Focus celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first planetarium
To mark the centenary, a special event has been organised together with PLANit and Città della Scienza in Naples on 7 May 2025
To celebrate the centenary of the public opening of the first planetarium, which took place on May 7 1925 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Focus, the Mondadori Group’s flagship popular science and entertainment brand, is organising a special event in collaboration with the Italian Association of Planetaria (PLANit) and Città della Scienza in Naples, which will be held at the Città della Scienza planetarium in Campania’s capital on Wednesday 7 May starting at 6.30 pm.
The event, which is part of a series of initiatives organised by planetariums around the world, will involve Roberto Ragazzoni, President of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), who, following institutional greetings from the President of Città della Scienza, Riccardo Villari, will give a talk entitled “Immense skies and infinite skies”, focusing on the immense skies of planetariums and the infinite skies that astronomers observe from the tops of the most remote mountains on Earth and from space. This will be followed by a speech by Dario Tiveron, President of PLANit, who will emphasise the importance of planetariums for education and outreach.
“The collaboration with PLANit to celebrate the centenary of planetariums was an extraordinary opportunity for Focus, which we enthusiastically embraced,” continues Gian Mattia Bazzoli, director of Focus. “Planetariums perform a fundamental work of popularising science in a widespread, in-depth and often hidden way that enriches our cultural fabric, stimulates scientific curiosity from a young age and democratises access to astronomical knowledge through unique immersive experiences, all of which deserves our support. This is the reason why we consider it a privilege to have been able to contribute to the production of the Italian version of the 100 Years of Eternity video. Being hosted for the first time in the Città della Scienza planetarium and in the beautiful city of Naples, where we had never organised any initiatives until now, makes this occasion even more special and significant.”
“For 100 years, planetariums have been a bridge between science, culture, art and imagination, places where the wonders of the universe meet audiences of all ages,” explains Dario Tiveron, president of PLANit. “This event is a celebration of their fundamental role in our society, further underlined by the recent acceptance by the Treccani Institute of the term ‘planetarista’ (planetarist), which finally recognises the identity of those who work in planetarium domes, combining extensive and cross-cutting skills.”
The evening will also include a screening of the film 100 Years of Eternity, a 35-minute production created by Tobias Wiethoff and the Bochum planetarium on behalf of GdP (Society of German-speaking Planetariums) specifically for the planetariums’ centenary.
The Naples event is part of a broader collaboration set up between Focus and PLANit to mark the centenary, which includes, in addition to Focus’s contribution to acquiring the licence and creating the Italian version of the video – which has therefore been made available free of charge to all PLANit member planetariums – the presence of the Italian Association of Planetaria at the next Focus Live, which will be held from 7 to 9 November at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, featuring an inflatable planetarium for the three days of the festival.
Starting at 8 pm, outside the planetarium, it will also be possible to observe the sky (weather permitting) thanks to the telescopes of theNeapolitan Astrophile Union.