"Ah-h-h!"

A starry event takes place this week in smoky Pittsburgh--the formal dedication and opening to the public of the $1,100,000 Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. This week Pittsburgh becomes the fifth of that select group of U. S. cities --Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles--whose inhabitants can go stargazing indoors.* Boss of the Buhl Planetarium is deep-voiced James Stokley (pronounced "Stokely"), generally considered the most inventive of planetarium showmen, who last spring left a job at the Pels Planetarium in Philadelphia to take charge in Pittsburgh (TIME, April 24).

A feature of the Buhl star chamber with which Director Stokley is particularly Punch-pleased is an engineering stunt unique among the world's planetaria. When the audience assembles for the show, the big, dumbbell-shaped Zeiss projector is nowhere to be seen. It is mounted on a platform in a concealed pit under the floor. When the lights go out for the show, a section of the floor drops a few feet, slides sidewise under the basement ceiling. Controlled from a panel of small green lights, the projector rises like an orchestra in a cinemansion. The stars burst out on the vaulted "sky," and the whole audience says "Ah-h-h!"

* Except for a homemade planetarium at Springfield, Mass, which does not show planets. Contrived by Technician Frank Korkosz of Springfield's Museum of Natural History, it cost less than $12,000. Cost of Buhl star thrower: $134,000.

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