{"id":893896,"date":"2026-10-25T07:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893896\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T07:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:42:23","slug":"um-launches-campaign-to-fund-planetariums-out-of-this-world-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893896\/","title":{"rendered":"UM launches campaign to fund planetarium’s ‘out-of-this-world’ experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

MISSOULA \u2014 The University of Montana’s planetarium has been up and running since 2014, but projector problems require a system upgrade.<\/p>\n

Your chance to see the stars could still be bright though as UM has launched a fundraising campaign.<\/p>\n

WATCH CYNTHIA CARRANZA’S REPORT BELOW: <\/p>\n

UM launches campaign to keep planetarium’s ‘out-of-this-world’ experience operating<\/p>\n

“The total system upgrade is $117,000,” Brianna Beller, the planetarium’s director, said.<\/p>\n

A major upgrade is needed to keep the stars shining bright after the projector from the planetarium’s early days stopped working, potentially halting the ‘out-of-this-world’ experience available to students and the public.<\/p>\n

“People of all ages love to sit down and travel around the solar system and see the planets that are so far away from us,” Beller said.<\/p>\n

UM has found a temporary solution by borrowing a backup projector from Cosm<\/a>, but there is no contingency plan if that system fails.<\/p>\n

\"UM's<\/p>\n

Cynthia Carranza \/ MTN News<\/p>\n

UM’s planetarium is using a backup projector to keep the lights on in the stargazing room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a new projector,” Beller said, referencing the backup. “It was sitting in storage for years, lent out to planetariums while repairs were happening.”<\/p>\n

Public shows, classes and a variety of events are held in the stargazing room.<\/p>\n

“In the last academic year we had over 3,000 K through 12 students come through here,” Beller added.<\/p>\n

But the future of the Physics Department’s educational experience could be at stake without donations, which is why operation ‘Save the Planetarium’ is fully underway.<\/p>\n

\"Brianna<\/p>\n

Cynthia Carranza \/ MTN News<\/p>\n

Brianna Beller is the director of UM’s planetarim, which is raising money for a new projector.<\/p>\n

“We’re really hoping that that will help to start a domino effect of grants and potentially larger donations coming through that can really help us to get this across the finish line,” Beller explained.<\/p>\n

The planetarium is contributing $25,000 to the campaign, but there is still more to raise.<\/p>\n

You have until November 13th to donate. Click here to donate or read more<\/a> about the fundraiser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MISSOULA \u2014 The University of Montana’s planetarium has been up and running since 2014, but projector problems require…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[374804,374805,526,374806,129589,26740,374807,79,780,193,374808],"class_list":["post-893896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-college-of-science","tag-department-of-physics-astronomy","tag-education","tag-fundraising-campaign","tag-planetarium","tag-projector","tag-save-the-planetarium","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-space","tag-stargazing-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}