quarta-feira, 6 de outubro de 2010

Planetarium Part I

Curso de Inglês online e tradução é com o professor Fúvio em Sorocaba para mais informação visite o site 
Online English course and traslations of documents it's up with Teacher Fuvio in Sorocaba, São Paulo State, for more information visit the site bellow
Planetarium  - Part I   audio        www.inglesvip.xpg.com.br


1- A planetarium is a theater with a rounded ceiling onto which images of the stars and planets are projected. Planetariums give educational shows about astronomy and what you can see in the night sky. Today, we tell about the past, present, and future of planetariums. And, we visit the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

2-Since ancient times, humans have worked on ways to understand and represent the movement of the stars and planets. Experts credit the Greek astronomer Archimedes with developing the earliest known device to show the daily movement of the planets.

3-He lived more than two thousand years ago. These mechanical devices that show the relative placement and movement of the planets and moons aresometimes called orreries. Over the centuries, scientific thinkers worked to develop these devices and improve their accuracy and complexity.

4-The words “orrery” and “planetarium” were once used interchangeably. Today, the world “planetarium” generally means a theater inside a dome.

5- The earliest planetarium that is still working today is in the Netherlandsalthough the device is actually an orrery. It was built by a man named Eise Eisinga starting in seventeen seventy-four. It took him seven years to build this moving device inside a room in his house.

6- All the planets move at the same speed as the real planets in our solar system. So, it takes one year for Earth to move around the sun and about twenty-nine years for Saturn to do so. Eisinga made his device out of wood, metal nails, a clock and nine weights.

7- Other versions of early planetariums were large globes. People could sit inside them. Holes were cut into the walls of these globes to represent stars.

8 - A group of German engineers and scientists helped develop the modern planetarium between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty. The creators of the Deutsches Museum of science and technology in Munich wanted to build a planetarium. So, they asked the Carl Zeiss company in Germany to help with this plan. This company was known for making scientific equipment such as microscopes.

9- It took engineers at Zeiss several years to invent a new planetarium technology. The complex mechanical device they made projected light through “star plates” of film that contained images of thousands of stars. Public viewings of the first Zeiss planetarium projector began in nineteen twenty-three.

10- Soon, other cities in Europe and later in the United States began ordering planetarium devices from Zeiss. An American business leader named Max Adler learned about these planetariums and traveled to Germany to see one for himself. He was so amazed with the Zeiss device that he donated the money for a planetarium to be built in his native Chicago, Illinois.

11- The Adler Planetarium was the first modern planetarium in the United States. It opened its doors to the public in nineteen thirty. Planetariums soon opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California and New York City.

12- Planetarium technology continues to evolve and improve to this day. But what if you live far away from a city with a planetarium? Dan Neafus helps supervise the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado. He says new technologies are helping to connect planetariums with viewers in other areas.

13-There are relatively few digital planetariums around the world. But this technology could bring space education and the experience of a planetarium show to more people through the use of a computer and Internet connection.

14- The Loch Ness Production company in Colorado makes shows, images and music for the planetarium community. The company also gathers facts about planetariums around the world. It says there areover one thousand five hundred planetariums in the United States.

15 - Many kinds of organizations have planetariums. They include museums, science centers, universities, schools and even astronomy clubs. Some planetariums have domes that measure over twenty meters, while others are much smaller.

16 - Some planetariums use film projections. More technologically advanced planetariums use digital systems controlled by computers. Digital technologies offer planetariums many choices. These theaters can show movies about space. Or, these planetariums can serve as classrooms where live interactive presentations take place.

17 - For example, astronomers can guide viewers on a trip around the universe using image databases with real information about the placement of stars and planets.

18 - The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has both a digital system and a projector system made by the Carl Zeiss company.

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