In , the first commercially available special effects projectors were made available to planetarians by Sky-Skan. Effects like moving clouds, rotating black holes and more no longer had to be created from whatever one could find lying around the dome and at home.
These analog projectors were often used along side the homemade projectors, but they gave a planetarium the opportunity to achieve the next level of effects. Images of a rotating effect projector and multiple effects projectors in the spring line of a planetarium:.
IPS has certainly grown in the last 50 years! It is truly our passion and desire to continue to grow and bring together all planetarians worldwide.
Shows sold out constantly and soon the phenomenon was spreading to planetaria all over and bringing new visitors into the dome. It was installed at the Science Museum of Virginia in In the same year, Sky-Skan released the first digital multimedia control system for planetariums.
Within the next few years many planetariums started to add one or both of these technological advancements to their domes. Since then, the fulldome world has taken off by storm and the ingenuity and variety of systems have be an amazing journey to see.
A novel architectural concept was introduced in the open floor plan planetarium. The Orthwein StarBay theater has no light locks and large openings in the walls, which allowed visitors to flow between the StarBay and exhibit galleries as desired, while learning what it was like to live and work on a space station and included open live star talks twice an hour in the meter dome where the stars stayed on all day.
Mats were available to lie on the floor like being outside. The open floor with no permanent chairs allows for many unique special events in the StarBay too. Since then a few other planetariums have also tried the concept, but the James S. McDonnell Planetarium has very successfully returned to full length live shows every hour with removable seats and the popular mats with time for visitors to explore the exhibit areas before and after the shows to avoid light pollution in the dome.
There was a problem. A large ball in which up to viewers would stand and look at light bulbs would require a large noisy motor to turn the device. Also, the planets have variable positions. This would mean a series of bulbs in a row that could be turned off an on independent of the other lights. It began to look complicated.
Then a simple and elegant solution suggested itself. Why not make a fixed dome and use it as a projection screen on which to throw multiple images of sky objects? It took years to iron out the details and all work halted during the War.
Another discovery comes in the attic. So impressed was William I, Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands, when he climbed into this same pitched loft years ago, he decided to buy it outright.
Credit: Mike Maceacheran. Cyclists pedalled along cobbled canal ways and in front of the medieval Martinus Church a newly installed basin fountain sat in darkness. Built in honour of another great Dutch astronomer, it is dedicated to Jan Hendrik Oort, born in Franeker in , whose assumption that the Milky Way moves around our solar system — and not the sun — was proved correct.
Only then did I realise that for such a small town, Franeker has made the universe so much larger, so much brighter, for everyone. Eisinga died aged 84, buried in nearby Dronrijp, 7km away, where he first grew up. Today a bronze statue, dedicated to this extraordinary wool comber, looks enduringly to the skies in the shadow of the house in which he was born. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.
Share using Email. By Mike MacEacheran 21st March Dutch amateur astronomer Eise Eisinga might have left school at 12 years old, but he built an inch-perfect model of the solar system in his living room. Every planet, star, sun and moon moves exactly as they do in reality.
In addition to the solar system, the planetarium also tracks the position of the zodiac Credit: Mike Maceacheran Credit: Mike Maceacheran. The planetarium is hard-wired by a complex system of clockwork wooden hoops and disks tightly bound by cables Credit: Mike Maceacheran Credit: Mike Maceacheran.
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