Planetarium Star Projectors

[dar303]

Wow, I am glad to see that you rescue these fantastic machines and impressed of the lenghts you go through to do it!

I restore old synthesizers, mixing consoles and reel to reel tape recordes so know a bit about what you are working against, I constantly hear of dumpsterloads of amazing old technology that has been carted of to recycling...
I live in Sweden and planetariums doesn't seem to have been that popular here but after reading your posts I googled a bit and found the Swedish reseller for Spitz and other makes of projectors and domes so I guess they can be found around here too!
I have never been to a planetarium show myself although I remember going to a movie in a dome once and seeing this strange looking machine in the middle. Wonder where it is today...maybe I see a new hobby coming up?
Do you know if they made smaller models that the giant ones in your pictures? I found the new small STARLAB ones but they was quite expensive!

Keep up the good work and be sure to post many pictures and videos!

[SpitzSTP]

Wow, I am glad to see that you rescue these fantastic machines and impressed of the lenghts you go through to do it!

I restore old synthesizers, mixing consoles and reel to reel tape recordes so know a bit about what you are working against, I constantly hear of dumpsterloads of amazing old technology that has been carted of to recycling...
I live in Sweden and planetariums doesn't seem to have been that popular here but after reading your posts I googled a bit and found the Swedish reseller for Spitz and other makes of projectors and domes so I guess they can be found around here too!
I have never been to a planetarium show myself although I remember going to a movie in a dome once and seeing this strange looking machine in the middle. Wonder where it is today...maybe I see a new hobby coming up?
Do you know if they made smaller models that the giant ones in your pictures? I found the new small STARLAB ones but they was quite expensive!

Keep up the good work and be sure to post many pictures and videos!

So pleased to hear of your restoration efforts, in saving the synthesizers, mixers and reel-to-reel equipment. This equipment is certainly worth preserving. Planetariums for the most part seem to be mostly forgotten, and fallen out of vogue. The domed theater is a unique medium and I would like very much to see a renaissance and increased public interest. Smaller star projectors can still be found, though not as many of them were produced as opposed to the larger models I typically find. When a smaller projector falls into disuse, it is alot easier to move into storage and takes up less storage space, and/or can be carted off more easily by someone who may or may not actually need it or use it. They rarely show up on eBay, but I do know of at least one person on the east coast that finds, restored and sells the smaller ones from time to time. I have been targeting the medium to large machines because they are harder to remove, far more common in terms of how many are left, and far fewer people who are willing to go to the trouble to get them out... and perhaps the most at risk of being scrapped. A company called GOTO made a few smaller machines, Viewlex also made a few as did Spitz with their model 373. The most common models in the USA are the Spitz A3P, A4 and 512. I've been told that Spitz has not sold an opto-mechanical projector in many years but I believe they still support at least some of the older installed units. Sometimes when a unit comes up for sale, there is some sort of impression that it should cost a fortune but the reality is, there is very little or no commercial market left for an old opto-mechanical unit. Sure, they typically cost anywhere from 100K+ when they were new, but just about any facility that wants to spend some cash on a projector is going to want a digital model. Therefore, they wind up as surplus to a very narrow market which is most likely people like us that see continued value for the older technology in the hobby realm, and/or as a scientific collectible. I like fetching and restoring the machines and looking at stars is pretty cool too, but then adding the laser display dimension brings it to a whole new level especially when it is in my own personal "theater". I would like very much to continue posting, as I have material worthy to share. This is a work in progress and your interest in this makes it all the more worthwhile

[DZ]

Planetariums for the most part seem to be mostly forgotten, and fallen out of vogue. The domed theater is a unique medium and I would like very much to see a renaissance and increased public interest.

It's very sad, but mostly true. And with most theaters removing the old star projector to replace it with full dome video just makes it worse in my opinion. Having a star projector in the middle of the room adds the magic and mystery to a planetarium. There have been a few theaters who have done it right. There's one in Gainesville, FL that renovated the theater, added full dome video and a new star projector to work together. Now that makes for a nice theater. The theater in my town is now full dome video only, the one nice thing they did was put the old star projector on display in the museum. That was a very cool idea. It's an old Jena star projector. I remember when working there booting up the computer for the Jena with 8" floppy disks! It was a fine intrument, but was far too small for the 60' theater. I must admit, Spitz, seeing your work makes me want to try to find/restore an old star projector. I need to keep my eyes open for a Universarium, hands down the best star projector ever built, in my opinion. It carried a price tag of about a million bucks back in '97, no clue what they sell for today!

[dar303]

Oh my god, I want a Spitz 373!
http://www.observatorycentral.com/in...showtopic=6812

I found this forum very interesting: http://www.observatorycentral.com/index.php?showforum=6
They have a for sale-section as well as threads with many homebuilt systems!

How much do a smaller system (maybe even portable?) go for?

[SpitzSTP]

Oh my god, I want a Spitz 373!
http://www.observatorycentral.com/in...showtopic=6812

I found this forum very interesting: http://www.observatorycentral.com/index.php?showforum=6
They have a for sale-section as well as threads with many homebuilt systems!

How much do a smaller system (maybe even portable?) go for?

That is a good forum board, with alot of interesting history, photos and links.

Here are a couple of fresh leads on equipment that I found this morning:

http://www.telescopejunkies.com/foru...6239&mid=43131

http://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/rpbo/spitz_upgrade.html

[Bradfo69]

Holy crap.... I just noticed where Spitz is located... within 15 minutes from my house! Wonder if they do tours? Or have accessable dumpsters!

[SpitzSTP]

Holy crap.... I just noticed where Spitz is located... within 15 minutes from my house! Wonder if they do tours? Or have accessable dumpsters!

I wonder the same thing

[flecom]

http://englishrussia.com/2011/08/10/...-in-the-world/

thought you guys might enjoy this

[SpitzSTP]

http://englishrussia.com/2011/08/10/...-in-the-world/

thought you guys might enjoy this

wow, a wooden one from Russia no less. I hope they keep it waxed. Here are a couple of interesting photos of the Kuwait Planetarium after the Iraqi troops paid a visit. Note the HOLE in the exterior of the dome in the last photo, where the b*stards shot the planetarium.

[DZ]

Hadn't seen those pics in a while. That's the exact same model star projector that they just decommissioned here in my town. It was a nice instrument for being East German.