Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
PLANETARIUMS
PLANETARIUMS. A planetarium uses a variety of media to duplicate the appearance of the heavens. While most major cities in the United States have one planetarium, Dubuque has one at CLARKE COLLEGE and another at LORAS COLLEGE.
In 1965 Clarke's Wahlert Memorial Planetarium became the first in Dubuque. Funds to construct the Catherine Byrne Hall science building housing the planetarium came from the Higher Education Facilities Act. Funds for the planetarium came through the National Science Foundation and the WAHLERT FOUNDATION. The Clarke planetarium seats sixty visitors.
The financing of the Heitkamp Memorial Planetarium at Loras came entirely through private and alumni donations. Completed in 1966, the planetarium cost $80,000 and was named in memory of Professor George William HEITKAMP who taught at Loras for fifty years. In 1977 the Loras facility was still the second largest planetarium in Iowa with a seating capacity of ninety and a dome thirty-three feet in diameter.
An estimated six thousand persons annually visit the Loras planetarium with Friday evening programs and seasonal programs popular attractions.