[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/McCallion.jpg” caption=”William J. McCallion, the driving force behind the creation of the universitys planetarium.”]There is no throbbing Pink Floyd music. No lasers. No automatic tilting chairs. The William McCallion planetarium is as bare bones as they come, but when the lights go down and a gazillon stars materialize over your head, all is forgiven.

McMaster's planetarium is a little-known gem at the University. Tucked away in the basement of the Burke Science Building, the planetarium's size initially takes you by surprise. It's a small circular space with barely enough room for 50 seats. A projector cum replica of Earth dominates the room.

After paying $3 to the unassuming man seated at a rickety card table, you take your seat among the three cramped rows of theatre-style seats. The domed interior offers the same eavesdropping abilities as the famous dome of London St. Paul's Cathedral: You can clearly hear conversations being whispered at the opposite end of the room. (Note to the trio of guys in the third row: The girl sitting beside me was my daughter, and she's only 14. Lay off.)

At 8 p.m., the unassuming man behind the card table enters the room, shuts the door, and takes the podium. Physics and astronomy grad students do double duty as ticket seller/lecturer.

On this particular night, Dave Lepischak is leading the evening's tour of the Winter Sky. He flicks a few lights to illustrate the sort of street-light illumination found in cities, a pale orange gauzy glow that helps you see the world at street level, but that interferes with what you can see above your head around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. A few stars and the moon can be discerned in this lighting, but just barely.

“Now, let's imagine that we're looking at this same sky in the country, without the city lights,” Lepischak tells us. He kills the lights, and suddenly millions of stars jump to life. The audience reacts with sounds of awe normally reserved for the real thing. (On winter nights like this with a killer windchill, we are grateful for the virtual version.) For the next hour, we are held spellbound by constellations, galaxies, and the latest footage transmitted via an orbiting probe of the dry and rocky landscape of Titan, one of Saturn's satellites.

William J. McCallion, was McMaster's director of educational services and dean of the School of Adult Education, and the driving force behind the creation of the university's planetarium in the late 1940s. In those early days, before money could be raised to create a permanent dome for the room, a war-surplus parachute was suspended from the ceiling, and the stars were projected on to it. The planetarium was the first in Ontario to offer public shows, and it's estimated that McCallion gave presentations to 100,000 people.

After a refurbishment, and the acquisition of a more modern projector (McMaster's planetarium uses a SpitzA3P), the planetarium reopened in 1992, and the public lecture series resumed.

Lepischak estimates that between 25 and 35 people attend each of the twice-monthly lectures. Shows have been known to sell out. Private shows can be booked: clubs such as Cubs and Girl Guides, as well as school classes are the most likely visitors, but Lepischak points out that anyone - families, groups of friends, even romantically inclined couples — can book the planetarium for the evening for just $50.

There is not a lot of awareness about McMaster's planetarium, and there is some reticence about promoting it, says Lepischak. Too much attention might upset the fragile balance that allows the planetarium to function as it does. “There's a fear that we won't be able to handle the demand,” he says. “We're all grad students, and we're working these lectures around our research.”

He admits the planetarium is largely an entertainment vehicle, but its educational value is vital in acquainting people with how the night sky works, and how the sky, like the Earth, alters through yearly cycles.

The William J. McCallion Planetarium offers presentations every second Wednesday until mid April. The next show, Historical Figures in Astronomy: From Geniuses to Crackpots, will be held Feb. 2, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 at the door.