The idea of what a planetarium even is has gone through a renaissance in just the last 5 years.  We were among the first dome theaters to “go digital” in 2003 – now there are over 500 in the world.  In this medium, “digital” is more than a great marketing buzz word.  Digital show production has literally exploded the boundaries of what planetariums can do.  Instead of capturing a “snapshot” of the sky or a 360-degree scene on another planet, everything is now full-color, high resolution animation.  Now we can show the universe the way it was really meant to be seen!

A great example of this is our newest production, Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens. Even though the ’still photos’ from the Cassini spacecraft are spectacular in their own right, our producers took the photomaps, wrapped them onto 3-dimensional spheres, and sculpted height map information to make them show true surface relief!  In other words, when you fly through the ice canyons of Enceladus, it’s like hitching a roller coaster ride on the spacecraft itself.

It’s also why our “Cosmic Light Shows” are like no other domed entertainment show.  3D-based art and scenery can go way beyond the “laser shows” of the old Hansen Planetarium…but that’s another subject for a future post.