Hayden Planetarium

The planetarium associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which features in several of the YW books.

The planetarium was founded in 1933 with funds from New York State and philanthropist Charles Hayden, and opened to the public in 1935. Its magazine, The Sky, started publication in the mid-30's and was later merged with the magazine Telescope: the successor magazine, Sky and Telescope, survives today as one of the premier magazines of professional and amateur astronomy. (DD has said that a subscription to this magazine, given to her as a birthday present when she was eight years old, was the source of her lifelong fascination with astronomy.)

One of the most famous directors of the Planetarium was Robert Coles, who was instrumental in increasing the planetarium's public profile. He hosted the first symposium in astronautics in the US at the Planetarium in 1951, drawing together experts such as Willy Ley, whose vision and expertise later came to underlay the earliest incarnations of NASA. (It is one of life's more interesting coincidences that Coles was DD's astronomy teacher in high school.)

The planetarium continued to thrive, but toward the end of the century was outgrowing its 1930's shell. A massive $20 million grant from Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose allowed a new astronomy and space center to be built around the original planetarium. The Hayden survives inside the shell of the Rose Space Center.

In HW, it's inside the older version of the Hayden that Kit and Nita lose track of Dairine. The sign on the wall near the door through which Dairine passes on her way to the High Road -- labeled "To Mars, Venus, and Ladies' Room" -- has unfortunately been lost during the refurbishment and reconstruction of the facility.

Nita stops briefly outside the fountain court of the new Space Center / Planetarium in TWD, noting that the fountains come on at 6:45 AM. (HW, TWD et al.)