Nagoya City Science Museum
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Digital Planetarium
Purpose of Exhibition
In 1983, the American company Evans & Sutherland invented and released a completely new system of planetarium projection: a cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays computer-generated images and a huge fisheye lens projects them onto the dome. This is Digistar, the computer graphics-based planetarium projector.
The Digistar brought a breakthrough in the planetarium, which could reproduce the proper motions of all stars, give a virtual trip into the Universe with real-time changes in the star map, and also project 3D objects, such as a space shuttle, anywhere in the dome in a wire frame projection, all of which are impossible in principle for an optical planetarium projector.
Additional Knowledge
This exhibit will show you the Digistar II, which was originally installed in 1996, at the Space and UFOs Museum COSMO ISLE HAKUI in Ishikawa Prefecture. Apart from its computer, the Digistar II has the same features as the earlier Digistar, such as the distinctive body shape and internal layout. Digistar II models used to work in seven domes across Japan, only one of which still remains in operation at the Kushiro Children’s Museum KODOMO YUGAKUKAN in Hokkaido as of April 2018.
This page was last edited on 8 July 2022.