astronomy

Peter Harrison Planetarium

Peter Harrison Planetarium is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Harrison Planetarium rather than just read about it. In short: The Peter Harrison Planetarium is a 120-seat digital laser planetarium, situated in Greenwich Park, London and is part of the National Maritime Museum. It opened on 25 May 2007, funded by the philanthropist Peter Harrison.

Key takeaways

Peter Harrison Planetarium belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Harrison Planetarium to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Harrison Planetarium from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Peter Harrison Planetarium is a 120-seat digital laser planetarium, situated in Greenwich Park, London and is part of the National Maritime Museum. It opened on 25 May 2007, funded by the philanthropist Peter Harrison. The planetarium uses Digistar 3 software with blue, red and green lasers and grating light valve (GLV) technology to create a 4,000 pixel strip. This strip is swept to produce a 5,000 by 4,000 pixel image, refreshed 60 times per second. The image is projected through a fisheye lens onto the dome of the planetarium. This planetarium is housed inside a 45-ton bronze-clad truncated cone, with the south side tilted at 51.5o to the horizontal (the latitude of Greenwich), the north side pointing at the local Zenith (i.e. at 90 degrees to the local horizon) and the top being slanted to be parallel to the celestial equator. The construction stands parallel to (but 50 metres east of) the prime meridian. It was conceived under the then Director, Roy Clare CBE, as the centrepiece of the "Time and Space" project, a £17.7m re-development of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and funded with a £3.25m grant from the Peter Harrison Foundation.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Harrison Planetarium

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Harrison Planetarium claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Harrison Planetarium before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Harrison Planetarium ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Harrison Planetarium

In research: Peter Harrison Planetarium appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Harrison Planetarium in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Harrison Planetarium is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in Greenwich, London building and structure stubs, Planetaria in the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Harrison Planetarium outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Harrison Planetarium in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Harrison Planetarium means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Harrison Planetarium out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Harrison Planetarium in simple terms?

Why does Peter Harrison Planetarium matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Harrison Planetarium?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Harrison Planetarium.