The New Digital Planetarium, with a dome screen 24.5 m in diameter, is amphitheater-style and tilted 23.5° from the horizontal, and its screen surface is nearly one stremma in size.
It features 278 modern seats, equipped with interactive control units and ample aisle space, as special emphasis has been placed on audience comfort. Each of the new seats fully supports the audience member’s head and is angled according to its position in the auditorium.
The Planetarium is equipped with the following projection systems:
Two state-of-the-art digital fulldome projection systems.
The New Digital Planetarium creates and screens its own productions thanks to the wide range of new projection systems at its disposal. The auditorium features two state-of-the-art digital fulldome projection systems: the DigitalSky2 from Sky-Skan and the Digistar from Evans & Sutherland.
These new systems are capable of displaying tens of thousands of stars as they appear from any point on our planet or in our solar system, as well as from any other star hundreds of light-years away from Earth.
Navigating this space takes only seconds, creating the illusion for viewers that they are being transported—by a machine of space and time— on multidimensional journeys through our Galaxy and beyond, into the entire Universe of 100 billion galaxies.
All digital projections are carried out using the 6-channel projection system with Barco F90 projectors. The F90 projectors are the third generation of digital projectors installed at the Planetarium; they are laser-phosphor projectors, a new technology that significantly improves image quality.
All projection systems are fully controlled by an automation system called “SPICE Automation,” since the individual elements of a performance are programmed in advance, and it can also control all the activities of the systems managed by a central computer system.
The automation system also controls the new 7-channel digital audio system (“SS 6.1 Digital Surround Sound System”) with a total power output of 40,000 W, which, with the help of 44 specialized speakers, conveys the music and narration of the performances throughout the screening room.
