The University of Connecticut’s planetarium, located North Eagleville Road in Storrs, has been renamed in honor of UConn’s first female physics professor, Cynthia Wyeth Peterson. Built in 1954, the planetarium, which sat vacant since 2016, received new life through the restoration efforts of a team from the physics department, spearheaded by professor Matthew Guthrie.
“Cynthia was the director of the planetarium and ran a science summer camp that had the planetarium as a central part of it,” said Guthrie. “She was the only woman professor in the department for her first 35 years here, and I have heard that that was a really difficult thing for her.”
Renovation to the structure began in the early months of 2023 and continued for a year and a half until its soft opening this past summer.
The hardest aspect of returning the planetarium to working order, according to Guthrie, was resealing the entire roof of the structure, a process he described as costly and time consuming. Guthrie credits the UConn facility management in helping to restore the building for students to enjoy the simulated star-show this past summer.
“Midway through this summer we had our first test show. There was a summer camp for blind and visually impaired students,” said Guthrie.
Guthrie detailed the artifacts his team unearthed in their restoration efforts, including a manual written by then-provost Albert Waugh tracking the phases of the moon throughout the year of 1960, ten historic projectors and pictures of students from science camps in the 1980s.
“We wanted to make sure that we saved the projector. It’s so cool, It’s such an important piece of history. Right now, it’s on display near the physics department front office,” said Guthrie. “The heart of the new planetarium is the new projector. The projector will simulate the universe. You can fly around. You can go visit objects in space wherever they are.”
Future plans for the newly christened Cynthia Wyeth Peterson Memorial Planetarium include weekly shows, student outreach and live streamed events. Guthrie said he is hopeful that the planetarium will be able to work in conjunction with another project of his, UConn’s East Road Observatory.
“My dream is to live stream images from the telescope to the planetarium and integrate the planetarium with the introductory astronomy curriculum,” noted Guthrie.
Speaking on the profound legacy of Peterson, former physics department head Nora Berrah described her personal connections with the late professor, who passed away in 2020.
“For me and many women physicists she is a pioneer. At those times there were almost no women in the physics department, and if they went they left quickly because they were the only woman in the physics department,” said Berrah.
“Cynthia was the only woman mentor for students for about 34 years. Think about this. Think about this. It’s to me, unacceptable as a woman in physics,” said Berrah. “She excelled for decades in outreach activities to the broad community. Cynthia was a gift to this department. She will be forever to many of us. She will always be to all of us, a great inspiration for all women in STEM fields.”