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Inside the World's Most Advanced Planetarium
notthatwillsmith writes "Earlier this month, the most technologically-advanced digital planetarium in the world opened in San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. The new Morrison Planetarium's 75-foot screen replaces the traditional Zeiss projector with an array of 6 high-resolution DLP projectors arrayed around the edge of the theater, which are powered by three very different, but interesting computing clusters. The three clusters allow for projection of traditional planetarium shows, playback of ultra-high resolution movies, and display of anything from current atmospheric conditions on Earth to a (greatly accelerated) trip to the farthest reaches of the universe, all rendered in real-time on an 8800 sq. ft. dome. Maximum PC went on a behind the scenes tour with the engineers who built the systems that do everything from run the planetarium lights to the sound systems to the tech behind the screen to show you how it works and what it's like to drive, well ... the universe."
...said every generation ever.
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
Not very interesting to today's kids unless there be lazer flashes and starships goin' round.
And Pink Floyd.
This thing sounds expensive. I wonder if this ended up costing more than the $3,000,000 that the Alder Planetarium payed for it's high-tech projection system.
When, in a recent debate, McCain was reaching for an example of ridiculous pork that he demonstrates spending that's run out of control, he mentioned this as a paradigmatic waste of money: "Three million dollars for a (heh heh) projector." See the story here.
Be glad he doesn't read Slashdot!
I would like one of the red-backlit keyboards they have in the control room pictures.
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
I have a strange bone disease that doesn't let me say the 'T' in plan-e'arium.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
I think you mean "Maximum PC went on a behind-the-scenes tour ..."
I've been thinking of buying a projector for my 3 month old son's bedroom when he's just a little older (I've read their distance vision improves at 8 months). That plus decent planetarium software would let me project the stars on the ceiling for him at night. I've got a spare PC that'd do fine but unfortunately it's over AUD1000 for a semi decent projector (and a few hundred dollars a pop for the lamps - that's the real killer). I can't justify that. Plus it would give me a flat not spherical projection.
I can't think of anything mid way in between those garbage home projectors that project lines on your ceiling for the constellations, and a full blown projector setup.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
would look pretty interesting on a huge spherical screen.
Maybe it can even one-up Beijing's BSoD.
proud caffeine whore
Like a monkey, he is running out of feces to throw @ Obama.
I'm waiting for the obligatory "and he fathered an illegitimate black baby too."
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
Or a brainwashing machine that gets you free child labor.
Now this is a real planetarium!
I know, because I have worked in many of the world's best known planetariums.
Sig this!
Quote from the article (I actually read it).
Yep, the planetarium software all runs on Windows XP, with no plans to upgrade to Vista.
Parent meant "Adler."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adler_Planetarium
The planetarium that I work at is also considering using the Uniview system. We currently use the Konica Minolta's single-projector MediaGlobe I/II system. It provides wonderful visuals and interactivity in our galaxy, but sadly, its intergalactic abilities aren't nearly up to what the Uniview can do. For those wishing to dabble a bit in the technology behind Uniview, though, check out the free Digital Universe.
I came, I saw, She conquered.
I want a planetarium that has google earth, but using realtime satellite imagery.
And then I want a laser pointer that actually controls a giant space laser. Not powerful enough to kill people or vaporize objects, I just want to paint a big red circle on them.
Think of the advertising possibilities! And the research possibilities of course.
I love the Academy of Sciences and the old planetarium. Been going there since the 80's. Needless to say I was thrilled to be there when the new facility opened.
It is not a planetarium. It is an IMAX movie. You sit, watch a film, and leave. There is no talk about constellations, or where in the sky you should look to see features. The movie has a lot of narration about saving the environment, man-made waste products, deforestation, and other topics completely unrelated to the solar system. In fact a large chunk of it is devoted to discussing extra-terrestrial life and the size of solar system as far as man has explored it.
This falls in line with the new Academy of Sciences which is no longer about science, it's a marketing experience. There are a zillion gift shops with toys but NO BOOKS. I was amazed about how much historical and scientific material is completely missing from the new building.
They are selling a fun experience for kids that is short on science, short on education and high on "fun". It's something a Great America or Disneyland designer would come up with. I'm sad to see the old one go and disappointed the new one took the easy way out.
The old Academy of Sciences made science FUN. This one is entirely forgettable and you won't leave it knowing any more than you did coming in. It's a perfect trip for the family, but do yourself a favor and check out the Exploratorium if you to do right for your kids.
FTA:
"We're glad to know that with the real computation work, the engineers here turn to PCs. All of the other exhibits in the Academy are actually run on Mac Minis"
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!
Found a video describing the planetarium tech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJewbEIzesE
Very nice. I've been waiting for the crowds to decline a bit so I can see the new museum without being run over by mobs of kids. It's good that people are actually going. Few went to the old California Academy of Sciences Museum, with dusty dioramas from the 1930s.
i dunno, seems like a modest proposal to me.
http://www.odyssium.com/mzt.htm
I went to this one in the beginning of the summer.
That's a plane'arium, not a planetarium
actually it was only the guy running the slave labor that coun't say planetarium due to his disability of not bewing able to say the t in planetarium.
Like the little planetarium in my town?
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Agreed. His proposal might indeed be helpful in preventing the children of poor people from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public.
There's one just like this in Milwaukee already, in the museum in town. I went about a year ago.
But its still not advanced enough. They need robot planetarians! Did they at least name the projector Miss Jena?
Seems like an awfully expensive overheard projector to me.
This is not a toy. It was actually designed by the same guy that created those professional star machines that look like some weird alien thing.
It uses an LED so its efficient. It will run you about 300US on ebay. I don't have one, Have never used one. But as a real amateur astronomer I am extremely interested because unlike the cheap "star projectors" the homestar puts white stars on a black background instead of the other way around like most of the cheapies.
It also has timer settings and can do a shooting star if you wish.
Obligatory YouTube Link
gadgeteer review
I have also read that there is a new version coming out soon that will have stars in the correct colors for stars brighter than magnitude 4
I wonder what makes this more advanced than, say, the Beijing planetarium driven by six SGI IR4 pipes.
A quick look through the article doesn't impress - well not from a hardware standpoint anyway. What did I miss?
Max.
Fun would be playing Galactic Empire or Homeworld on this setup. Anyway the setup does have the potential to be educational AND fun (not diametrically opposed goals).
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Perhaps it's interesting to see an oldskool planetarium built in the 1770's inside the house of the Frysian guy named Eise Eisinga. You can see some pictures here of the inside of his house and the planetarium.
To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it , requires brains.
so what's wrong with a Mac Mini? are they incapable of doing real computation work?
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
My new state-of-the-art home theatre has been made obsolete by something better *already*? Upgrading time...
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Life's too short...
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in Mitaka, has a system called "4D2U" set up in a small building. It features dome about 20 meters wide with (if I recall correctly from my visit in the spring) 11 or 13 projectors. Most of the projectors face in one particular direction, the same direction which the seats face, so that the resolution and color balance are highest where people are looking. The team at Mitaka has written their own software to do real-time motion through space and time; it looks a lot like Celestia, and may be based in part on it.
You can see details and download code for your own use by going to
http://4d2u.nao.ac.jp/index_E.html
Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
Oh really? I don't see you with a fungineering degree.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
And yet, no matter how much money they spend it still won't stop a roomful of school kids from simultaneously groaning when you tell them "We are going on a field trip to the planetarium."
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
(The class learns that the planetarium is closed. Arnold steps to the front of the bus.)
Miss Frizzle: Yes, Arnold?
Arnold: Isn't there, you know, someplace else you could take us?
Miss Frizzle: You mean, another planetarium?
Arnold: Well, sort of, but bigger!
Miss Frizzle: Bigger?
Arnold: You know, the big one.
Miss Frizzle: Oh ho! Arnold! Why didn't I think of that? T minus 5 and counting! Four, three, two, one, blastoff!
Janet: What's happening?
Class: A field trip!
.
This delightful "toy" planetarium sells for $130-$170.
$325 for the Homestar Pro. Moon Disk and three white LEDs for projection.
Homestar Optical System, Sega Homestar Pro Home Planetarium
Designed by Takayuki Ohira, [credited] by the Guinness Book of World Records as the builder of the "world's most advanced planetarium" for exhibitions and museums, it projects a realistic image of the heavens--over 10,000 stars--as they appear without light pollution. It can accept one of two high-resolution image disks that are illuminated by a bright LED built into the globe and projected onto walls or ceilings by an optical-quality adjustable focus lens, providing a completely accurate view of the visible band of the Milky Way galaxy seen from the Northern hemis phere. The planetarium has a whisper-quiet motor that slowly simulates the turning of the earth by making the image projected move across a wall or ceiling. It can also randomly generate a simulated meteor that streaks across the ceiling. Includes AC adapter. Ages 10 and up, meets U.S. Federal toy safety standards for lead. 6 1/2" Diam. globe with stand. (3 1/2 lbs.)
Okay, this may have been posted already, sorry if its a repeat, but the article describes it as similar to an IMAX dome, and that was my take when I saw it. So, my question is, why use 6 ultra-res DLP projectors? Why not just use one Digital IMAX projector? Is it because you just cannot generate material at that resolution in real-time?
Just wondering.
I always thought it was pronounced plan-eh-arium.
They shared video development with NYC Rose planetariam. Originally Denver was powered by a SGI supercomputer, but they switched to HPs after SGI stopped making new supers. Also they switched to a new 6-megapixel system with higher contrast (blacker blacks) and less frequent bulb replacements (monthly instead of weekly).
The videos consist of solar system trip, a galaxy trip, black holes, meteors, astronaut training, several kalideoscopic light shows, each 20 minutes. Individual museums get grants to develop these video (Denver did black holes) and they are shared among digital planetariums. Some resampling-format may be required since different museumshave different projector counts.
They also have a custom astronomy program that shows several hundred bodies in ot solar system at arbitray epochs and viewpoints. They use something similar to Google Earth and Google Sky. They use the first to teach geograph by first crusing over a spherical earth at orbital altitude, then swooping into locations of interest. Its pretty effective in the hands of a competent geography guide. The effect is immersive becasue the dome covers your entire field of view. So you feel like you are in a space ship leaping about the earth.
I also seen many of the Mars Rover surface panaromas displayed in 360. When they do slow panning it feels like you are in car riding about Mars with your seat moving. It can be stunning.
Since its pretty much kosher SGI Open software, my company hired it during a scientific convention a couple years back and displayed our seismic exploration visualization software in 11-megapixel immersive mode. And it pretty much worked with minor glitches (the cursor jumped between projector seems in funny ways).
is that they have a closeup of a "nanoseam panel" where you can see the nano!