Thomas Jefferson wanted to bring the stars indoors.
Jefferson, in designing the University of Virginia’s iconic Rotunda, planned to paint constellations on the ceiling of the Dome Room. He never completed this part of his vision, but in 2019, three graduate students set up projectors to display the constellations on the Dome Room’s ceiling.
On Nov. 28, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the Dome Room will again open to the public to see the constellations. The presentation, sponsored by the Jefferson Trust and UVA’s Office of Student Affairs, will include the Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia and historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker as Thomas Jefferson.
“This event provides the community with a special opportunity to visit the Rotunda,” said Andrea Seese, associate director of promotions and events for the Jefferson Trust. “Taking place over Thanksgiving weekend, it also offers families and friends visiting the Charlottesville area a chance to share a unique experience.”
“The Rotunda Planetarium Public Viewing Night, now an annual community event, has become the highlight of my time here at the Rotunda. It is fun, free and family-friendly,” Sheri Winston, director of the Rotunda, said. “It is an inspiring evening that brings science, history and community together under the night sky Jefferson envisioned for the Rotunda’s dome. It is a wonderful way to share the beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage site with the public.”
Visitors to the Dome Room on Nov. 28 will view an artistic representation of Jefferson’s vision of constellations on the ceiling. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Astronomy professor Edward Murphy said Jefferson wanted the Dome Room to work as an astronomy lab, including a device to measure the stars and a hoist to raise the astronomy instructor into the air to get closer to the constellations.
“The idea was that Jefferson would pick a day and a time and get a star atlas and paint the stars on the ceiling exactly as they were at that date and time,” Murphy said. “He would paint it sky blue and then put the stars up there, in their correct positions for that day and time and with their correct magnitude, having the correct brightness of the stars up there.”
While Jefferson did not execute his plan, Madeline Zehnder, Neal Curtis and Samuel Lemley, three graduate students in the English Department, worked with a Jefferson Trust grant to devise a system of digital projectors that superimpose the constellations onto the Dome Room ceiling – though it is not quite what Jefferson planned. It is not entirely astronomically accurate.
“We have not yet reached Jefferson’s vision for what the Rotunda planetarium should be,” Murphy said. “They used constellation figures out of a star catalog that existed around Jefferson’s time, and they have projected them on the ceiling. So it is rendered as a far more artistic view than it is an accurate view that would be useful in teaching.”
