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The Morrison Planetarium is named after Alexander Francis Morrison, a San Francisco attorney and philanthropist who lived from 1856 to 1921. Mr. Morrison became a member of the California Academy of Sciences in 1906 and a patron in 1916. After his death in 1921, his widow, May Treat Morrison, became an Academy member and Trustee and eventually bequeathed a substantial sum to the Academy for the construction of a memorial to her husband. The Morrison Planetarium's dome is 65 feet in diameter. The Planetarium's main instrument - the large star projector at the center of the theater - is 13 feet long, weighing approximately 5000 pounds, and projects a field of 3800 stars. The main light sources for the projector are two 1000-watt tungsten halogen lamps. It was controlled from a console with hundreds of switches, knobs, and faders. In addition to the star projector, the Planetarium is equipped with two video projectors and 49 permanently-installed carousel slide projectors in the following configurations: two 12-projector panorama systems, two 6-projector all-sky systems, five fixed-position dissolver pairs, two projectors with programmable slewing mirrors, and a zoom. Numerous other customized special effects projectors vary in number and specific function from show to show. All projectors, star projector motions, house lights, and tape cues are controlled using SPICE, a theater automation system for planetaria designed and built by Sky-Skan, Inc. of Nashua, NH.
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