Photo courtesy of Washington Post
Elumenati dome on the White House lawn in an effort to promote science literacy. The Elumenati is an Asheville design and engineering company that creates custom immersive environments such as domes. David McConville is the co-founder of the company and also on the Buckminster Fuller Institute board of directors.
Washington Post Article:
By Joel Achenbach
President Obama, having spent much of the day pondering Afghanistan, spent a few seconds Wednesday night looking through a telescope at a double-star system roughly one quadrillion miles away.
The South Lawn of the White House was littered with some 20 telescopes and what might be called portable planetariums — inflated tents with images of the universe projected on the ceiling. This was the Obama “star party,” a night for astronomy with 150 Washington-area students.
It was 400 years ago, the president told the students, that Galileo built his first telescope and began probing the universe.
“Galileo changed the world when he pointed his telescope to the sky. Now it’s your turn,” Obama said. “Don’t let anyone tell ya that there isn’t more to discover.”
