Meyer Planetarium

Built in 1964 and costing a total of $98,669.000, the Meyer Planetarium was the first of its kind in Alabama. It was constructed to tie in with the Apollo program and provide for the growing public interest in space travel. For its time, the planetarium had state of the art technology, with a “Spitz” projector that resembled a giant robot, and stereophonic sound system that played relaxing music during star shows. The planetarium held astronomy classes but also served as a field trip destination for local elementary, middle, and high school students. But aging equipment was not replaced, and the faculty and staff that once invested in the planetarium all retired. Also, in 2010 Birmingham Southern went through a fiscal crisis which cut funding dramatically, and the planetarium was one of the first things to go.

References: Hilltop News archive https://archive.org/stream/Hilltop_News_1963#page/n35/mode/2up

Roald Hazelhoff, director of the Southern Environmental Center (SEC) at Birmingham-Southern