Linda Young - AHN Editor
Chicago, IL (AHN) - When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) dinged rival presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) over wanting a $3 million replacement for Adler Planetarium's outdated 40-year-old 1 ton complex teaching equipment, McCain made it sound like a simple light projector.
But the Adler Planetarium isn't using a simple light projector like high school teachers use with transparencies. The current projector was upgraded in 1969 when man landed on the moon to replace the Zeiss projector that Adler had installed in 1930 when the museum opened as the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.
The current 1-ton, 10-foot long instrument is a teaching tool that can project up to 4,500 stars on the 360 degree planetarium dome.
Adler hosts over 400,000 school children and visitors every year and is considered one of the best science education facilities in the country.
However, with parts and support no longer available for its aging projector, the planetarium theater sometimes is dark, leaving visitors without that valuable teaching tool to explain space to them.
McCain's hammering Obama for alleged pork-barrel spending earmarks for a projector for Adler Planetarium during the presidential debate Tuesday night was all the more galling for two reasons. First, because the funding request for a new projector was not approved and second because McCain, like Obama, voted for what McCain is now labeling pork-barrel spending.
The Obama campaign had this to say about the situation:
"Senator Obama is firmly committed to enhancing our nation's science education programming, and he joined a bipartisan coalition of Illinois Members of Congress including Senator Durbin and Congressmen Kirk, Jackson Jr., Davis, and Emanuel in requesting funding to enhance and restore the Planetarium. Before leveling dubious charges against this science programming again, John McCain should check his own record - he voted for $200,000 in funding for the Adler Planetarium."
Funding for the Adler Planetarium education programs of $200,000 was included in the FY06 Commerce/State/Justice appropriations bill.
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