In The U.S.: Hungarian Man Built The Biggest Revolving Planetary On Earth

Change language:

The biggest revolving planetary on Earth can be found in a remote town in Wisconsin, USA.  A man with Hungarian origins built it in ten years-alone. The skysphere is suspended in a manner like nuclear bombs were onto B-52 bombers, origo.hu reports.

There are more than 5000 stars painted on the inside of a hollow glass sphere which has a diameter of 7 meters. The creator, Frank A. Kovac painted every single one by hand, with a phosphorescence dye, and the stars’ size are in proportion to their actual lightness. The planetary is in operation since 2007, with Frank Kovac being the only employee and director as well.

There are about 4500 visitors annually in Monico, which is 5 hours by car from Chicago. The ticket costs $12, the tour is one and a half hours long.

kovac-planetarium-2

Frank, who is 48 years old, grew up in Chicago. His father introduced him the mysteries of the night sky. They visited regularly the Adler Planetary in Chicago and Frank has got a telescope once, he later built his own telescope as well. He was obsessed with stars, he wanted to be an astronomer. Unfortunately, he had always problems with maths, and eventually started to work as a machine operator.

When he joined the army, he bought a land near Monico, in the middle of nowhere. He wanted a place with no artificial light nearby so the night can be as black as it actually is. He built his house with a little observatory, where he could study the starry night alone or with his friends. The idea to build a planetary came to him when a visiting scout team could not see anything due to the cloudy sky. He knew it will be difficult yet he did not give it up: he decided to build it slowly, so he will not run out of his strength and money.

Continue reading

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *