to a $1.6 million donation from Youngstown industrialist and philanthropist Ward Beecher. Beecher graduated from Youngstown’s The Rayen School in 1907 and studied metallurgy at the then-Carnegie Institute of Technology. After graduation, he became a traveling auditor for Republic Rubber Co. He later was secretary and treasurer of Lau Iron Works, and helped organize Powell Pressed Steel Company, where he was treasurer. During World War I, he served with the 309th Engineers in France.

In 1922, Beecher joined Commercial Shearing and Stamping Company, and learned all phases of the business - as timekeeper, advertising manager, finance chairman, secretary-treasurer, and director and vice president in charge of finance, positions he held upon his retirement.

He was a director of Mahoning National Bank, and served many community organizations, including the Salvation Army.

A major upgrade of the planetarium in 2006 was funded by the Ward and Florence Beecher Foundations through their daughter, Eleanor Beecher Flad. The renovations replaced the original Spitz star projector with a GOTO Chronos and added the capability for full dome video playback.

More recently, the planetarium received $650,000 in funding via a NASA cooperative agreement to support the development of full dome video and 3D animation materials that will be distributed for free to planetaria across the globe. And, family members of the late William T. Papagna, a Youngstown native and Las Vegas businessman, were at the planetarium to recognize Papagna’s $200,000 gift to benefit the planetarium.