Colgate’s Planetarium Brings Ancient History to Life

For those looking to stargaze on Colgate's campus, there are two options: look up on a cloudless night or visit the Ho Tung Visualization Lab on the fourth floor of the Ho Science Center. While both options offer a glimpse of the stars, the planetarium also offers something distinctive: views of the heavens over interactive, award-winning 3D models of ancient sites.

Joe Eakin, technical director of the lab, began building the models in 2008 to accompany the content of a course called Astronomy in Culture, taught by Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies Anthony Aveni. The class explored how ancient cultures integrated the stars into their traditions and everyday lives. Students would visit the lab to watch projections of site models that offered them an interactive visual of places they studied. Though the course is no longer offered, anthropology classes still take a seat in the lab to see their learning come to life.

When sophomore Jude Ramanan visited to watch a show during his pre-orientation last year, he was intrigued. "I thought, 'Hey, I'm a computer science major,' so I figured I would see if I could apply to work here," Ramanan said.

Ramanan was hired as a producer and tasked with rebuilding the Teotihuacan model that Eakin had begun years ago. Ramanan began to teach himself the gaming software Unreal to turn the model into an interactive game. In October 2024, Ramanan, Eakin, and Rochester Institute of Technology intern Sam Larson presented their completed model at the Digistar Users Group Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. To their surprise, the team won the Most Original or Innovative Idea Award for their demo.

"They were ecstatic. I was a little bit in shock because our demo was totally different from any of the others," Eakin said. "All the others were astronomy-based. Some were interactive, but not in the same sense as ours because of the gaming features. I think people were excited to see it because it was the first of its kind to be shared with everyone."

Ramanan believes that their model challenges the traditional view of planetariums as theaters solely for astronomy, "Whenever people think of planetariums, they think of stars and black holes. Not a lot of people think of other subjects like archeology, history, or culture," Ramanan said. "Joe calls us 'the dome for all disciplines.' We want to bring planetariums to all sorts of subjects and all sorts of different classes."

Teotihuacan, while lesser known than other Mesoamerican sites, was immense. The vis lab team hopes that the model instills a greater appreciation of the city in viewers as well as a better understanding of its proportions.

"Being able to show the model in an immersive space like this gives people a different perspective and hopefully gives them a sense of scale," Eakin said. "The city is massive, probably 100,000 people lived there in its heyday. The pyramids are as grand as the pyramids of Egypt."

The group is now working on a planetarium show of the model that is accompanied by a narrative voiceover. The group hopes that the show will one day be uploaded to a shared database through which planetariums across the country will be able to display their work.

"The show will go into more detail about how different Mesoamerican cultures aligned their cities with the stars and how they may have lived," Larson said.