Science: Ah-h-h!

A starry event takes place this week in smoky Pittsburgh—the formal dedication and opening to the public of the $1,100,000 Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. This week Pittsburgh becomes the fifth of that select group of U. S. cities —Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles—whose inhabitants can go stargazing indoors.* Boss of the Buhl Planetarium is deep-voiced James Stokley (pronounced "Stokely"), generally considered the most inventive of planetarium showmen, who last spring left a job at the Pels Planetarium in Philadelphia to take charge in Pittsburgh (TIME, April 24).

A feature of the Buhl star chamber with which Director Stokley is particularly Punch-pleased is an engineering stunt unique among the world's planetaria. When the audience assembles for the show, the big, dumbbell-shaped Zeiss projector is nowhere to be seen. It is mounted on a platform in a concealed pit under the floor. When the lights go out for the show, a section of the floor drops a few feet, slides sidewise under the basement ceiling. Controlled from a panel of small green lights, the projector rises like an orchestra in a cinemansion. The stars burst out on the vaulted "sky," and the whole audience says "Ah-h-h!"