Stars wait for you inside the Strasenburgh Planetarium at 663 East Avenue in Rochester, New York. Named for benefactors Edwin and Clara Strasenburgh, it is a department of the Rochester Museum and Science Center and was dedicated on September 14, 1968. Step close and imagine the 65-foot-diameter Star Theater above you — its dome once held 240 seats before those original seats were replaced in 1985; as currently configured the theater seats 225.
The Star Theater houses the first Zeiss Mark VI planetarium projector, and that very instrument remains in daily operation. The planetarium received worldwide attention as the first to be computer automated and became known for both technical and programming innovations. Its story reaches back further: in 1935 Arthur C. Parker recommended a planetarium for Rochester after major planetariums opened in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.
In 1959 the Rochester Museum Association Planning Committee announced a master plan for expansion, and an architectural design by Robert Napier, then a student at Pratt, figures in its early planning. The Star Theater houses the first Zeiss Mark VI planetarium projector, still in daily operation beneath the 65-foot-diameter dome above you.