Thanks to a generous gift from County College of Morris Trustee Joseph J. Longo and his wife, Madeline, the new planetarium at the college will carry the name, The Madeline D. and Joseph J. Longo Planetarium. With the gift from the Longos of Morristown, fundraising for the project has now topped $600,000, exceeding the original goal for the project of $250,000.
“We are thrilled by this enormously generous gift by Joe and Madeline Longo, who have been great friends and loyal supporters of CCM for many years,” said Dr. Edward J. Yaw, CCM president. “We are fortunate to have Joe’s leadership and guidance as a member of our Board of Trustees. Now we have an inspiring gift from Joe and Madeline that will assure that we have a state-of-the-art planetarium for our students and the community for many years to come. By exceeding our original goal for this project, we can now explore upgraded projection equipment for our planetarium as well as seating with enhanced capabilities and additional educational programs.”
Longo, a County College of Morris trustee since 2006, said that the gift was a commitment, not only to the college, but to the community as well.
“The planetarium at CCM has been a true community treasure for many years and has been very dear to Madeline and me,” said Longo. “We are impressed by the resource we have here on campus and trust that our gift will assure that the planetarium will now be able to provide a unique astronomical and science experience for our CCM students – as well as grade-school students from throughout the community – well into the future.”
Over the past 37 years, the planetarium at the County College of Morris has hosted more than 250,000 visitors, about 14,000 a year. Most are children between the ages of 6 and 10 from schools throughout northern New Jersey. For them, a visit to the planetarium is an important enhancement of their science curriculum. However, the original projection system was beginning to fail and replacement parts have become increasingly difficult to obtain. In addition, the planetarium theater seating was in need or repair and the sound and lighting system needed upgrading as well.
The new planetarium, which is slated to open by the end of 2009, will feature the Digitstar SP/SP3 projection system, a state-of-the art technology for planetariums similar to the CCM facility. In addition to the new projection system, the planetarium theater is scheduled for renovation as well, with new “interactive” theater seating for 80, and new carpeting, painting and lighting.
“With our current system, we can project static images of planets on the dome. Those are wonderful to behold, but with the new projection system, we'll be able to show full animated renderings of the planets,” said Christopher Fenwick, the director of the CCM Planetarium. “For example, students hear that the Great Red Spot of Jupiter acts like a storm, but now we'll be able to show them this in action -- an image of Jupiter can fill the dome, and the spot can be seen rotating and swirling, and gobbling up other, smaller storms in its path.”
In addition to the gift from the Longos, the planetarium has received generous support from the Emil Buehler Foundation, New Jersey Natural Gas, the Hyde & Watson Foundation, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Mr. Willard Hedden, the Provident Bank Foundation, Marotta Controls Inc., TD Bank, Mr. Gil Zweig, Pfizer Inc., the Morris County League of Municipalities, Mr. and Mrs. M.U. Ayres, Professor Robert Gebhardt, and Peter and Margaret Terrafranca.