Planetariums

Proving that you don't need a car to take an unforgettable ride, the Toyota USA Foundation is funding a program to enable all fifth-graders in the Santa Ana Unified School District to cruise the heavens visually. The charitable arm of Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales USA is paying to send each fifth-grader--8,800 of them next year and in the 1995-96 school term--through Starlab, Orange County's only portable planetarium.

With help from a government pushing for citizens to devote more time to leisure, the Japanese are rushing to build Disney-style theme parks and entertainment centers. The result has been a windfall for American companies, particularly the Southern California firms recognized as world leaders in the design and construction of theme parks and their attractions.

After a lifetime selling cakes and pastries in a modest district of Copenhagen, 83-year-old Helge Pedersen's dream has come true. He and his wife have built a planetarium. The baker from working-class west Copenhagen and his wife, Bodil, heiress to a fortune from Denmark's leading biotechnology and pharmaceuticals company, managed to raise $14 million for the project. Both ardent amateur astronomers, they spent their days baking and their nights gazing at the stars.

The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium was dedicated Thursday as a memorial to the teacher killed in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and to honor her passion for motivating children to learn. "This planetarium is more than a memorial to Christa McAuliffe . . . it is more than a planetarium. It is a promise to continue the work she believed in and a promise to fulfill her dream," NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly said.

When it's smoggy or overcast in Orange County, there is still a place you can see the night sky. In fact, you can see these "stars" during the daytime. The place is the Tessmann Planetarium and Museum on the Santa Ana campus of Rancho Santiago College. The planetarium is so realistic that the stars appear to twinkle over silhouettes of the San Bernardino and Santa Ana mountains. 2 to 3: The planetarium schedules tours by appointment on three weekday mornings.

A planetarium topped by a pyramid will be built in honor of teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe, who died in the shuttle Challenger explosion, a special legislative committee ruled Wednesday. The planetarium and a teaching center, to be built at the New Hampshire Technical Institute, will become part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's teacher resource laboratories. NASA plans to open one laboratory in each state.

Thousands of people on Saturday flocked to the opening of the Museum of Natural History's new $210-million planetarium complex, praised for its daring architecture and use of technology to portray a realistic picture of the cosmos. "Very impressive, very well done. My kids love it," Madelyn English, of Bernardsville, N.J., said of the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Eleven-year-old Michael Naumowicz of Maspeth gave the facility a thumbs-up as well: "It's so exciting."

A scene depicting the total destruction of Santa Monica - complete with fiery meteorites, land masses shearing off into the sea and swarms of flying monkeys - might seem better suited to a Hollywood disaster movie than a planetarium show. But "Time's Up," opening at the Griffith Observatory on Thursday, is not the kind of planetarium show you might remember from grade school. The imagery goes way beyond the traditional static view of the stars, while the presentation forgoes canned narration and gesturing at constellations.

Artist J. Walt Adamczyk dons his sorcerer's cap for "Spontaneous Fantasia," a live performance of digital animation that combines elements of painting, music and theater. Glendale Community College Planetarium, 1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale. 7 p.m. Sat. $10 in advance, $15 at the door ($6 for children 5-12). (626) 688-0778. http://www.spontaneousfantasia.com .

If you're one of those astro-novices who still thinks the brighter a star is the closer it is, look up and listen up. "You can't tell by looking at the sky," said Fred Marshak, an astronomy teacher at Santa Barbara City College, referring to distance. "It's like people who say, 'Isn't that airplane high, or low,' when they see blinking lights. They have no idea how high it is."