CHENNAI: BM Birla Planetarium, an iconic destination for students and astronomy enthusiasts, has reopened after a year and it is well worth the wait. Visitors are now getting to see superior starry sky and have a close look at planetary objects with the most advanced Hybrid Projection System and a new 15-metre hemispherical dome.
To keep pace with modern technology, the State government renovated the planetarium at a cost of `10 crore, importing equipment from Germany-based Carl Zeiss. S Soundararajaperumal, Executive Director, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, told Express the high resolution offered by hybrid projection system will be better than that of IMAX, to put it in layman’s terms.
“We have an advanced central opto-mechanical projector that enables realistic projection of night sky with pinpoint accuracy. The five high resolution (4k) digital projectors in the periphery of the planetarium, controlled by the most advanced digital machines, can project stunning immersive video and breathtaking images of celestial objects giving a feel of being in a spaceship.”
The digital projectors produce no stray light leading to absolute black backdrop in areas where no projection is happening. This gives sharp images on screen enabling an overwhelming starry sky above viewers. The official said visitors can learn about concepts like diurnal and annual motions; simulation of eclipses and see apparent motion of stars, space flight, planets, nebulae, galaxies and other astronomical images more clearly.
“The new system can instantly display the night sky at any place in the world at any given time in the past or future. We can show the sky map of a place for any place / any time any period 10,000 years back or in the future,” the director told Express. To a query, he said the seating has been rearranged from circular to uni-directional and would accommodate 210 people.
Science on a Sphere
A new facility has been introduced at Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, called the Science on a Sphere (SoS). It is an educational tool to help illustrate earth system science to people of all ages. Science on a Sphere (SoS) presents high-resolution video on a suspended globe.
It is an astonishing piece of technology that uses computers and video projectors to display dynamic, animated images of the atmosphere, oceans and land on an illuminated sphere six feet in diameter. This system will help explain complex environmental processes to visitors in an innovative way that is both educational and interactive. Visitors can see things real-time. “We were able to see and track Amazon forest fire,” Soundararajaperumal said.