Double-Vision Planetarium

Presentation theme: future sustainability and worldviews

As the community of planetariums grows fast and moves forward with the development of cutting-edge technology, it is of much importance to make the best use of the space and time of the dome medium to become an optimized place. We are going to introduce a new framework to the planetarium structure, providing both the audience and the technicians of the planetarium the ability to see and perform two dependent/independent scenes at the same time and with the same dome. We call this setup the Double-Vision Planetarium (DVP). The setup will be the same as the usual dome, instead, it has an extra hall on the top where part of the audience can see the whole hemisphere of the dome from outside. This idea would be a good suggestion for small (60-100 seat) planetariums and the ones using multi-projection which is the main distinction with the LED screens like the Vegas sphere. The lower hall of this planetarium will have the same performance as the traditional known ones. The upper hall on the other hand can be used simultaneously for particular shows projecting on the hemisphere by a special projector device settings. Generally, it is useful to perform the shows in polar or spherical coordinates. This is a significant way to illustrate any spherical object, the surface of planets, teaching geography, etc. It can also be used to compare one scene from two different viewpoints. For instance, one can compare the stargazing images of the observer located on the Earth with the one located on the celestial sphere. It is also beneficial for saving time and energy since there would be two different shows at the same time and providing more space for crowded cities and popular planetariums. This idea might even be a non-scientific structure in shopping malls or any other several-floor building, although our main design is for a science museum. As we stated the pros of the idea, there may exist some technical issues at an operative level that we are discussing and will explain in detail in the full version of the article.

Image © Arena Berlin