Science Museum Oklahoma sees stars as Chickasaw Nation gives $1.5 million for planetarium

Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
Updated ·2 min read

Science Museum Oklahoma is closer to seeing stars and sharing them with the community in a whole new way.

Museum leadership announced Wednesday that the Chickasaw Nation has made a $1.5 million contribution to the One Giant Leap Capital campaign, which is raising funds to build the new state-of-the-art Love's Planetarium at the Oklahoma City museum.

“This remarkable gift from the Chickasaw Nation exemplifies the profound impact that collaboration between organizations and communities can have on the world of science, education and exploration,” Science Museum Oklahoma President Sherry Marshall said in an email. “Together, we are reaching for the stars and inspiring the next generation of scientists, thinkers and dreamers."

Science Museum Oklahoma leaders have announced that the Chickasaw Nation has made a $1.5 million contribution to the One Giant Leap Capital campaign, which is raising funds to build the new state-of-the-art Love's Planetarium at the Oklahoma City museum.
Science Museum Oklahoma leaders have announced that the Chickasaw Nation has made a $1.5 million contribution to the One Giant Leap Capital campaign, which is raising funds to build the new state-of-the-art Love's Planetarium at the Oklahoma City museum.

What is planned for Science Museum Oklahoma's new planetarium?

To be built in Science Museum Oklahoma's former OmniDome theater space, the Love's Planetarium will include an optical projector with a digital system that produces 9,500 bright stars, 56 nebulae and clusters for binocular viewing and about 8 million detailed stars to recreate the Milky Way, all with high intensity LEDs and fiber optics.

Once complete, the new planetarium will be the only one of its kind with a hybrid digital-optical projection system in North or South America. The closest comparable planetarium using this combination of projection systems is in Shanghai, China.

Science Museum Oklahoma's new planetarium will offer visitors unobstructed views of the presentation from seats individually calibrated for ideal viewing. The new facility will be able to host musicians, featured presenters, special events and more as well as offer enhanced live and virtual programming for educators.

When is Science Museum Oklahoma's new planetarium projected to open?

With the help of Bill Nye, the entertainer known as "The Science Guy," the OKC museum launched its One Giant Leap Capital campaign to build the new planetarium in 2019.

Although the project was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, museum officials announced last year that Love's Travel Stops had donated $3.5 million to relaunch efforts to build the new planetarium.

The museum broke ground last December on the new planetarium, which is is slated to open its doors in fall 2024.

The museum has raised about $7 million for the planetarium project, including the newly announced donation from the Chickasaw Nation, and is pushing to raise the final $1 million for the long-awaited project.

Founded in 1958, Science Museum Oklahoma welcomes about 600,000 guests a year, and the planetarium has been a popular attraction for more than 60 years. The 390,000-square-foot museum is one of the largest science museums in the country.

For more information on the planetarium project, go to https://www.sciencemuseumok.org/planetarium.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Chickasaw Nation gives $1.5 million to OKC science museum's planetarium