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Inside the World's Most Advanced Planetarium

Posted by samzenpus on from the laser-floyd-will-never-be-the-same dept.

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."

1 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Shh! Don't tell McCain! He'll go POW on you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Let's be a bit more honest here. He did mention that it was for a planetarium the time I seen him mention it. If you can't put 2 and 2 together to get what he was talking about it probably didn't matter what he called it.

    Secondly, for all the bitching and moaning I see going on around here about space exploration being a drain funds for fattening up the poor, I find it odd that most slashdotters don't see they value in buying a couple thousand PCs and copies of Starry Night Backyard for each one of them for 3 million. It does a hell of a lot more than any projector would and get used by more kids for more than just putting light dots on a dome. I don't think it's anti-education but questioning where the money could be better spent. Is 3 million really needed for a projector? Is that really as low as we can go for a reasonably solid projector?

    I think the planetarium, just like the public library, is becoming more and more outmoded by the home PC.

    They may not be dead yet, but they're well on their way.