Originally Posted by
DZ
That's a very nice instrument, thanks for sharing! It's very similar to one I used to work on, it was the Jena Spacemaster. In my opinion, it's very sad to see so many theaters dump the mechanical/optical instrument in favor of full dome video. There are two problems with this; number one the full dome video just cannot recreate the night sky as well as a planetarium can. 2nd, removing the planetarium from the planetarium theater takes away the mysteriousness, the awe of having such an instrument so prominently displayed in the center of the room. Now, alot of theaters have just a video projector in the center of the room. Don't get me wrong, the technology behind the full dome video is very impressive and the effect you can create is astounding, but, if you want a quality, diverse theater, you should have both a planetarium and full dome video. Not either one, both, and some theaters have been smart enough to implement both instruments.