Australasian Planetarium Society

*Posted by warikl on behalf of the Stardome Observatory & Planetarium

Replacing a full rack of servers is not a simple task; many of the servers provide a direct feed to the projectors (four to each projector) through fibre optic cables. These cables have to be pulled and new cables laid for the new serer rack to connect to. By their very nature, fibre cables are fragile and care has to be taken to ensure that the cables are not placed under undue pressure or bent around to steep an angle. Once the new servers are in place, the show content from the old planetarium systems has to be copied across to the ten new servers, with approximately 1 terabyte of information per server required to be transferred.

With the new planetarium hardware in place the final physical component is the installation of the small cameras around the planetarium which will be used to provide an auto alignment of the two projectors, and also automatically adjust the blended image between the projectors to create an overall seamless image on the planetarium’s dome surface.

Behind the scenes, while all this work is happening, the planetarium dome will be cleaned and the audio system and speakers were tuned and reconditioned, effectively taking advantage of the closedown period to complete as many tasks as possible within the planetarium environment.

With the new planetarium hardware in place and the new Digistar 5 software installed, Stardome is will be in a position to take its audiences on new journeys of exploration throughout our solar system, Milky Way and through the known universe as a whole. The new software includes highly detailed planet terrains, with full 3d surfaces, enabling the presenters to not only fly up and orbit a planet, but to fly down and over the surface, through the canyons on Mars or around Olympus Mons.

The new earth textures provide a Google earth style of navigation with 3d terrain on the Earth as well, and live updates providing the ability to show live cloud cover and weather patterns.
But updated planet textures are not the only feature that comes with this new Digistar release, new datasets containing binary stars, variable stars and exoplanets, along with new sophisticated algorithms that allow astronomical bodies to maintain accurate positions and sizes across the enormous range of astronomical scales. There are new magnetic field lines which illustrate the movement of magnetic fields around the Earth and cross-sections of the Earth and Sun with animated interior textures. The upgrade also came with the “Science on a Sphere” datasets, allowing the presenters to show a virtual model of the Earth on the dome and change the surface textures to any one of those included in the new database, which covers topics on astronomy, atmosphere, land, models & simulations, and the ocean.
In the 3d modelling space the system now has the ability to do accurate rendering of volumetric data, which is useful for scientific visualisation, and for the re-creation of astronomical objects including galaxies and nebulae. The new Milky Way galaxy contains volumetric dust lanes, H2 regions and large scale cloud formations. It includes a number of volumetric nebulae developed by researchers from Stuttgart.
The upgrade will give Stardome the capability to entertain, inspire and educate audiences for years to come. Creating an environment that can meet the expectations of the various audiences that attend, be it public coming to learn about the night sky, schools on educational visits, or being taken on a journey of exploration through the universe, music shows with an enhanced visual experience, or corporates holding seminars of product launches under the dome.
The upgrade will only be possible through the support of the Regional Facilities Auckland, Sir Po-Shing Wo, Meridian, and the continued generous support of the ratepayers of Auckland. Stardome will truly become a dome for all disciplines.

*Posted by warikl on behalf of the Stardome Observatory & Planetarium

The planetarium industry is constantly evolving; new technologies are being developed to take audiences on more wondrous journeys, and providing presenters with the tools to develop rich stories and educational experiences. The digital planetarium at Stardome was installed just over five years ago, and the time had come for a refresh of the technology to ensure Stardome was able to continue to deliver world class astronomical and entertainment based programs. And so in October, 2014 Stardome will close its doors to the public for 10 days and begin the process of upgrading its systems and installing new features to enhance the overall audience experience. During the closedown period the exhibits, displays and telescopes were still open to the public, but behind the closed doors to the planetarium there will be a flurry of activity involving the installation of new lighting, new server hardware to run the planetarium, projectors are being refurbished, cables run and software updated.

The most noticeable of the new features to anyone walking into the planetarium, will have to be the new lighting system that is being installed to complement the already popular music shows. Ten towers positioned around the dome house new moving fixtures to add that rock concert element to the music shows. Imbedded behind the dome walls are also two high power lasers, set to fire over the heads of the audiences, creating additional effects to draw them into the overall music experience.

The lighting sequences are all controlled and time synced to the music and visuals on the planetarium thanks to some new lighting control software developed in New Zealand. The whole rig is being designed by theatrical lighting specialist Martin Searancke, whose lighting design credits include the hugely successful season of Miss Saigon at Auckland’s Civic Theatre; Martin also worked on the lighting design for Stardome’s production of War of the World’s last year.

But the new lighting is only one element of the overall upgrade that will be conducted during the closedown period. A key element within the planetarium is the two large Sony SRX-105 (SXRD) projectors. These ultra-high-resolution projectors were installed during the initial digital upgrade and had been running without a glitch for around 13,000 hours, so they are in need of an overhaul if they are to continue to operate into the future. Replacing the optical blocks within each projector will essentially be the same as putting in a new projector, effectively giving each projector a full recondition.

However the core component to the planetarium would have to be the Evans and Sutherland Digistar software and hardware, which provides all the astronomical content, and allows for the playback of full dome show content. Since its initial installation with Digistar 3, Stardome has maintained an upgrade path with Evans and Sutherland, progressing to Digistar 4 when it came available as a software update a few years ago.

With the release of Digistar 5 and its powerful new astronomical features, Stardome is in need of not only a software upgrade, but a full hardware replacement to be able fully realise the capability of this new system. Driving the planetarium is a rack of 10 servers which are responsible for rendering the content out to the projectors as well as processing the 5.1 audio mix, and providing the presenters with a simple but powerful user interface. As the Digistar software evolved from release to release the new capabilities added more processing requirements on the existing hardware. By replacing the planetarium hardware Stardome has gained the ability to further enhance the audience experience through future software releases and the new features they may bring.