By Ethan Forman
DANVERS — A plan to put out the lights at the Dunn Planetarium in June has gotten the attention of a bright star on the Boston astronomy scene.
Noreen Grice, operations coordinator for the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science, called Dunn "one of the nicest school planetariums I've ever seen."
School officials intend to shutter the planetarium in four months instead of waiting until 2011, as earlier planned. The space would be used for a temporary TV studio during a high school construction project that will eventually see the entire Dunn Wing — and the planetarium — razed.
"That's terrible," Grice wrote in an e-mail to Keelin Dawe, a parent leading the charge to rescue the planetarium. "... In the past decade, other Massachusetts school district planetariums have closed ... leaving Dunn Planetarium as a very important and much-needed facility."
Danvers' planetarium is well-equipped, thanks in part to a donation of used equipment from the one in Boston, and it has nice seats, she said.
"It's basically a little version of what you would see in a museum," Grice told The Salem News on Monday. "You walk into that room, and it's amazing."
School groups from all over visit the Dunn Planetarium, and it has a Friday night program for the public. Ralph Pass, Merrimack College's director of observatory and an adjunct astronomy professor, was there this week planning a visit for his astronomy class.
"At a time when we, as a society, are lighting the sky and reducing the beauty that is there, the only way we can continue to appreciate all that is in the sky is through planetariums," Pass said.
Pass usually takes his class to the Museum of Science's planetarium, but that has closed for renovations until 2011.
Dunn Director Paul Mailloux is disappointed about the theater-in-the-round's pending closure and demolition.
"It was supposed to be two years, and now it's five months," he said.
The so-called Dunn Link corridor, which houses the planetarium's dome, is slated to be torn down to make way for the nearly $80 million Danvers High renovation project.
As the project is phased, however, school officials must use this corridor and the adjacent Dunn Wing to house all the high school's programs. The classroom where the planetarium is will become the temporary home to the TV studio.
"In this day in our town, when an emphasis is finally being put on science, especially in our elementary education," Dawe wrote in a letter to The Salem News, "please don't take away a primary resource that can and does instill excitement, enthusiasm and dare I say even passion for all things related to space and the future of technology."
She called the planetarium a "community treasure" and urged groups to both visit it and find a way to save it. She suggests the planetarium be incorporated in the high school's new science wing.
"We are sad we are not able to continue with it," said Superintendent Lisa Dana, who called the planetarium a resource that the school district values. She has been brainstorming with school officials and Mailloux to see what could be done to save the equipment and find another location.
The planetarium's preservation would prove too expensive because commercial building codes for access and fire safety would be needed, similar to building a new theater.
State funding would not cover the planetarium.
"I'm considered a frill by the state," Mailloux said.
Mailloux said he requires a 900- to 1,300-square-foot classroom with a 20-foot-high ceiling to make the planetarium work. Much of the equipment can be moved, including the aluminum dome. It would cost between $35,000 and $50,000 to move and calibrate the star projector and dome.
Mailloux, a 63-year-old retired Danvers sixth-grade teacher, took over the planetarium in 1989 while he was still teaching. Under an agreement with the schools, he splits the proceeds of ticket and group sales and takes home $2,500 to $3,000 a year.
Mailloux hopes some school system will want to pick up a planetarium so students can enjoy it well into the future.
"It was fun, I had a good run, I hope I can keep it going," Mailloux said.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or by e-mail at eforman@salemnews.com.
