A planned $5 million planetarium in the heart of Spartanburg’s downtown is moving closer to reality with an anticipated groundbreaking this summer, according to Todd Stephens, Spartanburg County librarian.
The 5,000-square-foot project will be built on the Headquarters Library campus of the Spartanburg County Public Libraries at the corner of Broad and South Church streets in conjunction with the library’s celebration of its 25th year at that location.
Dedicated to lifelong learning, the facility will feature a 50-foot domed planetarium theater with 125-140 seats and include two classrooms and a catering kitchen. The focal point of the lobby will be a Foucalt pendulum, patterned after an experiment nearly 200 years ago by French physicist Leon Foucalt in which he used a pendulum to demonstrate the Earth’s rotation.
“It’s a cool enhancement,” Stephens…
