The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods

by Ron Legro, Avi Lank

Overview

As a young boy Frank Kovac Jr. fell deeply in love with stargazing, painting glow-in-the-dark constellations on his bedroom wall and inviting friends to an observatory he built in his Chicago backyard. As he reached adulthood, Kovac did not let go of his childhood dreams of reaching the stars. He began scheming to bring the universe home. While working at a paper mill as a young man, Kovac tirelessly built a 22-foot rotating globe planetarium in the woods. Despite failures and collapses, the amateur astronomer singlehandedly built a North Woods treasure, painting more than 5,000 glowing stars—dot by dot in glowing paints. Today, Kovac and his unique planetarium take visitors to the stars every day.
 
The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods introduces readers to the mild-mannered astronomy enthusiast whose creativity, ingenuity, fervor, and endurance realized a dream of galactic proportions. The story of this stargazer from Wisconsin’s North Woods so inspired two newspapermen, authors Ron Legro and Avi Lank, that they sought to document the story of the Kovac Planetarium for a new generation of stargazers and dreamers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870207129
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	04/15/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	118
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ron Legro is a freelance writer and former reporter, columnist, and editor for the Milwaukee Sentinel daily newspaper. He was editor in chief of Wisconsin Reports, a weekly public affairs journal covering the state legislature. His freelance articles have appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sunday magazine, Milwaukee magazine, Corporate Report Wisconsin, and other publications. He was a speechwriter for numerous lawmakers and public officials and served as the City of Milwaukee’s director of telecommunications. A native of Antigo, Wisconsin, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife, Michele Derus.
 
Avi Lank is an essayist for Milwaukee Public Radio and panelist on the Interchange public-affairs program on Milwaukee Public Television. For almost 40 years he was an award-winning reporter, columnist, and editor at the Milwaukee Sentinel and later the Journal Sentinel. Born in Penn Yan in the Finger Lakes region of western New York
State, he grew up in Rochester, New York, and holds degrees from Antioch College and the Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife, Dannette Lank.

Table of Contents

Contents Prologue: Dream Descending 1. Billions and Billions 2. From Hungary to the Stars 3. Off He Goes, into the Wild Blue Yonder 4. Of Hodags and Poniatowski 5. The Mud Creek Observatory 6. Oh, Cloudy Night 7. Spinning the Skies 8. All Fall Down 9. The Weight of the World 10. Mettle on Metal 11. The Michelangelo of the North Woods 12. A Soul Proprietorship 13. To the Painted Universe and Beyond Epilogue: After the Universe, What? Acknowledgments A Note on Sources

Editorial Reviews

This quick and compelling read is recommended for anyone interested in an aspiring story about one man’s perseverance.(Dave Pugl, Library Journal)

From the Publisher

06/15/2015
Milwaukee-based journalists Legro and Lank tell the story of Frank Kovac Jr. and his efforts to build a planetarium in the remote North Woods of Wisconsin. As a child growing up in Chicago, Kovac became enamored with the night sky after looking through his father's telescope. He frequently visited the Adler Planetarium and built a small observatory in his backyard in order to share his love of the stars with friends. As an adult, Kovac moved far from Chicago's abundant light pollution to Monico, WI, and constructed the Mud Creek Observatory to continue sharing his passion with others. Frustrated by frequent cloudy evenings (a common occurrence in the northern part of the state), Kovac felt inspired to erect his own planetarium featuring a 22-foot diameter mechanical globe with the universe painted on its interior. He experienced numerous setbacks along the way and it took him more than a decade to complete the planetarium. However, with patience, resilience, and help from a neighbor, he was able to create something truly special. Today the Frank Kovac Sr. Planetarium (named in honor of his late father) is considered an icon of the North Woods. VERDICT This quick and compelling read is recommended for anyone interested in an inspiring story about one man's perseverance.—Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal