Behind the Scenes at the Faulkner Planetarium
Audiences gasp in amazement at the feeling of being transported to other worlds via high-tech systems in the theater:
The theater's star projector is a Digistar II computerized graphics projection system by Evans & Sutherland in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of fewer than 100 such systems in the world, it features a full-dome projected calligraphic display capable of 50 frames per second. Its database contains the full 3-D coordinates of every bright star in the sky, making simulated interstellar flight possible, as well as many other breathtaking special effects. Often audience members hold on to their seats as they plunge into a Digistar black hole.
The hemispheric projection surface upon which programs appear is a 50' Astro-Tec dome, constructed of 148 thin-skin aluminum panels on an aluminum rib structure. To allow air and sound passage and minimize echo, the panels are perforated with forty million tiny holes. Proper reflectivity is provided by a 60% reflective coating.
Still images are projected onto the dome by 49 Kodak Ektapro 7000 random access slide projectors, controlled by Spice 3.15 cueing software and hardware by Sky-Skan Inc. of Nashua, New Hampshire. These individually addressable projectors cover the dome with two sets of all-sky projectors, two sets of pan projectors, twelve dissolve projectors, and one zoom/slew projector.
Color moving images are provided by a Barco 1101 video projector and two Sony 1000Q video projectors, one of which is mounted on a Conic pan-tilt carriage to allow a video image to slew across the dome. The Barco projector produces an image that spans over 30' at the front of the dome, and those who choose to sit up front are in for quite a "ride" as a planetary fly-over video sequence is projected.
Sound is provided by an 11,200 watt, five channel, fifteen speaker sound system, designed by Sky-Skan. When the shuttle takes off in the Faulkner Planetarium, you'll feel like you're right on the launch pad!
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